Los Angeles herald., 1909-07-04
REVENGE FAILS
TO CURE CRIME
PROBATION LAWS HUMANE
AND EFFICACI0US
Philosophy of Old and New Schools of
crimInology Placed in Sharp Con-
trast by Prison Reform
League

In recent letters we nave uWellSu
so fully on the somber subjects OF IN
creasng crime, especially those OF
violence, and on the proved futillty OF
the violent methods by which it has
been sought to remedy the evil, that
it is a relief to turn to consideration
of the efforts that are being made to
find q better way. How 1t could pc
otherwise? 10 those who have thought
at all or the subject the situation fol
years past has been an obvious ab-
surdity.
Here is the president of the Chap
lains' association speaking at the re
markable congress of the National
Prison association, held in Chicago
less than two years ago-a congress
attended by many of the leading war
dens of the country. He asks TINS
pointed question; whats in prison
that it should reform man? They arc
received, photographed, stripped, CHIP
ped, anointed, measured numbered
tabulated by size, shape, scars, Color
marks, moles and the unchanglng
papillary ridges of the finger tips. Ar
rayed in prison garb, they are counted
marched, worked, watched whether
awake or asleep, hustled along by
keepers, lied about by fellow convicts'
forgotten by their friends, kept IN
silence and leading strings till they
lose the power Ol lHlLldlANC anu ApA -
the usages of the world"
or take an address by Judge Arthur
n. Sager of St. Louis, made at the
same congress, in which, speaking of
the penitentiary at Jefferson City, ne
says: 1--WE know that when the con-
Wet leaves these walls his picture, de-
scription and record will be catalogued
in all the great cities OF the land; that
the trained sleuths of the law are con-
10 n laTf n
terrogate and inform upon him; that
he is as timid and helpless as bird
lust released from the cage; that he
feels that every man who looks him IN
the face reads his prison number and
record. We know, if his family Is
gone, his home destroyed and his
friends have forgotten MIN, he is as
a wild beast-hunted, feared and de-
spised."
When such thoughts make their way
into any considerable number of minds
they are bound to ripen into action.
One of these forms of action, the
adult probation law, we shall now con-
slider.
Massachusetts, was distinctly the pio-
neer, having taken action as far back
as 1878 Then came a long pause that
lasted until 1900, when Vermont and
New jersey followed suit. After which
came New York in 1901, California and
Michigan in 1903. Maine Zone county
only in 1906. Missouri (only for those
between 10 and 25 years of age) in
1906, Ohio in 1907, Indiana in 1908 and
Connecticut this present year. The or
gan of the National Probation league,
organized in Chicago December Is, 1908,
announces that similar laws probably
will be passed I'm Illinois, Minnesota.
Wisconsin and other states this coming
winter.
1t should be added that thirty states
and the District of Columbia have
juvenile probation laws, legislatures
having shown a far greater readiness
10 apply this sensible and humane sys-
tenn to the youthful than to the adult
offender A striking example of the
muddy thought that apparently reigns
supreme when the question of crime and
criminals is under examination.
Adult Claim Greater
For those who have made a special
study of this subject are a unit in
holding that if there is one good reason
why a lad should be placed on proba-
tion, there are a dozen for avoiding, if
it is possible to do so, the locking up
of the father on whom, probably, he,
his brothers and sisters and his mother
are dependent; for the cause of juvenile
delinquency is most commonly parental
neglect, which imprisonment of the
family bread-wlnner only intensiies;
for the earning capacity of the adult
is larger than that of the youth and
the community is by that much the
loser when the state forces the adult
into compulsory idleness. AS Judge
Cleland of the municipal court of Chi
cago puts it: IF an eX-couvict has a
family, he returns from prison to find
them impoverished, Stunned by their
neighbors, his children scorned and
sneered at by their schoOlmates-eVer
thing worse, more helpless, than when
he left them" Thus the advocates of
adult probation are in the habit Qf
urging it even more for the sake of the
offenders family than for that of the
offender himself.
The federal government still lags
conspicuously in the rear, having no
probation law for either juveniles or
adults, and in the same class stand
the following states: Arkansas, Della
ware, Florida, Georgia Except the city
of Atlanta), Maine Except Cumber-
land county,, Mississippi, Nevada,
North Carolina, North and South Da-
kota, Oklahoma, South Carolina West
Virginia and wyoming. In a previous
letter we have commented on the bru-
tai methods of treating crime that still
mark the south instancinE. in particu-
lar, the atrocities of the convict
camps. The preponderance Of south
ern states in the foregoing list will
strike the most superficial reader.
What is the principle that underlies
all probation laws? Simply that which
Is the basis of the entire national
movement set on foot by the Prison
Reform league-that the philosophy Of
revenge has been proved inefficacious
and is, therefore, out of date, and that
society profits more by reforming than
by furnishing the offender. The prisoner
is given chance. He is told by the
court that his future fate rests with
himself If the probation officer re-
ports that he is behaving himself and,
especially that he is abstaining from
drink, or whatever may have been the
special vice that brought him into
trouble, he is left unmolested and fin
ally procures complete discharge. Thus,
instead of being stained and incapaci-
tated by serving a term in prison, he
is put on his mettle with every imag-
Unable inducement to do his best; in
stead of the taxpayer having to sup
port him in his compulsory idleness
and the community being deprived of
the addition to its sum of wealth
which his labor would produce he is
placed in conditions where he has all
the incentive in the world to hunt a
job and to hold it when found.
Has 1t Worked?
1t looks like a good scheme, but has
il worked? Let us cross-eXamine those
who have been in a position to dis
cover. Judge Cleland is a first-rate
authority, since he presided for thir-
teen months over the Maxwell street
criminal branch of the municipal court
of Chicago a district which has been
1.