The Sunday telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1914-1927, 1915-12-12
CUBAN LOOKS
OVER PRISONS
IN NEW YORK
Says Love Crimes of Women
in His Country Are Dealt :
With Very Lightly.

III Ills GOutttTy Are Ueait 4
With Very Lightly.
NEW YORK. Dec. 11.-cuba. .epre-
sented in the very attractive, brown
eyed. gallant and perfume scen.cd ler-
son OF Colonel Andres Hernandez
Aguirre. has examined our city pris-
on. liked them greatly, and cut pat
teln, so to speak. which is now on
Its way to Havana in Colonel HecnIu-
dez's pocket. Cuba is going to do more
than copy our PRISONS II is gotag 10
improve on them nightly.
Being extremely courteous, Cuba
does not say outright that It's own
prisons "as is are better than ours.
Instead. It coughs behind 1t and COM
ri'ments our system, our idea. And
1t Is that. rather than the actual man
Hesitation of the idea, that 1t wants
Colonel Hernandez 10 duplicate.
Three New Prisons.
Three are to be three prisons
built" explained the colonel through
an obliging interpreter friend, Just be-
fore his departure. lone, a detention
prison like your Tombs The sscati
for won,.n.- tLcrc ave no, many
womer criminals in CuD1. no. more
man seventy-five or 100 month In
the entire island. The third. a prison
Tor men under sentence for from thlr-
~ days to six years.
General Wood has been my adviser
and friend. 1t was General Wood who
implanted all reforms In Cuba, IN
Guiding modern prisons. They have
been running on. Just us ne left them,
all this time. So you see they need
undermining and expanding. We do
as well as we can with them-;ustta as
l presume you do with your Black
wells Island and Tombs. which are
also antequated as to equipment.
No Death Penalty for Women.
I'VE wish to follow your idea of re-
form and redemption rather than pun
ishment. In this connection find
Mr. Robert Rosenbluth, superlntend-
ent OF the city farm colony, has much
to teach me. We shall use his printed
report, which l shall have trans ated
Immediately into Spanish, as a work.
ing plan for our new institutions.
Before the AUGMENTATION OF
Cuba. went on Colonel Hernlnuez
"punishments were severe. We hal a
class OF criminals among whom, as
used to be said of your Indians, the
only good ones were dead ones
I'VE therefore had wholesale exec,l-
tons among bandits and murderers,
1t was found necessary to execute
forty-two men during the time Gem
eral Wood was military governor.
Since that time, during the admins
trations Of Estrada Palma, Gomez ind
our present head, Mario G. Men real,
only ten or twelve men have been
sentenced to death.
No women have ever been executed
In Cuba, so far as my knowledge goes.
women are never sentenced to dean,
even for bad crimes"
Emotional" Crimes Recognized.
What do You call bad crimes? I
asked the courtly colonel.
His aristocratic face softened in an
indulgent smile.
Feminine crime" he answered, "in
my country is usually some sort of
love crime, Can we Judge that very
harshly? All, yes, yes-crime is crime,
OF course. But also extenuating cir
cumstances must be given attention.
One must consider causes, motives,
provocation, etc. Crimes Of emotion,
in our land, are given due considera-
ton. apart from other crimes.
Ten or twelve women, during my
recollection, have been sentenced to
from six months to thirty years for
murder. with lesser crimes in propor-
ton. Anyhow" Colonel Hernandez
waved n kindly hand, "our object is
TO prevent, to correct, rather than to
punish.
Farm work and gardening, for wo-
men as well as men, is the whole
soonest method of restoring the body
and mind to a normal condition. We
also allow the men to do street re-
pairing and road building. We shall
provide indoor work, also, planning a
huge bakeshop and shoe factory.
Clothes for the inmates of all pris-
ons are to be made in the women's
prisons.
AS soon as our buildings can be
erected and equipped, l hope to give
every prisoner six months chance
under the new methods-work, GER
tain amount Of freedom and self gov
eminent. Those who show signs of
good will and ambition shall be en-
couraged. The rest must take dras-
tic diScinline" - ,