The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1895-05-30
A Convict, But Still A Man.

A Boston paper recently reported the
case of young man serving term in
the Massachusetts, penitentiary for
forgery, who has earned several thou
sand dollars by labor outside of what
was required of him as part of his
prison duties; that every cent of this
money has been turned over to those
who lost by his crime, and that when
he was offered pardon he refused it,
saying he had committed a crime for
which he wished to make full repa-
ration, not only to those who had suf-
fered by it, but to the state.
The case is an unusual one, as the
convict is said to be a highly educated
man, who is able, by doing translating
and other work for New York and
Boston publishers, to earn considerable
money. But, unusual as it is, it is full
of suggestion of what will ultimately
be done in every prison in the country.
Assuming the accuracy of all that has
been said in the case, the convict is SO
far above the average, in or out of pris-
on, that he is able to overcome the
difficulties of an imperfect and vicious
prison discipline and to show by the
force of his example how great are the
possibilities of just and reasonable
system.
Under the existing system prevailing
in all the states, the convict ceases to
be man as soon as the prison dress is
on him. He becomes mere chattel of
the state, civilly dead, and in view of
the law he has none of the moral re-
sponsibility which attaches to person
civilly alive. But this young man in
sisted upon retaining a sense of obliga
ton in spite of having become chattel
In spite of being dead under the law.
he has worked as if he were living
man, and has made his work count for
living results.
Under just and reasonable prison
system every convict will be encouraged
to do what this man has done. All the
coercion to which convicts are subject
ed will be directed to restore their sense
of responsibility. They will not be
compelled to make restitution to those
they have wronged, for that is nearly
always out of the question, but they
will be treated as men capable of earn
ing more than the expenses of their
own support, and under moral obi
cation to do so.
OF course when a convict is sold to
lessee-as is done in many Of the states
he is under no obligation to earn
more than his bare living. The state
in selling him as chattel diveSts him
of all moral responsibility to his tamil
ly and to the body Of society. But if it
neither sold him as chattel nor treat
ed him as dead person; if it assumed
that he still had duties to a mother, to
a wife, to children, to society; if it en-
couraged him to work and earn on his
own responsibility as man; if it con-
WINGED him that every cent of his earn
ings above the absolute cost of keeping
HIM would be his to give to his family,
to set apart for those he had wronged,
or to keep for himself, as start in the
world after his discharge, penitentiaries
might become what they so rarely are
now-places for men to repent in and
to reform.
Why should they not be that, and
more than that? Why should any
state continue a system under which
those who are already sufficiently de-
graded are sunk to the uttermost
depths of degradation minneapolis
Times.