Destitution in New York and Voluntary Penitentiary Commitments
The New York Observer gives an indication in the following, of the extreme destitution which prevails in that city:— During two days last week in this city seventy-one persons were, at their own request, committed to the Penitentiary for one year. This not only suggests the destitution and hopelessness that abounds in some quarters, but how slight a terror imprisonment is to those who have little to live for outside of prison walls. Mere confinement is scarcely a punishment to many who know but little of the advantages and comforts of liberty. It is not at all strange that crime sometimes seems to flourish under a treatment that is doubtless welcomed by many as a privilege rather than a punishment.