The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-02-16
Liberal Viewpoint
by DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

NEWS Of any kind on prisons is good Tor at
IN least one blast from Judge Marcus
Kavanagh of Chicago that old war horse who
never tires of charging that our present crime
problem is due to the coddling of prisoners.
On the heels Of the Welfare Island raid he
comes out with a long article in the New YORK
Sunday Times. protesting that our prisoners have
become clubs and boarding schools and sternly
demanding return to harsh severity, even IN
Guiding the whipping of prisoners.
The Judge tells us that he recently visited a
prison and details his sensations thereupon. At
the outset, the judge was shocked to IND that
the prisoners had clean and soft beds and edible
food in sufficient quantities. He was further
amazed to behold such elegance in table service
as knife, fork and pewter cup for each prisoner.
He was even more astonished to discover that
the prison actually contained offices for sur
geon. dentist and an oculst. This apparently
was all out of place to the judge in anything
properly known as prison
But this was only the beginning of the amaz-
ing conditions which the judge uncovered as he
proceeded further in his investigation of the
institution. Three times a week, no less, the
inmates were permitted to attend lecture, a
concert or a motion picture show within the
walls In warm weather, teams of inmates were
allowed to play baseball and football
NTORST Of all, prisoners were granted the
w right to engage in such dangerous and eX-
of leading statesmen and other thinkers" Quite
unthinkable was the fact that inmates we're
allowed to buy tobacco and candy.
The judge looked about vainly for the whip
ping post, but to his vast chagrin and dis
appointment he found none Believe it or not,
the only punishment permitted in this institution
was solitary confinement, loss of ordinary prison
privileges and personal disgrace.
On the basis of these devastating revelations,
the judge unhesitatingly describes such institu-
the comforts Of the victims and their families
. AS a matter of fact, it is safe to say that
more than half the prisoners are enjoying more
comfortable quarters, better food and clothing,
more constant and higher class medical at
tendance than ever before in their lives"
Yet, somehow, the judges story does not
seem to hang together. He portrays the luXuri-
ant quarters and elegant appointments of our
penal mems club" and boarding schools in
such intriguing fashion that we might imagine
long lines would form outside to take advantage
of the first vacancy in any cell block. Least of
all would We expect that any man who had
known the advantages and comforts of life in
one of these select residential halls would wish
to leave them to enter the cruel and cold world
outside.
NEVERTHELESS marvels do happen, and
L y the judge himself informs us that these
CLUB members" don't like to stay in their club"
or to come back after they leave The last haI1
of the judges article is given over very largely
to dolorouS details relative to the impressive
number of escapes executed by prisoners each
year-2500 away back in 1923 when club IA
cilities were even more attractive, due to the
fact that there was less crowding.
Even today when the club members face
the prospect of unemployment and starvation in
the depression conditions outside. they will muir
der and burn in order to leave luxury behind.
And escaped club members will even hide in
river bottoms and cane brakes, riskng the gros-
sest exposure and suffering, rather than be
brought back to their sumptuous abodes. More
over, the judge can give us no evidence that
even in his own state of Illinois there is any
long list of applicants for membership in the
mems club at Joliet.
What Judge Kavanagh has failed to do is
to acquaint himself with the bareSt essentials
of the modern science of penology. If We are
ever to reform criminals, they must be prepared
for life as it is lived outside prisons Hence, the
model prison must go as far as possible in re-
producing the conditions and responsibilities Of
normal life.
Judge Kavanagh is lawyer in the. great city
of Chicago We wonder if he would believe
that the best preparation for young associate
in his law office would be pearl fishing in the
South Seas.
Chicago has plenty of good Libraries on the
subject of history and criminal law. 1t might
pay the Judge to read up on criminal law
prison conditions and the crime rate in seven
teenth century England where the stern methods
OF punishment he recommends were vigorously
applied