People are sentenced to a term in prison on account of crime committed.
There are two systems of punishment. One is called punitive or
retributive system, the other the corrective or reformative. Until
within the last few years the punitive system was almost the exclusive
one. However, our humane officers, prison officials, lawmakers and
statesmen are not only learning better ways of bringing men and women
thus incarcerated into subjection, but in many places are making and
enforcing laws which require that prisoners be more humanely treated
and receive better care and accommodations. Men have resorted to
almost every possible device in order to make bad men good and raise
them from ignorance to intelligence, and in so doing have inflicted
the most severe punishment, causing the prisoners to pass through
severest ordeals and most terrible sufferings imaginable. When we say
there has been a radical change in many of our prisons in the land in
discarding the severe corporal punishment, we do not wish to convey
the idea that all prisons have yet accepted the more humane ways of
governing the prisoners under their charge. When we say some of these
punishments have been and are yet severe it does not fully express
the facts of the case. The word “severe” is not a strong enough word.
There have been and are yet punishments that are brutal—brutal to the
extreme. Many prisoners who are within the prison walls carry the deep
lash marks of the whip; the unjointed and deformed thumbs resulting
from the punishment of being hanged by the thumbs; and there are other
deformities. Many of us can no doubt remember the time of our early
days in the country school when the schoolmaster was almost constantly
with a beach or birch whip in his hand, something equal to an ox goad.
This instrument for correcting the youths of our land and bringing
them into subjection, when not in the schoolmaster’s hand was in the
corner near by and was generally freely used. There have been, however,
such a radical change and better modes of government brought about,
that many schools are taught without once using such an instrument of
punishment. If such a successful change has been made in our public
schools, surely as radical a change can be made in our prisons, to take
the place of the brutality of the past. Concerning the easy government
of the prisoners there is much that depends upon those in charge of the
prisoners. The warden, chaplain, and prison guards who have direct care
of the prisoners should be good, whole-souled men, kind and benevolent,
and who are capable of appreciating the good traits of a man even
though they may be covered by many dark ones. They should be good
readers of human nature and understand the dispositions of those under
their charge. They should be firm and unyielding to their trust, yet
loving and tender.
Mr. Meade, warden of the state prison at Auburn, N. Y., says: “Till the
nature of criminals undergoes a complete change, nay, till the nature
of man is much altered, there will be times when punishment must be
inflicted on prisoners. Much as we have gained on using the modern
reformed treatment, and much as we may justly expect to gain in the
future, the fact remains that there are times in the prison life of men
when the results of their former passions crop out irresistibly, making
them for a time not accessible to friendly reproof. At such times, for
the effect it has on others, but quite as much for its effect on its
misdemeanant, it is necessary to forcibly bring him to recognition of
his obligations and his duty. But to my mind forcible restraining,
or to employ the common term, punishing a convict, does not require
the use of the paddle or other instruments of torture; furthermore, in
my judgment, such process should be condemned in the strongest terms.
For they tend to imbitter not only the man punished but all prisoners
against the officers of the prison, the rules of the prison, and law
itself. One instance of the use of the paddle would do more to destroy
the desired friendly relation between officers and men than many months
of considerate treatment could restore. No! Experience has proved to
me that when it is imperative that an inmate be punished, the screened
cell or dungeon without discretion furnishes an effective mode. Such
cells should be kept dry and well ventilated, but wholly devoid of
furnishings. Confining men thus and supplying them with a very limited
amount of food and water has, in the great majority of cases which
have come under my observation, speedily brought the desired result of
making a man see the advisibility of abiding by the regulations of the
institution.”
There are also other ways, however, of vividly impressing the minds of
those who are disorderly, or who insist on not observing the prison
rules. Most prisons have what is called “short time;” that is, for
good behavior their sentence is shortened so many days each month, and
in some prisons a certain percentage of the worth of their labor is
placed to their credit for good behavior. One of the effective ways
of bringing them to time when they become stubborn and rebellious,
refusing to obey the rules, is to withhold the commutation, or short
time, and also deduct so much of the compensation money that has been
placed to their credit. This is generally much more effective and
pleads to the reason and common sense of the prisoner more than some
forcible persuasion by way of corporal punishment.
For certain offences some are black-listed to be punished in various
ways. One is, during working hours or while others are resting or at
services on Sunday, the disobedient convict is to march for a few hours
around the prison square and carry a heavy piece of railroad iron,
weighing from fifty to one hundred pounds.
[Illustration: The Black List.]
Captain Smith, a few years ago, in giving his biennial report of the
Kansas prison, said: “The discipline has been carefully looked after
and as a general thing prisoners yield to a strict discipline better
than most people think. They seem to see and realize the necessity of
rules and very seldom complain, if they violate them, at the punishment
that is sure to follow. Our punishments are of such a character that
they do not degrade. Kansas, when she established her penitentiary,
prohibited corporal punishment. She is one of the few states that
by law prohibits the use of the whip and strap, taking the position
that it is better to use kindness than to resort to brutal measures.
I have often been told, and that too by old prison men, that
it is impossible to run a prison and have first-class discipline
without the whip. Such is not my experience. We have had within our
walls perhaps as desperate men as ever received a sentence. We have
controlled them and have maintained a good discipline second to none
in the country. How did we accomplish this? Our answer is, By being
kind but firm, treating a man, although a prisoner, as a man, and if
he violates rules, lock him up and give him an opportunity to commune
with himself and his Maker; also give him to understand that he is the
executioner of his own sentence, and when he concludes that he can
do right, release him. It matters not how vicious, how stubborn, or
what kind of a temper he may have, when left with no one to talk to
and an opportunity to cool down and with the knowledge that when he
comes to the conclusion that he will do better he can be released, he
leaves the cell feeling very different from the prisoner who leaves
the whipping-post after having received any number of lashes that the
brutal officer may desire to inflict. One goes to his work cheerful
and determined to behave himself; the other dogged, revengeful, and
completely humiliated, only lives in hope that he may at some time take
his revenge upon the person that ordered or inflicted the punishment
and upon the state or country that would by its laws tolerate such a
brutal or slavish practice.”