As reformation is now the great object in Pennsylvania, where offences
have been committed, it is of the first importance that the gaoler and
the different inspectors should be persons of moral character. Good
example, religious advice, and humane treatment on the part of these,
will have a tendency to produce attention, respect, and love on the part
of the prisoners, and to influence their moral conduct. Hence it is a
rule never to be departed from, that none are to be chosen as successors
to these different officers, but such, as shall be found on inquiry to
have been exemplary in their lives.
As reformation, again, is now the great object, no corporal punishment
is allowed in the prison. No keeper can strike a criminal. Nor can any
criminal be put into irons. All such punishments are considered as doing
harm. They tend to extirpate a sense of shame. They tend to degrade a
man and to make him consider himself as degraded in his own eyes;
whereas it is the design of this change in the penal system, that he
should be constantly looking up to the restoration of his dignity as a
man, and to the recovery of his moral character.
As reformation, again, is now the great object, the following[20] system
is adopted. No intercourse is allowed between the males and the females,
nor any between the untried and the convicted prisoners.
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