Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1914-05-20

examples of prison in which cruelty,
disease and immortality reign supreme.
Why a person who kept a dog in some
OF the cells there would be punished
for cruelty by the police magistrates.
Any man who would voluntarily endure
the moral atmosphere of the prison, is
more degraded beast than we have
record Of in history or in fiction. Here
cleanly prisoners are contracting loath-
some diseases from unspeakable out
casts. Here men eat food three times
day that would sicken a buzzard, and
sleep in cells so damp that if they
spit on the floor, the spot remains wet
for a week! Such prison is simply
so many square feet of hell on earth"
Absolutely nothing is done to devel-
Op the individual. The mental inf1u-
ence is indescribably Sitting. Last
year one man in each ninety-five at
Sing Sing, went mad. III such condi-
tons the mind inevitably dulls, the
faculties lose their clearness and are
wasted. An endless amount of suffer
ing and heartbreaks is due to the cal
lOused Indifference and carelessness Of
the officials at the head of the prison.
The law providing for parole after fiji
teen years servitude with good be-
havior, works we'll in most cases; but
too many with good prison records are
overlooked and their applications for
parole are in vain. Such was the case
of Dennis, a prisoner in Atlanta FEEDER
al Penitentiary.
Dennis had made his application for
parole but for days after, he sat wait
ing for his release. Of course those
big officials had lots to do and couldn't
be expected to attend to him at once,
but they would not forget him. Six
long months passed and no word of
tall powerful mulattO when he came to
prisOn-he was a great gaunt skeleton
release came to him. He had been a
of a man now. At last he gave up
looking for parole and no parole came.
No doubt the great officials were busy,
and what was Dennis that they
should remember him, and draw out
that paper and sign it and send it to
him? The world could get along with
out Dennis. So one day Dennis died
and after the grey old corpse was laid
in it's box, it was driven around to
the prison burying ground and dumped
in it's red clay hole! Now how shall
pies and duties of life when the pris-
oner sees such tragedies as this,
which destroy the impression that
years of endeavor have sought to give
him.
Some time ago, there took place in
N. Y. State prison, the electrocution of
a young fellow. He was guilty beyond
a doubt, but this made the event none
the less terrible. When the power
was turned to that dreadful chair,
every prisoner knew that boy was be-
ing put to death. Thus the state
teaches the sacredness of human life!
If such old vindictive codes must still
be the LAWN PHYS name, let such
executions be held where they will not
be a lesson in brutality to fifteen hun
dred Gagged men. Do we wonder that
some Of the prisoners lose faith in all
their Christian teachings when such
tragedies are enacted at the will of
a state and people who profess to be
Christianized and enlightened? Is it
any wonder that such barrier of dis
trust between the Prison and Church
exists today?
The theory of segregation is thought
to be the first step in the reform OF
the prisoner. The prisoner is separat-
ed from all others and works alone.
Does this system work for reform?
Solitude does not stregthen, repression
does not reform! Solitary confinement
makes moral monsters, maniacS or
demons of men. "The more restricted
a mans freedom, the more nearly he
approaches the brute creation and the
more surely will he degenerate"
The problem of the released prison
er is a great problem. 1t is a ques-
ton of whether each year from fifty
to five hundred thousand prisoners
who have stared the bars in the face,
will go right or go wrong. One Of the
hardest penalties a misdoer pays,
comes after he is released. That awful
specter of prison experience is with
him always. When he again breathes
the air of freedom, the free world re-
jects him. He knows that with few
exceptions his fellow men will shun
him, not because he did wrong-but
because he has been to prison.
If we people of today are to attempt
solution of the problem of prison
revision, we must do it in a system
attic manner. We must begin with the
ell ment to which the prison owes it's
existence, -crime. Just so soon and
not until the many schools of crime
are wiped out, will our country be
blessed with few criminals. Crime is
that which occasions crime; thus are
we not ourselves criminals, in allow
ing such conditions to exist year after
year-conditions which feed crime.
Then if we must send offenders to
the prison, let us have just and honest
methods of conviction. We are AM
orleans, but we have sadly declined in
the principles Of government, until we
allow our laws to be distorted, dis
regarded and broken, - for money!
Why are there so few rich people in
prison today? Simply because money
talks. The less fortunate offenders
must endure the torture of the prison,
where every life represents a trag-
edy; "a tragedy if the man is guilty,
and scarcely less a tragedy if he is
innocent" Let us have better facil-