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 ODQ FODLTY HilQL SYSTEjII. 
 
 MEMORANDUM OF AN ADDRESS DELIVERED ON BEHALF 
 
 OF THE PRISONERS' AID ASSOCIATION, IN THE 
 
 METROPOLITAN CHURCH, TORONTO. 
 
 BV THE 
 
 HON. S R BLAKE, Q.C 
 
 c — ^J^MiT 
 
Gt^fike Sft 
 
 OUR FAULTY GAOL SYSTEM. 
 
 MKMORANDUM OK AN ADDRESS DKLFVKKED ON' BEHALF OK THK PRISONfms' All) 
 ASSOCFATION, AT THE METROPOLITAN CHURCH, TORONTO. 
 
 BY THE HON. S. H. BLAKE, Q.C. 
 
 1^0 doubt much of the harm tliat 
 is done and of the good that is 
 left undone in connection with pri- 
 soners is owing to want of thought. 
 The Prophet Isaiah, in dealing w-ith 
 the people of Israel, remonstrates 
 with them in these words (Isa. i. 
 3) : "My people doth not consider." 
 A strong denunciation is presented 
 in Proverbs xxiv. 11, 12: " If thou 
 forbear to deliver them that are 
 drawn unto death, and those that 
 are ready to be slain; if thou say- 
 est, Behold, we knew it not; doth 
 not he that pondereth the heart 
 consider it; and he that keepeth 
 thy soul, doth he not know it, and 
 shall he not render to every man 
 according to his works ?" 
 
 How much of the harm wrought 
 is by w^ant of thought! Is it not 
 startling to consider the way in 
 which our Lord and Master pre- 
 sents this? At the last supreme 
 moment, as they are gathered on 
 the right and on the left (Matt. 
 XXV. 34, 46) — " The King shall say 
 unto them on his right hand, Come, 
 ye blessed of my Father, inherit 
 the kingdom prepared for you 
 from the foundation of the world; 
 for I was in prison, and ye came 
 unto me. Then shall the righteous 
 answer him, saying, Lord, when 
 saw we thee in prison, and came 
 unto thee ? And the King shall 
 answer and say unto them, — Verily 
 I say unto you, inasmuch as ye 
 have done it unto one of the least 
 of these my brethren, ye have done 
 it unto me. Then sliall he say 
 also unto them on the left hand,— 
 Depart from me, ye cursed, into 
 everlasting fire, prepared for the 
 
 devil and his angels; for I was in 
 prison, and ye visited me not. 
 Then shall they also answer him, 
 saying, — Lord, when saw we thee 
 in prison, and did not minister unto 
 thee? Then shall he answer 
 them, saying, — Verily I say unto 
 you, inasmuch as ye did it not unto 
 one of the least of these, ye did it 
 not to me," 
 
 How many are entitled to God's 
 blessing under this test given by 
 our Saviour of those now in this 
 church? How many are subject 
 to the condemnation, not for any 
 active sin or WTong, but simply for 
 the omitting the duty of looking 
 after, tending, and visiting the pri- 
 soner? This is a command to be 
 observed by us, — (a) because it is 
 required by the law of God ; (b) be- 
 cause it is in the interest of the 
 State. How painful it is to look 
 back to the old plan, where men 
 and women were huddled together 
 like beasts. At times chained 
 down in filth and misery, their 
 food thrown to them as if they 
 were dogs, and nothing for them 
 menially to feed upon but the 
 fierce spirit of vengeance., which 
 incited them to acts of violence 
 and to the life of a criminal the 
 moment tliC prison doors were 
 opened for their release. There 
 was no kindly reformatory prin- 
 ciple; there was nothing presented 
 to deter from crime. 
 
 That the question of the best 
 method of dealing with our prison- 
 ers is one of large interest to us is 
 shown at once by the fact that last 
 year in Ontario there were 9,500 
 commitments for crime and 6,000 
 
3 
 
 convictions. H we had had 6,000 
 cases of smallpox or of cholera, 
 how there would have been 
 aroused from one end of the pro- 
 vince to the other an intense feel- 
 ing of the absolute necessity of at 
 once ending such a state of affairs, 
 and yet the contamination from 
 the crime is much worse in its re- 
 sults than that from the disease. 
 
 It must be borne in mind that, 
 in dealing with this question, there 
 are two main factors, — (a) the de- 
 terrent influence to those outside; 
 (b) the reformatory influence on 
 those inside. 
 
