Excerpt from Buildings for Insane Criminals: Formerly of the State Asylum for Insane Criminals, Auburn, N. Y., And of the State Lunatic Hospital, Danvers, Mass.; A Paper Read at the Conference of Charities in Chicago, June 11, 1879

When apprehended, however, and sentenced to prison, the crim inal rebels at what he regards as unjust treatment. With his pe cullar nervous organization, - irritable, impulsive, yielding to any passing caprice or passion, - physically impaired, in many cases, by disease and prolonged dissipation, and totally unable to dis criminate between right and wrong, he is sentenced to prison for what was to him a frequent act, and not a crime. He cannot understand that he is guilty; and imprisonment is only a just atonement, because, as has been stated by Thompson, the moral insensibility of criminals is marked by the apparent absence of remorse in high-class criminals, murderers, homicides, infanticides, &c. Of from four to five hundred murderers, only three have ever been known to feel remorse for the heinous crimes of which they have been found guilty. Despine made a somewhat similar statement when he said that the moral sense was utterly and in variably absent in criminals who committed deeds in cold blood. Entering prison with this blunted moral perception, a feeble mind, and a poor physique, the criminal is peculiarly sensitive to the material nature of his surroundings. His moral condition is usually taken no notice of, however, by the prison-officer, who cuts his hair, puts on a prison-suit, and in other ways quickly changes him into the typical prison-convict. Having thus lost his identity as a member of the outside world, he is put to work at what is uncongenial to him. He is given poor food often, sleeps in a cramped and frequently badly-ventilated cell, and, worst of all, is cut off from all counsel, sympathy, and encouragement. He takes but little interest in his work; neglects it if possible, or performs it in a stupid, dogged manner. He does not endeavor to better his surroundings, but broods over his wrongs. As a consequence Of this state Of feeling, he sinks into a torpor from which he is not easily roused.

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