SW_WH1793_Page_072

To GEORGE TIBBITS, STEPHEN ALLEN, and SAMUEL M. HOPKINS, Esquires, Commissioners appointed by the Legislature to examine and report on certain questions relating to the State Prisons. RESPECTED FRIENDS,— I received your circular letter, containing a number of queries, to which you request distinct replies. First—Is the present system established in the New-York prison, a real system of punishment? Are the convicts, in general, less comfortable than they would be if at liberty? Answer—I beg leave to state that, in my opinion, the system established in the New-York State Prison is not a real system of punishment calculated to pre-vent crimes. Undoubtedly convicts are, in general, less comforta-ble than they would be if at liberty. Second—Have you ever known any satisfactory instances of reformation produced by the present, or any prison discipline? And, if so, please to state the cases particularly, so far as may be proper? Answer—The general habits of intemperance pre-vious to the confinement of convicts, and their ex-treme attachment to the use of ardent spirits, has scarcely, in any instance, been cured even by a long imprisonment; and their minds, owing to a number of them being together during the night in one room, have been so corrupted, that experience has proved, that reformation has rarely taken place. During several years that I served as an inspector of our state prison, I only recollect two cases of complete reformation. One of these has resided many years in a neighbouring government, the other, in this state; both are, at this time, men of considerable pro-perty, much respected and well esteemed. It is not known to their present friends and neighbours, that they ever were under confinement. Each of them