The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1890-02-20
Saltwater, MIMI, Thursday, Feb. 20, 1890.

in prison instead of ten or more that tn,
law provides.
| The judge is not an extremist. or re
| vengeful man; he is simply feeling unwel
for the time being and the loss of equanim
ity necessitates the unloading of his accu
mutation of bile.
| Consider for a moment which of these
| two men will be the more likely to be bene
| fitted by the term OF imprisonment. The
first man sentenced will conclude that he
deserved what he received; the truth will
| force itself upon him that his sentence wal
not imposed in spirit of revenge. He will
remember the kindly manner in which ht
was spoken 10 when sentenced. and the eff
feet of the admOnition will do more t(
change his future than will the sentence
| imposed. AS for the second man, he will
naturally conclude that his sentence par
takes mere of Individual vengeance than a.
a means of eXpialiun for the actual crime
committed; and in such a mood the tend
ency of his thought will be to devise :
means of getting even with the world.
| But this is not all. Even when in the
most amiable mood judge will often sen
tence two men to each extreme of the scale
of sentence for the same degree of crime
| when there is no eXienuating or extra
eliminating circumstances in either case
He may havr what appears to him as gOot
reasons for such actions: but # these rea
SONS remain unknown and unexplained hi
real intentions will surely be msconstrued
and bad results will follow where the beS
were expected.
| 1t is our honest belief that the large ma
| jOrty of all judges are thoroughly sincere
and painstaking in the duties of their office
But they are only human. and we are ap
at mes to be governed by personal feelings
and prejudices rather than by cool. thought
| full Judgment. Anyone going through thi
prison and noting the different sentences
imposed for similar crimes will surely ave
that there IS a screw loose somewhere. TIL,
great differences in the sentences may b.
accounted for in part when it is known
that men who ''have been there before
can always give the prosecuting attorney
good song" and thereby succeed in benz
allowed to plead in a lower degree of crime
and IN return for saving the county the cos
of trial they receive short sentence.
! The man who is not inclined to crooked
ness will never think of or submit to plead
ing to lower degree of crime charged whel
he knows that the connecting circumstances
surrounding his case should be sufficient Il
show that he was not prompted to the com
initial of the deed through purely crimna
motives.
Pick out the men in state prison Wht
are serving the longest sentences and yOl
will have the ones whose past has bppl
| freeSt from criminalitT. Education i'm Grim
nal jurisprudence is as necessary to the
successful pursuit of crime as is education
in everything else. Aud. in proc: of thi,
assertion. you will find that the green Grim
nal. the nOv.tiate. always comes out SeconC
best in bout with Justice
| TO eradicate the evils consequent upOl
the imposition of long and geneI ally unj jus
sentences only one pract cal method ha,
been thus far suggested: and that is the in
determinate sentence at present in vogue il
most refOrmatOrieS. This system of sch
tencing men Is conceded by some to be the
best means OF dealing with crime in gen
eral. Under this system it is possible tt
judge with some accuracy what length OF
time IS necessary to bring a man to sense
of his duties. OF course the method IS Ope,
to abuse in institutions where the manag
ing officers are untitled for the proper dis
charge of their duties. But the system i.
certainly worthy of a trial in penitentare.
since it has worked SO advantagpOusIy il
refOrmatories. At present there are many
men dragging out miserable existence il
the prisons of the land while their familie.
ai0 III o"io "oVu vi CiIoII heip. HldyHaDS di
expense on the ty or county. These mel
are serving sentences ranging from five tt
ten years for a comparatively trivial offense
In many cases the officers of the prisons
know that 1t is inhuman and wholly I'm
called for to detain them longer. Blu
these officers are pOwelleSs tO do anythins
more than submit the prisoners gO0(
record to the Governor when it is requested
1t will pay our legislators to examine int
this matter of long sentences. Let then
test the indeterminate sentence in the pen
itentiaries it no better plan is suggested
Bv doing SD thew will help greatly in aug
menting the ranks of honesty and decreas
ing crime-which latter is the grand enc
sought by all Imprisonment. RoNDA.