When the Association was first organized it was presided over for a number of years by that noble man, Rutherford B. Hayes. After his death another noble man from Ohio became your presiding officer; and I am glad that General Brinkerhoff is still in our midst.
My understanding is that there are two purposes in punishing crime. The first is to protect society; the second, to bring about the reformation of the prisoners. With these ends in view the prisons should always be healthful, but the prisoners should not live in luxury. The reformation of the prisoner is most desirable, and he should be treated with that end in view. If you succeed in reforming those men and women you have accomplished a most noble work. In your efforts you need and are entitled to the sympathy of all, and I give you a most hearty welcome to the old “Buckeye State.”
The chairman introduced Corporation Counsel M. W. Beacom, who represented Mayor John H. Farley in his absence.
I wish to express the Mayor’s feeling of gratitude, that you have chosen this city for your conclave. Your purpose is not to further your own interest, but to uplift humanity. I take it that there is a tendency in the caring for criminals to run to sentimentalism. I think that all such theories should be laid aside, but the health and environment of the prisoners should be good. In behalf of the Mayor and the people of Cleveland I welcome you to this city.
HON. FREDERICK HOWARD WINES, LL.D.,
Responded in a graceful way to the addresses of welcome. He outlined the objects of work of the Association at some length. Dr. Wines is the Assistant Director of the United States Census, and, as Assistant Director, thought he ought to be the most popular man in Cleveland. He said he was very glad to come to Ohio, for it was his birthplace. What the Governor has said about the object of this organization was right so far as it goes. Not only do we mean to look after the interests of prisoners, while they are in prison, but also after they have been released, and even before they are put in prison. We want to know with reference to the prisoner what is desirable and possible to do for him. Dr. Wines spoke of the different theories held with reference to the criminal class. One view, he said was held generally by many religious people, and it was that since all people were bad, the so-called prison class was no worse than the other class except in being less fortunate. The other extreme view was, that the average prisoner had so inherited criminal tendencies, that all efforts to reform him would prove futile. The truth, he said, lay somewhere between these two extremes.
ADDRESS.
CAPTAIN EDWARD S. WRIGHT, PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION.
We all retain memories of having regard for all the men and women who have been helpers in the work we have in hand. One name will always stand highest, that of General Rutherford B. Hayes, for ten years our President, and to many of us a type of a gallant American gentleman. His life and labor in the promotion of humanity in prisons, and the reformation of the imprisoned, are crystalized in the records of the proceedings of the Association.
Following the history of prison reform work in the world, and especially in this country, he said, “Thus it has come about that a cellular system of confinement in separation in the intervals of work has come to be called the American System of imprisonment. In nearly all the prisons of this country details may vary in some points, but in the main the prisons closely resemble each other. No better form of imprisonment has yet been devised. Nearly all these changes in prison discipline of the United States have taken form in the latter part of the century.”