The evening times., 1911-06-08
ton, and the menance to the COM
munity.".


New Criminal Code
A complete revolution in the treat
ment Of misdemeanants and petty Of
tenders throughout the United States
was proposed by DR.. Frederick Howard
Wines, statician of the board of ad-
Of the state institutions
Of Illinois.
DR.. Wines characterized the aver
age county or municipal Jail in this
country as school for crime, a cess
pool Of moral contagion, propagat-
ing house of criminality, a feeder for
the penitentfary, a public nuisance
and disgrace Of modern civilization.
The public indifference to the situa-
tion he attributed partly to ignorance.
"The county officials" he said, "do
do not know what their jails really
are. In plain Anglo-Saxon, the truth
is that wherever there exists local
graft and political dishonesty the
county prison is its centre and its
stronghold. The sheriff or the jailor
makes personal profit by charging
a per diem for bord for prisoners and
by the receipt Of fees for locking and
unlocking the jail doors. That profit
is a live wire. No local politician,
possibly no member Of the legislature
of even of the state administration
dares monkey with 1t.
have substantially won the
g Eser the reformatory state prison
anu u a.ndeterminate sentence be-
cause oct centrated our fire upon
SssSt.
shot tell. In @ the county Jail
system we have p~ fed the opposite
policy. We have addressed our ar
guments and remonstrances to the
county authorities. Of whom there are
in round numbers, $500, sets instead
Of to the legislative bodies, Of which
there are less than fifty. We have
pleaded for new jatls, when We should
have demanded their replacement by
prisons owned and controlled by the
state and their emancipation from
local political control with It's petty
and selfish interests.
There was time when local con-
troll was necessary and proper but
that was long ago. Today the county
prison Is an anachroniBm. We import
ed 1t with other institutions from
England, but conservative England
has outgrown 1t and dates the dawn
of It's regenerate prison system from
the year Of its abolition. There is no
good and sufficient reason why the
state which enacts 81 criminal code
with it's definition of crime. It's pro-
hibitions and it's penalties should as
sumo the custody and care Of the man
committed to prison for three years
and refuse to recognize it's respon-
sibility for the man sentenced for
three months, abandoning him to the
haphazard mercies Of the inferior ju-
risdiction which is certainly ignorant,
often brutal and sometimes dishonest.
It: is not the majesty Of the county but
that OF the state which calls for vim
dication. The supervision Of crime,
let It take what form it may. Is the
business Of the state. The state
should name, and 1t should have ex-
elusive authority over to the executive
agents to whom It enthrusts the dis
charge 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 must di-
rect our energy. With the state once
in our command, there can be no
question but it will find way to
right the wrong and remedy the evils
which inhere In the present organi-
zation and management OF minor
prisons"