94 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 



examination, by gentlemen every way competent to form cor- 

 rect opinions. 



In the report of tlie State Board of Charities of the state 

 of Illinois we find the evidence that the jails in that state are 

 equally obnoxious to unfavorable criticism. This Board in 

 their report say : 



" The prisoners, iu nearly every instance, are absolutely without em- 

 ployment for mind or body. There are no libraries in the jails; even a 

 Bible is ordinarily wanting ; papers are rarely furnished, and no work is 

 provided for the prisoners, much less required of them. Idleness is a 

 fruitful source of vice ; and enforced idleness has developed, and always 

 will, the most debasing passions and habits. * * 



" The efforts made at reformation of criminals in the jails of this state 

 are unsystematic, unintelligent, fitful, and in the most of the counties 

 wholly wanting. * * * 



"There are three objects in view in all criminal legislation— ^?'S<, the 

 satisfaction of justice; second^ the protection of society; tliird, the reform- 

 ation of the offender. 



"As to the first of these ends, vengeance is a divine prerogative. The 

 second and third are the only ends which society has the right to seek to 

 accomplish. But be it so. Admit for argument's sake that the public 

 has a right to torture the criminal in its power, simply because he 

 deserves torture. What then ? Then let the law prescribe what and how 

 he shall suffer. If he is worthy of death, hang or behead him ; but do 

 not, without color of law, kill him by inches by refusing him air to 

 breath. If he has taken his neighbor's goods, let him by hard labor 

 atone for the act. Let him make restitution. But do not deny him the 

 light of day ; do not compel him to be idle, for weeks and months ; do not 

 disgrace our boasted christian civilization, by forcing him to live over an 

 open privy-vault used by a score of prisoners. But a county jail is not 

 solely or principally a place of punishment. It is more properly a 

 place for safe-keeping of persons awaiting trial, about one-third of whom 

 are, upon trial, declared to be innocent. The jail is also used for the 

 detention of the insane and of witnesses — persons not suspected of crime. 

 That a person guiltless of crime should be forced into such a place, and 

 there confined for weeks or months, his health destroyed, and all his finer 

 feelings outraged, is itself a crime against humanity. Such a policy 

 makes great criminals out of little ones." 



We have testimony from Ohio showing that the common 

 jail system in that State is similar in its developments as in 

 other States. 



