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35 Prison J. 2 (1955)

handle is hein.journals/prsjrnl35 and id is 1 raw text is: 



      TELLING THE STORY OF PRISONERS
                        An  Editorial
     The Penal Press aims to let more people know what hap-
pens to other people behind bars. Increasingly, inmate publica-
tions, which  collectively have come to be  called the Penal
Press, are telling the story of prisoners with technical skill and
mature  restraint. As a consequence, many of the weekly news-
papers  and monthly  journals coming out  of American  prisons
are becoming   required reading for those who  want  to know
more  about the men and women who  are to be corrected within
the walls.
    There  can be no doubt of the need for this kind of required
reading.  For the  reading, listening, looking public is already
saturated with crime stories featuring the manhunt and episodes
of man's cunning, cruelty, and degradation. Such tales feed the
appetite of revenge and inflame the desire to punish unmercifully
the culprit. But they contribute little or nothing to a solution
of  the vast social problem which  begins when  the culprit is
caught.
    Lurid  tales of manhunts contribute little or nothing to our
understanding  of offenders, because they stop before the huge
task of correction within institutions is tackled. They create
the illusion that capture and conviction are the end of the prob-
lem  whereas  they are but  the beginning  of another costlier
and more  difficult problem-imprisonment.  They feature detec-
tion, pursuit, and prosecution-dramatic, external processes en-
tirely-and  omit the necessarily slow, undramatic, inward step-
by-step recovery of the convicted person  who  uses prison for
growing  to maturity. Such  tales of manhunts contribute little
or nothing to  our understanding of  offenders, because of our
penchant  to use a destructive criminal episode as the enduring
symbol of the criminal's whole life. A whole life is greater than
the sum of its parts; certainly greater than one or two criminal
episodes.
    For those and other reasons, men and women who are caught
and convicted need a spokesman.   With  a growing sense of re-
sponsibility, and often with telling emotional impact, the Penal
Press  is becoming a voice deserving to be heard, a spokesman
worthy  of the name.   At its best, it is a spokesman for the
values, experiences, and correctional programs which  tend to
bind men  together and  stimulate the desire to serve and help
one another.
    The  contributors to this issue of The Prison Journal are but
a few of the many  spokesmen who  now  willingly and ably raise
their voices in the cause of better correctional treatment. These
inmate  writers have fashioned from the thin thread of hope a
new  life which serves them well. They are men who have gained
the feeling of well-being on the job. Through achievement, they
have  developed self-respect, which is th essence of successful
living, in prison or outside. Through  achievement, they have
earned  the right to tell the story of prisoners and deserve a
respectful hearing.
                              2

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