New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-12-10
IDLENEsS IN TIE SITE PRISONS.
NEED or KEEPING THE CoNyICTs BUSY POINTED
L.1.n1,.r1

OUT IN BRJOhLAN IbLIli'
In the second Unitarian Church OF Brooklyn. at
Clinton and Congress SIS. the Rev. John W. Ch9dwck
preached yesterday morning "SpIiiis In Prson.'
In Introducing his sermon he said that he hal lately
heard a story which he wished that every sian and
woman in the State Of Newfork could hear 1t was
Told by Nj. Brush. the walden Of sing sing Prison
IL was a ,iHiy!c business HE statement. bi n"i TIE
genius Of Hugo or To!stol could have made It moro
Impressive than IT was. The substance OF it was tia.
I'm obedience the legislative action Of the early
mer there are at Sing Sing 500 men, the most
Of them not twenty years old. living In deness
All the necessary work OF the prison can be- done By
thirty men. Either under a contract system OF labor
or system managed b. the ate the prison Tor eleven
years had paid its expenses ard turned over
eral hundred thousand dollars 20 tho state But som'
OF the labor rcformcrs Insisted that the worhln-mon
out OF prison must be OBJ ICED to compete with Grim
nals, and hcreupon both Of the great parties al Al
bany made haste, that they cared much for the
woriingnen but because they cared much for their
votes the suspension Of all labor In the prs
ons. except so much as IS necessary for their own
comfort and convenience
with what resultl At Sing Sing said tho warden
land elsewhere It must be the samel the enfeeblement
and ruin OF the prisoners health the breeding Of man
fold diseases Of the mind. dull melancholy, Wild IN
sanity, the corruption Of their moral natures 10 d"
extent that win make them far moro dangerous Grim
inals when they discharged than when they "cni
pulsory idlencss makes the prisons burden OF taxa
ton on the community. Better that they should be
ten times the burden that tcy only so The Gus
tom Of habual work could be restored For this Gus
tom is essential TO prevent prisons from becoming
50 many torture-cngincs crushing not only the bodies
but the minds and moral natures OF tho prisoners.
Granted that tho wages Of the honest laboIer might
suffer some depression from prlson-abo: com
petition, vet In view OF tho piopori arc
amount OF prison labor tho depression must
be very slight, and there IS NJ laloHnE
man outside the prisons (whO dOrs moi himself Dc
serve Incarceration who would not Willingly suhrr
the necessary reduction ten times over than condemn
TO denrss and all that idlencSs implies and carries
in its train the inmates Of our prisons. II II were
otherwise than so, the party that, 10 capture lab0fs
Yo--s Woud make engines IF torture ana insirnne'fs
of deprivation Of our prisons would not deserve any
thing better than overwhelming and inglo0us dc!cai
Exon wholesale bribery. sad VI. OhadWick. Is a
NOR, honorable and decent Of handling TIE labor
vote than such a horrible concession as that which
converts the population Of prisons iniO fostering
mass OF physical disease and mental imbccilty ard
moral dcpravaiion and there should 20 uF 10 our
Legislature such a cry OF popular Indignation, Su'I
swell and surge Of public sentiment such
mutu'inpus petition. "a VIII make the repr'srNta
tivcs OF ,ae opposing parties tread upon each other
I'm their rival haste 10 right the enormous wrong thai
has been done the most miserable, and hence The
most -lrN .Hc" poor in lie communicating poor
in reputation and in strength of virtuous Will.