Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-05

of criminals across the doorsill of
the grim old building in far South
east Washington, have enlisted in
the cause. The whole business
community, as evidenced by the
pronouncements of the presidents
of the two trade organizations Of
the capital, are heartily in favor of
improving the lot of those who
come under the ban of the law,
and now, in the person of one of
Washington's leading pulpit ora
tors, there has appeared a most
emphatic protestant against the
conditions which now obtain.
Rev, DR.. Frank NJ Bristol, pastor of
the Metropolitan Methodist Episcopal
Church, John Marshall place and c
street northwest, today expressed hor-
ror at what he termed the little less
than criminal practice, which is now
necessary through lack of other accom-
modations in the jurisdiction of incar-
cerating the merely accused and some
times indicted prisoners under the
same roof and in the same cells with
convicted felons.
Reflection on Civilization.
Such action as this would be ref1ec-
ton upon any civilized community"
said DR.. Bristol, land how much more
does it tend to the discredit of the ma
tions capital. At the present time in
almost every part of the world the ef-
fort is toward uplifting the moral de-
linquent and moral backslider; toward
the scientific treatment of crime as a
disease and not as the active evidence
of hopeless depravity I have watched
with no little interest the constantly
increasing number Of reports cf sue
essful surgical and medical treatment
of criminals, and the frequent djscoV-
cries that a depression in the skull
causing pressure upon the brain (due
many times to an almost forgotten or
apparently insignificant blow upon the
head) has been responsible for the
perversion of otherwise clean morals.
Really I am considering the prepara
ton of a lecture or sermon on the sub
ject, Salvation Through Surgery.
And yet. right here in Washington
what is the spectacle We see? Not the
scientific treatment of the criminal, but
exactly the opposite. The hardened Of
fender and the thoughtless youngSter
expiating his first indiscretion not
only held under the same restrictions,
but absolutely thrown together in every
phase of prison life. What chance, 1
might ask, is there to bring gently for
native influences to bear upon the
young mind in which there is every
possibility Of instilling a determination
and ambition to begin life afresh. and
what chance to make him regard the
period Of restraint as needed lesson
that the way of the tranSgressor is
hard and not as a hopeless downward
step into the ranks of the Outcasts of
society,""
Moral Side Of Question.
Continuing the discussion of the moral
side of the present situation with regard
to the District Jail, DR.. Bristol declared
the close confinement, with neither op-
portunity for outdoor exercise nor physi-
cal employment of any kind. without
doubt was one of the worst possible foes
to regeneration of the accused and con-
victed persons who suffer at the hands
Of the system.
.'It is true that these men or women.
as the case may be. must be kept in con-
finement for the protection of society, but
II Is equally true that they will again.
upon completion of their terms of i'm
prisonment. become members OF society
and society's obligations toward them re-
ally begin with the clang of the prison
door closing behind the convfcts whose
terms are just beginning. / am heartily
in favor of any plan which contemplates
giving employment to the prisoners in
the District Jail or penitentiary. present
or future. Long incarceration in enforced
idieness and absence Of any form of ex-
ercise. be it work or play, in the open
air, is one Of the surest destroyerS Of
moral fiber.
1.-The man who comes out from period
of Imprisonment with muscles flabby
from continued relaxation is under a
handicap even worse than that which at
taches to him on account Of his jail