The Kansas University Quarterly : $b Vol. I, No. 4, April 1893Various
History
The Kansas University Quarterly : $b Vol. I, No. 4, April 1893
Various
Natural history -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals
Hence in all modern reforms there are two subjects to
consider: A reform measure which shall by direct application tend to
develop and strengthen that which is already considered good and, on
the other hand, a reform measure which shall reclaim and reform that
which is considered bad. In this respect the state prison and the state
university are not so far apart as it would seem: one tending to build
up and strengthen legitimate society, to protect the state in all
its interests, to make law more prominent, reform more stable, human
society more moral and intellectual, crime less frequent and industry
more prevalent by well ordered education. These are the objects of the
state university. While, on the other hand, in accordance with the
last one of the penological principles stated, the prison has for its
duty the same objects as the university, although applied to a class of
individuals entirely different, who overstep the bounds of the law and
by their own habits have abstracted themselves from legitimate society.
Both institutions exist for the improvement of society and neither is
instituted for the purpose of revenge.
While we have carried on the work of reform of prisoners to a
considerable extent and while many seem to be carried away with it as
the only great method of solving the evils of the day, we must not
forget that the great institutions which tend to develop society on the
basis of prevention of crime are not the only ones which are important
to consider. And this arises from the very fact of reform, that if
we allow either crime or pauperism to develop rapidly, unchecked, we
shall soon find it such a burden on human society that the legitimate
and well organized will become defective on account of the increase
in the number of paupers and criminals who form a constant menace to
civil institutions. While all sentiments for reform arise primarily
from human sympathy with the weak and the erring, the state still
rests the cause of its action in the full and complete protection of
legitimate society. It matters not how individual sympathies act, the
reformation of criminals finds its cause to be in the common weal of
society. To make a prisoner more intellectual, to give him better moral
qualities, to prepare him for better industrial independence, to send
him out with a better life and means, if he wills, to support himself,
to adopt means to help him from the prison world in which he has lived
into a greater world outside: all this might arise out of benevolence,
but it has for its ultimate end the simple protection and improvement
of society as a whole. Consequently reform has become the sole great
object in detaining criminals within prison walls. All other objects
must be considered as means to this one great end.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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