74 THE JUKES. 



their relations from disgrace, or to save themselves from the odium 

 of appearing on prison registers, resuming their real names on dis- 

 charge. Eighth, The registering, as facts, statements made by pris- 

 oners which are purely fictions. Thus, under the name " religious 

 training," the convicts figure as Catholic or Protestant, when the 

 most superficial examination demonstrates they are absolutely in- 

 different to either faith and equally ignorant of the tenets of both. 

 Under the head " education," many are registered as " read and 

 write " who can only write their name and can hardly spell, while 

 under " social condition " the married are registered as single, those 

 who have never lived in any other than illicit relations are regis- 

 tered as married, and under that aegis are allowed to write letters to 

 their concubines serving sentence in the female prison or in some 

 penitentiary, because the law allows correspondence only between 

 man and wife. 



There is therefore every possible variety of error to impair the 

 value of what are called our criminal statistics. Under the circum- 

 stances, we can fully appreciate the candor of Gen. Francis A. 

 Walker when he says, in his preface to the Statistics of Crime and 

 Pauperism in United States Census for 1870:* "The results are 

 now submitted with the remark, that neither the statements of crime 

 nor those of pauperism for the year are regarded as possessing any 

 high degree of statistical authority." * Although " the 



numbers reported respectively as receiving poor support and as in 

 prison on the ist of June, 1870, are regarded as quite accurately de- 

 termined." 



In view of these facts, it was found necessary to make a tenta- 

 tive examination of the prisoners themselves, to get at some approxi- 

 mately correct data which might serve in the study of crime charac- 

 ter, crime causes and the unfolding of crime careers. The numbers 

 who have been examined, however, are too few to be accepted as 

 finally conclusive statistics upon the subject ; but they prove how 

 entirely practicable it is to get quite trustworthy information on a 

 very wide range of inquiries covering the entire life of the individual, 

 and on many points respecting his parentage and his relations. 



* Vol. i., page 567. 



