A MARK PRISON.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.
SIR—In some previous letters you have permitted use to maintain in your 'Alumna that "by far the greatest improvement that could be made in criminal administration would be the introduction of the principles of the Mark system into prison discipline"; and that to effect this the only thing required is an act "enabling judges and magistrates, if they please, and as they please, to impose task instead of time sentences, especially on vagrants and other minor delin- quents." This, I observed, would make no violent change in existing usage. The enactment would be permissive, not obligatory. Only such as thought well of the plan, and were willing to fake the trouble of acting on it in what might ap- pear to them the best manner, would avail themselves of it; while those subjected to this new form of punishment, being in the beginning chiefly minor criminals, would speedily show its effects both on themselves and on the classes to which they belong. Its improving and deterring tendency would thus soon be beyond dispute; and a problem, second to none in moral importance within the whole range of civil administration, would be solved. But I would fain endeavour far- ther to interest the public mind in the question thus raised, by exhibiting in de- tail the changes in existing prison management to which the principles advocated would conduct; and for this purpose I venture to make yet another encroachment on your kindness and space.
I begin by reminding the reader that any prison may be managed on the Mark system. The efficacy of this in no demo depends on brick and mortar. As an able contemporary of yours has well said, "it is essentially a mental as opposed to an architectural system." Still a good prison is better than a bad one; and Vie beat is one which, separating prisoners at night, has a large command through the day of hard labour, whether in separation or congregation. The means of alternating this hard labour with other occupation, and with intellectual and es- pecially religious instruction, are also required by it: but these are portions of all systems; and the point on which the Mark system peculiarly rests, at once for im- proving and deterring, is severe toil, stimulated by a personal interest in its re
,- sults. 'In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread,' and be morally as well as physically renovated. And unless the condition thus imposed is fulfilled, and the sweat be made actually to flow, we may not hope to attain the result.
A prison under the Mark system should thus have a long command of light. Winter and summer, from four in the morning till ten at night, the means should be afforded in it of active exertions of body, or mind, or both. These long hours constitute, indeed, the principal part of the improving and deterring agency con- templated in it. Having no value in themselves towards liberation, this depend- ing solely on the use made of them, there will be a constant and growing stimulus to employ them to advantage. And while habits of sustained activity and exer- tion will be thus created and fostered in those subjected to the discipline, it will appear much more formidable than any present gaol infliction to the idle and dis- solute, who look on from outside. As far as anything will, it really may deter them.
The hardest labour should for the most part begin the day. When men are made to rise early, it is well to rouse them thoroughly calling their powers into te immedia action. Their time might accordingly thus distributed to advan- tage. From four to eight, hard labour. Between eight and nine, prayers and breakfast. From nine to one, again hard labour. After dinner till five, the learning and exercise of trades, with other less laborious occupations. After five, supper and intellectual instruction till eight; when, after prayers, each man should be required to retire to his cell, and be locked up for the night. The lights, however, should be kept in till ten, this time being left entirely at the men's own disposal. They will all be benefited by having such an interval at their com- mand. Some may absolutely require more than six hours sleep, and if they please they may now take it. Others may desire to read, or write, or con over the les- sons they have just receieed, or mend their clothes, or otherwise occupy them- selves. And important assistance will be obtained in ascertaining their real cha- racters by observing how they do severally employ this time. It may be thought that in the above outline too little opportunity is allowed for intellectual instruction ; but practically, I have not found it advantageous to give more. Rude adult minds are overwhelmed rather than enlightened by much di- rect teaching; and indirect instruction, as by reading aloud to them, or by calling their intellects into action in the course of their active labours, is greatly more productive of the desired effect. The great truths of the Gospel are also easily learnt. They are addressed to the heart and affections rather than to the intel- lect. The poor can thus, equally with the rich, have them preached to them. And the ignorant, though frequently but on this account the more intensely feel. lag mind, is not seldom perplexed, rather than edified, by their very elaborate el. planation.
It is desirable, if possible, that the active employments furnished in a prise; should be of a productive character; and the objections usually made to this seem ill-considered. It is no part of the sentence of a labouring man convicted of a petty felony or misdemeanour that he should be excluded from the labour-market of his district; and it seems strange consideration for the poor ratepayer, to keep prisoners studiously idle and unproductive, at his expense, that he may not be in- jured by their competition. Everything seems done on this head that the case requires, when care is taken that the produce of prison-labour shall not undersell that of the free outside. But there is an almost insuperable difficulty in pro. curing productive employment, especially of a laborious character, for men con- fined in a prison; and perhaps the only possible means would be by attaching penal farms or gardens to district prisons, and thus providing spade husbandry for them on a considerable scale. But this, with the requisite arrangements and enclosures, would be a work both of time and expense, and is only to be looked forward to as a result to be desired.
