A fragment of the prison experiences of Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman E-Book

Emma Goldman

• Herausgeber: Booksell-Verlag
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

A *Fragment of the Prison Experiences of Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman* offers a profound exploration into the personal and philosophical struggles of early 20th-century anarchists. This collection captures a vivid blend of emotional intensity and political commentary, shedding light on the personal sacrifices and unwavering convictions of its subjects. The anthology traverses various literary styles, including reflective narratives and poignant essays, to showcase the depth of experiences endured by these emblematic figures during their incarceration. Readers are provided an intricate mosaic of revolutionary thought and enduring resilience without sacrificing literary elegance. The collection weaves the personal accounts of Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, stalwarts of the anarchist movement, against the backdrop of a repressive political environment. Their experiences are not isolated musings but are deeply rooted in broader sociopolitical currents and the historical ideologies they championed. Through their distinct yet harmonious narratives, the anthology delves into the enduring struggles for justice and liberty, combining a wealth of insights that resonate with the cultural upheavals of their era. Together, Goldman and Berkman provide a nuanced view of the anarchist ideology embellished with profound humanism. This anthology offers an unparalleled opportunity to engage with the intimate and transformative reflections of Goldman and Berkman. It is a remarkable resource for those interested in the intricacies of political dissent and the multifaceted nature of activist experiences. The collection invites readers to contemplate the persistent and universal themes of freedom and resistance, fostering a dialogue between the historical context and the persistent quest for social justice. For students, historians, and those passionate about the multifarious human spirit, this volume is an educational gem inviting continual reflection and exploration.

Leseprobe

Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman

A fragment of the prison experiences of Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman

Published by Good Press, 2022

[email protected]

EAN 4066338111708

Table of Contents

A FOREWORD

THE STATE PRISON AT JEFFERSON CITY, MO. EMMA GOLDMAN

THE ATLANTA FEDERAL PENITENTIARY Statement by Alexander Berkman

REPLY OF FRED G. ZERBST Warden of the U. S. Federal Penitentiary, Atlanta, Ga.

REPLY TO WARDEN FRED G. ZERBST

PERSECUTION OF POLITICALS

IN CONCLUSION

A FOREWORD

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There was a time—and that not so very long ago—when popular ignorance and superstition looked upon an insane person as one possessed of the devil or of some other evil spirit. They sought to drive the “evil one” out by beating and torturing the insane, and often even by drowning, hanging, and burning.

We have fortunately passed that stage of stupid brutality. Today even the most ignorant man knows that insanity is a disease. But in regard to crime and criminals we are still in the stage of dark-age superstition. We look upon the criminal today as we did upon the insane fifty or seventy-five years ago. Most men still believe that by beating and punishing the criminal, by hanging and electrocution, we can drive the “evil spirit” out of him. This process is called reforming the criminal.

Yet common sense and all human experience prove that the criminal is no more responsible for crime than the crazy man for his insanity. The pseudo-scientific theories of the Lombrosos in regard to crime and criminals have been thoroughly exploded and proven utterly fallacious. Even if the Lombroso myth that the criminal is born were true, what good would it do to punish him? There might be some social justification for his isolation, but how could the criminal, if born such, be held accountable for his criminality?

But as a matter of fact—as modern criminology has proven beyond all dispute—the criminal is made, not born. He is the product of his environment, a child of poverty and desperation, of misery, greed, and ambition. He is at the same time the symbol and the proof of a diseased social condition, the miscarriage of perverted economic arrangements. Fully 97 per cent. of all crime is due directly to our economic institutions. The other 3 per cent. are traceable to the artificiality and neurosis of modern life, to the anti-social tendencies cultivated among the weeds in the neglected and mistreated garden of human life.

