V
THE CRIMINOLOGIST
Criminology is the one scientific field in which man, puffed up, putters with unskilled hand and brain.
Even the artisan and manipulator of inanimate objects, must win his journeyman’s card. No such thing is demanded of the criminologist by the public; hence the public is seldom treated to the unvarnished criminological truth.
Commonly the bald creatures of political pull, correctional chiefs need bear with them to profound employment but an itch to dabble, and the nerve to flare their farthing candles.
Gentlemen do not dream of reading lessons of craft to the like of doctors, lawyers, and professors; but they keenly relish the idea of crossing swords with criminologists, albeit the latter must be somewhat of doctor, lawyer and professor, in order to prescribe for what makes and keeps men criminal.
Despite the fact that it is easier to bungle at the business of remodeling human clay than at any other activity on earth; and that the bungling works serious harm to humanity, the tinkerer sets up his moulds much in the spirit that a child builds with blocks, then tumbles them over, except for this difference: the child learns as he goes out of fancy and failure, while the grown-up wrecker remains anchored to his puerile notions and notebook.
The machinery of a rational régime of reform must be carefully manipulated. Balance of parts depends upon a nice swing of correlated pendulums. Delicate adjustments encompass the ever shifting moods and susceptibilities of a prison population, in itself as a hair trigger to vibrate to unseemly disturbance of natural checks and impulses. A false edict out of the mouth of authority ofttimes is sufficient to start the prison pot a’boiling. A fool measure directed in favor of just one prisoner, without regard for how it fits into the general scheme, in the end may carry to adverse consequence that affects every prisoner in the place.