Show PRISON CONGRESS MEETS IN OCTOBER Delegates From AH AU Over World to Assemble in National Capital Capita WILL TOUR THE COUNTRY COUNTRYMEN MEN ARE ENGAGED IN STUDY OF CRIMINALS V New York April 9 From all nIl the un unU U of Europe from distant China and Japan from sister nations of 01 South America and even from distant Pacific io islands and the Australian continent will come to Washington in October 1910 official representatives s of their governments to study in convention the causes the treatment and the prevention prevention prevention tion of crime Every five flYe years since 1870 an international prison congress has been held neld with some European na nation nation tion This year for the thea first time this congress meets in the western hemis hemisphere phere p ere and is the guest of the United States of America Men and women whose names are arc Internationally fa famous famous inous will gather for nearly two weeks in Washington The congress meets in four sections one on the administration tion of criminal law one on the admin administration adminIstration administration of prisons one on measures to prevent crime and one on juvenile de do delinquency delinquency It probably still tilI seems strange to most people that the study of crime its treatment and its prevention should engage the attention of philanthropists Jurists and of many people whose gen gon general general eral oral work in the world is seemingly far removed from prison walls Yet with within in the last thirty years and largely be because because because cause of the Influence of the international international international prison congress and of the tho Amer Amen Amerlean lean can association a new pew view has spread throughout the western world regarding the relation of crime to civili civilization ration The American Bastile There was a time no se s very long ago gO when It If a man committed crime the logical thing to be to shut him behind prison walls waIts and forget hint him When Charles Dickens came to the United States about the middle of ot the tho nineteenth century he said Mid that he wished to see particularly two things Niagara Palls Falls and the American Bas Baa Bastile tile The latter prison nicknamed the American Am Ican Bastile was the Eastern penitentiary of Pennsylvania Pennsyl hia beat located located ed at Philadelphia Here according to Dickens account he found men each separately confined in a cell from which the prisoner could leave lease only to togo togo togo go Into a HUe litle yard about as large arge as his cell and directly behind his cell When exercising here he found tho the walls so high that he could not see lee ee over them nor could he see any human be being beIng ing at any time except occasionally a aJan jail Jan official or a chaplain Thus for years men were imprisoned without seeing each other working each in his own cell and buried burled from the world A great change has come about in American systems of dealing with pris prisoners prisoners prisoners How great this change is will be plain to the hundred or more foreign delegates who In company with an equal number of noted Americans will make a tour from September 19 to 28 1910 of the eastern and central sections of the United States On September 19 a special train of ten Pullmans equipped with all aU modern conveniences will leave the Erie station at Jersey city All the foreign guests will be guests of tho th United States govern government government government ment Each American will meet his own expenses Important Tour The tour toul will be almost without prec precedent precedent precedent in its extent and in its importance tance The following f institutions will willbe willbe willbe be visited Elmira Reformatory George Junior Republic Auburn State prison Mansfield Ohio Reformatory Michigan City Indiana prison various correctional institutions in and about aboul Chicago various Institutions In and about Indianapolis In Jeffersonville Re Reformatory Reformatory and Washington D 0 C cor correctional correctional Institutions At the very start the foreign guests wilt will wi visit ElmIra N Y Reformatory Here they will find an administration and nd a I system SY the th very ery Very opposite pp sie of the old separate confinement system They will vill vi see some 1301 13 young men living in separate cells at night hut but working together in the day time drill drilling drillIng ing under the most approved military system building up their physical con condition condition dlton with the latest methods IOs of gym gymnasium gm nalum work being bing instructed in some thirty trades In trade schools studying In many different ed eg educational uc classes cla ses and most lO t important of ot all al earning their own release by their own conduct their own industry and ind their own scholarship How far we are today from the old plan of burying a prisoner behind pris prison on walls wals for torn a certain fixed fi ed time gener getter generally ally alY a a period of years Today the young offender however serious serous his crime if f it I be not murder is apt to tobe tobe tobe be sentenced to a reformatory where whereas as a stated above through his own ef of efforts forts orts he may earn his parole on an Indeterminate sentence At Elmira re reformatory ref ref f for Instance most of the young men gain In their conditional mal re release lease ease In about fourteen months Then Thenor for or six months they th y are re on parole parole They serve sere this six months of their sen sea sentence tence lence outside of prison walls wals and are their theli own masters except that they the must report once nce a month to their pa parole parole parole role officers In Jn the locality in which they the live HV Changes Brought by Years This difference between the old and the new Is but typical of ot the general generl change of opinion regarding crime The Thelast Thelast last ast fifteen years year have brought to the western world the th conviction that crime crimes Is s not always caused by moral depravIty ity Iy The conditions under which a boy bo grows up the predisposition which he inherits to certain tendencies and the lack of means of education and of In Inculcating morality all al act ac on ott the boy particularly on a city boy to make him himan himan himan an offender and later a a criminal Under those these thee circumstances the mod modern modern modem ern em tendency has been to prevent crime by sy bettering the conditions under which children grow up and to prevent the re recurrence recurrence recurrence currence of crime by seeking in every possible way wa to restore discharged pris prisoners prisoners to society and to work because It is seen that that work is the best antidote for crime These and a n hundred other questions will be discussed by the International Prison congress The congress begins on Sunday October 2 with a reception at the White House at Washington at which the attorney general and probably probably ably bly the President will wl give addresses Each morning a section meeting will willbe wI willbe be held and each afternoon a general meeting t ting probably at the Smithsonian Institute In the evening there will wi be general meetings and banquets and nd ex ox excursions excursions At least 1000 persons from fromal all al parts part of the United States will at attend attend attend tend this great congress to study crime Already foreign governments even as asfar asfar asfar far away as China and Japan Japa have no notified notified the American directors of the congress of their Intention to send del delegates delegates In short this congress will be per perhaps perhaps perhaps haps the most moat representative congress of the nations of the world which has ever been held in the th United States Among are distinguished foreign guests The president of the International Prison congress Is this year a prominent prominent prom nent font American Prof Charles R H R Hen Henderson Henderson Henderson derson of ot the University of Chicago The secretary is Dr of the state stae bureau of ot statistics in Switzer Switzerland Switzerland land The he business manager of the con congress congress congress gress is Frederick H Mills of 97 War Warren Warren Warren ren street New Y 10 ork city |