Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-01-05


content, but they will have no effect upon
those best qualified to judge-the keepers /
of the prisons of the day. The proposition
is neither new nor original; it is quite as
old as the prison reform system itself; it is
in force in many of the best prisons and
reformatories, and it has the support of
the Judgment, without exception, of every
Warden in the world whose success has
won for him notable public commentator
and the especial confidence of his Govern
ment. That the rule desired does not OBJ
tain in all prisons is no more surprising
than the fact that many other needed
reforms have not yet attained full matu-
rity.
The idea of excluding the daily reports
of the worlds news from convicts the State
is endeavoring to SO discipline as to enable
them to achieve conquest over self, and
thus go out armed against the assaults of
temptation, must not be understood as in
Guiding the exclusion of reading matter.
The world of literature furnishes ample
supplies for prison libraries; the convict is
not to be left in solitary hours to commun-
ion with himself only. The periodical lit
erature of the day that is free from records
of crime and the doings of the old associ-
ates of the prisoner, is rich in information
of the progress Of discovery, science and
art; in history-making the worlds politics,
the nations doings and the development of
the land; it is rich, also, in good entertain
ing fiction, in poetry, in genuine humor
and clean wit. The periodical books, the
cheap books of the day, costing per week
less than the daily paper, furnish the
choicest of the worlds past and present in
dramatic, philosophical, poetical, romantic,
scientific, industrial and news literature.
How then can it be said that the daily
newspaper is either a necessity or charity
| to the convict, when it is an established
| fact that it is the means of seriously
neutralizing the efforts made to reform
the convict, simply because it is
a newspaper, published for the express
purpose, in part, of conveying to its read
ers the very information that it is essen
tial to his control, reformation and pun
ishment he should not receive.
We can scarcely conceive of parents SC
foolishly indiscreet as to admit their chill
dren to their closet consultations con
corning the dispositions, the faults, weak
ness and tendencies of their offspring
Yet such procedure would not be more
unwise than characterized the conduct o.
| the State of California not long since
Through an official Board it was consider
ing grave charges brought against prison
management, the Board debating freely
the dispositions of certain prisoners, the
best methods of treating them, etc, mat
tiers that obviously should not be over
heard by the convicts. Yet the absurdity
was presented of the full reports of the
daily proceedings of that official body, in
Guiding the testimony taken, being every
morning, through the medium of the
newspapers, placed in the hands of the
felons, and of the very convict wit
nesses who were to be called before
the Board in the hope of ascertaining the
exact truth concerning the matter il
hand; and there was not man upon tn,
Board, nor an officer of the prison, who
did not deplore the fact. Yet this is bu
a single instance of the positive injury
daily received by prison management
in the effort to disassociate the convic
from his evil ways. As one expert
enced Warden puts it, "the question is Sc
plain and the necessity for the exclusion
of the daily press so self-evident that Their,
is really but one side to the proposition
Perhaps no stronger reason need b,
advanced in favor of that upon which al
Wardens are agreed, than the fact tina
the newspapers which dish up in its mos
dangerous and vicious form the news and
and matter that is most Objectionable, ar,
those that most holly oppose exclusion.