The Pennsylvania Journal of Prison Discipline and Philanthropy (Vol. VIII, No. II, April 1853)Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons
Religion
The Pennsylvania Journal of Prison Discipline and Philanthropy (Vol. VIII, No. II, April 1853)
Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons
Charities -- Periodicals; Prisons -- Periodicals
On the whole, we regard this document as decidedly confirmatory of the
views which have been uniformly advocated by the Philadelphia Society
for the Alleviation of the Miseries of Public Prisons, and in the
pages of this Journal. It contains not a statement nor a tittle of
evidence that impairs in the slightest degree our confidence in the
safety, efficacy and humanity of convict-separation. That it has been,
and may be abused or ill-administered, and that it requires judgment
and discrimination to adapt its provisions to the various classes of
persons who are subjected to it, is not more true of this than it is
of the gregarious or any other system. The only substantial fault that
we have ever known to be found with it, is that it costs more than
association, and the only answer to be made to this is, that (admitting
the statement to be true) it is worth as much more as it costs.
ART. III.--SOURCES AND CHECKS OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY.
When the farmer finds his fruit trees exposed to the ravages of the
caterpillar, he makes but slow and unsatisfactory work, if he takes
the worms one by one as they are feasting on the leaf, or crawling
along the stem, or dangling in the air. There is a period of the day,
however, when they are all in their nest, and if he can apply a torch
to their curious fabric and consume it, or riddle it with shot, or wind
it and its wriggling population upon a brush or broom well besmeared
with pitch or tar, to be forthwith put into the fire or under the foot,
the work is thorough and the tree safe.
Not inaptly does this illustrate, or serve to point out the true
process for the diminution of crime. The arrest, conviction and
punishment of here and there a rogue, is scarcely felt. It is but a
unit subtracted from the appalling aggregate of crime. If we would
have the ratio of our criminal population palpably and permanently
lessened, we must lay hold of the young ones in the nest, and whatever
the trouble or cost, we may rest assured it is by all odds the cheapest
and only effectual way of dealing with the pest.
Among the prominent causes of, or excitements to a criminal life
which are operative upon childhood, especially in cities and populous
towns, have been reckoned 1, and chiefly drunkenness. 2. The
absence of education and industrial training. 3. The inadequacy of
home-accommodation to secure the ordinary decencies of life. 4. The
demoralizing influences of cheap theatres, and other low places of
amusement, association with fire companies, and the liberty to dispose
of the whole or a considerable portion of their own earnings. 5. The
example, instruction or orders of parents constraining them to vicious
acts, and 6, the connivance or co-operation of receivers of stolen
goods to prompt them. We might indefinitely enlarge this catalogue, but
these causes are adequate to account for the greater part of juvenile
crime.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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