The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1889-01-31

anu ItCIdliI Clo SuLCy.
Is itnOt slur Oh the bench of the state
to select board of supervisors for no other
purpose than to overhaul their work look
ing for innocent victims of the law? Don't
think from the above that hold to the be-
lief that no innocent persons are sent to
prison. There are many ways in which the
above may happen. and the Judge and jury
not be to blame. But the fact that
innocent parties being sent to the pris-
on is the exception and not the rule.
When the fact is established that
an innocent party is in prison, the
governor needs no other counsel than his
own sense of right and justice to give him
nerve and backbone enough to turn that
advisory board, if created. is to look after
what is known as the criminal class: those
who have violated the laws of the state.
We have a great deal of charity, cor
rectiOn and reform. and all are good in
their place. They were introduced in spirit
by Christ, whose mission on earth was to
call sinners to repentance and reform. Yes,
to reform and pardon the guilty. The
righteous did not need any pardon. they
were already saved Now. if the state puts
on the livery of Christ to deal with her
penal institutions. let her follow in the
who were guilty, when she has reason to
believe that they will lead upright and
honorable lives in the future.
cannot see what is to be gained when
man has been tried and found guilty of
some grave crime and sent to prison for ten
or twenty years, or life, then after he has
served five years, for the governor or adj
visOry board to call on the same Judge,
county attorney and jury to try him over
again. Time will not change the guilt or
innocence of the convict should he remain
in prison fifty years; while he may become
a changed man in the trueSt sense of the
word in very short time, and look at life
from different standpoint and do all he
can to develop the higher and nobler ele-
ments of his nature-not for the praise or
reward he may get from man, but for the
pleasure and satisfaction lie derives from
within his own breast. | do not speak from
Christian. but moral, standpoint. Still
if he IS a Christian so much the better for
him.
l suppose our law makers are acquainted
with the past history of the world. If so,
they will remember that some of the
greatest men who have lived, were guilty
of great crime, but lived to see the error of
their ways, changed their course and did
more to raise mankind from the animal
plane to the mental and spiritual plane than
any other men that ever lived Some of
them being among the fathers of the Chris
tian religion. Not speaking of David and
Solomon. who were both guilty of great
crimes, let us come down to the days of
Christ and his immediate followers. St.
Paul, one of the greatest men since Christ.
his writings the best of all the apostles, aud
independent of their religious teachings,
are the finest code of morals in existence
to-day, still he did all his writing and his
noble works after he was accessory to the
murder OF st. Stephen, one of tine purest
and most atfectOnate of the apostles He
was on his way to Damascus with murder
in his heart when he was converted. ST.
Paul was not an innocent man and never
claimed to be, but guilty one. Christ
converted and pardOned him, and Anan as
baptized him, and Barnabas and all the
Christians at Jerusalem. gave him the hand
of fellowship. We could name hundreds of
others who fell, but lived to reform and be-
come leaders among the greatest and nOblest
men of the earth. Yet they had been
guilty of acts that the law of this or any
other state in the Union would have pun
IoHCu ~ uetlli VI imprisonment IOr lie.
Reader, do not misunderstood me- [ do
not refer to the above to justify murder or
accessory to murder. but to prove that man
may be guilty of great crimes and yet. if
they are given show. prove themselves
worthy OF forgiveness, and the world be
better because they have lived. General
Jackson, who killed two men, married the
widow of the first one. l believe; and killed
the second for talking about it; afterwards
commanded an army, won the battle of New
Orleans, served one term in congress, and
was for eight years president of the United
States, and died an honored, Christian gem
teman.
A hint to the law makers and best fami-