186 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



29'4G per cent.* It is thus shown by recent statistics that the 

 various grades of criminal population are increasing more rap- 

 idly than the population at large. The same results have been 

 shown by previous census reports. It must also be remembered 

 that a large number of actual criminals are not under confine- 

 ment, and are hence not included in the figures showing their 

 increase. It has evidently become a vitally important question 

 for decision by society as to the best plan to pursue toward the 

 criminal. In dealing with this problem too much stress is popu- 

 larly laid upon merely punishing the malefactor. Popular con- 

 ceptions of the nature of punishment have varied widely with 

 the age. The earliest enactments of penalty were, in form, vin- 

 dictive ; next retributive ; and, finally, as the highest conception, 

 reformatory. While the State, uninfluenced either by vindictive 

 feeling or pity, deprives criminals of liberty for a time as a 

 measure of self-protection, it must adopt some mode of treatment 

 during incarceration. The old plan consists in getting a certain 

 amount of work out of them to aid in their support, but without 

 making any effort at reform. The unexpressed idea appears first 

 to get even with them, and then kick them out upon society, usu- 

 ally to begin depredations again. An abnormal mental and moral 

 atmosphere is diffused in such a prison, and the large congre- 

 gation of criminals is a school for confirming the vicious. The 

 reformatory plan aims at the prisoner's rehabilitation, so that 

 there may be some hope of right behavior after release. This 

 result is sought by means of physical renovation, industrial and 

 intellectual education, and general moral impression. In order 

 to satisfactorily apply these agencies the science of penology has 

 shown an indefinite sentence with a conditional discharge, in- 

 cluding partial oversight after discharge, to be necessary. It is a 

 fact proved by statistics that a large percentage of criminals are 

 defective either physically or mentally, and have had an unfavor- 

 able heredity and environment.! Under the general system in this 

 country no attempt is made to rehabilitate them during confine- 

 ment. Criminals are first made to a certain extent by unfor- 

 tunate heredity and unfavorable social conditions, and then 

 confirmed by imprisonment. "Weak character and environment 

 bring out the unfittest elements, and society by its treatment 

 hastens to provide for their survival. When we see that, accord- 



* Census Bulletin, No. 72, May 27, 1891. 



f Of 552 convicts received at the State Penitentiary for the Eastern District of Penn- 

 sylvania in 1886, 263 were found in a condition of impaired health, and 174 were in an 

 unsound mental condition, as follows : Insane, 12 ; epileptics, 7 ; mentally undeveloped, 61 ; 

 weak intellect, 77; idiotic, 17: 159 were inclined to grave diseases of the neurotic type, 

 which tend to modify the moral, mental, and physical condition from inheritance of bad 

 formation. 



