The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1889-06-06
The Moral Value in Convict Labor.
BY I. Il. FORBUSH.


1t is conceded by all who have given the
subject any thought. that labor of some
sort in our prisons is necessary to the physi-
cal health and mental sanity of the Occu.
pant. Years spent in idlenesS, whether con-
gregate or solitary. would be years of de-
teriOratiOn and decay. such as no human
power has the right to inf1ict. such as no
wise state would ever sanction. 1t is also
conceded that labor not only preserves
health and sanity. but trains muscles. estab
fishes physical habits. gives industrial ca
pacity, and thus helps fit the convict for
honest self-suppOrt when he again mingles
with the outside world. And just here lies
the strong reason why prison labor should
be of the same kind and conducted after
the methods which obtain in the outer
world. The prison training should aim to
enable man to step right into the ranks of
productive labor. when he leaves it behind,
with the least possible jar or sense OF
strangeness.
But to fit a man to work is one thing, to
train him so that he will be willing to aban-
don vicious courses in favor of honest in
dustry is quite another thing. Under the
old systems of labor. even when supple
mented by the moral and religious eXhOrta-
tiOns OF the chaplain and Sunday school
teacher. it has been found that very large
proportion of discharged prisoners returned
to their law-breaking practices. Their
labor kept them in health and fitted them
n oor hnn not Ii,i,,sr h,,t 4
ont the tendency to prey upon society.
They still preferred stealing to working.
Labor in itself has little refOrmatOry IN
fluence. 1t may preserve health and train
mind and muscle, but it does not change
character. There must be motive behind
the labor to give it moral power. How to
SO direct labor that it will build up and
strengthen manhood is the great prison
problem. a problem of whose existence the
average legislator does not seem to be aware
Here comes in the whole question of the
object and form of penal sentence. If a
prisoner is forced to work so many hours a
day for SO many years. if he knows that
there is no avoiding it, that it makes no
difference in the dull days as they drag
along whether he does his task poorly or
well, since he must endure his weary lot to
the very end, the labor will have very little
of It as he possibly can. There is no sense
of responsibility. no feeling of lf-help
created but only disgust with the dreary,
hopeless occupation. But if the same man
were placed III prison. not for certain def
mite time. but to accomplish SO many aver
age days work, il each good days work
counted in his favor and brought the end
nearer, while each bad days work counted
against him and put the end farther off
and i'm estimating good and bad, his capa,
city. his health and his conduct all should
be taken INTO the accOunt-if he understood
from the very beginning of his confinement.
that SO much per day would be charged up
to him for the cost of his detention, that he
must balance that account to the last cent
before he can be free man. but that all he
earned over and above that sum would either
be sent as aid to his family or kept as a
fund to assist him at his discharge-labor
thus managed would be powerful instru-
ment of reform. Instead of tOling indif
ferently and gloomiy along day after day,
the convict would have perpetual incen
tive to do his best. He would be steadily
trained i'm good behavior, i'm industry, in
good work. and above all, in that sense of
responsibility which is the foundation of
manhood. IrrespOnsiblity is the weakness
of the present system. There is very little
imducement to do well, except to escape
possible punishment. But you cannot
strengthen moral motive except by giving it
scope for action and training it to act.
The whole prison life should be an educa-
ton in personal responsibility, with con-
stant powerful incentive to choose the good
rather than the evil part. The convict
should be made to feel that his life is fluent
that no fixed. unalterable sentence hangs
over him. that his future is in his own hands.
that every exerton he puts forth tends to
his personal advantage. and that careless
ness. idleness or insubordinatiOn works to