The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1893-08-03
Sensation Mungering ami the Ell
mira Reformatory,

mira Reformatory.
The New York World is conducting
a sensational crusade against the Ell
mira Reformatory on the ground of
alleged cruelties practised there.
There may or may not be good ground
for attacking the institutions; but it is
we'll to remember that only n side
of the case has reached the public,
and that side rests on the testimony
of convicted criminals who are seeking
revenge for the severity of the discip
line to which they were subjected. 1t
is further presented to tire public in
the style of newspaper sensationalism
characteristic of the World and anyone
who reads the articles may see that
the facts are recklessly doctored to
produce a certain desired effect.
The difficulty in approaching the
discussion of such a topic as this is to
draw a just line between punishment
and cruelty. To free people, living at
ease. any sort of severity has an ap-
palling aspect, and the humanity and
kindness which, we hope, are predomi-
nant feelings in everyone's breast
constantly tend to cause a revolt
against methods which experience has
shown to be absolutely necessary for
the subsection of criminal natures.
However, fine in itself the impulse TO
mercy may be, it becomes dangerous
in no small degree when I'M
controlled by the judgment. 1t is not
only apt to become maudlin and
absurd, but even guilty in a n as
impeding the proper correction OF
guilt.
Surely it is somewhat grotesque to
TO find it urged as a serious argument
against Elmira R~eformatory that
criminals are more afraid of it than
of State Prison, and that anyone who
has served a term there never wants
to go back. To most people this
would seem to be a considera BILE
recommendation for the place, but
the World seems to regard it as a con-
elusive proof that the place is a blot
on the civilization of the State.
European prison officials rather smile
at the management of American
prisons. The rule is so mild and the
alleviations are SO many that the
brutal and hard lived wretches who
make up nine tenths OF the inmates
suffer next to nothing by confinement
in them. To the better class of
criminal they are terrible. because the
disgrace and the restraint are incon-
ceivably greater penalties than dark
cells and hard and scanty food; but to
the vast majority of convicts prison
has few terrors.
The Elmira Reformatory has a
record of many years of excellent
public service under the management
of the same Superintendent Brock
way who is now the target of the
Worlds attacks. It has beyond all
doubt redeemed thousands and thous-
ands of young offenders from the
criminal class and made tolerably
good citizens of them. 1t has always
been known that it was a severe
school for those who resisted reform,
but the brighter side of it has time
and again been shown to the public.
Its shops turn out good work. 1t
has many tonic methods for diseased
moral natures-military drill, book
education, gymnastic exercises, ply
steal culture and manual training,
cultivation Of personal will and
personal control by both ply
steal and moral discipline. In
many years there has never been a
serious complaint against the place.
On the contrary, the good results
have now for a long time been &C
cepted as conclusivelv proven. Will
it not be well for the public to judge
the institution from the work it has
done rather than from the unscru-
pulous accusations of witnesses whose
statements would be regarded as very
poor evidence in a court of law even
though made under oath. We should
certainly be sorry to IRISH to any con-
clusion unfavorable to the manage
ment without the results of an official
investigation to back it up.