Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-06-09

put aside practices and theories, and stud
nature and natural laws? Human reaso
may err, but nature properly understood
and followed is success. God never mad
a truth into which He did not put powe
to be courted or to be feared" There ma
be exceptions; but, as a rule, all men ar
criminal and all men have reproving con
sciences, and all prisoners retain human
natures. The muss seems to have starte,
away back in the garden, between Adam
and Eve, the snake and the devil As W
there find the nucleus of our trouble. s.
there may we find some of its cure. III
the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread
is contemporaneous with sin, meaning no
only labor that produces sweat" bu
productive labor that produces bread Try
ing to avoid this labor law of nature make
criminals; exacting it is reformstory
No human principle is more exacting tina,
! that every member of society shall suppor
himself and those dependent upon him
l have no sympathy with 'self-sustaining,
IN prison parlance, at the expense O
reformation but productive labor only il
reformation. while unproductive treadmil
labor is vindictive punishment, destructiy,
in all respects. Every man who enters ;
PRISON and can work in prison was labore
before he was sent to prison, or he was
drone who lived off of other people, If ht
was the latter, he was the consumer of tn,
products of free labor, and paid nothins
Tor what he used. When he supports him
self he relieves free labor of so much tax
as he has laid upon it, That means relic
TO Tree labor. Ii any convict maintained
himself before he went to prison and i.
made to do it in prison, he is no more
competing with free labor than he was
with other free labor before he got into
prison. Shall man who has assailed So
clety be made guest of society in prison
and tax upon other men?
All laws, human and divine State Prison
laws, the unwritten law Of society and re.
formation, demand productive labor must
be exacted. This being world of conflict
no labor can be exacted without a conflict
1t only remains how this labor can be
exacted with the least injustice
While as q rule believe in reclamation
and that through productive labor and
other natural treatmentit might frequently
If not generally, be effected, | also believe
IN total depravity or incorrigibility
While | believe that many get into
prison wrongfully who ought never to be
there, yet | know there are those in, who
never ought to be out. Hope and fear, the
feelings that enter into and animate our
every day of free life, actuate those of the
prisoner also, and the law and practice
which will appeal to those feelings in the
strongest manner is the best. Under an
lndeterminate sentence of law this treat
ment can best be carried out. 1t helps the
innocent and the deserving, and enables
the detention of evil minds until either
cured or declared incorrigible, when they
should be isolated, put beyond the power
OF pardon or escape, or reproduction OF
their species. All deep thinkers, readers
and writers in the East, whether or not
they believe it practical as yet to carry out,
believe in the principle. Under it the cry
ing evil of inequalities of sentences would
be rectifed.
Should not the legislative department
define crime the judicial determine guilt,
and the legislative, through Board for
that sole purpose, determine the time and
character of treatment? Under the opera
ton of such a law, the circumstances sur
rounding the Judge at the time of trial
and sentence, his physical. mental moral
and liquid condition at the time, is of less
consequence.
consin Board of Charities, saws. in a
communication in the Chicago Daly
Ne,Us: Judges are human, and their
moods are variable" In my opinion,
the first step in prison reform is to abolish
all time sentences and commit convicted
criminals to the care of a Board of Man
ayers, or other State authority, who shall
determine how long the safety of society
requires the detention of the criminal |
can imagine nothing more reformatory
than this with the criminal class. There
is nothing in the way of such a change in
our criminal laws as will bring about this
reform. except blind, timid conserva-
tism.'
The best interest of the prisoner is the
best interest of the State. Without hope
the prisoner is morally dead Hope can
only be fully built and kept up through in
determinate sentences. Put every pris-
oners pardon in his own hands" or the
reverse if he so elects.
There is as great a difference in the ma
ture and character Of prisoners as that of
persons in free life. 1t is horrible to wit
ness all classes incarcerated in the same
prison. The child of tender years with the
old incorngible; the innocent there through
mistake; the non-criminal through acct
dent and circumstance, and the gentleman
and the blackguard. No law of God iusti-
fies such state of things-no law of man
should permit it.
Alter determining on penal system for
the State, all, including county iai1s, should
be unified under one head, brought under
the same general system and discipline
from top to bottom.
Mr.. Kemp, representing Edward T.
Dooley, Superintendent of the Boys and
Girls Society, of San Francisco, read a
paper written by Mr.. Dooley.
G. w. Hancock, Joseph Steffens, |. n.
Hoag, ]. F. Clark, F. K. Dray, Senator
Reuter-, Peter Roberts, p McGrea and
others discussed at length "Convict Con-
tract Labor"
AT II P. M. the meeting adjourned to 10
a. NJ. to-day.