Show REFORM OF CONVICTS The San Francisco Examiner says that the prevalent method of turning criminals loose commissioned to renew their depredations upon society on the expiration of arbitrary terms of imprisonment im-prisonment without reference to the evidence a presumption of their reformation re-formation has just encountered another an-other signal arraignment and cites the case of a Seattle convict lately discharged dis-charged from prison who while being arrested for burglary killed his captor cap-tor and was only taken after a battle with a number of the police force and being severely wounded Our San Francisco exchange at the conclusion of its article says As a rule it will be found that the later crimes of lawbreakers emerging from prison are more systematic more comprehensive more desperate than the crimes for which they were first sentenced The fact speaks ill for the influence of the existing prison system upon those who are subjected to it Yet more pointedly if that be possible does it condemn the policy of exposing society anew to the attacks of its enemies ene-mies more imtaruited and more deeply schooled in crime than they were at the outset of their criminal career If not for the sake of the criminal if not for the repute and the rationality of its system of punishment then for its own protection and preservation society ought to ordain that terms of imprisonment shall bear some relation to good conduct and more especially that discharges shall be conditional upon evidences of the convicts reform There is much in this criticism but how shall the evil complained of be remedied That is a problem which has never been solved How can prison or other authorities know whether a man who has served a term of imprisonment impris-onment has reformed They may know his record in the prison but they can know nothing further This being so it would be impossible for them to have any knowledge as to whether or not evidences of a convicts reform were genuine The prison system of the country is not calculated to reform criminals and it is doubtful if one convict in a hundred hun-dred goes out of a prison reformed Doubtless many emerge who have a desire and intention to reform but the path before them is so hard that the great majority fall by the wayside Before there can be any considerable reform among convicts there must be provision made to aid them after they come out of prison The Salvation Army is doing something in this way I in providing what may be called refuge 1 homes where the exconvict may find 11 a word of welcome and a friendly hand to extend aid So far as the matter I of convict reform is concerned the real 1 reform must begin when liberty is restored re-stored Like all other evils this one of how to deal with convicts is much easier to recognize than to suggest its remedy |