The cost of crime in this city is enormous and, sad to say, is on the increase, and nothing is done to make our prison population share the expenses of their own keep; although it is well known that in deference to our Labor Leaders more than half the prisoners in the country are idle most of the time.
We would suggest that the inmates of this colony be classified in the following manner.
1. The diseased. Segregate them by themselves in a charity hospital until cured.
2. The aged and infirm. Send them to the Almshouse.
3. The able-bodied criminal rounder. Lock him up till cured. It is dangerous to keep him at large. But make him work for his living.
4. The chronic tramp and idler. Lock him up and make him work for his living.
5. The habitual drunkard. This man should be confined in a hospital till cured, and afterwards put to work.
CHAPTER XXXVII
THE COST OF CRIME IN GREATER NEW YORK
The cost of crime in the city of New York is a question of such vast importance to the taxpayers as to seem bewildering. It is a most difficult thing to follow crime into its various ramifications. If this could be done satisfactorily, it would show that crime enters a larger area than we think it does. The figures given below do not include the building of a new prison on Riker’s Island, which is a needless waste of $4,000,000. This, with many other steals, can be laid to Tammany politics. Kings County Penitentiary, situated on Crown Street, Brooklyn, was sufficient for all the needs of Greater New York for many years to come, but schemers desired the land on which the prison was built, and after some time, had it condemned and the plant and the real estate sold for a song!