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Show oo CRIME AND A SOLUTION Portland, Ore.. July 2 The only-solution only-solution for the pioblem of crime which is estimated to cost the roun try six billions of dollais 8 year-is year-is the suspended sentence or probation, proba-tion, in the opinion of McKensie C."e la'id, of Chicago, who addressed tho seciional conference on Prison Re form today in connection with the World's Christian Citizenship confer-I confer-I ente in session here The prison la the connecting link between civilization and savagery Mr. Cleland asserted "Were there no prisons now in existence, It is in conceivable that enlightened society would adopt such an unnatural and unscientific svstera fcr the treatment of its defective members it is unquestionably true that to the prison haa been assigned the most difficult nnd the most important task in organized society, viz, the pr-v;i tion of crime and the rehabilitation ot the criminal Upon its success de pend to a large degiee the happiness, contentment and prosperity of the nallon. It is expected and required to take the hereditary criminal, the physical, mental and moral defective, the educated delinquent, the ignorant land unlearned, the conict whose only offense is his poert. and with the crudest of equipment for the rfost part sunless and unventilated cells, striped suits and perchance a few Si sorted books hand these unfortunates back ln a lew weeks or a few years to society freed from their hereditarv taints, healthy, useful citizens in lo N with their country and its laws "The largest single Item of cost III every civilized nation is now the cost of crime. In the United States th i investment in prisons exceeds five j hundred million dollars, while the an I nual cost of maintenance Is upward of two hundred million dollars. No I accurate estimate of the cost of crime Is obtainable, but If has been placed j by excellent authority a6 high as lis billion dollars per annum for the I n ted States, a sum ten times in excess of the total cost of the government in twenty-six years the number of homicides in the United States has Increased over 20 per cent in propor tion to the population. "It has built up a professional criminal crimi-nal clas6. In every country there is a large and increasing class of professional pro-fessional criminals practically all of whom have served one or more prison terms. It is estimated tbat the yearly earnings of these criminals ln the United States exceeds eight hundred million dollars. Ever person is necessarily nec-essarily a school for crime and in (he United States alone approximately 800. ii 0 1 1 persons w lio are thus impns oned annually are given a compulsory education in crime. If there wero no Jails there would be no schools for crime ' It has increased disease and po erty The Creator did not intend that man should Ine in prison The most deadly disease known to civilization Is tuberculosis, whose greatest aids are dampness, darkness and dirt, thci special characteristics of most pris ons It Is Insisted by the highest authorities that there Is three times as much tuberculosis among prison erj as amoni; others No estimate i can be placed upon the amount of this disease disseminated by prison made poods and discharged prisoners. I 'If punishes the innocent as well as the guilty The greatest wroni; I committed today ib the imprisonment I of the bread winner and the sale b;, the state of his labor to prUon contractors, con-tractors, or its confiscation by the state itself, while the family of Che convict is left to suffer This crime against innocent womanhood and childhood is as disgraceful as it la unnecessary "It does not reform the offender. Forty per rent of all prison gradu.ne are again imprisoned, many of them scores of tlmeB Petty offenders in ciiieB serve as many as two hundred or more sentences No process In the arts of manufactures, 40 per cent of whose product Is defective, would b tolerated Its failure is Logical and inevitable. Not until roses can be grown in s cellar can character be developed in a M1. "As a means of reform the prison has been the most colossal failure In civilized society. The indeterminate sentence and parole now adopted In I twenty nine states are attempts to I remedy a system whereby it is sought lo reform one man and punish rtn I other by locking them both ln the same cell for the same term "Because uf the inherent impoesi bllity of Improving subnormal men in subnormal surroundings, the duty of reforming delinquents must be removed re-moved from the prison and placed elsewhere, and the prison be mad what it was intended to be and what if is fitted only to be a place of de-tention de-tention where irreclaimable offenders be deprived of their liberty and required to labor in order to make restitution to their victims and fuf-r.tsh fuf-r.tsh support to those dependent upon j them. "The one instlti-.Mon of tho state which Is qualified and equipped to deal with offenders capable of refor mation Is the court. Possessing the necessary power aud intelligence to 9 determine causes and effects, it can bring to bear upon every delinquent th? particular process bj which Ills deficiency physical, mental or mora1 may be removed and he may be re stored to his proper place In society without the disgrace or contagion of a prison term This is the economic reformntorv principle of probation or the suspended sentence, which is ab old as Chrisilan civilization and which has been adopted In two thirds of our states and many foreign nations. "Wherever put Into operation by judges in sympathy with it. it has been greatly successful In reducing crime It appeals directly to the most powerful reformatory instrument known, the delinquent's own honor and self respect, and constitutes the only process by which the problem of crime and the criminal may be solved." |