The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-10-08
MORE ABOUT PRISON REFORM
SOCIAL SERVICE DEPARTMENT By lIRs. SIDNEY M. ULLMAk

existing here in our own state. The per-
 sons implicated are different. but the crimes are the same and the jail condi-
 tions identical. The little boy who was
 arrested for running down a small child
 with bicycle and was put in jail al-
 though the child was unharmed, is the
 same story that may be found on the
 records of our police courts. The boy
 that was out of a job and got in bad IS
 here in our city well in New York
 and Chicago. The poor, down and out snake" with delrium tremens exists in our city, too. We nave the same condi- tions to face and we. like our sister states. must make better provision for them. Putting the boys in cells with the so-called hardened criminal Is another one cf the injustices and methods in the making of criminals. sCf
 'The general public has an idea that arresting everybody to stop outbreak
 of crime is tie only way to deal with the situation, there are undoubtedly many chances for arrest, since more than half the people in every large city uncon- sciously, at least, break one or more of the numerous laws or ordinances every week of their lives," says Mir. Hyde. Many persons are arrested Saturday night. locked up over Sunday and dis charged Monday as innocent. But the germ of defrauded self-respect Is born.
 
 blame on the police." says MT. Hyde.
 Thai is easy. superficial and unjust. The police force Is not made up of either i'm tellectual giants or trained diplomats Many officers are too sensitive in the ma tier of their personal dignity. 'Sassing a copper Is doubtless one of the most dan gerous forms of outdoor sport. The man in brass buttons is likely to be over quick in resenting what he thinks an insult" He's always teachin' fellers With a tendency to jaw
 That it's wisest not to monkey With the majesty of law. But contrary, perhaps. to widely held opinion. the vast majority of policemen are honest. And almost without excep- tion they are brave men. An officer with "a streak of yellow" in his composition
 would not last long on any metropolitan police force.
 The chief blame for the present whole sale manufacture of criminals must be borne by the police.
 It is the public--or active and noisy part of it-which is responsible for the passage of the enormous number of new criminal laws and ordinances. for viola
 tior of which. in many parts of the coun- try, more than half the arrests are made. It is in response to a mistaken public opinion that police officials so frequently issue "clean-up' orders for wholesale arrests. In which a large number of citi- zens guilty of no criminal intent are cer- tain to be caught.
 Most important of all, it Is the public which is directly responsible for the frightful condition of city cell houses and county iails. in which thousands of in- nccent people are daily locked up. The next step in the law Is the county jail James A. Leonard. late president of the American Prison association, says: By common consent the county jail sys- ten, in the United States is declared to be the worst feature of our penal sys- tenn
 Through such articles as Mir. Hyde g with the throb of the heart in every line, do we come to realize the real necessity of never stopping in the education for
 prison reform until we have bettered conditions.
 The chief difference in county jails is that some are worse than others. MT. Hyde states the condition found in num- berless county jails are more awful than the other, probably the most grue- some thing told being the keeping of the gallows stored on top of the prison- CTS cage, daily reminder of the fate in store for them. In most of the jails rats and vermin abound.
 It is q proven Iacl that the majority of the inmates of the county jails are in nooent Here again we quote MT. Hyde: This may be as good place as any to say that in the average county jail about SO per cent of the people locked up are held for trial or for action by the grand Jury, or are detained as witnesses. Every man and woman in this 80 per cent Is. in
 the eyes of the law, presumed to be inno-
 ment large part of them are finally proved to be innocent. ana are discharged.
 If they do not acquire consumption or syphilis during their detention, they must
 at least retain pleasant memories of what 1t means to be suspected of crime in tho Hand of the free!''
 In many county jails no attempt is made tc keep boys charged with petty of lenses separate. from adult murderers. perverts, and other criminals Men sers- Ing years sentence for serious crimes ningle freely with boys and men held or suspicion or locked up as witnesses Whats the use? Inspection of ma-
 jority of county jails in the United States
 will reveal similar or worse conditions
 In practically none of them is any pro-