J. J. Sanders’ national survey of prisoner-mail policies fits into a broader policy initiative in Arizona. On March 1, 1912, George Wylie P. Hunt became the first governor of the newly formed state of Arizona. Governor Hunt was intensely interested in penal reform. On March 23, 1912, Hunt slept for a night in an Arizona prison cell. In addition to supporting liberalization of access to mail, newspapers, magazines, and books in the Arizona State Prison, Hunt in the months after his election abolished the use of ball-and-chains on prisoners and the prison rule of silence. He put convict labor to work on public-works projects outside the prison. A staunch opponent of capital punishment, Hunt granted reprieves to many prisoners facing death sentences. Hunt’s actions attracted national attention and some harsh criticism.^ ^

Sanders’ pamphlets supported Hunt’s reform program. Prison Reform provided parole statistics for the Arizona State Prison and discussed the success of parole. The pamphlet argued in favor of an “indefinite sentence” under which prisoners would be imprisoned only “until cured.” Sanders celebrated the new Arizona state constitution:

The writing of the Arizona constitution marks the beginning of a new epoch in American history. That bold instrument proclaimed the rights of men and deposed the dollar czar. The Nation has caught the spirit.

Sanders followed Hunt in strongly urging the Arizona legislature to abolish capital punishment:

A pagan custom of punishment still remains upon the statute books of this State. The pagans threw Christians to the wild beasts in the arena of ancient Rome or nailed them to crosses until they died. … Quit emulating these pagan Romans by having legal executions and get under the influence of twentieth century progress. Repeal all laws related to legal executions in this State.^

Arizona Senator Henry Fountain Ashurst inserted Sanders’ pamphlet into the U.S. Senate Record on October 21, 1913 . The pamphlet, however, apparently was nationally distributed before then. On Oct. 16, 1913, the Los Angeles Times published a satirical article entitled “Angelic Arizona Convicts.” The article quoted from Sanders’ pamphlet. It concluded:

If Sanders has his way altogether, then soap-box orators and other undesirables in Los Angeles are recommended to try a brake-beam or empty box car trip to Yuma or Parker, or across the river from the Needles {Arizona locations near the border with California}. There the seeker for a higher life can porch-climb, or burgle, or set fire to a barn, or ride away on another man’s horse. He can avoid the danger of being principal guest at a necktie party (which is still an occasional function among ancient Arizonians who have not assimilated the Sanders theory of criminals with high ideals) by giving himself up and pleading guilty, and he will then be ticketed for membership in the bright and shining band who set an example of grace and perfection and moral beauty to the dwellers of the Sun-kissed State {California}.^

The Los Angeles Times’ contemptuous attitude toward Sanders’ views probably also reflected hostility to Arizona Governor Hunt’s reforms.

Sanders apparently aspired to liberalize prisoner-mail regulations nationally. Sanders’ first pamphlet declared:

A State penal institution that places restrictions upon any of these great avenues of education {personal letters, newspapers, and magazines} other than ordinary inspection becomes a menace to the welfare of all the other States and in the interest of progress, justice, and twentieth-century enlightenment this mail restriction should be abolished.^

The claim of “menace to the welfare of all the other States” set up justification for the U.S. Congress to liberalize prisoner-mail regulations under the Postal Clause and the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. About September, 1914, Sanders apparently organized a petition to the U.S. Congress from the inmates of the Arizona State Prison. They asked Congress to liberalize prisoners’ mail in all prisons:

We, the undersigned inmates of the Arizona State Prison, enjoy the unlimited mail privilege. We know what it means. We know what it has done for us and what it will do for others. Appreciating, as we do, the wonderful help it would be to our fellow prisoners throughout the country, we are trying to do our little mite in their behalf. We are addressing our plea to the greatest legislative body in the world, and, in the name of humanity, progress, and enlightenment for which this country stands, we ask the enactment of a law removing the restrictions on all United States mail matter, in all the prisons, except inspection by proper officials.^

This petition was presented to Congress on September 28, 1914. The text of the petition is consistent with the diction, style, and ideas of Sanders. He probably wrote it. Congress, confronting the outbreak of what was to become the Great War, did not act on the Arizona prisoners’ petition for prisoner-mail liberalization across the U.S.