Birmingham state herald., 1895-12-26
EDITORS LETTER BOX.
A Reformatory for Alabama

To the State Herald.
 About once in three or four years a
 reformatory spasm seizes the press of
 Alabama, and the public is treated to
 learned disquisitons upon the necessity
 on the part of the state of establishing
 some kind of institution where youthful
 criminals can be confined separate and
 apart from hardened criminals, that an
 opportunity may be had to reform the
 formeR class, so that at the expiration of
 their sentences they may be turned loose
 upon society better citizens than when
 they were sentenced. This spasm is of
 but short duration, and but little prac-
 tical benefit comes of it. If perchance
 one legislature should be worked up to
 the point of inaugurating measures for
 the reform of the convict system, and in
 the effort to carry out these measures it should cost the state more money than
 was contempla ted, the next legislature is
 seized with an economical fit, and repealS the measures looking to a reform.
 As an illustration of this statement, we refer to the action of the last legislature in repeating the act of the preceding legislature, which established a board of convict managers for the purpose of changing the lease system to one for working the convicts on state account, because in the effort to make the change it cost the state considerable money. If this change could have been made without costing the state any money, then there would have been no complaint of the action of the board of managers
 in buying land and building prisons to bring about the change in the system they were expected and required to make
 under the bill looking to this end. It then amounts to this-the wisdom of any measure looking to any reforp In this
 matter is determined in the mind of the average legislator by the loss or gain to
 the state in dollars and cents The idea tod tc fr1t t1n terest of humanity, or for the public good, cuts no figure in this matter.
 When the fact is considered that in every enlightened country on the face of the globe reformatory institutions of some kind have been in existence for
 hundreds of years, this is certainly very contracted view to take of this question. As far back as 1704 Pope Clement XI es- tabliShed in Italy reformatory for boys and girls, upon what is known as "the Auburn system"-the system of separate cells at night, and silent associated labor by day. Many years afterward. how
 ever. the phila nthropist visited this in- stitution, praised it, and found on block
 of marble in the walls thereof this in- scription in Latin: "It is of little use to | restrain criminals by punishment, unless you reform them by education" showing that the wise men of that day had a bet ter idea of the manner in which crime should be suppressed than majority of 1 the people of Alabama. Early in the present century the government of Eng | land was aroused to the necessity of re- | formatories and by acts of parliament encouraged and established institutions | of this kind at the expense of many thou | sands of dollars. In 1875 there were 65 in stitutions of ttis kind in England alone, | 400 in Germany, 8 in Italy, 50 in France and 40 in the United States, but not one | in the states south of Mason and Dixon s | line Recently a reformatory for juvenile | offenders has been established by the state of Texas. at Gatesville, and one in New Orleans. There may be few others | in some of the border states, but very | few, from which it will be seen how far l behind other portions of the civilized | world are the southern states in the | science of penology.
 l If any one should doubt the necessity l for the establishment of reformatories | for young criminals in Alabama, let him | visit Pratt mines, Coalburg, Speigner | and Wetumpka, where he will find boys | of tender years, both white and black in
 some cases convicted of minor offenses. | confined with convicts sentenced for the l highest grades of crimes, such as mur- l der, rape, highway robbery and the like. | The constant intercourse of these young | offenders with hardened criminals can l lead to but one result, and that is the l initiation of the former class in the ways | of crimes and their preparation for a 1 criminal career when they are relea sed | and turned loose upon society. This Is l not all. The abominable practices that | are going on in the prisons of Alabama, l in which the young boys are the objects ] of the beastly lusts of the old convicts,