The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1889-05-23

the years OF MS lie WOulU De SdNeu I'D ullli,
years which under the present system
would be passed in mere existing. 5th:
You would take advantage of this fact-the
fact from which the theory of suspended
sentences derives its strength--the turning
point in the life of every offender is when
he is behind the Jail bars for the first time.
He may have committed more than one
crime before being caught or he may be
there for his first offence. He knew that
he was doing wrong. But, until placed be-
hind the Jail bars, he has not realized the
inevitable results of a criminal life. This
is the keystone of the theory. Utilize the fact
i'm this way. say TO the offender: I'VE will
place you in the suspended sentence class.
Commit another crime. in any state of the
Union. and you go to the pententiary. You
know they are now places for punishment. "
That person would leave the Jail door know
ing as he never knew before. the results of
criminal life and the chances are Is in a
100 for his leading the life of an honest and
useful citizen.
The offender wants chance to take adj
vantage of his first experience behind the
Jail bars. Society says to him: I'VE will
give you that chance-after you have
stopped few years at our school up the
river. after we have done all in our power
to wreck your life. after the brand OF con-
vict has been placed upon you, after you have
been properly trained and developed and
made that which you are not at preSent-a
criminal dangerous to the community.
Show mercy to the first offender. punish
severely the professional. and you will do
more to decrease the number of criminals
and crimes in ten years than will ever be
accomplished under the present system. A
person may lead All honest life and yet in a
moment of weakness he may violate the
law. You ought not to place the same
brand upon that person as you place upon
the criminal who has declared war upon
society.
| Such system once placed in execution
would in few years eliminate the COM
paratively innocent from the prisons of the
land. Then make prisons what they should
be, what they were intended to be, places
for severe punishment
The prison authorities know, everybody
knows. that there are men and boys behind
the bars who do not deserve to be there. 1t
is an outrage, shame, disgrace to keep
them there; it would be barbarous to treat
them as the professional deserves to be
treated-withOut mercy. And, from the
fact of their being there, you are unwilling
to make prisons what they should be
places of severe punishment for hardened
offenders. AS far as this class is concerned
you have to-day virtually robbed the law of
it's terrors. For what does the professional
care for four or five years confinement in
prison of the present time? "A stop by
the waysidev' Il will be out before the
ink is dry on the books.'' ''94. two beers on
round table and-rol old Jordan rOll.''
These expressions show how frightful the
punishment is for them.
The trouble is in this fact: The disgrace.
the discipline, the remOrSe OF prison life
weigh, not upon the hardened offender, but
upon the very class who are worthy of SYM
pathy and mercy, the comparatively innO-
cent, those who yet have some idea of
honor. those who want to lead honest lives,
those who are not entirely lost and de-
PRAYED.
You are doing nothing for professionals
by adopting the system of suspended SEN
tenceS. They do not come under it's pro-
visions. Send everybody to the peniten-
tary and they will not object. Place the
brand of shame upon the youth and innO-
cence of the land and their hearts will not
be broken. But you are doing something
for every father and for every mother. For
who will say to loving parent. Your boy
will never wear the stripes? That boy
may be ever so carefully trained ever so
we'll educated, and his advantages will not
surpass those of many boy who has en-
tered the prison doors.
But gentle reader do not walk off with
the idea that the writer. even i'm the wild
est flights of imagination. ever thought that
these lines would accomplish good. In
about seven and one-half centuries some
bright mortal. duly and regularly inspired.
will awake to the brilliant discovery that
society in making a convict has alsO in all
human probability, made professional
criminal. Il. B. F.