Los Angeles herald., 1890-11-28
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2s, 1890.
CRIME IN THE UNITED STATES.

H. H. Hart, secretary Of the Mime
sofa state board of corrections and char
tiles, in an article recently published il
the Bibliothica Sacra, says: "There are
about $4,000 persons in prison in the
United States. There are, at least, as
many more persons, out of prison, who
belong to the criminal class, making
10000 criminals, or one for every 400
inhabitants. This army is recruited
partly from the importation OF vicious
foreigners, partly from the dregs OF our
own society; but largely from the better
elements of our population. A careful
inquiry in the Minnesota state reform
school, some time ago, revealed the
fact that a majority of the boys COM
mitted for crime had attended Sunday
school until near the time of their COM
mitment. Forty per cent. of them came
directly from homes; 48 per cent. more
had lived at home until within one year of
their commitment; and only II per cent
were entirely homeless. The assistant
superintendent of the new Minnesota re-
formatory for young men, an experienced
prison officer, remarked recently that he
had never seen SO intelligent and fine
looking a body of convicts as the thirty
five young men who had been committed
to the reformatory by the courts.
Crime is contagious disease, and
its spread is not confined to the debased
classes. All authorities agree that crime
is increasing in the United States faster
than the population is increasing. 1t is
manifest that popular education and
the existing moral and religious agencies
are not sufficient protection. If we are
to check its spread, there must be i'm
provement both in our preservative and
remedial agencies. While crime is in
creasing here. there has been an extra
ordinary decrease in Great Britain: the
number of convicts serving sentence of
penal servitude having decreased from
1O,50O in 1883 to 6400 in 1889, a decrease
of 40 per cent. in six years. 1t is claimed
that this decrease represents great
diminution of crime, and is due largely
to improved and reformatory methods
of dealing with criminals. If this claim
be true, the English prison system
merits our careful study"
From these statements of Mr.. Hart it is
seen that our. criminal class is many
times larger, in proportion to our number
ofinh .bitants, than it is in Great Britain.
we claim that our inhabitants are SUI
- - ;fo. E,thar
this is not true, or else there is serious
defect in the application of our legal or
intellectual or moral principles to the
individual life of our citizenship.
He who has carefully studied the
phenomena of crime and it's incl ease in
the United States knows there are sew
eral causes which produce this result.
1t would require long essay to point
out all OF these causes and their bearings
which result in criminal character.
1t is proposed in this article to point
out only one-the method of dealing
with criminals in our courts. Every
moral and intelligent citizen knows that
the majority, possibly large majority,
Va GllC CIlLllllldl CldEo CbCdPO PuhlS
ment. Can it be true that an honest,
upright, patriotic citizen wishes GRIM
inal turned loose on society to commit
crime again, and then to put the county
to the expense of going through another
farce in the form of trial,
only to turn him loose again to
continue his nefarious course of conduct ?
Yet the management of our lawyers,
and in too many instances the courts,
connive at this very thing. Our jury
system, or rather the class of men
usually selected to try criminals, is
grossly wrong. A juryman is sworn to
give his verdict according to the law and
the testimony; and yet it is quite a
common thing for jury to bring in a
verdict in direct opposition to the law
and testimony. Too many OF our law
yers seem anxious to have reputation
of clearing all criminals whom they de-
fend. Is this right? How can moral,
upright man desire to have the reputa
tion of enabling criminals to escape JUS
tice? 1t is true they claim that it is
their duty to be true to their client. A
lawyer can be true to his client and yet
not connive at crime. 1t is not his duty
in his defence to represent things in a
false light. He ought to abide by facts
and the law. If he knows his client is
guilty, he knows he ought to suffer the
penalty.
Such is the practice in our courts that
when a person meditates committing a
crime, he reasons with himself, 81 will
get such or such lawyer to defend me,
if am arrested, and l will be sure to
get clear" How many thieves suffer
the penalty OF their crimes? How many
murderers suffer the legal penalty? Not
one in twenty. Some say not one in
fifty. Law 30 loosely administered tends
to the increase of crime. Too often the
judges conniye at the purpose of the