Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-13
WOMEN BOUND
TO FACE ISSUE
PRISON CONDITIONS AFFECT
THEM SPECIALLY
In Capacity of Mothers, Wives and
Members of Sex Must Force
the Question to the
Front

commits is to perpetuate criminals,
says the Los Angeles Times, in an edi-
| torial dated Aug. IS, 1909. 1.-THE law
throws a man into prison and then
| forgets that he is In existence. 1t does
/ nothing whatever to make better
man of him and does a great deal to
make a worse man of him. Moreover,
the only way the law knows to deal
with an offender is to put him in Jail.
Civilization is thousands of years old,
| but it is still as stupid, in many re-
spects, as were our rude forbears OF
the stone age.
"The atmosphere of the American
Jail reeks with coarseness, vulgarity,
| crime and Autishness. Often the trou7
BILE is not taken to select as prison Of
hcers men who are equipped and of
| the proper character to reform pris-
oners Wardens, keepers and turnkeys
are generally selected because of the
services they have rendered to office
holders and politicians.
ut is true that the rules permit re-
| form organizations to visit prisoners
on Sundays, to sing hymns to them and
| to preach to them. But we doubt IL
| these good people accomplish much
You seldom can get at a mans heart
| by singing to him and preaching to
him while he crouches behind the bars
of a prison cell"
/
writes so eloquently and justly are not
| by any means all men," and II the
| women of the United States could be
educated to the simple facts we shall
state there would be an agitation on
| the prison question that would make
| quick work of many of the abuses that
| are crying loudly to heaven for I'M
mediate abolition 1t is the object of
| this letter to show how directly women
| are concerned in this great question.
In a recent article Lewis E. Palmer,
| a special writer for the Survey Press
bureau, which performed such excellent
service in It's exposure of conditions in
| Pittsburg, says "The surprising fact
is that about half of Americas Offend
ers range between the ages of ten and
| thirty. There were, according to the
| latest figures, 9S3 boys between
| twenty and twenty-four, and 1885
| between fifteen and nineteen, and 695
between ten and fourteen" Here we
have more than $4,000 not over nine
| teen years of age, and many of them
| far younger.
The same writer continues accord
| ing to the general policy Of the United
! States at present short sentences in
! jails and penitentiaries constitute by
far the majority of punishment. Over
| 2S per cent of the prisoners in this
country, according to latest figures were
sentenced for under one month. About
| 10 per cent received one month SEN
| tences, 7.5 per cent two months and IL
| per cent three months-sentences for a
large part worked out in the generally
| degrading influences of county jails
| and penitentiarieS." To which must be
added the reflection that prior to con-
viction there has been a previous de-
tention in the equally degrading envir-
onment of our city jails.
For our California readers these facts
and figures gather added gravity when
it is considered that, according to the
latest report of the American Prison
association, the commitments in that
state are 523.4 per 100, 900 of the popu-
| lation, which may be compared with
the fact that in Illinois, despite the eX-
istence of that great crime center Chi
cago, there are onlv 500 per 100, 900. But
! the remarkable work started in the
municipal court of Chicago by Judge
| Mckenzie Cleland, and prosecuted with
such successful vigor by those who ral-
lied to his aid, doubtless is largely
answerable for Chicago's favorable
showing.
Juvenile Crime Increases
Let it be remembered further that
the Prison Reform league, while show
ing on the authority of congressional
| investigation and noted experts that
throughout the civilized world crime is
on the increase, has been careful to en-
phasize the fact that this is most
marked in the case of Juvenile often
ders. For example, Massachusetts, re-
Gently reported that within the last
| fifteen years the number of offenders
under II years of age had increased
three times as rapidly as the popula-
ton of the state-a shocking exhibit
for state that has been exceptionally
earnest in its efforts to deal with crime
along enlightened lines.
1t is in view of this fact that the
degenerative influences of our city and
county iails and state penitentiaries
assume an Importance of the first
magnitude, for while it may be think
able that society can harden it's heart
and abandon the hardened criminal to
his fate without excessive injury to
! ITSELF it is not thinkable that it can
permit Its youth to be submitted, in
| increasing numbers, to the malign
environment of our penal institutions
as they exist today, without striking
| a fatal blow at the very existence of
the nation. And this is the special
phase of this great question which the
women must take up, for the juvenile
| offenders are thei~ sons, and should be
the husbands of their daughters. 1t is
their sons who get into trouble and
| fall with growing frequency into the
| clutches of the law; it is their should
! be husbands who grow vile in the
prison atmosphere, acquiring disease
and degeneracies that eliminate them
! from the list of marriageable men; it
is they, as wives and mothers. who
! suffer most keenly when the bread
/ winner is torn from them and lodged
| behind the bars. often for that most
absurd of absurdities, inability to pay
fine.
Deprived of Breadwinners
We think that Judge Cleland hit the
nail squarely on the head in saying:
'When Senator Beveridge made the
statement in congress last year that
| two million children were at work in
factories and sweatshops, he should
have gone further and told us how
many of their fathers and mothers
were locked up in jails and peniten-
tiaries That would have been in
formation certainly interesting" A
criticism that we can appreciate who
know how, under our fee system,
would-be workers and supporters of
families are bounded into Jail that
parasites of the most noXious order
may make their mileage and arrest
fees; who know even how sheriffs
stimulate the man hunt by offering re-
wards for the deputies that gather the
greatest number of captives into the
net.
All life hangs together; we need no
one to tell us that. We know well that
the prison is but part of the great So
cial question; that, as a general rule,
poverty is the parent and the slum
the kindergarten of vice. But we also
know that, while these prepare the soil.
it is the administration of our criminal