Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-08-27

When all that can be done il the incubation OF
habits of industry has been accomplished, there
still remains need for intellectual education,
however, and it is the duty and interest OF the Sate
10 supply this demand. OF late years 1t has been
the practice to bu Id up prison libraries ana liere
is now scarcely prison in the United States which
does not possess one. The library, II Juulclousiy
and somewhat literally selected is no doubt OF the
very greatest comfort and utility TO the eonylcts
and all of those who are unable to read and write
should be taught by prison officer those arts, and
the elements of arithmetic. Such higher instrnc
ton as it is considered desirable to give them
should take the form of lectures In these great
deal OF valuable and suggestive information could
be conveyed. 1t Is important that the criminal
range Of mental vision which is always exceedingly
narrow should be enlarged, ana there Is no more
hopeful way OF doing this than by leading the con-
Wet to reflect upon the wonders OF Nature ana OF
Science, and the progress OF mankind through bar.
barism to the crude and imperfect civilization OF
the present day. Lectures on the origin and laws
| of social organization, showing how the conven-
tons which restrain men from the general practice
! of wrong and violence came to be formed, would
have strong tendency to suggest more enlightened
ideas to the convict audience, aud in the treatment
of such subjects the general policy of the prison
administration would be quietly but steadily carried
| forward and the criminals be almost insensibly
lifted into higher stage OF Intellectual existence.
In many works on penology the power OF religious
instruction in the prison is strongly insisted upon.
This is partly accounted for by the TACT that many OF
these works written by clelgymen. Ii religious
instruction is thus influential of course it ought to
| be employed as freely as possible That it has some
value we may unhesitatngly admit and therefore it
should be recognized as part of the machinery OF
reform But careful examination OF the State
Prison at San Quentin, and careful research into
the history of reform Efforts in other penal estab
| lishments, together with comparison of the
prison conditions with those of free life,
| have compelled us to the conclusion that how
ever valuable this kind of instruction may be
under special circumstances, IL worlld be unsafe
|
systtm upon it.
SUGGESTIONS OF PENAL SCIENCE,
Active employment in congenial industry; such
| intellectual education as will stimulate relec-
ton, Imagination, and The love Of knowledge for its
| own sake these seem to be the mainstayS of penal
| reform at present. But it is probably true that to
give them their full usefulness, and perhaps give
them usefulness of any considerable kind, their APP
plication must be prefaced with sharply punitive
experience. For it is necessary TO make the con-
Wet understand thoroughly that he is not the pet of
Society. He must be shaken Tudely cut of any
such deusion. He must be forced to realize that If
| reformation is the ultimate aim Of his imprison-
ment, punishment is its primary purpose. And
therefore the Introduction to the reform system
| should be through a strictly penal stage
of cellular confinement on low diet. This prelm-
mary experience takes all the romance out of the
convict, and by giving him full taste Of the misery
of enforced dleness opens the way for the introduce
ton OF systematic labor in the form of pleasure
instead OF punishment This, it will be obser ed IS
the natural course of reormatory discipline 1t does
not depart from the actual tendencies of human
perience in any essential. Whoever violates the
laws OF Nature suffers the penalty, without
sion but without passion Whoever by neglect of
such laws falls into adversely, must climb thence
with pain and toll, aud must hberate himself or he
will not be freed This is the principle upon which
penology must proceed. Crime is adversely. The
criminal must liberate himself from it, and he is
enabled in this struggle to effect his liberation to
equip himself with habits Of industry, perseverance
and self-reliauce, which are the mostefeetive
of preventing relapse, and OF gaming hon
est livelihood. To say that reformation by these
methods is impracticable, argues very i'm erfect
study of the habits and tendencies of mankind
Such reformation is being effected continually out
side the prison walls. There is probably no adult
man or woman who cannot adduce many instances
of it from his or her personal experience 1t is the
one way in which men and women do frequently
lift themselves from evil to good, and succeed in
separating themselves from vicious past. There
is nothing in the system which has not been verified
by myriad experiments, and 1t is therefore in har
mony both with the requirements of absolute JUS
tice and the experience of practical Life 1t is in eff
feet the natural system of reformation, and there
fore the most scientific system.
IRREcLAIMABLE CRIMINALS.
There is class of habitual criminals who are
however, probably ineorrigible, and it by means
follows that these should be the Oldest IN years.
