The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1914-03-12
THE HUMAN SIDE
OF THE CRIMINAL
"StlII Belong to Fellowship Of the Com
mon life = Engu|fed by StromS Which
Perhaps Would Have Wrecked the Best
of US" Says Rev. Cooley.
A BRILLIANT ADDRESS 8

du duuIcSS ny 11dITlS IL. NOOIey ,
of Cleveland, delivered before the
American Prison Congress. in In
dianapolis, last October:
Our dealing with the offend cr
has been largely pagan. There has
been criminal treatment of crime.
In the modern betterment of the
conditions and opportunities of life
the prisoner has been overlooked.
Progress has halted at the iron doors.
The old torture idea has fingered
long in the common thought of
punishment. The traditional feeling
is that severe and painful punish
ment exterminates wrong thoughts
and action.
Having been called from the active
ministry to the head of the mimic
lpal department of Charities AID
Correction. | suddenly found myself
face to face with three hundred pris-
oners in the workhouse, with the
responsibility of their treatment.
AS | looked into the faces of these
prisoners there came to me this
challenge. Dare you put into prac-
tice with these men and women the
g )spel which you have been preach
ing from the pulpit?' 1t was one
of the most serious questions | had
ever been called upon to face.
/ went to Mayor johnson. saying
to him that change of methods
would raise a storm of protest. He
said to me, If it is the right thing
to do, do it anyway" And so in
his first administration we pardoned
and paroled eleven hundred and SIX.
ty men and women from our House
of Correction. In the previous ad-
ministration only eighty-four had
been pardoned. OF course the radi-
cal change raised a storm of protest
from the press and even from the
pulpit. Many good people seemed
surprised that the gospel of human
kindness really worked.
If we are to deal fairly with the
offenders. we must know, as Victor
Hugo says, the path up which the
crime has done," and sometimes to
know all is to forgive all.
Some of our visitors have express
ed surprise, saying that the prison.
ers really look like the men outside. "
If they are hurt on the machinery
they bleed, and their blood is red
like ours.
Reasons for imprisonment
There are only two reasons which
justify the confinement of men and
women in prison; the first, the pro-
lection of society; the second, the
good of the criminal. All thoughts
of revenge should be put away in a
civilized community. Severity and
brutality of punishment has never
decreased crime. A hundred years
ago in Great Britain there were two
hundred offenses punishable by
death. This was thought necessary
in order to repress and restrain the
criminal class If the executions of
men and women has a marked deter
rent effect on crime, then to have
private executions is to hide a light
under a bushel. By the law of
suggestion, brutal, revengeful pun
nlshment arouses thoughts of vio-
lence and blood. The method of
severity and torture is not necessary
either to protect society or to cure
the criminal. For its own sake.
society cannot afford to be brutal
even to the weakest, meanest man
or woman.
When the apostle said, If thine
enemy hunger, feed him." he was
expressing a good social law. The
best way for society to destroy it's
enemies is to make honest citizens.
The simple story of mercy and kind
ness of the Nazarene has done more
to lift men and women cut of vice and
crime than all the jails and peniten-
tiaries and hangmens' ropes COM
blned. The emblem of the coming
power is not lion as with Great
Britain, bear as with Russia, an
eagle as with us, but the emblem of
the coming power is Lamb which
is in the midst of the Throne.
Training Men for Criminal Life
The awakening to the magnitude
and vital importance of this problem
has been slow and slothful. We
spend money like water for punish
ment. While at the head of the
police department, voucher came
through one day for twenty one dol