Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1869-08-25
State Prisons.


Late developments, brought out by
disinterested investigation, show the
Sing Sing prison, of New York, to be
about ss corrupt as is possible for any
concern of the sort to be. The Pris-
on Association of that State, made up
of volunteer. philanthropists, whose
investigations help us to the facts, in
dicate, through their report, that peni.
tentiaries throughout the country are
in like condition. This we are pre-
pared to believe. The depravity of
New York, Chicago and JeffersonYille
differs from that Of other places only
in its boldness. Our raseals are more
timid, or modest, if you will, but none
the less rascals. They do not openly
parade their vice, but they practice It
all the same. The report of this ex-
cellent association, although some
Whist yOluminous, it is valuable
Through it, we learn that. during an
existence of twenty-five years, il has
visited through accredited agents,
some eighty-nine thousand convicts,
aided over seventeen Thousand who
were discharged, and gave relief to
one hundred and forty-six thousand
prisoners. Complaints from convicts
have been carefully Investigated, end
in many Instances, pardons have been
procured for those considered worthy
OF executive cle1ency.
But, by far the more valuable part
of the report is to be found in the
speculatiOns which such q wide field
of experience has produced. All State
officials and every coed citizen can
study the volume with advantage
That which treats OF the process by
which a penitentiary may be made
is of most importance
to the tax payer. At least, it is of the
most interest. And il is astonishing
to find how few prisons can be count
ed under this head Contractors grow
rich, but the State suffers. With the
exception Of Massachusetts,, we be-
lieve every State has lost money thro'
its penitentiary,
This matter of saving, however, is
after all, of the smallest consideration.
If criminals are not bettered by the
punishment, the community upon
which they are turned loose suffer
more than can be told by the books of
the prison. At least, the convict
should not be liberated in a worse con-
ditiOn than when first imprisoned.-I
And we have TO learn that all process
ses which tend to degrade the subject,
destroy his manhood by lessening his
self-respect, hardens the convict and
graduates the scoundrel. When
man is deprived of his liberty and
forced to work, We have reached the
end of punishment. Anything be-
yOnd is cruelty, The physical we'll
being of the convict, together with a
cultivation of his mental and moral
nature, are considerations that prom
ise more outcome to society than the
abuse that treats the man as if he
were beast, and ends by making him
a devil.
OF course, every reform proposed of
this sort will be met by an unlimited
number of people with the cry that it
is necessary to make the Penitentiary
horrible, or it will cease to be a pun
ishment and a terror. They forget,
or never knew, that it is only the low
er sort of criminals that find their
way to the States prison, and to them
the narrow cells, gloomy corridors,
striped dress and shorn head are no
terror whatever. All they dread are
the loss of liberty and the enforced |
labor.