Los Angeles herald., 1909-08-27
THINKS PRISON
CONGRESS TIMID
GRIFFITH CRITlClSES WORK
DONE AT SEATTLE
Many Valuable Suggestions offered,
but Existing Abuees Were Not
Handled with Suf-
fcient Boldness

Personally 1 am extremely glad
visited Seattle" said Col. Griffith J.
Griffith, who has just returned from at
tendance at the sessions of the Ameri-
can Prison association. 1.-THE exposi-
tion, although 1 had little time to in
spect 1t, was most delightful, and 1
met many persons who were deeply
interested in and we'll informed on the
subject that concerns me SO vitality
prison reform. OF course / had my
say and the brief paper ! read was so
fortunate as to secure q good house;
but, above ALL meeting delegates from
all parts of the country l was able to
get much valuable information which
the Prison Reform league needed
greatly.
Doubtless the congress will do
good. The modern school, which does
not confne itself as did the old to
the mere fact that a crime has been
committed, but insists on considering
the circumstances of the individual
criminal and the causes that produced
his act, was much in evidence, and
many of the papers were most generous
in tone. These will be published by
the association, will find their way into
public libraries and general circulation,
oAu Nhl iolp W DlllB LIliS SHllEe QucS-
| tion into that general discussion 1t so
greatly needs. This, and the fact that
more than 400 delegates, many of whom
are obviously thoughtful and humane,
were given the opportunity of making
each others acquaintance and eXchang-
ing views constitute in my judgment,
the chief good the congress has pro-
duced.
Il may say that the new school was
decidedly to the front. The congress
appointed as its new president Amos
w. Butler of Indianapolis who is
known as one of the ablest writer's on
the indeterminate sentence, probation
and many Of the humanitarian meas
ures for which advanced thought on
this subject stands. James A. Leon
ard, superintendent OF the reformatory
at Mansfield, o., was chosen vice presi-
dent, and he declared specifically that
there was no torturing OF prisoners in
the large institution of which he is in
charge.
Judge Ben B. Lindsey of the juvenile
court, Denver read a paper on Pre-
vention and Probation and, as the
dispatches have told you, 1t led to the
most lively discussion, an attack on the
judges opinions, which were expressed
in the most uncompromising language,
being bitterly resented by other dele
gates.
"The excitement OF the sessions came.
however, with the discussion of pro-
posals for the decentralization of hab-
itual criminals-proposals that had the
support Of many delegates. 1t appears
to me that any such measure requires
the fullest general debate and the
most careful consideration. Apart
from the enormous power 1t would
lodge in the hands of officials it must
be remembered that most men would
fight against such treatment as des-
perately as If they were battling for
their lives.
Dependent on Charity
"The care of discharged convicts,
which is a matter 1 am profoundly in
terested in, received considerable at
tention, Mr.. f. Emory Lyon of the
Howard Central association, Chicago,
contributing a paper in which he
showed that there are now more than
thirty Prisoners Aid societies in the
United States and Canada which re-
ported a year ago that they had given
relief to more than six thousand appli-
cants within the preceding twelve
months. This seems to me good as
showing that sympathy is awakening,
but hold that private charity should
IOI De ldA6u lOI lH6 uGliAQu6ilCl6S Ol
legislators, who produce the conditions
which individual philanthropists are
called on to ameliorate.
"The Prison Reform league has been
at some pains to expose the infamous
conditions existent In the southern
convict camps, and Governor Gilchrist
of Florida, read a paper in which he
stated that in the contracts now made
with lessees stipulations are inserted
that provide carefully for the protec-
tion of the convicts. Having given
this particular phase of the general
question some special study I must be
pardoned for being skeptical. I re-
gretted that it provoked little discus
sion.
MY own paper was assigned, with
perhaps unconscious humor, to the
Prison Chaplains' section, and a Roman
Catholic clergyman was in the chair.
had a NOSE attentive audience and
devoted myself mainly to conditions in
San Quentin. as I have described them
so often, and remarks on the iniquities
of the fee system, under which an Of
ficiaPs livelihood depends on running
as many other men as possible into Jail.
also insisted that the philosophy of
vengeance which at present dominates
the administration of our criminal law
was swelling the volume of crime in
stead of giving society protection.