The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-02-17

the Moslem worse than Japan lately
did China.
Two Ways of Furnishing Criminals.
Seldom have the arguments in favor
of a thorough overhauling of our pres
ent methods of Furnishing criminals
been more forcefully stated than in w.
Douglas Morrisons newly issued book
on Juvenile Offenders" q very COM
pete review of which appeared in the
New York sun of Feb. IA, from which
we quote.
In Mr.. Morrison's opinion the funda-
mental defect of those methods is that
they are in the main intimidatory rath-
er than reformatory. Their scope and
purpose are almost exclusively confined
to operating on the sense of fear. 1t is
not disputed that the fear of punish
menr exercises a deterrent effect of
some sort but the criminal returns of
every civilized community point with
remarkable unanimity to the conclusion
that the restraining influence of fear
on criminal tendencies is much more
limited than is generally supposed. 1t
is certain that if the terrOrS of the
criminal law could have stamped out
crime, X would have disappeared long
ago. Punishments Of the most appal-
ling risor existed until a comparatively
recent period in every criminal code,
yet there is no evidence to show that
these seventies had the desired effect.
At the present time, punishment, al
though less severe, is much more GER
tain.
Mr.. Morrison has been repeatedly
told by old criminals that it is now q
much more difficult thing to escape the
clutches Of the law than it was former
ly. Nevertheless, the increased proba-
bility of detection and conviction has
not put stop to crime; on the con-
trary, according to the official returns
of every civilized country, offences
against the criminal law are steadily
increasing in number. 1t might be sup
posed that, if the fear of detection and
punishment are of so little efficacy, the
actual experience OF punishment would
at least have a deterrent effect. But
the ordinary view of the efficacy of pun
ishment is not supported by facts. A
period of detention in prison produces
very little change on the future con-
duct of the convicted population. a
proof of this is that, among every hun
dred prisoners more than one half have
been in prison before. a large percent
age, moreover, of these prisoners have
been recommitted. not once, or twice,
but five, ten, or twenty times. In the
teeth of facts of this character, we can
hardly venture to affirm that punish
ment is an effective remedy for crime.
When we seek the reason why punish
ment involving the loss of liberty is so
ineffective, we find, in the first place,
that it aggravates the conditions which
tend to make a man a criminal. Near
ly all the people who are committed
to prison are somewhat deteriorated
either bodily or mentally before they
come within the clutches of the law.
Crime is usually the result of this con-
dition of deterioration. If the deterior-
alton which has set in before imprison-
ment is made worse by the conditions of
prison life, it is impossible for punish
ment, in the case of Imprisonment, to
prevent the offender from repeating the
offence. According to the royal COM
missioners of 1879 and the prisons COM
mittee of 1875, the conditions of prison
life are of this adverse character. I'M
prisonment, they declare, mot only fails
to reform offenders, but in the case
| of the less hardened criminals, and es-
! pecially of first offenders, it produces
deteriOratng effect" In other words,
Imprisonment defeats the very purpose
for which ii is applied
So much for the working of the penal
law. on the other hand, the principle
at the root of the educational method
| of dealing with juvenile crime is pro-
! nounced by Mr.. Morrison an absolutely
| sound one. II is a principle which rec
ognizes the indisputable fact that the
/ juvenile delinquent is, in the main, a
product of adverse individual and social
conditions. From this fundamental fact
it draws the obvious conclusion that the
| only effective treatment of juvenile
crime must consist in placing the juven-
| lie in the midst of wholesome material
and moral surroundings. The efficacy
of this treatment is proved by statis-
ties. According TO the official returns
it appears that three-fourths of the chill
dren committed to the reformatory
schools of Great Britain do well after
their discharge. The remaining fourth
are either lost sight Of, or are doubtful
cases, or have been reconvicted. Indus
trial schools receive a younger, and on
the whole, less criminal class of chill
dren than reformatory schools. We
should, therefore, expect a somewhat
higher percentage Of success among
them. The expectation is warranted by
facts. According to the returns, about
five in every six pupils Of industria
schools are recorded as doing we'll after