The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1892-05-26
Crime in Two Countries.

Crime i'm Two Countries.
A gentleman signing himself mot an
Empirical Penologist'' contributes an article
to the Elmira Summary in which he admin
listers fitting rebuke to the late utterances
of William Tallack. secretary of the London
Howard Association. He shows that crime
in England is not on the decrease as has
been so much boasted of by the Howard
Association. We republsh the cOmmunica
ton entire:
Editor of The ummary:-Through the
news columns of your paper, learn that
Secretary William Tallack of the London
Howard Association has again delivered
himself of one of his periodic maledictiOnS
against American prison systems. l refer
to this item:-
IA letter written by Secretary William Tallack,
of the Howard Association was published in Lon.
don, and excited much interest among those con.
nected officially and unofhcially with English
prisons. The newspapers printed lengthy COM
ments on the letter. Mr.. Tallack said that after
careful study of prisons in Italy and America,
where a system had been adopted of giving prison
of hardened type fee intercourse with the
other prisoners and providing them with comforts
and luxuries. he found that the results we're de.
plorable. The prisons of Massachusetts. he de.
clared. we're schools of crime, and had terrible ef.
I0cte upon Tue COMMUNITY. CrlIuo III EuSlduU,
where the prisoners were separated. had. accord.
ing lto Mr.. Tallack. greatly decreased, while in
America it was rapidly increasing"
To one who has closely followed former
attempts of similar nature made by Mr..
Tallack. there is nothing remarkable in
this latest indictment, except it be. perhaps.
the pertinacity displayed by the writer in
venting his spleen on American refOrmatO-
rieS.
Here is Mr.. Tallack's main CHARGE
''Giving prisoners of hardened type free In.
tercourse with the other prisoners is a cause of
the increase of crime in America
Wonderful declaration that! John How.
ard proclaimed it fifty years ago. To pen
olOgists. the world over, it is byword; to
all sociologists. self evident truism.
Why, then, at this late day, give utterance
to this platitude in connection with the
AMERICAN PRISON SYSTEM.
Does Mr.. Tallack wish to insinuate, in
penning the above lines, that the American
people are so ignorant and debased that
they will not be impressed by such an uni
versal axiom. but would continue to carry
on so important public institution. neg
lectful of all improvements dictated by
modern civilization? If such be his inten-
tiOn, this charge is an objectionable slander.
American prison systems are. admittedly.
the most progressive of any in the world,
and productive of better results than were
ever hoped for by the projectors of Eng
lands PRISONS Notwithstanding Mr.. Tai.
lacks statement to the contrary. The
claim. made by the latter, of decrease of
crime in England. is fatty cOntradicted by
one of Mr.. Tallack'S cOuntrymen, William
Douglas Morrison. of Her Majesty's GaOl
at WandSwOrth, who AYERS that England is
no exception to the rest of the world in this
respect.
HERE is THE PROOF.
Mr.. Tallack bases his assertion upon the
fact that in 1878 the English prisons held a
daily average of over 10000 criminals
against Is, 900 in 1883. But, as his own
countryman states, 1.-THE daily average is no
criterion whatever of the rise and fall of
crime. Calculated on the principle of
daily average, twelve men sentenced to
prison for one month each, will not figure
so largely in criminal statistics as one man
sentenced to term of eighteen months.
The daily average, in other words, depends
upon the length of sentence prisoners re-
ceive, and not upon the number of persons
committed to prison. or upon the number
of crimes committed during the year." A
look at the number of persons committed
to
ENGLISH PRISONS
for twenty years will thoroughly disprove
Mr.. Tallack's claim. Here are the official
criminal statistics of England for the years
1868 to 1888, as compiled by Mr.. Morrison:
Total of the years. 1868 to 1872 774.667.
Total of the 5 years. 1878 to 1877, S66.041.
Total of the years. 1884 to 1885, S9S,4S6.
These figures, if may quote Mr.. MOrri-
son further. ''incontestably mean that the
total volume of crime is on the increase in
England as we'll as everywhere else. 1t is
fallacious to suppose that the English au-
thOrities are gaining the mastery over the
situation. Such position is at once ref
uted by the statistics which have just been
tabulated. and these are the only statistics
which can be relied upon for testing the