{
  "schema": "tga.work.v1",
  "identifier": "dresden:vol-11:cruelty-in-the-elmira-reformatory",
  "slug": "cruelty-in-the-elmira-reformatory",
  "title": "Cruelty in the Elmira Reformatory",
  "subtitle": "On the treatment of prisoners.",
  "excerpt": "A public denunciation of the abuses at the Elmira Reformatory in New York — one of the most publicized prison-reform controversies of the 1890s.",
  "year": 1894,
  "volume": 11,
  "category": "Essay",
  "author": {
    "name": "Robert G. Ingersoll",
    "wikidata": "Q360326",
    "viaf": "44331023"
  },
  "isPartOf": {
    "title": "The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll",
    "edition": "Dresden Edition",
    "publisher": "C. P. Farrell",
    "year": 1900
  },
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/",
  "url": "https://thegreatagnostic.com/works/cruelty-in-the-elmira-reformatory/",
  "wordCount": 521,
  "body": "IN my judgment, no human being was ever made better, nobler, by being\nwhipped or clubbed.\n\nMr. Brockway, according to his own testimony, is simply a savage. He\nbelongs to the Dark Ages—to the Inquisition, to the torture-chamber,\nand he needs reforming more than any prisoner under his control. To\nput any man within his power is in itself a crime. Mr. Brockway is a\nbeliever in cruelty—an apostle of brutality. He beats and bruises flesh\nto satisfy his conscience—his sense of duty. He wields the club himself\nbecause he enjoys the agony he inflicts.\n\nWhen a poor wretch, having reached the limit of endurance, submits or\nbecomes unconscious, he is regarded as reformed. During the remainder of\nhis term he trembles and obeys. But he is not reformed. In his heart is\nthe flame of hatred, the desire for revenge; and he returns to society\nfar worse than when he entered the prison.\n\nMr. Brockway should either be removed or locked up, and the Elmira\nReformatory should be superintended by some civilized man—some man with\nbrain enough to know, and heart enough to feel.\n\nI do not believe that one brute, by whipping, beating and lacerating\nthe flesh of another, can reform him. The lash will neither develop the\nbrain nor cultivate the heart. There should be no bruising, no scarring\nof the body in families, in schools, in reformatories, or prisons. A\ncivilized man does not believe in the methods of savagery. Brutality\nhas been tried for thousands of years and through all these years it has\nbeen a failure.\n\nCriminals have been flogged, mutilated and maimed, tortured in a\nthousand ways, and the only effect was to demoralize, harden and\ndegrade society and increase the number of crimes. In the army and navy,\nsoldiers and sailors were flogged to death, and everywhere by church and\nstate the torture of the helpless was practiced and upheld.\n\nOnly a few years ago there were two hundred and twenty-three offences\npunished with death in England. Those who wished to reform this savage\ncode were denounced as the enemies of morality and law. They were\nregarded as weak and sentimental.\n\nAt last the English code was reformed through the efforts of men who\nhad brain and heart. But it is a significant fact that no bishop of\nthe Episcopal Church, sitting in the House of Lords, ever voted for the\nrepeal of one of those savage laws. Possibly this fact throws light\non the recent poetic and Christian declaration by Bishop Potter to the\neffect that \"there are certain criminals who can only be made to realize\nthrough their hides the fact that the State has laws to which the\nindividual must be obedient.\"\n\nThis orthodox remark has the true apostolic ring, and is in perfect\naccord with the history of the church. But it does not accord with the\nintelligence and philanthropy of our time. Let us develop the brain by\neducation, the heart by kindness. Let us remember that criminals\nare produced by conditions, and let us do what we can to change the\nconditions and to reform the criminals.\n"
}