The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1890-07-03
The Evolution of the Prison.

The Evolution of the Prison.
The human family has had long and
unpleasant struggle with criminals; and il
is. unhappily, not over. In the primitive
days and during the latter great nomadic
movements of the race. there was not time
to stop for trial and incarceration. For a
man who would not conform to the onlv
conditions under which society was posi-
BILE, the prompt speedy, and effective pun
ishment was death. The greatest single
step in the progress of civilization was
taken when slavery was substituted fol
death. The captive or convict then passed
into status, once for all. which lasted
throughout his life. His doom was fixed.
1t was blind, aimless way of meeting the
difficulty, varied by ''cutting off," by ban
iShment. Ostracisn, and the modern trans
pOrtatiOn. But the state. so far as there
was state. had unlOaded him. His mas
ter uSurDed the relation of the state.
Municipal control over him ceased, and the
criminal was dismissed from public concern
This condition of things lasted down to
dates far more recent than we are apt to
think. The teudal system remanded pretty
much all municipal administration to the
holders of the great fees. The power to
punish and imprisOn was one of the very
badges of feudal power. 1t resulted in a
vast system of safe and, as we know, often
cruel places of confinement. The tower
and its ''dOnjOn keep was feature of
every castle erected by the lord of the do
main; and they exist many of them. as
JailS and prisons to this day. Through all
this regime there was no system, purpose,
or discipline. Society had not reached the
first glmmer of the modern function of
imprisonment" and such thing as lad
ministratiOn" was unthought of. In gen.
eral way, the public welfare must have been
contemplated; but we may as we'll suspend
judgment until we can better anticipate
what civilians, a couple of hundred years
hence, may think of our present methods
This cOngeries of prison houses was the
basis upon which, only hundred and fifty
years ago. was commenced the agitation of
prison reform upon which we are still en-
gagged. 1t is about one hundred and fifty
years since Col OgethOrpe secured a par
liamentary inquiry into such prisons. He
called attention to their inhumanitieS, their
useless atrocities and crueltieS. And since
John Howard entered upon the first solemn.
serious contemplation of the objects and
purposes of the Imprisonment of cOnvicts
with determinate social purpose, it is only
hundred years. Since his day. we have
been compelled to look upon the convict in
the double relation he SuStains to society;
first. as the object of punishment; second,
as human being. who, sooner or later,
will be released, and resume his contact
with his fellOw-men. Society since then
has learned that it has about exhausted it's
power in the infiction of legal statutory
penalties, when it has consigned the con-
vict to Incarceration. with labor in some
form. The resources for physical punish
ment reach no further than Imprisonment,
with some form of disciplinary treatment.
which excludes corpOreal torture, and even
purely affective. unprOductive eXertion.
This is great progress. Let us see what
we have eliminated from crime punishment.
Il mean crimes other than the most hei-
nous.) Death. 'cutting off from the peO-
pie" slavery. Ostracism. Punishment. trans
pOrtation. bodily torture. tread-mills. shot
drills. Sir George Grey's ''cranks." thumb
screws-in general. the instruments which
merely cause pain. 1t remains to eliminate
all lnstrumentalities which work deteriOra-
tion in health of body or intellect or con-
science. e.-Ex-Gov. Henry M. HOyt.