Various

“ The criminal code of Indiana is absolutely silent upon the question of recovery for loss or damage to property and injuries to the person growing out of criminal acts, except that in cases of malicious trespass the court may fine a defendant a sum equal to twice the amount of the property damaged. To fine a person double the value of the property damaged and, because of his failure to pay the same, place the additional burden on the citizen of supporting him in the workhouse or jail seems in itself an absurdity. ”

“ A prisoner should never be committed to jail to serve time. The average jails of this country are a disgrace to civilization and are cesspools for the breeding of diseases and crime. Many of the cases that come to the police and criminal courts for minor offences only require supervision, change of surroundings and a new home. Institutional treatment should be the last remedy. What we must do, is to abolish the fixed sentence and de-institutionalize our institutions, and, finally, these people must be made to feel whether in an institution or out of one they are working for home-making. ”

“ We know not how or when temptation may overcome us or those dear to us; but we do know that in the lives of even the worst of those that have fallen from grace, there was a first fall! And the crucial time, therefore, to begin crime prevention is before that first fall, during the time of youth. ”

“ The old method of collecting money fines which compelled the defendant to pay or replevy the same the moment he was fined was always a source of great hardship on the poor. It was unreasonable to expect a common laborer arrested late at night, and convicted in the morning, to be prepared to settle with the State. If he was unable to pay or make arrangements to have his fine staid for the statutory period, he was sent to prison, not because the court had given him a term of imprisonment, but because he was poor, which is in effect imprisonment for debt. ”

“ Modern penology, in order to aid social progress, must sentence its unkempt, immoral and diseased citizens to an indefinite term of sunshine, fresh air and honest work, with such system as will make of them an asset rather than a liability when returned to society. Modern penology must be able to say that if this cannot be done, then sterilization or definite isolation on the farm must be provided. Modern penology, in addition to all this, must impress upon society the importance of ideal administration for its wayward subjects ”

“ From what has been said it might be urged that crime prevention should begin in and be confined to the home. No one will deny that the home is the most potent factor in preserving the peace and purity of any community. We know if our youths will but follow the teachings of the religions of their parents, they will not fall into the error and follow lives of crime. But religion is not practiced in every home; and all parents do not know how to influence or control the minds of their children any more than did the poor Slav woman, when in desperation, she dragged her boy to school on a rope. ”

“ The same is true with respect to the possibilities—good and bad—of all mankind. The population of our prisons is simply the misguided flood of Society’s stream, destroying everything that obstructs it, and polluting itself as it courses along its aimless path. ”

“ The aim of the City Court of Indianapolis during my term of four years was to administer justice tempered with humanity. The welfare of unfortunates, and the saving of women and children from hunger and want, was to the court a matter of greater moment than the piling up of a vast amount of fines and costs. If the efficiency of the court was to be determined by the number of dollars and cents, wrested from offenders, then the constitutional provision above referred to should be rewritten and the law of 1907 repealed. ”

“ I have seen men come in, serve their time, go out and then come back again and again for similar offenses. And yet they were once good innocent boys, born of good, industrious and well-meaning parents, who had great hopes for their future careers. In the end Society suffered from the repeated damage they had done, their parents grieved in disappointment and sorrow, and the erring boys finally become social outcasts and parasites, of no use to themselves nor to any one else. ”

“ With the description of the schools themselves, their physical conditions, financing, management, difficulties of personnel, discipline, methods of elementary, industrial and religious education, of social training, of employment, inadequate facilities of proper aftercare, the methods of administration of single institutions and of the whole system of institutions, their inspection, and a horde of other things, we get into territory that is as pertinent to our own problems in this field as it is across the sea. ”

“ If results are ever obtained in the handling of unfortunates it will be through right treatment. There must be a thorough investigation before the stain of prison life sentence is passed. In a great percentage of the cases for minor offences, rather than a workhouse sentence, these unfortunates require nothing more than a dismissal with a friendly word of encouragement from the court. Or, if in the judgment of the courts they need supervision, they should be turned over to a practical probation officer who will see to it that it is not necessary to commit them to imprisonment. ”

“ Probation has been defined as a judicial system, under which an offender against penal law, instead of being imprisoned, is given an opportunity to reform himself under supervision and subject to conditions imposed by the court, to the end that if he makes good no penalty will be imposed. ”

“ The middle class represents very largely mechanics, clerks and laborers, in no sense criminals, but who for some breach of the peace are brought into court and who are generally of a deserving character. It is to this class that the work has been directed. A money fine is their punishment, but instead of imprisoning them, they were paroled with instructions to pay into the probation department each week one dollar or as much as could be spared from the family treasury, until the amount indicated by the court is paid in full. ”

“ This means a new era, this method of treating prisoners—an overturning of the old traditions of prison government, a serious break with the past, an almost scornful disregard of the cherished traditions of bars and cells, tortures and punishments. It means an amazing change in the attitude of society toward the prisoner, and a startling change in the feeling of the prisoner toward society. ”

“ And after outlining the important social factors that make for prostitution, such as ignorance, mental or moral defect, natural impulses, alcohol, illegitimacy, broken homes, bad homes, low wages, wretched industrial conditions—and their potential offsets through education, religion, science, sanitation, enlightened and far-reaching statesmanship, he continues: “Civilization has stripped for a life-and-death wrestle with tuberculosis, alcohol and other plagues. ”

“ This touch of humanity in the administration of justice in a criminal court was not only a profitable investment so far as the public was concerned, but better than all, it made possible the social regeneration of thousands of men and women. ”

