Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1917-01-20
SOCIETY'S PANACEA---THE JAIL

1t is passing strange that after some hundreds of
years of civilization that the great panacea for all mis-
demeanors and smaller offenses is the jail That seems
to be the sovereign and sole remedy for everything
There is about to be introduced in the legislature,
dispatch from Rosburg states, lazy husband remedy
in the shape of law providing for putting such husbands
fail to provide for their wives families in JAIL AS
a person can earn no money in Jail or while deprived of
his liberty it is difficult to where the law would get
anywhere 1t is getting back to the old English law that
allowed who in debt to be locked up Indefinite
ly Under our laws noW caught stealing food for
his family though driven to this course choice be-
tween it and allowing his family to stave is locked up
in jail If the object of the law to punish rather than
to deter this may be all right but wherein does it help
the family, the offender, or society? II man is locked
up in jail because he does not provide for his family will
deprving him of all chance to work help them? Is there
remedy for the evils with which society is afflicted
the Jail? Cannot society find some way of protect
ing itself other than putting under lock and key some in
divdua whose only fault against it is shftessness
aziness? For ages all the remedy communities have dis
covered for drunkenness was the jail For petty theft
the same jug. True, If an offender had the means or
could borrow them from his friends society gracousy
permits him to pay it hard coin instead of going to JAIL
If the unfortunate could not borrow the amount it
allowed him to work for the community at the rate Of
two big dollars day, just by doing nothing while the
community boarded him at the Job We place reward
crime by boarding man. who steals food IN jail for
month So but would not think of boarding him or
feeding his family unless he first violates the law We
give him job and board him in that good old stand by
the jail.
The proposed law provides for sending the sheriff into
some other state and bringing the who has away
from his family back not for the purpose of making him
support them but to lock him up in the county jail Why
90 to this expense if with all boasted civilization and
wisdom can find no means of compelling him to sup
port the family he has neglected? Would it not be better
and far more humane to take the money expended IN
bringing him back and apply it to the of the family?
If he will not support his family why bring him back for
the purpose of locking him up and boarding him? 1t isl
said that among the Hoentos when person has head
ache the native doctors pour concoction into the
patients eye Of the treatment gives relief,
yet because it was the remedy handed down for genera
tions it was kept up We are Hottentots in dealing
with small offenses and offenders with only remedy
handed down from remote times the JAIL 1t never cured
anyone of anything, and will but it is the only
remedy we know we keep trying it as though 1t would
pet somewhere Another piece of Judicial wisdom is
the fine in lieu of Imprisonment. Someone jumps onto
fellow beats him up he is unable toI
work for month"; The outraged law starts out with its
club punish the offender He is arrested tried and
fined from $50 to $500 The outraged law puts this
money its pocket to sae the offense against it, but it
does not give the who got the beating cent Of it.
His outraged feelings and head don't count The
citizen takes the beating and the community takes the
money it considers the beating worth, for its use
Sending the to jail is poor satisfaction to the beaten
person. but it is greater satisfaction to him to know
that the community excused the other fellow for beatng
him by the paying of damages to it.
The town Of Salem, Virginia absolutely refuses to VI
oct off the map at the request of the publicity manager