Recollections of Windsor Prison

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of Vermont John Reynolds. Recollections of Windsor Prison

Recollections of Windsor Prison

Table of Contents

PREFACE

GEHENNA IN MINIATURE. ORIGIN OF PRISONS

ORIGIN AND DESIGN OF PENITENTIARIES, WITH A VIEW OF THEIR IMPERFECTIONS

ORIGIN, CONSTRUCTION, GOVERNMENT, AND. GENERAL HISTORY OF WINDSOR PRISON

SOLITARY CONFINEMENT

GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE OFFICERS

GENERAL CHARACTER AND HABITS OF THE PRISONERS

CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS

SAMUEL E. GODFREY

ROWLEY

COLLIER

PERRY

ROBBINS

P. FANE

A YOUTH

DEAN

CHAMBERLAIN

MRS. BURNHAM

TREATMENT OF THE SICK, AND BURIAL OF THE DEAD

ELLIS

A—— W——

M—— C——

BENTON

SANDFORD

A BLACKSMITH

LEVITT

BURNHAM

PLUMLEY

L. NOBLE

QUARKENBUSH

CORLISS

SAVERY

OPPOSITION OF THE KEEPERS TO HAVING PREACHING IN THE PRISON

RELIGIOUS OPINIONS OF THE PRISONERS

ATTEMPTS TO ESCAPE, AND SUICIDES

PRISONERS' CORRESPONDENCE WITH THEIR FRIENDS

COURTSHIP IN PRISON

MR. STRICKLIN

OVERWORK

PARDONS

CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE PRISONERS WHEN RELEASED

GOD'S VIOLATED RULE OF TREATING PENITENT CRIMINALS. AN ESSAY

THE CONNEXION BETWEEN INTEMPERANCE AND CRIME, AS VISIBLE IN PRISON

INFLUENCE OF "FREE MASONRY" ON THE REGULATIONS OF PRISONS, AND THE DECISION OF COURTS

THE PRISON DISCIPLINE SOCIETY

DESIGN OF PENITENTIARIES IN RESPECT TO THE TREATMENT OF CONVICTS, ACCORDING TO THE VIEWS OF THE DIRECTORS OF THE CONNECTICUT STATE PRISON, WITH REMARKS

THE MEANS OF EFFECTING A REFORMATION AMONG PRISONERS

REV. JOHN ROBBINS' VISIT TO WINDSOR PRISON

The Author's Farewell to Liberty and his Friends

DESCRIPTION OF HEAVEN BY AN INHABITANT OF A DUNGEON

AN APPEAL TO CHRISTIANS IN BEHALF OF STATE PRISONERS

CONCLUSION

Footnotes

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John of Vermont Reynolds

Containing Sketches of its History and Discipline, with Appropriate Strictures and Moral and Religious Reflection

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This conduct is the more conspicuous from the fact, that the laws of the prison require every officer, and the head one especially, to have an especial reference, in all things, to the good and moral reformation of the prisoners. This also renders their conduct the more criminal; and to this as one of the principal causes must be referred the hardening effect of state-prison discipline upon its subjects.—They know the laws by which the keepers are bound; they know that the community and the government of the state require them to be merciful, and to treat the convicts as if they considered them human beings; and when they see these officers so outrageously sinful against the most solemn obligations, and the most sacred and obligatory laws, and yet as cruel to them for trifling and shadowy offences, as if they themselves were immaculate, they cannot help despising them in their hearts, and kindling with a flame which sets reformation at defiance. And it is not too much to say, that many a prisoner has been hardened in crime by the example of those very men who were commissioned to reform him. If I had the power, and desired to have the angel Gabriel become a devil, I would send him to Windsor prison for three years.

But I should do violence to my own feelings, and injustice to this part of my subject, were I not to give a very different character to some who have held offices in this Institution. As there are a few who have reached the climax of depravity, so there are some who have exhibited characters which do honor to human nature. Like stars in the dark, they were the angel spirits of that "house of wo and pain." They were warmed with the pure glow of benevolent and christian feeling; and if all the keepers had manifested the same temper and sympathy for the suffering, many a mountain of grief would have been rolled from their bleeding breasts—many a refractory spirit would have been charmed into obedience—many a hard heart would have been softened into tenderness—many a guilty soul would have been washed into purity—many a mother's heart would have been gladdened with the return of a prodigal child—and many a wife would have been blessed with a husband reclaimed. To these, I owed much of my comfort while I was a prisoner. I remember them with gratitude, and I am sure that they will have the blessing of the merciful.

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