The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1888-11-07
PRISON SUNDAY.

Rev. Mr.. Tebbets was greeted last Sab
bath with large and appreciatve audience
who enjoyed very much the sermon from
which we quote as follows: The text
chosen was from Galatians. vi. 1-2.
The Importance of prison reform cannot
be over estimated. From the time when
under Constantine, the bishops of the church
were charged to see that no prisoners
were ''unjuStly detained or inhumanly
treated" down to the present, the better
treatment OF prisoners and captiveS has
been one OF the objects of christian phlan-
thrOpy, but one that with the most OF us
has not received the attention it merted.
Little indeed has been done until recent
years to improve the moral condition of the
inmates OF our PRISONS save as such i'm
provement was Incidental to the ameliora-
ton OF their physical hardShipS.
Pope Clement XII, hundred and fifty
years in advance of his time, declared in
1904 that it was of little use to restrain
them by education" And this may be
taken as a key note of modern prison re-
form.
We think of the incarceration of the
evil doer as all end rather than as means
"a just retrlbutiOn for the OtfenSe com
mitted-a vindicatiOn- of the majesty OF the
law that shall have a different effect upon
other WOuld-be offenders, rather than as
measure of possible benefit to the offend
erS.
The good of the individual and of society
demand the reformation of the offender,
that if possible he go out from his impris
Ollment better, safer and wiser man,
with a purpose to redeem himself rather
than Ito get even" with society. The ur-
gency of this work of practical reform APP
pears in the fact that the ratio of crime is
steadily on the increase. According to the
United States census reports, crime has
more than doubled every ten years for the
last half century. The existence also in all
our great centers of population Of a large
and often organized criminal class, whom
police authority can at best only hold under
surveillance waiting for them to commit
some overt act of crime. is also an alarming
feature in this difficult problem. These
''subjects," many of them eX-cOnvicts. are
teachers of crime to other Younger men,
often making them their tools in new schemes
of robbery and violence.
Another fact Of great significance is the
comparative youth of those committed to
our jails and penitentiaries.
From the report of the government stat
iStician we find that the average age of
prisoners is a little over twenty nine and a
half years. More than one fourth of them
are under twenty-three years of age: more
than one-third under twenty-five. and more
than One-half under twenty-eight years.
This does not include ''juveniles'' whose
average age at committal was only eleven
and half years.
An urgent need of our prison system is
classification, the separation of the older
and hardened from the younger. whom they
corrupt. Many Of our jails and police sta
tons as now conducted are very hOt-bedS
of crime and corruption. A more complete
separation of the sexes is also an urgent de
mand of common decency. WOmen's pris-
OnS in charge of women. as organized in
some of the states. should in all the
states make impossible such scandals as.
true or false, went out of our prison not
long since.
In a purely economic sense we cannot af
ford by neglect to allow the nearly twelve
thousands of juvenile offenders, alluded to
above, to become permanent recruits in the
criminal army which already counts up
above seventy thousands in our penitentia-
ries, and at a conservative estimate as
many more without. Nearly all juvenile
offenders whose OffenSes have been trivial
ought. under proper christian influences. to
be reclaimed to honest and useful lives.
Nor should the work of reform be neglected
among the others.
Among the most important points it
seems to me. is the removal of the manage
ment of our prisons and reformatories as
completely as possible from the corruption
of party politics; wardens, matrons, super
intendents and all officials having charge
of prisoners should be selected by a non
political board rather than by executive ap-
pointment. and on grounds of moral and
practical fitness rather than party fealty. 1
question. indeed, if sheritfs and jailers
having charge of minor prisons should not
be included in this The question of the
emnlONment of nriSOnerS also should be