"Thousands there are who scarce can tell Then to the British public health, And while they treat us as they do They'll never want for thieves." No wonder that with these inducements inside, and without the deterrent of systematic employment, men, and even women, will commit larceny or some other breach of law, to find a comfortable though restricted home. Every capable inmate of prisons should be made to do some labour, no matter how brief their term, and in long terms should be made to work at some trade. Where possible he should be allowed to choose his form of employment, although that sometimes causes embarrassment, as in the case of one incorrigible who, when asked what trade he preferred, replied "Well, if you ask me, I should like to be a traveller." Though laying no claim to being a prison expert, there are a few things I would like to call attention to in prison management. It is well to ask ourselves frequentlyWhat are the purposes for which our prisons exist? These purposes are as follows-(1) To punish the criminal for his crime. (2) To protect society from the criminal, and to deter others from committing crime. (3) To reform the criminal and help him to become a law-abiding and useful citizen. BLOCK OF CELLS. The last named purpose is required by the Christian element in our civilization, and is the most efficient means of accomplishing the second purpose. There have been four or five different methods of prison management practised for the accomplishment of these purposes, and their efficiency must be tested by their success in furthering this threefold purpose of imprisonment. 1. There has been, and it is still practised, the method of Penal exile. This has been tried by France, Portugal, and especially by Russia. The system was for a while in vogue even in England. The general verdict upon it is-absolute failure. It does punish the criminal of course. It does protect society at home, but what about society in the land of exile? It makes no attempt even to reform the criminal and make a good citizen of him. 2. The second method is the Associated or American system of imprisonment. This is in general use in many countries, and sometimes in combination with other systems. Its main deficiency is its lack of classification and intelligent discrimination in the work of reforming. Isolation and individual work would not be possible in a prison arranged after the plan shown in the cut on page 24. 3. The Solitary system has been tried for some time in Belgium and Holland and of late in England and a few other countries. It should only be used for a limited time and in connection with some other system. Imagine the depressing effects of living in a cell, something like the one shown in the illustration on page 26, but without the possibility of even looking out at the door to see anyone. 4. There is the Reformatory system, as practised chiefly at Elmira in New York State. This is based on the idea that a criminal should be treated as a civic patient and put through a thorough course of intellectual, manual and general physical training surrounded by good moral influences. One essential point of the system is the plan of giving a criminal an indeterminate sentence. He is treated somewhat like a hospital patient, and is not only punished for his breach of law, but so skilfully and vigorously disciplined that the disposition to commit crime shall be cured, that process taking a longer or a shorter time in different cases. When the prison governor is persuaded that the convict is cured he possesses the power to release him on parole or probation. If he behaves himself well the parole develops into unrestrained freedom. A sufficiently long test has not yet been made of this system, and adequate statistics have not yet been collected to enable us to pronounce positively upon its efficiency. The average term of fifteen to twenty months for reformation, as claimed by the authorities at Elmira, seems rather short to do thorough work. Too much power is put in the hands of one person-the Governor -and the temptation is to abuse it. If we can believe the stories told by inmates and others of the inhuman cruelties inflicted upon rebellious convicts by authority of the Governor, and the unjust favoritism extended to others, there would seem to be some ground for Chaplain Searles, of Auburn State prison, calling the system deformatory rather than reformatory. 5. Another system, that is coming more generally into vogue, is the Progressive method. In the case of long-time criminals, the imprisonment begins with solitary confinement, and the criminal earns all the privileges he gets by good behaviour. In the second stage the prisoner passes to a "public works prison," where he is employed with others in out-of-door operations, the construction of some work of national utility. The third stage is one of conditional liberation, which is earned only by steady and continuous industry. This freedom is not absolute, but is under the surveillance of the police, and the man is required to report at regular intervals until his license expires. This system has been practised in both Belgium and England, and the number of the Review, gives some convincing statistics. 