The New York herald., 1921-01-09
Causes of Crime and Its Prevention
Prisons of the Future Described by General Disque
Who Made War Record in the Spruce Forests.

7 ficials and demand in all posts or re-
| sponsibility in the prison and over
them honorable men, intelligent men,
men who are clean, strong and free
| from political poison. Require them
| to be students OF penology and regard
them with respect equal to or greater
than that in which you hold the presi-
dent of a great university.
A. Give the president" of your State
prison a modern institution. Give
him money enough to make the pay
attractive to real fellows, so that he
may have staff of competent help
ers. Give him sanitary buildings. so
that he may give the poor devil who
goes into his charge the most impor-
tant chance to prove his worthiness
again to go free, a chance to become
physically and mentally healthy.
D. Place upon the president of your
State prison system and his staff full
authority and responsibility for the re-
lease of prisoners and their subsequent
conduct
6. A prison should be divided into
five distinct units:
(a) Receiving unit. Absolutely Sc
cure against escape, supervised by O.
corps of experts who, as rapidly as
possible, will classify all newcomers
and assign them to one Of the next
three units.
(b) Permanent unit. A separate
prison, so constructed that it would be
difficult for a mans soul to escape
after he died and so as ITO require q
minimum Of guard expense to keep
the men inside. Send to this place
those men who are habitual, hardened
and deliberate criminals and leave
them there until they die.
(c) Probationary unit. A separate
prison. strongly built, but with less Sc
curity than the permanent unit. Send
to this place all men who seem to have
chance to reform. Have them
watched over by experts who come
into daily contact with the prisoners
and who have character enough to set
an example to the men and lead them.
(d) Infirmary unit. Securely con-
structed, as the place Of confinement
in separate cells for the mentally de-
fective. This unit should be under the
charge of experts whose duty it should
be to cure, If possible, the defects.
doubt if there would be many cures.
but every effort should be made, and
it is possible that more concentrated
and intelligent study Of such char
acters may develop cures unknown
to-day.
Prisoners would remain here for life
unless cured.
(e) Liberty unit.
I would never completely remove
hope from any mans breast. I would
promote and denote according to the
merits and developments Of each case.
would equip each unit with COM
plete industrial and agricultural facili-
ties, not only to train men in useful
occupation but to provide the supplies
and revenue for the complete mainte-
nance of all units.
1t is ridiculous that our people
should pay taxes to feed, clothe and
guard the criminals who would de-
stroy them. A State prison should be
entirely sustained from the revenues
obtained from the labor Of the men
confined. In addition 1t should build
up a fund, the actual earnings of
the men, with which to stake them
when they are finally paroled or dis
charged. That has been and is now
being done in several places In this
small world.
1 would never discharge q man
until after he had passed through the
liberty unit and then served a period
on parole.
If we could set things up somewhat
as above + believe we would greatly
reduce and in time practically elm
mate crime. We would at least no
longer turn a crook loose on society
just because he had been penned up a
fixed number of days, months or years
as pronounced by a judge who prob
ably never talked to the man ten min
utes in his life.
We are progressive in many ways.
Why not apply ourselves to this great
big problem, and IL for no reasons
other than those of self-defence and
economy discontinue the stupid prac-
tice of expending vast sums to capture
and convict n criminal and then, be-
fore he has in the slightest manner
changed his character, release him to
attack society again and render It
necessary once more to go all through
the same tedious and expensive process
BRIcE p. DrsouB.
NEW YORK, January 8.