FOULKE, William Parker

Remarks on Cellular Separation. Read by Appointment of the American Association for the Improvement of Penal and Reformatory Institutions, at the Annual Meeting in New York, November 29, 1860

Philadelphia: [Stereotyped by L. Johnson and Co. / H.B. Ashmead, Printer], 1861. First Edition. Octavo (23cm.); publisher's tan printed wrappers; iv,112pp. Extremities a bit chipped and toned, contemporary inscription of the Chapter County Cabinet to upper cover, else Very Good, internally fine. Distributor's cancel tipped to title page: "From the Publication Committee of the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons."

Lengthy argument in favor of separation in prisons based on a plan being incrementally introduced in the smaller prisons in Europe. William Parker Foulke (1816-1865) was a Philadelphia attorney appointed in 1860 as delegate to the Convention of State Prison Wardens where was formed society for which he was to have been the Corresponding Secretary, though the commencement of the Civil War curtailed any activities as such. Nevertheless, Foulke was able to publish this detailed paper in which he presented a modernized approach to prison reform, "Starting from the acknowledged postulates that it is impossible to form a reliable judgment on the value of outward signs of penitence; that a strict observation of prison rules and discipline can never, by itself, be a fair criterion to enable us to judge how a prisoner will conduct himself after he has obtained liberty; that suffering is an essential element to any useful prison discipline, on whatever general theory imprisonment takes place, he criticises the whole ground plan of the New Penal Code" (J.P. Lesley, "Obituary Notice of WM. Parker Foulke," "Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society," Vol. 10, no. 80 (July, 1868), p. 489).

Price: $225.00

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