The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-03-13
MANAGEMENT OF CRIMINALS.

A communication in the New York Mail
and Express from the chairman OF the
Prison association of that state favors
central authority SO as to enforce separa-
ton of criminals according to their ages.
He favors also the Massachusetts system
giving Judge discretion to suspend SEN
tence upon the first conviction of juve
nile, and to RELEASE the prisoner on his own
recognizance. This law has been found to
be of very great benefit in the reformation
of youthful criminals, and last year it was
extended to apply to adult malefactors. In
the event of misbehavior after release on
his own bond in the case of first offender,
he can be re-arrested and sentenced upon
the original conviction.
THE HERALD a few days ago referred
to the fact that, out of 3614 eonvicts
in the New York prisons, nearly
half are under twenty six years of age.
The exact number is 1912, and this
prison population is increasing rapidly.
The law requiring the separation of classes
of prisoners is violated, and youths put
into county iails for trihing offenses are
thrown into the company Of hardened
criminals and leave it sohooled in crime.
The subject of the management CT Grim
inals has been discussed TO shreds, ana it
might be asserted there is nothing remain
ing TO be said. The discussions have not
been altogether Improbable and resultless.
They have, at least, revealed the formid-
able nature of the problem. They have
shown that crime cannot be talked nor
enacted out of the world, for it has gone on
increasing with the increase of population,
and in new forms and methods it keeps
pace with the multiplying complexities of
our times, until it is question whether
there is not as high an order of human
talent and ingenuity inside our iails and
penitentiaries as within the walls Of our
universities and legislatures.
Prison reformers have brought about q
less inhuman treatment of convicts than
formerly prevailed; Jail and penten tiaries
have been made less disgusting and dismal;
the fare is better; greater freedom within
the enclosures is allowed; convicts are per-
mitted to find some solaoe IN reading-so
that, on the whole, the condition of prison.
ers is now as cheerful as the safety of So
ciety will permit it to be made. But the
hOt u4SGS ACSCO1C IaCG ISLLdlDS blHG cur
prisons are still nurseries of crime and not
reformatories. Convicts come out of them
worse than when they went in. Instead OF
beginning q aew and better life, they either
start out on worse one, or sink into a
state OF sudden despair, in which they are
of no use to society or themselves.
The classification of prisoners on any
basis of degrees of morality seems to be an
utter impossibility. There are 20 social
grades. There is sort of freemasonry
among them, and every newcomer is mi
tiated into the fraternity as soon as he
enters the enclosure. All are on the same
level. None are better than others, for all
are outcasts, and the only superiority
recognized is that of the hardened crimi-
mails who have made crime q profession
and know more about it than others. These
become tutors of the younger and less ex-
perienced convicts, and when the latter are
set at liberty they are more dangerous foes
of society than they were before This is
feature in the problem of criminal man
agement that the discussions of the last
quarter of a century have not perceptiUly
improved. Our treatment of convicts doe,
not reform and reclaim them and it may be
that no system will ever be devised that
will accomplish this.