The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1889-01-02
CREATING CRIMINALS.
A Vivid Picture of Existing Evils In the
Treatment of Law-Breakers.

Treatment of Law-Breakers.
The telegraph joyfully announced
the other day that notorious cracks
man had been caught in Boston. How
did he happen to be at large' He was
a familiar figure in penitentiariesi he
was we'll known to the police; he had
public reputation. 1t was perfectly
vel! known that his business was burg
larry with incidental murder if nee
essary to his safety; that he had no
other occupation; that he associated
with persons of both sexes whose sole
calling is the plumber of society. He
was professional criminal, belonging
to well-defned criminal class, who
never do q stroke of honest labor,
whom the community support in idle
ness and crime. How did he happen
to be at larger
After some weeks or months in
comfortable jail this criminal will be
tried. He will have the sharpest,
most ingenious criminal lawyer to de-
fend him; every advantage will be
taken of technicalities, and allowed;
and the ablest effort will be made to
clear him of the specific crime for
which he was arrested, or to procure
for him the shortest possible sentence.
As he is so notorious, the chance is
that the jury will convict him. He
will spend few years in the State
prison. He will behave well there,
will earn time by good conduct, and
greatly shorten the term of his sem
tence. He will in time be discharged
and go back to his occupation of burg
larry. He will rob several houses and a
bank or two, he will terrorize the whole
community, and some day he will be
caught again, and the whole farce will
be repeated.
Society prefers this method; it must
prefer it, in a government by the peo-
pie, or it would try some other 1t Is
evidently willing to stand the loss of
his repeated robberies, the expense of
increased police to watch him, the cost
of his successive trials, which make a
heavy bill for the State, and finally is
willing to support him during the peri
DDS of his incarceration. There is no
common sense in the method; it is the
most uneconomical that could be de-
vised; but we have q notion that it
saves us the trouble of any intelligent
and vigorous action. We let the Grim
inal class prey upon us, knowing all
the time what they are doing. We
have gradually learned to act differ
emily in other social dangers. II man
has smallpox, we send him to pest
house and keep him there till he is
cured; if he is dangerous lunatic,
we put him in an asylum and keep him
there until he is pronounced sane by
competent authority.
But we are not merely passive suf-
ferers of this warefare on society. Our
method directly increases and repro
duces the criminal class. This cracks
man is only type of dozen varieties
OF professional rogues, thieves, swim
dlers, lying tramps, vagabonds with no
occupation except getting living by
dishonesty. Our system of dealing
with criminals and those with strong
criminal tendencies is calculated to
recruit the ranks of the professionals.
1t is an old story, the life of young Of
tenders, boys and girls, through the
city lockups, the usually foul county
jails, the houses OF thirty days deten-
ton, the reform schools, the peni-
tentiaries-always with associations
tending to destroy self-respect and in
crease liking for vileness-to the
full-blown professional condition. It
is needless to repeat the details. From
the moment society pays attention to a
wrong-doer. its machinery is ever
making him worse. Our main effort is
to punish crime, not to prevent it
Charles Dudley Warner, IN Forum.