EDITOR'S TABLE. 



267 



hood and disease which, in a state of 

 nature, would be fatal. It is necessary, 

 when humanity thus restrains the op- 

 eration of the laws of Nature, that it 

 should supply a correlative supplement 

 to prevent disastrous consequences. If 

 civilization and philanthropy can not 

 permit Nature to accomplish its inexo- 

 rable decrees in its own way, they must 

 provide some other way, or finally be 

 overwhelmed." 



The practical question may therefore 

 be very simply stated : Can a sufficient 

 amount of public attention be concen- 

 trated on the evils that threaten us, 

 through the disproportionate multipli- 

 cation of criminals, paupers, and phys- 

 ically defective persons, to cause effect- 

 ive measures to be taken to combat those 

 evils, and, as far as possible, extirpate 

 their cause or causes? Mr. Boies shows 

 clearly enough the measures to be taken, 

 and, on the whole, we must say that we 

 find very little to dissent from in his sug- 

 gestions. He pours just denunciation on 

 our present method of turning criminals 

 loose upon the community after a cer- 

 tain term of imprisonment without the 

 slightest guarantee, moral or other, for 

 their future good behavior. He calls at- 

 tention for the thousandth time to the 

 evils wrought by our unwholesome meth- 

 ods of jail administration. " It is the 

 unanimous testimony," he says, " of 

 every one who is conversant with the 

 management of county jails that they 

 are nothing more or less than breeders 

 of criminals, where they are, as is gen- 

 erally the case, committed to the super- 

 intendence of political sheriffs." Of the 

 jails of the State of Pennsylvania — and 

 here the author professes to speak from 

 personal knowledge — he says : " These 

 jails permit a promiscuous and unre- 

 strained commingling of the most de- 

 praved and vilest professional convicts 

 with children, accused persons, and de- 

 tained witnesses, without let or hin- 

 drance. In many cases even sexes are 

 not separated." Upon a recent visit to 

 the jail of Sunbury, Northumberland 



County, the author found, among fifty- 

 four inmates of all classes," two bright, 

 nice-looking boys, one thirteen and the 

 other fourteen years old, who had been 

 incarcerated already two months and 

 would have to remain two months 

 longer before trial. They were accused 

 of stealing four bottles of ginger beer ! " 

 Along with them was a depraved and 

 vicious-looking boy charged with at- 

 tempted rape. There are, we are told, 

 in the United States, seventeen hundred 

 and fifty-eight county jails and only 

 forty- four juvenile reformatories. Great 

 Britain, on the other hand, supports 

 over four hundred reformatories and in- 

 dustrial schools, and has in consequence 

 been able to close fifty-six out of one 

 hundred and thirteen prisons and jails 

 within ten years. In this country dur- 

 ing the same period there has been a 

 constantly increasing expenditure for 

 prisons and jails, as might be supposed 

 from the fact stated by the author at 

 the outset, that our criminal population 

 has increased in almost double ratio to 

 the general population. 



The most important suggestion made 

 by the author is, that incorrigible crimi- 

 nals and all the hopelessly defective 

 members of the community who are 

 thrown upon the public care should be 

 segregated under conditions that shall 

 absolutely prevent them from propagat- 

 ing their kind. He proposes, indeed, 

 that the problem shall be simplified by 

 calling in the aid of surgery " to remove 

 or sterilize the organs of reproduction," 

 an operation, he adds, which if " be- 

 stowed upon the abnormal inmates of 

 our prisons, reformatories, jails, asy- 

 lums, and public institutions, would en- 

 tirely eradicate those unspeakable evil 

 practices which are so terribly preva- 

 lent, debasing, destructive, and uncon- 

 trollable in them." The proposed ap- 

 plication of this remedy will be consid- 

 ered by most too sweeping ; but as 

 regards incorrigible criminals, particu- 

 larly those whose crimes take the form 

 of violence and lust, it will not be 



