which are the advantage of employing the labor of the prisoners in the erection of the new buildings, under the direction of our present officers, and the much greater facility of extending the business and discipline to an additional number of convicts, under the supervision of experienced men, than the organization of an entire new establishment. With these views the committee would recommend that a law be passed authorising either the present officers of the Auburn prison, or some other persons, to negotiate for or purchase, in behalf of the State, under such restrictions as may be advisable, an additional piece of land, either adjoining to, or in the near neighborhood of the present prison. The State, at present, is possessed of but five acres; an addition of ten or fifteen acres would, if it could be procured upon reasonable terms, appear to be a provident course of policy on the part of the State. The unbounded quarries of superior building stone in the neighborhood, which may be procured at a very reasonable rate, as well for the erection of any additional buildings, walls, &c. for the prison itself, as for the buildings in the flourishing and rapidly increasing village of Auburn, (furnishing a valuable source of employment for the convicts,) are strong additional recommendations to the course above suggested.

With regard to the discipline and internal police of the prison, as well as a full history of the manner in which its affairs and business are conducted, the committee herewith communicate a succinct statement furnished by Col. Lewis, the Agent at Auburn, and would also refer your honorable body to "a communication of Gershom Powers, keeper of the prison at Auburn, made to the Assembly January 7th, 1828," under title Appendix A, in the Assembly Journal of that year, upon the same subjects. It is perhaps proper in this place, to observe, that we were assured by Mr. Wiltse, the Agent at Mount-Pleasant, that the document last referred to contains the rules and regulations so far as it regards the prison discipline by which the institution under his charge is governed.

The description of the Auburn prison at that period (to which it is easy for every member of your honorable body to add the additions made since, by adverting to the annual returns of the Inspectors;)

The general government of the prison, with some trifling alterations made by the Revised Statutes, and the act of 1832;

The duties and powers of the officers, guards and convicts;

The regulations of the shops, with which are connected the privileges and obligations of contractors;

The whole police and regulations of the prison presented under the various heads and departments;

The statistics as to the character of the convicts before sentence, and the salutary effect of the punishment, as witnessed from their course of life after their discharge; together with much other interesting information upon the penitentiary system, collected from various sources, are so fully set forth in the document referred to, that a recapitulation of them beyond what is set forth in the communication hereto annexed, marked B, would seem to be a work of supererogation.

Since the period of that report, adhering to the principles of governing the prisoners and directing their labors, as therein set forth, with very trifling alterations, the confident assurances of this meritorious benefactor of the State have by his own, and the exertions of his successors in the management of the institution, been fully realized, and the annual return of the Inspectors this year, presents the interesting fact, that 220 additional cells, (for which $12,376.36 was actually paid out for materials and superintendents of work, and a work-shop, the materials for which are estimated to have cost at least $800,) have been built by the convicts themselves for their own solitary confinement and exclusion from the world, out of the proceeds of their own labor, after having sustained every other expense for the support and maintenance of the establishment, still leaving a balance in the hands of the Agent of $3,528.16 to be appropriated as may be required. By adverting to the annual reports since the communication above referred to, it will be found that there has been a gradual annual increase of the profits of the institution.

Your committee have reflected upon the prosperous results above referred to, with a becoming interest in the subject committed to them. The history of the world has not until within a very few years presented so imposing a moral spectacle. A few years since even in our own country, the idea of realizing from the labor of those, who had, by offending against the laws, been cut off from society, a sufficient amount to sustain the expense of their confine ment, was regarded as a dream of the speculative visionary. It was left among other important discoveries which can only ema

nate from the exalted spirit of free governments, to demonstrate the necessity in all moral improvements, of addressing the mind by instruction and persuasion, instead of inflicting bodily chastisement. That reform is ten thousand times more certain when you can correct the intellect of man, and give it a proper direction, than all the physical torture which can be imposed; whilst the former is calculated to elevate the whole man, constantly stimulating him to a correct discharge of his duty towards his God and his fellowman, the latter is as eminently adapted to creating and cherishing the most vindictive passions of our nature.

These remarks are prompted by the difference exhibited not only in the labor pursued in the two institutions, but the apparent disposition entertained by the convicts in each, which will be more fully presented in the sequel.

For the manner in which the accounts of both prisons are kept, it will be perceived by adverting to the 2d vol. of the Revised Statutes, pages 764 and 765, that this branch of the duty of the officers of the prisons has been regulated by the Legislature. The accounts until the last year were only required to be returned and filed in the Comptroller's office. But by the act passed last winter, and before referred to, those accounts, authenticated in the form required by the Revised Statutes, sworn to by the Agent and clerk, are presented, and accompany the report of the Inspectors of each prison. They present the subject so fully to the Legislature that it is only necessary to refer to them at present.