 Now, take the daily farce going 
 on at our Police Court. The con- 
 stant sending down of law-break- 
 ers to a place which is not infre- 
 quently called the Criminal Club, 
 where the culprits are reasonably 
 well fed, well housed, and which is 
 made the rendezvous where the 
 criminal class is glad to meet and 
 discuss all matters of general in- 
 terest to their profession. 
 
 How completely would this 
 cease to be such club if the two 
 foundation principles, now admit- 
 ted on all hands as guides in prison 
 work, were introduced, — (a) separ- 
 ation; (b) work. It must be re- 
 membered, when we are dealing 
 with the question of separation, 
 tliat it does not mean solitary con- 
 finement. The separation con- 
 sists in being separated from con- 
 tamination and being separated 
 from the power of contaminating. 
 
 How this process of contamina- 
 tion hardens ! Take the daily 
 illustration of the first offence. A 
 culprit sentenced to prison, often a 
 mere child, miserable, wretched, in 
 tears, ashamed, sits down, apart by 
 himself. He gets wearied of this, 
 gradually draws near, and soon 
 becomes a companion with the 
 others, and thus enters, placed 
 there by the State, a first-class 
 school of vice. This is the act of 
 the State for some oflFence, prob- 
 ably not more venal than breaking 
 
 a pane of glass, or stealing a few 
 apples. This child, as a matter of 
 common decency, should have 
 been placed directly in a separate 
 cell, to be visited only by the offi- 
 cers, a chaplain, a Christian in- 
 structor, supplied with some litera- 
 ture, given work, but kept ab- 
 solutely apart from all contamina- 
 tion. 
 
 If idleness be an evil outside the 
 gaol, it is a much increased evil in- 
 side of it. Work should be given 
 to each. It should be constant. 
 There should be an incentive in the 
 shape of a reward for work well 
 done. The same principles that 
 act as a stimulus outside should be 
 introduced inside the gaol. Good 
 marks, badges, the laying aside of 
 a sum of money for the benefit of 
 the prisoner on his release, and 
 the beginning of winning men and 
 women back to citizenship. 
 
 By the principle of separation, 
 the hardened criminal, the incor- 
 rigible, the man who is determined 
 to continue in a course of crime 
 when he gets his release, and who 
 in the meantime is determined to 
 instruct others in the way of vice, 
 is restrained from such action. 
 
 In connection with the position 
 of incorrigibles, it seems now to be 
 generally admitted that the sen- 
 tence on a hardened criminal 
 should be indeterminate. He 
 should thus be kept away from 
 preying on society until he gives 
 assurance that he will cease to do 
 so. There is no doubt that there 
 is much difficulty in working out 
 satisfactorily this question, but the 
 difficulties connected with it should 
 not prevent an honest attempt be- 
 ing made to endeavour to work 
 upon these lines. 
 
 In this respect we may well say, 
 — Give the prisoners a chance. 
 Do not let us, by keeping them to- 
 gether, give the worst the oppor- 
 tunity of educating others up to 
 the highest standard of crime. 
 They have nothing else to do. 
 
4 
 
 They love this work, and thus our 
 prisons are made splendid educa- 
 tional establishments with the best 
 of bad masters to educate in vice. 
 
 A work of great importance in 
 connection with prisoners has had 
 a very considerable impetus by the 
 admirable " Act " of the Honour- 
 able Mr. Gibson; that is, — the 
 rescue work amongst our children. 
 It is a wealthy community indeed 
 that can afiford to let the children 
 become criminals. One child en- 
 tering the criminal class represents 
 in the watching, the catching, the 
 trial, the keeping in prison house 
 or gaol, and, when dismissed, go- 
 ing over the same work again, an 
 expenditure that would pay many 
 times over for the taking hold of 
 that child, keeping him from con- 
 tamination, and putting him in the 
 way of becoming an honest citizen. 
 Last year's report of the Super- 
 intendent of Neglected and De- 
 pendent Children of Ontario, is 
 one of the most instructive and in- 
 teresting papers that can be read. 
 Possibly, the most beautiful work 
 of art that the world furnishes to- 
 day is the faithful photograph 
 showing the poor little waif, the 
 victim of the vice, dissipation, and 
 misery of its parents, on the one 
 side; and, then, on the other, the 
 joyous, happy, metamorphosed 
 child which is being moulded for 
 good citizenship, under the kindly 
 suggestions and kindly dealing's 
 of those that the State now sets to 
 watch them. 
 
