The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1890-09-04

a disadvantage beside old and cunning
prison "hands." In all foreign countries
the discretionary powers allowed to prison
governors for the treatment of their captives
are much greater than in England.
In France political changes have pro-
duced so much haphaZard legislation that
the whole penal system has been reduced to
chaos. In 1872 it was resolved that con-
victs of the worst kind should be trans
ported to New Caledonia. There they were
to be employed in public works or agricult-
ure, and after probationary period they
were to receive allOtments of lands, with
permission to marry female convicts or
Sweethearts at home who cared to 60 and
join them. If already married, their wives
and children, supposing the wives to be
willing, we're to be sent out to them at the
state expense.
This philanthrOpical scheme, which
made the lot of the murderer, the incendiary
and thrice convicted felOn much preferable
to that of the recluSiOnniste, sentenced to
five or ten years. solitary confinement ire
clusion) for felonies of the second degree,
proved the incentive to number of MUIR
ders in and out of prison; convicts in the
French penitentiaries began to commit
murderOus assaults upon their wardens in
order to be sent lover the water" while
burglars, when caught, deliberately at
tackled their captOrs with knife or revolver,
so as to aggravate their crimes and qualify
themselves for transportation.
The legislature had at last to interfere by
enacting that no convict should be trans
ported for any Offense committed within
prison walls. and subsequently an act was
passed compelling convicts sentenced to
lengthy terms of penal servitude (travaux
fOrces) for murder to undergo the first five
years of their punishment in recluSlOn.
But. as consequence of all this. the
French penal system has got completely
out of order. and additional confusion has
been thrown into it by the arbitrary man.
ner in which mitigations, remissions and
pardOnS are now granted.
These Irregularities are made much worse
by the fact that French prison governors
are themselves in these days generally the
nominees of members of parliament, and
either out of gratitude or in expectation of
future benefits they curry favor with their
patrons by petting the prisoners whom the
latter recommend. 1t follows that the con-
victs who have no political friends to care
for them spend very bad time indeed. The
governor, by his rigOr toward them, makes
up for his leniency toward his prOteges If
sentenced to reclusiOn they are like men in
tOmbed.
In Belgium the system of solitary con-
finement has been brought almost to perfec-
ton by keeping up the constant stimulus of
hope in the prisoner. If he have trade he
works at it; if he wishes to learn trade he
is taught by skillful instructor; if he have
no special aptitude for handicraft he is EN-
ployed in work that can be easily learned
in few lessons.
This plan is also followed in the prisons
of Switzerland, Germany and Austria and
Hungary. In these countries, as IN Eng
land. there have been OccaSiOned Outcries
about the competition between prison labor
and free labor. but when it is considered
how small proportion the population of
prisoners bears to that of free men the lat
ter cannot be said to have grievance. The
Austrian system is, however, much less
humane than the Belgian, in that it leaves
cOnvicts liberation to the mercy of the
prison authorities. There are no marks,
doctor and chief warder meet to draw up
list of deserving convicts whose names
are submitted to the emperor.
According to all reports these lists are
drawn up fairly; still the fact remains that
prisoner must occasionally owe more to
favor than to his own deserts. Again, the
code of prison discipline is much harsher in
Austria than in Belgium, where the dark
padded cell is but rarely used, and where
deprivation of work and pay for one day or
more is generally found an all sufficient
punishment. To begin with, in Austria
every convict's sentence bears that his pun
ishment shall be ''sharpened' by certain
number of fast days. The anniversary of
the crime for which he was condemned is
always spent in a dark cell, with not a
morsel of food, but only water. for twenty
four hours. In some cases a prisoner has
to undergo one of these fast days per month,
and they are frequently inflicted by the gov