Sacramento daily record-union., 1881-11-12
PRISON REFORM CONVENTION.
Continuation Of the Proceedings at San
Francisco.

In the Prison Convention, paper pre-
pared by the State Prison Commission was
read. 1t recites that:
First-Society is in some measure re-
sponsible for the ignorance and weakness
of parents as such. More should be done
to enlighten them in regard to their duties,
and to make them feef3heir responsibility
as parents to their children, to the world,
and to God.
Second-For not acting more completely
IN loco PARENTS lin the place of parents) in
the care of neglected children, and supply
ing the protecting agencies and the means
OF culture not provided by the parents.
Third-For not keeping the young away
! from improper places of resort, such as
those where corrupting amusements are
provided. where liquor is sold, where evil
examples are presented, where bad habits
are contracted, and where they are ex-
posed to bad influences generally.
Fourth-For not making better provis-
| ions for the industrial training of youth.
Fifth-For not providing for more thor.
ough education of children, an education
of the right sort, one better calculated to
| fit them for the duties of respectable citi-
zenship.
Sixth-For .the failure to provide and
put in operation means for the more effect
ual suppression of gambling in all its forms.
Seventh-For the extravagance already
presented as one of the causes of crime.
Eighth-For failure to secure the proper
enforcement of laws for the suppression
and punishment of crime.
Ninth-For the lack of suitable refugees
and reformatories for children, youths and
young men.
Tenth-For the neglect to build properly
constructed prisons, to introduce into them
the right systems of discipline, to separate
prison management entirely from political
Influences, to secure the selection of prison
and reformatory officers, with reference to
their known fitness for their duties, and
the retention of such, and only such, as
prove their qualifications for their respect.
i've positions, regardless OF influences OF
any kind and from any source.
Eleventh-Failure to provide for the
proper training of officers for prisons and
reformatories.
Twelfth-For the existence and present
condition of the liquor traffic, which all
acknowledge to be such fruitful source of
crime.
G. H. Atkinson, OF Oregon, contended
that grading of conviets would necessarily
interfere with the profits of prison labor !;
but it would in the end prove profitable
to the State and beneficial to the prison
system.
A review OF the Michigan system of pro-
viding for dependent and helpless children
was presented by G. B. Randall, of Mich
igan. This system provides schools and
homes for children without protection.
DR.. F. d. Elliot, of Oregon, spoke in
commendation of the paper read by Mr..
Randall, and related his experience as Su-
perintendent of the Industrial School in
st. Louis, Mo.
Mrs. Laura De Force Gordon followed in
an argument favoring the investigation Of
the causes of juvenile crime, and urged a
more earnest support of institutions de-
signed to save children from contact with
crime.
Rev. DR.. Briggs read the declaration of
principles or platform prepared by the
vanced theory for the elevation of the
physical influence and advocates moral
suasion for the government of prisons.
| Suggests that education should be COM
bined with industrial occupation to pro-
mote the welfare of prisoners. Prison
discipline to be effective must secure the
cooperation of the convict. The extraor-
binary inequality of the terms of service
was denounced. The indefinite term, sub
ject to extension of the time, is urged as
better than set terms of servitude. Polit-
ical appointment of prison employees was
deprecated as destructive of prison disci-
pline. The pardoning power should be
more restricted the Governor should be
required to report all pardons to the State
Legislature, and the reason therefor.
Care should be taken that discharged
prisoners are aided to secure work on
their release from prison. The archi-
lecture and sanitary regulation of the
prison should be all that health and
science require. The transportation of
prisoners to the State Penitentiary should
| be by State officers instead of by Sheriffs.
The laws on criminal insanity should be
revised so as to insure the care of criminal
lunatics Parents should be made par
TALLY responsible for the support of their
children while in industrial houses and
places of reformation. Capital and labor
should combine to prosecute crime. Crimi-
nal capitalists should be prosecuted more
energetically than the mere operatives or
employees. Education in the State should
be made obligatory and compulsory. The
declaration of principles was very lengthy
DIR. Levison favored central head of the
department of Justice as proposed in the
platform. He advanced the opinion that
all Boards or Commissions were mere
cloaks for wrong He denounced the pres
ent system of associating prisoners of all
kinds in the same cells in city prisons.
G. A. Murdoch read paper on child.
saving institutions, and illustrated his SUBJ
| ject with historical sketch of the child
saving Institutions in New York. At least
seventy per cent. of the children placed in
these reformatory institutions have been
saved from lives Of crime. A quarter of a
million of boys and girls have been res
cued by these institutions in New York
and Massachusetts, alone 300 boys and
girls went West to homes provided for
them. Over As, 600 boys and girls have
been provided with homes in the West,
and not five per cent. have gone back to
lives of vagrancy and crime. By prevent
ing vagrancy, these juvenile institutions
have cut off one of the main sources of
supply of crime.
Mr.. Baker, the Superintendent of the
Boys and Girls Aid Society, explained the
theory and the benefit OF arresting crime
in youth. He said this is the proper way
to save the city from hoodlumism and di.
minish taxation by the reduction of the
number of juvenile criminals.
Governor Perkins explained in relation
to former remarks as to Judges who pc
titioned him to pardon criminals, that he
did not refer to Judges of the Supreme
Court, but when he said they were Judges
receiving Sc, 600 salary, he referred to late
| District Judges.
Chancellor C. Harrison read paper upon
| the "Duty of the State to neglected chill
| dren and youth, and the best modes of pre-
venting the creation of youthful criminals. ;"
Mrs. Cooper delivered an address upon
the subject OF Kindergartens. The
kindergarten is preventive of crime.
The Kindergarten child is taught to be
| good, kind, moral and industrious. The
child is the principal factor of this nation );
the hope of the world is it's children.
We de not begin soon enough with our
little children. Her argument was that
if the State would devote more time and
money to the establishment of homes for
neglected little children. and giving them
trades and kind, moral training, there