66 results are very encouraging for its continuance and wider prevalence in other countries. Major Griffiths, Her Majesty's Inspector of Prisons, in an interesting ed in the March North American He says: During the last forty years in Belgium the number of convictions has decreased. While there were seven thousand convicts in 1850 to a population of four millions and a half, in 1889, with a population of six millions, the total was 4,634, and in the previous decade it had been lower. "In England the decrease has been much more remarkable. It has been greater and more continuously downward. Between 1878 and 1893, the population of the local, or short-time prisons, has fallen from 20,833 to 13,178, and yet during that period the general population of the country has increased by quite four millions. During almost exactly the sameperiod the convicts, or those undergoing long sentences of penal servitude, have also decreased; where in 1878 the total population of the convict prisons, male and female, was 10,671, in 1892 it had fallen to 5,247, these numbers including convict lunatics, and a few survivals of transportation in Western Australia. The strongest decrease has been in the female convicts, who in 1878 numbered 1,402, and in 1892 only 375." Major Griffiths does not attribute this remarkable decrease wholly to the system of Prison Management. He recognizes the effects of various influences, such as the more general practice of judges shortening the term of imprisonment and withholding sentence on first offenders, the greater care of neglected youth, and the wide-reaching efforts of charitable societies in assisting discharged prisoners. Before leaving this phase of the subject-prison work-I would strongly emphasize the absolute necessity of bringing the power of God in the Gospel of Jesus Christ to bear upon prisoners, as the only truly successful and permanent reformatory power. Dr. Browning, R.N., who has laboured successfully for many years among convicts of all kinds, says very truly: "We hear much of various systems of prison discipline, as the Separate, the Silent, and the Congregate systems, but unless the Christian system be brought to bear with Divine power, on the understanding and consciences of criminals, every other system, professedly contemplating their reformation, must prove an utter failure. 66 "We willingly concede to various modes of prison discipline their just measure of importance, but to expect that human machinery, however perfect, can take the place of God's own prescribed method of reformation, involves not only ignorant presumption, but practical infidelity." Let the Gospel be preached effectively to the prisoners, that its power may be displayed. The preaching needed, in such places, as elsewhere, is the preaching of the Cross. The Rev. John Clay, in his "Life," thus speaks of the style of preaching adapted to criminals. "The preacher may speak of heaven; but those men cannot understand him. They know of no happiness beyond gross, foul, animal indulgence. The preacher may speak of hell: and they will wince. It would be terrible. if true. But is it true? They harden themselves and won't believe it. But now let him preach Christ crucified, and mark the effect of the preaching. That strange, novel idea of God having actually suffered to save them from suffering, astounds and bewilders them. Vaguely and dimly they begin to feel that they ought, they must, they will love this Jesus who has so loved them. The old self-love is shaken; the new life from God is stirring within them; and when those men go back to their cells they kneel down, and in their half dumb, inarticulate fashion gasp out a prayer." What is needed, is not so much preaching, as some suitable and divinely anointed visitors, who will regularly visit the prisoners in their cells, with the sanction of the governor, to read and talk with them personally. The demands of nature and prison discipline may lead them to come for their bodily rations as we see in the cut, but we must go to them personally and break to them the Bread of Life. Such work will first of all keep the prisoner in touch with the great outside world, and make him feel that his fellowmen care for him and want to help him back to good citizenship. This will effectually kill that feeling which many criminals have of vindictiveness towards organized society and the determination to get even with it when they get out. The best effect of such individual work will be that whatever conversions take place will, most likely, be genuine and permanent. What Michael Davitt says has too much truth in it. "It is by no means the least of the many saddening reflections which a prison experience engenders, that religion in prison is in nine cases out of ten put on, either for dishonest purposes or assumed in the no less reprehensible game of hypocrisy." TAKING THEIR RATIONS. Plenty of spiritual advisers are promptly on hand to proffer their councils to the man condemned to death, while comparatively few wise and consecrated Christians regularly offer to read and speak the Word of Life to the multitudes of men and women inside prison walls who will sooner or later go back into the walks of ordinary life for weal or woe. Mr. Cook's description of the customs of Newgate furnish an illustration of this solicitude concerning those condemned to death. Formerly the clerk or bellman of St. Sepulchre's used to go to Newgate on the night preceding an execution, and ringing his bell, repeat the following wholesome advice: "All you that in the condemned hold do lie, Over the bed of the condemned in the same prison hangs the text, Cast thy burden on the Lord," words easy to read but hard to obey with the guilt of murder on the soul. Other texts on the walls are, "Hope thou in God," and "God is love." We should |