Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-17
REFORMING THE CONVICT.
Ex-President Hayes Speaks on Prison
Abuses and Methods of Correcting Them
Fearful Puaishments That Were lIeied
Out Hundred Years Ago-Gosd Work

surrounded as am by active friends of the
cause, who are engaged in the practical man
agement of prisons and reformatories, L need
not employ many words in protesting that this
body of men and women are not sentlmentalists
nor visionary enthusiasts, who are prepared for
the work of dealing with convicts and of i'm
proving the methods of criminal procedure
merely by the study of books and by the distant
contemplation of facts of which they have not
personal knowledge. The value of these meet
ings is largely due to the fact that the lamp of
experience is always with us. Name the great
penal institutions of our country and vou will
hnd that the heads and other officers Of nearly
all of them are present with US, ready and COM
petent to give facts and opinions having
the authority which belongs to a practical
familiarity with the subject acquired by years
of responsible experience.
'The work of prison reform in the United
states did not begin with this society. More
than century ago the Philadelphia society
began the first peEseYering and efficient efforts
In America to reform the whole system of
prison discipline. 1t was followed BY other
similar societies in Massachusetts, New York
and other States. This society. national in its
character, origin and work, was formed at Gin
clnnati almost 20 years ago.
What Has Been Accomplished.
what of this work, begun a century ago,
and carried on by voluntary organizations,
State and National. and by philanthropic indi-
Viduals, always in the face of great general in
difference and often in spite of popular preju-
dice and opposition? 1t is the old question,
does the world indeed move? Are society and
mankind in the grasp of an inexorable fate
which forever holds them helplessly exposed to
crime and its inevitable Wretchedness? To
hnd satisfactory reply to this question, we
need not dig into masses of statistics, nor la
boriously investigate official reports
For more than so years Q7731S2D Connecti-
cut had an. underground prison in an old
mining pit, on the hills near Simsbury which
equaled in horrors all that was ever related of
crowded together at night their feet fastened
to heavy bars of iron and chains about their
necks attached to beams above. These caves
reeked with filth, causing incessant contagious
levers. The inmates were self-educators in
crime. Their midnight revels are said to have
resembled often the howlings of q pande-
monium banishing sleep and forbidding all re-
pose.
Eighteenth Century Horrors.
TN Philadelphia all ages and sexes were
mingled-the novice in crime, the hardened
veteran. the debtor, the wretch streaming with
blood from the whipping-post, the vagrant, the
drunkard and the convict. Intoxicating liquors
were bought and sold at the bar kept by one of
the prison officials; acquitted prisoners were
Kept for Jail fees; the custom of garnishee pre-
vailed. No instruction. religious or otherwise,
was known there. When the first sermon was
preacheda man stood by with loaded cannon
and fuse during the preaching. In the Bos-
ton jail in one year thousand debtors were
confined in the same crowded night rooms with
a thousand criminals. Men, women and boys
idiots, lunaties, runkards-innocent and
suilty-were mingled pell-mell together. No
restraint was put upon gambling, foul conver-
satiOn or quarreling. The penalties were often
barbarously severe.
During the early history of New York ne
groes were burned dalive-sometimeSwith green
wood, to prolong their agony; at other times
they were hanged in iron frames. to die of
starvation, their bodies being devoured by
birds OF prey. In almost every village in the
country the stocks, pillory and whipping-post
were to be seen throughout the eighteenth CEN
fury.
Many Abuses Corrected.
"But why multiply these sickening details?
Let us look on the other side of the picture.
Cropping. branding. whipping and torture in
punishment of crime have been abolished, with
In unfortunate exception in one small State.
The lash, as disciplinary punishment, is very
forbidden by the law. as are also
,ruel unusual or degrading infections, and if
my such are used it is by an abuse of power
for debt is everywhere done
lway with. intoxicating liquors have been
shut out of prisons. Penal labor.
which in the English sense never had great
currency among us, exists in none Of our
prisons to-day: but everywhere industrial, or at
east productive labor has been substituted. |
laws, by which prisoners by good
conduct and industry may earn some abbre-
Yiation of sentence, are very extensively found |
IN the statute books of the States and the |
effect is universally reported as excellent. |
There is no longer any mingltng of sexes, ex-
,ept it may be in few extremely rare cases
n small county jails. Two State prisons for |
women only and managed by women only. in |
Indiana and Massachusetts are DOW in full |
operation. The former, which is older, has
.lready wrought marVels of reformation and |
,he latter is full of promise.
There are now chaplains in nearly all our |
prisons, and Bibles are very generally found in |
very cell. Flourishing Sunday schools are |
LIso now quite common. Prisoners prayer |
meetings have been established and are well |
in several of our prisons.
Systematic Methods of Reform.
1.-THE chief aim in the treatment of convicts |
5 to protect society against its avowed enc
nies, the criminals. The advocates of i'm |
proved prisons and prison discipline add to this |
more specific statement. They would reform /
IL convicts whom they can reform by wise sys- !
ems wisely administered. Those who cannot |
hus be reclaimed should remain under their /
entence of conviction where they can support |
themselves by labor and do no harm to society. |
s this hard doctrine? Is it not Just and hu- |
nane-is it not good sense to say as long as you /
re a criminal so long shall you be aaconYict? /
consider briefly the facts. The prison popula- /
ion embraces all ages after responsibility be-
,ins, both sexes all descriptions OF people and /
IL conditions in life. Many of them, we know, |
an be reclaimed and will lead honest and in
Iustrious lives.
: +Our belief in the divine benefcence is too |
,rofound to permit US to think any man abso-
utelv beyond the reach of Gods goodness, but |
S practical men and women we are bound to
.dmit that lamentaby large percentage, with
he best efforts we can make, are not likely TO
cave the life of crime upon which they have
inferred. Our duty as men and Christians is to
10 all we can to enlarge the percentage of re-
ormed and to reduce to the lowest possible |
igure the list of the determined criminals.
Only a Few IncorrigibIcs.
81 am convinced that very large number Of /
hose who fill our prisons and reforma-
ories are either accidental criminals, incipient /
riminals. who break the law from some /
houghtless impulse, or from drink. This is
specially true of the young who constitute so
arge proponderance of prisoners. 1t is prob
BILE that minority only Of those committed
o jails, reformatories and prisons can be
roperly classed as old and confirmed of |
enders. We can say with Burns:
he real hardened wicked, who hae nae check
but human law,
ire to few restricted.
"As to the majority Of convicts, we have at
ur command an agency for their reformation,
practically and intelligently employed, Of
lmost unlimited power. 1t is in the largest
nd most comprehensive sense of the word.
ducation, 1t must include the training and |.
pbuilding of the whole nature Of the convict.
must reach him with all the forces which
elong to physical, mental, moral and religious
raining"