Читать книгу Convict Life at the Minnesota State Prison, Stillwater, Minnesota онлайн

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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 [pg 5] 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.