1841,) in course
of construction:--

We were much interested by our visit to this new prison. We think
the building generally does credit to the architect, particularly
in some important points, as ventilation, the plan of the
galleries, the chapel, etc., and we were also much pleased to
observe the arrangement for water in each cell, and that the
prisoner could ring a bell in case of wanting help.

The points that made us uneasy were, first, the dark cells, which
we consider should never exist in a Christian and civilized
country. I think having prisoners placed in these cells a
punishment peculiarly liable to abuse. Whatever restrictions may be
made for the governor of a jail, and however lenient those who
_now_ govern, we can little calculate upon the change the future
may produce, or how these very cells may one day be made use of in
case of either political or religious disturbance in the country,
or how any poor prisoner may be placed in them in case of a more
severe administration of justice.

I think no person should be placed in _total_ darkness; there
should be a ray of light admitted. These cells appear to me
calculated to excite such awful terror in the mind, not merely from
their darkness but from the circumstance of their being placed
within another cell, as well as being in such a dismal situation.

I am always fearful of any punishment, beyond what the law publicly
authorizes, being privately inflicted by any keeper or officer of a
prison; for my experience most strongly proves that there are few
men who are themselves sufficiently governed and regulated by
Christian principle to be fit to have such power entrusted to their
hands; and further, I observe that officers in prisons have
generally so much to try and to provoke them that they themselves
are apt to become hardened to the more tender feelings of humanity.
They necessarily also see so much through the eyes of those under
them, turnkeys and inferior officers, (too many of whom are little
removed either in education or morals from the prisoners
themselves,) that their judgments are not always just.

The next point that struck us was, that in the cells generally the
windows have that description of glass in them that even the sight
of the sky is entirely precluded. I