“ In handling prisoners for the past sixteen years, starting with the old-time methods of having a 30 foot wall, cells, locks and bars, with stripes for clothing (and a prisoner when reported by an officer for failure to comply with some order was taken into a room, his clothing removed and lashed with a cat-o-nine tails by the officer who reported him) convinces me that the open-air method, with as few restrictions as possible so far as the inmates are concerned, will give us better results from the standpoint of discipline and reformation. ”

“ Rarely does one find so pretentious a book so insular in its actual scope. The student desirous of knowing how penal methods developed in France, or Germany, or the United States would be at sea, save for the most occasional reference. And when we come to the developments of the English penal system itself since the 70’s of the last century, we obtain little. ”

“ It is the right of every child to be safeguarded in a way that it may not, through ignorance or lack of proper guidance and warning, be doomed to spend its life behind prison bars. It will surely be an agreeable and noble task for our teachers to so safeguard the child. In this way, it may fall to the lot of one of them to prevent that poor Slav boy from ending his days with another rope about his neck. ”

“ Nevertheless, we are demonstrating every day the economy of using prison labor, as well as the economy of giving these men reasonable accommodations. I can’t give you as yet the figures you want. We are teaching these men how to work, and the usefulness of work. The bulk of them, when they leave here, are not going upon farms, but back to the cities from which they came. So we are teaching some city trades, but without neglecting farm industries. We are raising about all we need to eat, as well as the stock we raise for food. ”

“ They may have gone through life up to that time with little or no temptation, knowledge of the wickednesses of the world being withheld from them by watchful parents. Many have gone on offending for a long time before they are exposed; while others, tempted on all sides from youth upwards to commit crime, resist the temptations repeatedly by sheer force of character and will power. The tendency of youths in general, however, is in the direction of mischief when curiosity and temptation beckon ”

“ Through the probation department, the court attempted to meet every angle of the social problem as represented by the delinquents brought before the court. To the need of employment could be traced many cases of delinquency. To meet this condition, special efforts were made to obtain employment for men. From a crude beginning, it developed into a permanent plan, resulting in all of the larger employers of labor looking to the probation department for their help. More than 600 persons secured employment in this way. ”

“ On this land we have constructed some 30 buildings, consisting of dormitories, dining rooms, lounging halls, hospital, horse and dairy barns. These are all one-story buildings, and are built of wood, with a view of giving ample light and ventilation. The plan for the prisoners is that of the congregate or dormitory system, having no cells, locks or bars about the institution. Two hundred prisoners are taken care of during the night in each dormitory, and as we have 600 male prisoners this requires three buildings. Cots are arranged side by side in these dormitories on raised platforms. ”

“ One of the most difficult problems that confronted the courts was the disposition of minors, when the offense was so serious that the best interests of society would be subserved by incarceration. Through an arrangement with the superintendent of the workhouse, an unused wing of the building was set apart for such offenders, and in this way they were kept separate and apart from the old and hardened offender. ”

“ We handle the women prisoners from the City of Washington with the same system of buildings as are provided for the men. The female department is managed by women and the two institutions are some distance apart. The average population of the female department is about one hundred. The women do the laundry work and make the clothes for the population of the two institutions. ”

“ The male inmates make a detour of the grounds in going to dining room and shops, and are permitted to exercise in the open air for three-quarters of an hour on Sundays. They march two abreast, and each inmate is allowed to converse with his companion. The female prisoners are allowed to exercise in the yard three times a day on week days, and on Sundays for about two hours.
The convalescent sick are allowed to walk around the grounds the greater part of the day, when the weather is favorable. The prisoner’s hair is never clipped, except occasionally for sanitary reasons when received. ”

“ Again, many youths turn out badly in spite of religious parents and good homes, because of vicious associations abroad. For these reasons, then, I believe that the problem of crime prevention must be solved in our schools and colleges, leaving to parents the matter of selecting neighborhood companions of their children and of selecting respectable neighborhoods in which to bring them up. ”

“ During the evening and after the days’ work is done and on Sundays the men are taken to a large building known as the Rest Hall and Library, where they are permitted to talk, play checkers, read the daily newspapers, which are bought for them by the management, and they have access to a library of over 4,000 volumes. On summer evenings and on Sundays the inmates are permitted to take the benches out into the yard where it is possible to enjoy more freedom and have an abundance of fresh air. ”

“ In reference to the children themselves, the principal demands are for more intensive classification, particularly by age, more education, especially physical training, less drudgery, less punishment, more individual attention. ”

“ Repression requires an abundance of institutional facilities such as nowhere exists. Although important good is achieved at the moment (by repression) and still more in the long run, prostitution as a formidable problem will still remain. Repression is what the physicians call symptomatic treatment. ”

“ The teachers should not confine themselves to lectures on the abstract qualities of truth, honesty, purity, justice, etc., as these are usually wasted when delivered to children. Let them take concrete examples from the columns of our newspapers and impress upon the pupils the moral lesson in each selected article, and thereby cause the press to become a moral agency instead of a contaminator of weak youthful minds. ”

“ There is already a ball team that has beaten, with one exception, all the teams that have come from the surrounding towns. There is fishing and swimming in case of good behavior. And when the warden gets the prison all built, he is going to turn much of the land, which is not used for farming, in to a kind of natural park. ”

“ Then we must have prevention, which is formation, not reformation; for 95 per cent. of our subjects in the penal institutions and reformatories of the country have never been correctly formed in their mental and physical make-up. ”