The Views of Boston’s District Attorney.
To the Editor of the Boston Post:
Sir—The morning Post states that in a speech last night I said that in 10 years there would be no prisons. This is far from what I said and I would ask you to make due correction.
With the fullest hope and confidence in human nature I must confess that I have not as yet reached the point where I could express the belief that Utopia would be realized within the next decade. What I did say was that within that time courts would no longer pronounce definite sentence upon those found guilty of crime, but that the sentence or length of time during which a guilty man should be deprived of his liberty for the safety of the community would be determined by some competent board of men appointed for that purpose, with all the power and dignity of a court, who, after the fullest investigation, would determine where the person should be sent and for what length of time, subject to modification thereafter.
I said that the distinction between felony and misdemeanor would be abolished and the State Prison and House of Correction would be abolished under those names and that all institutions would be known as Houses of Reformation only, the added sting and stigma of felony and State Prison being removed.
I do feel that the prison of the future will differ from the prison of to-day as much as ours does from the dungeons of yesterday, even as the thought of punishment of a guilty man is disappearing from the theory of advanced thinkers in criminology and in its place reformation and development of the convicted man is becoming the principal consideration.
Yours truly,
J. C. Pelletier,
District Attorney.
Boston, December 18, 1913.