The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1910-04-10
PRISON CONGRESS
MEETS IN OCTOBER
Delegates From All Over World
to Assemble in National
Capital.
WILL TOUR THE COUNTRY
MEN ARE ENGAGED in STUDY
OF CRIMINALS.
WILL TOUR THE COUNTRY

New York, April 9.-From all the I'M
tions of Europe, from distant China
and Japan, from sister nations of South
America and even from distant Pacific
islands and the Australian continent,
will come to Washington in October
1910. official representatives of their
governments to study in convention the
causes. the treatment and the preyen-
ton of crime. Every five years since
1870, an international prison congress
has been held with some European ma
ton, This year, for the first time, this
congress meets in the western hem1s-
phere and is the guest of the United
States of America Men and women,
whose names are internationally IA
nous. will gather for nearly two weeks
in Washington. The congress meets
in four sections, one on the administra-
ton of criminal law, one on the admin
istration of prisons, one on measures to
prevent crime and one on juvenile de-
linquency.
1t probably still seems strange to most
people that the study of crime, its
treatment and it's prevention, should
engage the attention of philanthropists,
iurists and of many people whose gen.
eral work in the world is seemingly far
removed from prison walls. Yet, with
in the last thirty years, and largely be-
cause of the influence of the interna-
tional prison congress and of the Amers
lean Prison association, a new view has
spread throughout the western world
regarding the relation of crime to eivili-
zatiOn.
The american Bastile."
There was a time. no so very long
ago. when if a man committed crime
the logical thing seemed to be to shut
him behind prison walls and forget him.
When Charles Dickens came to the
United States about the middle Of the
nineteenth century, he said that he
wished to see particularly two things
Niagara Falls and the American Bas-
tile" The latter prison. nicknamed the
american Bastile,' was the Eastern
penitentiary of Pennsylvania, locat-
ed at Philadelphia. Here, according to
Dickens account, he found men each
separately confined in a cell, from
which the prisoner could leave only to
go into a little yard about as large as
his cell and directly behind his cell.
When exercising here, he found the
walls so high that he could not see over
them. nor could he see any human be-
| ing at any time, except occasionally q
| Jail official or a chaplain. Thus Tor
years men were imprisoned without
seeing each other, working each in his
own cell and buried from the world.
A great change has come about in
! American systems of dealing with pris-
oners. How great this change is will be
plain to the hundred or more foreign
delegates who, in company with an
equal number of noted Americans, viii
make a tour, from September IS to rs
| 1910, of the eastern and central sections
of the United States. On September Is
| a special train of ten -Pullmans
equipped with all modern conyeniences
viii leave the Erie station at Jersey
City. All the foreign guests will be
guests of the United States govern
ment Each American will meet hi:
own expenses
important Tour.
The tour will be almost without pree-
edent in its extent and in its impor
lance. The following institutions vii
be visited: Elmira Reformatory
George Junior Republic, Auburn State
prison, Mansfield (Ohio) RefOrmatory
Michigan City qndiana) prison; various
correctional institutions in and abou
Chicago various institutions in ant
about Indianapolis. Jeffersonville Re
fornatory and Washington ID. CO cor
rectiOnal institutions.
At the very start. the foreign guests
will visit Elmira IN. " Reformatory
Here they will find an administrator
and a system the very opposite o
the old separate confinement system
They will see some 1900 young me,
living in separate cells at night, bu
working together in the day time, drill
ing under the most approved miiitar.
system, building up their physical con
dition with the latest methods of gym
lnasium work, being instructed in som
thirty trades i'm well-equipped trad
schools, studying in many different ed
ucational classes, and (most importan