The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1899-01-12
4 PRISON PROPHECY.
THOUGHTS About the Moral 1mbecile
Of The Future.
SOCIETY OF THE NEW CENTURY
BY G. GROSvENOR DAVE.
Written for The Commonwealth.

Written for The Commonwealth.
A Prison Prophecy.-Some people
are born criminals-alas for the law
that makes children suffer for the sins
of parents-and with these society Of
the future will deal as it now does with
the sick and the lunatic, shut them
up until we'll or until death,
if never likely to recover. People
with inherited criminal tendencies
never understand their relation to So
ciety. They always have little bee
buzzing in their bonnets that confuses
their ideas and makes them violent
and burglarious without the slightest
intention of doing evil. Their natures
are so warped, in fact, that good and
evil are not understood in their full
meaning, good being rather interpreted
as the doing without detection, EVIL as
discovery of wrong after it has been
done. Such characters learn nothing
from being shut up nor do they learn
anything from being free, and for
them the 10th century will provide
houses of detention where as pleasantly
as possible and more proftably than if
free, the days and years shall pass,
giving some measure of physical hap
plness and comfort and at the same
time protecting society from attacks
that are mere impulse, and from the
deferred but insidious danger that
comes from permitting people OF de-
cided criminal bent to reproduce their
kind at will. The moral imbecile OF
the future will be considered filter
subject for the verdict of committee
of skilled physicians, than the verdict
of twelve unskilled Jurymen, who are
called on to declare merely whether
the deed of evil was committed or
not, and are not at all equal to under
standing why the wretched human
creature before them had the impulse
and yield d to 1t. The new century
will see much more discrimination in
relation to wrong doing and the whole
tendency will be to set apart by them
selves those who are filled with occurs
ed impulses from the womb. They
will be regarded more as objects of
pity than subjects OF punishment and
their proper treatment will, like every
good deed, react upon society in a
hundred ways, Iessenlng the number
of criminals, reducing the constant
legal cost of looking after their de-
scendants, and at the same time throw
ing around these pitiable creatures
some of the comfort and regularity and
self-repression that belong to those who
have no heritage of woe to carry.
Some people fall under the ban OF
the law and become criminals by hap
penings that are almost incidents.
A pinch of the pocket, crowding
by obligations, favorable opportunity
and the hitherto respectable member
of society is arraigned and sentenced
and confied.
A little quarrel, harmless enough al
the outset-and liable to occur with
the best OF us-fires uncomfortable
passion and bodily injury is done te
the opponent. Then the culprit pos
sibly less guilty or at any rate less an
noying than the one he knocks dowr
is put where he can do no further
harm.
Or perhaps the complaining voices
of hungry children and the wistful wot
of a suffering wife make a man lend
ear to the tempter who urges him t.
take from those who we'll can spare tt
give to those who need and society,"
organized protectors descend upon th.
unhappy, needy, bewildered being ant
he is put where the immediate result
is to reduce his family to still create
need.
Society of the century yet to come
will be found moro willing to set fire,
such as these than to shut them up
The system of suspending a sentence
over first offender, and enforcing l
only after the commission of secon,
misdeed will be found much more j,
vogue forty years from now by those 0
us who survive so long. No prophec,
can be surer, for such action Will onl,
be along the line of common sense to
wards which the Interpretation of lay
is beginning to tend more and more
The wisdom OF the act consists in un
Outstanding human nature and there
fore knowing that to an unhardene'
criminal the dread of sentence still il
suspense Will be punishment and deter
rent enough. Society will have hat
all needed protection and the human
creature that society is dealing Wit
will have been a chance to show tina
his wrong-doing was not the result G
evil tendency; and the eyes of GU