Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-06-09
PENOLOGY.
FREE CONFERENCE on CONVICT
LABOR AND REFORM.
Session Again this Morning-Refor
nation the Subject-The People
Invited to Attend.

would AID IN the improvement Ol pIlSoH
management in this State, or which, if
enacted into laws. would aid deserving dis
charged prisoners, or tend toward the more
effective prevention of crime. Commits
sioners Boggs, Hendricks, Devlin and Sonn
tag were present, as were alsothe Governor
and other State officials, managers of the
prisons and citizens interested in this
humanitarian work. The afternoon and
evening were occupied in discussing the
question of convict labor. The meeting at
II o'clock last night adjourned TO 10 a. NJ.
to-day, when other important questions
will be taken up and considered. The
question is one of great interest one that is
attracting attention of the best minds in
: the nation and one that cannot fail to in
terest all who avail themselves of the OPP
portunity of hearing the discussion, and, if
they so desire, participating therein.
At the opening of the meeting letters of
regrets at their not being able to be present
coupled with their suggestions upon the
subject, were read from E. r. Highton,
Arnop cambridge, Edward I. Dooley and
Captain Human.
On motion of Commissioner Sonntag,
Convict Contract Labor was taken up
and discussed.
Senator Johnston of Sacramento was in
favor of labor for the prisoner of some
kind that would result to the benefit of the
laboring classes who support them. They
should pay in some way for their support
Their labor should be considered necessary
in double sense as punishment and as
return for the expense incurred in their
maintenance. 1t would deter others from
following their example. Did not think
| g. ! Sal
ton in any case. He was also in favor of
that kind of labor that would come the
least in contact with free labor.
Senator Reuter- was not in favor of any
convict labor that would come in contact
with free labor. He believed in giving the
convicts trades if possible. He thought in
seead OF the Folsom prisoners producing
material that would enter the markets in
competition with that produced by free
labor, they should be put to work erecting
a 20-foot stone wall around the $50 acres of
prison ground, something that would take
them twenty-five years to accomplish
Macadamize the public highway from Fol-
som to Sacramento, and clear out the bed
of the American so as to make the latter
nayigable stream to Folsom. This would
furnish employment that would result in
great good to the State, and not interfere
with that which belongs to the free laborer.
Peter Roberts, of San Francisco, repre-
senting the Federated Trades, Endorsed the
sentiments of Mr.. Reuter- He was OPP
posed to prison labor of any character that
produced articles for sale on the public
market. He said the proposition was
clean cut. 1t is, Shall the prisons COM
| pete with free trade or not? He said there
was no feeling as to the Commissioners,
but the Federated Trades blame them
| for what they term continued violations of
the law. We claim that the present mode
of operating the prisons should cease at
once. 1t is wrong, and in no sense eco
nomical. 1t depresses the wages of labor
and does not compensate the State. He
| did not think the iute works interfered
with free labor, but all other prison labor
does. He proposed that the prisoners
should be maintained in idleness and
drilled daily-marched up and down the
hill for exercise-rather than work against
! the labor Of free men.
Several other speeches were made on
both sides of the question.
EVENING SESSION.
Mr.. Hendricks read report to the Peno- |
logical Commission, at the evening session,
upon the subject under consideration, and |!
stated that in his recent trip to the East he |
visited great number of prisons.
The entire subject of crime and its treat |
HILL 6ttIlS W De HdluTtilN ulNlSlDl6 III |
its consideration, under three general |
heads: First. Preventive Saving from
Incarceration. Second. Incarceration-dur-
| ing Confinement. Third After Stage Car |
| ing for ex-convictS.
We are devoting ourselves exclusively to |
| the incarceration branch, entirely neglect |
| ing others of perhaps greater importance !
If prevention is better than cure, and an |
ounce of the former worth more than a |
pound of the latter, then we are wrong in |
our practice, even though our system cured |
the morally sick. Is it right in the State to |
| look quietly on while the circumstances of |
| birth and environments are drawing young |
| victims into the vortex of crime, and then |
| punish them for being there? Public SEN |
| timent invariably says no. where it has the |
| opportunity and the occasion of expression. |
| Witness the spread and growth of child |
| saving institutions.
| No reform movement was ever received |
with more public favor, or spread with |
more rapidity through the world, than |
| " child-saving" in its now varied FORMS |
| Commencing in 1871 with the Sunday |
| school, intended originally for the vagrant |
| and the vicious, it grew and spread until now |
no church is without its improved Sunday |
school, and no city of any prominence in |
| the civilized world is without its "child |!
| saving" offshoot of the original Sunday |
school. These schools, or homes, or aids, |
are generally private, and the objection |
| might be urged that they are dependent for |
pecuniary success on precarious private |
charity. The natural home is natures |
cradle; the provided home is next best |
| All child homes purpose only to care for |
| the child until it is provided a family home |
| in place of its lacking or unsuitable natural |
| home. What shall be done with the child |
| between leaving the natural and entering |
| the provided home? 1t must either be |
cared for in home kept up by private |
charity or one supported by the State |
either uncared for or found in county poor |
houses or elsewhere. Of all institutions for |
the care of dependent children, that of the |
Michigan State School is the most desira- |
BILE, in my judgment, to model after Here |
| all the dependent children OF the State are |
cared for. They are kept but about eleven |
months, on the average, costing only $40 |
per annum per capita, and in the aggregate |
only about $4,000 per annum. Two ideas |
are prominently carried out here. one |
avoiding the tainting of character, and the |
other cnltivating self-reiance in the chill |
| dren.
The incarceration period, while less i'm |
portant, perhaps, in results, is more diff |
cult to understand ard more complicated |
and varied in manner of administration.
While found among penologists in the |
| East very great unanimity OF sentiment !
on the important questions underlying the
entire subject, yet L found the systems of
practically carrying out as varied almost as
there are prisons III number; nearly all
advocating the same result while travelling |
different roads to reach it. When COM
menced the study of the subject, my first
| impression was punishment, with Incl
dental reformation, and my first ambition
was to account for crime. Now the oppo-
site with regard tc the former is my firm
belief-reformation where possible and
isolation where not, and all punishment
| incidental. Just the same punishment in
character that physical patient suffers in
taking bitter medicine, or having de-
| formed limb pressed into shape.
| The old Mosaic doctrine of an eye for an
eve and tooth for tooth, although still
entertained by many, should have passed
away with the advent of Him who reproyed
those who sought to condemn the lewd
woman. by saying Let him who is with
out sin cast the first stone and who re-
formed and pardoned the thief upon the
cross.
For some cause only to be guessed at, SIN
and crime are made attractiveto the human
| family. We are prone 10 sin as the
sparks are to fly upward We are created