The mirror., 1914-07-02
LIFE PRISONER
GIVES HIS VIEWS
Arizona Inmate Gives Valuable Suggestions
in Matter Of Prison Improvement, as
Seen from the Prisoners Side Urges
Higher Education
EXERCISES
By Lom,s Victor Eytinge

builders believe in getting results
from your employees. You expect
that every dollars worth of salary
to bring back its dollar lnlabor: But
when it comes 10 demanding that ev-
cry dollar you pay in taxes for the
support of public institutions show
you dollars worth of efficiency, you
are asleep at the switch" You
are footing the bills and keeping up
the prisons of the country and what
are you getting in return.
Nearly forty per cent. of the men
sent to PRISON become recldivists.
They 90 out only to come back and
serve their second, third, or more
terms. These repeaters-and am
one-commit upward of two~thirds
of the crimes against property. The
crime cost of the nation is estimated
by expert publicists to be between
three and six billions. If this be
true, then something surely is
wrong with our prison system.
How long would any business last
that had to scrap forty out of every
hundred machines 1t built? Espe-
cially if this forty cost about seven
ty per cent of the plants upkeep?
1t is true. | have even under
stated. An official report on Cali
fornia a few years back, before the
installation of the parole system.
gave repeater figure of 40 ont of
every 100. My personal experience
acquired through thirteen years in
different prisons leads lDe to believe
the American percentage of recIdi-
vism is about forty two, and that's
higher than an, other nation. Jap
an has a splendid prison system and
the result is that but three per cent
of her prison inmates become re-
peaters." If Japan can do this.
why can't we?
The Great Cost
My cost figures are low. Recent
ly an audit was made Of the actual
amounts paid out by counties and
the state in California in the hand
ling of the crime problem, and this
totaled more than thirty seven mill
ions. The computing official ad-
mitted that his figures represented
merely the known expense, and es.
timated that the full crime cost in
the state was more than seventy
millions! If this be so in one state,
then how much will the national
bill be? Our army and navy COM
blned don't cost you billion year.
While we spend many millions in
experimentation and study in our
military branches, we don't spend a
darned measly ten thousand dollars
in scientific study Of penology and
crlminology.
What remedy have |? Tut; man
has been studying this problem for
centuries aud yet has no remedy.
Again | dislike the word. Still, |
do know of some things that will
improve conditions. Pm not going
INTO preventive criminology, now;
just talk prison improvements from
the prisoners side. Let us take
Japan as an instance. Every officer
of penal institution in that coun-
try goes through rigorous course
of training, two years of special in
struction designed to make him
competent to handle and help men,
These officers have to become ex-
pert psychologists. Most of our pen
al officers are expert only in poll
tics! If you are satisfied with the
services of one of your foreman aft
er several years of service, do you
discharge him because you've found
him to be Catholic, Methodist or
Quaker? Why then should you re-
move an official simply because he's
a Republican, Democrat or Teddy
rooser? Take the prisons out of
politics and elevate the character
of the under employees above that
of ward heeler and political pen
sioners. In my thirteen years of
experience with many hundreds of
prison officials, frankly question
whether I've known more than
dozen who were of that moral fibre
calculated to inspire and elevate the
convicts under them. The biggest
successes in prison management
have been achieved by business
men.
Give us work that is helpful not
only to our bodies, but to our minds