I have been in close contact with so-called criminals for a great many years. Yet nowhere have I found the alleged “criminal type,” nor have I ever discovered the “real criminal.” He does not exist. Crime is simply misdirected energy, effort applied wrongly. The average criminal is just the average man, generally speaking. If in any sense he may be considered a “variation,” it is only because of his frequently superior initiative, daring and intelligence. His often anti-social activity is conditioned by his unconventional vocation, not by any inherent criminal or anti-social tendencies. I am not speaking of congenital criminal degenerates whose number is infinitesimal, and who belong in the care of the alienist. The vast majority of the so-called criminal class are thoroughly normal human beings, if the term may be applied to the type of man produced by modern civilization. I have had scores and hundreds of professional criminals, young and old, tell me again and again, “The only hope and ambition of my life is just to get a little pile, so that I can feel secure from want. Then I’d take my family somewhere in the country and live a quiet and honest life.”

My present space is limited. I can merely shadow forth here a skeleton outline of this big and very vital subject. In a forthcoming book I shall analyze more thoroughly the sources and the psychology of crime, and write of the unique and interesting prison types and characters I have met.

For the present it is sufficient to emphasize that our whole social attitude toward the criminal is fundamentally wrong. It is the attitude of barbaric stupidity that seeks to hide its own shame and its mistakes behind prison bars. It has neither understanding of human motives nor sympathy with human weaknesses. This social attitude toward the criminal, representing the lowest human intelligence, is reflected in the management and discipline of the prisons. It is apparent that modern criminology has had a very negligible effect upon the popular mind within the last twenty-five years, for I have found the prisons of today in no essential way different from those of a quarter of a century back. Brutality is rampant; discipline is synonymous with the absolute suppression of individuality and the crushing of the prisoner’s spirit and will. The atmosphere of our penal institutions of today is that of violence and force, of force and violence. With very rare exceptions, the spirit of humanity, of understanding, and justice, is a stranger in prison.

Alexander Berkman

THE STATE PRISON AT JEFFERSON CITY, MO.EMMA GOLDMAN

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Twenty-six years ago, in 1893, I paid the first toll for my opinions in the State of New York with a year’s free residence in the Blackwell’s Island Penitentiary. I found the cells small, dark, and filthy, the sanitary conditions appalling, and the general attitude toward the convict on the part of prison officials hard and cruel.

Terrible as these conditions were, they had some justification. In 1893 there was barely a spark anywhere to discredit the antiquated and inhuman theory of predestination—the Calvinistic idea that man is born a sinner and that he must expiate his sins through suffering and pain. This attitude toward the criminal and the methods of punishment rest on this biblical conception to this very day. Much more did that idea prevail twenty-six years ago.

Since then criminology has undergone a revolution. Libraries are filled with works on the origin and causes of crime, on the futility of punishment as a corrective of crime. More and more frequently modern writers have pointed out that crimes are related to social conditions, and that brutal treatment of prisoners makes them become more hardened and anti-social.

With a vast literature on scientific criminology and the widespread attempt to reform prisons, to humanize the treatment of the unfortunate social offender, one might have expected some changes in the penal institutions of this country. Yet in the year 1918 in the States of Missouri and Georgia, and for aught we know in every State in the land, prisons continue to be “built of bricks of shame” and

The vilest deeds, like poison weeds,

Bloom well in prison air.

It is only what is good in Man

That wastes and withers there.

Pale anguish keeps the heavy gate,

And the Warder is Despair.

To be sure, the cells in the Missouri State Penitentiary, at least in the female wing, are larger and some of them lighter than the vermin-infested cells on Blackwell’s Island twenty-six years ago. But even there the cells are never light enough except on very sunny days, while more than half the cells are in utter darkness and without ventilation. In fact, air is the most tabooed article in the Missouri prison. Except in extremely warm weather, the windows are rarely opened, healthy women are forced to breathe the putrid air of consumptives and syphilitics. During the influenza epidemic, when thirty-five prisoners lay stricken, we had to plead and fight for the opening of a window. To this day I can not understand how any one of us survived, except that the Lord “takes care of us poor sinners.”

Yes, the cells are larger, the sanitation modern, but in every other respect, in the attitude of the officials toward the prisoner, the cold indifference to his needs, the methods of breaking his will, and, above all, the mode of employment have not improved, but are even worse than my experience on Blackwell’s Island in 1893.