The most hopeless cases those in which heredty
and environment have combined to mould the char
aeter. Hereiity, as we have endeavored to show in
former part of this report, exercises powerful
influence character. This Influence may some
times be successfully combatted, but Ehen as fire.
duently happens the mind of the hereditary Grim
inal is abnor1nay feeble it is very difficult to re.
move the tendencies toward evil. This problem Of
the irreclaimable criminal is very perplexng one
Perpetual imprisonment has been proposed, not as
remedy, but as a method OF pa alyzing the evil
rather and there is much to be said in its support
The mischief which the irreclaimable criminal does
to Society by his personal crimes and breaches of
the law is, however, comparatively insignificant
when weighed against the evil he psrpetrates III
perpetualing his species, and thus reproducing and
transmitting TO pc terty all the morbid and sinister
conditions which distinguished him from physically
and morally sane men. His example must Of ne
cessity be demoralizns as long as he at liberty
; The theory of indeterminate sentences which we
have already considered, involves the perpetual i'm
prsoEment of the incorrgble since it requires the
retention till reformation, of all who are
! sentenced Pike, in his History of
Crime observes in this connection,
! Perpetual Imprisonment Of the ifre1eemable-im.
! prisonment not only nominally, but for life would
! be among many causes of that change in the
general tone OF society which is shown by history
be the greatest preventive of crime as now III der
, stood. Like persons having the scarlet fever OF
other infectious malady the propaganda criminal
should be confined in his proper hospital prson-
and if incurabe, should be detained until his
death. Like consumption or other hereditary dis.
! essss, the criminal disposition would in the end
cease to be inherited if all who tainted with il
were compelled to live and die childess The rem,
: edy may be painful, and even cruel bat perhaps
. greater cruelty and greater pain may be inflicted
by the neglect which leaves physical and scal ills
! to spread themselves unchecked" Il is BIZ nc
means impossible that society may be forced to this
fore Of treatment ultimately, as the only available
means Of stamping out the insidIOus and malign
tendencies which have hitherto crept down from
generation to generation, preserving the criminal
fires in the hearts OF men with more than the yig
lance which superstition exercised over the sacred
flames of the vestas.
AID FOR DISCHARGED PRISONERS.
1t is not at the prison gate that penoogy part
with the released convict, however Unfortunately
there problems beyond that point which are SC
stubborn as sometimes to suggest despair Of better
things 1t is in vain that scence does its best it
in vain that habits OF industry are implanted it is
in vain that the mind of the late criminals filed with
determination to live honestly thenceforward ii
Society refuses to fulfil KS part in the compact and
will not accept the reformation Of the discharged
! prisoner as genuine or put any confidence in his
! good resolutions. We may refer to the interesting
and valuable testimony of Captain Lees for ilustra
tons of the hard usage which the released prisoner
has as a rule to put up with. Society is cruelty
, tickle and inconsistent in this regard. II demands
the reformation OF the criminal by all possible APP
planes yet refuses 20 recognize any reformation
as real The man who leaves the Peniteniary at
San Quentin is marked He is assailed from several
quarters In the first place, if he belongs to the
criminal classes, his former associates the
watch for his release, and hasten to celebrate his
return to his old haubts by orgy in which all
his good resolutions are washed away, and he is
! once more plunged into the criminal atmos-
phere In the next place he is under the
surveillance Of the police II he seeks honest work
|
by oficious and stupid, dishonest and I'M
scrupulous policeman, who either tells his employer
what he has been through honest zeal, threatens
the convict with the disclosure to make him pay
hush-money. But it is not only the police who dog
and hsrass the reformed convict His deadIiest
enemies his former friends and his prison COM
rades The discharged convict who obtains steady
work is to be made the prey Of the irrecairi-
| able couvicts with whom he may have nothing in
common but the memory of mutual punishment.
The convict who viii not work, and who takes pride
in his dleness and his vice, desplses the one who
seeks to reform, and plumbers him without mercy.
Sometimes perhaps cases may occur in which the
victim Is able to follow the advice given by Captain
Lees under similar circumstances, and knock the
blaekmaier down; bat too frequently the rehecto
that exposure must ruin his prospects and drive
him back 10 crime paralyzes the unfortunate
ure, and he yields 10 the demands made upon him.
Yet such is the irony of Fate if he yields he is lost
For the convicts make common raid upon him, and
pr sently he fluids that he is paying out all he earns
nouneing him to his employers the moment they
find that his money is all gone. Under this pres
sure the reformed convict is almost certain to
| cumb. d, spair takes possession OF him. Every
avenue Of escape closed. If he tells his en-
ployer the truth he spprehends land with iustice)
instant dismissal. II he attempts to keep his
dismal secret he continue to work indefinitely
for the benefit Of crowd of miscreants who have
no mercy and no moderation, and who desire moth
ing better than that he should become OF them
selves IN spite Of his good resolutions There
many even among our ablest and purest and