Los Angeles herald., 1909-05-15
INJURED some fourteen hours day In a cell
where often he has barely room to turn
He Tolls Without Reward

INJURED some fourteen hours day in a. cell
where often he has barely room to turn
He Tolls Without Reward
During the remainder of the day he must
toll without reward. He is absolutely at
the mercy of wardens and guards who have
no training or special talent for their Of
fees, which given them in return Tor
work done in petty party politics. These
men understand that they are there to pun
sh the convicts they are given the power
of INJECTING torture and practically they
hold in their hands the keys of life and
death. They treat the prisoner as the
farmer of today never dreams OF treating
his most worthless cattle
Finally on a date set years before by
Judge who simply guessed at what he
thought would be the proper time, this
man, whom you have been deliberately
brutalizing for years, finds the prison doors
opened and he is thrust out into the world
again.
Physically he is weak from years of con-
hnement. Morally his will power has been
undermined completely by long obedience
to autocratc ORDERS he having been forced
to live under conditions in which he is
not allowed TO consult his own judgment.
Intellectually he has lost all grip Of affairs,
for he has not been allowed to see news
paper published in the state.
He Is Made a Mark
You thrust such a man into the world
again. with IS in his pocket and suit OF
clothes that costs the state $2.95, and that
every detective recognizes at a glance.
Then you say to such a man. Now, be
good"
MY message to you today, the message
of the Prison Reform league to the coun-
try at large, is that this is to expect an
impossibility, and that to expect an i'm
possibility is to make yourselves absurd
1t is unworthy Of your common sense and
of your record as business nation.
The ordinary man who is without a job
or money finds himself confronted by
terrifying problem, but the position Of the
discharged convict is infinitely worse. Dur
ing his term In prison he has acquired
traits that make him recognizable at a
glance; the suspicious of suspicious world
pick him as their central target; the hand
of every man is against him, and in far
too many cases it is to the pecuniary in
tarest of the authorities to land him again
in jail as quickly as possible. There once
more he Is a parasite; fed, clothed, housed
and guarded at the expense OF the state,
instead of being a productive worker, con-
trbuting to the enrichment of society.
Makes One Insane
To indorse. as many of our sa-called
practical men do, such a nightmare of
insanity seems to me to confess oneself
insane.
How much this costs society directly in
mere dollars and cents II Is impossible to
estimate WITH accuracy. 1TOIs 1HdIltS d.
Bushnell of Washington places the figure
at So 600, 900 900 a year. and declares that
our social system is going into bankruptcy
through its treatment of the crime ques-
ton, since the expenditures so incurred
exceed the annual increase of wealth.
DR.. G.. Frank Lydston, author of the
Diseases of Society,"" and a most emil
nent authority, puts s., 000, 900, 900 as the
annual cost. In any event, the figures are
appalling enough especially when we con-
7eaHaf= hata do
in the expectation that society will be
protected and improved, neither of which
expectations is realized.
1t Is admitted by all the well informed
that crime is alarmingly on the increase,
and this applies particularly to California.
The thirteenth biennial report of the bu-
reau of labor statistics of the state of
California asserts that all information
tends to show that the percentage of crime
in California is larger than 1t is in any
other state Of the Union. Let me take a
moment to examine this in detail
Commitments Are Heavy
The latest report of the American Prison
association gives commitments to Jail
throughout the United States as averag-
ing 1874 TO every 900 Of population. Ala
bama has the cleanest record, her average
being only 55.7 per 100000. Although Chi
cago is a noted crime center, Illinois has
only sos commitments per 10O, 600; but Cal
ifornia has 523.4.
With us here in California a large pro-
portion of these are recommitments, the
prisoner having served a previous term In
an address before the Los Angeles cham
Der of commerce last December I showed
that 361 out of the 1920 prisoners then in
Folsom were "Recidlvists," and about the
same proportions still hold good both there
and in San Quentin Honestly has your
policy of deterrence actually deferred?
Must you not here. in all other affairs
Judge the tree by its fruits?
DO not tell me you have not tried to
deter by severity of punishment. You
have worked that philosophy for all it is
worth, and have failed signally. The
tendency to set a light value on human
life which unhappily is characteristic of
newly settled countries, has been more
than reflected in the management of our
state prisons.
San Quentin School for Crime
In an address reported by the Los An
geles Herald under date of November G.
1908, l said: For fifty years San Quetln,
as conducted in the past unquestonaby
has been a school for crime, managed not
by trained men. but by most brutal meth
DDS Once new prisoner is ushered inside
the gloomy walls of that prison the very
air seems charged with hate and revenge
as he hears from the mouths Of old pris-
oners appalling stories of brutality, such
as murder manning and Gripping for life
of helpless men, perpetrated by the prison
officers who represent organized society"
That was not a rhetorical statement. /
adhere to it as literal declaration of
actual fact I did not sleep in room "A q"
directly above the torture chamber, four
teen months without discovering what was
going on. And it Is to be remembered that
/ have given names and locations OF men
who came out of San Quentin-reformed?
No, crippled for life. If you talk to me of
crime / answer that 1t is the record of
your own criminal institutions that is
soaked with crime to the very marrow OF
its bones.