The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1873-01-24
Prison Reform.

The Prison Reform Convention, which Is
in session in Baltimore, attracts some atten.
ton. Governor SEYMOUR, Of New York, is
president Of the association. He made a
speech at the opening of the session which
contained much very good sense and sound
philanthropy.
He hid down the propositions that the
characters oil criminals arc formed in a great
degree by influences around them. A stran.
ger c,,n learn the civilization of nation by
the history OF its criminals more readily than
hy studying any other class of men. Upon
these propositions he argued:
Prisons arc moral hospitals, where mo-
raj diseases are treated rs contagious COM
plants are treated in other hospitals. In
eac. we learn laws of moral or physical life.
and they arc more important TO the world ut
large than TO tho inmates within their walls.
Crimes take the aspect Of the people among
whom they :trc committed. They show not
only guilty men, hut guilty society. II Is
hard TO draw indictments against Il man
which do Tot also indict the community in
which lie lives. In our country it Is our
love of gold and luxury which causes legis-
| la!iye and municipal corruption and private
could not lie carried OH in honest commune
| ties. While there are many reasons for
abuses in the government of the city of New
York. the great underlying cause is want of
sct-respcct in its rich men, which leads them
to neglect their public duties. The remedy
for these evils is higher standard of msralS.
Nbo f
knowledge helps the wrong as well Us the
right. 1t makes bad men more dangerous.
II is now ebb-lide in American morals. We
must begin reform in prisons. where crime
ends, and work back along its track to find
where it begins. In this way Livingston
aud other great statesmen did their work.
The Louisiana penal code was work, toll,
and thought, which bad done much for
morals as well as legislation"
There is great deal of truth here but
the work OF correcting the evils recited is a
great labor. 1t will be a wonderful system
of prison discipline that will work back to
the beginning Of crime and diminish it. The
world is greatly perplexed upon this subject.
The rcformatory system in modern use, it is
feared, doe; not succeed. Rogues seldom
improve by terms i'll the penitentiary. Men
who have committed homicide in the heat OF
passion and of blood are nearly always better
men when released than they were before
but your unprincipled and bloody.minded
burglar OF artful and practiced thief seldom
leaves the penitentiarS without planning
new robberles and new ways to live without
labor. Kind treatment, good fare, and the
bealthful exercise of labor, il IL now thought
are generally unaYailing with such criminals
The great question of the treatment OIL
criminals is therefore still debatable. There
are persons of experience who recommend
solitary confinement us the most efficient
treatment of criminals. That we should
think the most cruel Of all punishments, and
likely to destroy the minds Of prisoners. Ii
is unquestionably seyerer than bodily pain,
and, if severity was the thing to prevent re-
petition of crime, would be the best mode OF
punishment; but we suppose consideI.ste
people could not establish that sort of con-
.tinement, since it must seriously impair the
intellect. There should be lunatic asylum
close to such q prison, many Of whose In.
mates when released would have to be TRIMS
terred to the asylum.
1 II the Prison Association can throw light
en- these subjects II viii do Q great soelal
service.