Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1867-06-20
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
Prison Discipline

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from the New York Tribune,l
fla man of benevolent aims and good ad
ministrative ability had the leisure and til
inclination to spend his life in efforts to ben
eft his kind, 1t is doubtful whether he coul
attain his object more effectually than by'fol
lowing In the footsteps Of Howard, the phi
l9nthropst. It is the sick who need ply
sician and this Is as true in moral and in
tellectual sense as in physical one. Their
are patients in our peniientiaries as surely q
In our hospitals.
The old idea OF a prison isthat It is plac,
first of punishment in requital for wrong
doing, and next of restraint to prevent wick
ca men and women from roaming at large il
society. Under such view of the case, al
That is necessary is that the walls should bt
strong and the locks of the best pattern
that there should be plenty of handouts
fair supply OF straight Jackets good stout
iron staples in some of the cells, with relia.
bic chains attached; CATO nine-tails, OF
some other equally persuasive weapon, al
ways at hand, and a stout gang Of hands fit
TED to manipulate these various appliances
men who won't take any nonsense, and have
no weak scruples about compelling order
and quiet by the convenient shortcut Of
force. The ideal Of jailor, under this old
system, is a burly official, with revolver
on one side Of his belt and q bunch of keys
dangling from the other
This is in accordance with the old Jewish
doctrine OF retaliatory justice, An eye for
an eye, tooth for TOOTH" Its supporters
talk about the offended dignity of the law
q human holocaust, they think, must he of
fered up in expiration. Sin is to be punish
ed, they believe, eternally by God in the
next world; why should not man try his
hand in the same direction, in this +? Their
idea is that prisons should be made the ter
ror OF evil-doers; the more uncomfortable
the more efficient. They do not usually
carry their ideas as far as the Venetian In
q1isitors, who, in that celebrated prison
which was reached by the "Bridgc of Signs, y
thrust the culprit in the depth of winter into
su6terranean dungeons, dripping with wet,
and removed them sui pi0m6i Chat is to
low-roofed garrets Under The leads, when
the fierce sun of July beat on the metal
close above their heads But the principle
is the same. If the prisoners lie on straw
never changed till it is filthy, if the ventila-
ton be bad, If the fare be miserable, if the
confinement be excessive, producing disease,
what mattera The more forcible is the ex-
ample to deter others from crime.
All that was in character during pagan
times; it suited pagan ideas. But we are, or
profess to be, Christians. We live under a
system of which the Author substituted the
agency oflove for the rule of fear; mercy, for
vengeance. We go to churches where we
hear such texts as this: "There is more Joy
"in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth
than ninety and nine just persons" If we
are to act in the spirit of that text, it is not
enough to have Christian churches; we must
have Christian prisons Also
In the old fundamental idea touching the
best mode of preventing of diminishing
crime, there is radical error. A prison
should not be mere place Of incarceration,
still less place Of suffering; it should be a
place of reformation. Is that common
place idea? 1t is not found in our diction-
aries; scarcely in our encyclopedias. What
Is Noah Websters conception of a prison
= building for the confinement and safe
"custody of debtors siid criminals commit
tied by process 81 law a place If safe
" custody; place Of confinement or re-
straint." Even in that useful publication
the American Cyclopedia, though much
valuable information is contained in the ar
ticle Prison, as to the proper construction
and ventilation OF the buildings, as to the
relative advantages of the congregate and
the separate systems, as to the necessity for
cleanliness, good order and humane treat
ment, there is not a word to the effect that
prisons ought to be schools ofreiorm. There
is no advance beyond what Cicero said two
thousand years ago, that prison should be
place not ofpunishment but of restraint.