The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-12-13
maioi Pangbnrn ON Penology.

Noho6v can nave read Major rang
horns remarks on reformatory penoioss,
nnhl5shed exclusively in The news
Yesterday. without feeling that the COM
mission. of which he is a mempei' %
making a most painstaking ana ihl
prent study of the subject. Inc tnau
Of the state are due to the members lor
the zeal with which they have pursueu
a painful subject for the pubhc soou.
From Major Pangborn's way OF hanoiHs
# in conversation with our reporter, We
fee, assured that the finai report u LIZ
Commission will be a work OF great III
inv to the State. The reporter, after see
ine Major Pangborn, learned thal a
Commission would probably be erecueu
to have permanent control OF tne iN"
Rahway Reformatory. He also learneo
that Governor Griggs favored appoahtihs
on that body the gentlemen VINO are no"
Investigating with the design Oh urai.ihs
"a system for the Institution. Inc iuea
is an admirable one. Nothing pet.er
could be one
From Major Pangborn's talk we gatner
that the in-determinate sentence IS u oe
the backbone of the Commisslons pian,
rrbe indeterminate sentence Is a soou
thing within limits. Absolutely applieu
At Gives opportunity for abuses, put Wneh
limited by a maximum and a mlhiihui
n is perbaps as useful as any IDEA ina.
has ever been preached in penal metnou''
rrhe is needed to prevent 1ue
TOO speedy release of criminals throusn
favoritfsm. The maximum is necessary
TO prevent the possibility OIL oppression
The indeterminateness as between .hes
limits gives the patient" all the stlmulus
that can be desired to such sempiance -
reformation as passes for reformation II
tbe reports of penal and IN
stitutions.
our own conviction is that all these
systems. which I've a temporary vogue,
are little better than fads. me Woriu
has tried capital punishment ana COT
moral punishment. In different countries
if is now trying hard labor ana a eo.ai
absence of labor. The silent system was,
for a long time, thought the TO Kaion
and ito prepon'' in penology. Now II Is
chiefly regarded as a way OF hlilng up
l,,natic asylums.x The fad of the day IL
+be Elmira system, and presumably II
will take half a century for people 10 as
cover that it is no more and no less ell
fectual than any of the rest.
In truth. only one final method OF
dealing with criminals has ever been
thought of-transportation and colonial
1ion. 1t does not prevent new criminals
from springing up. but it dispeses OIL
those who are convicted, and it comes
nearer to reforming them h any
other plan of treatment. 1t makes a great
number of them useful, producing, sell
s,lpporting members of society under con-
aitions which make their return to crime
unlikely. 1t was a fayorite idea OF ex-
Senator John R. McPherson's that the
Tinted States should use Alaska as a
penal colony, just as those most scientinc
and unitarian people, the French, use
some of their most inhospitable posses
sions. 1t was a big idea, and 1t SHOWS
the blindness of our Congress on all
really practical questions that it was not
adopted. If our New Jersey Commission
ers wish to round out their report 10
completeness, they should urge the Legis-
lature to memorialize Congress for the
establishment of a penal settlement III
Alaska for those hardened wrong-doers
whom the Elmira system fails to re-
Farm