The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1890-01-09

grading and brutalizing to both those who
enforce it and those upon whom it is in
fcted. They do not take into cOnsidera-
ton the effect such a system of treatment
works upon the convict, who. sooner or
later, will leave the prison to mingle with
the people. They seem to forget that man
is an impressible being. and that it is his
nature to grow mean from prolonged mean
treatment and mean surroundings, or good
from good treatment and good surround
ngS. 1t is said that men are but children
of larger growth, and who would be so
out of boy by depriving him of every lib
erty Furnishing him for every slight devia-
ton from set of rules that forbid him eX
ercising the faculties with which his Creator
has endowed him. and showing him by ev-
cry sign that the purpose is to degrade him?
When it is desired to rear a boy into a noble
manhood an effort is made to surround him
with good examples and instill in him right
principles. The same methods must be
used to inspire the convict with the ambi
ton to rise above his own level.
1t can no longer be denied that criminals
may be reformed by humane treatment ac-
companied by mental and moral training.
Those institutions where a plan has been
introduced for treating the inmates as sus-
ceptible scholars instead of impressOnless
machines are accomplishing the purpose for
which prisons are northumberland is, they
are protecting the public by changing GRIM
inals into useful citizens. This plan is be-
coming popular and is being introduced
in many prisons; old prison officials are los
ing their Partially for the old system in
favor of the new system as the different re-
suits have compelled them to acknowledge
its superiority. But there is an element in
all communities that opposes every step
in the advance of prison reform. We
would ask such persons if their ideas have
not had long and frightful trial in the past
and if when those ideas were in the fullest
operation crime was not the most rampant?
Look at England's experience. When she
was hanging men, women and children for
the most trivial crimes her criminal pOpula-
ton was on the most rapid increase. 1t was
not until OF late yearS-Since she has light
ened the penalties of crime and begun
using humane efforts to reform her cOnvicts
that her criminal population has been on
steady decrease.
Every reform meets with opposition and
has to be carried through in spite of the
pulling back of those who are fast in the
ruts of prejudice. They would have the
prison made place wherein vengeance is
measured out under the license of the law.
They forget that violence begetS violence
and that most cOnvictS become free men
sooner or later when it will be in their
power to exercise the spirit of retaliation
that holds place in the nature Of all men.
Most men have become more or less de-
graded before they commit the act which
sends them to prison. If they are still far
Their degraded while in prison can it be rea-
sOnably expected that they will be better
men when they come out of prison than
when they went in? No person of any un
derstandng would expect them to grow
into better men without any effort being
made to teach them right principles while
shut away from the allurements of the
world. The public should recognize in the
treatment of criminals that many are not
such by their own vOlition. but have been
unfortunate in many ways; such as having
been reared in homes where the princ-
piles of crime were instilled in their very
natures; thrown into criminal associations
before they had arrived at an age of dis
cretion; surrounded by allurements to which
the strongest of men have been known to