The committee have examined this branch of the subject, and do not deem it necessary to alter in any particular, the provisions of the law. All the provisions to secure a faithful account from the officers of the financial operations entrusted to them, having, in the opinion of the committee, been as fully secured as can be accomplished by legislation.

After having examined the prison at Auburn, the committee availed themselves of an early opportunity to inspect the prison at Mount-Pleasant. In regard to the state of the buildings at this institution, your committee can assure your honorable body, that nothing can, in their opinion, exceed their very excellent arrangement, and their adaptation to the objects for which the same were designed, to the extent finished. But that the establishment is altogether incomplete, and the manner in which the business is car

ried on, as well as the character of the business itself, is but illy calculated to accomplish the great objects of modern punishment, struck your committee most forcibly when they came to compare the result of their inquiries at Auburn, with those at Sing-Sing. At the former place, they found the convicts apparently resigned to their fate, penitent of their past offences, of a humbled spirit, and, so far as the committee were capable of judging the great moving principles of human action, determined, when their term of punishment shall have expired, to use all efforts to restore themselves to the good opinion of society, and to live upright and honest lives. This spirit was not only evinced by the ready and apparently sincere submission to the rules and regulations of the prison, the order and system observable through all the departments of the work-shops, but more forcibly testified from the examination by the committee, of one prisoner taken promiscuously from each of the shops of the prison.

It was urged in the debate upon the passage of the resolution constituting the committee, that if no other reason existed, the fact that some 1500 or 1800 of our fellow-beings were confined within the solitary walls of a prison, excluded from society, with no person to whom they could tender their complaints of cruel or oppressive treatment, except the very individuals who might violate the rules of humanity, was sufficient, nay, imperative upon the Legislature, occasionally to investigate their condition and treatment. With this view, the committee, after having discharged what they deemed to be their duty at Auburn, in inspecting the prison, the condition of the convicts, their employment, government, and all the incidents, so far as they could derive instruction from their own observation, and from the information of the officers, proposed to the agent, that the committee should have the opportunity of examining some of the prisoners separate from any of the officers of the prison. This request was readily and promptly complied with by the agent, Colonel Lewis, who tock our instructions as to the manner in which they should be presented. We directed that one convict from each shop and department should be examined, and in complying with this direction, the agent, at our request, produced some individuals from those various shops, who had been convicted in the counties where the members of the committee resided. We have no reason to sup[Assem. No. 199.]

2.

pose that any communication of the object of the committee was made to the convicts. Several of the convicts thus examined had been confined in the Mount-Pleasant prison and removed thence to Auburn, all of whom concurred in complaining of the severe and harsh treatment experienced at the former, whilst they equally united in bearing testimony to the kind and benevolent treatment at the latter. It is perhaps unnecessary to give the details of their statements in full. The prominent grounds of complaint consisted in not having had allowed to them sufficient food to satisfy the cravings of their appetite, and in the most violent infliction of corporeal punishment, for very slight offences against the rules of the prison, not with the ordinary instrument of punishment, (called the cat,) but frequently by blows dealt upon the head and various parts of the body, with the usual walking staves of the assistant keepers, (which mode of punishment the committee do not hesitate to pronounce cruel in the extreme, and as inconsistent with the good discipline of the prison, as it is repugnant to every principle of humanity); whilst at the same time, not only those who had been before confined in the Mount-Pleasant prison, but every one of the others examined by the committee, bore most cheerful testimony of the kindness, the moderation and benevolence of their treatment at Auburn, most of them not having received any corporeal punishment since their confinement there, and those who had, uniformly admitting the justice of what had been inflicted upon them, and all admitting that their provisions and clothing were not only wholesome, agreeable and comfortable, but at all times abundant.

Upon the subject of provisions, it is perhaps well, in this place, to call the attention of the Legislature to the reports from the different prisons, as to the mode of supplying the prisoners. At Auburn the prisoners breakfast and dine together, in a mess room, and waiters supply the deficiencies of rations of the more hungry or hearty eaters from the surplus of the less robust, and at all times, (which is seldom necessary to be resorted to,) supplying any general deficiency from a general stock, prepared for that purpose; whilst at Mount-Pleasant, from the want of such a room, the convicts are necessarily compelled to take their rations with them to their cells; and, although the committee was assured, by the Agent of the latter prison, that ample provisions were, at all times, supplied for the prisoners at every meal, the statements of