Page:Stryker's American Register and Magazine, Volume 6, 1851.djvu/564

558 There were imprisoned in the State of Massachusetts, from the year 1807, inclusive to the month of February, 1847, in the State prisons, convicted, 3,850.

Of these were pardoned before the term of imprisonment expired 460. So that of the whole were pardoned 12 per cent. or every eighth convict.

The average time of remaining in prison, (of these 460,) compared to the time of their original sentence, amounted to 65 per cent. In other words, they remained in prison but two-thirds of the time of imprisonment imposed upon them by the law of the State.

Of the 460 pardoned convicts there had been originally sentenced to an imprisonment of ten years or more, the number of 49. And the time which these convicts had actually remained in prison, compared to the terms of their original conviction, amounts to 60 per cent.; so that a criminal sentenced to ten years or more had a better chance of having his imprisonment shortened than those sentenced to a period less than ten years, in the proportion of about six to seven; in other words, while the less guilty was suffering a week's imprisonment, the prisoners of the darkest dye suffered six days only.

There were committed for life by computation of sentence, and still further pardoned at a later period from 1815 to 1844, inclusive, seventy-five. The average time they actually remained in prison was a fraction over seven years. So that, if we take twenty-five years as the average time of a sentence of imprisonment for life, we find that they remained in prison but little over one fourth of the time which had been allotted to them, already, in consequence of a first pardon, twenty-five per cent.; or the executive substituted seven years' imprisonment for death decreed by law. There were altogether committed for life by commutation of sentence fifteen. And, as we have seen that five of these were further pardoned, we find that one third of the whole were pardoned thirty-three per cent. It does not appear how many criminals were sentenced to death, and what proportion, therefore, had their sentences commuted to imprisonment for life.

The abuse of pardoning in the State of Massachusetts has, however, much decreased during the latter part of the period through which the mentioned report extends; for, according to a table published in the able and instructive third report of the New-York Prison Association, (N. Y.) 1847, page 41 of the report of the prison discipline committee, we find that from 1835 to 1846, there was pardoned in Massachusetts one convict of 1,804, while our statement shows that in the period from 1807 to 1846 every eighth convict was pardoned.

We beg leave to copy the chief result of the table just mentioned.