Space forbids my going further into Jim’s interesting history, but up to the time of writing my diagnosis seems to have been correct. Jim has a good job, is going straight, and just before Christmas he said to me, “Tom, I never was so happy in my life!”
How many more men like Jim are there in prison? Are they not worth saving?
Jim said in his letter, “Prison life did not reform me, nor will it reform any man.” That is true; and no man will find help in prison for reforming himself until the conditions are greatly changed—until a system has been established in which a man can gain some sense of civic responsibility toward the community in which he lives. If such a sense of responsibility could be developed while in prison, would it not greatly help in a man’s conduct after his release?
The following is not a letter, but a typewritten statement which Grant, the Superintendent of Prison Industries, found on his desk the morning after my last day’s talk in chapel. One of the prisoners in Grant’s office, upon returning to his cell, had felt moved to write down a description of the incident. This is it.
Sunday, Oct. 5, 1913.
Truly the past week, and to-day in particular, will mark an epoch in the history of Auburn Prison, if indeed, it does not in the entire state.
Mr. Osborne’s stay among us has awakened new thoughts and higher ideals among the men confined here than any other agency hitherto tried or thought of.
His coming as he did, precisely the same as the most lowly of malefactors, and receiving no better treatment than would be accorded any others, has awakened feelings among the majority that can hardly be credited, much less described.
Those who in the past week have written articles in the various newspapers ridiculing Mr. Osborne’s experiment, would have been put to shame had they been present at the chapel services this morning.
Never in my life before have I witnessed such a scene. When the Chaplain invited Thomas Brown to the platform, the audience could hardly restrain themselves, so great was their enthusiasm. It was at least five minutes before Mr. Osborne could be heard, and during his remarks it was about all any of us could do to keep the tears back.