With his unhappy experience in Liberty jail still vivid in his memory, he advocated a drastic reform of the American penal system. Turn the jails into seminaries of learning, he said. Make work upon roads and public works the punishment for crime, and reserve rigor and seclusion only for those guilty of murder. Abolish imprisonment for debt, and pardon every convict, saying to him in the name of the Lord: “Go thy way and sin no more.”
