Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-01-01
,r successful treatment of the subject are be.

ing accumulated.
The prison abuses which John Howard ex'
posed were of a physical and moral kind.
Under the first head were comprised bad food,
bad ventilation, and bad drainage; under
the second head were comprised want OF
classification among the prisoners, so that
each prison was not only poisonous and
pestilential den, but college OF vice and
crime, where the confirmed criminal learned
new villanies, and whence the innocent were
sure to emerge corrupted. In undertaking
reform philanthropists and legislators very
naturally dealt with the outward indications
of the case. They saw that the absence OF
classification produced conspicuous evils,
so they proposed to introduce system of
classification which should entirely correct
the existing abuses. The young were to be
separated from the old; line was to be
drawn between novices and confirmed crimi-
mails. Further Subdivisions were to be made
as varying degrees of depravity were discoy-
cred in the different classes. In theory this
system worked beautifully, but in practice
many unexpected defects appeared in it. 1t
was found that division of prisoners accord
ing to the character of the offense for which
they were convicted did not insure the bring
ing together of all the criminals of one class,
as for example all the burglars, or all the
pickpockets. For these criminals had a
most unphilosophic and irregular way of ca
priciously changing their occupations. Thus
a burglar would, if some special opportunity
offered, try his hand at forgery; or pick
pocket would make an essay at burglary or
sneak-thief would be found begging. And
the result of these uncertain and disorderly
changes was that the systematic classification
could not be maintained. Says Kingsmill,
an authority on the subject, " Classification
"of prisoners allows no approach, seemingly,
towards separating the very bad from the
"better sort. They are continually changing
"places; those in for felony at one session
"being in for larceny or assault the next,
"and rice rersa." And so the classification
system fell to the ground.
Then it was suggested that if the pris-
oners were prohibited from conversing with
one another the demoralizing influence of
their association would be removed, and SO
what was called the "silent associated sys-
tenn was devised. It has been claimed by
the friends of this system that it produces
very good results, and no doubt it does pre-
vent the free interchange of vicious ideas
fn,yoarI1y tho r,lo Rut
ence has shown that it is open to two serious
objections. In the first place it is not pos
sible to prevent communication between the
prisoners when they are brought together
frequently in large numbers ; and in the Sec
ond place the Introduction of speech produces
the worst effects upon the mind of the pris-
oner. The problem is set before him, how to
elude the vigilance of the officers and violate
the prison rules, for the qualification of his
dominant social instincts. It is found that
men so situated become adopts in hypocrisy
and deceit, but that their reformation is not
effected. In the effort to remedy these evils
the penologists went a step further, and in
vented the most horrible system of torture
the world has ever known.
We refer to the so-called Silent system,
known in this country as the Auburn sys-
tenn. The theory of this is that the prisoner
is to be entirely secluded. His cell becomes
his world. He has loom, lathe, or other
means of occupation, but from the time he
enters the prison he is isolated from his fell
low-creatures, and condemned to a silence
the horrors and the agony OF which surpass
conception. Under this refinement OF phllan-
thropie imbecility terrible tragedies have
been enacted. Men have gone into their
cells young and strong and firm of mind and
sound of brain, and have there gradually lost
all health of soul and body, and have sunk at
last into dumb idiocy, or dwelling dementia.
or decline and merciful death. There never
was torture invented by the devilish cunning
of the Inquisition to approach this dreadful
silent system for sustained and perennial
pain-producing power. When the separate
silent system was first introduced 1t was sup
posed to have produced very satisfactory re-
suits. The Governors of prisons in which it
had been tested declared it to be all that
could be expected. Il was not until care
full examination of the statistics of lunacy
showed the percentage of insanity in prisons
under this system to be ten times the rate OF
any other prisons, that suspicion as to the
genuineness of the superficial appearance of
success was excited. We believe that the
silent system is now condemned by the most
experienced pennlogists, though it has not
yet been everywhere abandoned.
After this experiments were made with
"mixed SYSTEM" uniting some factors OF
the associated with other factors of the
towards higher mode of criminal treatment,
however. must be credited to Captain
Maconochie, the author of what is called the
MARX SYSTEM" or the Irish prison system.
In this method the former ones are reversed.
Instead of treating the criminal as a passive
instrument who is to be acted upon by his
surroundings, he is here regarded as the con-
trolling agent of his own circumstances.
His treatment is made to depend upon his
own conduct. He is given the opportunity
to work his way upward to many privileges,
and finally to freedom. He is encouraged by
rewards in the form Of marks, to do his best,
and he is deferred from relapsing by threat
ened Withdrawals of comforts and convent
ences and remissions of time. The object is
to make the man feel that everything depends
upon his own exertions, and thus to stimulate
him to those persistent efforts at self.control
and industry which are most likely to build
up in him the power to resist temptation and
the will to prefer an honest course of life in
the future. There Is much philosophy and
knowledge of human nature in this system,
and it has produced better and more en-
couraging results than any other thus far
devised. 1t comprehends in its most ex-
banded form, scheme of grades Of punish
ment, through which the prisoner works his
way, beginning with solitary or separate con-
finement, and ending with a merely nominal
supervision and practical freedom. This
system has been found most satisfactory
where the convicts have been novices or have
fallen before casual temptation. There is,
however, class of criminals which has
hitherto bafaed all reformatory agencies, and
this is the class of habitual criminals.
In order 10 understand the relations OF this
class to society, and in order to realize the
difficulty of dealing with them, it is necessary
to devote some attention to the genesis OF
crime and criminals. 1t may be said broadly
that so far as crimes of violence and depreda-
ton are concerned, the tendency to commit
them is distinct survival from savagery.
Originally all men were murderers and thieves
when occasion arose. As civilization ad-
vanced the majority ceased to murder and
steal. but theft and homicide were committed
bv soldiers. and upon the enemies OF the
state biology shows that the human en-
hruo masses through the forms of life through
which Man is believed to have worked his
way during the period of CESSATION. During
tbe 'ner;od of boyhood the persistence of
many savage traits is to be remarked. Most
hovs are naturally cruel, naturally dishonest,
Ivy ,.atrraIlv untruthful. The traits of the
Lara inst au