The record-union., 1895-01-24
OUR PENAL INSTITUTIONS.
Important Suggestions for Our
Legislators.
Hardened Criminals Associated With
Those Guilty of Single Overt Act
What Has Been Done In New York
State-The Proposed Consolidation
of Our State Prisons.

are more vitally associated with the well
fare of community and the social status
st large than the subject Of crime and
criminalogy. Few studies OF such mag
nitude have been more systematically
neglected or so tardily entered upon. In
deed, criminalogy, and the study of
abnormal man, as we'll as the rational
method Of his treatment, is a science OF
recent origin.
1t is only about fifty years ago that
John Howard entered upon that astound-
ing revelation of the treatme ent of Grim
inals that resulted in the modern humane
methods. Since the Inauguration of that
forward movement great strides have
been made both as to methods and results,
so that it has become well recognized
maxim in criminalogy that "the worst
prisons SEND out the worst men," mega
tive form OF proof that carries with 1t
great weight. 1t is a matter OF grave
doubt whether the Draconlan system OF
criminal punishment that prevailed even
rs late as the last half OF the eighteenth
century in England, when every tree
dangled with q corpse, and the stealing OF
q sheep or treSpass upon preserves was
capital otfense, was more deterrent IN Its
effects than a more rational theory. 1t is
DaSSO upon an 9ITOueOuS COnCSptlou VI
human nature, whose perversltles are not
curtailed by seventies, but rather brutal
ized and hardened.
The study which will perhaps more
than any other cOntrl butte toward ScIen-
titic ethics is criminalogy, inasmuch as
the factors involved might be termed the
residuum of the savage instincts that re-
main in the race and which civilization
has not yet been enabled to eliminate, the
basic elements whose crude preponder-
ance, coupled with superficial and shall
low receptlvity, constitutes the criminal
man. The relation of the criminal TO
society is like that of disease to the or
ganism, an abnormal interference with
legitimate functions, foreign or inherent,
whose chief import lies in the necessity
for its speedy elimination or cure.
Cure; aye, there's the rub. Elimina-
ton might, theoretically at least, lie
within the purview OF legislative func-
tions through permanent detention or
isolation, but cure works toward the
fountain head and is the word which
modern tentative science impertectly con-
tributes TO the clumsy methods of the
past toward solution. 1t is the spirit OF
The times.
'Crime,o says Arthur Mcdonald,
specialist of the Bureau of Education,
''can be said, in certain sense, to be
natures experiment on humanity. II a
nerve OF a normal organism is cut, the
organs in which irregularities are pro-
duced are those which the nerve controls
In this way the Office OF a nerve in the
normal state may pe discovered. The
criminal Is, so TO speak, the severed nerve
OF society, and the study OF him Is prac-
tical Though indirect) way of studying
normal men. And since the criminal is
seven-eighths like other men, such a
study is, III addition, direct inquiry into
normal humanity"
However abstruse the problem, the
time may come when by the appliances of
modern advance theories ana institution
allsm and the researches in physiology
and psychical laws the whole subject WIll
be lifted out OF the crude meth ods lor lack
OF metnods) OF the present. The inquiry
into causes will in itself go far toward
furnishing a solution OF the problem, es-
peclalIy when we consider tnaJ crime is
TO large extent vitality related to hered-
lty and environments. The criminal is
both Dorn and made. Indeed, 1t Is an
open question IN how lar society itself is
responsible both directly and Indirectly
tor INN whom she is SO quick TO con-
denim.
The very institutions and customs
which are the pets OF our municipal COR
poratIonS are directly responsible Tor
nlne-tenthS OF the vice and crimes COM
mitted under her patronage, say nothing
OF the cumbersome machinery, the glar-
ing anomalies that mete out justice as the
grocer his sugar and the salesman meas
ures cloth. Properly considered, the
whole line of human procedure from the
family TO the state, environment, hered-
1ty, our systems OF laws and charities
say nothing OF the complexities and pas
slonS OF our kind, are the coucomitants
involved that go TO make up in some
form the personnel OF our social Ishmae-
lites, aud all must bear their burden of
responsibility, as they must 90 out to
of
Generally speaking, few underlying
principles govern the subject in its con-
crete form. The right OF self-protection
IS to society, as we'll as to the individual
the first law OF nature. He who persists
In wrong-Qoing, who is standing menace
10 his kind, should be placed under per-
petual surveillance, aside from any spirit
OF yIndlcuveness, for revenge should
really have no place in any system OF
punishment, as it is a relic OF barbarism,
The anomalies OF measuring out SEN
tences upon the insufficient data fur
nIshed by few hours trial is one of the
crude absurdities OF our judicial system
Every criminal per sc under a perfect
remedial Judlcature and penal system
should receive an indefinite sentence the
fulhllment and extent of which under a
perfected system is determined by his
own conduct and the reasonable evil
dence, given under proper surveillance,
OF his future ability and disposition
10 lead the lie or useful and law
abiding member of society, and then
only dismissed conditionally under
bonds and police surveillance. This
would be operative in more than one
way; 1t would determine his status, pro-
tect society, subServe moral and economic
ends and cut oil the propagation OF his
kind. Roughly speaking, the law-break-
Ing class may be divided into two kinds:
the criminal by occasion and the criminal
by habit, the recidivist. The first are
such by passion, impulse, lack of irnag-
lnauon (or, as we would say, foresight
circumstance, abuse of alcohol and to
which latter cause Baer attributes 90 per
cent. OF the crimes of this class. He is
probably correct. These cannot Justly be
called criminals. Many of them are non
est ana falrly good ciuzens, whose differ
entlatlon from the common mass of man.
kind lies, perhaps, III a single overt act
Inree-fourthS OF the Wrongdoing OF such
1t has been estimated, lie against person,
IDe penalties, management, and prison
environment OF such should be essen
tally different from that of thecontirmed
criminal. Severity embitters such, and
association with hardened criminals
many OF whom are plausible and insinu-
ating, is certainly the rankest. crueIiSt
lnjnstice, and a course OF procedure that
would do justice to Fiji Islanders and the
barbaric codes rather than civilized man.
1t is examining vice and crime down the
throats OF men who would otherwise re-
volt against II, and is crime in itself |
have known fairly healthy young men
and boys, with good 2niecedenls, come in
for the first time with natural reyulsion
aud shuddering Within q few months
they are in thorough sympathy with tho
most abandoned, to go out hardened and
desperate men. 1t is the fault of the sys-