St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1880-02-28
and Punish
llCntS.
IN. o. City Item.]

The revelations resulting from invest
igations made into the condition OF
various public correctional establish
mcnts and penitentiaries i'll the United
States has called forth much comment
from the press in regard to the plilos-
ophy of punishment. 1t has been
generally conceded that punishment as
defined by law and dictated by morality
does not justify the illtreatment of
convicts by unnecessary physical abuse,
bad food, unwholesome air, uncleanly
quarters, and in short anything that
tends to destroy the system ola prisoner.
Nevertheless it is astonishing how little
effect the public exposure of cruelty in
houses of correction produces and how
frequently new horrors ars announced
through the columns of some enterpris-
ing journal. The chief cause, we need
hardly observe, lies in political
corruption. The management of State
penitentiaries is eagerly sought after by
the most INSCRIPTIONS politicians, and
directorships have become political
offices; so that with every change of
party success change in the manage
ment of these institutions is apt to
follow. How these abuses may be done
away with we do not here intend to
discuss; but any one at all familiar
with the most ordinary phases of
political corruption must be aware of
the mOdus Ope,undi which benefits the
warden at the expense of the convict.
What Is most interesting to us as
observers OF these current discussions
on this subject is, however, the growing
conviction of intelligent men that
penitentiaries serve no correctional
purpose. They are simply prisons in
which dangerous characters are Gagged
chitly beneficial in only the same sense
that the cage OF Il tiger or IL snake or
monkey is beneficial. The idea that IA
professional criminal can be transformed
into Hirtuous, honorable, intelligent
man by incarceration in Il frightful
dungeon is not at all philosophic. 1t
belongs in fact toa less enlightened age,
which believed every human being in
sound mind DIS capable of being honest
and well-behaved if lie wished to be So
We are more sceptical in these modern
days, however.
The nineteenth century respectfully
discalds much that the previous
eighteen centuries believed in and It's
learned men do not hesitate to declare
that prOpensitieS to crime are simply
forms Of Inherited mental disease,
which no training can conquer and no
punishment cure, and no intimidation
prevent. Intelligent men no longer
hate criminals, however they may pity
such beings, or however earnestly they
may advocate their elimination from a
civilized community. Sociology con
siders the criminal as it considers the
serpent or the panther,-a dangerous
creature naturally organized to destroy
life or property. No civilized person
would needlessly torture captive lion
or tiger: but neither could be persuade
himself that any term Of imprisonment
would render such animals less dam
our prisons teach the same lesson.
Professional criminals who serve one
term seldom fail to serve another; and
those who do not possess sufficient cum
ming to evade capture or sufficient
money to cheat justice all their lives
usually pass three-quarters of their
lives IN prison.
They do little evil in the community
while in prison-except the entailing
al immense expense upon the State for
there are very few correctional estab-
lishments in the world which can pay
the cost Of their erection and main
tenance with the proceeds of convict
labor. But during the brief terms they
are at liberty they inflict far more injury
to the community than that involved
merely by the exercise Of their felonious
callirgs. Numbers Of these men have
sons or daughters; and the children
they bequeath to society, like curses,
inherit too often all the evil nature of
the parent, and the sins of the father
are perpetuated for generations.
The real question as to how crime
may be abolished has not yet been
solved. 1t will not be solved in this
generation. But when the remedy for
crime is decided upon, we suspect it
will be realization of Lytton's romance
regarding the laws Of the Vril-ya.
The criminal will be removed from
society by death, death swift and pain
less for his first infringement of any
important ethical law,-not as a
not as means of terrify-
ing others, not because of anger, but
simply as a part of the duty of society
70 protect itself by removing what is
Evil and preventing its perpetuation
md propagation.