| Show PRISON REFORM thin THE attack which W P andrews made in the october forum for urn on oa reformatory prisons has as a matter of course attracted much attention it to is just the kind of subject which small editors grasp at with avidity because it looks like a convenient vehicle for a large amount of smartness along with much ignorance and with no great risks attached this prison document has proven a particularly rich morsel for these writers against space and they have worked it in their usually brilliant fashion there is plenty of room for adverse opinions on the prison question so long as it is confined to jails it is consistent for wise men to disagree on the subject of capital punishment the man who has religious or humane com commune comp pune unc eions awat against net the taking of human life to is reasonable in protesting against what he be terms judicial homicide of all kinds the man who considers the question solely upon the standard of human right is just as reasonable in holding that the person who has become sufficiently depraved to commit a certain offense against his fellow man has forfeited absolutely the confidence of men and likewise the right to exist among them to their jeopardy ani harm men may also argue if they wish that all prisons are institutions for reform rather than for punishment we believe that with men who have pursued lives of crime to a certain agathe chances for reform are very slight but reform schools in their proper jand and strict significance do not belong in such a controversy and it is only ignorance of social equity that would question their propriety or usefulness through incapable parentage criminal associations or the influence of so some other school for criminals a large number of the children born into this MIA world never know the meaning of discipline or government till some overt wrong forfeits their liberty to the state to such youths the reform school is a place of education where those influences of cor reel association and home discipline which parents failed to bestow may be given mr andrews has not the ti merity to assail openly this class of institutions but with covert allusions he furnishes a text for scribble rs to harp upon the idea that the state may not take into account the question of reform in dealing with ordinary criminals is monstrous but assuming that all prisons are purely institutions of punishment in this age they can never fill the measure of their purpose save through appropriate discrimination between criminals the centuries have proven that law to is effective more directly in proportion to thu the promptness aud and severity of the punishment every thoughtful citizen of this thi co country u is anxious for reform in our prison arrangements but mr andrews has not touched the key note of the popular feeling by any means the conditions do not demand that the convicts life should be in general more severe but that there should be more certainty in bringing criminals to conviction vic tion |
