The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1892-01-07
u, ny Z,I8

part of the courts in dealing with them. and
not at all to any increase in the number OF
crimes committed. The statistics that we
need. and which we cannot have without
the Intervention of the Department of JUS
tice at Washington, are judicial statistics,
like those of Great Britain-a statistical
record of court proceedings in the trial and
conviction of offenders against the criminal
code. In the absence of that only adequate
source of information, our differences from
the census are liable to be erroneous. But
a comparison of the figures for 1880 and
1890. such as we have them land. in spite
of all the criticisms made upon the eleventh
census. l am prepared to stake my reputa.
ton on their absolute accuracy. shows
that, while the population of the United
States has increased by little more than
twenty-five per cent during the decade.
the number of cOnvicts in our peniten-
tiaries has increased by only about twenty
five per cent and that the ratio of peniten
tiary cOnvictS to the total population I'M
1890 was greater than that in 1880 by only
thirteen to the million. There is surely no
ground in this statement for alarm or pOr
tentiOuS prOgnOSticatiOnS. 1t is true that
the ratio of cOnvicts in the minor prisons
our police stations, county jails. and houses
of cOrrectiOn-iS much larger than it was
ten years ago; but the men and women con-
fined in them are mainly charged with petty
misdemeanOrS. which do not rise to the dig
nifty of crime, and the increase in the
number of commitments IS largely due to
greater vigOr in the attempt to suppress
drunkenness and disorder.
If. however. the examination of other
sources of information than the census
oh rocnJt in, chOxuinr hot in, linn.
tied local area serious crime has increased
out of proportion to the growth of the pop
ulatiOn, it would by no means follow that
improved prison management is responsible
for such increase. It is far more reasonable
to attribute it to causes operating outside
the prisons, to altered social conditions, to
increasing wealth, the growth of great
civic centres with their denser population.
and the imperfect manner in which the
laws designed to suppress the causes of
crime are enforced. particularly in cities.
The increase of prison population. you will
observe. is precisely in those prisons which
prison reform has least influenced for good
in the prisons where its precepts are most
ignored, and where least effort is made to
stem the rising tide of crime by the intro
ductiOn of reformatOry discipline.
For this reason. l call the opposition to
prison reform unscientific. But it is unsci-
entiic for another reason. If science
teaches anything. it is that character and
conduct are the product of heredity and en-.
virOnment. We cannot alter the inheritance
of a man arrested on a criminal charge; but
we can change his environment, from one of
idlenesS to one of industry, from ignorance
to knowledge, from bad to good sanitary
surroundings, and we can surround him
with new moral and religious atmosphere.
1t is absurd to suppose that no change can
be effected in him. under right influences.
intelligently brought to bear for sufficient
length of time The question is one of
methods and of the right man behind them.
as it is in medicine. 1t would be equally
rational to abandon the sick and the
wounded to their fate, and that in cOndi-
tiOns known to be unfavOrable to their re-
cOvery.
But the charge brought against you has
no better foundation in religion than in sci
ence. If there is one sentence in the ApOs-
ties Creed which L repeat with deeper
sense of its truth and tenderness than any
other, it is this. 81 believe in the forgive
ness of SINS" Prison reform does not set
aside the justice of God, nor seek to par
alyze the arm of the earthly ruler, the min
lister of God, when he declares and enfOrces
the penalty of transgression. 1t seeks
rather to sustain him. 1t believes in law,
upholds the law, and finds the justification
of legal punshments not in the sentiment
of vengeance, but in the protection of sOci-
ETY.. The advocates of the indeterminate
sentence go so far as to declare that the
man whose criminal prOpensities and habits
are menace to public security should be
confined for life if he persists in their in.
diligence.
1t looks upon criminality as a stain not
more ineradicable than depravity. If there
is hope for every sinner. there is hope for
every convict. He who would leave the
worst of men wallowing in his guilt. and
make no effort to kindle in his soul a new
aspiration. to arouse his manhood. to re-
store him to self-respect. to save him from