The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-09-18
coNv1crs ON cRIMINoLoGY.


Al late annual meeting OF the National
Prison Association it was declared by res
olution that the progress OF crime is
something frightful." Nevertheless. in
this country and abroad for a number OF
years criminology and prison reform have
been given great amount of very earnest
study. Lombroso, Bettllon and Others
have become famous because Of their scien-
tifc studies and deductions respecting the
criminal classes, and Innumerable prison
reforms have been instituted. with the
two-fold purpose in view of lessening
crime and retaining criminals after they
have been corvicts. Notwithstanding all
of which the progress of crime is some
thing frightful" Evidently the key of the
great problem has not yet been discovered.
Is it not probable that the failure of the
reformeTs is due to the fact that they have
given practically all of their time and en-
ergy to studying the question from their
own. personal point Of view, and none to
studying it from the point of view of the
man behind the bars? In other words. they
approach the inquiry as theorists. and as
theorists they render their decisions. They
fail TO get at the kernel of the question.
the causes of crime and the proper means
of reforming criminals. because it is i'm
possible for them to consider the matter
as bearing directly and hard upon them
selves personally, as it does upon their
proposed benefciaries. The discussion Of
criminology from the convicts view point
however, has been begun in the Star of
Hope" paper published in Sing Sing
prison, New York. the convicts furnishing
the articles. Several such articles. all of
them well written and filled with good.
horse sense, have already appeared. That
they will be of great value to students of
penal reformation there can be no doubt
Convict No. 3,749 of Clinton prison and
Convict No. a15 of Sing Sing, both assert
that the crimes of society against the in
dividuaI, while he is not yet a criminal
and which are continued with unrelenting
ferocity after he has become one, are the
causes of 80 per cent. of the crimes COM
mitted. No. 3,749 divides criminals into
two classes. In the first he says there are
criminals from environment, so per cent;
from poverty. Is per cent; from accident,
% per cent. and from heredity, 5 per cent.
The second class is made up thus: "Inabil-
ity to obtain work after release from
first term, 50 per cent; asso-
Citations in prison during the
first term, 20 per cent; blackmailing
by detectives and other police officials. %
per cent; inability to live on moderate sal
airy, . per cent, and unknown causes, 5
per cent" Criminals from environment
embrace all that class of youthful law
breakers recruited from the truant chill
dren Of the ignorant and poor who grow
up without adequate supervision. and who
from association and contiguty with older
offenders become imbued unconsciousIy
with criminal thoughts and ideas. 1.-The
number of men who deliberately choose,
and remain in. life of crime is very
small" says the convict. Fifty per
cent. is none too liberal an estimate of the
number of men who leave prison upon the
expiration of a first term with a determi-
nation to retrieve the past, and fan by the
wayside on account of inability to obtain
employment" The next largest class of
failures, he says, is made up of those who
have succeeded in obtaining employment
after leaving prison, but who are discov-
cred by detectives and blackmailed or
driven out of their jobs. II is worse than
useless for the ex-convict to attempt to
fight back; the handicap upon him is too
great; his record and the whole police
forces are against him. No. S.749 also lays
great stress upon the degrading prison
grind, which destroys the prisoners self
respect and makes him an outcast forever
even to his own mind. The ideal remedy is
a system which Will not destroy a convict's
self-respect, but will seek to cultivate it,
and condition Of public mind that will
be willing to allow the fallen man a chance
to redeem himself. How these ends are
to be achieved is not yet quite clear TO the
confederation, unless it be by the slow
process of education.