The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-12-04
REFORMATION IN PRISON
PAPER BY PROFESSOR J. J. M'C0OK
 ON THIS SUBJEOT.

ing Facts Presented.
 Prof McCook of Hartford read paper on "The Reformatory" last eve ming before the Social Science associa- ton. Prior to his arrival President Newton and Dean Francis Wayland discussed various points connected with the subject
 Prof McCook said in part: "The re- formatory is a nineteenth century de- velopment of the prison. The more primitive notion was 'punish'-'maim.' As life and limb come to be more re- garded, Imprisonment was instituted as method, the motive remaining chang ed. In both epochs equally what peo- pie said to the law breakers, was You have hurt us; we wpl hurt you as half afterthought and half below their breath they added, you have hurt no one; you shall not do it again By and by another notion prevailed and people began to say, Evil life is an en- couragement to the bad a discourage ment to the good therefore, stand aside evil lives from your fellows, until in time count in every criminal indict- ment came to be the evil example of the offender.
 But all this was for theory imper- feet, and for practice, crude and bar barous. The notion still hung fire that men who had been bad might possibly be made good, while the methods were of the merest hand-to-m mouth variety. It did not seem to occur to the world that a man might possibly be cured while he was being even the more ef- fectively punished, and quite as safely segregated, and that this might be done at our immediate cost far in excess of the other and with an immense ulti- mate economy.
 "The new idea came in for boys and girls. I do not know just when, but earlier than for adults. It first appear ed in flesh and blood, for these latter seem to have been due to the Connec- ticut common sense of z. R. Broadway. In 1870 he read a paper at the prison congress held in Cincinnati on The Ideal Prison System for a State This ideal first took legal shape about 1870 the beneficiaries being disorderly wo- men, and the place Michigan.
 But the usual fate befell this new thing, and the supreme court of the state declared the law unconstitution- al and New York indicated its right to the title of Empire state by adopting Brockways outlawed bantling. And in Elmira reformatory twenty-one years Q erc tbp To, No years later Massachusetts followed generally she leads-turning over for the purpose a structure at Concord de- signed for states prison. Since then other states have fallen in. Illinois Michigan, Colorado Ohio, New Jersey shall l not say Connecticut?
 What has been accomplished in El- mira and Concord? In the former 75 per cent. of the discharged and in the latter 80 per cent. have stood fast set ting down into trade or other avoca- tion and disappearing In the crowd like some once unsound physical organ, showing that they have been cured by ceasing to be noticeable What would have befallen them without the refor- matory? This is a matter largely of conjecture, since no thoroughly reliable statistics are obtainable. If anyone, however, will study the tables in the report of the Hartford committee on Out Door Aims, 1S90,' he will come to have pretty vivid idea of what be- comes of them. Jail again and still again jail; ten days, thirty days, sixty days, 120 days, and then the series backward again; nothing learned, but new deviltries; nothing acquired but new thirst for alcohol and debauch; !; then in time, hospital, almshouse, aims house and hospital. Always at town expense, at a cost to the community as high as from $4.50 to s5 a week the year round. At the end the dissecting room, the only honest, useful service render ed for years-or pauper burial at town expense, burden to the last!
 Or, if you will talk to any police of- ficer or police magistrate you will find out.
 Occasionally they are fortunate enough to commit a felony, and so go to Wethersf1eld Here the conditions are more favorable. But even here sev- enty out of every hundred get back to prison against the seventy-fve or eighty of the reformatory who escape
 At what cost is this done? At El- mira in 1886, while as yet productive la bor in prisons was not interfered with, the cost per head was about ninety-one e cents week. And last year, with the productive work vastly curtailed and with thirty-four trades or vacations taught, the cost was only $2.79 week per inmate. How does this compare with Jail and prison?
 'In Hartford county the normal cost per week is $225, in Wethersfeld pris- on it is $2.34 a week, and they are both carefully managed. A trif1e greater inn mediate cost is in the reformatory. But it costs only on an average twenty two and half months, and then stops for good and all. The other goes on in- definitely and swells and spreads with the revolving year as physical, mental and moral decadence asserts itself
 '"The reformatory ends are reached by educating while punishing-by pun ishing through education. No term is mentioned. The sentence merely reads, TO the reformatory,' for time that varies in different jurisdictions. But whenever the inmate has through his behavior, of which a careful record is kept, shown that he has thought bet ter of it. and whenever by his skill and diligence in the assigned trade or en- ployment, he has shown that he can support himself and probably vii, he