Prisoners and Paupers: A Study of the Abnormal Increase of Criminals, and the Public Burden of Pauperism in the United States; the Causes and RemediesThe author examines the correlation between poverty and crime in the late 19th century and recommends resolving the problems through prevention, reformation, and extinction. He offers the idea of prohibiting marriage between criminal and "defective" people as an antidote to the problems of poverty and criminality, saying, "Society must take cognizance of the reproduction of the race and correct the tendencies to degradation, as a measure of self-preservation. It is idle and foolish to waste energy, sympathy, and money in the hopeless effort to cure and restrain what should never have been permitted to exist. Physical degeneration must be corrected to promote regeneration." |
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abnormal Admissions alcohol Allegheny Allegheny County almshouses American annual arrest asylums average become Board of Public Bologna sausage Bread burden capita cause Census Bulletin cent Christian church cities citizens civilization colored comfort condition confined convicts corruption county jails County of Allegheny crime criminal class criminals and paupers cure defective disease drunkards duty economy effort evil expense foreign heteronomic human immigration incorrigible increase of criminals influence inmates insane institutions intelligent intemperance Irish Stew labor Lackawanna County legislation liquor malt liquors marriage ment moral N. Y. Sept native natural necessary negro organization penal penitentiary Pennsylvania penologists penology persons philanthropy police political poor present principles prisoners proper proportion Public Charities race reduced reformation reformatory require Schuylkill County Scranton secure self-support sentence social society sufficient taxation tion United urban population wealth weekly cost welfare York
Popular passages
Page iii - tis true: 'tis true, 'tis pity; And pity 'tis, 'tis true: a foolish figure ; But farewell it, for I will use no art. Mad let us grant him then : and now remains, That we find out the cause of this effect ; Or, rather say, the cause of this defect; For this effect, defective, comes by cause: Thus it remains, and the remainder thus.
Page 193 - Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Page 247 - English, they can speak understandingly. Each application must be accompanied by the certificates of at least three reputable citizens, each certifying that he has been personally acquainted with the applicant for at least one year last past, and believes him to be of good moral character, of correct and orderly deportment, of temperate and industrious habits, and in all respects fit for the police service. As a safeguard against partisanship, it is provided that certificates signed by office-holders...
Page 174 - American Journal of Neurology and l*sychiatry? vols. II. and III., p. 135, Dr. JS Wight says: "The concurrent and unanimous testimony of those who are, from their experience and knowledge, most competent to judge, is: That the great underclass of criminals have more or less defective organizations especially as relates to their nervous system, and more especially to their brain ; that they are more or less deficient in moral sense, showing in this respect the lack of development or the result of...
Page 144 - Intemperance is a proximate cause of a very large proportion of the crime committed in America. Fully three-fourths of all the prisoners with whom I have personally conversed, in different parts of the country, have admitted that they were addicted to an excessive use of alcoholic liquors. If it had not been for the dram sh op, I should never have been here " is the stereotyped wail that issues from every cell and swells in melancholy chorus through all the corridors of our prisons.
Page 250 - It shall be the duty of the chief of police to cause the public peace to be preserved, and to see that all the laws and ordinances of the city are enforced, and whenever any violation thereof shall come to his knowledge...
Page 179 - ... will still remain a residuum of men and women who have, whether from heredity or custom, or hopeless demoralisation, become reprobates. After a certain time, some men of science hold that persistence in habits tends to convert a man from a being with freedom of action and will into a mere automaton. There are some cases within our knowledge which seem to confirm the somewhat dreadful verdict by which a man appears to be a lost soul on this side of the grave. There are men so incorrigibly lazy...
Page 175 - ... perversely wicked and indomitably inexpedient, committing crimes when doing right would be of more use to them ; that they are as passionate as the wild beasts of the forests, and as restless as the ocean that heaves at every gust of the wind; that they are at war with mankind and ever in commotion with themselves ; that they are, like the ship, beaten out by the storm — the ship without compass, rudder, or captain ; that they are formed and fashioned by the hand of an evil genius, whose name...
Page 175 - ... more especially to their brain ; that they are more or less deficient in moral sense, showing in this respect the lack of development or the result of decay, the best and last developed sense, the moral sense, disintegrating first of all ; that they are perversely wicked and indomitably inexpedient, committing crimes when doing right would be of more use to them ; that they are as passionate as the wild beasts of the forests, and as restless as the ocean that heaves at every gust of the wind;...
Page 194 - ... tolerable to him only as it is made profitable. The Sheriff's office, speaking generally, represents a bad element, but a very powerful element, in local politics — an element which takes little interest in moral reforms, but has a keen eye for the emoluments of office. Improvements in the county jail involve the expenditure of money; the Sheriff is averse to incurring such expenditures on his own account, and, in justice to him, it must be said that the people are equally averse to raising...