REFORMATORY PRISONS. 6c 3 



are above all to be found in reformatories, to be commended in 

 initial idea but to be condemned in the manner this idea is usually 

 executed. Here, be holds, the young get to know vagabonds and 

 idlers, whom they are drawn to copy by that instinct for imitation 

 that exists in the youthful mind. The children associated in 

 such places are often foundlings or the offspring of immoral fami- 

 lies, or of parents incapable or unable to educate them. When 

 these are brought together with children of good, honest families 

 the latter are too frequently pushed into vice by bad example, by 

 acquaintances made in undesirable places. It is undoubtedly our 

 duty to care for the orphan and the foundling, but we must be 

 careful above all to prevent their being dragged into guilt as well 

 as to lift up those that may have fallen into it. It is from this 

 very aim, as Lombroso knows, that has arisen the idea of reform- 

 atories and houses of custody for the young, which in France re- 

 ceive annually 7,685, in Italy 3,770, in Belgium 1,473, in Holland 

 161, and in America 2,400 individuals. But their utility, the pro- 

 fessor holds, is not apparent. They have been founded in a frame 

 of mind more benevolent than well informed as to the criminal 

 nature. Too many and too complex are the causes, multiplied 

 by mutual contact, of the evil they would cure, and this too at 

 an age not tender enough to model, yet young enough to be ex- 

 pansive and inclined to imitation, especially of evil. 



The over-agglomeration for economical reasons of individuals, 

 and the admission into public reformatories of the worst subjects 

 expelled from private establishments, annul every attempt at 

 reform. Statistics show but too plainly the falling back into evil 

 courses of the inmates of such institutions. The diminution in 

 England of twenty-six per cent, which is attributed to the one 

 hundred and seventy-two reformatories which she owns, Lom- 

 broso would assign instead rather to the diffusion of the twenty- 

 three thousand so-called " ragged schools " that take care of mil- 

 lions of young people during the most dangerous age. In Italy, 

 says Lombroso, it is too easy for fathers and guardians to place 

 sons and wards in reformatories under pretext that they are 

 wicked; and certainly it is not there that they will amend, since 

 in such places there can not be carried into effect the nightly 

 cellular system and the enforced silence which are an absolute 

 necessity for rigid discipline, and to counteract the worst vices of 

 the young criminal. From his own observations Prof. Lom- 

 broso is convinced that even in the so-called best-managed re- 

 formatories there prevail the worst sexual vices, not to mention 

 theft, the camorra, such as is carried on in the penal hulks, the 

 learning of the criminal jargon, the tricks of the trade, tattooing, 

 and all other distinctive vices of criminal men. What remedy lies 

 to hand ? Prof. Lombroso writes, in his Uomo Delinquente, 



