The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-06-06
ENGLISH PRISON CRUELTY.
OSCAR WILDE'S PROTEST AGAINST
BARB4REC METHODS.

Turther Extracts From = Remarkable Letter
children Treated shnmeruliy, wen Driven
in~sane-Piana for the oueen's Subiiee-Ths
RIDE In Modern war-An Antiquarian kind.
LONDON, May 2s.-1 scnt to The Sun by cable
to-day some extracts from a letter written by
Oscar Wilde about the rank cruelty and inhu-
manity of tho English penal system. with special
reference to It's application to children. / do
scribed the letter as a remarkable one, and such,
indeed, it is from every point Of view. 1t ia q
calm. temperate, imporsonal, but overwhelming
Indictment Of a system which It Is charitable
and mild TO describe as q survival Of barbarism
In q civilized country. The letter Ia remarkable
In the hrst place on account OF Its source.
1t Is from the pen OF q man, who. quito aside
from any question Of morals, was two
years ago q blatant, insufferable ecoist, q pre-.
sumptuous. conceited jugsler Of emotions and
epigrams. Ho has come out from two years Inn
prisonment and written a letter in which Is no
word of personal complaint, but which will as
surcdly prove q powerful influence toward the
abolition of the greatest surviving disgrace OF
the British nation. II is q plain, straightforward
presentation OF fact and argument, without u
trace of the capricism, intolerance, and literary
nOntebankism which have characterized the
work of this man ever since he first sought pub
lie notoriety. Moreover. what he has to say is
intensely interesting, as l shall leave the reader
TO Judge by quoting freely from such portions of
the letter as l have not already dealt with by
cable. He says:
People nowadays do not understand what
cruelty is. They regard 1t as q sort Of terrible
medieval passion, and connect It with the race
OF men like Eccelin da Romano and others, to
whom the deliberate infection Of pain gave q real
madness of pleasure. But men Of the stamp of
Eccelin are merely abnormal types OF perverted
individualism. Ordinary cruelty is simply stu
pidity. II is the entire want Of Imagination. 1t
is the result of our days or sterootyped systems,
OF hard-and-fast rules, and of stupidity. Wher-
ever there Is Capitalization there is stupidity.
What is inhuman in modern life Is ofticialism.
Authority is as destructive to those who exer-
else it as it is to those ON whom 1t is exercised.
1t is the Prison Board, and the system 1t carries
out, that is the primary source Of the cruelty
that is exercised on II child in prison. The people
who uphold tho system havo excellent inten-
tons. Those who carry it out are humane in
intention also. Responsibility is shifted on to
the disciplinary regulations. II Is supposed
that because a thing is the rule it Is right.
AS regards the children, q great deal has
been talked and written lately about the con-
Eliminating influence of prison on young chill
dren. What is said is quite true. A child is
utterly contaminated by prison life. But the
contaminating influence is not that of the
prisoners. 1t is that OF the whole prison sys-
tem-ot the Governor, the chaplain, the ward
ers, the lonely cell, the isolation. the revolving
food, the rules of the Prison Commissioners, the
mode of discipline. as it is termed. OF the life.
Every care is taken to isolate q child from the
sight even OF all prisoners over sixteen years OF
age. Children sit behind q curtain in chapel, and
are sent to take exercise in small, sunless yards
sometimes a stone-yard, sometimes q yard at tho
back of the mills-rather than that they should
see the elder prisoners at exercise. But the only
really humanizing influence in prison Is the in
fuence OF the prisoners. Their cheerfulness
under terrible circumstances, their sympathy
for each other. their humility, their gentleness.
their pleasant smiles Of greeting when they meet
each other, their complete acquicscence in their
p~unishments, are all quite wonderful. and l my
self learned many sound lessons from them.
am not proposing that the children should not
sit behind a curtain in chapel, or that they
should take exercise in a corner OF the common
yard. am merely pointing out that tho bad In
huence on children is not, and could never
be. that Of the prisoners, but is, and will
always remain. that of the prison sys-
tenn itself. There is not a single man
In Reading Jail that would not gladly
have done the three children's punishment for
them. When l saw them last 1t was on the
Tuesday following their conviction. / was TAX
Ing exercise at half-past IL with about twelve
other men, as the three children passed near us,
In charge Of q warder, from the damp. dreary
stoneyard in which they had been at their exer-
else. l saw the greatest pity and sympathy in
the eyes of my companions as they looked at
them. Prisoners are, as a class, extremely kind
and sympathetic to each other. Suffering and
the community of suffering makes people kind,
and day after day as tramped the yard I used
to feel with pleasure and comfort what Carlyle
calls somewhere the silent rhythmic charm of
human companionship.' In this, as in all other
things, philanthIopists and people Of that kind
are astray. 1t Is not the prisoners who need
reformation. 1t is the prisons.
"Of course no child under fourteen years OF
age should be sent to prison at all. 1t Is an alb
surdity, and, like many absurdities. of absolute.
Il tragic results. II, however, they are to be
sent to prison, during the daytime they should
be in a workshop or schoolroom with a warder.
At night they should sleep in a dormitory, with
might warder to look after them. They should
be allowed exercise for at least three hours q
day. The dark, badly-ventilated. ill-smellins
prison cells are dreadful for a child. dreadful in
deed for any one. One Is always breathing bad
air in prison. The food given to children
should consist OF tea and bread and butter ant
soup. Prison soup is very good and wholesome
A resolution OF the House OF Commons could
settle the treatment OF children in half an hour
hope you Will use your influence to have thil
done. The way thar children are treated q
present Is really an outrage on humanity anc
common sense. 1t comes from stupidity.
Let me draw attention now to another terri
bic thing that goes on in English prisons, indeec
in prisons all over the world where the system
OF silence and cellular confinement is p~ractised
refer to the large number OF men who becom
insane or weak-minded in prison. In conyic
prisons this Is. Of course. quite common; but II
ordinary jails also. such as that / was ~confne,
In. II Is TO be found.
About three months ago I noticed anon
the prisoners who took exercise with me
young man who seemed to me to be silly O
half-witted. Every prison. OF course. has 1t
~half.witted clients, who return again and again
and may be said to live in the prison. Blu
this young man struck me as being more thai
usually half-witted on account of his sill
grin and idiotic laughter to himself. and tn
peculiar restlessness Of his eternally twitchin
hanIu -.,, .. 49, n A. Il