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Show TREATMF-NT OF BOS' ON DRUNKARDS. The commissioners appointed by tho common council of lljstou lo investigate in-vestigate the punishment ot drunkards drunk-ards have made a report. One of them is a clergyman, one ia a lawyer, and the other is a physician. They say that they have visited many reformatory re-formatory iusti utious in the large cities uf tnis country, and that generally gener-ally the penalty fur drunkuonetii is a tine of tin del Urn, with an alternative 'ot ten days iu )ail. Their opinion is I that a fine is not si much a punishment punish-ment of the druukaid hh of his family, tor they either pay it (or him or are pinched by the loss ul the money from bis wages. As to the imprisonment, they think that it rarely doe any good. They Baw a young woman who bad been committed tilty seven times, and was apparently as far as possible from reformation. A short terra of incarceration, although it may free the prisoner's system o! alcohol,1 doe not destroy his appetite for stimulant. Not less than ayear of total aijetiu ence is necessary for any lasting benefit ben-efit in that direction. The com mission mis-sion ere therefore say: "Thus by the substantially unanimous unani-mous voice of the men who have, had mot experience in dealing with inebriates, in-ebriates, judges, officers of police, stud superintendents ol asylums, your commissioners are led to recommend to the city government a new departure depart-ure in the treatment of drunkards brought before the courts. Without at all entering upon tbe question of their criminality or penal, deserts, thoy recommend that the treatment shall aim primarily at their reformation, reforma-tion, leaving the matter of their ju&t punish men l,to be incidentally, though necessarily, involved. To Ibis, eud, when brought betore the courts, they will not be sentenced to a given punishment, pun-ishment, but committed to an asylum for such protracted period, one year iir more, aa experience baa proved to be necessary, with discretion in the hands of the proper authorities - to grunt probationary absence on well defined conditions, attended, perhaps, by a continued helpful oversight." . In other words, the commissioners recommend that the punishment for continued drunkards be made imprisonment im-prisonment lor one year or more; for bucIi imprisonment would be punishment, punish-ment, whatever the intention of reforming re-forming the prisoners might be. The commissioners evidently regard drunkenness as a disease, and aim to use incarceration as a means of -cure; but, in that view of the subject, they nnt thflmHRlvufl in the attitude Of fora ling one claes of bick men into durance for treatment. New York Sun. |