The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1909-07-20
IN1ETERMINATE SENTENCE PLAN
is ONE THAT METES
OUT EQUITY.
Individuality OF the Offender, Not the
Particular Crime, to Determine
Length of Term.

Los ANGELES, July 20-"You i'm
press the court as a man who has
abandoned himself to crime, and the
court feels that you should receive a
sentence in this instance that will
serve as a warning to you and to
others The sentence of the court is
EcWhorter paused as if to balance the
Scales of justice with all nicely, and
then he looked away. He did not know
exactly how many years in prison
would eXpiate Delaney's crime; there
was, of course, no way for him to tell.
Ne thought first of the number ten,
then of the number five; then, as the
saying is. he split the difference. These
proceedings were repeated again and
again. NDcWhorter twirled his gold
glasses. looked out of the window,
made his little speech, guessed and
pronounced sentence" The court was
''impressed"; the court did not know
ence"; the court guessed and pro-
nounced sentence"
The quotation is from Brand Whit
locks Turn of the Balance" and the
indeterminate sentence. to which this
number of the Prison Reform League
series will be devoted, is a protest
against this happy go-lucky method of
administering what it pleases certain
persons to call Justice
Any one who takes the trouble to
think will see at once that this is play
ing pitch and toss with human liberty
and that only by the happiest of 1ulles
can equity thus be meted out. More
over. it is obvious that Mr. Whitlock
has not told One-quarter of the story.
He might have shown that while one
judge was of philosOphic mind and
disposed to view crime as a social dis
ease. another occupied the ancient
standpoint and regarded each act as
punished and avenged. He might have
shown how in an age when opinion is
largely in the making the prisoners
fate depends on the particular school
Of thought to which his honor happens
t. belong. He might have dilated on
the condition of the courts stomach.
its prejudices, its subserViency 20 po-
Et:cai interests and q hundred and one
motives that make the prisoner at the
lar the sport Of circumstances over
which he cen have 40 control Al! OF
which is most unsatisfactory to Who
ever prizes justice and fills the heart
OF the condemned With bitterness for
which there is no sweetening.
The modern school of penology,
therefote urges that the present
method of imposing sentences Is, at
the best. happy go-lucky; that it is
utterly unscientific; that it has its
rise in the days of one-man power and
is saturated with the spirit of autoc-
racy, and that it looks only to the
punishment of individual crimes in
stead of justice and the reformation
OF the individual criminal. In the In
determinate sentence it COnceiVes that
it is advocating a system under which
each offender would be made the ar
bitter of his own destiny, the question
o. the date at which he shall be re-
stored to liberty being determined b.
straint. 1t claims that the decision
should rest III each case not with ;
judge who has to guess on the spu,
o. the moment, but with regularl!
organized board, able TO act with de
liberation and justice, since it woult
have spread before it the record prio
t conviction and full data as to thu
prisoners conduct throughout his in
Carceration Regarding Imprisonment
As for the protection of society, i
maintains that a board so constituted
would be able to gauge with an ac
Curacy that the best of individual
judges cannot hope TO obtain the dat
at which the criminal may be restored
to liberty with safety to his fellow
men.
In a bill introduced at the last ses
sion of the California legislature, an,
having for its object the conversion o
San Quentin into reformatory. Co
Griffith J. Griffith. the secretary an
treasurer of the California branch .
the Prison Reform league. endeavore
to procure the adoption of the indie
terminate sentence. In January las
he submitted to the governor of tn
state lengthy argument in favor o
the proposed change. in the course O
which he showed that it was now i