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12 Document ]N"o. 7. [Session confess, a new and untried field of labor. Yet it may not be amiss for me to assure you, that I am making myself familiar somewhat with the multifarious duties of the position. That the ofiice is a very responsible one, especially when regarded in a moral point of view, will riot be questioned by those who are at all acquainted with the details of a well regulated " State's Prison." For it is the Deputy "Warden who has to cope with and control many of the fiercest and most abandon-ed characters in the State—"men" who have graduated in all the schools of vice, and sunk themselves to the lowest depths of degradation. These lellows have to be dealt with Tiery dis-creetly, yet so firmly that there must be no flinching or waver-ing from the line of duty, else they would soon become the " masters of the situation." The laws of the State imperatively demand, (and very justly too,) that they be deprived of their liberty—cut off from all intercourse w^ith " society," whose laws they had violated, and compelled to " earn their hread'''' by the " sweat of their brows." This sentence of the courts the Deputy Warden is expected to carry out strictly to the letter. But it really does seem almost a moral impossibility to improve the " moral status" of this class of convicts by any ordinary course of pri-son discipline. Still patience and untiring zeal on the part of the Deputy Warden, may possibly meet with a partial suc-cess. At all events, I shall continue to hope and striv^e for the best results. There is, however, another class of prisoners who I think may be materially benefited by a proper course of prison discipline. I allude to those who are younger and may have just entered upon a career of " crime." To]deal wisely, firmly, yet humanely with these '^fallen ones,^ involves miich respon-sibility on the part of the Deputy Warden. And on his un-ceasing and well directed efforts in his department depends, in great measure, the success ot a " Penitentiary" as a re-formatory institution.
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Title | Page 510 |
Full Text | 12 Document ]N"o. 7. [Session confess, a new and untried field of labor. Yet it may not be amiss for me to assure you, that I am making myself familiar somewhat with the multifarious duties of the position. That the ofiice is a very responsible one, especially when regarded in a moral point of view, will riot be questioned by those who are at all acquainted with the details of a well regulated " State's Prison." For it is the Deputy "Warden who has to cope with and control many of the fiercest and most abandon-ed characters in the State—"men" who have graduated in all the schools of vice, and sunk themselves to the lowest depths of degradation. These lellows have to be dealt with Tiery dis-creetly, yet so firmly that there must be no flinching or waver-ing from the line of duty, else they would soon become the " masters of the situation." The laws of the State imperatively demand, (and very justly too,) that they be deprived of their liberty—cut off from all intercourse w^ith " society," whose laws they had violated, and compelled to " earn their hread'''' by the " sweat of their brows." This sentence of the courts the Deputy Warden is expected to carry out strictly to the letter. But it really does seem almost a moral impossibility to improve the " moral status" of this class of convicts by any ordinary course of pri-son discipline. Still patience and untiring zeal on the part of the Deputy Warden, may possibly meet with a partial suc-cess. At all events, I shall continue to hope and striv^e for the best results. There is, however, another class of prisoners who I think may be materially benefited by a proper course of prison discipline. I allude to those who are younger and may have just entered upon a career of " crime." To]deal wisely, firmly, yet humanely with these '^fallen ones,^ involves miich respon-sibility on the part of the Deputy Warden. And on his un-ceasing and well directed efforts in his department depends, in great measure, the success ot a " Penitentiary" as a re-formatory institution. |