The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1873-06-05
Should Alaska be Made a Penal
Colony7

Should Alaska be Made Penal
ColOny7
In place of building new prisons. why
should we not Try exile-penal trans
portation? We have in Alaska an i'm
mense territory, IN almost every respect
well suited to be the scene of a penal
colony. It is isolated. and escapes
could be easily prevented it is almost
uninhabited it has chain Of islands
suitable for separate colonies its cli-
mate on the coasts is sufficiently mild,
and yet not tropical, but bracing. and
healthful; It offers few or no tempta-
tions to vsgrancy and yet it is ceun-
try in which conyicts who had served
out their time, or earned their dis
charge, could live comfortably, and
build up a new and prosperous society.
At present Alaska is a useless and ex-
pensive possession. Two Federal artil-
lery companies hold possession but it
lies too far ont of the way to tempt
settlers. Used as a penal colony. to
which the most hardened Of our convicts
might ut first be Sent, it would offer
clear field for Interesting and valuable
experiments in the management and ref
ormation Of criminals It is not siclzly,
like the French penal settlement Of
Cayenne; nor has it, like Australia,
climate SO mild as to enable runaway
convicts to live a vagrant life in the
bush. It is a country in which indus
try and foresight arc necessary to en-
able a white man to exist and thus the
natural conditions of life would help in
disciplining the criminals sent thither.
Being controlled by the Federal gov
eminent, it is probable that, if Alaska
became a penal colony, West Point
officers would be its rulers and guard
ians and these, who are, above all,
strict diseiplinarians, are admirably cal
culated to manage rightly q convict
population, which needs, above all
things, to learn obedience to authority.
and to be subjected to rigid discipline
of mind and body. Moreover, the
graduate Of West Point is, as a rule, a
man of honor and a gentleman. He
knows nothing about contracts he per
forms his duty he is honest and re-
spectacle and under his rule, at least,
the convict would not commonly have
before him a pernicious example of
greed, and other low forms of vice.
There would be 10 lack of work in
Alaska for n penal colony, however
numerous. The country has no roads !;
it has no public buildings it has no
mechanic arts it would need, if it had
popolation, artisans Of all kinds; and
for half century to Come a penal
colony in Alaska rightly managed ought
to be self-supporting, with abundance
of useful labor for every convict.
The question Of penal transportation
has not come very prominently before
the public in recent years. It was not
even discussed at the recent Prison Con
gress in London, though a report was
read upon it by Count di Foresta, Pro
cureur-General of Anconna, who said
transportation with compulsory labor
in colony approve as the best punish
ment for great criminals. 1t seems to
me to answer perfectly the double OBJ
ject of all punishment protection OF
society, within the limits of justice, and
the reformation of the convict. 1t full
Ellis the first of these obiects-the pro-
lection of Boeiety-for the most danger
GUS criminals are thus cast out from the
bosom of society; the grave inconveni.
ences Of relapse are avoided, and would.
be criminals are deferred by the pros
pect of Punishment from their country
and family. The second object is equal
ly met, that of moralizing these midi
viduals, and giving them hope and til,
means of becoming again useful to them
selves and society in another country
where, after undergoing part of then
punishment, they can send for Their
families or found new ones, thus begin
ing another existence in an entirely diff
ferent atmosphere, which viii not seduct
them into their former errors.
This is the true point-to so manag,
the criminal that when he has suffer
cd his punishment he may have
mt least, the chance to begin new
and better life, and TO make even hi
period of punishment as natural an,
healthful as it consists with his seclusioi
from general society. And this can b
best done by exile or penal transports
tion. It is not done at all under tn
Slote-prison system.
Two companies of artillery and tw
revenue-cutters now hold Alaska. Thi
force need be put very slightly increase
to be sufficiently strong, with prope
management, to control and keep unde
discipline a thousand convicts. ~Th
Aleutian Isles, the island of Kodial
and the long Alaska peninsula offe
themselves for isolated stations; and
do not doubt that our engineers office
could elaborate plan of operation fo
n convict colony which would make sue
n colony self-supportinga and helpful {
the reformation Of tho convicts, bearin
in mind always these words of that mos
successful manager of a penal colony
Captain Maconoclue, under whose con
mand that most terrible of Englis
prisons, Norfolk Island, was the seen
OF so much genuine reform, 1.-THE tru
principle is to place the prisoner in
position of stern adversely. from whic
he must work his way out by his ow
exertons 10y diligent labor, and a COZ
slant course of voluntary self-comman
and self-denial. "-H0rpcrS MQgasiR,
Unknown Acquaintance
You have none? Then I am sorr
for you. Much Of my p easure in m
daily walks is due to them. Perhap
you so oyer the ground mechanically
with only elmer or business in you
eye when you shall reach your journey
end. Perhaps You "dont see soul,
ms you express it. Perhaps you hav
no "soul yourself; only a body. c
which You aro very conscious, an
whose claims upon you outweigh ever