Kingston records (regionally related)

191.

themselves in a fair way to recommence life anew in an honest and useful career!! In a natural point of view perhaps there is no object of greater importance than this and I was therefore anxious to examine the Prisons and investigate their system in detail

The system here is after the State-prison at Auburn in New York and is called the silent system in contradistinction to that observed in the Penitentiary at Philadelphia where each prisoner is confined in a separate cell and furnished with labour to perform alone out of the sight and hearing of any of his criminal companions

Commissioners have been appointed both by France, England and Germany to visit America - examine and report upon these two systems - and their reports have all been in favour of the solitary system - instead of the silent such as is observed in the Kingston Penitentiary.

The silent system secures the effectual punishment of the cirminal and yet preserves his health improves his habits, corrects his morals and sends him back a reformed character, is as superior to the general state of our Prisons conducted on the old plan in England as twilight is to utter darkness; but notwithstanding this admission, I am also thoroughly convinced that the silent system is as inferior to the solitary system as the twilight is to the meridian blaze of the perfect day.