The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1911-06-16
ADDRESSES
DELIVERED At
BOSTON MEETING

Boston. June IA complete r
volution in the treatment of misd
meanants and petty offenders
throughout the United States W;
proposed by DR.. Frederick Howai
Wines, statistician of the Board {
Administration of State Institution
of Illinois. at the opening sessio
Of the National Conference of Char
ties and Correction here tonight.
Dr.. Wines characterized the ave
age county or municipal jail in tn
country as a school for crime, a ces
pool OF moral contagion, a propaga
ing house of criminality, a publ
nuisance and q disgrace of moder
civilization. T4e public Indifferent
TO the situation he attributed part
~ to ignorance. The county OF
ticials," he said do not know wha
a jail should be and the people d
not know what their jails reall,
are. In plain Anglo-Saxon, the trutl
is that wherever there exists loca
araft and political dishonesty the
county prison is its centre and 1t
stronghold. The sheriff or the Jail
or makes q personal profit OF fee:
Tor locking and unlocking the jai
ooors. That profit is live wire
80 local politician, possibly no mem
Der of the Legislature or even of the
state administration dares monkey
with it.
We have substantially won the
fight for the reformatory state pri-
SON and the indeterminate sentence
because We concentrated our fire
nopn . vulnerable point and made
every shot tell. In attacking the
county jail system, we have pursued
the opposite policy. We have adj
dressed our arguments and remon-
strances to the county authorities,
of whom there are in round num-
bers, $500 sets, instead of to the
legislative bodies. of which there
are less than, so. We have pleaded
for new jails. better jails, when we
Should have demanded their replace
mont by prisons owned and controll-
ed by the state and their emancip-
iation from local political control
with its petty and selfish interests.
There was a time when local con-
troll was necessary aud proper hut
that was long ago. Today the coun-
ty prison is an anarchronism. We
imported it with other institutions
from England, but conservative Eng
land has outgrown it and dates ther
dawn of its regenerate prison sys-
TEN from the year of its abolition.
There is no good and sufficient rea-
SOL why the state which enacts a
criminal code with its definition of
crime, its prohibitions and its pen
alt.es should assume the custody and
81 do sae0sasibflity 1sr Aas man
y fenced for three months, aband-
'.syillg hin 20 the napnazaru u.ercies
or the inferior Jurlsdlctlon wn1cn
q certainly ignorant often brutal
anil sometimes dishonest. It is not
the majesty Of the county but that
OF the state which calls for vindi-
cation, The supervision Of crime.
let it take what form it may, is the
business OF the state. The
stale should name. and it should
ha exclusive authority over the ex-
&C, tive agents to whom 1t entrusts
the discharge Of this supreme goy>
ernmental function.
fahe one hope or enlightened pro-
\ Of crime IL the overthrow OF the
gress in dealing with the problem
county jail system. To this end we
mist direct our energy. With rne
state once - command. there can be
AZ question but II will find way
IL right tho wrong and remedy the
ess.s which inhere IN the presen,
organization and management Of
minor prisons. =
Boston. June Z. Special treat
rneslt Of each criminal as. an indi-
yiiual, as opposed to the old system
of herding criminals together ana
treating them in q mass gitssis from
the point Of view Of punishment OF
cf ref orIn, was urged by supersn-
! ter lent Frank Moore OF the New
Jerg az reform atory II an address
fsare the section on "Law Break.
ers Of tho National Conference 81
chs rlties and Correction here this
mo rning MI Moore described a
sber ~ systems which have been
SdeV hoped gently. which II applied
to acll risonsr n an institution
terrllne whether he Is men