Amendment VIII

Document 8

Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776, SECS. 29, 38, 39

Sec. 29. Excessive bail shall not be exacted for bailable offences: And all fines shall be moderate.

. . . . .

Sect. 38. The penal laws as heretofore used shall be reformed by the legislature of this state, as soon as may be, and punishments made in some cases less sanguinary, and in general more proportionate to the crimes.

Sect. 39. To deter more effectually from the commission of crimes, by continued visible punishments of long duration, and to make sanguinary punishments less necessary; houses ought to be provided for punishing by hard labour, those who shall be convicted of crimes not capital; wherein the criminals shall be imployed for the benefit of the public, or for reparation of injuries done to private persons: And all persons at proper times shall be admitted to see the prisoners at their labour.

The Founders' Constitution
Volume 5, Amendment VIII, Document 8
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/amendVIIIs8.html
The University of Chicago Press

Thorpe, Francis Newton, ed. The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters, and Other Organic Laws of the States, Territories, and Colonies Now or Heretofore Forming the United States of America. 7 vols. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1909.