Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1885-05-29
OUR REFoRMAToRY PRISON


sas reformatory prison is TO be based,
in principle. on the institution at FL
mira, New York. The Common
wealth has already published Charles
Dudley Warmers description of that
prison. as given in The North Ameri.
can Review. The following is from
the pen of Mr.. Frank B. Sandbnrn,
who has been the secretary of the
Massachusetts State Board of Chair
ties for the last twenty years-and
who is also the author of the Life OF
John Brown that will be published
within few weeks:
The closing days of the New York
| legislature are always Watched with
anxiety by all good citizeus and by
some bad ones who are highly paid to
keep watch-for deal OF unwhole-
some legislation may be enacted or
killed in these last hours. So much
has been stopped already that the
anxiety this year is rather abated-,hc
famous "frcedom of worship" bill
having gone to its long home, and
other doubtful measures being laid on
the shelf. Many good ones have
1 SfldTtu ttlt sulfiS iS piicpi 'ssc'a
question has had much attention here
this year, but no solution has been
found for the dilemma into which the
small body of labor agitators en-
trapped the state and the two political
parties two wears ago, when it was
decided by popular vote that there
should be no more contract labor in
the state prisons. Had this vote been
followed by wise legislation per-
hitting the introduction OF
Mr.. Brockway's ''piece price" sys-
TEN of labor, the result would
not have been SO bad, but this Is also
under the ban, and the Stateis thrown
back upon the old public account
SYSTEM" which involves an outlay for
machinery, material, etc., that in this
State must amount to millions OF dol
lars, while the product will be less in
come than was secured under the con-
tract system. Therefore i; is fair &c
conclude that the 5000 convicts. more
or less, in the state prisons this veal
will cost the taxpayers anywhere
from Sl,OOO,OO0 to $2,300,000, and
perhaps as much more next year. This
is paving dear for the demagogue't
whistle, and if il turns out so, tho
people of New York will throw party
| considerations aside and enact COM
mon sense once more in the matter oil
prison labor. La other respects than
this the prison system here has been
approaching excellence in its theory
and practice for ten years past, and
still retains features that make 1t SUI
perior to the convict system of most
states. The state prisons generally
are in good hands, the management rs
non-partisan, and the rules OF civil ser.
vice promotion are pretty well obeyed
in the appointment of Off
The most fully developed part of the
New York prison system in the state
reformatory at Elmira, which scarce
/ ly seems like prison at all and is not
known as such TO the citizens of Ell
mira, who when you ask for "the
prison." suppose you mean the county
all but which is in fact u prison of Sc
we're discipline-"a school OF adver-
sity" as Macouochie called bis prison
but also school in another sense.
Indeed, it is Il great industrial and
ethical university, where Young men
are not only lectured TO, but actually
indoctriDated with morality which
stands the test of practice, and are
brought to snch manual skill in trades
that they can easily earn their own
living when they go out upon pa
role, as the tickei-of-leaye is called in
New York. And this university, like
Cornell, and Columbia and Yale aud
Harvard, maintains newspaper, and
| will venture to say, a more useful
and remarkable newspaper than
any of these universities can show.
Mr.. Warner speaks of this paper
"The Summary" in his excellent ac-
count of the Eimira reformatory in
the North American for April; but he
gives no extracts from il, hardly does
Justice to some of its most interesting
features. 1t is not only a clean and
wholesome sheet-enlarged, since Mr..
Warmers visit, to an eight page week
ly, containing as much reading matter
as an ordinary four page daily-but il
has some specialiies and performs
some functions that the ideal newspa-
pers are often called on for but can
seldom execute. Ii gives voice to a
steadily wholesome, moral sentiment
which thus becomes the public opinion
of the reformatory-for everybody
reads the "Summare," and it reports
the school exercises and comments
upon them in such way that it is a
most useful adjunct in the education
that this university gives its gradu-
ates.
The business of the young convicts
at Eimira is not TO write poetry and
edit newspapers, but to support
themselves by hard work, to learn
useful trades, to overcome vile habits,
and to cultivate aud practice honesty
of every sort. Aud they do actually
go forward aud accomplish something
honest in the sight of all men. To
bring about this result much time
was needed, and a man who had
learned by the experience of whole
life time how to treat young convicts
and such man is Mr.. Brockway,
who for nearly nine years lever since
it was opened) has been at the head of
this convict university. He had al
ready successfully managed prisoners
for years at Detroit aud Rochester;