The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1893-07-11

As t. StatelPrison Extension.
The State appears to be on the
point of spending some 5000, 900 upon
additional prison accommodation
and, be it said with regret. it appears
to be on the point of spending it in
judiciously. The State Prison is over
crowded; no doubt about that; but
the proposition to relieve the pres
sure by merely adding new wings
with new tiers of cells is simply pro-
posing to throw away an opportunity
for a great humanitarian improve
ment.
The State Prison as it exists in this
country-and almost everywhere else
lis simply a refinement of bar
barism. There may be some wild
beast natures which it is nee
essary to deal with by means of
a cage; there may be professional,
habitual or innate criminals of such
%depravity that they can be treated
only after the plan of the geological
garden. These are the men in whose
vocabulary there are no such words as
present self-respect or future moral
development. To these the absolute
subsection of will, the total loss of in
dividuality, the destruction of per-
sonal identity ever are matters of no
consequence. The men are not
harmed by such treatment simply
because they are beyond harming.
But, to make a moderate estimate,
we should say that not over one-half
of all the men who drift into State
Prison belong to this class. The rest
are men whose instincts and possible
tiles are not naturally much worse
than the average. and whose charac-
tiers are, as a rule, very far from being
depraved beyond redemption. The
State Prison style of dealing with
such persons is not only one OF the
most frightful inj1stices of modern
civilization, but further, n of the
absurdest instructions of statecraft
that it is possible to imagine. To such
men as we speak of, whom single
faults or misfortunes have brought
under the ban of justice, the suit Of
stripes, the shaven head, the lock
step, the dim bookless cell, the minute
interference of the keeper in every de-
tail of existence, are simply organized
perdition, and probably not n man
in ten escapes their deadly influence.
The system is simply a colossal
scheme by which the State manufac-
lures criminals and utterly vicious
persons in enormous numbers to prey
on itself, and its citizens generation
after generation.
The intermediate prison plan is the
refuge from this blunder and this
crime. The need of New Jersey and
all modern states is an institution
where the ofender-not the criminal
properly SO called-may endure such
punishment as he deserves, but where
instead of his total ruin, a moral and
personal elevation may be ac-
complished in his nature. Such a
prison should avoid the degradations
of the State penal colony; it should
try to build up not to crush the in
dividual will and the mans conf
dence in and regard for himself. Re
munerative work, and sufficient
means and opportunity for instruc-
ton should be provided. and liberty
at a nearer or farther period should be
made the prize for honest use of the
opportunities OF the institution.
1t is true, the founding of such an
establishment as this would cost a
little more than 5000, 900, and at first
its annual running expense would be
greater than that involved in the
mere addition of a few more cells and
a few more keepers to the State Pri-
son. But the investment would be
cheap in the long run. 1t would be
cheap at any cost, a a means of saw
ing men to honest life and decent
citizenship. But we believe it would,
in a few years, actually effect a money
saving, for we believe the expenses of
the final prison would, in a short
time, be reduced good fifty per cent.
through the reduction in the number
of second term prisoners.