The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1913-07-31
re many such persons every warden

are many such persons every warden
knows.
Commitment to the custodial asylum
would not be tatamount to life imprlson-
ment, but it would continue until such
time as a change might come, when
transfer might be ordereds or liberty with
in severe or easy limitations, or even an
absolute release, might be determined to be
best.
This part of the work can be better per-
formed by the commission than by the
court, for the court must act promptly and
on limited data, and in the way of proPh-
ecy. while the commission would place the
person under observation and examination
and dispose of him as seemed best, having
full power to transfer him from one instl-
tuition to another as his changing condit-
ion, or the judg gment of the commission
might indicate to be proper.
This plan at its best would do away
with minimum and maximum terms OF i'm
prisonment or treatment, and would mean
the application of good sense in dealing
antisocial and nonsocial. Then no person
would be kept in detention unless a good
purpose would be served thereby, and no
person properly imprisoned would be re-
leased except for reasons which would ap-
peal to the minds of well informed men;
for it will be understood that the commits
sion would be made up of the best avail
able men, and that they should devote
their entire time to their official duties.
To be properly equipped for service the
state should provide receiving station, to
which would be taken all convicted felons
who were not placed on probation (and
many misdemeanants also) in the care OF
officers appointed by the commission.
Many persons thus received could be as
signed, without much doubt or delay, TO
the prison, the reformatory, the school for
feeble minded, the industrial or training
school, the state farm for inebriates, the
colony for epileptics, the hospital for the
acute insane, or to the state custodial asy-
lum, an institution which every state should
have and which should in time have larg-
er population than both the prison and the
reformatory. Recidivists in misdeamean-
ors should be decreed to be felons, and
should be saved, as far as possible, from
the consequences which follow their weak
ness. No more would we then read, in
the report of a county workhouse, that
more than three hundred persons had each
served more than fifty terms therein, for no
sane and competent person will serve re-
peated terms in workhouse or Jail, and re-
peated convictions should be accepted as
very strong evidence of helplessness and
conclusive evidence that the person needs
attention and aid. Border line cases be-
tween badness and madness or between
weakness and viciousness could be longer
detained at the receiving station for obser-
vation sufficient to prevent serious mlshts
at any of the other state institutions, but
the more extended work of observation and
inquiry should be continued in each case
after the delinquent has been assigned to
one of the special state institutions.
A normal person, who has been con-
victed of crime and who refuses to estab-
lish his identity, after he has had time to
learn that the authorities wish to serve as
his friend, is invariably one whose record
has not been clear and will not bring him
credit. Such person is entitled to no
special favor. With the removal of the
maximum term and the substitution OF the
so-called indefinite term and a firm stand
against any parole to unknown persons, he
would make the necessary disclosure, unless
he feared transfer to a Jurisdiction where
his status would still be more unpleasant.
With the maximum term of five years,
hardly one per cent. of reformatory in
mates will now hold their secret, if proper
means are taken to deservedly win their
confidence. When identity has been es-
tabished and the life history, more or less
truthful, has been entered in the record, a
basis has been laid upon which to build the
full story. Repeated interviews will in
some cases be necessary, and much cores
pondence must ensue, and perhaps some
visits must be made, but in the end the
man will be known to the authorities, for
while this work has been going on, the
institution physician, psychologist, teach
er, chaplain and keeper have been getting
acquainted with him in their several capaci-
ties and submitting helpful reports from
time to time.