The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1871-11-13
House OF Correction.


The experience of our community
has not settled any proposition more
clearly than ihe necessity for a House
of Correction for the discipline, correc-
ton and education Of young offenders.
We have our Penitentiary, but this is
mauifestly no place for young offenders,
whom l will not call.culprits, not hav-
ing that knowledge and hardened quality
of mind which makes them, properly,
the inmates of prisons and associates OF
criminals. Placed among such they
would be only educated for a life OF vice
and crime. We have our asylum for
the deaf and dumb. This speaks we'll
for the sympathies OF the people toward
an unfortunate class O: the community,
but this operates more for the relief OF
q few individuals and the comfort Of a
few families than for any public utility
or benefcence. The mutes are not
criminals; they do not, in any public
sense, contribute to the mass Of crime
in a community. BY the very depend
ence of their condition and the place
they occupy in the families into which
they are born they are almost uniformly
cut off from criminal associations, and
can but rarely be used as instruments
of crime. So with the blind. Insanity
is more prevalent than either Of these,
and covers variety OF mixed conditions,
a portion OF which is simply of a per-
sonal and domestic character, and has
little or no connection with crime,
while another class are dangerous to
the peace of the community, and yet
are not criminals in the sense which
would make them proper inmates OF
criminal dungeons and penitentlaries
But society is becoming crowded with
Young offenders who are raised in a
school of vice and crime, and many oil
whom could be reformed, if removed
from the moral contagion which sur
rounds them. Left in their present
condition they become criminal, and
they breed crime with the fecundity
that all vicious indulgence invites and
provokes. There is greater necessity
than in either of the instances, OF the
Mutes, Blind or Insane, for their re-
moval, discipline and culture for prac-
teal moral life. They should be re.
moved wholly from their domestic and
criminal associations. They should be
made the Children of the State, as the
other classes are made the eleemosy-
naries of the public sympathy. Every
consideration of sympathy, safety and
use and direction OF the personal forces
of society demands that this policy
should be instituted and made definite
and effective.
NV attention was early called to this
subject, after l had taken my seat on
the bench OF the Circuit Court, and
more than once spoke to the people
and to the public authorities, through
the charges made TO the grand juries.
But more was due to the exerlions oil
Hon. Lewis Steenrod. who, as Senator
from this district in the Legislature Of
Old Virginia, called attention to the
subject. | send you the report OF a
select committee OF the Senate OF Wiz.
sinis, prepared by him. and which will
furnish valuable information upon the
matter.
This is the proper time to move in
the subject, when the Legislature will
convene at an early day, and at a time
not so far distant that it will be for
gotten, nor so early as to be overlooked
| 10 the scramble for more personal but
less important objects.
Trusting that you will not only find
room to publish these reflections and
the report send you, but that you will
find it convenient to press the matter
upon the public attention, from time
to time, and that you will be warmly
supported by the IntelIigencer and other
papers OF the State, am your obedieni
| servant -sa4--
l. GEORGE w. THOMSON.