Los Angeles herald., 1892-02-12
LETTER BAG.
Crime on the Increase.

|
EDITORS HERALD: On picking I'D a
part of an old issue of the Pasadena
Journal, notice this item: Zone hun
dred and twenty-four persons from Los
Angeles were incarcerate6 in the prisons
and madhouses of this state in the year
1888. The use of intoxicating bever-
ages caused most of the offenses against
law and produced much of the insanity"
| have no means at hand to ascertain
the exact facts for that year, but from
the report of the state board of prison
directors of the state of California for
the fiscal year ending June 80, 1890, I
CLEAN some statistics that perhaps are
similar in percentage to the year 1883.
| will confine my statements to the pri-
son at San Quentin. for the report of
the prison at Folsom is not carried out
so that can find what l want.
During that fiscal year there were re-
ceived 1892 prisoners. Under the head
OF cause of committing crime, 1 find
that liquor is charged with 295 out of
the 1892 offenses; find that SAT were
regular attendants at church, and 469
irregular, making 1915 trained in
churches; also. that $40 were regular at
tendants at Sabbath school, and ATS ir-
regular, making 1015 trained in Sabbath
school; find also that 1885 were
Christians of the different churches
and 140 were pagans, and 2l7 irreligious.
l find under the same heading that
opium caused $50 of the crimes. Then,
when turn to the table under the head
of moral relations, that 683 were in
temperate, 40 moderate, As temperate,
| 614 opium users. So, when we deduct
the 140 pagans, calling them all opium
users, it leaves 474 opium users that are
not pagans.
l find that in the biennial report of
the trustees of the state insane asylum
at Agnews, also at Stockton, that there
were received in the two years ending
June 30, 1890, 1101 males and 379 fe-
males. Alcohol was the cause in 112
cases, and religion the cause in SO cases.
| find that three brewers and eight sa-
loon-keepers are also in those asylums.
find that the prison and asylum
statistics of California correspond very
closely to those of Iowa, Illinois, Kansas
and other states which have made my
self somewhat familiar with, except the
opium record of California, the other
states showing little or no opium rec
ord.
In the seventeenth annual report of
the board of commissioners OF public
charities OF the commonwealth of Penn
sylvania, for 1886, l find the following {:
"A study of the statistics of this prison
will show that the prevalent impression
that intemperance is the most fruitful
cause of crime is erroneous. There are
crimes such as burglary, forgery and
professional thievery, the practice of
which is inconsistent with indulgence
in strong drink, and it is well to under
stand that if there were no such thing
as drunkenness, such an institution as
the eastern penitentiary would lose but
few of its inmates"
An article published in the Sunday
morning HERALD, of January oath, un-
ism, by John Shirley Ward, is OF much
drifting, that with all the organized
effort against crime, it is on the in
crease.
find that according to the census Of
flee report there were in the penitenti-
aries Of the United States in 1890, 49,
233 criminals of all grades, from the
sneak-thief to the defaulting cashier.
In 1880 there were 80, ,53S convicts in the
penitentiaries of the country, an in
crease in ten years of 1896. Now when
we take into consideration the statisti-
cal facts that less than one-third of the
people of the United States are Chris
tians, and that about three-fourths of
the criminals in the penitentiaries are
Christians, it presents strange picture.
The fight is not made in the right direc-
ton. Whenever people will stop breed
ing criminals then better condition of
of society will dawn on our beautiful
land. E. LEWIS.