Observations and reflections on the design and effects of punishment / by John Sergeant and Samuel Miller, in letters addressed to Roberts Vaux : read at a meeting of the Prison Society of Philadelphia, and with the consent of the writers published by its order ; also, The opinion of the keepers of the penitentiary and Bridewell at Philadelphia, on the separate confinement of criminals.

  • John Sergeant
Date:
1827
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations and reflections on the design and effects of punishment / by John Sergeant and Samuel Miller, in letters addressed to Roberts Vaux : read at a meeting of the Prison Society of Philadelphia, and with the consent of the writers published by its order ; also, The opinion of the keepers of the penitentiary and Bridewell at Philadelphia, on the separate confinement of criminals. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    LETTERS. [The following letter was not intended for publication when it was written, but the value of the opinions which it contains induced a request, that the writer would permit this use to be made of it, to which he politely consented.] Sept. 8, 1827. Dear Sir, I meant to have said, when we were interrupted to-day, that the charge of cruelty is a very vague one. All punish- ment is an infliction of some sort, doing violence to the feel- ings of the culprit, and therefore producing pain. This is literally true even of the correction of children. Most punishments, too, are of a nature to endanger more or less the health of those who are subjected to them. Re- straint merely—the least of all, may shock the constitution of a man accustomed to the free use of liberty. A change of diet, especially with those who have been in the habit of im- moderate indulgence, may in like manner have a dangerous tendency. And so of many others. Every protracted punishment is in some degree liable to the objection last mentioned. Those which are short, the pillory, whipping post, and the gallows, are free from it. They do no more than they are intended to do. But they are not free from the imputation of cruelty. Confinement in jails, has its peculiar evils. If they are crowded, there is danger to health, and even to life, as the frequent occurrence of fevers sufficiently proves; and they are certainly ruinous to the moral constitution of the patient.