Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1876-10-21
Governors Message.
(CoNCIUDED.l

ment. 1 commend it to your careful per-
usal and study. The facts and deduc-
tions therein stated are startling. have |
not sufficiently examined, and am not suf- |
ficiently familiar with the facts and cir
cumstances either to adopt or deny the
conclusions of the commissioner. If his |
conclusions are well founded, there is i'm
perative need of immediate legislative &C
ton.
That the number of insane under treat
ment and needing relief should have
steadily year by year increased from the
foundation of the asylum, while the pop
ulation of the State has remained COM
paratively stationary, is a matter that
challenges attention and enquiry into the
causes of the increase. May you care
fully consider this important subject, as
certaining as nearly as possible the eX-
act facts as to the relative increase or de-
crease of insanity in our own State and
other parts of the country, and may your
action in the premises be wise and just to
the asylum, to the State, and above all, to
these unfortunate wards of the State. l
commend to your consideration the sug-
gcstions of the commissioner with refer
ence to the enactment of safeguards
against improper commitments, both to
the asylum and to the county jails.
STATE PRISON AND COUNTY JALs.
think it may be safely asserted, after
the experience of nearly a century, that
the operation of our system of prison
discipline, both as practiced in the State
prison and in the common jails, in its eff
feet upon the prisoner by way "of en-
enlargement of virtue and prevention of
vice and Immortality" has been failure
that the prisoner, from the effect of his
| Imprisonment, instead of having become
a reformed and better man and citizen,
with inclinations towards virtue, has be-
come discouraged, hardened, and too
often hopelessly fixed in criminal course
Of life. Too often has it happened that
the day of his discharge has witnessed a
repetition of his former criminal act, or
some more heinous crime.
This, to my mind, indicates that our
system of prison discipline is radically
wrong in principle. The State has, and
can have no feelings of revenge towards
an erring citizen. Her conduct towards
him should not be such as to lead him to
feel that he is en- outcaSt from her care
and protection. Neither should it be such
as would indicate disregard for his
criminal act. Her treatment should be
such as evinceS the utmost adherence
and detestation of his crime, but at the
same time the greatest regard and tender
est solicitude for him as man and as q
citizen.
l fear that while the State has been
most active in showing adherence of
crime, it has been lacking in earnest eff
forts to save the criminal from his crime
to manhood and good citizenship. When
any person, old or young, is fully con-
WINGED that he is an outcast from society,
and that there is no hope of his ever re-
gaining the good opinion and esteem Of
his fellow-citizens, he is irrevocably lost
to a virtuous life. Hope is the great
stimulating motive to action and to striv-
ing for better things. When this is
crushed out, the man once bad is bad be-
yond recovery. The tendency of our sys-
TEN of prison discipline, to my mind, is
to Danish from the convict's mind all
hopes of return to virtuous life. Con-
slider the treatment of the State towards
this class of persons.
A young man is accused of the commits
sion of crime. He is at once arrested
and thrust into the county Jail. No per-
son ON behalf of the State visits him,
save the .jailor to pass in his meals three
times a day, and to lock him safely in his
cell, or the States Attorney to inquire
whether he wishes to plead "gsilty or
"not guilty" Not book, nor a news
paper does the State furnish him with
which to while away the tedious hours.
If the jailor out of kindness provides
reading matter for his prisoners, it is OF
favor and not of right. His associates
may be of any degree of criminality. 1t
is no common receptacle for all accused
of the commission of crime within the
county and awaiting their trial, rs well as
the place for punishment of those con-
victed Of minor offences. In dim-light-
ed, ill-ventilated room, with nothing to
do, not even, when transferred to the
State Prison for safe keeping, on the or
der of the Governor, allowed to work,
though requesting it, he passes his days
and nights as best he can, brooding over
his hard lot, planning ways to escape, or
listening to the recital of obscene stories,
or the criminal exploits of his associates.
And yet he is not convict He is only
an accused. And this is the attempt OF
the State to prevent the commission OF
crime, most frequently the offspring OF
idleness, by compulsory idleness! AT
length he is tried. If acquitted, he goes
a minor offence, he is returned to life of
idleness in jail; and if of higher crime,
put to hard labor in the State Prison.
The right of the State to incarcerate him
springs from the right of self-preserva-
ton. BY an overt act he has manifested
the possession of a character which en-
dangers the rights of others. He is in
generated to deprive him of the power
to invade the rights of others, not alone
during the term of his confinement, but
permanently, by removing the criminal
inclination and disposition, and to deter
others from the commission of crime. 1t
would seem that of right he should re-
main incarcerated so long as he is possess
ed of the criminal inclination and DISPOSE
ton, and that the State should be active
in its endeavors to dispossess him of
these characteristics. The court is left to
determine the time of his incarceration as
best it may, with little knowledge Of his
former life, less of his criminal tendencies
and of the length of time which will be
required to eradicate them. In the State
Prison he is confined in his solitary cell,
or driven under keepersto his tasks Is al
lowed no communication with his fellow
prisoners-Scarccly any with his keepers
he may have few books, if he Is able to
read but receives no instruction except
on the Sabbath little from the chap
lain. From his arrest to the close of his
sentence, the State against whom he has
offended, and which has laid her heavy
hand upon him, has not extended TO him
helping hand, and has scarcely spoken
cheering word. Is it a matter of wonder,
then, that he broods over his hard lot us
he views it. feels that the hand of the
State is pot only against the crime which
he hnS cOmmittod Int ngainst him. TINT