Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-02-06
MR.. HENDRICKS TOUR OF INQUIRY

Mr.. Hendricks, President of the State
Beard of Penology, expresses surprise at
the fact disclosed during his recent visit to
the East, that the members of the Prison
Commissions know less about prison reform,
and the methods of securing the great end
at which society aims in secluding crimi-
mails in prison, than do the public charities
Boards, the prison reform associations. and
the philanthropic organizations that are
devoted to a study of the reformation of
criminals. The reason for this is clear.
These philanthropists engage in theirwork
from purely humane impulses. The off
cial directors Of prisons are crippled by
unyielding statutes, and are compelled to
give so much attention to the routine of
management that they cannot get out of
the official groove. But in the case of the
California Directors they act in dual ca
pacity. While as Directors they discharge
routine duties imposed by the law. as
Pathological Commission they have all the
freedom of action and inquiry necessary to
such Board. The latter body can study
the whole question of reformation of the
criminal, observe the course of discharged
prisoners examine into the experiences of
all other States indeed, go theoretically
and practically to the bottom of all human
knowledge and experiment on the subject,
and thus advise the people of the State as
to the very best methods for attaining the
end sought. As a Board of Directors it can
then apply, so far as allowed by law, the
remedies for prison ills.
1t is gratifying to learn that Mr.. Hen
bricks returns from his official tour of in
quiry deeply impressed with the necessity
of separating tyros in crime from hardened
offenders, and in making this separation so
wide that distinct and purely reforma-
tory institution will be necessary for iuve-
nile criminals. At Coldwater, Branch
county, Mich, Mr.. Hendricks found
model institution that comes very close to
the idea so frequently advocated in the
RECoRD-UNIoN, that children criminally
inclined shall not be treated as convicts.
nor have attached to them the stigma of
penal institution, and which once affixed
never can be obliterated The reform
school operates in the name of the State,
upon very much the same plane as the
Boys and Girls Aid Society of San Fran
cisco and tho Mocra ob,,catte S+o+o Doc,.>.
atory. Under such system the boys and girls
who are being led, or driven by surround
ings into criminal careers, are gathered up
by agents of the State, grouped at Cold
water, cared for, their dispositions studied,
the trend Of their minds ascertained, and
then they are placed in homes in various
parts of the State, under kind but firm
masters, and every incentive held out to
them to lead pure lives. The State main
tains its watch and ward over these chill
dren; its agents visit and correspond with
them; they realize that they are under
guardianship, that everything being done
for them is kindly and wisely done. and
that the sole aim is to give them opportu-
nifty to become useful citizens and orna-
ments to society. Very rarely, indeed, is
the State, either in Massachusetts or |
Michigan, deceived by such wards, and the |
percentage of those who prove incorrigible |
is exceedingly small. Under such a sys-
tenn the odium of penal institution, or of |
reformatory, does not attach, and the |
rescued boy grows to manhood provided |
with the knowledge of some useful voea-
ton, and, so far as the world is concerned.