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It is to be lamented, that many good citizens, feeling a juft abhorrence at crimes, confulting the fuggeftions of virtuous indignation, rather than the principles of juftice, become impatient that the alteration of the penal code has not yet produced greater and more decided effects, and diminished the number of the guilty. They, fometimes, even express a regret at the change which has been wrought in our laws, and returning to a system of accumulated severity and terror, wish to see every offence against life and property punished with death; as if crimes would ceafe with the extermination of the criminal. But let fuch turn their eyes inward upon their own hearts, and analyze the fource from whence fuch wishes arife. Let them confider the effects produced on fociety and manners by the rapid increase of wealth and luxury, natural population, and emigration, which confequently augment the number of crimes, whether the laws be mild or fanguinary. Let them confult reason, and the experience of the most enlightened nations, which prove beyond all contradiction, that crimes are most frequent where the laws are moft rigorous; that punishments mild and certain more effectually prevent crimes than those which are fanguinary and severe. Let them at least examine, before they condemn, a fyftem fanctioned by different legiflatures, prudent and enlightened, and applauded by the wisest and best men in all civilized countries,

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Defcription of the Edifice, Workshops, Cells, &c.

THE prifon, of which it is proposed to give

an account, is fituated on the east bank of the river Hudson, about two miles from the City Hall. It was begun in the summer of 1796, and finished in 1797. The buildings and courts comprise four acres of ground. A more pleasant, airy, and falubrious spot could not have been felected in the vicinity of New-York. The weft front overlooks the river, into which a fpacious and convenient wharf has been extended beyond the prison wall. The upper apartments command an extensive view of the city, harbour, islands, and the adjacent country. The principal front is on Greenwich-Street, the centre of which is projected and furmounted by a pediment: there is a correfponding projection and

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pediment in the weft front. The whole length of the front is 204 feet, from each end of which projects a wing extending towards the river, and from them spring two other wings in the fame direction, of less extent. There are two ftories above the basement, each fifteen feet high. The roof is covered with flate, and the pediment is crowned with a handsome cupola. The walls are compofed of free-ftone. The whole fabric is of the Doric order, and contains fifty-four rooms, twelve feet by eighteen, for prifoners, fufficient for the accommodation of eight persons in each. In the north wing is a large room with galleries, neatly finished for a place of worship. The apartments in the centre of the edifice are appropriated to the use of the keeper and his family.

The women are confined in the north wing of the prison, on the ground floor, and have a courtyard entirely diftinct from that of the men.

Had the rooms for the prifoners been fo conftructed as that each fhould lodge but one perfon, the chance of their corrupting each other would have been diminished, and escapes would have been more difficult. The prifon need not, in that cafe, have been made fo ftrong or expenfive. Abfolute reliance ought not to be placed on the ftrength of any prifon, let their walls be ever fo well conftructed. Nothing will probably prevent escapes but the unremitting vigilance of the keepers, and a strict watch day and night.

At the end of each wing, and adjoining them,

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