The focus on the individual was the
first step towards creating a moment of profound and personally transformative
intimacy. The word "intimacy" was not on the
lips of the PPS visitors, however, they visited each inmate on
a weekly basis to talk with them and attempt to—in another
non-Colonial phrase—"raise their consciousness."
They
intended their visits to be spiritually edifying.
But there was yet a final step.
The inmate had to encounter his innermost self,
that is, confront the intimate voice of his
conscience and so of his God.
Simply, the power to
change lives was in the Bible. No less than God would
speak to the inmate. Most of the PPS members accepted what was
then called the Scottish School of Common Sense
philosophy.
Among its tenets was a belief that
an individual's "conscience" was
a faculty that could "speak" to him. Thus, as the ideal
scenario took place, in the middle of the night,
after reading the Bible, the individual's conscience would awaken
him—and who knows you better than your self?—and accuse him, force him
to honestly face what he refused to confess to others, namely,
his sinful crime.
This was the penitence behind the word penitentiary.
Once repentant, the individual was
also saved. He threw himself upon the mercy of
God, and with the aid of the PPS members drew up a plan for living
a good Christian life, once released.
Continue—PPS
