Page:Elizabeth Fry (Pitman 1884).djvu/135

 though they little think it, dungeons for their children and their children’s children if times of religious persecution or political disturbance should return.” For this reason, if for no other, she urged upon those who were contemplating the erection of new prisons, the prime necessity of constructing those prisons so as to enable them to conform to the requirements of humanity.

Her opinions and reasons for and against the solitary system of confinement are well given in a communication sent to M. de Béranger after a visit to Paris, during which the subject of prison-management had formed a staple theme of discussion in the salons of that city. With much practical insight and clearness of reasoning, Mrs. Fry marshalled all the stock arguments, adding thereto such as her own experience taught.

In favour of the solitary system were to be urged—

1st. The prevention of all contamination by their fellow-prisoners.

2nd. The impossibility of forming intimacies calculated to be injurious in after life.

3rd. The increased solitude, which afforded larger opportunities for serious reflection and, if so disposed, repentance and prayer by the criminal.

4th. The prevention of total loss of character on the part of the prisoner, seeing that the privacy of the confinement would operate against the recognition of him by fellow-prisoners upon regaining his liberty.

Against it the following reasons could be urged:—

1st. The extreme liability to ill-treatment or indulgence, according to the mood and disposition of the officers in charge.

2nd. The extreme difficulty of obtaining a sufficiently