17. CHAPTER XVII.
THE MISSOURI PRISONERS—(Continued.)
DURING the years 1887 and 1888, 1,523 prisoners were received into
the Missouri penitentiary. Of this number 1,082 were white males, 398
colored males, 17 white females, and 26 colored females. These figures
show that the women of Missouri are a great deal better than the men, or
they do not get their share of justice.
TABLE SHOWING THE AGES OF CONVICTS
RECEIVED DURING THE YEARS 1887 AND 1888.
- From 16 to 20.................320
- "20 to 25.................441
- "25 to 30.................344
- "30 to 35.................143
- "35 to 40.................113
- "40 to 45................. 70
- "45 to 50................. 34
- "50 to 55................. 31
- "55 to 60................. 15
- "60 to 65................. 5
- "65 to 70................. 4
- "70 and upward............ 5
- Total .......... 1,523
There is nothing that should interest the good people of Missouri
more than the foregoing table. These appalling figures I copied from the
prison records. Of the 1,523 criminals received during the past two
years, more than one-fifth of them were mere children. Would it not be
better to give these boys a term in the county jails, or in some
reformatory, instead of sending them to a penitentiary? Coming in
contact with hardened and vicious criminals, what hope is there for
getting these boys into the paths of honesty and uprightness? Then
there follows the large number of 441, representing the youthful age
from twenty to twenty-five years. These are the years most prolific of
criminals. Who can say these boys are vicious and hardened criminals?
Then follow the young men of from twenty-five to thirty. Three hundred
and fourty-four of this age find a home in felon cells. Are these boys
and young men not worth saving? What can be done to snatch them from a
career of crime, and to save them from becoming miserable wrecks?
Father, if one of these boys was a son of yours, you would think
seriously over this important question.
Something should be done to save this large
army of youth who are annually finding their way into felon cells.
Is the penitentiary the proper place to send those youthful
offenders? If so, then they should not come in contact with the older
and hardened criminals. One of the most essential things to be done in a
prison is the classification of the inmates. This is not done in the
Missouri penitentiary. Here the mere youth often cells with a hardened
old criminal of the worst description. I would rather a child of mine
would be boxed up with a rattlesnake. In this institution there are
nearly 2,000 criminals huddled up together—an indiscriminate mass. The
officials are not to blame for this. They realize the terrible condition
of things at the prison. They have not sufficient room for the
classification and proper arrangement of the inmates. They know, perhaps
better than anyone else, that the prison is not what it should be.
Warden Marmaduke says, in his last report to the prison directors, "This
prison is now too much crowded and it becomes a serious question at
once, as to what disposition will be made of them in the future. If this
prison is to accommodate them, another cell building
should be built at once. If another prison is to be the solution, it
should be commenced. If a reconstruction of our criminal laws, looking
to the reduction of crime, it should be done now. And in any event, and
whatever may be done, certainly our management of prisons should be so
modified or changed that the practical, not the sentimental system of
reform, should be adopted. I believe that our
present system is
making criminals instead of reforming them, and I believe that it is
practicable to so classify, treat, feed, work and uniform these people,
as to make better men instead of worse men out of them. I have profound
respect for the good purposes of the benevolently disposed men and
women, and they are numerous, who are devoting themselves to the effort
of reforming criminals. Yet their efforts must be supplemented by a
practical building up and the development of the better instincts of the
man, which cannot be done under our present system. The surroundings are
against it.
We are constantly developing and stimulating the very
worst instincts. I believe it practicable to institute methods for
this reform, at once creditable to the State." Who can doubt our
statements on
this subject when we quote such high authority as the above. The last
warden of this great institution comes out and officially announces that
awful fact that our
present system of prison treatment is constantly
developing and stimulating the very worst instincts. Constantly
making men worse, and when a young man enters the prison he is morally
tainted, when he goes out he is completely saturated, with moral
pollution. After such statements from so high an authority will the
great State of Missouri, so well-known the world over for her numerous
acts of benevolence, continue to have an institution within her borders
for the complete demoralization and ruin of multitudes of her young men.
Should a youth of Missouri, surrounded by influences and temptations
which he could not resist, once fall from a position of honor and
integrity, although it is his first violation of the law, he will be
taken into custody of the State, hurled into a pit, where for a time he
will inhale the fetid breath of wickedness, then, later on, to be
released and sent out into the free world a moral leper.
