SW_WH1793_Page_086

inspectors, and also the sole power to appoint the keeper, agent, and other officers, and to remove them in case of improper conduct, or want of sufficient qualifications to discharge their respective duties. I do not approve of dividing the prisoners into dif-ferent classes, and distinguishing each class by dif-ferent coloured clothing; and, if the plan I have pro-posed be adopted, of having separate prisons for the different descriptions of convicts, this plan of classi-fication in any one prison will be useless, except having a separate yard for those committed for second offences. The different prisons I have proposed, might be built adjoining each other, but to have separate yards. The whole might be under the same board of inspec-tors. Recapitulation of my views of the most effectual system for the protection of society against crimes: A careful attention to early education, by amend-ing our laws, so that every poor family in the state should partake of the benefit afforded by our Com-mon Schools. To establish a House of Refuge for Juvenile Delinquents. To erect in each county a prison to contain a number of cells, to receive common drunkards, pros-titutes, keepers of houses of ill fame, for gambling, or those guilty of petty thefts, or vagrants, to be commit-ted by a single magistrate, and confined from three to thirty days, and kept on low diet without any employment. Two State Prisons or Penitentiaries, properly constructed, and subject to suitable regulations, for persons convicted of grand larceny, and crimes of a higher grade. I am, with great respect and esteem, Your assured friend, THOMAS EDDY. New York, lst month, 7th, 1825.