The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1892-08-25
Letter from Charlestown.

Letter from Charlestown.
Massachusetts State Prison, Aug. H.,
1892-EditOr Of THE PRISON MIRROR:
l desire, hereby, to congratulate you on
the greatly improved typographical ap-
pearance of THE MIRROR. 1t is grand
little paper, in every respect, and worthy
Of the pride and earnest sOlicitude of
all good citizens, as we'll as Of prison
ers, and especially of the level-headed
inmates of the institution that produces
it. AS a prisoner myself, am proud
that "cOns." can father such promis-
ing offspring. l say promising, because
l do not believe it has attained to the
zenith of it's mission. No; there is a
future before it that will result in ex-
banding its influence for good in behalf
of all prisons and prisoners, far beyond
the brightest anticipations of it's orig
inal founders, or it's present conductors.
There is no reason why the Massa-
chusetts state prison cannot join in the
good work and send out a worthy rival
to THE MIRROR. There may be rea-
sons why we may not, for the present,
but it is to be hoped that such reasons
may soon disappear.
BY the way, | infer that you are la
boring under some mistake in regard
to this prison. An item in THE MIR
ROR of Aug. II, would convey the i'm
preston that we are having "cOnsider-
able trouble" here. Some two or three
years ago, it we remember correctly. we
read some damaging reflections on the
management of the Saltwater prison,
but as readers of THE MIRROR. we did
not believe the half that was stated. and
don't you believe half you have read of
late, about this place. There is no
trouble here; we have a gentleman for
warden whom we all respect. 1t is true
we are OvercrOWded, and somewhat
demOraliZed on account of the building
OF a long extension to one of the wings,
the work of which is being done entire
ly by prisoners, and thus far, is credit
to them. But, you will say, there must
be some foundation for all the yarns :"
about the place. Well, here is the whole
matter: A few of the inmates recently
"got onto" or, rather, got into, an un-
foreground passage to freedom, that
was previously unknown to the coolest
inhabitant," and sought to make their
exit thereby. DO you blame them for
that? A week or two later, a few
others made more fOOlhardy attempt
to regain freedom by other means, but
had little if any chance of success and
failed. All the criticisms you have met
with in relation to the management of
this prison have resulted from those
two occurrences, and were wholly I'M
warranted. Aside from those attempts
to escape, the discipline of the prison is
remarkably good, under present cir
cumstanceS.
The world is full of long headed peo-
pie who think they know all there is to
be known about prison management,
but if some of the ideas they express
with their pens, for public enlighten-
ment, are such as they would make the
basis of operations if they were placed
in charge of a prison like this one, it is
to be devOutly hoped, for their own
best interests, that they may never have
an opportunity to exhibit their skill as
practical prison refOrmers. You know.
there is often wide divergence between
theory and practice. Three months as
warden of one of these colonies will
learn man more about prison man
agement than he could dream in an
easy chair in lifetime.
This letter has slightly depressed from
the simple object it had in view at the
start, which was to compliment THE
MIRROR on its new dress, and to en-
close two dollars on account. The lat
ter will be duly appreciated if all else
fails in interest.
Please find some way to give my sim
cere regards to all the contributors, the
editor and typos of THE MIRROR, and
just tell them all to "brace up and
make the sixth year of the paper beat
it's own previous best record
Respectfully Yours,
S. X. A.
Do not sit down and whine because