(Here is an article from “Good Words,” the prison monthly from the Federal Prison at Atlanta. It gives an anonymous prisoner’s views on a vital subject.)
Inmates of prisons may be regarded as a composite man, for in any collection of human beings, from a family to a nation, there is the larger man, which organizes itself in human form—with head, trunk, limbs, and organs. One group represents the brains, another the physical powers; the stomach is figured by the purveyors of food, and these analogies may be followed indefinitely; they are not fanciful, but actual. He is all here, but is prevented from functioning freely. His reaction against this repression of free action—a repression far more physical than mental—gives unnatural energy to the faculties and tends to lead into certain special channels, such as the falsity of human justice, the overpowering desire to be at liberty; emotions of resentment, resignation, hope, despair,impulses for antagonism or of good-will toward others; moods or irony, cynicism, and even humor; good or evil preoccupation of all kinds. In this way large reservoirs of human force are collected, which can get no relief from expression, and therefore corrode and distort the mind.
But prisoners at that are no different clay from other folks. They are, if anything, different in that they are more sensitive, more sympathetic, more appreciative, and more trustful, once their confidence is gained, than the average person. They love the world and wish it well. The average prisoner—even the “old timer” serving a third or fourth sentence—will advise against a life of crime with all the earnestness and logic he is capable of commanding. But the prisoner, with his good qualities, has his faults—many of them. He is always looking for the best of it, and, from his standpoint, why shouldn’t he get it? He is a convict (the word is not pleasant to hear). It carries a stigma of shame and disgrace. It is lasting. He is declared unfit to live among his people; his movements are restricted; he cannot move or speak without the consent of an official; he is stripped of his citizenship; his home a narrow cell; he is helpless; has lost all—everything a man values in this world. The prisoner knows this full well. To him the best of it is the worst that the free man can imagine.
This is the body corporate and the proposition the man or men charged with the care, keeping and discipline of prisoners have to contend with. The problems to be solved are difficult, and a gigantic task confronts the warden of any penitentiary. While the power of most wardens is as nearly absolute as mortal power can be, it is necessary, if he is expected to accomplish anything. The demands of his position are great—greater than any other person in the whole community. Upon his say-so depends the hope or despair of the prisoners, but we are convinced that the average warden is anxious for the uplift, and untiring in promoting the welfare of the men under him.
A great honor is due the prison official who voluntarily treats the prisoner with justice and mercy, whose radius of human action is circumscribed only by the book of regulations. Harsh traditional usages are gradually being eliminated and there are but few who new persist in delaying the realization of advanced ideas in the handling of law-breakers. But no intelligent reform of abuses can be effected until they have been authoritatively acknowledged, and the remedies necessary to relieve and cure evils understood. Improvement is slow, and gross anachronisms are found side by side with advanced conditions. Prisoners often distrust their officials when the latter’s only fault may be the oath and obligation to obey regulations long out of date. The prisoner sees the better way and, as a rule, will not listen to reason. The official knows it too, but is not free to walk in it. From this condition of affairs comes that great antagonism between the prisoner and the officials which exists in all prisons. The warden to do good must bridge the gulf which separates the prisoner and himself. He must be the example and precept of right. He will not delay action until all difficulties are removed, but is prompt to seize every opportunity as it offers itself. He walks where others creep, and sees the end where others grope. While sedulous to avoid favoritism, he takes into consideration the “personal equation” of each man, and gives him the interpretation of the law best suited to the case as it may be. In his system of discipline, there is as little as possible of the merely mechanical and whatever may be allowable of individual consideration. This is not more human than expedient; for most of the men are quick to perceive the proper means to deserve good treatment, and, instead of sinking into lethargy and indifference, are aroused to do what in them lies to meet the warden half-way. Frequently, though, regardless of the work of such officials, in this great human body, there are developed ideas unfair, and we will find prisoners who will resist all efforts of the officials in this direction. They do not mean to, but the world has treated them badly, and they cannot help it. Kindness is winning them, though, where cruelty would never affect them.
Punishment and abuse may stir and arouse a man so that he will fight with a desperation born of despair, but moreoften he sinks into a state of mind, sullen, revengeful and heartless—a condition fatal to reformation, and dangerous to Society. Method, discipline, authority, are fine things and will accomplish much, but with a prisoner you can not force his soul against itself. You must lead him up and out of himself; you can not curse him into a better man. The supreme object of imprisonment should be to inspire the prisoner to do his best when more than his best is needed.
The fight to extirpate the old system is steadily going on, and will eventually succeed. The evils of the contract-labor system are already becoming known, and it will be blotted out of existence, and when that system has become a thing of the past, an immense step in all other features of jail amelioration will have been taken. The next step will involve the entire principle of prison punishments as a deterrent of crime and a means of making better men of prisoners. The State will then not take revenge upon the criminal, will not annihilate his self-respect or crush out whatever manhood he has in him.