 IMost of you may know that 
 there are twenty-nine societies in 
 Ontario under this Act doin.Tf a 
 large and effecti-ve work. During 
 the last year 834 cases were looked 
 into; 186 obtained foster homes. 
 A pleasing incident was the lan- 
 guage in which a kind heart ap- 
 proached the little band of chil- 
 dren seeking a new home, as she 
 said: ** I do not want a strong, 
 healthy child, but I want a poor 
 little sick one, to win it back to 
 
 strength and happiness." The ex- 
 perience is that oftentimes among 
 these little waifs, \ou get the best 
 of stuff out of which to make our 
 men and women. 
 
 It is most desirable that at the 
 Toronto gaol this work of separa- 
 tion should be begun. In the 
 metropolis of the first province of 
 the Dominion there should be 
 nothing lacking in this respect. 
 All our public offices should be 
 models for the rest of the land to 
 learn from. A sum of $3,500 
 would answer for this test The 
 cost of many a prisoner from his 
 twentieth to his fiftieth year has 
 exceeded this sum. I feel but little 
 doubt that, in thus diminishing the 
 number of prisoners to be arrested, 
 tried, and kept in the gaol, in five 
 years the whole of the extra cost 
 would be saved. 
 
 It is a matter of great thankful- 
 ness to the Association that our 
 judges lend us much assistance in 
 our work. The following lan- 
 guage of the Honourable Air. Jus- 
 tice Rose is well worth your con- 
 sideration : 
 
 " Young rnen are often con- 
 victed of offences which do not 
 really show moral guilt. In the 
 gaol they consort with hardened 
 criminals, and so are educated in 
 crime. If the degenerated and 
 vicious were to meet to devise a 
 scheme for the propagation of 
 crime, they could adopt no system 
 to serve their purpose more lally 
 than the present gaol system." 
 
 A most admirable address, de- 
 livered under the auspices of the 
 National Prison Association, by 
 Dr. Meredith, who, as Inspectcrr of 
 Prisons, knew whereof he was 
 speaking, is well worth reading. 
 From it I venture to take the fol- 
 lowing extracts, which give in 
 much better form than I could the 
 result of the world-wide experience 
 collected in that valuable address : 
 
 "The Prison Association of New 
 York, in describing the county 
 
gaols of the Empire State, says : 
 ' If an institution should be estab- 
 lished in every county of the State, 
 with the inscription on the door, 
 " vice and crime taught here," and 
 the processes within corresponded 
 to the announcement without, this 
 committee is impressed with the 
 conviction that the work of manu- 
 facturing criminals could hardly be 
 done more effectually than it is by 
 our gaol system/ " 
 
 Dr. Wines reminds us that " De 
 Tocqueville, half a century ago, 
 pronounced our county gaols * the 
 worst prisons he had ever seen,' " 
 and, he adds, " there has been little 
 marked improvement since. The 
 system is wasteful of time, wasteful 
 of opportunity, wasteful of money, 
 and it does not reform." 
 
 And he further says: " The con- 
 demnation of the system may be 
 pronounced in a single sentence. 
 It is an absurd attempt to cure 
 crime, the offspring of idleness, by 
 making idleness compulsory, and 
 to teach virtue, the fruit of careful 
 and painstaking moral culture, by 
 enforced association with those 
 who scoflf at virtue, duty, and re- 
 ligion." 
 
 The Board of State Charities for 
 Ohio has in equally strong lan- 
 guage denounced the countv gaols 
 of that State : " It is a startling, a 
 terrible proposition, sustained by 
 the report, that Ohio is to-day sup- 
 porting at public expense as base 
 seminaries of vice as are to be 
 found in any civilized community." 
 
 A witty canon of St. Paul's 
 Cathedral thus describes the gaols 
 of England : 
 
 " There are in every county in 
 England large public schools, 
 maintained at the expense of the 
 county, for the encouragement of 
 profligacy and vice, and for pro- 
 viding a proper succession of 
 housebreakers, profligates, and 
 thieves. They are schools, too, 
 conducted without the smallest de- 
 gree of partiality and favour, there 
 
 being no man (however mean his 
 birth or obscure his situation), who 
 may not easily procure admission 
 to them. The moment any young 
 person evinces the slightest pro- 
 pensity for these pursuits, he is 
 provided with good clothing and 
 lodging, and put to his studies 
 under the most accomplished 
 thieves and cut-throats the county 
 can supply. There is, to be sure, 
 not a formal arrangement of lec- 
 tures, after the manner of our uni- 
 versities, but the petty larcenous 
 stripling, being left destitute of 
 every species of employment, and 
 locked up with accomplished vil- 
 lains as idle as himself, listens to 
 their pleasant narration of success- 
 ful crimes, and pants for the hour 
 of freedom, that he m.ay begin the 
 same bold and interesting career." 
 
