Carson City daily appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1907-1930, 1914-04-18


The following article has been handed the Appeal for publication.
1t W a written by a man confined in the state penitentiary, doing time
for a felony committed in Humboldt county a man OF more than ordin-
airy intelligence, who, by reason OF his experience has given much thought
to the subject Some OF his ideas have been discussed before, others
are new and somewhat striking. In all they give much food for thought
those who are interested in crime and criminaity and their proven
ton and cause. The article is as follows:
Every year in the United States some half a million men, women
and children are given a tate OF prison lie.
Most of them ar people who re not criminals They are merely
social mis6ts. Some ever had a chance. Some threw away the chance
they had.
At the bottom they are human. Surely they deserve another chance and
the theory OF the law gives them a chance; the practice of the law does
not give them that chance.
In practice we build large and expensive prisons for them, pack them
away and forget them. When we send a man or woman to prison for
committing a crime. W c punish his family. his innocent dependents
much than we punish him. He has a place to sleep, warmth and
food; his innocent family, deprived OF his share OF support may have
neither.
He works in prison all right but the profits from his work go to
the state or to a few lei who make contracts for the prisoners labor.
Now this makes criminals and his daughters his ons his
wife, what becomes OF them: Some become criminals; some become
prostitutes! Is this right?
OF the hall million persons we send to prison every year one-thrd
are married and have contributed to a famnys support; this support
gone, the mother is thrown into the crowded labor market in an effort
to feed her children. The husband is locked up in prison, where he will
probably work for the state or ONE ntracto tn nnocen wife rub
There is n Judge who said: When sentence a father to prison
feel like ought to send his family also. as know that in five cases
u OF seven I am actually sentencing the mother to the street and the
When we catch n criminal. W make two Or three new criminals
and at a fair estimate, II prison system, which is designed to punish OIL
reform the guilty, really does punish every year 100000 helpless women
and children who have done nc wrong than to have had a law-breakmg
There is another remedy Do ct send a a to prison for the first
time, if you wish to save the innocent women and children who are hurt
by this system.
Then there is the police and detective force to contend with. When
a man has ice been in trouble he is given n show, but is continually
logged from place to place.
The police and detective force in the United States is the most o
rupt in the world, and more criminals are made daily by the methods OF
the police department than by any other way
Society is learning in a broad way the truth that wrong doing is
not prevented by the severity OF the punishments melted II for it. It's
frs. duty should not be to punish crime, but to prevent it.
ussfurness nav b amplv renaid hv him pt i on ths mere basis
it pays No ideaism is necessary to grasp the significance of that fac.
be misied by the dishonest and insncere disparagement (which is con-
tmuany being made OFT the motives IL ideals OF pr1SOn reOrmer 1t
will be worth while 10 restate briefly what most prison reformers mean
by prison reform.
Most of them, it may be added, would object to the use of the phrase
prison reform at ALL for what they are seeking is not a reformed
prison, but a different kind OF al establishment altogether.
Most prison reformers believe that a criminals criminaity nay be
traced in many instances to thu environment by which he has been sur
rounded; that in many other instances it may be traced to heredty, that
is, to the environment by which his ancestors yer surrounded; and
that in a very large percentage OF prison commitments it cannot be trac-
ed al all, because there is 40 actual crininahty present.
But the question OF previous responsibility, whether social or ind
vidual is a purely academic n The concern Of prison is with what
a "a is. not with what he has been Here" we should say, is a de-
fective human apparatus. Let US SCI if We cal make it normal again and
fit fol the worlds work
Our prisons should be human repair shops, and not, as they o are,
wrecking yards.
sentimentalty is the result OF a appeal to emotion rather than to
are those who disregard the san point of view, and make their appeal
to the barbarous emotions OF hate.
l should like to give you a few lines from a paragraph in the San
Francisco Examiner by Charles Montgomery, n Of the California pris-
on commissioners, Mr.. Montgomery says: The first aim in reforming
prisoners is the protection OF society. We are OF sentimentalsts. We
are too long in the work OF to be practical.
I'VE most heartily believe i'll prisons, provided prisoners an be clas-
sied, the young men to be kept by themselves and taught useful trades
with enforced education. One of the greatest reflections o II prison
management is o see hundreds of men coming Out of prison after serv-
ing time unable to sign their W name. We believe strongly in the
parole law, wisely and most literally applied. Every lar should be
paroled as soon as he is fit to again enter society"
There has been much foolish twadde written about prisoners and
prison reforms, and the public is tired of tit. There is very little, if any
thing, that is progressive in prisons. The reason for this is that our
prisons are kept in politics. Society needs to be reformed before we
car expect many reforms in IL prisons.
The taxpayers are supporting thousands of prisoners that ought to
be at home supporting their families.
When will society begin to think? When it does there will be some
thing doing in the prisons.