The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1888-04-21
AN uNconsIoeREo EVIL.
Dangers Growing Out OF the Return q
Criminals From tho GaOls.

10 limit physical sickness we deliber-
ately continue year after year 10 spread
and 10 perpetuate another sort Of dis
ease which is eating at the very vitals
Of society Vice and crime not only
prey upon society. they poison il. And
what we do is this: Over and over
again we return again into the COM
munity all the crime that finds It's way
into our jails. The fever hospitals, the
smallpox hospitals do not send their
patients out till they are cured, till
there Is no risk Of spreading the conta-
gion Of their several diseases. The i'm
mates Of our jails. or vast number Of
them. are never cured. They are in
durable. They are either born cIimi-
naIS-of which, in the nature Of things,
there must be very many thousands i'm
a population like that of England-or
they have become infected with crime
and hardened in il, rs may easily hap
pen. considering the condition in which
n man finds himself after imprisonment
for even one serious OiTcnse. II Is u
common belief that our prisons. our
convict establishments, are little better
than huge factories for receiving crimi-
nails at one end and turning them out
at the other with their original deprav-
ity confirmed and intensified. Some Of
those who have tlio most intimate
knowledge oil these things tell US that
almost every one of the poor wreiches
whom we shut up in order 90 let loose
again leaves the prison more dangerous
to society than whon he entered it. IL
is extremely likely. In one mans case
the brand Of crime is whore 1t was not
before; IN another's IL is dccpcncd.
The shame which so often passes into
desperation scizcs on the less guilty;
the hardened criminal is yet more
hardened now. Yet we, knowing what
these men and women are, knowing
that they are not only vicious in them
selves, but ccnter5 Of cOntagiOn and
breeders and perpetrators Of crime,
constantly turn them back from Jail
into the community Of which they are
the drcgs and the poison. This is dono
mothodically. We do it over and over
again with the same men and women;
and, after generation or two of what
in the precisely similar case Of the hos
pitals would be thought downright
madness, we are startled by the extra
ordinary number Of 'roughs' that we
seem TO possess.
How many Of us ever give thought
90 this extraordinary system Of con-
stantly returning criminal offenders
from the gaols, where they are too
often exasperated and hardened. into
the general community, where nine
tenths of them can do nothing but con-
tinue in their old courses? Very few,
we imagine. And the public indifference
10 what really is not law of nature
is the more remarkable because the
problem Of criminal discipline is Of the
very essence of that condition-of-thc-
people question which, for all sorts of
curiously compounded and contrasted
reasons, has so closely and painfully
engaged attention of late. The misery
of the unemployed, the poor estate OF
the half-cmployed the gnawing ankle
ties Of many who yet cOntrivo to find
fairly regular work and wagcs-these
are topics that are found in the mouths
of many who would be very sorry to
pose ms philanthropists merely because
they acknowledge the common instincts
of humanity. But while they worry the
husk they refuse To probe the kernel
At the heart of the evil lies this pcrcn-
nially prolific mass of hopeless vice and
crime, and with it we shall have to
deal il we mean to do anything worth
the doing. If the thing is in any
way practicable we ought To change
the present system and take meas
urcs for moving out of the COM
munity the worst members OF the Grim
inal classes. Even rs II factor in tho
question of paupcrsm and destitution
this matter poremptorily claims attcn-
ton. II would be very cruel and very
absurd to say that want Is in every
case the result of misconduct; but 1t is
true that the inherited repugnancc of
large numbers of our fellow-mcn To
honest industry alone makes distress
unmanageble. Thousands of the "un-
employed" earn no wages because they
do not want To work They do odd jobs.
they loaf. they tramp, they pilfer. they
steal, and so on through the whole
gamut of laziness and vice. Why is
thisP We have already said. Human
nature Is far from perfect yet Many
rogues are born; many others arc easily
turned into rogucs 10y circ rcumstance. lt
is likely enough that the instinct of
evil living is transmittcd it is certain
that the contamination of vicious SUR
roundings has its natural effect Neces-
sity holds the born fclon in pitiless
grip. Birth gives theinfant the fatal bent
home-life develops il. Tho unwiedly
bulk of modern society is travcrscd by
hard lines of moral rs well us of social
cleavage. Crime runs into pockets like
ore i'm the mine. The lshmaelitcs dwell
alone and propagate among themselves
There is nothing TO attcnuate the vicious
strain. We have on the fringe of the
decent population class of creatures
who at best are worthless and too often
are pure pests. II is recruited, but il is
not regeneratcd. from the outside; on
the other hand. it feeds the ranks Of the
thriftless. the reckless, the nc'cr-du-
wells. What must be the result of such
state OF things? With a rapidly in
creasinu population with "A greater