The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1922-01-10
Pardons and Paroles.

of the pardoning power, and that in Georgia II
is directed at Governor Hardwick, while the
governor of South Carolina has come in for
his share of the scolding. In this connection
the Savannah Press says:
This is time too, when there are evi-
| dences of shocking crimes all around us.
! Burglars are being turned into murderers
! in this and other states. Naturally at TINS
season executive thoughts turn to mercy,
but the Cordele Dispatch says that this is
dangerous time to show experiments IN
| clemency This is not the period to release
! the criminal element. The state is too tull
| OF crime In the state, OF course, each man
! was serving sentence for murder, robbery
| or other serious ottenses committed against
| the people of the state"
The parole of convcts is not to be con-
demned because of the number paroled. Nor
lis the gravity of the crime committed, &C
cording to the accepted standards, sufficient
criterion as to the wisdom or justice OF the
granting of parole. A pardon is quite differ
ent thing from parole When full pardon is
granted there should be such justifying rea-
sons as the proved innocence of the person
convicted or an excessive sentence partly
served, or such other circumstances as would
make longer Incarceration not for the public
welfare. Such cases are comparatively rare.
Therefore, the granting of pardons should
also be a rare occurrence, save only at the
expiration of the term of commitment for the
purpose of restoring citizenship to one whose
conduct in confinement warrants belief in the
future rectitude Of his life Even the paroling
and final pardoning of murderers may be for
;t, ito NJ fha
which we contemplate the crime of taking
human life. 1t is fact to which all familiar
with prisons will testify that the murderers
on the whole, constitute the best behaved and
the least criminal class as rule, except when
they kill as an incident of the commission Of
some other crime. Of all the penitentiary
population the class which could be released
as a whole with the least danger to the public
in the future is the murderers.
If the welfare of society is being consider
ed, its protection from the menace of criminal
ity, it might we'll be that such welfare would
be better promoted by releasing from prison
man who would use his freedom to make
of himself an honest and Industrious citizen
than to keep him in Jail under such conditions
which would assure that upon his release he
would become a prey upon and menace to
society. These considerations require that pa
roles he issued with great discrimination and
that criticism of them be based upon a
knowledge of the conditions and not upon
any mathematical computation. A large num-
Der of paroles may suggest lack of sufficient
discretion but they may also be the result
of the exercise of wise discretion, which bal
ances the conditions of the prison against
those of the properly supervised parole with
due regard for the record of the convict and
his personal characteristics as revealed by a
study of his case and conduct.
The protection of society requires that men
released from prison be no longer menace
to it if possible. There are many elements to
this problem of promoting the common so
cial welfare through reduction of crime. 1t is
solved neither by long jail sentences rigidly
carried out nor by cutting those sentences
short through paroles and pardons, though the
wisely bestowed parole under proper super
vision is one of the partial solutions, the wis
dom and the supervision being indispensable
factors.
1t is nothing but fair to Governor Hard
wick to say that a very large per cent of
the prisoners released by him were convicts
who, under the law of Georgia, had earned
their freedom by good conduct while under
parole. Many of them had served long SEN
fences, some twenty to thirty years, and were
recommended during the administrations of
former governors and left by them Enacted up
on. In the cases of practically all prisoners
who have been paroled, the records of their
,-As< II
their conduct in the penitentiary were con-
lsidered, and their release was recommended
by the presiding judge, the solicitor general
who prosecuted them, the jurors who return
ed the verdicts, county officials prominent cit
liens of the communities where the crimes
were committed and newspaper editors, in
GLIDING Atlanta Augusta, Athens, Macon, Sa-
vannah Cordele and all other sections.
The pardoning and paroling power is sub
ject to abuse, of course, and governors and
boards of pardon, being human institutions,
make mistakes, but that is not sufficient rea-
son for hanging a paddock on the door. 1t
will be sufficient to call them to account for
any seeming errors after the facts are known
and stimulate them in the exercise OF greater
discretion and stricter precaution.
Rene Marin, negro, is the winner of the
Prix Goncourt for the best French novel OF
the year. This prize, the value of which is