Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-09-15
PRISON STATISTICS.
AN ARRAY OF FACTS OF PUBLIC
VALUE.
The Tenth Report of the American
Prison Census at Last Comes
From the Press.
Written for the RECORD UNION

Written for the RECORD UNION
The delay in publishing the Tenth Re
port of the American Prison Census is
most discreditable to those who have been
charged with its compilation. 1t is over
eight years since the information here set
out was collected, quarter OF which in
terval should have been ample for digest
ing and collecting the data which but now
is given to the world. While, however, a
most reasonable time has been occupied in
preparing for the launch of these statistics,
the duty of reviewing them is not one that
can be shirked, although they have
lost much of their freshness by being held
back for so long time. The confession of
their collater, that his statistics are ''de-
plorably meager and inadequate seems a
little unreasonable, considering the hun
dred odd months which he admits have
been devoted to their arrangement and
grouping. On the principle, however, of
better late than never we hail the publ
cation of the report with satisfaction, only
regretting that the conclusions to which
its figures point are not of more encour-
aging nature than an analysis of the vol
ume shows them to be-
Plurality of Courts and duality of laws
and constitutions are elements of confusion
in the dissection of these statistics which,
under more widely administered Federal
Government would be eliminated. There
is the Congressional Criminal Code and
the State Criminal Code, representatives
of each of which can arraign and prose
cute for an ofiense which, morally one, may
by the interposition of independent au-
thorities be magnified into two Anon
alous cases such as this are no doubt diff
cult for the statistician to deal with, for if
he treated the second prosecution de moro,
however legally accurate might be the re-
suit of his figures, morally speaking it
would be worthless.
Comparison of the criminal codes in
force in the different States discloses only
one fact, viz: that On the turpitude of diff
ferent crimes there is a great conflict of
opinion Grand larceny in one State NAV
be punished by term in the county
Jail OF days, and in another State
by term in the penitentiary
OF years. Two crimes besides murder are
punishable by death in South Carolina,
while in another State capital punishment
is prohibited altogether. Prisons are run
on lines rs divergent from one another as
the laws which send the men there. there
being at least four systems of governing
prisons, each of which is paralleled many
times in the penal economy of this coun-
try. Some States have a mitigation law
for good conduct in prison, Others have
not; tickets-of-leave and indeterminate
sentences find favor in some States and are
detested in others.
From this conflicting mass Of opinion
and custom, so mutually destructive as to
scarcely yield single generalization, it is
refreshing to turn to figures which, having
an el0quence Of their own, need but little
comment to bring out their moral. On
June !, 1880, the adult criminal popula-
ton of the United States was $500, of
whom half were in penitentiaries and the
rest in county jails, bridewells, insane
asylums, etc. The ratio of prisoners to
population is l to every $50 inhabitants.
That crime is on the increase is proved by
the fact that in 1870 the ratio of prisoners
to the population was .000.S53; the report
shows it to have increased to 00l ,l69.
The growth Of prison population has been
progressive since 1850, and in 80 wears has
arisen from .000, 290 in the former wear to
COL, l69 in 1880, allowing for general ex-
pansion of population. Formerly the per-
centage of foreign born criminals to the
bulk of the population was high; latterly,
however, 1t has been much reduced. the
percentage of home-raised criminals in
| creaslng as the former are diminishing.
In other words, the increase of crime has
been very much greater among the native
than the foreign population" Urban
communities are less honest than rural
communities, as we should expect to find.
the city producing 81 to l from the coun-
try.
Twenty-nine years and months is the
average age of prisoner but there are
eight over 80 and the same number under
q Most prisoners are % years old, and
least 90 and /. Half the conyicts in the
jails of America are under 2S years of age.
While the proportion Of foreigners
to home born is as to II, the con
yictions for crime is as 2 to 5, from
which the inference may be drawn
that the former are more dishonest than
numerous. Foreign contempt for law,
however, is not so much evidenced by the
commission Of acute oiIenses-as theft,
homicide, etc.-as by massive offenses,
which include immortality and social dis
order. In other words, foreigners are
more turbulent and noisy than klepto-
maniac and homicidal. Of12,6S1 foreign
born prisoners Ireland contributes 5,309:
England, 1,453; Scotland, 414; Germany,
2,071; Mexico, $50; Australia, IS; New Tea
land, |; figures which should be valuable to
Mr.. Pixley, if of little use to anybody else.
Putting them somewhat differently, out of
every 800 Irishmen in America, one is
"doing time;" one out of every 1919 Chinese.
one out of every $40 Germans, and so on
trd ndusedm.
The Hungarians and Bohemians are the
most law-abiding of Uncle Sans foreign
born citizens and the Irish and male ne
groes least In the matter of vagrancy,
foreigners surpass both the home-born
American and the negro, for an average
collection of $50 tramps will yield ga
Irish and ia Germans. OF different sorts
of crimes, Pennsylvania Yields most for
gers and Migrants, New York most counter
feiters and Texas most mail-robbers and
murderers. California is more orderly than
New York and more chaste than Massa-
chusetts.
Such are few items culled from this
great mass of statistics which, while its
compilation has been most uniustifably
protracted, fairness and accuracy of figures
In great measure compensates for DELAY
in publication which, under other circun1-
stances, would have been objectionable.
CRITIC
Folsom, August 81, 1888.