Evening journal., 1897-12-20
THE CRIMINAL CLASSES.

NOWuN unlll noHltlllub 10 ubhA W iShh-
edy the defects existing in our present
system or It is wiped out altogether.
Those men who are back Of the move
ment here are both intelligent and in
fuential. They have met defeat twice
within the past three years, but they
are willing to try again, and they win
keep on trying until they get what
they want and what the state needs
from the General Assembly. Before the
Social Science Department Of the Civic
Club, of Philadelphia, General Isaac J.
Wistar recently stated some facts
which, while unpleasant, were none the
less true. He said that Andrew ID.
White showed that in 1896 there were
1O,2O0 homicides in the United States,
and that 90 out OF every 100 accused of
the crime escaped punishment Gen
eral Brinkerhon shows that from 1870
to 1890 there was an increase Of 30 per
cent. in the ratio Of prisoners to popu-
lation. At that rate, said General
Wistar, It would not be long until we
would all be in Jail. He said that we
must reduce the Inducements TO crime
make the opportunities more dificulti
make the puniohmerts more deterrent
not more cruel. What has been ac-
complished in England he believed
could be accomplished in this country
Up to 1865 little had been done in the
way Of improving their prison system.
The work of Howard and Mrs. Fry was
in the way of treating the prisoners
more humanely. In 1865 celebrated
act was passed which organized all the
prison system of Great Britain under
five unpaid commissioners of the very
highest character. The result was that
in FIVE years they reduced the number
of prisons from 113 to SO, with a CORE.
spending saving in expense Of s204,0O0
year. In twenty years, up to 1885,
they had reduced the number of crimi-
nails over 81 per cent.
He did not believe the people here
were worse than in England, and there
was no reason to believe that remedial
measures which are successful in Great
Britain would not be successful here.
He quoted from the reports of the
State Board of Charities to show that
a large number of the sixty-seven jails
in Pennsylvania are nests OF crime;
that they existed for no other purpose
than the pecuniary benefit of county
politicians, where the sheriff is the boss
politician. The sheriff gets paid 40 or
so cents a day for keeping the prison
ers, and It costs him about 8 cents. In
some OF them obscene pictures are
hung on the walls, and the prisoners
are supplied with cards 50 that they
may spend theft evenings pleasantly.
OF the two branches of the science of
criminology. he believed the most i'm
portant to be the branch Of jurispru-
dence. The prisons are bad enough,
and the system Of confinement and
methods OF treatment and failure to
make a prison a place Of punishment
are bad enough, but the worst Of all its
faults Of Jurisprudence are those that
have been legislated into It within the
last twenty years. Instead of going
forward, we are going backward.
A prisoner is not deferred from
crime blythe severity of thepunishment
but by the celebrity and certainty OF
punishment. A homicide can have his
counsel stay his trial for a year, when
most Of the witnesses are gone or go
out Of the way; or new trial can bt
got. Il can be taken TO higher court
and the Appellate courts in the United
States appear to devote themselves
not to the trial Of the criminal but I,
the trial of the judge that convicte'
him, in the hope that they can shov
their astuteness in showing that h
committed some error.
Speaking Of the treatment of crimi
nails in prisons, he said the prisone
must be punished. A prison is not
hotel, but place Of punishment If
is to be a place to be desired, wha
would be the use in keeping it up?
must be a place where the prisone
cannot be further contaminated. Ths
can he and is accomplished by separat
confinement,
Here is food for thought for thOs
Delawareans who have in the past bee
cpposing all measures for the betterin
of our prison system in this state Gel
eral Wistar is a man Of large exper
ence in the matter of the proper met
eds to be employed for protecting Il
public from the depredations Of viciol
men. and that extensive experienc
coming from a man Of such recognize
intelligence, imparts great weight
the words he uttered.
The Barksda;e anti-football bill h
met signal defeat in the Virginia Sc
ate, and another fool measure has go
TO join the many which have preced
it,