Sunday Washington globe., 1902-03-09

leads unhesitatingly to the conclusion that
reformation and reclamation are possible
and in a large per cent of cases take place
under the congregate system while reason
and knowledge OF human nature make II
impossible for one to believe that either
reformation of character or moral elevation
can be secured by the solitary OF cellular
system of imprisoning malefactors.
Charles Reads Never too Late TO Mend
has been read by the millions Of this coun-
try as we'll as Of England. In that master
full composition of a well regulated mindi
the SCI parate OF cellular system OF imprison-
ment is painted with pigments which wiil
forever make the horrible colors OF the
pictures he imned stand out in awful and
solemn warning to society Of the barbarity
and inhumanity of suppressing the instincts
implanted in the human soul divine, ana
which are so overpowering and masteiul
in man, THAI he voluntarily sacrificed all the
priceless endowments Nature crowned him
with at birth, for THE ONE imperishable
and immortal longing-of human assoeia-
tion and human fellowship
"Once a criminal. always a criminal rs
one of those rernicious axioms transmitted
to us with the record of the other baroa-
rites with which our forbears treated the
ment along the lines of higher and more
perfect Christian civilization by an almost
universal world, but especially among the
nations of the Ayran or Caucasian race, has
enabled the philanthropist the specialist,
the criminologist, the penologist and the
humanitarian to experiment, With the
agencies of modern enlightenment, ior
the cure of the insane and the reformation
of the erring. believe il is now univer-
SALLY conceded that the non restraint system
offers the best results in the treatment OF
the insane at all events society al large no
longer believes in, nor tolerates, the old
time horrible and barbaric methods OF treat
ment and our unfortunate fellow beings
mentally afflicted, are cared for with hu
manity and with the tenderness and syms
pathy inspired by fuller comprehension
of the doctrines of the Nazarene II is one
of the anomalies of human nature that men
led along by conscience and duty can be
logically just and illOgically brutal; and
that perfection is beyond and unattainable
to the most aspiring and best Of humanity
Hence, we cannot marvel, while we regret
that there is a large section of this society
which, recognizing and believing in human
ity toward, and Christian treatment for, the
insane or mentally afflicted sternly and
/ illOgiCally condemn the modern or advanced
system Of penology in the treatment, man
agement and experimental reformation Of
criminals. That crime is a mental disease
or afflictiOn, ! will not discuss, nor that the
disciplinary treatment Of criminals must, TO
be successful, take into consideration the
undeveloped or diseased intellects Of pris-
oners l will not notice in these papers, but
direct attention to the opposition Of humane
methods in prison management and the
disbelief in criminal reformation, by the
section of society mentioned
/ 1t is, therefore, to make inroads on this
section and lessen the numbers OF those
who illogically oppose, in the criminal,
what they logically and justly approve, in
the insane, that proceed to an exploita-
ton of my views on the best means to re-
form prisoners, and to demonstrate by the
citation of a few indisputable facts that
criminals do reform, and that this reforma-
tion is effected in proportion to the applica-
ton Of modern and advanced ideas
cite as fact ONE, the large per cent Of
reformations in the discharged prisoners all
over the country, as evidenced by the
stationary, or decreased criminal convic-
tions by our courts. How is this estab-
lished so as to convince the skeptical or
uninformed2 In this way:
Our population has increased a known
per cent, which would allow for a cores
ponding increased per cent in criminal CON
victions. If this per cent of convictions
had taken place, the penal institutions of
the United States would be inadequate to
hold the prisoners committed. II is also a
known fact that the annual discharge of
prisoners from the penal institutions OF the
country amounts to a given number, and
that the per cent of second, third, fourth or
fifth convictions is necessarily small or the
annual new and first term convictions
would, added to the discharged and recon
victed criminals overwhelm US with their
numbers. In other words, by the annual
discharge of prisoners from our penal in
stitutions, and the absorption of a large and
! increasing per cent of them by society, we
are enabled to find room, or space, for their
successors, the new or FIRST termers in our
penal institutions. But have the discharged
prisoners reformed and become honest citi-
zeus? If not, where are they what has be-
come of them? Take any penal institution
in the country, and note the per cent of
second termers to the PRISONS population,
and we discover the small per cent of sec
ond or third, or fourth convictions to the
whole. 1t is possible that a fraction of the
discharged and reconvicted criminals man
age to pass themselves of for hrst
termers in states other than where they
were first convicted. That this fraction is
not worthy of consideration or calculation,
the Bertillon system and our other means
of detection demonstrate. In the Ohio pen
iIentiary the annual discharge will average
/ 900 prisoners, and the per cent of those
returned or reconvicted is less than twenty
per cent, OF one-hfth.
Fact TWO shows us that the reformed
criminal who has served his sentence and
been restored to freedom, makes no display
of his reformation. Naturally he sinks his
identity as an ex-convict so deep that his
next door neighbors know him not, il he
can help It, and help it he does, by one Of
two methods. He either migrates else
where from the place of his crime or CON
viction and begins a new life, or he lives
down his disgrace among his friends and
kindred. 1 have in my mind at this
moment long list Of men living honest
and reputable lives in Ohio who did time"
] l.. FOE