THE EARLIEST SYSTEM OF PRISON DISCIPLINE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IX, Issue 428, 24 June 1881, Page 17

THE EARLIEST SYSTEM OF PRISON DISCIPLINE.

It is not yet two centuries since the first rude semblance of a system of prison discipline, as we now understand the phrase, was put forth in theory, hardly in practice, in the City of Rome, and by the wisdom of ite Pontiff — then Clement XL When Howard was on his tour of prison inspection on the Continent of Europe, he found at Rome, as a part of the great Hospital of San Michele, a prison for J>oyß and young men, which equally surprised and interested him. the door of this prison was placed the following inscription, " Clemens XI. Pont. Max. perditis adolescentibus corrigendis instituendisque, ut gui mertes oberant, instructi Republics serviant. An. Sal. MDCCIV. Pon. IV." In English, " Pope Clement XI. For the conviction and instruction of profligate youth. That they who, when idle, were injurious, may, when instructed, be useful to the State. 1704." And within the prison, in the principal apartment, he found this, as he says, " admirable sentence ": " Parum est coercere improbos poena-nisi probos efflcias discipline." In English : '• It is of little use to restrain the bad by punishment unless you render them good (reform them) by discipline." In which sentence, says the illustrious philanthropist, " the grand purpose of all civil policy relative to criminals is expressed." In the centre of the room was hung up the inscription, " Silentium," bo that' as would appear, the silent system of associated labour, combined with a reformatory discipline, was fully inaugurated in Eome, in the very beginuing ©f the eighteenth century, that is more than 150 years ago. One of the main agencies relied upon to effect the desired reform of the young prisoners was steady, productive labour, and imparting to them the knowledge of a trade, and more particularly agricultural employment, and the like. Surely Pope Clement XI must be allowed a place among the most enlightened rulers and reformers that adorn the annals of our race. On all those points the world might still go to school to him with advantage. This is the key-note of all the subsequent discussions of prison reform, from Beccaria and Howard, Bentham and the great American statesmen Livingston and Sir Waiter Crofton, the best

living demonstrators of a science somewhat older and far simpler, but much less understood than the science of chemistry. John Howard and Sir William Blackstone echoed it in 1779. when they wrote, in the preamble of an Act of Parliament, their hope of " not only deterring others from the commission of crimes, but also of reforming: the individual, and in the hundred years that have since passed this sentiment has found utterance in the penal codes of every civilized nation. To put it in practice has been found more difficult than to utter it ; but various systems have been ingeniously framed and earnestly administered for the purpose of combining reformatioa with punishment.