This process of first carefully manufacturing criminals and then killing them is an insult to our intelligence and culture. Katherine Tingley and party with Arizona Governor George P. Hunt, who abolished capital punishment in his state. The only reason why such cases have not responded before is that they have never met with the right treatment. All too frequently their self-respect, already so diminished, has been altogether taken away by the reiterated assurance that they are wicked and hopeless. Sinfulness has been preached to them, and thus prison has become a place for the destruction of character.
Theosophy begins by insisting upon the fact that all men are divine, and that no case is hopeless.
The culprit is told that he possesses within himself a divine power of self-reform, and is shown how to invoke it. His lost self-respect is restored, and from that time on he is encouraged to pull himself together and overcome his weaknesses. Many are the tales which Katherine Tingley, and those who have worked with her in the prisons, can tell of reconstituted characters which, from being the worst of the worst, have become sources of wonder to their keepers, and powers of help to their fellow prisoners. It is the earnest desire of these prison workers to demonstrate to as many people as possible the efficacy of this way of handling prisoners, so that there may no longer be any excuse for resorting to barbarous punishments, and so that civilization at large may have a criminal policy worthy of the present status of culture. The world is passing through a crucial stage and the newborn spirit of a kindly intelligence is struggling for manifestation.