Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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JIM 1 Ell LUCRETIA JONES MANAGING ED EDIT( Reflee of'Na2 President Thieu of South i Wednesday in order to acqu from the people of his coun To vote is to make a choice, be more than one faction. Pre secret directives to all prov make sure he has the vote of done. Yet, the United States g( rights of Vietnam to a democi to be affiliated with a country dictatorship? Does it want t( another Russia? Is this senseless war being someone made a mistake? The draft call is now being Are the young men in this c war for the development of a taught to oppose since we we schoolers? The upcoming election in S that the final blow has come a The draft call will be re: Nixon signs the Senate-appr expected in rejuvenating the Are the young nen In this c war for the protection of a To paraphrase Senator I known supporter of the % reminds us of Hitler's Ger ,contemporary Russia. Is th The South Vietnam electior blow has come. Let us qet c Our times Th roe (aors nose: "Aur times" will be a regular column.) BY SMITH HEMPS'TONE Columnist Monday's orgy of throat-slitting and gunfire at New York's Attica State Prison is yet another har binger of the crisis facing the American penal systemn and, by inference, society as a whole. Black militants, with their penchant for warmed-over Marxist -explanations, will insist that the rebellious prisoners, like Spartacus and his band, were driven to their desperate acts by the relentless hatred of society which, according to one of their complaints, was providing them with too much perk and too little fresh fnudt. At the other end of the political spectrum, there wili be demands for stricter controls over prison inmates and retention of capital punishment. Hayever one views the Attica, maacere, the fact is that the nation'svarious penal svstems are in a state aqngmuIellse to .knsurretlast g October there PARRELL ITOR DAVE LUNDGREN AD. MNGR. )RIALS tions !asm 'ietnam started his campaign Ire the "vote of confidence" try. To make a choice there must sident Thieu has also sent out Ince chiefs ordering them to confidence no matter how its )vernment is protecting the racy. Does this countfry want following in the footseteps of be connected with creating fought to save face because resumed thanks to Congress. Duntry to continue to fight a government we have all been re just young innocent grade Duth Vietnam is proof enough nd now,we should get out. 5umed as soon as President oved bill. Quick approval is old law which ended in June. ountry to continue to fight a dictatorship? -lenry Jackson, D-Wash., a rar, the upcoming election many and parallels that of Is what we are supporting? Is proof enough that the final >ut. it-slitting a was a series of violent outbreaks in New -York City prisons. These were followed by serious disor ders at four California Institutions, Folson, San Quentin, Soledad and San Luis Obispo, and, more recently, by the George Jackson shoot-out at San Quentin. Nor does It require an expert knowledge of penology to perceive that our correctional institutions are not correcting. A casual acquairrtanceship with natonal crime statistics, with their dire tale of recidivism, Indicates that on the contrary-our penal systems are schools which succeed only In producing more accomplished and vicious criminals. As presently constituted, the one thing that can be said in favor of the present system is that It keeps a certain number of criminals out of circulation for a certain amount of time. But not enough are caught and they are not put away for long enough to make the system serve the basic need of law-abiding citizens for the security of their persns and prerty. Insight: Rex Car 'Time h (Editor's note: This column initiates a regular series of editorial columns written by dif ferent persons involved in the news. Each of these columns was written exclusively for the -Gamecock. This column was written by Rex Carter, a Democrat from Greenville and speaker pro tem. Carter Is the leading can didate against Solomon Blatt for the Speaker's- seat in the S.C. House of Representatives.) On Tuesday, February 23, 1971, the South Carolina House of Representatives went into session at 10:00 a.m. Just like every other Tuesday when the General Assembly is in session, we had a number of Bills on the agenda that would be acted upon that day. Legislators were standing in corners, by desks and in the lob bies, talking back and forth about Bills to be considered, about the weekend just passed and about things personal and legal. Speaker Solomon Blatt was theonly member of the House to cast his lot against the 18-year-old-vote... In the Galleries were representatives from various student organizations, along with lobbyists representing the various views of the special interests. The House looked and acted like it does on any given day. We proceeded through the Calendar in normal fashion. The Speaker rolled over Bills and Resolutions as the members ayed and nayed theiri own particular approval. Towards the end of the Calendar was H. 1364; a joint resolution from the Judiciary Committee proposing an Amendment to the State Con stitution that would change the minimum age of electors in South tt Attica entirely demented, who maintain that society would be better off if all prisons were abolished. In that case, there would be a proliferation of minor criminals but at least they would be denied exposure to the post-graduate courses in violence and depravity taught by hard-core inmates of our penal institutions. A novel idea, but hardly one likely to be im plemented. In the once and future world of behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner, where people (he says) will "live together without quarreling" and it will seldom be necessary to punish anyone because "behavior likely to be punished seldom or never occurs," it is possible that anti-social behavior will be "conditioned out" of potential or convicted criminals through the administratjon of drugs. But if that Orwellian day is just around the corner, it will still be too late for the current crisis, which is here and now. Huey P. Newton, who as Minister of Defense of the Black Panther. Party knoOvs .bmethin. wer Es come tA Carolina to 18. When the proposal was read aloud by the Clerk, a gong was sounded notifying the membership that a roll call vote would be taken on this issue. The giant tally boards lit up, and green lights flickered next to the members' names signifying ap proval. On the top left hand corner, one red light switched on; all other rows filled with green lights. Uke a finger in the dike of history, one man in the House held out against progress. Speaker Soloman Blatt was the only member of the House to cast his lot against the 18-year-old vote that day. To be truthful, his vote on the issue didn't make any dif ference; the Nation had already decided to grant the 18,19 and 20 year-olds the vote. Nevertheless, I remember that roll call vividly, because the man I would come to run aginst for Speaker had stood before us a symbol of the will to resist. . In the months that have passed since that vote was taken, many things have changed in the House. There is a new feeling among many of the members that the dike is about to break; that South Carolina is about to come face to face with the choice of standing still or moving forward. In truth, this feeling has been growing ever since the end of the war. During the fifties and sixties, we began to realize that South Carolina possessed an enormous potential for growth. Particularly during the last 10 years, we have applied our energy and our will to improving the lives of all South Carolinians. Our per capita income has doubled; our job opportunities have multiplied; improvements can be attributed directly to the energy of the people of South Carolina. So often during these years of change and progress, that leadership in the House has been a barrier to, rather than a channel for, progress. On the issues of kindergartens, compulsory education, tax reform and so many other important issues, the leadership has stood intransigent to the winds of change. State Pris about the subject, mraintains that there are two types of prisoners within our prison systems. The first and more numerous type, he says, "accept the legitimacy of the assumptions upon which the society is based." This type of prisoner he' describes as an "illegitimate capitalist." Newton's second type rejects the legitimacy of society's assump tions and, whether at large or in prison, does not seek rehabilitation, will not cooperate and is "a political prisoner." There is a great deal of validity in that and it would seem that a first step in calming down the prisons would be to separate the "illegitimate capitalists," the garden-variety criminals, from the "political prisoners," men who have committed criminal acts which they (if no one else) regard as politically motivated. If this is not done, it is clear that the "illegitimate capitalists" will rapidly become contaminated by the "political prisoners," since it is no more than buman nature for 'unen ato-blame -thefr 'pesondl. decide' I recognize that not all change is good. Very often our afterthoughts give us better direction than our impulse. But, generally speaking, the urge to improve the lives of citizens economically and culturally is the most healthy ofall our collective desires. Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, "I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving." Therein lies the real Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, "I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are 0 conflict in the battle for Speaker between Mr. Blatt and myself. Our fight is not one that springs from the frictions of old vs. young, or big county vs. small county, or even progressive vs. conservative. The contest for Speaker is one of direction. When Mr. Blatt says, "I'm proud of South Carolina", he means that he's proud of where we stand; when I say, "I'm proud of South Carolina", I'm talking about the prosperity our people could share, about the future we could look forward to living in. The leader ship cannot stop progress, nor can it start the wheels of orderly progression, but it can provide direction. After twenty years of sometimes begrudging progress, the time has come for us to decide whether we accept the challenges of the future and begin to plan for them or if we lull ourselves into another two years of alliance with the past. failures and weaknesses on ex ternal forces. For the "political prisoners," the prospect is for long terms of imprisonment, for they cannot expect pardon or parole from a iety to the desrtriuci~n of which they remain dedicated. The one alternative might be tran sportation, after serving the maximum sentence, to another country which would agree to accept them. Certainly Cuba or Algeria would be welcome to them. Finally, it is clear that our prison systems should be so altered that all first-offenders of both categories should be sent to prisons from which multiple offenders are excluded. And there should be a separation even among first-offenders between those 'convicted of violent and non violent crimes. Only thus can there be a reasonable chance for rehabilitating the less hardened types. Otherwise w maym face -n,