OCR Text |
Show THE PRISON REVOLT BILL. We are glad to see that the House agreed by 6uch a decisive vote to the passago of Senato Bill No. 21, which is designed for the punishment of prisoners pris-oners who revolt while held in tho State prison. One of the opponents of this bill in the House gives as his reason for opposing the bill his bolief that prisoners should be properly protected. But that is one of the very purposes of this bill, to protect prisoners who refuse to enter into plots for revolt and for the murder of tho guards, Tt is a woll-known fact that desperate prisoners, when thcy engago in a revolt and are partly or wholly successful, are prone to wreak their vengeance, first of all, upon such prisoners as know of their plot and refused re-fused to join in it, the theorj' being that such prisoners aro the ones who either havo told or arc likely to tell of the persons engaged in tho revolt, and are hated accordingly. It is difficult to see why thero should be; any opposition to this bill. The guards and tho warden of the penitentiary peniten-tiary often havo to take their lives in their hands in the suppression of a revolt. To refuse to protect them and also to protect the prisoners who refuse to join in the revolt, would be such an anomaly in the ethics of government as to bo a freak. It is the duty of prisoners prison-ers to submit to discipline, to serve their sentences peaceably, even though' those sentences bo for life. An outbreak in tho prison is a crime, and should bo made so oxproeslj by statute, and pun-ishablo pun-ishablo ns such without any regard to tho sentence for the crime for which tho prisoners nro serving sentences, superseding super-seding or adding to tho punishment as tho caso may bo. Prisoners who aro sullen, revengeful, and unrulj, and who are also in for life, consider, without buoIi legislation as proposed in this bill, thnt they have nothing to lose, no matter what they do. Tf they can kill a guard, or oven the warden, they aro glad to do so. especially es-pecially if by so doing they aro offered tho least hopo of escape. Thoro havo been such outbreaks in tho Utah State prison, somo of them of tho most Tock-less Tock-less and bloody character. And it. is a wonder that such legislation as this has not been proposed long ago. But now that it has been proposed, tho justico ot it is evident to every candid and discerning dis-cerning mind, and thero can bo no rea-. sonablc opposition to tho passago of tho bill- |