“To do good and to communicate” should be the object of every philanthropist, as it certainly is the aim of this Society; and it is with pleasure that we now announce that a correspondence between the President of the Society and several distinguished gentlemen in different parts of this State, warrant a hope that before long, Societies, auxiliaries to this, will be established in various counties of the Commonwealth, and the philanthropy of the good of both sexes will be called into new action and concentrated upon the great object of lessening the miseries of public prisons in their neighborhood, by suggesting improvements in the police and general administration of the establishments, and by dealing directly and affectionately with the miserable inmates of the cells or the crowded rooms.

The correspondence with those to whom the measure has been opened, shows a readiness on the part of some to begin the work; but prudential considerations have suggested a postponement of the undertaking, in some counties, till a strong and steady co-operation can be secured from those who are now absent in the service of the country, or till the state of the country will allow men of public spirit and of philanthropic principles to withdraw their attention from national matters. Certainly a postponement upon such grounds is to be preferred to a failure of efforts from a want of thorough co-operation.

It is desirable that auxiliary societies should be established, in order to call into exercise, and direct into proper channels, the spirit of philanthropy that abounds in our State, and to give object and employment to that self-denying devotion which marks the character of woman, and is found in a class of men that rarely are named with public benefactors, though they are found, when opportunities present, where humanity has its most repulsive duties and earns its highest rewards.

A correspondence between the parent Society and its auxiliaries in the interior of the State, or with independent associations laboring to the same end and with similar means, would diffuse information that would stimulate exertion and promote the great object of alleviating the miseries of prisoners. Especially would such auxiliaries often assist the agents and committees of the parent Society, by information as to the character of prisoners, and aid in procuring employment for the repentant vicious and criminal, who would strengthen their good resolution by seeking occupation where the chance of meeting old associates would be greatly diminished, and where temptations to a recurrence to former faults would not abound. It is now believed that the hopes of forming these auxiliaries will soon be realized. But there has always been found some difficulty in the first steps towards an organization. The willingness of many needs information to strengthen resolve; and especially is it found that where there is to be a concurrent action, there is great need of some representative of the views and sentiments of the parent Society, to concentrate and direct the efforts of those who, with the best motives and most earnest wishes for success, pause upon the initiatory step, from distrust as to their ability to organize and direct a society, or an apprehension that they may lack the hearty co-operation of others no less philanthropic or energetic than themselves.

We, perhaps, then shall need, at a proper time, some representative of the parent Society specially deputed to stir up the public mind in the direction of humanity in prisons, and to take advantage of the effects of his labors to unite the exertions of the good in the form of auxiliaries, that shall have their committees in every place of imprisonment, doing the work of philanthropy by alleviating the miseries of prisons and improving the moral condition of the prisoners. These auxiliaries will aid the parent Society in influencing legislation favorable to the cause of humanity, and, in proportion to their number and to the character of their members, they will be felt and their power acknowledged by the Representatives of the people, not in any attempt at dictation, but in the mild, steady presentation and advocacy of measures of amelioration that shall triumph by their inherent beauty and mercy, influencing public sentiment and purifying legislative enactments.

In a subsequent part of this Report, under the head of “Correspondence,” will be found large supplemental abstracts of British Parliamentary Reports; and it is thought that a few words explanatory of the British and Irish system might, in this part of our Report, be made useful in aid of the plan for auxiliaries. England has learned much from us in the work of Prison Discipline: we might learn something of her, (more, indeed, than we shall acquire,) were our institutions more assimilated, and especially were we as geographically circumscribed as she is.

The “Prison Reports,” physical and moral, in Great Britain, are all to the Government of the nation; and every part of every city jail seems to work with as distinct a reference to the whole system of prison regulation as the lower clerkships of a State Department do to the administration of the whole. This, it must be admitted, is easy in that country, where there is but one legislature to direct, and one government to administer and execute. It would be impossible in this country, for the National Congress to issue ordinances for the administration of State, county, and city prisons. To say nothing of State rights and State sovereignty, there would be insurmountable difficulties in prescribing and carrying out rules for prison discipline and dietaries for all the jails from Oregon to Maine. So that, when we read of the happy and harmonious working of the prison laws in Ireland and Great Britain, we must call to mind the proximity of each establishment to the other, and of the whole to the Government, to whose chief officers they are bound to make report, and with whose agents they are bound to co-operate. In England and Ireland the difference of longitude is so small, that, by the Sovereign’s command, it is made mid-day at the same moment in both kingdoms. In the United States, something more than human power would be required to work out that wonder, and something more than constitutional prerogative would be necessary to enforce it. We must take things as they are, and work with the means and in the space which are allowed. If we cannot expect national interference in behalf of prison discipline, we certainly may appeal to the State in which we live to exercise and dignify its sovereignty by legislation that will adapt prisons and their discipline to the use of society, and while the House is one of penal discipline, it shall be a place of moral improvement. We scarcely expect the Legislature of the State to initiate the good work. It is the duty of those who feel most anxious for its establishment, to prepare the means and present the arguments; and it is believed that no means of inducing a systematic arrangement of prison discipline throughout the State exists outside this Society. Persons abound who see and deplore the evils of the present want of system, but they lack the full information, and especially do they lack concurrent action; and it is believed that the establishment of auxiliary societies throughout the State would produce the ends proposed, viz., properly constructed prisons, the establishment and maintenance of proper discipline; and the whole co-operative and correspondent, each with the other, till the system work, with regard to the government, as perfectly in Pennsylvania as it does in Great Britain, and much more effective in the interest of humanity and virtue. We have little to change, excepting the structures of our prisons, and the consequent classification and treatment of prisoners; little to unlearn in their management; we are not wedded to any past theory. It is generally admitted, that much of what this Society condemns is wrong; the only doubt, or supposed difficulty, is how it can be remedied. That doubt and that difficulty will be removed when auxiliary Societies shall be established to correct and embody public sentiment, and when the parent Society, through its branches, shall be allowed to bring its moral action into co-operation with the physical efforts of the Commonwealth, to alleviate the miseries of public prisons.