Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-08
HELP FOR CRIMINALS
PenoIogy Calls Penitentiaries
Crime InCubators.
MAKING JEAN VALJEANS
Great Good Done by "Indeterminate
Sentences"
MODERN MORAL HOSPITALS
Agencies for Starting Convicts Afresh
in Life-Prisoners Given Keys to
Their Own Cells.
MODERN MORAL HOSPITALS

Copyright. 1907. by John Eifreth wntkinsD
What percentage of our convicts could be
turned out Jean Valjeans were the effort
made?
The CHASTITY fact Is that the effort is not
made save In as few Of our penal tnstitu-
tons as may be counted on our fingers. In
these, where that conventional crime incu-
bator yclept the prison or penitentiary has
been replaced by the modern hospital for
moral disease, the percentage of recoveries
from crminaiity is considerably higher
than the percentage of survivals from ty-
phoid fever in hospitals for physical
disease.
1t were very safe to say that few, II
any, of these Jean Valjeans now in the
limelight-and since the January incident
they have sprung up faster than Jasons
crop of dragons tceth-would have become
Jean Naljeans at all had they not detied
the law and escaped from the tomhs that
threatened their further degradation. Our
sacred crime incubator schcme-or peniten-
tiary scheme. if you cEoosc~met its first
reform in the "Pennsylvania system" of
solitary confinement without occupa ton for
mind or body. The next reform was the
Auburn system, allowing convicts to
work together in the shops but not TO
speak to one another. Happily there have
been some penitcntiary reforms in recent
years. Several states have abolished the
lock-step and the stripes and some have
introduced the grading system of promo
tons for good behavior. Bat the peniten-
tiary scheme of incarceration without syste-
matte education. instead of curing moral
disease, still makes it chronic.
Trying to Reform.
The graduate of the typical penitentiary
who really becomes a Jean Vatican is
prodigy, and small wonder. He has been
educated in no occupation above that
which brought him to prison. In the vast
majority of cases the discharged convict
must either steal or starve at the outset of
his renewed liberty. First to meet his
eyes IS the published announcement of his
discharge, supplemented by review of his
crime. Even escaping this shock, his
nervous demeanor marks him as an OBJ
ject of suspicion. To his unaccustomed
ear the street is a roaring torrent anu
every pedestrian appears to be bent upon
colliding with him. His eyes are dazzled
by the unobstructed glare and his face IS
blanched by the tell-tale prison pallor."
He imasines that every one met upon the
street tell whence he has come. In
stinctively he folds his arms when spoken
to- and perhaps about his legs still clinSs
the shuttle of the lock-step. He cannot
fully meet the gaze of his fellow-man, be
cause month after month penitentlary dis
cipline has demanded that he either drop
his eyes face the wall when any one
has passed him in corridor, shop or yard.
His long enforced silence has resulted in
hesitation of speech. The ver-faithful
Javcrts of the law, learned in all of these
prison signs. have their hawk eyes on him
wherever he goes. He knows that his face
IS card catalOgued in the rogues' gallery
at police headquarters and that no matter
whether he wipe out the past or not his
portrait will never be erased from the
Bertillon card.
criminal. To the criminologist there are
two classes-the born criminals and the
made criminals. For the born class,
constituting about a tenth OF the whole
cri ina a
reform-so science teaches. For the other
nine-tenths-the made" criminals-there is
some hope. Another classification divides
all moral invalds into habitual criminals
and single offenders, and the convicts in
the penal institutions of the world are
said to be equally divided between these
two classes The habitual criminals how
ever. commit two-thirds of the crimes of
this country and cost us Siu0.0l0,CoJ per
year-our tota annual tribute paid to
criminals of all classes being S60O0)0,0o0,
according to Henry NJ Boes, the Ameri-
can penalogist
The "Indeterminate Sentence"
The most potent factor in the making of
Jean Valjeans today is the "indeterminate
sentence" invented by z. r. Brockway
when director of the Detroit house of cor
rection. The theory upon which the system
is based is that each convict should be sent
60 a scientific reformatory until pronounced
fit to be restored to social freedom. If
there found to be incurable or incorrigible
he is to be transferred to a penitentiary;
but here he may still achieve liberation by
satisfying the court of his cure His hope
of liberty is never cut off. Despair and i'm
prisonment for life result solely from his
own incorrigibility. Like a lunatic. he is
committed until cured" This system has
nowhere been adopted in its entirety.
Where so far adopted in the United States
a maximum term of confinement is imposed
by the court Say it is ten years The con-
Wet is discharged in two if cured" Iut
if he is still incorrigible at the end of the
full decade he must then be dumped again
upon society Several of our states notably
New York, Massachusetts and Illinois. per-
nit it in it's limited form, do England,
India France and Japan. 1t has not made
wider progress simply because popular
opinion still demands of the criminal retri-
button instead of reformation.
Jean Valjeans by Thousands.
Under this system Jean Valjeans are be-
ing turned out by the thousands at the New
York state reformatory Cor men, at Elmira |
established under Mr.. Brockway's guidance |
after he was called from Detroit to take |
charge of the institution.
To give you some idea as to the raw ma
terial turned into this Jean Vatican fac
tory-the greatest of the kind in the world !
here are some statistics concerning $1,000 |
matriculateS. One-half had been in some !
kind of penal institution before and the !
other half were first offenders. Over go |
per cent were practically iliterate and one