The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-09-17
THE PR S s.
THURSDAY MORNING. SEPT. IL, 1874
Industrial yaiIs.

Industrial JaiiS.
The action of the Judge of the Superior
Court in sentencing six persons found guilty
OF crime to the Auburn Jail instead of the Jail
at Portland, because at Auburn they could
be furnished with work, will necessarily at
tract the attention of all good citizens to the
duty we owe to ourselves to make our jail a
reformatory institution instead of possible
nursery of crime. In our Jail there are fifty
prisoners sentenced for various periods of
time ranging from thirty days to one year.
From one weeks end to another thew lounge
in utter idleness, some on cots in cells, and
some on the iron ratings which surround the
galleries. Side by side, day after day, with
nothing but their own talk to occupy their
minds, we place the innocent accused, the
novice in crime and the expert villain, and
leave them to their own devices. Their brains
as well as their bodies are utterly idle. Conse-
quently we furnish the devil with some fine
workshops, and become responsible for some
OF his work. With nothing to do but to cor
rupt each other, what wonder is it that we
lind the men who fill the jails almost always
returning, after longer or shorter circuit, to
some place of punishment. This ought not
to be. OF course SO long as men are weak
and ignorant and vicious, we cannot utterly
eradicate crime. But we can lessen it. AS
ldleness fosters crime, so labor and diligence
discourage it. ''Make men diligent," said
Howard, Sand you make them honest"
Our prisoners must have work to occupy their
hands and heads. They must be made to la
Dor for their bread. Honest men ought not
to be compelled to maintain rogues in idle
ness. Nor is this any new idea 1t is only ex-
tending to our jails the same system which
has been so successful at the State Prison.
We cannot hope for success so great at the
Jails as at Thomaston, because the senten-
ces are shorter, and each prisoners work less
profitable; but we can go a long way
towards making our jails self-sustainng like
our prison. At Auburn, by actual trial, the
contractors find that they can afford to pay
fifty cents day for prisoners who are to stay
from two to six months, and seventy-fve
cents for those sentenced to more than six
months. AS the food of these men need not
cost the county more than two dollars per
week, there seems to be a margin to be ap-
Piled to the expenses of prisoners sentenced
to shorter terms, for whose work the con-
tractors pay nothing. Another advantage about
the system is, that our courts, finding that
men can be employed proftably to themselves
and to the county, will impose sentences long
enough to give the convict some chance to re-
form. Honest labor for a year might reform
criminal whose vicious disp osition thirty
Gays idleness would only aggravate. Crime
aud idleness are sometimes matters of habit,
and habit Of honest labor continued long
enough may change entirely a prisoners
course of life
We are very glad to learn that our excellent
Board of County Commissioners, have been
giving TO this subject the careful attention
which it deserves, and are not in any way to
blame for the delay in adopting in this coun-
ty the labor system which has been adopted
at Auburn. The amount which the law of
1873 allows the commissioners to raise for
suitable alterations and Improvements is not
sufficient for the changes needed in our Jail.
Our county is large one requiring greater
facilities than Androscoggin. We need
special act enabling our commissioners to
raise more money for this purpose and we
hope the immediate attention of our newly
elected legislators may be given to this SUBJ
Ject. They should see to it that
no time is lost in making this county do it.
self justice in its treatment of its Grimm ais.
1t would not be even penny wise to delay
the adoption of system which experiment
elsewhere has proved 10 be not only reform
atory bnt profitable.
The high sanction of Judge Symonas' ap-
Prvrs.a, rI;-l :; l. :-r.---l E.a..s tho oa.;a.A
referred to in the opening sentence of this
article, cannot fail to give great practical
weight to the demand for speedy legislative
action to enable US to make such improve
ment in our jail as will fit it for the part it
ought to fill in the prevention of crime.