Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1893-10-19
The dAlLS nE DELAWARE.
The Years Go BY, But They Ever
Remain the Same.

Extracts From Paper Read Before the
Recent State Convention of the W. C.
t. IT,, by drs. n. II. smithers of Dover.
The unprogressive, unjustifiable, I'M
christian attitude of the people with re-
gard to prison reform causes me to have
to held up to your gaze again the same
dark picture l have hung out to you at
every convention for decade of years.
II Is the sad, sombre picture of a com
mon jail, with its unfortunate inmates
of both sexes of all ages, and of every
degree of crime, mixed up indiscrimi
nately. The hardened criminal and the
impressionable youth of first offence
! boon companions; the misguided youth,
who under proper conditions might be-
come respectable member of society,
eagerly listening to the story OF crime
and adventure as il falls from the pol
luted lips of the blackened and detained,
the thought being stamped upon his
very soul more indelibly every day, that
he too is an outcast; the female drift
ing lower and lower every day amid
such surroundings until the last faint
spark of womanhood goes out in the
darkness of hopeless degradation. Hud-
died together in idleness, neglected by
the world, despised and summed by
decent people there to curse at, and plot
and scheme against the society they re-
gard as their enemy. This is the picture
| hold up to you of what actually ex-
lists in your midst, and which you must
gaze upon and shudler at, for know
not how long. What is Jail work? Is it
Jail work for the superintendent TO visit
the jails every month? Is 1t jail work
for the w. @. I. U. women to visit the
jails on the 9th of June, carrying flow
ers to the prisoners, singing, praying,
and then never seeing them again until
the next year9 Is 1t Jail work to talk
with them and pity their condition on
these periodical visits, and fold our
hands while this blot on our escutcheon
grows blacker and blacker viewed by
comparison with progressive states?
When these thoughts force themselves
upon me OF how little has been accom-
plished in our iails, have been almost
ready TO argue myself to the point of
laying down my weapons, but for the
voice of duty. | read of improved
methods being introduced in other
| States, but do | know of anything We
could call reform being done in our pri-
sons in Delaware.
The years go by, leaving their changes
upon everything; manners, customs,
laws change with time, but the jails of
Delaware remain ever the same In
Dover and Georgetown jails, there are
no books, except those carried by
friends. New Castle Jail is better in this
respect, having small library. But
books only serve to relieve the monotony
of very few in our jails. Our prisoners
as class, are not readers of books, for
them Jail life is nothing but an exist
| ence Of absolute idleness, sometimes for
10 years.
Work would be a moral, as we'll as
| physical benefit to them, for, indeed,
| prison life in Delaware is certain de-
stroyer of both morals and health. One
man in Dover Jail who has borne the
enforced idleness for eight years, once
made his escape, but upon being cap
tured and brought back, told me that he
was coming back anyhow, as his feet
were in such condition thathe could not
walk far, nor could he use his hands at
labor. Employment is what they need.
Employment that will keep them physi.
cally strong, make them morally better,
by dispelling gloomy thoughts, that will
inculcate in them habits Of industry,
which would be powerful factor in
the reformation of even the worst man,
besides furnishing with trades with
which to begin life anew. All this
argument Is met with sneer and frown
of dlsapproval. Punishment, and
nothing but punishment, is the popular
notion in Delaware, while the chief
object of it all should be to reform and
reclaim the fallen one, whose miserable
environment is responsible for his un.
fortunate position.
Our prisons are pointed at with scorn
and derision by those living outside the
Y State. Not long ago the manager of an
excursion made New Castle Jail a
special feature in his programme Of at
fractions, advertising that the boat
would stop at New Caste on certain
days, when the excursionists could visit
the Jail, view the prisoners, witness the
whippings, and other punishments in
season. Sheriff Gould promptly put a
stop to this, but it only shows the light
in which we are viewed by outsiders.
| was very much entertained and as.
tonishcd little while ago in Dover Jail
when one of the prisoners told me how
heavily the fact Of his being in jail
weighed upon him, apart from being
deprived of his liberty. He spoke OF
being away from his family, and how
hard it was to bear; but, said he, "if
live to get out, who will ever notice me
again2 / feel ruined already" That
was the point with him, as it is with all
of them, not lost to all sense of proper
manhood. They know discharged
prisoners have hard road to travel
and that they get the least sympathy oil
, ally class of unfortunate people.
, Discharged without character, with
out credit, without cash, | can imagine
,, no darker life than the man has to face
who has served his time in one of ouI
jails. In New Castle Jail there are 12S
of just this kind of pitiable humanity
, in Dover Jail 25, and in Georgetown IL
There they are simply waiting behind
the bars until the day when they will
be turned out again upon the com
t munity despised and despising. No
one step taken to reform them, bu
on the other hand sunk deeper in til,
slime of degradation. When will tn,
people recognize the fact, and remedy
it2
\ Mnnaear locannotiva