Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-04-02

attain by their unassisted efforts ; that re-
wards and punishments are the necessary
groundwork of any such system that it
must be applied by men specially fitted
for the work, and who ought to have I'M
dergone a distinct training in penology.
It is also becoming believed that when the
sentence of the prisoner Is indeterminate !;
that is, left to be decided by his own con-
duct the prospect of reformation is much
greater than under the old method, since
the prisoner is thus afforded hope with
out restriction The Crofton Prison sys-
TEN, and those which have grown out OF
it, all tend more and more toward reliance
upon the prisoner himself, and this is evi.
IDENTIFY the scientific mode of procedure.
For if man who has fallen into evil
courses is to be reclaimed, it is clear that
he must determine to help himself. and
that no matter what assistance he derives
from without. all the really useful action
must come from within.
1t has been found that by appealing to
mems self-respect and by treating them as
though they were by no means irreclaim-
able, the latent ambition, the slumbering
conscience, the paralyzed manhood, can be
stimulated and given new life, and that
the reformations wrought by these means
are practically the only ones which are
permanent. 1t is important to observe
that economy goes hand-in-hand with hu-
manity. Not only is it right to attempt
the reform of the criminal, but it Is to the
interest of the public treasury to do so.
Crime is waste, in ali its forms, and our
old systems of dealing with it have been
as wasteful as itself. In fact we have
only continued to give crime fixed abid-
ing place and central rallying point, and
there can be no doubt that our jails and
State Prisons have made ten times more
scoundrels than they ever cured To alter
all this in accordance with the new lights
is not only to rid the community Of its
most dangerous elements, but to prevent
the revival of these elements, and at the
same time to make crime largely self
sustaining in the prisons. But it is to be
observed that before any of the large re-
forms cited by Mr.. Harrison in his report
can be carried out, there must be change
in our present system involving practically
a complete recreation of that system.
And this is why the report of Mr.. Hart.
son, thoughtful and well considered as it
is, strikes US rather as a satire upon the
existing situation than as guide to bet
ter things. For it is perfectly clear that
the conditions Of successful penal system
which he sets forth in this report are one
and all conspicuous by their absence in our
prisons. We not only lack every one
of the fundamental requirements of
success. We are fettered and paralyzed
By a corrupt and pernicious system which
is hopelessly inimical to reform IN any
shape. This Assembly report serves to
show how wide is the gulf which sep
arates us from the possibility of success in
the field under consideration. 1t dem
onstrates that successful penal system
must be divorced from politics altogether
that it must be administered by trained
penologiqts that the subordinate officers
must be picked men, possessing peculiar
qualifications that fxity of tenure must
be secured to them, Now in our case it |
is at present impossible to obtain one of
these conditions. Our State prisons are
treated as part and parcel OF the spoils of
partisan warfare. The officers who man.
age them are not penologists; know, IN
fact, absolutely nothing of penology.
Their subordinates are all political APP
pointees. Not one of them is selected
because of any special fitness. Their term
of office is uncertain and insecure also,
and thus it is apparent that we lack every
essential of even the beginnings OF reform,
and that until we can at least secure these
beginnings it is quite useless to tell US
what has been accomplished elsewhere,
under radically different conditions.
The first necessity in our case is to recog-
nize the hopeless condition of the sitn.
alton. We do not think Mr.. Harrison
has done this. He speaks OF our prisons as
though. despite his own exhibits, he
thought it possible for them TO produce
good results. Yet If his own arguments
are worth anything no such hope is iusti-
fed, and unless this is admitted we may
90 on to the end of time, talking to no
practical purpose about reform, and shut
ting our eyes to the abuses which are being
practiced before us. The plain truth is
that the political management of our prisons
is an outrage which nothing can excuse OF
palliate In this case reform, humanity,
economy, every consideration of moment
and dignity, have been deliberately thrust
aside in order to salty the shameless greed
of pack Of ofice-seekers. Prison reform
has been given up i'm California for 10 bet
ter or more respectable motive and though
efforts may be made to cover up the wrong,
and even to improve somewhat upon the
grayer defects of the old administration,
the fact remains that no real reform meas
ure has been counienanced, and that all
the conditions are as hostile to genuine
reform as ever.
Ali experience shows that training is as
necessary to the successful government OF
coavicts as to the successful conduct OF
manufactures or arts. Bat the old brutal,
barbarous political spoils system takes no
| annnr,nt Of rnhlir intnrnst hut hlindIv