The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1918-04-18
GOSPEL OF SECOND CHANCE
Urges the Probation System as Better
Remedy for Crime Brands Jail as a
Breeder of Crime and Herr
tage Of the Dark Ages.

Branding the jail as breeder of
crime and urging probation as a rem
edy, Judge Mckenzie Cleland, for
many years a judge of the Chicago Mu-
nicipal Court, made stirring appeal
for the "New Gospel of Criminology"
before sixty-five Kenoshans who at
tended the six O'Clock supper of the
Men IS Club Of the Park Avenue M. E.
church in the parlors of the church
Monday evening. Backed by an ex-
perience of many years on. the bench,
the speaker wove into his address many
interesting episodes, which proved the
truth Of his new doctrine for the pre-
vention of crime and the uplift of the
criminal class.
"The jail'', said Judge Cleland,
hassfailed in every purpose for which
it was devised. Instead Of stopping
crime it has become a breeding place
for it, instead of reforming those who
are sent within its walls, it has sent
them forth unfit for society and in
stead of making them economically,
independent, it has fastened them as
drag upon the rest of society. It is an
institution of iniquity and heritage
of the dark ages
The speaker convincingly refuted the
idea that the Jail could reform a man
by the living out of his sentence. FfThe
idea of taking man out of civil life
and putting him into a life devoid of
every refining influence to fit him to
come back is absolutely stupid" he
declared. "On the other hand, I charge
upon the jail the tremendous increase of
crime because it destroys its inmates
reputation and character, units him for
a life of probity and morality and turns
him out to carry among his friends
the contagion of crime"
AS prevention of crime, the prison
system was also declared to be failure
because in spite of its application crime
had increased in leaps and bounds Tt
was also shown that as a method of
providing a wayeto clay out fine" at
fifty cents a day, it was undemocratic
because it placed curse on poverty and
it was foolish because it made it i'm
possible for the criminal to ever pay
for his wrong to society. He compared
it to the old system of "bleeding' pa
tients in vogue among physicians years
ago in that it took from the patient the
source of life and all those things
which made life worth while.
In place of the age-worn system of
imprisonment, Judge Cleland offered a.
probation systematic Fgospel of the
second chance (Which he decIraed he
had used in more than 1900 cases and
had yet to find where it had failed.
His plan was to suspend the sentence
before the life of the man was b1ighted
CT believe, explained the speaker,
"not in sending him to jail to get even
but to keep him in society with a sus-
pended sentence to help him stay right
and if a man will not then became a
good citizen, I believe in depriving
him of his liberty for his lifetime as a
safeguard against society and I be-
heve that he should in this time be
profitably employed and the money
used to profit not the state but to sup
port his innocent wife and children. In
short, the plan is to stop making crimi-
nails by sending men to Jail and to
stop spreading crime by letting profess
sional criminals out of jail. In prac-
tice we have found that when supposed
criminals have discovered that the law
was not their enemy but their friend,
they have ever after resolved to stand
by the law which stood by them
Judge Cleland struck a popular chord
in his audience and drove HON his argu-
ments with amusing and interesting
episodes taken from his long career as
jurist in Chicago The meeting, which
was the third meeting this year for
the Methodist Men S Club, was largely
attended and proved to be one of the
most interesting which the organization
has given during the year.