Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1922-11-23
QUESTION EFFECT OF
PROHIBITION ON CRIME
Prison Census Shows Different
Results Under Different
Z Conditions.

Hastings II. Hart, president of the
American Prison Congress OF 1922. also
director of the Department of Child
Labor Of the Russell Sage Foundation.
has written the following regarding
the new census Of prisoners In penal
Institutions in 1922 as compared with
the population OF such places in lslf'
Mr.. Hart will be recalled here as the
expert who made very complete sur
vey of the workhouse at Greenbank
sometime ago. He saye: By the cour-
tesy of the United States Bureau OF
the Census l have received advance
sheets Of the summary of the enumer-
alton Of prisoners in the penal insti-
tutions of the United States July l,
1922, and 1917. This enumeration COW
ers the period before and after the
United States went into the Great
War and the period before and after
the establishment of national prohibi-
ton.
The summary shows (omitting a
small number of prisoners for whom
the returns are uncertain.) for 1922
15O,l31 prisoners and for 1917, 140,lS6
prisoners. an increase Of IL per cent
The foregoing includes United States
prisoners; omitung these, we have q
total of 144,591 fer 1922 and 137,163 for
1917, an increase OF 5.4 per cent.
Two opposite forces have operated
TO increase and decrease the prison
population. War always breeds crime
bv loosening moral restraints, by dis
turbing social relations and by cheap
ening human life. It is difficult tc
measure this influence in the present
case because il is ohscured by the
opposing influence, but as we shall
see, Its influence is plainly apparent
in the case of certain States Of the
Union. Prohibition has manifestly
operated to diminish petty crimes and
misdemeanors, but there is no evil
dence in the returns that it has di-
minished the number of felons SEN
fenced for high crimes to state prisons
Fifteen out of &c states show a de.
crease in the population of the State
prisons. but only six as distinguished
from jails and workhouse of these show
a decrease of more than IFS per cent
and On the whole there is an increase
of 10.l per cent. Some people have
imagined that in some mysterious way
prohibition would change the character
of criminals so that he who stole woult
eteal no more. On the contrary, So
briefly increases the efficiency Of 6
burglar, a forger, or an automobile
thief. But prohibition does diminish
nightly such petty crimes as vag
rancy. assault and battery, drunken
ness and disorderly conduct, with {
corresponding diminution OF the popu
lation of warehouses, county jails anC
police stations.
The effect of the war in increasin,
crime Is seen in 90 states which adop
ted state prohibition before July !
1917. These states are Alabama, Ari
zona, Arkansas, Colorado. Georgia
Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Missis
sippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, Nortl
Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Soutl
Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Wash
5ngton and West Virginia They ha
already reaped the advantage of pro
hibltion in diminishing the numbe
of petty criminals before nationa
prohibition was adopted. Every on
of these 20 states except Arizona show
a large increase Of the prison pHpu