The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1888-12-27

demned. though John Howard was its advo-
cate. because man was social animal and
cOnfining him in cell would never reform
him. The ward system was the cure. and
we evolved into that; but. in a late report
of an eastern institution. | read from the
chaplain's report: 81 have noticed that men
in cells read and profit more than those in
wards. and that the better class of inmates
much prefer the solitude of the CELL"
Let us catch the criminal when young,
was the next watchword. We got some OF
him and fenced him in from the streets. but
that did not clean out the criminal class or
materially diminish the sum total. Then the
reason was found to be that the young Of
fender was not trusted enough Put him
on his honor" ''Banish walls. bolts and
bars. and let him see the sunlight" 1t then
happened that many of the very boys re-
quiring restraint left on their honor. l am
personally acquainted with some of them,
and find ten-tOOt fence none too high to
hold them; and it is these few in every re-
fOrmatOry which has necesstated the re-
straint of bolts and bars. Later. it was
found that boys did not like to be under the
ban of needing reformation. The name im-
piled that something in their character re-
quired changing; and ''change your habits"
is bitter dose to swallow. with old as well
as young, so the remedy was mlder medi-
cine. 1t was considered more sentimental
or educational to call such places industrial
training schools. (Our next move must be
universities We do hot object TO such
names. We approve of them; but some
how. through all these changes. character
has remained pretty much the same.
In very old book we read that 1.-The
Imagination of mans heart is evil" In
our experience, these words are wisdom g
message to him who hath ears to hear.
We believe them true to- day as they were
four thousand years ago. 1t is a task TO
civilize the savage. 1t is very easy to saw
agile civilization. Our model criminal is
not civilized.
Classification, then is a prime necessity
in reformation work; and there must be
room. space enough and money enough to
carry out the idea. The institution where
innocent and criminal are herded together
is crime against innocence and society.
In the past there has been too much build
ing on the fiction that the criminal was
only mistake, a misfortune. 6 silver from
the body polite, or at worst but windfall
from Rhode Island or New York Pippin
tree, that but for worm or hurricane
would have developed into sound. whole
some fruit. l believe him to be species.
and sooner or later he will have to be
treated as such. DR.. Holland once said,
1.-The way to do away with rascals is to
stop breeding them." These twelve words
is all the report which is really required
from us to day. The poor We have al
ways with yOu." said an old teacher. We
know the criminal has always been with US,
and it is no hazard of speech to say he al
ways will be. The aim of prison philan-
thrOpy and reform is to reduce him to the
minimum. and our laws should be such as
to keep him there.
We believe in the criminals reform. His
salvation, though often grievous disappoint-
ment. may have marched hand in hand with
much encouragement. Some of us who
have been through the burden and heat of
the day may at times have felt a pang of
modification with the result of our labors.
In the mornings of our work, the flowers
were all in bud or bloom, and fragrance
filled the air; but years of patient and care
full investigation brought to light thorns
which formerly had been covered over with
rose petals. Statistical reformation looks
we'll on paper, but facts at times destroy
figures.
Years ago, we used to figure up how many
OF our boys were doing we'll who had been
discharged from six months to year previ-
Gus to date. Figures look bright enough
for the millenniums dawn. Then we fig
ured two years, three. four. five, six, and
seven years, and found with saddened
hearts. after all these years of apparent re-
spectability, some of them going back like
the ''dOg to his vomit and the sow to her
wallowing in the mire." 1t is not reform