The Monitor-register., 1896-05-01

Sioboeo jail ID, Ia feaIty, a compulsory
school of crime. with competent instructors
supported from the public funds. Practi-
cally, in every county of every State there
ment of about $50, 900 pupils, and an aver
age attendance of about 25, 1000.
VI those committed to county jails, less
than one-tenth are convicted of penitentiary
oHenses, and the remaining nine-tenths are
either discharged as innocent or only con-
vlcted OF minor offenses but during the
period OF their detention they have been
compelled to associate with felons. and if
they are not fully instructed in all the WAYS
oil crime 1t is not from lack of opportunity.
thousands OF prisoners in our penitentiaries
date the commencement of their criminal
career to acquaintance formed in the
county jail, and thousands discharged as
innocent have paid hush money to such
acquaintance rather than have their Jail
record known to their employers.
Here then are the facts, and it certainly
does not require argument to satisfy any one
not insane that our county Jail system is evil,
and only evil, and that it must be revolution
lied it we are to make any large progress in
reducing the ever increasing volume of
crime.
For this evil, there is but one complete
remedy, and that liz, the entire separation
of all prisoners awaiting trial, 80 that no
prisoner can make the acquaintance of any
other prisoner, and even after conviction,
where prisoners are sentenced for felony, or
for short terms, it is a question whether it
would not be best to continue the system of
separation during the whole term of i'm
prisonment, which is the rule almost univer-
sally in the British Islands and upon the
Continent of Europe.
In Great Britain and Ireland this system
of separation was adopted many years ago,
and now in all the British Islands there is
not a single jail in which it is not enforced,
and the result has been that crime has
steadily decreased, which cannot be said of
any other country. In Great Britain and
Ireland long term prisoners are kept in
separation two years in Switzerland, Ger
many and Holland, from three to five years,
and in Belgium, ten years but for young
men convicted of the first offence the
American Elmira system of progressive
classification and probationary parole has
shown itself more efficient than others in
reformatory results. In America our weak
est point in prison management is our
county jail system. and thus far we have
been unable to remedy it to any large extent.
In Massachusetts separation, or at least
classification, is now quite general. In
Pennsylvania there are a few jails in which
separation has been enforced for many
years. In Ohio we have a score or more OF
jails, built expressly to secure a separation
of prisoners, and we have a statute making
it unlawful to keep prisoners in association
where the construction of the Jail will
admit of separation, but thus far, with q
few exceptions, the law is a dead letter.
In Minnesota considerable progress has
been made. and recently a law has been
passed cutting off State aid, heretofore
allowed for the support Of county jails, I'M
less the separation of prisoners is enforced
where separation is possible. With these
faw pycaptions the agg0cIatiOn of nriSOnorS
in county jails, with all its c%orrupting iniu-
ences, is universal throughout the American
continent.
Thus far legislation, even when enacted,
fails to correct the evil, and probably will
continue to fail, so long as its enforcement
is left to the county authorities, the same as
it did in Great Britain, until the jails were
put under the control of a central authority.
So long as the State imprisons people for
violating its laws, it would seem to be its
plain duty to care for it's prisoners, not only
after conviction, but also while they are
awaiting trial in county jails.
Prisoners are the wards of the State and
certainly it is the duty Of the State to pro-
tect them from abuse and from moral con-
ANIMATION in the county jails.
For the State to arrest its citizens for a
violation of the laws, and then turn them
over to the tender mercies of county author
tiles in whose appointment it has no voice,
and over whose official conduct it has no
control, is al outrage which ought to be
corrected.
The remedy would seem to be the creation
of a prison board, as has been done in
Great Britain and Ireland, and recently
also in Massachusetts,, with power to dictat tie
the administration of county jails. Iu
Great Britain and Ireland the prison boards
control convict prisons as well as jails, but
in America this, perhaps, would not be ad'
visable but certainly it is the duty OF the
State to care for prisoners in county jails al
fully as it is lone for those in p~enitentiaries
and until it does this it perpetuates a wrons
upon it's citizens.
The separate confinement of prisoners no
only prevents the communicating influence
OF association, but it also greatly increase
the security of the jail. AS a rule, jails ar
broken through the combined efforts o
prisoners, which association encourages, an
| iailers in a congregate Jail are always il
danger through conspiracies to escape. B
separation this danger is excluded and es
capes are reduced to a minimum.
Separation also prevents the annual infiu
of tramps, who under the laws of vagrancy
find a welcome shelter during the winte
months, where they are boarded at publ
expense and have a jolly time with their al
s~ociates and lay plans for the campaign {
the coming summer.
The State, also, ought to provide distric
warehouses, where tramps and all other mil
demeanants sentenced for less than one yes
can be sent and compelled to earn a living |
hard work, leaving in county jails only pri
oners awaiting trial. This policy would ma
economical and far more effective than I'll
present system.
The usual argument against separa ton {
solitary confinement as it is commonly Gale,
is that prisoners cannot get sufficient exc
else, and hence it would be injurious
health. This objection, however. is east
obviated. In jails built upon the Ohio plal
except in large cities with too many prison
ers, each prisoner can have an hour BY hin
self for exercises in the central corridor
without seeing any other prisoner. But will
out such exercise it has been found in prat
tice that no bad results have followed in til
short time in which prisoners are awaitin
trial.
In Boston where the Suffolk county ia
has been conducted upon the separate sys
tenn and without airing courts for thirt
years, and where more than a quarter of
million prisoners have been confined, it ha
been the uniform experience that the prison
ers go out cleaner in body and mind and i
better health generally than when the
came in.
Airing courts, however. can easily h
constructed at small expense, as they are il
Europe, where each prisoner can have a
hour by himself in the open air, and .wher
he can see no one but the supervisor,
warden, who is so located that he can see
dozen or more prisoners, although the,
cannot see each other.
In short, from every point of view, i
seems evident that the most important ste,
forward in the improvement of our count
Jail system is to secure the separation O
prisoners.-Phiiadelphaa Press.