Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1895-02-14
FOR PRISON REFORM.
The Subject Considered in an Able
and Practical Manner.

A sermon Recently Delivered by the Rev.
Alexander 7. Bowser, Pastor of the First
Unitarian Church. in Compliance with
aRequest of the Delaware Union for the
Public Good.
On Sunday, January 9th, in answer
to the letter Of the committee of the
Delaware Union for the Public Good,
asking all ministers throughout the State
to speak on the subject Of prison reform,
the Rev. Alexander T. Bowser OF the
First Unitarian Church preached on the
text, Il was in prison, and ye came unto
me-"
In the course Of his sermon he said
that the Christ spirit of sympathy and
love is gradually lifting modern thought
to the point of view where we see that
the relation between society and the
criminal is that Of the body to its mem.
bers: "lf one member suffer, all mem
bers suffer with it; If one perish, all are
afflicted. Thus we are coming to
understand that the true object Of pun
ishment is not vengeance IAN eye for
an eye, and tooth for a TOOTH" but to
protect the State the body of which all
are membersI by reforming, curing the
criminal-that is, the member of the
bOhJ "biCh 10 NGhh huu SlCh
and spiritually. Is the State of Della
ware doing this Let us see.
Under our present system of prison
management each county has Jail In
which are confined all classes of crimi-
nals-young and old, male and female
prisoners who are too poor to pay a fine
and are sent to jail for few days or
weeks, and prisoners who are sentenced
for life; and, strange as it may seem,
even persons detained on suspicion,
who may be entirely innocent, are i'm
prisoned with all those others, while
awaiting trial, which sometimes means
months Of this most degrading contine-
ment.
All these different kinds of prisoners
are under the same roof and general
management; all mingle in the same
social and moral atmosphere. Let a
single example illustrate the meaning of
this. A young man is convicted of
some petty crime. 1t is his first offence
He is sent 10 Jail for few months
Thus the State seeks to protect the COM
munity and reform the criminal. What
is the result? Does the young man re-
turn to his place in the life Of our city
cleansed Of his sin, forgiven for his
fault, and restored to our respect and
confidence? All, no; none of these
things happen. The very mention Of
them seems absurd, so far are they from
what we expect, or even wish. And
this young man who, up to this time,
was only weak mot vicious) returns to
the city marked man, avoided as a
criminal character, Stunned as moral
| most. and n 10 ot.rtAricnI tn hnar IL,
Il few weeks that he has been arrested
again, and sent back to the prison for a
longer term. And this is exactly what
ought to be expected under existing
conditions. For, when first imprisoned,
this inexperienced and undevelOped fell
low.citizen was thrown into close and
intimate relations with the worst crim-
mails of the county; and, having nothing
whatever given MIN to do to occupy his
attention, his entire time when awake
was spent, willingly or unwillingly, in
their companionship, under their in
tiuence, learning the awful lessons
which would set his whole life in a
criminal direction.
This is the moral condition at New
Castle, and the other iails are no better;
some say they are even worse; and the
fact that the United States authorities
have removed the Federal prisoners TO q
prison in New York State on account
of the crowded and unhealthy condi
tons of all three of the Delaware iails
ought to be convincing proof that the
time has come for thorough reforma
! ton of the methods and management Of
all our county iails. For as they now
exist they are simply moral pest houses
in which our prisoners are inoculateC
with criminal germs which they carry
out and spread through the who'll
commonwealth. How quickly woulc
We be moved to remedy the case if i
were physical and not moral contagion
If it were the germs of smallpox O
yellow fever, and not the germs o
moral blight, which our jails wer,
sending forth to poison the atmos
phere of the State And yet we al
know that moral disease is vastly NOR
far reaching and disastrous in its evils
t and harder to be cured, than any physi
: cal malady, however deadly its touch.
But what is to be done about it? Tn
/ Delaware Union for Public Good ha
. brought this matter before the Stat
. Legislature in the form of bill pre-
viding for State prison, or work houst
5 on the plan now in vogue in several o
c the States; an industrial prison, bull
and managed in accordance with tn
laws OF both moral and physical health
where all prisoners will be obliged t
ii work for the State seven or eight hour
day, with the privilege of workin
;. extra time for their own benefit, or th
y benefit of their families
= In considering prison reformation
a the first thing for us to do us Christian
n Is to turn to the great Teacher of on
:, religion, to get from Him his conceptio
!. of the life with which we are to deal
J the life of man in prison. What di
Jesus mean when he said: ~ was i
d prison and we came unto me-" [
course He does not mean that lie W;
# ever personally in prison. But was II
As not thinking of Himself as the Son {
i Man, the representative of humanity
:. Was He not putting Himself in man
10 place, as He often seemed to do, and
"A the poets sometimes represent Him
ar Lowell, for instance, in his "Yision /
. Sir Launfal?" There is a Greek sa,
n ing, which. freely translated, rui
n. something like this 81 am man; an
ar therefore, whatever pertains to humani
: is of interest to me-" But high as III
sentiment is, it is not what Jesus meal
It does not fully express the relatio
T. ship with humanity which lie felt
&c Ills heart and soul. With Him, 10 be
Or man meant that the essential element
~ humanity which differs us from ;
al other creatures was one and the same
d. all men-the lndwelling Spirit of CT
he that constitutes us His children al
us therefore brethren. Jesus had in mil
to the universal soul which is one and /