THE JUKES. 71 



II. 



FURTHER STUDIES OF CRIMINALS. 



STATE-PRISON CONVICTS. 



The State of New York has enacted thirty statutes or parts of 

 Statutes which relate to the collection, accuracy, and preservation 

 of the statistics of crime, the administration of criminal justice, the 

 finances of penal institutions, the identification of the criminal 

 classes, and the indenture, conduct and fate of minors who have been 

 placed in reformatories. There are at least nineteen distinct classes 

 of officers upon whom is imposed some part of the duty of mak- 

 ing these returns correct, or of preserving them when they are re- 

 ported to the proper officers, according to the provisions of law. 

 Before making an examination of the convicts in the prisons of this 

 State, which was ordered by resolution of the Association June 24, 

 1875, i^ ^^s thought advisable to examine the statistics which the 

 law has made such elaborate provisions to collect, so that the inquiry 

 might rest upon postulates indicating the right direction of study 

 and establish standards for the comparisons of associated facts. 

 For this purpose, the registers of State prisons and penitentiaries, 

 the returns of county magistrates, the records of jails and of county 

 clerks, and the archives of the Secretary of State have been exam- 

 ined, only to find that nothing exists sufficiently reliable to serve 

 in the study of crime or the movements of crime classes, and that 

 a beginning must be made from the foundation. The provisions of 

 the law itself are so incongruous that no just comparisons can be in- 

 stituted, even if every oflftcer should make an exact return according to 

 the statute, for the schedules differ widely, the reports are made to 