In the meanwhile, it is a peculiar advantage in the Mark system, that by making release contingent on the performance of labour, every description of it becomes productive to the prisoner that accomplishes this object.. All kinds will not equally relieve the ratepayer; but in like manner as the free labourer is re. conciled to his occupation, whether productive to his employer or not, if it gain him his own wages, so will the prisoner be reconciled to his whatever its nature, if it gain him his liberty. And a wide field is thus opened for improving ex.er- lion under the Mark system, which on all ordinary plus of prison discipline 18 closed. Men are demoralized at present by being set to unproductive labour ; for they feel the discomfort of the exertion, and there 113 nothing to set against it. But were their liberty in the opposite scale it would be different ; and though productive labour, when it can be obtained, is doubtless still to be preferred to unproductive, this under the Mark system is chiefly for the sake of the ratepayer. In so far as in- struction can be combined with the one and not with the other, it will benefit the prisoner also; but as regards moral result, under this system' I have never been able to detect a difference. Nor is there, I believe, any that is appreciable. Of employments, then, that can be carried on strictly within the walls of a pi- son,grinding wheat, maize, or oatmeal with handl:nine, may be cited as at once con- venient and in a degree productive; the task to be measured by the quantity and fineness of the meal delivered. Sawing timber is also a good employment Such carpentry as can be executed in a prison is not sufficiently laborious; and, generally, I would object to a prisoner being allowed to shelter himself from la- bour strictly penal by exercising or learning a trade in lieu of it. This may be combined with his bard labour, but ought not to stand in its stead. The tread- wheel is very bad; not because it is unproductive,—for it was just as demoralizing when, as at Brixton and elsewhere it was connected with a grinding apparatus as when detached from it,—but because being weighted to a pace, it affords no scope for zeal, exertion, or other voluntary agency. A horizontal capstan, on the other hand, which may be walked round more or less quickly according to the ex- ertion made, and thus admits of voluntary effort, is equally good, whether indi- cating its revolutions by a tell-tale, by raising a weight, or by setting a grinding apparatus in motion. Breaking stones even by measure, is only fit for the elderly and decrepid, who require to be seated to their labour: it is too light for the younger and more active. Transporting shot from end to end of a yard requiring them to be arranged into words and sentences at each extremity, is a goidpunish- ment, exercising both mind and body, and which may be made also highly con- ducive to instruction in reading, writing, arithmetic, &c.: and so forth generally. Whatever gives a reasonable scope for free agency, thereby eliciting voluntary exertion, and which exercises all the muscles, preferably in the open air, and taking all chances of weather as free labour does, is good per se; if it exercise mind also, it is better; and if it can be ramie productive, and thus lighten the burden of crime to the community, it is best of all; while, on the other hand, everything is bad, and goes on to worse, which reverses these conditions. An objection is sometimes offered to the imposition of hard labour on eveiy prisoner indiscriminately, that an advantage may be thus given to an able-bodied criminal over another weakly though really less guilty individual: but practi- cally there is no difficulty in so classing men in a gaol strictly according to their physical capabilities, and so employing them at different tasks, or with different values attached to their exertions, that a complete equality in this respect shall be established among them; and another feature in the system, connecting six men together in one fortune or interest, further brings about the same result. Another objection has been suggested, viz, that in cases of workmen who earn a living by the finest description of work, their hands may be thus injured, and a permanent deterioration be inflicted on them more severe in its consequences than may seem to befit their offence. But, in the first place, this on the plan here sug- gested is not absolutely necessary: a. capstan, as above described, may impose many hours of severe toil without injuring the hands; and further, the objection does not appear to me very valid, even if the anticipated result were inevitable. If a fine workman brings his hand in contact with fire, or machinery in motion, it will be scorched or otherwise mutilated as readily as that of the labouring man; and there seems no good reason why the results of conviction of crime should not be of the same inevitable character. Such men are usually paid higher wages than the more ordinary workmen; they thus fall under less temptation; and the character given to punishment, for general benefit, should not be modified to suit their convenience. In every case a painful change of habits should be induced, to be escaped from only by unusual exertion ; and to make this consist merely of temporary extra diligence in a man's own trade, seems to descend much from its legitimate demands. The afternoon of each day may be so applied, and welcome; but not that previous portion assigned peculiarly to penal training. It will be seen that it is thus quite in accordance with the principles of the Mark system, or rather it necessarily follows from them, that prisons shall be made places of little ease; and whatever influence in preventing cruise in society may be obtained from the knowledge of this fact, is in truth even better furnished by it than by existing usage. At the same time, though I have in this lettee repeatedly used the phraseology connected with the idea that this is considerable, I must add that it appears to me very small. Fear is not a dominant impulse in the human mind. The slightest movement of passion, or even caprice, habitually overcomes it. Its conquest gives a zest even to many of our amusements; and long observation and experience have convinced me, that when the criminally- minded hesitate about offence, they deliberate much more on the chances of escape than on the penalties of detection. The truth is' however, that the argu- ment has here no practical application. Not rejecting fear entirely from its ap- paratus, the Mark system on higher principles appeals to more powerful impulses. It may be said thus to absorb the philosophy of other systems, rather than con- flict with it. It is a reproach to our science, and opposed at once to the religion and humanity of the age in which we live, that minor criminals should avowedly and confessedly be made worse by our minor punishments, and that plans of Dune- der and revolt should be familiar in our more advanced places of detention, and be kept in check chiefly by the lash and the executioner. The Mark system offere to reverse both facts,—to improve the minor criminal; and much more effectually to restrain, and in many cases even reclaim, the more advanced one. I have here explained its views as regards lahsnr, but at such length that I may not now pro- ceed to the remainder of isle subject. In another letter, if you will permit me, I shall go into the eame detail regarding lodging, clothing, diet, and prison punish- ments.
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