JB/121/249/001

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30 March 1802
3. Jail Improvements

pp. 29, 30, & 31 "Another very important advantage, whatever purposes
the plan may be applied to, particularly where it is
applied to the severest and most coercive urposes, is, that
the under Keepers or Inspectors, the servants and subordinates
of every kind, will be under the same irresistible controul
with respect to the head Keeper or Inspector, as the Prisoners
or other persons to be governed are with respect to them.
On the common plans, what means, what possibility, has
the Prisoner, of appealing to the humanity of the principal
for redress, against the neglect or oppression of subordinates
in that rigid sphere, but the few opportunities which,
in a crowded Prison, the most conscientious Keeper can
afford – but the none at all which many a Keeper thinks
thinks fit to give them? How different would their lot
be upon this plan!

In no instance could his subordinates either perform or depart
from their duty, but he must know the time & degree & manner of
their doing so. It presents an answer, and that a satisfactory one,
to one of the most puzzling of political questions, quis custodiet
ipsos custodes? and, as the fulfilling of his, as well as their, duty
would be rendered so much easier, than it can ever have been
hitherto, so might, & so should, any departure from it be punished
with the more inflexible severity. It is this circumstance that renders
the influence of this plan not less beneficial to what
is called Liberty and to necessary coercion; not less powerful
as a controul upon subordinate power, than as
a curb to delinquency; as a shield to innocence than as
a scourge to guilt.

Another advantage, still operating to the same ends, is
the great load of trouble and disgust, which it takes off the
shoulders of those occasional Inspectors of a higher order,
such as Judges, and other Magistrates, who called down
to this irksome table from the superior ranks in life,
cannot but feel a proportionable repugnance to the
discharge of it. Think how it is with them upon the
present plans, and how it still must be, upon the
best plans that have been hitherto devised! The Cells
or apartments, however constructed, must, if there be nine
hundred of them, (as there were to have been upon the
Penitentiary House plan) be opened to the Visitors, one by one.
To to

Identifier: | JB/121/249/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 121.
Date_1	1802-03-30	Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	121	Main Headings	Panopticon
Folio number	249	Info in main headings field	3 Jail Improvements
Image	001	Titles
Category	Collectanea	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	"Recto" is not in the list (recto, verso) of allowed values for the "Rectoverso" property.	Page Numbering	D2
Penner		Watermarks	1800
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year	1800
Notes public		ID Number	001
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