Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-06-22


quire that such young men as are prone To commit
these acts Of laSlessness be made to have whole.
fear Of the results of their crimes and feel
that nothing less than sentences dreadful III their
nature-senteuces which this Young man himself
says he thinks are as severe hangingwill suffice
to deter our growing criminal element from repe.
ttion Of like crimes. think, as an example aud
as warming it is the duty ti this Court to in1et
upon this prisoner the highest penalty the law al
l. VS.. The judgment OF the law and the sentence of
this Court is that you be imprisoned in the state
Prison for the term of your natural life
This is the first time within our expert
ence that California Judge has boldly
recognized and as boldly acted upon the
fact that the State Prison is in no sense
reformatory institution, bnt is on the con-
trary school Of vice, and that the inevi-
table result of sending young men to it for
term of years is to confirm them in all
their most evil habits, and to add new
vices to their characters. And to those
sentence for the crime of robbery We say
that the severity of the sentence is log.
ical consequence of the character of the
place in which it is to be served, and that
believing what Judge Freelon believes OF
the State Prison he is justified in the con-
clusion he has reached. He tells the pris-
oner that there is no hope for any one who
goes to San Quentin that term Of ten
or fifteen years in that prison would only
result in his coming out 'ln the prime of
manhood and strength, educated to a
"still greater degree in vice and crime,
made acquainted with all the latest de-
"vices of crime by the new convicts con-
"stantly entering" And the most horrible
thought in connection with this statement
is, that it is true.
Over such an institution the tremendous
inscription which was found by Dante on
the portals of Hell, might web be placed
-" Who enters here leaves Hope behind.
For what is there in the most narrowing
accounts of those European prisons and
lazarettos which John Howard described
in the last century, which argues lower
state of civilization, greater callousness
of popular sentiment, more brutal indif-
ference to duty and humanity, than is en-
bodied in the indictment preferred in this
sentence against the penal institutions of
California? We are here told, in the
plainest language, that our State Prison
is such den of corruption, such a sink
of iniquity, that Society can only protect
itself against the natural results of its
operation by making the sentence of
criminals co-extensive with their lives.
We are told that the young man who has
committed an offense rendering him liable
TO long term sentence in that prison had
better, both for his own cake and Society's,
spend the rest of his days within its walls,
than be presently liberated with no
other prospect before him than return to
crime and to punishment.
In the Sandwich Ielands there is dread
ful place called the Colony of Molokai. l.
is the abode of the lepers. The stricken
creatures are conducted to its limits, and
there they look their last upon all they
hold dear on earth Oace past these mex
cradle boundaries there is no return FOR
them, but they are doomed to linger out
the sad remnant of their lives among
equally unfortunate and afflicted com
panions. The State Prison Of California
can only be compared to the melancholy
Colony of Molokai, according to Judge
Freeloa. The young man who enters its
portals bids adieu TO all hope of reforma-
ton Thenceforward he is doomed. What.
ever of life remains to him must be passed
in the dismal companionship of those
moral lepers with whom his sad lot is cast,
and no matter how the law may pretend to
limit the duration of his punishment. in
effect it is always for life. Can anything
be more fearful than such condition of
things? Can any reproaches be too bitter
for the community which allows such
condition of things to exist And unhap.
PLY. the indictment is true. The State
Prison is what Judge freedom declares it to
be, and it is no illogical or even inhumane
proceeding to sentence those who must 90
there, to life imprisonment.
The accursed spoils system has deprived
the State of reform, and has entailed upon
her burning reproach in this connection.
The voice of Humanity, the warnings of
science, the teachings of experience, were
Ill ,,,,-4 saroa a,,5 .;lo,oa1 - A. e.
clamor of partisan greed and brutal selfish
ness, and the old vile, depraved and de.
PRAYING system was re-establshed, to the
disgust and humiliation OF every right.
minded observer, and to the disgrace of
the whole people. And now the logical
results OF this base prostitution Of hign Ie-
sponsibilities are appearing and a consci
entious Judge finds himself impelled to
make sentence of imprisonment lifelong
because he knows that in sending men to
San Quentin he is inevitably booming
them to hopelcssly criminal careers, and
because he knows that they will, it they
are liberated, return upon society tenfold
children OF Hell.
How long VIII the people of California
submit TO this reproach? How long will
they allow it to be said of them that they
sanction mode of penal administration
such as savages would blush to be charged
with? How long viii they permit their
political rascais to step in and convert the
prisons into machinery for plumber, into
the means of providing fat sinecures for
henchmen, into rewards for outrages
upon the suffrage: As the case now stands
every man who graduates in the State
Prison in vice and deprayity, is a State
produced criminal. 1t ia from the taxes
Of the people that burglars and forgers and
murderers are prepared. Millions of hard.
earned dollars are being worse than wasted
in fostering and perpetuating our criminal
classes in this way. And still tho shame
Less nolitic;aas insist rDoo or,sn;no aoJ