Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-05-04
THE NEW PENITENTIARY.

At last Utah is to have a new peniten-
tiary, and surely she needs one, for il
ever there was place where bad men are
made worse, it is in the Utah Penitentl-
ary. Within its walls there are some
hundred men confined all the time, men
who are there for the crimes which they
have committed against man and society.
Primarily they are there for the protec-
ton of society, and next for punishment
and reform, and it is doubtful If any one
of these objects has been accomplished;
society NAV have been protected, but
those who have wronged and outraged
it are not punished or reformed, and
when they leave the place of their con-
finement, they come out as graduates OF
a university OF vice. Could it well be
otherwise, when men who are so bad that
society finds it necessary 10 restrain them
are allowed to mingle together and pass
the hours of their idleness in relating the
history of their past crimes and holding
those in highest esteem who have been
most atrOcious in their crimes? 1t is
doubtful if criminals can ever be so re-
formed as to make them good and useful
citizens; but they can be made to feel
that the laws which are made for the
protection of all have a force that they
dream not OF, and that they are not con-
fined merely for revenge and to associate
with those who are congenial to them.
But to feel this force, it is necessary first
of all to separate them from those who
are as guilty as themselves and who are
confined for the same reasons, and place
each prisoner in a cell by himself with no
communication with his fellow-man, that
in solitude and confinement he may re-
fleet upon his conduct and the wrong he
has committed against society. 1t
is necessary that there be some en-
ployment for him, that the mind
may not become insane as it turns
to contemplation, and ponders over the
enigma Of life. To avoid this has been
the aim of modern prison reformers, and
a stated number of hours of work each
day has been found the best remedy,
but whether this work shall be performed
by each prisoner in his cell, or by all to-
gether in shops, is question upon which
those who have investigated the matter
are not agreed. If we remember rightly, |
IL
the great majority of the American
prisons adopt the associated labor plan in |
preference to the solitary labor plan,
while the English prisons pre-
er the solitary labor plan;
although the daily out door exercise
n English prisons is given collectively,
n squads of one hundred Both systems
lave their advocates, and both systems
nave produced good results although the
5reat trouble with the associated shoplabor
that frequently it comes into competition
With free labor, and especially where the
contract system of prison labor exists.
As to contract prison labor, it should not
De allowed to 90 any further than to defrav
he expenses of the prison, and never to
come into the open market and bid
against free labor. But these are things
which are regulated by the Legislature,
md the policy of the people in regard to
hem must be indicated at the polls.
1t IS to be hoped that the new peniten-
lary will be completed at an early dav.
is the old one is just such an one as
Howard would have walked over Europe
o see and devoted his life to reform. It
such place as the prisons of England
we're in the last century, of which we
cad in the novels of Fielding and Smol-
EFT, and in some of Dickens works. and
Which were a disgrace to humanity.
where the pastimes are orgies and the
ilarity fiendishness. When the new one
done, the prisoners should never
e allowed to know any place in
about it but their cells.
nd the place of exercise, in which
hey should not be allowed to communi-
ate with one another, or to know who is
front of them or who behind them, or
'r what crimes or for how long their
'lloW prisoners are confined.
OUR CLIMATE.