The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-10-30
REV. Or. ]. E. FUTILE TELLS
Possibility of Reforma-
tion-Cost of Sup
port.

statements embodied reveal a condi-
ton of affairs Of which the ordinary
individual takes little thought.
DR.. futile took for his subject, "How
can the church help solve the prison
problem?" The text, Roman, xiv:7,
None of us liveth to himself and no
man dieth to himself"
DR.. futile said: In some pictures the
background is intended to give prom
inence to the foreground.
This is the reason this text has been
selected. 1t puts behind the prison
problem, the background of human So
ciety in which every man is vitality
connected with every other man. Socie-
| ty is an interlocking system. AS the
switchman on the railroad in moving
| the switch, also sets the distant signal
for the engineer, so in society whatever
| one man does or is,
AFFECTS ANOTHER MAN.
Because one man is good, another
man is better. Because one man is
bad, another man is worse
Society is an interlocking system.
Yes, it is more than this 1t is what
Paul calls the church, a living body, in
which all are members, one of another.
For any right consideration of the
| prison problem, there must be this
background clearly seen, of society, in
| which because one man is a criminal
all other men are injured, and in which
| because one man is a criminal all other
men are responsible. With this back
ground we consider the prison problem.
| There are several factors in the prob
lem which together make it one of the
gravest before society. First, the prison
population. In 1898 there were in all
the prisons of the United States about
| 100000 persons, costing the people for
their support about S59,500000, or some
thing like one-sixteenth of the entire
cost of running the government.
| To make the problem little nearer
us. it may be well to confine ourselves
to the facts for Massachusetts.
| There are &c prisons in our state with
prison population Sept. 80, 1899, of
6765, of whom 5SO1 were men, 964 wo-
men. In 1885, the commitments to
| state institutions were 1852; to county
| prisons 27,114, making a total of 49,
| 1876 commitments in our state for that
year, or enough people to comprise a
| thriving city. The second factor in the
| problem is the youth Of the prisoners.
| Over 10 per cent of the arrests in this
| state in 1898 were under 81 years of age
| and between fourteen and fifteen of
L
of age This means that a large pro-
| portion Of our prisoners are at the age
| when character is being formed and
| there is the greatest
| POSSIBILITY OF REFORMATION.
A third factor in the problem is
the cost of crime. The public expenses
| for crime are met in three ways, by the
state, the county and the town or city.
st.{- o
| more than one half was expended for
| crime. OF our county tax in the state,
more than $1000000 was expended for
| crime, the percentage varying in diff
| ferent counties from Is to As per cent
of the tax.
Massachusetts, contains go fourishing
cities. In 1898 the cost of supporting
the police in these cities was nearly
| S3,0O0,0O0. The total cost of crime to
the tax payer in Massachusetts, in 1898
was nearly 100000, or to be exact,
| $4,79767S.
1t is amazing to remind ourselves of
the cost to the tax payers of Worces-
| ter, of crime In our commonwealth,
| Worcester pays a state tax of $56 sos
| and a county tax of $119747. One-half
of our state tax, 2S,2525O, was for
| crime. Thereby one and one-half per
cent of our county tax, $37, 1877 30 was
1
ter police force was $130, 1415S. The to-
tai crime cost to Worcester tax payers
| for 1898 was the sum of these three
| taxes, making a total of $780, The
| total taxing of Worcester for 1898 FOR
all purposes was $1,715, 702.59. The tax
| paid by our city on account OF crime
was then more than II per cent Of the
| whole. The tax rate was 1920 on
| $1,000, so that every Worcester tax paw
fo%. = l, z
ON each $1,000
1t is rather astonishing that a city
like Worcester in which an increase of
| taxation for the erection of high
school or necessary public buildings or
| improvements arouses careful atten-
| ton and vigorous and often hostile dis
| cussion, should so cheerfully, without
| discussion or criticism on the part of
her citizens, submit to a taxation of
| nearly s200,00 annually for
THE SUPPORT OF CRIME.
The explanation is probably in the
fact that as citizens we are not suffi-
GENTLY informed as to the magnitude
and practical bearing of the prison
problem. A fourth factor in the prison
| problem is the economical loss entailed
by removing from the community, in
the persons of the prisoners, so MANY
i contributors
the well being of society. This is a. loss
entailed by crime which cannot be es-
timated When we take into considera-
ton the loss of property to people who
are robbed, the loss of production from
/ nearly 10000 people, and the various de-
Structive influences set in operation nv
them, the loss to society of economic
force and productiveness is at once
seen to be very large.
|
lem is the discharged prisoner. In 1898
over $4,000 prisoners were released from
the prisons of Massachusetts. MANY of
these had homes or friends able and
willing to keep them. Most of them
were penniless. The prisoner leaves his
prison as a rule without money and
without helpful friends, a suspected
man, Swallowed by the police and
spurned by society. Unless he has been
thoroughly reformed the probability
| that he will commit crime again is all
most a certainty. How now can the
| church help
SOLVE A PROBLEM so SERIOUS.
First by dealing directly with the in
| dividual prisoner. When the hardened
criminal leaves his cell the church
| should be the first to take him by the
hand. The church should use its infu-
| eHCe " illu employment FOR the dis
charged prisoner and to surround him
with the sympathy and encouragement
| he so much needs.
AS Christian people, we need to large
! ~ revise our view of the prisoner. He
| is no worse than thousands of men who
have never been in prison. He can
be saved as well as other men, so long
as we know the story of converted
criminals like Ballentine Burke of St.
lLouis and Jerry McAuley of New York,