The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1870-05-12
Prison Discipline in the United
States.

The principles of prison discipline, in
which the thinkers and workers in this
department of social science are either
agreed or approaching an agreement, as
appears from the reports of state prisons
in the United States, are the following:
l. The reformation of criminals, not
vindictive punishment should be made
the supreme aim in prison management.
On this point the unanimity is abso-
lutte.
@ Progressive Classification, according
to character and merit, and worked on
some marked system, should be establish
ed in all prisons of class above the COM
mon Jail. Two governors-Hayes of
Ohio, and Haight of California-have rec
commended the Irish prison system for
adoption by their states, with such modi-
| fications as may be necessary to adapt it
to our circumstances.
| 8. 1t is agreed that system of rewards
for good conduct should be instituted in
all prisons, whereby hope may become a
| present and active force. Such rewards
should consist of dimunition of SEN
renee a share IN the prison earnings, a
gradual withdrawal of prison restraints,
and constant increase of the privileges
as they shall be earned.
4 A probationary stage, in which the
| training shall be more natural than il now
| is, and the moral cure of the criminal can
] he adequately determined before his dis.
charge, should he found in every prison
system. This principle does not yet
command universal assent. but the tenden-
cy of opinion sets strongly in that direc-
fLef IF he rnf0 of
the criminal has been successfully applied
in the irish system, through what is cal
led the intermediate prison." in which
the imprisonment is little more than NOR
al, and the results are extraordinary.
Fifteen years ago liberated convict labor
IN Ireland was spurned as gift; to day
it is eagerly sought. Indeed, the compe-
tition for it is so sharp that employers are
often obliged to wait for weeks, some
times for months. because the application
Of Others were in advance of theirs
5. Greater extent should be given to
moral and religious agencies. Twenty
six state prisons have resident chaplains,
and most of the others stated preaching
eighteen have Sunday schools; in nine,
convict prayer meetings are maintained
and in three. or four, religious societies,
or what in the outside world would be
called churches, have been organized.
6. Education should be more effective
in the prisons. Secular instruction is
regularly given to the convicts in twenty
the cells separately. Usually, the oppor-
tunity of learning is embraced by the IL
literate convict with eagerness.
81 L.; a.
velopment. On this point there is no
dissent. In two state prisons--those of
Maine and Wisconsin---all the inmates
who remain long enough are taught
trade and in both the proportion of re
committals is surprisingly small. Mr..
Rice, warden Of the Maine prison, re-
marks, after long and careful observation,
that if all went out from prison with a
full trade, not over two per cent. would
ever again be imprisoned, either there, or
elsewhere.
8. The idea that the social principle,
which is one of the vital forces of i'm
prov ement in free sociery, must be
brought more into play in every reforma-
tory prison system, is making progress.
The principle is now applied, to greater
Tor less extent, in not less than half doz-
en- state prisons, with no evil, but high
ly beneficial, influence. In Massachusetts
it has the sanction of law.
8. Political influence must be elimina-
ted from prison administration, and
greater stability impressed thereon, or no
broad and effective prison reform can ev-
er be accomplished.
TO- Moral should be substituted for CO.
Il r l.
Detroit House of Correction, and of the
state prisons of Virginia, Southern Indi
ana, New Hampshire, Western Pennsyl-
wanna, and Wisconsin, show that this is
practically carried out
+ II. Prisons, as we'll as prisoners. should
be classified, so that there should be sep
arate prisons for women, for young crimi-
nails, for incorrigibles, &C., &c.
10. There is growing sentiment in
| favor of preventive Institutions such as
truant homes, industrial schools, and the
like. This is beginning to be regarded
as the true field of promise, in which to
labor for the repression ana extirpation
of crime r, as.ss
10. Greater effort should be made and
more comprehensive methods adopted to
save liberated convlcts, by providing
them with work and encouraging them
to redeem their character This view is.
| everywhere possessing itself Of the pub
lie thought and awakening the public
anxiety. A ~
IA. The construct system of prison la
Dor is bad, and should be abolished. The
commissioners of the Illinois State Pris-
onassert that more trouble to the disci
pline arises from the hundred men let to
contractors in that institution, than from
the thousand mer worked by the prison
authorities
is. Repeated short terms Of imprison-