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Show A GOVERNMENT DUTY. ' That it is the duty of the Government to enforce the laws -few will deny. But the duty of enforcing a law and bringing culprits to justice is not its only duty in this regard. The State punishes for protection pro-tection primarily and for the reform of the criminal class ' secondarily ; for revenge re-venge never. When the Government has vindicated its laws and holds their violators in its power, the Government is as much in duty bound to treat its prisoners pri-soners humanly and decently as it is to i vindicate its laws. No disgrace can be put upon the Government like the disgrace of ill-treating those who are absolutely within its power. It punislies for protection and the preservation preserva-tion of society and civilization ; then upon whom devolves the duty of avoiding the infliction of barbarism barbar-ism so much as upon the Government ? The Government of the United States has undertaken in earnest to punish tho violators vio-lators of its laws in this Territory. Already Al-ready it holds in durance vile a dozen or two of such violators, but to what sort of a place has it consigned them? It has consigned them to a place that is a disgrace dis-grace to the Government and a standing reproach upon the civilization nf th i Since the days of Howard, all civilized governments have endeavored to ameliorate ame-liorate the condition of the criminal classes who have been brought to justice. ! The people of the Eastern States and of ! England turn to the pages of Fielding and Smollett to gain an idea of the pris- j ons of a century ago. In "Little Dorritt" i will be found a description of the Old Marshalsea, that last remnant of prison ' barbarism in England. In Utah, one has but to obtain a pass from the Marshal to i visit the inside of the Penitentiary to see ! what they seek for in books. The Utah j Penitentiary is just such a place as the! prisons of a century, ago in Europe, : and the prisons in Mohammedan ! countries to-day. In the Utah . Penitentiary a hundred criminals as- sociate together every day, and perfect themselves in vice. Can such a diSgrace-j diSgrace-j ful condition of things be avoided ? LMost certainly it can. .It is asked by ! whom such a condition of things may be avoided. Some think that the United States Marshal is to blame. The United States Marshal is no more to blame than the farmer in the field. We know that Mr. Ireland has besought and implored the Attorney-General to do something to relieve the Territory and the Government from this deep disgrace ; but his prayer3 have been in vain. He is compelled to have things as they are and not as he would wish. So far as Territorial prisoners prison-ers are concerned, the Territory is to blame. It is as mnch the duty of the Territory to provide a safe, clean, light and airy place for the confinement of her 'prisoners as it is for the General Government Govern-ment to do the same for its prisoners. Even convicts and felons have some rights, and among them are the right to health and a chance to reform, if reform is possible. The surest way in the world to confirm men in vice and wickedness is to put vicious and wicked men together in - confinement. The men who remain for a year or two in the Utah Penitentiary Peniten-tiary are. much wickeder at heart and more accomplished in vice when they emerge from its walls than when they entered it. The Territory owes it to itself, to the people, and to civilization and society to furnish a respectable place for the reception of the violators of her laws; and in that place 'each criminal should be separate from the rest, and never allowed any converse or commerce with his fellow-convicts. The same duty devolves upon the General Government also; and if the General Government does not deem it fit to erect a proper place in Utah for the confinement of its prisoners, it owes it to itself, to society, and to civilization to transport them to decent prisons in the States with which it may have contracts. The Penitentiary in this Territory is as much a disgrace as the crimes for which its inmates are confined con-fined within it. |