Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-09-25

idly throughout the United States that
on January 1, 1910, thirty-seven states
and the District of Columbia had pro-
baton laws. Twenty states now pro-
vide for probation among adults. and
thirty-six states and the District of
Columbia for probation among chill
dren. Especially in the work among
children women are often employed as
probation officers.
-
Under the probation law the criminal
is not confined. but is given work by
which he might support his family. and
is required to lead correct life. 1t
is this escape from Imprisonment that
is the greatest advantage of the pro-
baton system. For even at it's best
imprisonment seems better calculated
to develop rather than to arrest evil
tendencies. The man who has been
confined comes out with the stigma of
the prison, which binders him from
getting employment and heavily han
dicaps him In his struggle for a liv-
ing. He has also come in contact with
who are only too willing to drag
others down to their level. He is not
always able to avoid them when he
meets them out OF prison, and he is
kept in constant fear that his past.
which he is trying to live down, will
be brought to light.
Every state in the Union has some
form of penal institution, but New
York leads in point of numbers. 1t
controls three penitentiaries and state
reformatories. Massachusetts equals
New York in the number of peniten-
tiaries; Ohio in the number of work
houses, while no other state has over
hn1 f1,n ,t,oy~ 10 ofrv
penal institutions of the District of
Columbia comprise only two reforma-
tories. though there are a number Of
institutions in the near vicinity which
will be visited by delegates to the In
ternational Congress-
1t Is the first time in the history Of
the International Prison Congress that
the United States entertains this or
ganization at the National Capital. Con-
gress has appropriated $4,000 to be ex-
pended for the entertainment of these
delegates from a majority of the coun-
tries of the world. This, the eighth
congress, will perhaps be the largest.
for not only will the old world be well
represented. but a number Of the South
American states have arranged to send
delegates to Washington. With the
exception of Cuba and Mexico. the
South American states have not hereto
fore been represented.
While the nations of the world have
been growing into closer commercial
and material union, their jurists, phi
lanthropists and sociologists have band
ed together to raise the level of mod
ern civilization. Wiser laws and bet
ter institutions have been established
through the cooperation of these men,
and the meeting at Washington will
afford an opportunity to show what has
been accomplished.
The joint meeting of the American
Prison Association and the delegates to
the International Prison Congress will
be peculiarly interesting feature of
this convention. The American Prison
Association, though not so wide in it's
scope as the international association,
has the same purpose. and was really a
forerunner of the latter.
DIR. c. E. Wines for many years cor
responding secretary of the Prison AS
ISOLATION of New York, called the first
national congress for conference on
criminal punishment and reformatory
treatment" The meeting, at which Mr..
Rutherford B. Hayes. then Governor of
United States, presided, was held at Gin
cinnati October IL, 1870. A committee
was appointed for the organization of
National Prison Congress. and DIR.
be given to the formation of an inter-
national congress.
Meetings were held in turn at Balti-
more. st. Louis. and New York, but after
the sudden death of DR.. Wines, in De-
cember 1879. the association seemed to
die. However. in 1883 new organiza-
ton was effected, and Gen. Hayes again
presided. The association has met an
nually since that year. In 1907 the name
was changed from the National to the
American Prison Association.
Soon after the organization of the
Amen lean Prison Congress the United