Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-06-21
JUDGE FREELoN ON OUR PsaITEN-
TIARY SYSTEM.

Which USCultSN et Sdu SSueAtin, VIC ViStIul
and the murderer both being convicts. In
the course of the trial the inner life of the
Penitentiary has necessarily been revealed
in very clear way, through the testimony
of the convicts, who were the only wit
nesses of the crime. And so strongly was
the Judge impressed with the situation
thus disclosed that before sentencing the
prisoner he thought it proper to express
some OF the thoughts which had been sug
gested to him. He said that while the
administration of the State Prison APP
peared to him good. the system was fatally
wrong. 1T does not, he observed, sac
"complish any one of the ends for which
it is supposed prisons are built and main
tanned. First, it does not reform, or tend
''to reform. just the contrary. The prison
SIS school of vice of every degree, the
"most debased and dangerous. There is
ga hierarchy of crime there, and the man
"who has committed, is committing, or
plotting to commit, the most and the
"worst crimes, is the most admired and
respected. The man who has some
"good instincts left is left out of
fashionable prison society. The
man or boy who gets there through
some accident or misfortune soon
''learns that to be respectable is to
GO be bad, and if he really be not bad by
nature he must affect to be so. Again,
81 this prison is no punishment for the
professional criminal class. They are,
cas- respects food, society, lodging, dress
'and amusement, much better off than
"they are hunting living on the Barbary
Coast This is a little world of itself,
'has its own code of morals and manners,
'and the prisoners seem proud of the
number of terms they have served. >"
The Judge concluded Tat the present sys-
ten cannot produce other than evil results,
and he expressed the opinion in conclusion
that the State should provide for better
classification of prisoners, for more en-
forced labor and more solitary confine-
"ment, SO that even professional criminals
"would lock at imprisonment as being
"some punishment, and consequently some
thing tending to deter them from the
commission of new crimes" These crit
icisms of Judge freedom upon the Cali
fornia prison system are perfectly just and
forcible, but it is not encouraging to reflect
that here we have case of a Judge who has
been on the bench for years, who has occu-
pied prominent position at the bar still
longer. yet who appears to have only
now discovered, and that by an
accident, state OF things hich has been
in existence for full twenty years, and
which has been denounced and protested
against during nearly all that time by
those who had taken the trouble to
examine for themselves. No man could
investigate the State Prison system with
out making the conclusions which have
been forced upon Judge freedom. This
journal pointed out the evils he refers to
ten years ago, and has eyer since been
striving to get them remedied, but without
effect. 1t is a notorious truth that the
State Prison is and long has been a sort Of
Criminal University, and that it makes ten
desperadoes for every one it prevents from
pursuing a criminal career. It is equally
true that it has no terrors for criminals,
but that they so to it with entire equaniu.-
ity, and that they are even able to enjoy
life there. And the most disereditable
fact of ali is that this state of things has
been suffered to continue despite exposure
and remonstrance and appeal, because the
State Prison is part Of the spoils Of par
tisan warfare.
There is no ether reason under the sun
for the survival OF the shameful and
abominajle system which Judge Freelon
has been 50 much shocked by An oppor-
tunity was afforded recently to put this
matter to 4 fair and full test. It was
possible to secure the services OF trained
penologjst Of high reputation, to introduce
reforms, and to inaugurate 4 scientific sys-
tenn of classification and government.
Thcre was no attempt made to deny the
existence OF abuses, or to question the de-
STABILITY, of reforms. But the brute
force OF political greed and selfshness was
too strong for the merely moral forces en-
listed on the other side, ard the result
was that the reformatory project was
thrust aside, and the old methods were
persisted in hardly, and without apology
or excuse. We have repeatedly declared
that it would be useless to look for prison
reform until the State Prison could be
taken out Of politics, and the result has
abundantly indicated our judgment. 1t
matters not that the Penitentiarv breeds
criminals faster than the Barbary Coast or
Tar Flat. It matters rot that it has be.
come sort Of paradise for the dangerous
classes Il matters not that j. is an
agency whereby the public are exposed to
fresh injury instead of being protected
Il matters not that it fails, as Judge
freedom remarks, to fulfill any Of the pur-
poses for which prisons are supposed to be
built api maintained. It matters not that
it i6hicss the mos hideous wrong upon the
tyros sent to graduate there All these
considerations are flung to the winds rather
than surrender the advantages which the
prison affords from the spois standpoint.
There can be no doubt that San Quentin is
toul blot upon the civilization of Cali
lorna. No worse prison can be found on
the earth, probably. But it has been i'm
possible TO obtain any approach to penal
reform up to the present time, and we are
compelled to say that we see no prospect
of any such reform in the future. We
have done what we could to stimulate
the public to better things. We have de-
voted much time and labor to this thank
less task for years. But though no man
has ever attempted to deny the need of
reform or the existence of all the abuses
Judge Freelon speaks of, no one possessing
the power has thus fsr shown the will to
Al.