The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1890-03-20
Crime and Our Treatment of Criminals.

Crime and Our Treatment of Criminals.
Awarded first place in thought and composition
at the third preliminary contest for the Pillsbury
priest
Crime began it's existence with the human
race. 1t is no more mysterious than vir-
tue. 1t springs from the imperfections of
mankind. 1t will continue until the mil.
lennium shall bring forth the perfect type.
Fate has not dealt to all an equal share of
light. Environment and the laws of hered-
ity declare the heights to which men rise
and the depths to which they sink.
But our government has not listened to
the voice of enightment and if l were asked
to design some emblem which would symbol
ize injustice, l would draw picture which
would represent our treatment of crime.
Our criminal code is the fruitage of the old
conceptions of crime which held sway i'm the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Our
fOrefatherS regarded the criminal not only
with scOrn and the deepest hatred. but they
looked upon him as a monster who was i'm
PEELED to his terrible deeds by the very
Prince of Darkness. And from these prem
lses they justly inferred that with such an
antagonist there could be no compromise,
either the evil spirit must be narrowed and
tortured out of his victim, or the victim
must be destroyed by death.
Educated people no longer retain this old
conception of crime, but the state still clings
to many of the cruel punShments which
were inflicted by a superstitiOuS age; not
only does it fail to show toward crime that
spirit which alone can conquer it. but the
criminal is even regarded in the spirit of re-
venge. The state sees children born in hot
beds of wickedness. bred in vice, educated
in crime; yet she lays no restraining hand
until these unfortunate beings have become
transgressOrs of our laws. Then they are
imprisoned or they suffer death in order
that society may be free from their pollut-
ing touch.
We willingly admit that crime should be
punished; we favor no Sickly sentimentality.
But while the integrity of society must be
preserved, let there be no punishment from
the motive of revenge. Along these lines
we call for reform: Laws should be passed
which would enable the officers of the state
and the municipality to go down into the
slums and rescue the children who are grow
ing up amid vicious surroundings; our pen
tentiares should be turned into refOrma-
tories. We would do away with capital
punishment. that most brutal institution of
civilized governments; for you must grant
victim of lunacy. and what sane man would
perform public execution in the presence
of the inmates of a mad house for the pur-
pose of lettering them from murder. All!
there still turks in our laws the blighting
superstition that crime is the offspring of
some satanic demon; a belief that is no more
rational than that child is born without
a mother or that rain falls from clOudless
sky.
And he who has been confined within the
prison walls is far more in need of SYM
pathy than he who is clothed in virtue. He
should not be made to feel that imprisOn-
ment has closed to him forever all avenues
to self-respect. He should not be made to
feel that life is weary journey in which
the traveller Is gOaded from place to place
by the Sights and taunts of his fellows in
which there is no peace except among his
companions in wickedness. He is more de-
serving of our charity than our scOrnfuI
condemnation; Cor i'm the sight of the Divine
Judge are we not all viewed as criminals?
If we then be so uncharitable to our fellow
men before the earthly bar of justice, chow
can we expect so great salvation" when we
are summoned to appear before the Court of
Heaven?
The history of the punishment of the
criminal has been history of wrong. But
we hope it is not to continue. For the times
in which we live; a contemplation of our
own infrmlties; the appeal of duty and
honor; all are pleading with us to proclaim
to the criminal that the day of justice is
drawing near when he will be accorded his
due recognition as man.-H. E. Fryber-
ger, in Ariel, State University.