The Liberator

Visit to a Solitary Cell.

Friend Garrison:

Most persons in the community have read of solitary confinement, but very few have any idea of the construction of a cell for this purpose. While on a visit to Connecticut, I conversed with Hall the murderer, the day before his execution. Among other questions, I asked him why he preferred hanging to imprisonment? He replied that he had been in prison, and knew what it was by experience: that if he could be treated as a human being, he would rather have his life spared. This induced me to inquire into the condition of prisoners in his own State, and the better to effect my purpose, I asked the privilege of being shut up in the solitary cell. This, though rather a singular and unusual request, was readily granted.

On finding myself thus shut out from the world, my feelings may better be imagined than described. The heavy iron door closed upon me, and I thought of the many hours spent there by the unhappy criminal. I found the cell perfectly dark. I looked for a bed or some straw, at least, for the poor criminal; or a chair on which he could sit. But there was nothing of the kind. If the criminal laid down at all, it must be on the cold stone floor! He carries in with him a covered bucket, it is true, and on this he may sit. And what a place for a human being! This is the way society proposes to reform its criminals. Does it not make tenfold more than it reforms? When I visited that prison in Connecticut, I ceased to wonder that Hall preferred to be hung to going back to be entombed within its walls. This is the way we treat a fellow-man, a brother, one for whom Christ died! Few know any thing about the condition of our prisoners. The keeper of the State Prison in Rhode-Island has acknowledged that one out of four is made insane! And how few comply with the precept of Christ, to visit the prisoner! The only question asked is, whether the criminal is safely immured within the walls of his prison. Few ever ask the question whether he has food to eat, or a bed to lie on. Oh that we might have more of the spirit of Christ in our midst! He 'went about doing good.' If we had his spirit, our prisons would become schools or hospitals; not merely places of confinement. The inquiry would be, not so much about the safety of the poor criminal, as it would be, what can be done for his reformation? Let us, then, endeavor to imbibe the spirit of Jesus, and then like him we shall 'go about doing good.'

C. SPEAR.