The independent. [volume] (Elizabeth City, N.C.) 1908-1936, 1922-11-28

TIC COullLy Jdll diiu SOii'tS'
camp in North Carolina are
doomed. They are doomed
because they have been inves-
tigated and proved irremedi-
ably bad. They must give
way to a new and better sys-
TEN that will seek to patch
up and restore the broken
lives instead of forever damn
ing them.
The Committee of One Hundred
on Prison Legisl.tion from the
North Carolina Social Service, viii h
held its first meeting in Greensboro
last Friday lifted the curtain and let
North Caro!inians see the unspe?k-
able conditions existing In our jails
and prison camps. The sight was
astounding: men and women herded
together in unspeakable places; men
strung up by their thumbs ard
lashed; prisoners punished by being
locked in dungeons 20 inches wide
and 20 inches deep by six feet high,
living souls encascd in very collins;
boys imprisoned iu dark and narrow
cells with hardened -conyicts; the
physically sound herded toGether
with the tubercular and syphilitic,
sometimes six in q cell. One pace
was liked to the Black Hole Of Cal
cutta by Wiley B. Sanders, Execu-
tive Secretary Of the Conference on
Social Service who helped to inves-
tigate the conditions reported.
And now we are going to see
change. We are going to see
change because an enlightened pub
lie conscience in North Carolina is
going to demand a change. North
Carolinians get anything they go af-
ter and the best thought in North
Carolina is going after a better way
of dealing with our delinquent popu-
lation-
People in jails are not fundamen.
tally different from people out Of
jails. Those in Jail represent only
a small part of those who got caught
and couldn't pay out. A larger num-
Der never get caught at all. But we
have built our whole penal system
with the idea of Furnishing and ter
rorizing every erring human who
happens to get caught. Most Of our
jails we're never built with an idea
of imprison;ng white men at all
they were built for the niger, for
the damned Niger" and anything
is good enough for q niger"
And now a special committee of
the Committee of One Humid ed that
met last week is going to draft
legislative program looking to a rev.
olution in our whole system of crime
punishment. This program may not
be carried out in year, or within
the next few years, but it will come
because it is North Cardinals way
20 do things right when once it
makes up its mind about thing. The
best thought of the State has made
up its mind that county jails and
convict camps are generally unspeak-
ably bad.
1t is only going to be q question
Of time when county jails and county
'onyict camps will be abolished en-
tirely and replaced by district pris-
onS and houses of detention. The
responsibility for sentencing Grimm
ais is going to be taken out of the
hands Of judges. The idea of max
ng the punishment fit the crime is
Ill wrong and everybody knows it.
In future we are going to make the
punishment fit the individual.
In future, the judge isa't going to
be called upon to pass sentence at
all. The business of the Court will
be merely to establish the guilt or
innocence of the defendant. Those
found guilty will be sent to a central
receiving station where they will be
examined by experts as to their ply
steal, mental and moral status and
the punishment in each case pre-
scribed by experts guided by exact
facts.
The tubercular, the syphilitic and
the mentally unsound will be segre-
gated and given proper treatment.
First offenders will be placed in
houses of detention and taught some
thing of their obligation to society
and given educational help.
Special provision will be made for
women offenders.
The sexual perTcrt will be prop
erE dealt with, so that his diseased
mind will never give him or society
any more bother.
In every case, the State will en-
deavor to return the transgressor to
Society a better man or woman, de-
sirous of going straight and capable
of keeping straight.
Calls For New System
"a. better prison system is sorely
needed in North Carolina, both for
the protection of society and for the
sake of square deal to the prison
er himself" declared Mrs. Kate
Burr Johnson, state commissioner OF
nuIIin Iu.lfara oddrpSSinO Fba C;t;