THE IDEAL OF A TRUE PRISON SYSTEM FOR A STATE
By Z[EBULON]. R[EED]. BROCKWAY
Superintendent of the Detroit House of Correction
"The Importance and Power of Religious Forces in Prisons" forms the topic for a paper to be read before this congress,
therefore I will not write upon it, except to state, viz.: Religion, as the term is properly understood, fills a place in, and is an indispensable element of, a reformatory system, but does not constitute the whole of it, as some would have us believe. It is possible for one to be a good citizen without being religious, and it may be possible for a criminal to live correctly without observing ordinary religious forms of worship; but it is not possible for radically wrong character to be renovated, renewed, rendered right without connecting the thoughts and the affections with God, the good Father of us all.
The religious faculties, however, are not always the first to feel the influence of christian culture, though they frequently present the first observable evidence of improvement. A quadruped can not respond to religious influences, nor can the human biped, until his intellect is stirred to see, and his affections trained to feel, the effect of self-sacrificing love; there is such a thing as "casting pearls before swine, giving that which is holy to the dogs." Christianity cares for the body, that temple of the soul, and it is a christian work to feed, clothe and refine it. Christianity cares for the mind, the instrument of the soul; to cultivate it is also christian. Christianity is more than a system of religion; it is before it, beneath it, above it; religion is included in it.
The ideal of a true prison system, in the great scope of its influence, in the spirit and principles upon which it is based, in its grand two-fold aim, in its plan of organization and legislation, and in the details of its administration, is the christian ideal, in all the breadth and blessedness of that term.
Let us, then, lend our influence and our aid to plant such a system, not only in one state, but in every state, and throughout the world, being assured that when we have found the "philosophy of the plan of salvation" for the feeble and fallen of our fellow-creatures, we shall have found God's plan for saving the race, and may feel the force of those Divine words, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."