A Vindication Of The Separate System Of Prison Discipline From The Misrepresentations Of The North American Review July 1839 PDF Download

Excerpt from A Vindication of the Separate System of Prison Discipline: From the Misrepresentations of the North American Review, July, 1839 The long-pending controversy respecting the comparative merits of the Auburn (or silent) and the Pennsylvania (or separate) systems of prison discipline, is reduced by the July number of the North American Review to very narrow limits; and, as the writer is evidently the friend and advocate of the former, we may suppose that the claim which he asserts in its behalf is presented in the most favourable aspect, and with all the advantages of the latest and fullest experience. He gives us, in the first place, a schedule of the points on which the friends of either system agree: "That the great object of any penitentiary discipline should be the reformation of the prisoner. "That in labouring for his reformation, we should appeal to his self-interest and to his conscience. "That we should endeavour to give him such habits as will remove him as far as possible from temptation, and enable him most successfully to resist it when it shall happen to overtake it. "That the treatment of the prisoner should be kind, but strict. "That being placed in solitude for a sufficient portion of the time, and at all times precluded from social intercourse with those who would corrupt him, conscience may be left to exert its full power over the mind of the criminal. "That he should be instructed in his duty to God and man by a competent religious teacher. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.