The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1911-06-08
FOR JAIL REFORM
ILLlNOlSAN SPEAKS BEFORE MA,
TloNAL ASSOCIATION DE.
NouNclNG CONDITIONS
Says Method of Caring For Feeding
Provisions Is Bad--WouId
Have All Prisons Con-
trolled by State.

Boston, June 7th, 1911,--A COM
plete revolution in the treatment OF
misdemeanants and petty offenders
throughout the United States was
proposed by Dr. Frederick Howard
Wines, statistician of the Board or
Administration OF State Institutions
of Illinois, at the opening session Of
the National Conference of Charities
and Correction here tonight.
DIR, Wines characterized the aver
age county or municipal Jail In this
country as a school for crime, a cess
pol of moral contagion, propagatins
house of criminality, afeeder for the
penitentiary, public nuisance and
a disgrace of modern civilization.
The public indifference to the situa
ton he attributed partly to ignorance
The county officials" he said, do
not know what Jail should be and
the people do not know what Their
jails really are. In plain Anglo-Sax-
on, the truth is that wherever there
exists local graft and political dis
honesty the county pristu is It's
center and its stronghold. The
sheriff or the jailor makes a personal
profit from crime by charging a per
diem for board for prisoners and by
the receipt of fees for locking ana
unlocking the Jail doors. That promo
is a live wire No local politician,
possibly no member of the legislature
or even OF the state administration
dares monkey with it.
1--WE have substantially won the
fight for the reformatory state prison
and the undetermined sentence be
cause We concentrated our fire upon
vulnerable point and made every
shot tell. In attacking the county
jail system we have pursued the op-
posite policy. We have addressed
our arguments and remonstrances 10
the country authorizes, Of whom there
are in round numbers, $500 sets, In
stead of to the legislative bodies, of
which there are less than 80. We
have pleaded for new jails, better
jails. when we should have de-
manded their replacement by prisons
owned and controlled by the state
and their emancipation from loca,
political control with its petty and
selfish interests.
There was a time when local con-
troll was necessary and proper but
that was long ago Today the coun-
ty prison is an anachronism. We
imported it with other institutions
from England, but conservative En-
gland has outgrown it and dates the
the dawn of its regenerate prison
system from the year of it's abolition.
Ahere is no good andsuficient rea-
son why the state which enacts a
criminal code with it's definition OF
drime, is prohibitions and is penal
ties should assume the custody ana
care Of the man committed to PRISON
for thr years and refuse to recognize
its responsibility for the man senten-
ced for three months, abandoning MIN
to the haphazard mercies of the in
ferior jurisdiction which ic certainly
| ignorant, often brutal and sometimes
| dishonest. 1t it not the majesty Oh
the county but that of the state which
calls for vindicatioon. The super
vision of crime, let il take what
form it may, is the business OF the
state. The state shouldname, and u
should have exclusive authority ovel
the executive agents to whom 1t en-
trustees the discharge of this supreme
governmental function.
The one hope of enlightened pro
gress in dealing with the problem Of
| crime is the overthrow of the county
jail system. To this end we mus
direct our energy. With the state
once in command. there can be nc
question but it will find way tc
right the wrong and remedy the
evils which inhere in the present or
ganization and management OF min
or prisons