Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-06-07

phase Of the penal problem study. His
connection with the National Prison
Association has brought him into con-
tact, too, with many thinkers along that
line. For these reasons Warden Wright's
response to the request for his views on
what Mr. Warner terms defect in our
penal system, will be read with interest.
The Warden's communication Is as follows:
In the article upon prison treatment by
Henry Warner, Esq, 1 see he proposes that
habitual criminals be banished to a penal
colony, to be established under control of
the general Government. The remedy, it
seems to me, is worse than the "defect" in
our present penal system, to which he re-
fers, and is alike unwise, impracticable and
counter to the trend of civilization.
Object of Criminal Legislation.
The object sought is the diminution in
crime; to be reached by curing the criminal
or by diminishing the number of convic-
tions by long terms of imprisonment. To
reach the entire subject Legislation is needed
to secure uniform administration of justice,
and prisons should be so graded and CLASH
fed that corrigible offenders may be helped
in their efforts to better life.
Criminals are usually termed accidental
or professional, as the facts seem to indicate
An accidental offender, who has committed
q crime under impulse of sudden passion,
poverty or sore temptation, as rule strives
to obey all prison rules, is anxious for use
ful employment and desirous of earning all
the benefits to be secured by good conduct
not alone for spresent gain, but because he
really hopes to make his first sentence the
only one in his life. A professional crimi-
nal rarely evinces shame at his imprison-
ment, and his status in crime is quickly
recognized by those who are accustomed to
the habits and language or special phrases
criminals by heredity or incorrigibility.
ever withdraw from the life and habits Of
early days. Their lives are hard and thew
are to be pitied as fallen men, who often
find in prison the best life they ever knew
Many inmates of the various institutions
are only guilty Of petty crimes when drunk,
yet they are so confirmed in vicious prac-
tlces when able to secure liquor that there
seems no other form of treatment than the
one intended for confirmed criminals; in
one OF Mr.. Warmers reports he defines the
remedy as permanent retirement for those
who spend repeated terms in prison is best
both tor society and the criminal"
The Cost Of the Two Plans.
While the facts in the case demand GER
tain and radical changes in prison treat
ment, the number of habitual criminals has
not reached proportions requiring change
In all the remedial legislation of the past 70
years. The cost of q penal settlement, on
an island, presumably in some distant sea,
would tar exceed the maintenance of such as |
may be deemed habitual criminals in a
prison like the admirable institution at |
Claremont. There, or wherever they are |
within reach of friends, and under inspec- |
ton of many, and not of few officials, life |
may be gloomy, but not all sorrow, and the |
treatment, at all events, viii not be barbar- |
GUS. do not believe it is seriously pro-
posed to enter upon system whose records |
reek with barbarity. Do we 80 soon forget |
the horrors of the Siberian prisons of Rus |
sia, or the penal colonies of Great Britain. |
hope that all who are interested |
in the subject will seek exact information |
on the matter; when they do this, am per- |
suaded the verdict will be in the language OF |
Archbishop Whitley, who declared trans
portation "a system begun in defiance of all |
reason, and continued in defiance of all ex- |
perience."
1 believe that all sentences to imprison-
ment should be steadily cumulative, and |
shall briefly outline my theory. The term
Of sentence for an offender supposed to be
in custody for a first crime shall be left to
the Court, in the hope that it viii be as
as the facts in the case NAV seem
to justify. If recognized, when he
reaches the prison, as a repeater, the /
sentence should be RENTED to the Court for
no matter whether the term of
court in which the sentence was imposed has
expired or not. Sentences are not recon-
'idered after the term ends now. For sec
md offense the sentence should be the full
,xtent of the law, but in every case prisoners
'hould be permitted to receive privileges