The hatchet. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1883-19??, 1900-05-13
CRIMINOLOCY
Shall We Brand and Execute
the Habitual Criminal.
Special to the Hatchet.

Special to the Hatchet.
Since the dawn of civilization
criminolOgists and penologists have
made q deep study Of the ways and
means to successfully deal with the
habitual criminal, and, up to date,
have signally failed in getting their
ideas incorporated into laws. Not
because they have not used due ex-
ertion and well directed intelligence,
but for the reason that the people,
densely and grossly ignorant Of the
subject, have, in their narrOw-minded,
perverse way, hindered and blocked
every effort. Prison congresses called
to devise featheed Drained schemes
for the ameliOratiOn Of the condition
of the poor prosecuted convict, sOcie-
ties formed to reform and reclaim
the criminal in prison and after his
release, week headed PARDON
ing power, and silly, foolish.
sentimental women are responsible
in a great measure for prevalence Of
crime and the startling ratio of its
increase. Why sympathy or leniency
should be extended to a well known,
habitual criminal or one known to
possess criminal tendencies is beyond
my ken. A burglar, foOtpad, or high
way rObber is a murderer at heart
and will not hesitate to commit muir.
der if caught in the act or while re-
sisting arrest.
Yet the dear people will insist
upon protecting, aiding, and even
shOwering blessings upon the heads
of these worst of all criminals.
Court procedure in the United States
has arrived at a stage where the
whole intent appears to be the pro-
lection and acquital Of the prisoner.
The entire exemption of the accused
from Interrogation Should he elect
not to take the stand; the incOmpe~
tency of certain witnesses to testify
against him ; the imposibility of
using q confession made by him
subsequent to the trial, should be
plead not guilty; refusing to accept
certain evidence; ruling certain
questions to be misleading, imma-
terial, irrevelant, cts has enabled
many a criminal to escape who richly
deserved punishment.
Nor can we expect to remedy these
appalling defects until the time shall
have arrived when the people in
sheer desperation will demand and
secure a CESSATION of such abominable
practices by the election of men to
office pledged to correct these abuses.
Every fair>mindtd person wishes to
see a fair fight between the prisoner
at the bar and the prosecution, an im-
partial trial, true verdict, and the
benefit of a doubt given to the ac-
cused.
When one stops to consider that
the prisoner must be found guilty by
O prepOnderance Of evidence, by a
jury of twelve whose verdict must be
unanimous; that he is presumably
innocent until proven guilty beyond
a reasonable doubt, one cannot help
thinking the accused is getting, at
least, all he is entitled to. What eX4
perience is more horrible than that
of being held up at the point of q
revolver or being sand-bagged by a
murderous highwayman or footpad.
One not only loOses ones money (the
smallest loss but ones nerves for
all time and ten or twenty years of
existence. Yet our reformeIs, Wis
ionary theroists, ask US to | We these
gentlemen.
The only good lessons one learns
in this life are learned by hard, !
practical, actual experience, and the
average individual has to have his
head bumped repeatedly to learn
each separate lesson. No one who
has not been brought into actual con.
tact with criminals, dealt with them,
governed them, apprehended them,
etc. can have the right idea of how
they should be dealt with. The en-
actment of laws designed to have
reformatOry effect upon criminals
has been productive of no good, and |
this fact was openly admitted to be
true at the last meeting of the
National Prison Association. But, |
astounding as it may seem, in the
face of repeated admission of this
nature by theoretical reformers Of
the criminal, and the further adms-
sion that crime, instead of being less
frequent, was constantly on the in
crease, the people still insist upon
the possibility of reforming the habit
ual criminal. You can not reform a
criminal against his will any more !
than you can hypnotize or instill re-
ligion into an individual against his
will. How then can we reform him?
The most eminent criminologists
of the world assert and their aaaer-