Louisiana Law Review Volume 37 | Number 5 Summer 1977 Edward Livingston and American Penology Ginger Roberts Repository Citation Ginger Roberts, Edward Livingston and American Penology, 37 La. L. Rev. (1977) Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/lalrev/vol37/iss5/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews and Journals at LSU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Louisiana Law Review by an authorized editor of LSU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. EDWARD LIVINGSTON AND AMERICAN PENOLOGY Ginger Roberts* "[T]here is no cause to the success of which I would more willingly devote my feeble talents, and the exertions of my life, including, as it does, the cause of religion, humanity, and social order, than the one which forms the subject of this letter ... "-Letter from Edward Livingston on the advantages of the Pennsylvania system of prison discipline, 1828 On December 20, 1803 W.C.C. Claiborne became the governor of the newly acquired Louisiana province.' Less than two weeks later, he wrote a lengthy account of his first impressions and actions to then Secretary of State James Madison, including some comments on the handling of crime: In the different prisons of this City I have found upwards of one hundred prisoners, some of whom had been there from ten to thirteen years, on Suspicions of crimes of which it does not appear they were 2 ever convicted; and Some for offences of a very trivial nature. Claiborne went on to say that "justice and humanity" demanded an immediate resolution of the problem and that he had spoken with the Spanish authorities about it.