Convict Life at the Minnesota State Prison, Stillwater, Minnesota

Convict Life at the Minnesota State Prison, Stillwater, Minnesota

Few people have a comprehensive idea of a penitentiary, especially the daily life of the inmates and the routine work in connection therewith. We will endeavor to give an accurate account of the prisoner's mode of occupation, his ideals, hopes and aspirations and follow him from the day he entered the prison, from his initiation into the various departments, to the day of his final discharge. One of our celebrated poets has truly said: This stanza sums up the situation very nicely, although prison life is not the horrible nightmare that many authors have depicted. Most writers seem to get their ideas from the comic papers, wherein the prisoner is absurdly cartooned with close-cropped hair, low-browed and villainous looks, dressed in striped clothing of grotesque fit, and in many cases he is pictured chained to the floor by a huge ball and chain. This may have been an authentic description of the average prisoner years ago, but is not true today. It is a far cry from the time when Diogenes walked the streets of ancient Athens with a lighted lantern in the day time looking for an honest man. There were no prisons at that period of the world's history. If a man committed a serious crime against the state or [pg 4] an individual the authorities ordered the lictor to strike off his head. If the offense was a minor one the offender was sold into slavery. This mode of procedure required only a few moments to execute, for in those days there were no protracted trials or clever attorneys to seek technicalities through which to free their clients. This condition of affairs prevailed for many centuries, and it often happened that a greater injustice was done the wrongdoer than he had committed against the state. Fortunately, however, it remained for Victor Hugo to cry a halt against the then inhuman treatment accorded prisoners. In Les Miserables he paints a vivid picture that profoundly awakened public conscience, which still causes the world to shudder as it thinks of the injustice society did to poor Jean Valjean for stealing two loaves of bread to keep from starving. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 48208
Author: Heilbron, William Casper
Release Date: Feb 8, 2015
Format: eBook
Language: English