The Indianapolis times., 1930-11-20
More .Iails

The demand of the authorities at the state
formatorv for a huge sum to build more cells for
youthful criminals should cause some serious thought
on the part Of those who believed sincerely decade
ago that the jails would be empty.
Instead the reformatory IS overcrowded and even
the building Of 300 new cells will not take care OF
the present population.
When the reformatory was proposed, its size was
criticised because no citizen would believe that the
time would come when there would be 1900 young
men inside prison walls. There now are more than
1000 in that one institution place for first offenders
None of these prisoners was old enough to form
an appetite for liquor in the old days Of the saloon
Yet vast majority of them would trace their pres
ent plight to drinking the various brands Of poison
that now are sold in every community.
The conclusion forces itself that there is more
drinking among the young today than there was for
mery and that the drinks sold are OF quality that
takes away not only moral sense but gives bodness
and daring that turns youth from good homes into
bandits and robbers.
This state has the most arid of dry laws yet its
youthful prison population increases at rate Iar
in excess of the increase in population
Since the appellate court has ruled that there IS
very definite limitation upon the kind of labor which
NAV be performed in PRISONS these youngsters, none
of them of mature age, yet many OF most ma
ture criIninaty must be kept in ideness and become
in the end habitual criminals.
The citizen who is neither fanatically wet nor
fanatcaIly dry must reach the conclusion that the
present system is unworkabe and that our whole at
titude toward law has become one which breeds
criminals not useful citizens.
Perhaps the law is not strong enough, as Senator
Sheppard of Texas Wednesday told the women OF
the W. c. T. U. It may be that the statement that
the purchaser is more guilty than the bootlegger,
loudly cheered by the very sincere white ribboners is
the answer.
Of course the Anti-Saloon League, the political
force of the dry cause, checked an effort to make
the purchaser equally guilty with the seller when
it was proposed in congress. That organization saw
disaster in a law which might result in enbarrass-
ment for Influential citizens, including many OF Its
contributors in such measure.
But it can not be denied that obedience to law
means much less than it did before Volsteadism
The prohibition law is Haunted openly by what
seems to be a majority Of citizens The methods OF
enforcement are such that only two days ago Fed
eral Judge Thomas Slick declared from the bench
that the means employed by the prohibition agents,
and especially the habits of witnesses it employed,
was such as to make him more than disgusted.
He refused to impose Jail sentences on men he
said he believed guilty, because Of the character OF
these witnesses
Perhaps the answer is to just roll along, pass
more laws, build more jais, corrupt more and more
youths and sing hymns while the doors clank upon
the heartbreak of mothers and the hopes of youths
We know we need more jais. We have not yet
tried to figure out to make the need any less