People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 June 1895 — A DUTY OF SOCIETY. [ARTICLE]

A DUTY OF SOCIETY.

CRIMES AGAINSTTHE FAMILIES OF CRIMINALS. Unfortunate Conditions —The Innocent Suffer Greater Punishment Than the Guilty—- Argument for the Reform of Legalised Abuses.

There are many wrongs committed in the name of justice. Among these none are greater than those committed against the families of criminals. Take for instance a man with a family of five or six children. He commits some act for which he is sent to prison for a length of time. No attention is given to his family. They do not seem to be subjects for consideration at all. The husband is probably very poor and when he leaves his family he takes from them the last vestige of support. The wife in her heart-broken condition must now accommodate herself to her new surroundings and take upon herself the task of supporting herself and her children. As a result, and one far too common, the children grow up In want and as a rule follow the example set by the unfortunate father. In many cases the real sufferers are the wife and children. This unfortunate condition is augmented greatly by the fact that the family feels too keenly the remorse and disgrace brought upon them by the acts of their father, and, being thus handicapped, they fall an easy prey to the vices that, under more favorable surroundings, they would have resisted. Aside, however, from the pathetic side comes the fact that it is contrary to the principle of justice. By what authority or under what pretext can we make one person responsible for the acts of another. This wife and these children have violated no law, then why should they suffer its consequences?

| It is true that the mortification that the imprisoning of the father and husband entails is unavoidable, but there , Is no need of the laws of the country , putting more upon these unfortunates t than is absolutely unavoidable. In I nearly all the States the prisoner is put to hard labor. The proceeds of his labor, tn nearly all cases, go to the State. In some cases is worse than ’ that, it goes into the pocket of some contractor. In that case the State nbt only robs the widow and orphans of ’ what he produces but also turns it over to the contractor. Now we would like to ask if It Would not J>e better that the proceeds of the convict’s labor Ibe turned back to his, family? Can the State afford to make criminals out ! of his children through starvation for j the sake of keeping his wages? It Is argued by some that most criminals are a burden rather than a support to their families, while free. That may I be true, and in many cases doubtless is true, but that argues nothing against what we are demanding. If a man is worthless and has a family and he is sent to prison and made to work, the State is enabled to serve a double purpose, of ridding society of a bad citfsen and making him support his family, a thing he would not otherwise do. For the State to ruin a whole family and then be a party to the raising up of a lot of criminals all for the sake of meteing out the demands of juatice to one man, is not only wrong in principle, but destructive in practice.

It is argued, again, that many of the criminals in our penitentiaries are single then. This is true, but the most of them have mothers and fathers who j are, or at least should, depend upon him f9r, support. Granting, however, that be has v no family or other persons depending tupon him. Why not allow him to retain a good portion of his earnings for his own use after his term expires? The custom in most States is to give the discharged convict a ticket home, >5 in money and a : new suit of clothes. These clothes are of the very cheapest kind, bought in large quantities and all alike. Every' discharged criminal leaves the prison looking just like every other prisoner who has left it. These suits are almost as well known throughout the country as would be a suit of stripes. He has no way of concealing his Identity or his late occupation. He has no money to go where he is not known. : The result is his surroundings have a tendency to discourage him in making another start in life, and his good resolutions, made' in captivity, dome to naught. It is not unfrequently the case that these conditions are too much for him and In the absence of better opening he, seeks refuge again in the penitentiary. | Any one who baa watched these matters can call to mind cases of this kind Now we believe that prisons of aB kinds should be maintained only for the good of society. That the first and grwitest Object to be attained is the Restoration of the criminal himself Makes a man of him, if possible, and at ill events do nothing to hold him down or to stand in the way of his progress along the line of self-reform. I It may appear, at first glance, to be a sweeping remark to make, but we believe that the facts warrant us in sayitig that übdef our present abominable ' system that prisons, as a whole, are doing more harm than good.—lnter Mountain (Utah) Advocate. ArkaaiM Senators. What’s the matter with our senators? There’s Jones’ cun ency bill providing i for another issue of bonds amounting to 1500,000,000; which means, at 3 per cent Interest per annum, and running twenty years, a debt of 1800,000,000 for | the people of this country to pay. This | means >12.50 each for >65,000,000 population, or >75 for every family of six persons. We’ve got a dandy pair of | senators, now, haven’t we?—Little ' Rock Press (Dem.).