charges from the hospital; the average number on the list, has been about 16, and the following will exhibit the complaints.

The number now in the hospital, including nurse and *cook, is

14

The appointment of a chaplain to the institution, and the provision made for religious worship within the Prison, sufficiently denote the benevolence of the government, and those pious sentiments and feelings in the community, which we inherit from, and which so eminently distinguished our venerable ancestors. The services of the chapel are regularly performed every Sunday, by the chaplain, or other gentlemen of the clergy. The convicts are obliged to attend, and from their orderly behaviour, attention, and apparent devotion, there is reason to believe, that most of them consider it as a high and holy privilege, and are benefited by the moral and religious instruction which they receive.

No. V1.

Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

In Senate, June 3d, 1817.

ORDERED,-That so much of His Excellency's Speech, as relates to the State Prisou, be committed to the Hon. Messrs. Pickman and Sullivan, with such as the Honourable House may join, to consider and report.

Sent down for concurrence.

JOHN PHILLIPS, President.

House of Representatives, June 4, 1817.

Read and concurred, and Messrs. Stearns of Charlestown, Lincoln of Worcester, and Breed of Lynn, are joined. TIMOTHY BIGELOW, Speaker.

In Senate, June 4, 1817.

The Hon. Mr. Sullivan is excused from serving on this Committee, and the Hon. Mr. Noble is appointed in his

room.

JOHN PHILLIPS, President.

To the Honourable the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Court assembled.

The Commissioners appointed, pursuant to a Resolve of the Legislature, passed on the thirteenth day of December last, "To inquire, by the most ready and economical manner, into the mode of governing the Penitentiary of Pennsylvania, and others of a similar nature-to consider at large the subject of the State Prison, and to report any improvement which can be made in the government, organization, or enlargement of that establishment-with leave to report by bill or otherwise, at

the first session of next General Court," respectfully submit the following

REPORT.

Presuming it to have been the intention of the Legislature, in adopting the Penitentiary System, as a substitute for sanguinary punishments, to carry that system into complete operation, the Commissioners thought it their duty to advert to its strict principles, and to make them a guide in their inquiries into the government and operation of the several penitentiary institutions in the United States; that not only their improvements, if any appeared, might be adopted, but that any defects might be remedied, or deficiencies supplied, which should be found common to these and our own institution.

The Commissioners have inspected, by one or more of the Board, the several Penitentiaries or State prisons of Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.

During a few years after the establishment of the Penitentiary at Philadelphia, this institution was provided with sufficient room, and the proper accommodations for a separation of the convicts from each other. By the vigilance of the keepers, all intercourse and communication was prevented by day, and, at night, the prisoners were lodged in solitary cells. It will appear from the experience of this institution and that at new York, that constant employment, and the usual means of instruction in morality and religion, are ineffectual for the reformation of criminals, (the great object of penitentiary establishments), unless they are debarred from all intercourse. The natural effect of a state of society amongst them is so obviously to counteract the penitentiary discipline, and to cherish the corrupt dispositions, which form the bond of union, and the basis of all sympathy, among this class of men, that the establishment which admits of this indulgence, may, with strict propriety, be called a school of vice. To make this apparent, it will be only necessary to exhibit to the Legislature a comparative view of the Pennsylvania institution, at two different periods. And for this purpose, the following passages are quoted from a