The Cairo bulletin. [volume] (Cairo, Ill.) 1872-1878, 1873-01-15

prOV0mont OF tue COuQlt10n OF the oOnvlcS0,
TO make temporary provision for the sup
port Of the more helpless and destitute, az
ter their discharge, until they can find en-.
| ployment, or 10 aid them In doing 20. II
10 impossible for persons unfamiliar with
the actual state Of tho case, to imagine the
utter helplessness Of many convicts whom
discharged from the penitentisry. Com.
mitted TO the institution when COM
paratively young, and while there cut of
from all intercourse with their fellow
men, they come forth ignorant Of oil the
methods Of obtaining honest support, they
are outcasts who feel that they would not
DO benefited BY making their actual situa-
ton known even to the benevolent, and
they ara. therefore almost inevitably
driven TO ssek the society and aid of those
whose character and habits Of life are
such as will afford no support to any in.
tention the convict may have formed to
pursue better courses. No reformatory
system can DO considered to be completed
without some provisions for the temporary
shelter and support of persons Of this
class, nor without aAording them aid In
finding employment.
THE REFORM SCHOOL,
One Of tho institutions maintained by
the state and that from its objects and Or
ganization may, without great impropri-
ETY., be classed among the charities, 10 the
reform school at Pontiac.
This institution, though yet in It's in
fancy, will, If 1t is so managed 40 to main.
tain the confidence of the public hereafter,
exercise an important and salutary inhu-
ence in tho improvement and reformation
of a class whose condition has always ex-
cited the deepest interest
| Juvenile offenders whose crimes arc most
frequently the result Of the incapacity or
the negligence of parents or guardians, or
of neglected orpbsnage, or as experience
has demonstrated with respect to many Of
that class, of latent intellectual or moral
incapacity or disease, while they attract
and enlist the sympathies of the phllan-
thropic, furnish the most encouraging
field for the employment of reformatory
agencies, and IL 10 to DO hoped that as tho
state advances In wealth and culture =
greater degree of attention will be given
not only the classes intended to be pro-
vided for and benefited by the reform
school, but TO neglected childhood where
ever il may be found in this state.
1t has been found extremely difficult in
practice for the courts to harmonic some
Of the provisions ofthe law which provides
for the commitment Of persons to the re-
form school, and the general laws that
provide for tho punishment Of offenders
by confinement in the penitentiary with
the obviuus demands OF criminal Justice
As an illustration of tho difficulty ad.
verted to, it will be observed, by reference
TO the provisions of tho act of 1867, in re-
lation 10 the reform school, that all courts
Of competent jurisdiction are authorized
to exercise their discretion in sending ju-
vcnile Offenders to the county jails in ac-
cordanco with the laws, or in sending
| them to the reform school, provided that
no person shall BIO sent to the reform
school for term that will dotain him be-
You'd the timo when he shall arrive at
the age Of eighting years. The practical
| effect Of this provision is that q class Of
persons that are under the age of eighteen
years but have nearly attained that age,
ton. If they are within few months Of
that age, a sentence to detention in the
reform school until they are tho ago of
which subjects the state to the expense
Of converting tho offender to tho institu-
ton to remain for term too short to be
productive of benefit, while q sentence
to confinement in Q county Jail produces
all tho mischiefs intended to be avoided
IN the establishment Uf q reform schools
1t is suggested that it would DO q judiciou.
method of removing the difficulty to amend
the law 80 as to authorize tho courts to sem
tence Juvenile offenders to the reform
school for term until they arrive at
the ago of twenty-one years
| INEBRIATE HOSPITAL.
| Recent investigations have led the most
intelligent thinkers to the conclusion that
drunkenness is form Of disease that ad-
mits Of treatment and care. This 10 not
the proper occasion to discuss nor present
ut length any of tho theories that have
been lately advanced in relation to this
form OF misfortune, but though II 10 known
to inspire measure of confidence in the
possibility Of curing drunkenness by the
use Of proper means, and no one familiar
with the subject will hesitate to confess
that, from its extensive prevalence and
| the mischief and dangers it 10 constantly
| producing, all efforts should be made to as
certain, by experiment, whether it does
admit Of permanent cure; nor should the
failure Of any experiment that might be
made by the state relieve the subject from
embarrassment, for there will still remain
in tho community large and dangerous
class, to whom may be traced
the commission Of q large proper
ton Of the crimes that afiict society and
disturb social order, and the time has
como when 1t is reproach to the state
that no measures can DO devised which
will bring relief. l am aware that some
still urge the total prohibition of the use
of the liquors that produce intoxication, as
the proper remedy of the evil Of drunken
ness but l have never observed any
satisfactory evidences of q real intention
on the part of the people to enforce
measures OF prohibition, nor do / believe
the total prohibition of tho use of intoxi-
eating agencies possible. But If l am
mistaken in this opinion, and the time
shall hereafter arrive when the men who
believe the total prohibition Of the use of
intoxicating liquors judicious or possible,
will come to consider that object of
enough importance to induce them to
prefer it's SUCCESS to that of political
parties, and vote according to their con
victions, and succeed in giving effect to
their views it is not SO near at hand that
tho general assembly should, on account
Of its approach, delay to mako provision
to relieve society from the almost unendur-
able evils that drunkenness now produce.
Nor would 1t, IN my judgment, greatly
Affect the duty Of tho general assembly to
mako provision TO protect society against
tho form Of danger now under considers-
ton, to express q concurrence with those
who believe that intoxicstion is only
crime that merits punishment--and that ia
hn inh tv,x t,h sa .t.I n