The Republican journal., 1907-02-28
THE MAINE STATE PRISON.
Commentator from California Prison Re-
form in that State.

mdlu0 OtdIC PlloOA hV 4hOdlhooOh uoC
been most highly commended by all who
have knowledge of it and the facts and
figures in the annual report of Warden
Bernes O. Norton speak for themselves
Now we have praise from an unexpected
quarter. Miss Grace E. Batchelder of
this city recently received letter from
her uncle, E. l.. KnowltoD, in Represa,
California, from which we are permit
ted to quote as follows: ''The last Jour
nal received contained very interest
ing report Of the Maine State prison.
That report has been read here at the
Folsom prison with good deal of curl
osity and surprise. The showing there
made takes the conceit all out of US.
With this I mail you portion of the
San Francisco Chronicle which con-
tains an editorial on our State prisons.
You may take this editorial into The
Journal office and hand it to the editor
as it will be likely to interest him."
Following is the editorial:
) OUR STATE PRISONS. VERY SERIOUS
PROBLEMS FOR THE PEOPLE TO
CONSIDER.
On June 80, 1904, there were 1881
male prisoners in our two State prisons
at Folsom and San Quentin. Two years
later the number had increased to g.
COS, showing an increase of 277 males
in two years. The increase is steady,
and the State Board of Charities and
Corrections estimate that by 1909
there will be around 5000 male prison
ers in the two prisons. The question
is what we are going to do about it,
and to answering that question the
State Board of Charities and Correc-
lions devotes some pages of its biennial
report. Unfortunately the Board can
not settle the matter. 1t has no au-
thority of any kind except to investi-
gate and advise. 1t does investigate.
1t does advise. But to follow its adj
vice will in many instances cost money,
and good deal of it. Consequently
the Legislature is not likely to act on
such portions of the advice until a
strong public sentiment is created to
support it. The State is in urgent need
of far more permanent improvements
than any tax which & political party in
control of the State government will
risk, and before the needs of the con-
victs are reached the money is gone.
The fundamental and expensive-but
also essential-reforms are two; first, a
reformatory, to which only first-term-
ers are sent; second, sufficient rebuild
ing of the present prisons to give to
each prisoner a cell. The other essen
tial reforms will not cost much money,
Int xuithn11f tho rpfnrmlt0rV and
gle-cell system little good can be done.
California has a much larger prison
population per capita than most other
States; without the figures before us
we are inclined to think it is the larg-
est in the country. This results from
various causes, but largely because our
climate is as attractive to criminals as
others. In addition to that our peniten-
tiaries have an excellent reputation
with criminals, as supplying an excel
lent diet, with plenty of bad company
and little to do. They are disgraceful-
ly over-crowded, and are nothing more
or less than universities of crime. 1t
is claimed by those most familiar with
the subject that the great majority
of first termers are not criminalsTthey
are nearly all quite young--but persons
without formed criminal habits who
have committed one crime. Ii proper
ly dealt with the most of them will be-
come useful citizens. To condemn them
to San Quentin or Folsom is to create
a moral certainty that society will have
them on its hands as confirmed GRIM
inals for their natural lives. They will
be at large preying upon societyfor short
terms, and supported in penitentiaries
by the taxpayers for long terms. In
one of the two ways they will be con-
slant source of expense to society, so
great that as mere measure OF econo-
my, with no regard to humanity, the
cost of dealing with them properly is
profitable expenditure. so long as they
huddle toge Their, dozen or more in one
cell, very little can be done for them.
In that society the greater the crime
the greater the hero. The end OF a
prison term finds the neophyte instruct
ed in all branches of the criminal arts
and with all his ambitions directed to
criminal ends. He is turned out Of the
gate with a new suit of prlSon-made
clothes, reputation as criminal,
with S. in his pocket, and often not
friend in the world The only society
which will receive him is the criminal
society, and into that he goes because
Il6 lldO uOW CloC W So3 eshSA oSSesooO
it accords with his acquired inclina-
tions. In few days or few weeks he
is in Jail, and soon after back in States
prison.
A reformatory is not a ''reform
school, for delinquents, but State
prision for the confinement of prison
e1s convicted for the first time of felo-
MES. There is a prison unlform-not
the striped suits-prison discipline,
prison work, prison instruction. The
sentence is usually indeterminate. He
gets out-after certain fixed term
when, in the opinion of the officials, he
is fit to go, and when permanent en-
ployment suited to his ability has been
found for him. The object of the re-
formatory is to not only teach how to
work, but to substitute the habit OF
work for the habit of idleness, which is
the cause of most first crimes. What
ever moral influence can be extended
is made the most of. The evidence IS
that of first convicts so treated about
IS per cent are restored to useful cltl-
zenship. The others are the confirmed
criminals who will ultimately find their
way to the other prisons, and probably
remain there most of their lives. Even
there they are given chance. Under
good prison management prisoners are