Excerpt from Considerations Respecting the Policy of Some Recent Legislation in Pennsylvania

Our readers do not need to be reminded that this question has been very differently suggested in this country and in Europe. Abroad, the method of cellular imprisonment was introduced in the midst of great and general prejudice against it. Its dangers were overrated, its means of reformation and of preparation for free life were underestimated; and, although its great merits caused it to make extraordinarily rapid pro gress in foreign States, yet its introduction was accompanied by so many protests, and was guarded by so many cautions, as to indicate a less favourable view of its character and effects, than was taken in Pennsylvania where it had been tried. The preconceptions which embarrassed the early stages of the for eign experiment have never lost all their influence; so that while in our own penitentiaries the Oflicial reports have constantly accu mulated proofs of the safety and moral advantage of convict separation, in England, on the other hand, the length of the term of cellular confinement has been diminished from time to time, until accident, which so often determines the direction of social plans, turned the public attention into new channels. Thus while everywhere the peculiar efficacy of separation has continued to be acknowledged, we find in some quarters a growing disposition, not only to limit it to the first months of incarceration, but to cause it to be followed by various modes of associate instruction, labour, and general probation. It is easy to see, therefore, that the efforts which are made amongst ourselves to improve our discipline have a starting point, and are guided by ideas, which cannot be represented by any of the proceedings of foreign reformers.

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