The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1889-10-24
PrOpagatfOn of Crime.

There are few people who give the mat
ter any consideration whatever. but wonder
why it is that crime is ever on the increase;
and of all the many and various reasons as
signed for such pitiable condition of af
fairs, we seldom hear that the responsible
ity for a goodly proportion of it is directly
attributable to the gross msmanagement
and blundering incompetency of those who
are charged with the execution of the laws;
but such, nevertheless, is fact which no
unbiased observer will for a moment dis
pute. In recent communication that ap-
peared in THE MIRROR, attention was
called to the fact of police officials having
written here requesting to be furnished
with daily list of all convcts discharged.
Why they required such lists was not
stated, but the presumption is, that they
desired to keep under surveillance those
who go from here to their respective cities.
This is all very we'll so far as it goes, and
no fairminded person will question their
right to take all possible precautionary
measures to prevent the commission of
crime but instances are not infreQuent
where they have been known to arrest dis
charged cOnvicts before the commission of
any overt act. In fact, the average police
man acts upon the theory that man who
has once swerved aside from the path of
recttude. is to be considered under any and
every circumstance fair game"
Billy PinkertOn, who is universally ac-
kDOwledged to be at the head of the profess
sion engaged in the pursuit and detection of
criminals, in communication to the press
not long ago. cited several cases that had
come under his observation, in which inter-
meddling police officials had been the means
of driving back into the criminal ranks men
who had formerly been cOnvicts, but who
secured legitimate employment and desired
to lead honorable lives.
The parties who were fOiled in their at
tempt to gain the information which they
so much coveted, have not abandoned their
tactics. but have simply transferred the base
of operations to field nearer home as the
following local item from the st. Paul
Daily News of the 30th ult will show: "A
conference was held this morning between
the acting mayor, city attorney and chief of
police regarding the recent action of the
board of wOrkhOuSe commissioners in re
fusing to recognize the ordinance requiring
WOrKnOuSe prisoners 10 receive tnelr nnal
discharge from police headquarters. The
ordinance of the council provides that when
prisoners time is up he shall be brought
to headquarters and formally discharged.
after undergoing an inspection at the hands
of the police authorities. The wOrkhOuse
directors decided to disregard the ordinance
and hence it is practically dead letter.
The desirability of this mode of procedure
would seem apparent. especially as great
many hardened criminals are discharged
from time to time and are permitted to
roam about the suburbs, the police having
no cOgnizance of their whereabouts A no.
ticeabe instance in sight is that of the man
Nicholas Kill. who. two days after serving
a sentence in the workhouse, murdered
farmland. 1t transpired that Kill had
wandered around the county two days after
his discharge when he deliberately planned