The record-union., 1895-02-14
a NOVEL BILL.

a NOVEL BILL
Senate bill 622, by Mr.. Seymour, pre-
SCENTS novel proposition. but one that
arrests attention and commands respect
full inquiry.
It provides for the appointment of
State agent to look after discharged con-
victs, steer them into the way they should
go, secure for them employment. guide
them away from the influences that
would return them to evil ways, and gen.
orally to aid the discharged man to turn
over a new leaf and be no more a menace
to society.
The bill may not be passed now, but the
principle involved is sound one; some
day the State must rise to acknowledge
ment and act upon the lines it lays down.
Under our present system-excepting the
parole law-the State turns out the con-
vict who has expiated his crime, and pre-
sumably has by discipline been made
better and less dangerous to society, if
not wholly reformed, with but a small
sum of money and with the entire body
Of peace officers standing by TO drive the
man back into criminal ways, though his
intention may be to take new and bet
ter start in life.
Our system, in short, makes life for the
ex-convict greatly harder than for the
undischarged convict. Mr.. Seymour's
hi h.
employ an agent to visit the prisons
monthly to confer with prisoners about
to be discharged. and to aid them in
avoidance of vicious ways and to secure
employment.
Under direction of the Board of Direct
ors their agent is to use means to get dis
charged men to points where labor for
which they are adapted may be secured
for them. He is to hunt out places where
such men may have employment and
guide them to it. He is to receive the
discharge money of convicts and to use it
toreturn the convicts to the place from
Which they came, and he is to account
for this money in detail. He may, when
1t is wise to do So furnish tools to dis
charged convicts to enable them to get
and keep employment. To that end, and
for the general purposes of the Act, Sl3.-
600 is to be set aside. In all he does this
agent is to be under the direction of the
Prison Board.
That Is all there is to the bill. Closer
examination may disclose defects, or its
unwisdom, but we repeat, in its own in
terest the State ought to shelter the we'll
intending ex-convict and train him to
the best advantage to become harmless.
1t is greatly cheaper to prevent crime
than to punish criminals. 1t is wiser by
lar to prevent the drift of the discharged
convict back into his old ways than to re-
take and reincarcerate him.
Society's first interest in the convicted
criminal is in removing him from the
the world of activity, to suffer punish
ment in way likely to send the man out
less dangerous to society and with
chance to become harmless at least.
Whether Mr.. Seymour's bill will, as a
law, operate to that end is another cues
ton. How far it viii be effective in re-
Heving the ex-convict from that espion-
age threat and drive by police and other
peace officers, that send him, sooner or
later, back to the criminal class. is a mat
ter to be tested; but tt is worth trial.
For, assuredly, the State does not. I'M
der its present system, do anything to 1e-
lieve itself of the liability of the ex-con-
Wet becoming a second termer. On the
contrary, ali the influences surrounding
the newly-discharged man are calculated
to break down the resolution he may
have formed to become a better man.