Few people have a comprehensive idea of a penitentiary, especially the
daily life of the inmates and the routine work in connection therewith. We
will endeavor to give an accurate account of the prisoner’s mode of
occupation, his ideals, hopes and aspirations and follow him from the day
he entered the prison, from his initiation into the various departments,
to the day of his final discharge. One of our celebrated poets has truly
said:
A prison is a house of care,
A place where few can thrive,
A touchstone true to try a friend,
But a grave to one alive.
This stanza sums up the situation very nicely, although prison life is not
the horrible nightmare that many authors have depicted. Most writers seem
to get their ideas from the comic papers, wherein the prisoner is absurdly
cartooned with close‐cropped hair, low‐browed and villainous looks,
dressed in striped clothing of grotesque fit, and in many cases he is
pictured chained to the floor by a huge ball and chain. This may have been
an authentic description of the average prisoner years ago, but is not
true today. It is a far cry from the time when Diogenes walked the streets
of ancient Athens with a lighted lantern in the day time looking for an
honest man. There were no prisons at that period of the world’s history.
If a man committed a serious crime against the state or an individual the
authorities ordered the lictor to strike off his head. If the offense was
a minor one the offender was sold into slavery. This mode of procedure
required only a few moments to execute, for in those days there were no
protracted trials or clever attorneys to seek technicalities through which
to free their clients. This condition of affairs prevailed for many
centuries, and it often happened that a greater injustice was done the
wrongdoer than he had committed against the state.
Fortunately, however, it remained for Victor Hugo to cry a halt against
the then inhuman treatment accorded prisoners. In “Les Miserables” he
paints a vivid picture that profoundly awakened public conscience, which
still causes the world to shudder as it thinks of the injustice society
did to poor Jean Valjean for stealing two loaves of bread to keep from
starving.
There is today a more broad, more tolerant and a decidedly more civilized
sentiment towards the inmates of penal institutions. It is universally
recognized that the prisoner of today becomes the citizen of tomorrow;
this fact must be conceded. Every effort is, therefore, made to assist
them who have a keen desire to lead an honest life. However, if one is
inclined to go around with a “chip on his shoulder,” so to speak, he will
undoubtedly find as much trouble inside as he will outside of a prison. If
he behaves himself, complies with the rules and performs his work in a
conscientious manner he will have no more difficulty than he would
anywhere else.
Modern penology has many bright laurels to its credit. What is meant by
“modern penology” is that era which ushered in the good‐time law, whereby
a prisoner is enabled by meritorious conduct to reduce his original
sentence to a marked degree; the parole and grading system, which permits
the release of a first offender at the expiration of half his sentence;
the establishing of prison night schools, enabling him to learn a trade
during imprisonment and permitting him to have books, papers, magazines,
etc. In fact our modern penology, of which a striking example can be seen
in the Minnesota State Prison, that has the reputation of being one of the
best‐managed institutions in the country, aims to develop the good in the
prisoner instead of continually keeping at a white heat all his coarse and
brutal instincts.
Many years ago (and in some prisons at the present time), harsh measures
were employed to punish an inmate for the slightest violation of a prison
rule. But experience vividly impressed upon the public mind that such
policy was a vicious one. It returned the prisoner to society a hundred
fold more dangerous than he was previous to his commitment. Moral suasion
has now supplanted the loaded cane, the dungeon and all other drastic,
coercive measures which, instead of improving, had a decided tendency to
make idiots of prisoners, morally, mentally and physically. It is
dangerous to permit a mad dog to roam at large, and the same is true of
the prisoner whom the custodians of the state turn loose on the community,
whose every fibre beats stridently for revenge upon those who have
subjected him to brutal treatment. Roughly speaking, we feel safe in
saying that seventy‐five per cent of the prisoners are susceptible to
moral suasion and any appeal made to them is taken seriously.
Our modern penology is not the effervescent dream of unbalanced minds, but
the result of exhaustive research by many of the best prison authorities
in America and Europe. Long experience has proven its value, and the
present century will assuredly witness as many wonderful improvements as
took place in the past.
For various reasons I have refrained from mentioning the names of
prisoners with sensational reputations who have been inmates of the
Minnesota State Prison in the past.
I am sincerely indebted to Warden Wolfer, his employees, and many inmates
of the prison, for their cooperation in assisting me to present the
following pages to the public, without which this book would be
impossible.
W. C. Heilbron.
St. Paul, June 20, 1909.