The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-05
LETTERS TO EDITOR
Crime in Jefferson County

To the Editor of The Age Herald:
 A great deal has been said of late, from the pulpit the press and the pub lie, in regard to the crime wave and to the enforcement of law in Jeffer- son county. Much has been said con- corning the action, or inaction, of our offiicals. Even our jury system and our jurles have been taken to task and, in measure, held responsible for the conditions that exist in our county. While this letter is not written in de- fense of our county officials, as they are capable of defending themselves, 1 do wish to state that, in my humble opinion, the juries have almost invar- iably done their whole duty to them selves and to their country under the law and evidence before them.
 It is my opinion that we are reap ing what we have sown in the past, and, as an evidence, l ask that you consider that during the past 30 odd years there has been brought by our present convict system the very cream of the criminal class of our state and dumped into our midst From ihforma- tion gathered from the best posted men on the convict question I have learned that for the entire time the convicts have worked in this county there has been brought here between 1000 and 1900 per year, or between 34,000 and 40,000 convicts for the 34 years they have been bringing convicts here. In other words, three times as many as available jurymen at the present time and twice the number of qualified voters. Of course, all criminals brought here do not remain, but most of them stay with us and moss all bring their families with them and even though for the past few years all released con- victs have been transported to their respective counties, after having come here and learned how to dig coal and earn good money in nine cases out of ten a good farm hand has been ruined. They eventually find their way back In our midst and in a number of cases they have actually come back to Bir- mingham with the transportation agent who transported them.
 If some means of stopping this in Aux of the criminal classes is not pro- vided we can readily see that the worst
 is yet to come and we can hope for little success along the line of enforce ment of law until this IS done.
 I do not wish to convey the im- presson that all men who are charged with crime are convicts, for you can readily see that many good men are
 
 and many, no doubt, would have jus tifiable difficulties wi:n them. Neither do l think that the working of con victs in the mines is alone responsible for conditions.
 With this great criminal influx in our midst, is it necessary to wonder why the jury commission has trouble in obtaining enough available jurymen to try the cases broI-nt up in court? Or need we wonder why our officers are staggering under the great load and that false charges and false wit nesses, both for and against defend- ants, appear with great frequency with such a world of mater.1l, who are post graduates in the art?
 That there must be remedy is ap- parent to all good thinking people, but by some of the criticisms offered we are but reminded of the old proverb. "A fool can find faults that great many wise men cannus remedy" Let us remove this factor of the present conditions by removing to pub lie roads and to farms the working of our criminals, and by so doing they will be distributed equally over the state, and in the course of time. together with some other needed changes, we may hope and expect rapid improvement in the enforcement of .aw in Jefferson county and not till then. Respectfully, c. D. COMSTOCK. Birmingham, March 2, 1912.