The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1881-11-27
SALT LAKE DAILY HERALD SUNDAY, NOVEMBER p, lssl
THE PRISON As A REMEDY
FOB CRIME. g -


The prison as remedy for. crime
is failure. After ages Of trial it is
falling to pieces Of its own accord;
and were not the fear Of criminals
greater than our confidence In
human nature Ian unfeunded fear,
which was entertained when con
ditional liberation was first tried In
England), the prison as a mode OF
depressing crimes against property
would soon cease to be an institu-
ton of civilized life. Its methods
are essentially incongrueus with
the causes of crime. Civilization
has changed alike our prisons and
our criminals. If the prison does
not keep down the crime ratio by
sequestration or reform; If it fails
as an agent in increasing the moral
cOmpulsions of society; it it does
not deter the criminal; if it &C
customs a certain portion of the
habituals to cell life, so that they
become Indifferent to imprisen-
ment; if it pauperizes .(and all these
propositions are true), is there any
useful function which it can serve?
We think there is. The prison will
continue to be necessary for the life
confinement of murderers and of
criminals addicted to offenses of
great violence against persons,-a
class requiring absolute restraint.
But it will be long time before the
public will consent to have its
criminals remain at large, under
conditions the details of which
there is 40 space to set forth in this
paper. During this interval sthe
prison can be usefully employed as
a field for experiment. We know
so little concerning the offending
class, as its members ramify
through the complex web of society,
that new and long-continued OBJ
servatiOns need to be made, extern
ing to their ancestry, to the sur
rounding Of their childhood and
TO their social, mental,
moral, physical, and industrial dis
before a clear conception
can be obtained Of the multiform
agencies by which a criminal can be !
lifted into a useful and honorable
career. By means Of the adult re-
formatory the question of success
in individual cases Of discipline can
be treated. although this will not
effect thskratio Of criminals at large. |
1t will have the advantage of show
ing that hereditary instinct can be
overcome by adequate educational
influences; it will render possible a
of the specific process
of instruction which has been ap-
piled to given case; and it will i'm
part to number of persons a |
knowledgG and practice of adult
education which must in the end
enormously increase the effective
ness of the educators as an expert
GLASS dealing with the psychological, |
as distinguished from the scholas-'I
JIG, aspect of the educational prob
EN-. There is now, and for years
20 come there will continue to be, |
1 necessity for institutions with
5he aims of the state reformatory at
Elmira, New York, but it cannot
be admitted that there is either
need or justification for such
state-prisons" as New York and
other States are responsible for. |
Built in visitation to hygienic re-
luirements, intended only to pun
Ish, with d barren discipline and a
bad system of labor, Differed by
political time-serVerS, and turning |
put their convicts without instruct
Ion in trade, in manners, or in books, |
it is difficult to characterize them |
without offense to their managers.
Nothing thorough has ever been
lone until a visible necessity arose |
for vigorous action. It was not |
until capital punishment for minor I
offenses was abolished in England |
that the police was rendered |
efficient. 1t was not until the huIks |
were broken up that the educational |
and industrial training of youthful
offenders was carried forward with
zeal. It was not until transporta-
ton was discontinued that con-
1itional liberation was adopted. It
will not be until prisons are virtu-
ally abolished and the last remnants
Of the punitive system finally set
aside that the question of heredi-
5ary crime will be thought Of |
enough importance to Justify an ex-
naustive inquiry into kthe physical
and social conditions which keep
up the entailable attributes of the
nalefactor. Gradually puerilities
are passing, and the arbitrary i'm
prisonment of criminals must go
with tho rest of Thorn Doco1,, 6oo,