Los Angeles herald., 1910-10-21
TREY |. FORD'S BOOK
ON PRISONS SCORED
Misrepresentation by Omission Of
DiScreditabIe Features
Openly Charged
BY WIN. C. OWEN

Gen. TREY L. Ford, a member Of the
state board of prison directors, mas
published a small book entitled cali
fornia state Prisons: Their History,
Development and Management" 1t Is
profusely illustrated, Gov. Gillett'5 pho
tograph having the place of honor, and
is for free distribution. In the main l
can liken the work only to Hamlet,
with the prince of Denmark's lines OBJ
liberated by the official censor, but 1t
has some features may praise.
There is a good account of the parole
system, operative In California since
1893 Cen Ford favors the system,
calculates it has saved the state $780,
227.97, and furnishes a table showing
that I'D to December 81, 1909, 844 paroles
had been granted. Note, however, that
496 of these are credited to the last
three years, and that Col. Griffith j..
Griffith began his agitation on that
subject three and q half years ago. In
1906 the board, of which Gen. Ford was
member, paroled only 40 prisoners. TWO
years later they set I'll at liberty. 80
much for agitationl
Probation and the indeterminate SEN
tence are indorsed. and the author ad-
yocates the speedy erection of a re-
| foruatory. I remark that Col. Griffith
urged long ago that San Quentin be
| converted into one. and declared re-
peatedly that by such plan-which
| has worked admirably in Iowa-there
would he 8, saving of something like a
million dollars, while the change could
be effected with practically no delay.
on the other hand, there would be none
of those investigation junkets, or bar
| gaining over real estate offerings, so
dear to the official heart.
In Gen. Ford's judgment California,
thanks to her method of treating Grim
inals, "may fairly be called one OF the
| advanced states" Nevertheless he
prints in italics the following: 1T may
be stated right here that apparently
there has never been a time in the his
| torv of the prisons of California when
| the cell room was sufficient to accom-
| modate the prisoners in separate cells,
| and that only now, after an existence
of nearly sixty years, Is the state en-
gagged in erecting adequate and proper
accommodations for it's criminal popu-
| lation confined in the state prlsons.'
NO mention is made Of the fact that
| California leads all other states in per-
| centage of commitments, the figures
| given in "Crime and Criminals being
1924 per 100000 of the population, as
compared, for example, with 800 per
100000 for Illinois.
Referring to one of the charts. which
are a GOOD feature of the book, Gen.
|
20 per cent of the persons in prison are
there for offenses against the property
| rights of Others" and / connect tnls
with his declaration that "crime results
| from q lack of respect for constituted
authority, and that it has its genesis
in the home" If he is right the whole
school of modern criminology is wrong
for it asserts unequlVocally that poV.
| erty is the great cause of crime. L ado
the reflection that high finance has sci
an example Of dishonesty which is cor
rupting the nation.
The author tells us that when, he en-
| tered on his duties he found IAN ear
nest board of prison directors and 8
sincere body Of prison oftclals, corscl
entiously performing their duties un
der conditions that were not encourag
inc" NOW. at that very time Col
Griffith was a prisoner in San quentin
and he has given in "Crime and Grim
inals', an account of habitual cruelty
and fendish torture that has appalled,
ali readers. Never have the prison au
thorities, of whom Gen. Ford was one
dared to question the truth OF ms de
scriptions, or of those contained IN tn'
chapter headed "A Female Prlsoner ~ =
san Quentin" which is, IL possible
more horrible. Yet the names of ofticia
Offenders, who still retain their posi-
tions, were given frankly ana lh'
charges were most definite.
For NV part, l consider that IL certain
iurynen had decided differently in Gen
Fords two trials his own experiences
would have led him to conclusions
strangely different from those Sc
smoothly expressed in this little vol
ume. Where the lives and happiness
OF a most unfortunate class OF persons
are the issue, misrepresentation ano
suppression of vital facts seem TO me
the most cowardly Of crimes.