quick temper stimulates him to quarrel. His sleep, after a debauch, is unrefreshing, and he only wakes to encounter another day of uncertainty and wickedness. What, then, is the value of life to him, or one like him? Why toil? Why not steal? What shame has he? Is the prison, with certainty of food, a greater punishment than the free air with uncertainty? On the contrary, he regards it as a lighter punishment, whilst he is altogether insensible to its moral degradation.
Mexico will thus continue to be infested with felons, as long as its prison is a house of refuge, and a comparatively happy home to so large a portion of its outcasts.[1]
Statistics of Crime in the Capital, 1826 — 1836 — 1842.
The following table exhibits the condition of the public prisons of Mexico in 1826.
| Inmates on the 31st Dec, 1825, | 553 | |||||
| Entered in 1826. |
For | Homicides and their accomplices, | 151 | 4,750 | ||
| " | Robbery,""” | 1,090 | ||||
| " | Rioting and bearing arms, | 2,011 | ||||
| " | Incontinence (incontinencia,) | 543 | ||||
| " | Various crimes, | 955 | ||||
| Total number of persons, | 5,303 | |||||
Of these there were
| Released, | 4,155 | 4,268 | ||
| Sentenced | to death by garrotte, | 7 | ||
| " | to prison for terms, | 67 | ||
| " | to public works, | 159 | ||
| " | to house of correction, | 3 | ||
| " | to service of the prison, | 229 | ||
| " | chained at various places, | 8 | ||
| Remaining on the 31st December, 1826, | 675 | |||
| Military Trials and Judgments in 1826. | ||||
| Entered prison, to be judged by military tribunals, | 462 | |||
| Sentenced | to punishment, | 8 | 362 | |
| " | to prison, | 48 | ||
| " | to military service, | 5 | ||
| " | to public works, | 55 | ||
| " | to house of correction, | 6 | ||
| Liberated, | 212 | |||
| Escaped, | 12 | |||
| Died, | 2 | |||
| Delivered to the ordinary tribunals, | 14 | |||
| Remaining at end of 1826 | 100 | |||
- ↑ Mexico as it was and as it is, p. 269.
