The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1888-10-10

Nc. 9.

OF prisons and their workings. ''Oh, listen
to him!' Yes, listen to him; tell you that
no one knows as much about the inner
workings of a prison as does the convict;
neither the Wardens, Superintendents, or
Commissioners excepted. Here is case in
point: DR.. j. w. Scouller, superintendent
of the Illinois state reform school, among
other things. speaking of the characteristic,
of criminals; remarks: I'VE said he was
law: we have bad offenders request to be
locked up. as they did not want to work,
and would not work. They will often main
themselves to escape work. In All excel
lent paper published in the Elnlira Reform
atOry, we found the best remedy for this
peculiar phase Of the disease we have ever
seen. or tried: to Wit, If any man wounds
or mains himself in the shops. ETC., after
date, lie will be put on diet of bread and
water, to save him from danger of second
ary infamaton.' MI. Brockway will please
accept our thanks for the receipt"
Did any of you anti-contract system
tiendS ever hear of convict in this
prison manning himself to escape work?
don't believe you have. DR.. Scouller could
get few pointers" on this subject from
the lnen who have been locked up since the
first of September. Are we better than the
prisoners in the Elmira Reformatory and
the Illinois Reform School? l think not:
so the only conclusion can come to is, that
they were worked beyond their powers, be-
fore they would main themselve to escape.
Now the next thing you want is to learn a
trade. l don't remember the exact words
that Commissioner Wright uses, but the
substance is, that very few prisoners work
at trade learned in prison. II there is a
in hic ,,IiSN no 10 nfo iTfr on
honest living. that man is any one of my
four opponents. There is a strain running
through their articles that proves to me they
were thinking OF self while writing, but
even allowing that yon are writing for the
benefit OF the class. permit me to say that
the man who is intelligent enough to learn
trade. can always earn an honest living il
so inclined, trade or no trade.
S. B. T.. to show the injustice Of the
contract system in its dealings with the con-
victs, cites case where the agents of the
system received eleven dollars for work per-
formed by him, for which the state only
got forty five cents. l wonder it he thought
of, perhaps one hundred men that the state
received fOrty-tive cents for who did not
earn their salt that same day. | have seen
twenty men locked in their cells for whom
the contractors were paying fOrty-five cents
day. \ mechanic. working for three dol
lars a day, might earn one hundred dollars
in one day for his employer, but his agree
ment to work for three dollars debars him
from speaking of injustice. Others work
ing for the same employer may barely earn
their wages, and of course such persons
would be DISCHARGED, but how about the
convict who does not earn his fOrty-five
cents day? The contractors must pay
whether he earns it or not. They would be
queer business men who would not require
you to earn more than your wages. You
must remember there were some days that
you did not earn eleven dollars. Oh should
be Just. even to your arch enemy, the con-
tract system. All, my friends, you are
looking through very dim spectacles. when
you cite such cases as the above.
Now, so far as any system will bear on
the reformation of the convict. | have only
this to say: Work the convict like human
being, and it matters not what system pre-
walls, the reforming influence will be the
same: and so far as l have been able to see,
thew have been so worked under the system
here. 1t was my privilege for ten months
to pass an hour weekly in each OF the
eleven shops, and the only hard work that
| could see was in the blacksmith shop. but
the work was not steady. The men in the
sash and door shop worked steady, but the
work was light.
To sum up the whole matter in a few
words, I will again quote from DR.. Scouller.
This time fully agree with him: Books
will make scholars. trades will make me-
chanics, discipline will make serviceable
soldiers: but it takes more than all these to
make bad men good" PHOENIX.