THE CALIFORNIA PENAL SYSTEM. 651 



tin at present usually contains about fourteen hundred and Folsom 

 about nine hundred, but an increase equal to the gain in population 

 would give them three thousand instead of twenty-three hundred. 

 Even during the so-called hard times of recent years there has been 

 no marked additions to the criminal classes in California, and the 

 two great strikes — that of the ironworkers and that of the railroad 

 brakemen and firemen — led to surprisingly few violations of the laws. 

 Close observers say that there has been a marked increase during 

 the past decade in the number of tramps, and that petty criminals 

 have increased everywhere. But there are no statistics of the county 

 and township jails. It seems certain that many villages and small 

 towns, even where incorporated, have increasing trouble with gangs 

 of hoodlums who are rapidly fitting themselves for State prisons. 

 The reform schools have been largely recruited from this semi- 

 criminal element, but stronger laws, swifter punishment, more firm- 

 ness in dealing with young offenders, and, in brief, a higher grade of 

 public sentiment on the part of citizens of small towns is evidently 

 necessary. According to recent discussions in the New York Evening 

 Post, the same sort of thing occurs in staid New England, and there, 

 as here, it is one of the most serious problems of the times. From such 

 a class of idle and vicious boys the prisons will hereafter be recruited, 

 rather than from newcomers. 



The nativity tables of both prisons show that the number of Cali- 

 fornia-born convicts ranges in recent years from eighteen per cent in 

 1890 to nearly twenty-five per cent in 1895-96. In that year in San 

 Quentin, out of 819 American-born convicts, 314 were born in Cali- 

 fornia, 68 in New York, 44 in Pennsylvania, 41 in Illinois, 36 in 

 Ohio, and 35 each in Massachusetts and Missouri. Oregon sends 12, 

 Arizona 10; Washington and Nevada are represented by only one 

 apiece. The Southern States, excepting Kentucky and Virginia, 

 send very few. Something the same proportion throughout holds 

 at Folsom, and fairly indicates the States from which the population 

 of California is chiefly drawn. The total of American nativity at San 

 Quentin is sixty-four per cent; at Folsom, as last reported, it was 

 about sixty-five per cent. Of the foreign born (thirty-six per cent at 

 San Quentin), 99 out of 481 were Irish, 82 were Chinese, 56 were 

 German, 49 were Mexican, and 44 were English. No one doubts that 

 the laws are strictly enforced against the Chinese and the Mexicans 

 (meaning Spanish-Calif ornians) ; the other classes have votes and in- 

 fluence, and often have better chances for avoiding punishment for 

 misdeeds. Japan contributes only one convict to San Quentin and 

 two to Folsom. The Chinese as a rule go to prison for assaults upon 

 each other (" highbinding "), for gambling, or similar offenses, but 

 seldom for crimes against Americans. The Mexicans generally come 



