“The Failure of Punishment.
“The condition of affairs which I have been attempting to describe is greatly aggravated by the fact that the idea of punishment and discipline reigns supreme in the prison. Much is said in the rules and regulations about the aim of the institution being to improve every prisoner and turn each man out a better and more useful individual than when he came in. That is one of the standing jokes of the prisoners and not without reason, for one has only to read the book of rules itself to see that the military tradition of punishment and discipline is the medicine which is expected to work this great transformation. But unfortunately most of the occupants of a military prison are there because of their failure or refusal to accept this military tradition. They are there because they are weak, mentally and morally, or too independent for the army or because they object to it on principle.
“So far as I have had experience in life I have yet to observe anything more absolutely negative in its purpose and effects than this method of discipline. The prisoner who has the distinction of having been longest at Fort Leavenworth, had only two more days of his sentence to complete when a guard called him a vile name, and utterly regardless of the inevitable consequences this prisoner knocked the guard down with a brick. He has since received several extensions of sentence because of other defiant acts. The ball and chain, solitary confinement and all the other repressive measures of the prison system have some way not succeeded as yet in turning this man out of prison a ‘better man than when he came in.’ There unquestionably is a criminal element in prison that is a menace to society, but depraved or vicious as some of these men may be, there is yet some good in every one of them and possibilities of truly chivalrous conduct in all of them when properly treated. But the ball and chain, the iron rule, the cursing and foul threats by guards do not seem to bring out the good side of these men.
“Not long before I was released two men were caught fighting in the corridor of the wing near my cell. These two men were not equally guilty. To go into the details of the case would require more space than I have, but the point I wish to bring out is that they both were at once taken to the executive officer of the prison and in ten minutes were back, sentenced alike, to ten days in the ‘hole’ on bread and water. The great object of such prison punishment is to break a man, make him humble, meek and obedient. When this is done the process of making a man of the prisoner seems to be considered completed. A guard once told me while I was in solitary that when he chained a man up backwards as punishment for talking in solitary, as used to be done, he was generally kind-hearted enough to let the man down if he repented and asked for it in the ‘right spirit,’ but if the man was too ‘damned proud to show how much it hurt him he would let him take his medicine.’ I mention this because to my mind it is typical of the punishment and discipline idea of the prison. Actually what happens in this process of breaking is that the prisoner in the great majority of cases is shoved still further down the scale of degradation and lack of self-respect. He becomes either flabby or vicious. This is especially true of such criminal types as need the helpful, sympathetic and human advice and correction of trained men above everything else.
“It is my belief that at the bottom of all that I have been trying to tell, lies not the dishonesty or cruelty of individual officials but a state of mind shared largely by us all, even prisoners themselves oftentimes, viz., the idea that the convict is something apart, something taboo, a person who has forfeited all the rights of normal human beings, and with this idea goes that of punishment, the ingrained belief that the only way to deal with viciousness or wrong-doing is to keep the big stick constantly at hand. This certainly is the theory of our prisons if one is to judge from the products of our reform schools and jails whom I met at Fort Leavenworth. These men very largely had grown up with no other idea of life than that of the big stick. Put one of these prisoners in authority over others and in the majority of cases he can be more dictatorial and cruel than any guard. The supposition is that to make this outcast—the prisoner—bow to authority will make a man of him.
“Prison reform is no easy matter. It must be the work of devoted and expertly trained men and women. Sentimentalism can play no part in it and certainly discipline, properly understood, will always have its place, but it will be discipline in which mutual responsibility, human sympathy and understanding will replace autocracy and indifference to the individual and personal element at stake. It is, perhaps, only fair to say that with the arrival of Major Adler at Fort Leavenworth at the beginning of this year certain very important reforms have been started. But it is going to be a long, uphill fight which will require the enlightened support of the public if prisons are ever to cease being a degrading influence in the prisoner’s life to say nothing of becoming the constructive help that they should be and can be.”
PROHIBITION AND ARRESTS.
Harry M. Chalfant.
... We have a detailed report of the number of arrests in Detroit during the last eight months of license as compared with the first eight months under prohibition. Detroit became dry May 1, 1918, and this report covers the two periods of eight months each, preceding and following that date. It is issued by George H. Walters, deputy police commissioner. Detroit is the largest city in the world to experiment with prohibition, it having close to 1,000,000 people.
We have grouped kindred offenses to secure brevity. The first column shows the number of arrests during the wet period and the second column shows arrests for the same offenses during the dry regime. In the third column we have worked out the percentage of reduction. Under the dry period there were 1511 arrests for violation of the prohibition law and 550 convictions resulted. These are omitted from the list because, obviously, no comparison on this offense could be made. The following figures tell their own story: