Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-11-06

Do as the good people are doing in our
large eastern cities and in Europe.
Switzerland, it is said, has less prisoners
per capita than any other country,
owing to the fact that in every large
town or city, wherever a prison is main
tanned, there is to be found carefully
organized prison society, whose mem
hers form the acquaintance of incar-
cerated men and, when liberated, eX-
tend a helping hand and surround
them with moral influences.
"Similar societies exist throughout
France, Holland, Denmark, Germany,
England and the eastern part of the
United States. 1t is claimed by the
Pennsylvania Prison society of Phila-
delphia that it is the oldest in the
world, having been organized in 1851
and helped more prisoners in the same
way than any other society on earth.
These societies, with their moral in
huences, serve two purposes; they help
the deserving and curb the too ambi-
tious detective, constable and police
man.
In line with modern ideas the good
people of San Francisco are now going
to build home where liberated or pa
rolled prisoners will be practically
helped, where bed and meals may be
had free and fresh start in life given
the helpless ones.
out of a total population of 1920
now confined in Folsom prison, 36l
are recidivists. and there are S6S re-
cidivists in San Quentin. These are
up-to- date figures and authentic. Can
anybody believe that with a fair show
and a square meal this enormous per-
centage of men would turn to crime?
Certainly not. Besides, it is very easy
in most cases, to convict a man who
served a previous term in prison. And
if there be an object in the conviction
officers of the law can be found who
are loud in their denunciation of the
'ex-con,' and in some cases deliberate
ly manufacture evidence out of whole
cloth in order to convict a man of a
crime he never committed.
Man Absolutely innocent
81 know man in San Quentin pris-
on serving a life sentence who is alb
solutely innocent of the crime for
which he is paying the penalty. Six
teen hundred dollars reward paid to
detectives is the secret behind his con-
viction, together with the fact of his
being an 'ex-con.' The judge who
sentenced him. the sheriff of the coun-
ty where he was convicted, the people
who paid part of the reward and all
the prison officials for fourteen years
deeply sympathized with him and they
all know that my statement is posi-
lively true, and yet the man remains
in prison. Every intelligent prisoner
in San Quentin knows him and is
aware of the facts and the truth of
my statement.
docs such knowledge tend to make
men better? If San Quentin's gloomy
walls could speak on the cruelties prac-
ticed on helpless human beings con-
fined in that corral of horrors ever
since it's construction, what q blood
curdling story it would be- If half the
money and energy used in prosecuting
crime was applied to finding employ
ment for idle men, conditions would
greatly improve.
This account of prison and prisoners
would be incomplete without touching
sanitary conditions and the modern
single cell idea. There ought never to
be more than one prisoner in a cell, for
many reasons; and all cells should be
constructed so as to admit of sunshine
and pure air. When San Quentin prison
was constructed these conditions were
entirely ignored and are still over
looked, as can be proved for there are
but few single cells. while the majority
of the inmates are herded together IN
rooms containing two, three, five, ten,
fifteen, twenty, thirty, forty, and there
is one room now filled with 1870 prison.
ers. who spend from twelve to fifteen
hours nightly together there.
San Quentin, like similar prisons, has
at least three divisions of convicts;
first, the plastic type, who can easily
be nodded for good or evil; second, the