Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-12-08

iuDlLudl CIluIlIul
But, according TO the reports coming to
this office, reports verified by the officers
engaged in enforcing the criminal laws, the
prisoners sent to Holmesburg Jail are treated
almost without exception as if they were
habitual criminals of whose regeneration
there is no possibility.
Notwithstanding the assertion of DR..
Reeves that the Board Of Inspectors knows
exactly what is needed in the way of rules,
the regulations which he approves would be
condemned by nearly every expert on prison
management in the country. Thanks to the
reform started by John Howard in the eight
eenth century after he discovered the abuses
in the Bedfordshire Jail in England, there
has been a gradual improvement in the
treatment of prisoners. 1t is no longer re-
garded as intelligent to send man to Jail
and then forget all about him. The social
waste involved is too great the swelling of
the criminal classes and the consequent ex-
pense of protecting the innocent are regarded
as things to be avoided so far us possible.
Every one knows that idlencss in the
prisons brings about decentralization Of the
prisoners and that solitary confinement on
slight excuse breeds revolt and leads men Of
low intelligence to a determination to take
revenge on society when they get out. We
no longer put prisoner in a stone dungeon
and forget all about him. but We preserve
the stone dungeons and the dark cell az
though we were dealing with dangerous
beasts instead Of with our fellow men,
There are human brutes in the prisons, 1t
is true, and It Is easier to put other human
brutes over them to beat them with clubs
than to make an attempt to cure their brut-
ishness.
We have new psychology which has
sought out the causes of brutlshness, and
when 1t has been applied in prison discipline
it has accomplished marvellous results
We have a new humanity which tells us
that If prisoner can be employed in the
open, where he can see the sky, the per-
versty which caused him to break the laws
can often be made straight. and on his re-
lease he will seek to be II decent aud re-
spectacle citizen.
The number Of congenital criminals !s
need special treatment, but the great mass
Of prisoners in the county iails are persons
who have made Il misstep, who have slipped
into crime and who, If properly treate ed
during their period of confinement, will come
out determined to avoid such errors in the
future.
But 1t has long been notorious that they
do not get this kind Of treatment in Holmes
| burg, and 1t is natural inference from the
| remarks Of DR.. Reeves that he does not
| think they ought to get f.. Other men do
think 80, however.
| Governor Sproul has been saving that
there ought to be farms on which the men
in tho county jals could work. The State
itself Is committed TO the erection Of peni
tentiary for long term prisoners where they
can be employed at useful tasks In the open
Such penitent!aries have been built In
other States where the convicts work or
the land with few guards and where every
convict constitutes himself guard Of every
other one, for they all know that IL one mar
takes advantage of the liberty enjoyed al
the others will suffer. In such institution,
the theory prevails that the convict ia OF
probation and efforts are made to restore
him to society In better shape to live a,
honest and upright life than when he passe,
through the doors Of the Jail
There can be no doubt that this is tn
right theory, for it Is based on the assump
ton that no one is wholly bad and that tn
worst of us can he made better under tn
intelligent direction Of humane and civilize
agents.
II the charge that such agents are no
active at Holmesbnrg came only from wha
are called thugs and crooks who have passe
through the institution. 1t would have to b
, discounted, but the conditions there are g
notorious and so well known to the cour,
and the lawyers that the testimony of til
G discharged prisoners is merely corroboratiy,