Omaha daily bee., 1915-09-15

Whatever talenI Lney may nave 10 III
dhe medieval yoke of tyranny from our
shoulders, and let little sunshine of
common sense into the PRISON conditions
over the country.
This glorious, civilized, wonderful
country America forever! IT all
right to say. fellow penwoman. but one
must say this with his back TO the prison
conditions of America If you know
you do not need to be told. II not
want to urge you to think on these things
and NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. Locke Burns"
The receipt of the above letter caused
the writer of this article to think and
investigate" Five hundred thousand
persons, 1t is estimated, pass through
American prisons every year. Had they
been efficiently educated, efficiently
trained to do something constructively.
this stream OF inefficient humans would
be perceptibly reduced. Viii Q they
are passing through the penal and re-
formatory institutions every avenue of
greater enlightenment should be at their
service, every stepping stone to greatness
should be given them.
The privilege of writing and receiving
( letters is greatly restricted in the great
majority of American state prisons. A
stricted mail privileges. No prison riots
occur in the states that grant the in
mates the privilege of writing as many
letters as they desire to their friends and
relatives. The reason is simple for their
minds are occupied with wholesome and
elevating thoughts. Nothing will make a
person more morose and sullen than to
( be denied the God-given liberty of COM
p munication with his loved ones and his
own dearest friends.
b When a man is sent to prison, there is
no reason why his relatives, friends and
family should be punished by not being
allowed to hear from him. That is
where the wrong individual is penalized.
Why shouldn't prisoner be allowed to
write TO his folks. telling whether he is
alive or dead, well or sick, miserable or
fairly content? Who suffers? You know
st is the folks at home.
Z 1t is a great privilege to write letters,
and II is still a greater privilege to re-
ceive them. Anyone who has ever felt
the abject misery of looking for a letter
that never comes will understand me.
. There is no reason under the blue sky
why convict should not be allowed to
send out as many letters of a social ma
ture as he cares to buy postage stamps
for. The object OF putting a man in
prison IL twe-fold; first, to protect So
ciety. and second, to make the convict
a better man. And certainly. breaking
off all connections with the outside
world does not make for human evolu-
tion.
Every prisoner in America should be al
lowed the full, free privilege OF the
United States mail, exactly under the
same conditions that men outside enjoy
There is nothing in any law in the land
that says that imprisoned men shall be
denied the mail privileges. The late
Ebert Hubbard says: THE forbidding
the prisoners TO send out mail is a
foolish, vain, unnecessary rule that has
come down TO us from the Dark Ages.
q When a prisoner is sentenced It should
be for q term of sunshine. fresh air.
simple and abundant food, and honest
work. All this with the intent that when
man Is given back to society he will
be an asset and not a liability"
= And here is what ]. j. Sanders, parole
clerk OF the Arizona state prison, says:
"Out here in Arizona a new system OF
handling the state offenders has been
inaugurated by the present administra-
tion. Great strides have been taken In
prison reform. and the greatest of these,
from the standpoint OF tho welfare OF the
prisoner-which only means, in the end,
the welfare of society-has been the re-
moving of all restrictions from the pris-