The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1919-12-09

rroper balance Of the spirit, sleep
brings forgetfulness and fresh hope
and strength, and the fallen spirit 10
once more at the helm headed for
its proper destiny. 81
How the Custom Started
In the olden days when crime and
heresy we're punishable by death. 1t
came to be considered that II was
not right to execute the offender
quickly for his crime and have him
pass out of the body in q criminal
state OF mind or spirit, SO they adopt
ed the custom of placing the offender
for "a while in a quiet place where
he might reflect and come into a
more suitable condition to meet the
great ordeal of death. When he be-
came sufficiently penitent, when his
spirit was at peace with the rest Of
the world, when he had been advised
and his hope Of a future life had be-
come well enough rooted to meet the
ordeal, he was taken out and exc
cuted.
How the Building Was Named
The place where offenders were
kept during the period Of repentance
came to be called the pen-i-ten-ti-ary,
and persons who held interviews
with the penitent ones were i'm
pressed with the idea that such per-
son, If allowed to 60 out and try
again, would be an exemplary citizen.
Experiments with such persons
brought about the custom Of allow
ing them their liberty when proper
advisers said the right time had
come, and rulers came to depend up
on the. word Of the priests as to the
right time to issue a pardon, and
upon what conditions the offender
might 60 forth. In some cases 1t
was complete pardon, and in others
it was essentially pardon and full
liberty, but conditioned upon keep
ing clean record for the rest of his
life, and that condition was known
as probation or parole. If the pa
role was broken he went back for a
longer period, or perhaps for execu-
tion.
individuals Overlooked
AS the number of penitentiaries
increased and the number of appli-
cations for pardon and parole in
creased, the pardoning magistrates
laid down rules under which appli-
cations for pardon might be made.
No application would be considered
until the prisoner had been in con-
| finement six or twelve months, and
only then if his conduct had been
good and there were no marks
against his record. 1.-THE page must
be clean"
Provision for the Friendless
But lest a man had no friends to
make application in his behalf and
no priest came to confer with him
and study his spiritual condition,
rules were established by which each
prisoner was given credits or dis
counts on his prescribed term of con-
finement, if his conduct was good.
Or the sentence might be made in
determinate (not fixed) by the mag
istrate, and it would be decided by
his record in the prison and by the
advice of the warden. But lest all
these things were neglected in his
case, the rules of bookkeeping of
each prisoners account made it a
duty to discount or shorten the term
of service according to a fixed sched-
ule of credits allowed by good con-
duct, so a ten-year sentence would
expire in six or seven years and a
five-year sentence in three or four,
a two-year sentence in fifteen
months, and so on, always holding
out inducements for good conduct,
and making it possible for friends to
get him pardoned when they could
give assurance that he was really
penitent and anxious to start life
anew on approved modes of living.