South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1922-04-21
SHAE7S NEW THEORY.

Leave Il 20 George Bernard shaw 20 produce
something new This time It Is the theory that the
abolition OF prisons would stop crime more effec-
lively than DO severe jail sentences.
Writing IN Hearsts Magazine for May. Shaw shoots
these shafts the centuries-od custom OF dealing
with crime.
IF a crime were punished at all. the world
would not come 70 an end any more than It does
now that disease is not punished at all
"vvhy man who IS punished for having an ineft-
cient conscience should be privileged 20 have an in
efficient lung IS debatabe question: II one Is
TO prison and the other 70 hospital. why make
the prison so different from the hospitsl7
when we realize that have right to punish
anybody the problem OF disposing Of impossible peo-
pie viii rut itself on its proper footing.
IL am more rnerciess than the criminal law, be
cause I would destroy the evildoer's deuson that
there can be any forgiveness OF sin. What Is done
can not be undone; and the man who steals must
remain a thief until he becomes another man no
matter what reparaton OF expiation he may make
or suffer a punishment system means pardon
system; the two go together inseparaby.
From the criminals point OF view punishment Is
expiation: and their berest complaints OF injustice
refer not TO their sentences but 70 the dishonesty
with which society having exacted the price OF the
crime stiH treats the criminal defaulter. Even
so sophisticated a OF the world as Oscar Wilde
claimed that by his two years Imprisonment he had
settled with the world and was enttled 70
begin again with a clean slate. But the world per-
sisted in ostraclzlng him II It had not punished
him at all
This was inevitable; but It dishonest. II we
are absurd enough engage in a retributive trade
in crime we should at least trade fairly and give
clean receipts when we are paid II did, we
ehoud soon find that the trade Is impracticabe and
ridiculous: for neither party deliver the goods"
All Of which IL interesting. but which overlooks
the fundamental fact that this Is orderly world
IN which the safety OF all IS linked with the rreser
walton OF law and order.
The modern prison becomes more and more a hos
pital. for crime IS being studied disease and
result rather than cause.
Society does not permit those with smallpox and
other contagious germs to wander about freely and
in crowds. It segregates them until they longer
menace the health and happiness OF others.
Society. recognizing the criminal weak in re-
sistance to temptation, faulty in his coordination
with the human family also segregates him. not
90 much for the cake OF revenge which Is old and
discarded theory of jails but for the purpose Of
STRENGTHENING him against further temptation.
Knowege OF the results OF yielding TO temptation is
a great strengthener Of the will power.
The modern prison is a place where those who
fall through weakened bodies may be rebuilt in
strength. Much crime is traceable to physical de-
fects. These cured.
The abolition Of prisons az a cure for crime is
startling in its suggestion-but bad as the prison
system has been filled has been with brutaites
and with failure reform. It has been necessary
system in a state OF society which has not yet de-
veloped other restraints upon those who inclined
TO break its edicts.