Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-17
HARSH TREATMENT
OF CRIMINALS
Justice Stafford Criticises the
Laws of the District.
FOUR REFORMS SUGGESTED
Address at the University Club Ban
quet Last Night.
PRISONS AS MORAL HOSPITALS
District Supreme Court Jurist Gives
Results Of Study Of Exist
ing Conditions.
Address at the University Club Ban
quet Last Night.
PRISONS AS MORAL HOSPITALS

CARDS its treatment of the criminal classes
generally, Justice Wendell P. Stafford of
the District Supreme Court in an address
at the annual banquet of the University
Club In the Raleigh Hotel last night de-
clared for the necessity of liberal reforms
to bring Washington up to the humani-
tartan standards Of modern times. Justice
Stafford was, called upon to respond to
toast on 'sThe Classics" but he chose
the occasion to outline to the gathering of
representative men of Washington the
hardsh1ps which are unavoidably worked
upon the accused and the convicted alike"
under existing arbitrary laws
Justice Stafford's Address.
Justice Stafford in his address said
L am glad and proud to sit at such
a board. Here are half a thousand men
who stand for culture and Improvement
They have received the best their time
and country had to give, and hold them
selves ready to repay the debt. We speak
not of the general humanities alone Here
are specialists from almost every field of
service and inquiry. Washington easily
gamers such, and the gathering itself is
typical of Washington. And when we
nave said that, have we not said typical
of America? England may not be judged
by London, nor France by Paris, but sure
~ Washington must be America in minia-
ture Its residents are drawn from every
quarter OF the land. Its laws are fash
Toned by body that represents all portions
or the vast republic. What the city has lost
IN sell government 1t has lost to the nation.
10 the nation 1t looks to send it wise and
earnest makers of it's laws In legislating
for the District Of Columbia, Congress is
not embarrassed by any possibility of con-
met between state and federal powers. Its
hands are free. Within these sixty-five
square miles 1t possesses all the legislative
powers OF state and nation both. Here,
then, may We not hope to find the most
enlightened laws and institutions?
We recognize the obligations of Gull
ture: We realize that every gift is
trust. We know that, properly speaking,
there is no such thing as a gift, and never
out corresponding obligation. We hold
that the true test of greatness in men is
the attitude they take toward their in
1erlors. The real hero on the ladder of
for the round above him, but with the
other he is always reaching down to help
the man below him. So nation must be
judged by the way it treats its helpless
ana It's criminals. The state is the mother
OF all her children. She must deal with
them as such. The prosperous and power
fui have drawn their strength from her
bosom. The skilled and cultivated were
trained and taught at her knees The ig-
norant are those whom she has failed to
call around her. The poor may be those
Whom her Imperfect or partial laws have
too often those who have taken their
vicious faint from her own blood You do
not judge father by what he does for
his gifted and promising son. But how
does he treat the son who has gone astray,
the son who is imbecile or crippled. or de-
PRAYED? So do we judge times and peo-
pie. If Helen Keller had been born in
Sparta she would have been left to the
wolves on Mount Taygetus. America
saved her to instruct the intellect and in
sp1re the heart.
Separate Convicted and Accused.
"What shall we do with our criminals?
For quarter of a century the best thought
of the world has been devoted to the
problem. A few things it has learned. It
has learned to separate the convicted from
those who are merely accused. It has
learned to build ample and sanitary jails
1t has learned better than to keep men in
idleness. 1t has learned to establish real
reformatories for those who are under SEN
tence. 1t has begun to teach and train
the idle and vicious minds and hands 1t
has learned to build up as well as tear
weeds, but to plant in their places the
sweet sustaining grain 1t has learned to
hold before the eyes of sorrow and de-
spair the shining hope of a redeemed and
respected life. 1t has learned to remold
our laws to these humane ideas. For a
fixed and unalterable sentence pronounced
by the Judge when the jury renders it's
verdict 1t puts a sentence whose duration
Is to be determined by the conduct and
improvement of the prisoner himself as
judged by those who see and watch him
year by year. For the determined and in
corrigible criminal it says there should be
no release. Why should we turn back upon
society its avowed and inveterate foes? For
the penitent there should be the promise
OF conditional release when safe surround
lngs can be assured and a new trial VEN
tured. It has learned another thing-that
even among grown men and women the
first offense may be the last If the offender
can be given another chance and saved
the infamy of prison cell. The proba-
ton system hangs over his head the sword
OF Damocles and he knows the first in
fraction of the law will bring it down.
The Reforms Advocated,
These four things at least have been
found good a. An ample AID sanitary ta,l.
with careful separation Of the convicted
and the accused. ca A probation system
for adults as we'll as children. 81 re-
formatory in place Of the old hopeless pris
on. "a An indeterminate sentence ner
hitting the guarded and conditional release
of the reformed and the perpetual deten-
ton Of the incorrigible. Which of these wise
changes ha, we adopted here? 1 am sorry
to say, not one. % We have Jail. intend
ed Tor three hundred, where almost twice
that number are confined, two or three
crowded In a room; the accused and the
convicted treated alike; no modern plumb
Ing; the calls of nature answered in the
cell; and out of twenty-four hours of idle
ness ana sloth thirty minutes of exercise.
CO We Rave no probation system whatever
except for children. A boy Just past his
seventeenth birthday comes up for sem
tence for lis first offense. You can send
linn to the workhouse for six months or
less. You can send him to the jail for not
more than a year. Or II the sentence be
longer than a year he can be sent to the
penitentiary. But one of those three things
you must do-you must smite him on the
spot (3) EXCEPTING the reform school for
children we have no reformatory whatever.
For all those graver offenses which the
statutes declare shall be punished In the
penitentiary we have no institution In the
District. Sentence is imposed and the
convict goes where the Department Of JUS
tice sends him, to some state penItentiary
With which 1t may have contract Some
Of the states have real reformatories and
laws that provide for indeterminate SEN
fences. But va cannot send our prisoners
to these. Doubtless they are full already,
and If they are not we cannot send our
prisoners to be held or released according. to
the laws of ether jurisdictions. What we
tn, hi 10 fr,,o