The State should not provide this machine for the moral
destruction of her unfortunate
youth. If this be the real and true condition of affairs, what can be
done to change them? I would suggest the erection, at once, of a
reformatory. Classify the prisoners. Let those who are in for the first
offense be separated from those who are professional and debased
criminals. Give these youthful offenders the benefit of schools,
connected with the reformatory. Let them have moral instruction, and
many of these young men will be reclaimed, However well a criminal is
treated, when behind prison walls, however good the advantages granted
him, all this will avail but little, if some provision is not made to
aid him when he leaves the prison. Many prisoners, at the time of their
discharge, may be, in heart, as pure as angels, and resolve to lead good
lives, yet they are convicts, and carry out with them the shame and
disgrace of such a life. They must live even if they are disgraced. They
must have work. Who will employ a convict? Should a man, just from the
prison, come to you and frankly inform you that he was recently
discharged from a felon's cell, that he had been convicted of
horse-stealing, for instance, and wanted employment with you on the
farm, how many of you, my readers, would give him
work? You would be afraid of him. You would decline his services, and
who could blame you? But the convict must live, and it is easily seen,
how, that after applying to several for work and being refused each time
on account of his past trouble, he would, after a time, become
discouraged and return to a life of a criminal. Hunger drives him to
deeds of desperation, and more especially is this the case if he have a
wife or helpless children depending upon him. On his discharge from the
prison the State presents him, with a shoddy suit of clothes (very
cheap), buys him a ticket for the town from which he came, and then lets
him shift for himself. Disgraced, penniless, friendless, helpless, how
is it possible for anyone of them ever to secure another foothold in
life.
Something should be done, to help these men to secure work for a
time after their discharge from prison. This would prevent a vast
majority of criminals from returning to the prison after their first
term. That my views on this subject may not be considered visionary, and
that I may not be regarded as standing alone in my suggestions, I will
give a portion of the report of Rev. J. Gierlow, ex-chaplain of the
Missouri penitentiary
"The increase of crime is necessarily attracting the attention of
all thinking people, and there is abundant evidence that crime-causes
are increasing, for which there seems to be no adequate prevention. It
has been said, that nearly all crime originates in the saloon, but this
statement requires discrimination. Very few professional thieves are
inebriates. That class of criminals are sober men, they could not ply
their trade without a clear head, nor do they go with those who drink,
for they talk too much. No, intemperance to a considerable extent, is
only a secondary cause of crime which must be reached by well-ordered,
sanitary, hygienic and educational measures. Diseased bodies and
unbalanced minds are largely characteristic of criminals; and these are
two factors in producing crime.
"There is a numerous class in whom crime seems to be hereditary,
a taint in the blood. In the same family there are generations of
criminals. Prison life adds another large section to the criminal class.
By the congregate system the prison becomes a school of crime, where the
young offender is both demoralized by contact with hardened criminals,
and initiated into the mysteries of professional villainy.
It is a question whether detention in prison, without remedial
influences, is not more of a loss than a gain. The critical time of
a prisoner, desirous of building up a new life, is when he crosses the
threshold of the prison and goes out into the world. He is met with
distrust wherever his past is known. He is in constant terror of
exposure if he tries to keep it secret. And what does the State do to
put him on his feet or to give him a chance? It gives him a few dollars
to carry him here or there, and bids him shift for himself. And finding
every avenue of honest employment closed against him, he is driven in
desperation, however well disposed he may be, to renew his criminal
habits and associates. What, then, are the remedies, as far as the
prison system is concerned? Chiefly, classification. Let not one who
desires to reform be compelled to associate with those who are almost
sure to degrade and debase him. The neglect of discriminating
classification of offenders is a dark stain upon civilization. Then,
again, I believe it to be the duty of the State to reinstate the
penitentiary man in society. This may be secured by a conditional
discharge, the finding of work for him, and the obligation to report
himself at stated periods to the proper authority.
"I have regarded it as within the province of my office to thus
briefly set forth what I have gathered from experience in my intercourse
with convicts, as well as from sober conviction, after mature
deliberation. Let the State consider and act.
I have here inserted the foregoing table to show the reader about how
the sentences are.
It will be observed that of the one thousand five hundred and
twenty-three prisoners admitted during the past two years, seven hundred
and forty-five of them, or nearly one-half, have but a two-years'
sentence. This shows that the crimes committed were not very "horrible
in their nature," or the sentences imposed would have been more severe.
This is probably the first offense for these offenders. By good conduct
in the prison one-fourth of their time will be deducted. This will give
them but eighteen months of actual service. What can they accomplish in
so short a time? The contractors care but little for them, since their
time will expire before they can master a trade and be of any service.
Had these youthful offenders been given a term in a county jail or
reformatory, would not justice been satisfied, and there would have been
more hope for the prisoner as to the future.
He would not have been a
penitentiary convict. I hope soon to see the day when the great
State of Missouri will have a reformatory institution which will receive
the wayward youth of that great commonwealth, and, after keeping and
training them for a time, will send them out into the world
stronger and better men than when first received. So far as reformation
is concerned, the Missouri penitentiary is a dismal failure.