The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1913-07-02
WOULD ABOLISH PRISONS
TO SOLVE CRIME PROBLEM
Continued From First Page.

Continued From First PAGE.
every civilized nation is now the cost
of crime. In the United States the
investment in prisons exceeds five
hundred million dollars, while the an
ilual cost of maintenance is upward
Of two hundred million dollars. No
accurate estimate of the cost of crime
is obtainable, but it has been placed
10y excellent authority as high as six
billion dollars per annum for the
United States, sum ten times i'm eX-
cess of the total cost of the govern
ment. In twenty-six years the num-
Der o. homicides in the United States
has increased over 20 per cent in pro-
portion To the population
ut has built up a professional Grim
inal class. In every country there is
a large and increasing class of pro-
fesSioual criminals, practically all of
whom have served one or more prison
terms Ii liz estimated that the yearly
earnings of these criminals i'm the
Gniteh states exceeds eight hundred
hiiiilol 'piihi - i-N'lN ItIsO1l IS nee
essarily a school for crime and in the
tnited States alone approximately
100000 persons who are thus impris-
oned annually are given Compul-
sorry education in crime II there were
no jails there would be no schools for
crime.
1t has increased disease and pow
Crty. The Creator did not intend that
man should live in prison. The most
deadly disease known to civilization
Is tuberculosis, whose greatest aids
are dampness. darkness and dirt. the
1t is insisted by the highest authori-
ties that there is three times as much
tuberculosis among prisoners as
among others. NO estimate can he
rlaced upon the amount OF this dis
case disseminated by prison made
goods and dlschared prisoners.
Prisons Do Not Reform.
1T Furnishes the innocent as we'll
as the guilty. The greatest wrong COM
mitted today is the Imprisonment of
the bread winner and the sale by the
state of his labor to prison contrac-
tors, or it's confiscation by the state
itself. while the family of the convict
is left to suffer. This crime against
innocent womanhood and childhood is
as disgraceful rs it is unnecessary.
1T does not reform the offender.
Forty per cent of all prison graduates
are again imprisoned. many of them
scores of times. Petty offenders in
cities serve as many as two hundred
or more sentences. No process in the
arts of manufacture, 80 per cent of
whose product is defective. would he
tolerated It's failure is logica. and
inevitable Not until roses can be
grown in a cellar can character be
developed i'm cell.
AS a means of reform the prison
has been the most colossal failure i'm
civilized society. The indeterminate
sentence and parole now adopted in
twenty nine states are attempts to
a system whereby IT is sought
10 reform one man and punish anoth-
er by locking them both in the same
cell for the same term.
Favors Suspended Sentence.
Because of the inherent impossi-
bility of improving subnormal men in
subnormal surroundings. the duty of
ed from the prison and placed else
where. and the prison be made what it
was intended to he and what it Is
ittcd only to be-a place of deten-
ton where irreclaimable offenders may
be deprived of their liberty and re-
titution % their victims and furnish
support 10 those dependent upon them.
The one institution of the state
which is qualified and equipped to
deal with offenders capable of reform
alton Is the court Possessing the
necessary power and intelligence to
determine causes and effects, IL can
bring to bear upon every delinquent
the particular process by which his
deficiency physical. mental or moral
may he removed and he may be re-
stored To his proper place in society
without the disgrace or contagion of
a prison term. This is the economic
reformatory principle NJ probation or
the suspended sentence, which is as
old as Christian civilization and which
has been adopted in two-thirds of our
states and many foreign nations.
Wherever put into operation 10y
Judges in sympathy with IL, 1t has
been greatly successful in reducing
crime. II appeals directly to the most
powerful reformatory instrument
known. the delinuuent's own honor
and self respect. and constitutes the
only process by which the problem and
the criminal MAY he solved