Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1869-04-23
THE PHILOSOPHY OF PUNTsH-
HTENT

We know on the highest authority
that it is out of the heart that all Of
fences come, and that the purifying of
the source is the only effectnaI way of
cleansing the streams that flow from
/ it. This is what humane and phiIo-
isophieal penal system should propose
4 to itself. If man is in mental and
bodily condition that makes him dan
j gefous to society, society has perfect
/ right to separate him from the body
| polite and subject him to such re-
straint and treatment, moral and n1e1i-
cal, as may restore him to social health
again. The analogy between the NOR
bid and mental conditions of the
1 guilty criminal and those of the inno-
cent lunatie is sufficiently perfect to
guide us to practical results. RI
Now when man is clearly a luna
| tic, who cannot be left at large without
danger to himself and others, and
whose only hope of cure lies in wise
| treatment apart from his old associates,
| he Is not committed to 8 hospital for a
certain specified time, then TO be dis
charged, whatever may be his mental
condition. He is detained and treat
ed until he is cured-the fact of cure be-i
ing determined by connpetefl MT experts
vvl6Ose lives are devoted to the studyI
of such cases. Why should the men
whose deprayed passions and imper-
feet self-eommands head to crimes
against persons and property be let
loose upon society merely because they
have spent a certain number of months
or years in penitentiary, when there
is no reason for believing that they are
cured of their vicious propensities
Cure should bethe essential element of
release. Now, when our penal estab-
lishments are placed, as we have lately
urged, in charge of men of scientific
training and special adaptations, as
our lunatic hospitals are, the first step
will have been taken toward the new
state of things, which we have no
doubt viii be as much in advance of
the present as this is of what prevail /
ed fifty years ago. Then every case
can be treated scientifically by itself, /
like cases of insanity, and detention or /
release determined by the results of /
the treatment, The substitution of a 1
class of men like the superintendents /
of the Establishments for the insane, /
the idiotIc, the deaf and dumb, the in
ebriate, for the class that now conduct /
them, however humane and Well-nean-
ing they may be, is the first and indis-
pensable condition of any change in /
the present system.
This condition satisfied, the process,
as we have conceived it,, would be
something on this wise. The judge,
after the crime had been properly
brought home to the accused by the
verdict of the jury, would relegate
him to the penitentiary, without any
limitation of sentence, there to abide
until the superintendent should decide
that he was fit to be restored to society. /
IncOrrigible offenders would be per Il
manently separated from the cOmmu-
nifty which they cannot restrain them
selves from injuring. Such a superin-
tendent as we have supposed would
make study of every case, apply the
treatment suitable to each, unite the
discipline of the mind with that of
the body, and make punishment a wise
means of reformation. And he would
be the fittest person to decide when
the subject could be safely restored to
the world, or whether the public securi-
ty required his permanent sequestra- +
ton from it. To guard against too
haSty discharges, it might be made
imperative that no convict should be
until he was master of some
Handicraft by which he could support
himself. A board of visitors, compOs-
ed of men of the highest standing, Il
above all suspicion, might be formed,
who should pass upon each case, and
affirm or dfsa1loW the decision Of the T.
superintendent, with an appeal to the
governor, or the chiefjustiee of the
highest court, in cases of doubt. The
take care Of themselves. An r. the
manifold mischiefs attending on the
Dardoning power as now exercised, and
On the inequality of sentences for Of
lenses of the same gravity, would be
5hus cured and, as far as is consistent
honest and ylFtuOHS part of the COM !
nunity would be reconciled with the
of the guilty portion and
promoted by it,. 1t would be wise :
Of Justice with meFcy.z-N.
7. Iodepe1dent II