The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1889-11-28
ENLIGHTENE THEORY.
OF the Object, Aims and Method
OfPrisOn Government.

The Protection of Society and the
Reformation of the Criminal
Demand of the Warden Moral Charac-
ter, Experience and Educational
Profound Analysis the Question
by Warden HI. f. Hatch of the
Michigan Penitentiary.
BY general request the Herald, of Nash
vile, Tenn, published the address in full
the day after its delivery before the Prison
Congress. The following is the address as
it appeared in that paper:
Discipline has for it's object and adapta-
ton of character to circumstances, the
training to elf-cOmmand. The adjustment
of habits to environment: development of
faculties: an education or culture which
fits the subject tor certain duties to be per-
formed. The duties to be taught by prison
discipline are the duties of life. Success in
prison management must be measured by an
ability to accomplish this
From considerations of humanity and
general progress or from the financial inter-
ests of the state or from any possible state
ment of the subject. the conclusions seem
equally forced.
A prison is one of the agencies employed
by the state for the repression of crime. 1t
should be grouped together with all other
departments of the government instituted
for that purpose.
The economical management of police de-
partmentS and criminal courts must depend
in measure upon the management of the
penal institutions where they confine their,
criminals
The police arrest the offender. The court
tries him, and the trial judge sentences
him to prison. and the expenses of the first
two will be measurably affected during a
term Of years by the ability of the prison
authorities to change the prisoner during
the time named. from law breaking to
law abiding citizen.
1t is not uncommon in the large cities
that habitual awbreaker is tried and
sentenced thirty, forty and even seventy
times, at an enormous expense, and appar-
emily to no purpose. The time OF service
in each case is short. and affords no OppOr-
tunity for betterment, and it would almost
seem that none was expected, and yet
time sentence can scarcely be considered as
rational. only on the ground that the pris-
Oner will likely be discharged at the end of
it, good citizen. Whether judges are able
to determine by observation of the prisoner
during the trial, how long it will take to
change the habits of life time as to make
the man proper citizen is not in the ques
tion. for if they are not. some new method
of determining the question must be found.
for certain it is that it is not agreeable to the
advanced civilization i'm which we live nor
is it likely long to be permitted by an in
telligent and thrifty people, that known
criminals shall be daily turned at large to
prey upon society.
The object of imprisonment is the pro-
lection of society, and there is no other
object. How then. to conduct prison that
it may afford the greatest possible protection
from criminals is the question, judge. we
are all earnestly trying to solve.
While thousands and thousands are annu-
ally discharged from the penal institutions of
the country. the protection afforded by their
temporary confinement is very slight and
lacks that permanence which should charac-
teriZe the processes of great state.
To effect reformation during cOnfine-
ment then is the only method that affords
any permanent protection, and to this QueS-
ton l shall largely cOnfne myself. Of
course it would be great aid i'm the ac-
cOmplishment of this purpose If there was
more elasticity to the term of service. If
the definite time in which it was to be ac-
cOmplisted was determined at the end.
rather than at the beginning of the process,
the doubt itself would furnish the most
powerful motive to the prisoner to labor
faithfully for its accomplishment
Motives must be furnished and are essen
tiar to the proper development of a debased
character, as they are necessary in all the
activities of life, and furnish the basis quail
ity of the law of evolution in the world.