The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-12-21
Stimson Says DesertersAre Made
Into Criminals.
Young Men Should Not Be Pun
ished So Severely.
is MADE AN OUTCAST.
England Is Far Ahead of This
Country He Says.
War Secretary Urges Reform
at Kansas Prison.

Washington, Dec 21.-In his annual
report, recently made public, Secretary
of War Stimson declares that the adj
ministration of the military prison at
Fort Leavenworth needs radical revi-
sion and reform. This observation is
made as a result of a visit to Fort
Leavenworth last November by the
secretary. On this subject Secretary
stimson has the following to say:
on November IS I visited the mill
tary prison at Fort LeavenW orth and
made a personal examination of its
system and methods. | am not unfa-
miliar with prison admins tration, as
during five years experience as crimi-
| nal prosecutor / made it a practice to
visit various institutions in the state
of New York to which federal prisoners
were committed. The administration
of the military prison at Fort Leaven-
worth is honest and efficient under
the system imposed upon it by our
statute law. I believe, however, that
the system thus imposed needs radi
cal revision and reform Defendants
fenced to imprisonment by military
courts martial are confined in the
prison without any classification of
treatment or segregation of persons ac-
cording to the nature of the offenses.
Over three-fourths of them are men
y
offenses only, by far the largest pro-
portion of which is desertion.
Makes Criminals of Them.
Seven eighths of these are men I'M
der "A years of age. These prisoners,
most of them mere boys and of strik-
ingly different and better appearance
than the average inmates of a penal
institution, are thrown into this prison
without any attempt to separate them
physically or to differentiate their cases
from those of the hardened criminals
confined in the same prison for the
most infamous statutory offenses. BY
law these deserters are incapacitated
for any further military service and
are disfranchised as citizens. While
under confinement everything is done
to accentuate their status as a con-
Wet The man enters usually as an
offender from immaturity or thought
lessness. He comes out without hope
or or opportunity for redeening him
self either in or out of the military
service, and with a distinct grievance
against society.
Such system, in my opinion, is
bad and shortsighted from every stand
po1nt-from the standpoint not only of
the military service but that of the
natlon. 1t runs counter not only to the
lessons which have been learned in
the treatment of the ordinary criminal
during the past 100 years, but to the
experience of other nations in the
treatment Of similar military offenders.
England Ahead of United States.
Il do not for moment minimize the
gravity Of tie offense of desertionf nor
the seriousness of the extent to which
that offense was formerly prevalent in
our army. The path of the deserter
should not be made easy. There should
be no return to the conditions which
prevailed formerly, when his punish
ment was Carried into effect under the
loose conditions of the separate post
The system Of punishment employed for
such offenSes in the English barracks is
sharp, salutary and not easily forgot
ten, but it treats the offender as a
member of the military establishment
it seeks to restore his usefulness as
grade him and make him an outcast-
The experience of the English barracks
shows that in three years the number
of offenders has diminished by 80 per
cent The argument that to deter 9th
ers from crime you must not only pun
ish but degrade the criminal is a worthy
descendant of the argument which was
made by those of our tOrefatnerS who
sought to retain in the English law the
punishment of death for the $50 minor
ofenses for which it was then infiict-
cd.
Not Due to Punishment
The gratifying decrease in the num-
in our army during the past three years
is amply accounted for by the careful
system which has been established by
the adjutant general for the detection
and apprehension of such deserters.
Whereas formerly substantially no de-
tenn thus established about so per cent
have 2lready been retaken. All the ex-