 An established maxim in ethics 
 is: "That indiscriminate associa- 
 tion of prisoners in common gaols 
 necessarily involves the corruption 
 and contamination of all the pri- 
 soners who are capable of being 
 made worse." 
 
 For nearly fifty years, there has 
 been an almost universal consensus 
 of opinion among prison reformers 
 as to the necessity of the rigid en- 
 forcement of the separate system, 
 as it is called, in all common gaols. 
 In England it was, so far back as 
 1835, strongly recommended by a 
 select committee of the House of 
 Lords. Again, in 1837, it was 
 powerfully advocated in his report 
 by the Inspector of Prisons ; again, 
 in 1847, by a select committee of 
 the House of Lords; and still 
 again, in 1850, by a select commit- 
 tee of the House of Commons. 
 
 In 1865, copies of the " Report 
 and Evidence of the Committee of 
 the House of Lords," were trans- 
 mitted to the then Governor- 
 General of Canada by the Secretary 
 of State for the Colonies, accom- 
 panied by an exhaustive circular 
 despatch, in order, as the despatch 
 explained, " that the colony should 
 
6 
 
 have the benefit of the experience 
 of the mother country, and of the 
 eminent men who liacl made that 
 experience their study, for the pur- 
 pose of effecting any amendments 
 which may be needed in the pri- 
 sons and system of prison dis- 
 cipHne in use in Canada." 
 
 In urging the adoption of the 
 separate system in Canada, they 
 add: " You will bear in mind that 
 no ordinary difficulties, nor indeed 
 any difficulties, should be allowed 
 to stand in the way of the estab- 
 lishment of the system." 
 
 The Inspector of Prisons in the 
 southern district of England, in 
 1882, referring to the then recent 
 introduction of the separate sys- 
 tem into certain of the prisons in 
 England, speaks of the growing 
 conviction of the advantages which 
 have attended the adoption of 
 separate confinement, and adds 
 that the number of commitments 
 to the prisons altered (so as to 
 make them suitable for the 
 separate system) rapidly decreased, 
 and that in many gaols it had been 
 reduced to one-half of what it had 
 been ten years before. 
 
 At the International Prison Con- 
 gress, held in London in 1872, the 
 only countries that declared them- 
 selves satisfied with their prison 
 systems were Belgium, Germany, 
 and Russia, these being the only 
 countries which had adopted the 
 cellular or separate system; and 
 these three countries, in their offi- 
 cial answers to the questions sub- 
 mitted to them, stated that they 
 were satisfied with their prison 
 system so far as it was cellular or 
 separate, and no farther. The 
 Prussian Government, in particu- 
 lar, while speaking in high terms 
 of praise of the general organiza- 
 tion of their prisons, added that 
 there was one thing yet lacking. 
 " We need the application of 
 cellular (or separate) imprisonment 
 in all cases of preventive detention 
 and of short sentences;" in other 
 
 words, the application of the 
 separate system to their common 
 gaols and houses of detention. 
 
 One of the interrogatories put 
 to the convict on his arrival at the 
 penitentiary was as to the effect 
 upon him of his first imprisonment 
 in gaol. The response in almost 
 every case was substantially the 
 same: " I left it worse than when I 
 entered it." 
 
 In the common gaols, this 
 Satanic work of inoculating the 
 young with vice and crime, this 
 work of manufacturing criminals, 
 this work of discouraging morality 
 and virtue, all this is done under 
 the aegis of the law, with the co- 
 operation of judges, sheriffs, and 
 other legal functionaries, and with 
 the implied sanction and approval 
 of society at large. 
 
 If there are no reformatories, or, 
 better still, " homes " or " re- 
 fuges " to which they can be sent, 
 with a reasonable hope of their be- 
 ing brought under wise discipline 
 and W'holesome moral influences, it 
 would be better, infinitely better, 
 (in the case at least of boys), that 
 they should be brought at once be- 
 fore a special magistrate appointed 
 for the purpose, and, if found 
 guilty, soundly flogged and dis- 
 missed; infinitely better this, than 
 that they should be consigned, as 
 they now are, to our common 
 gaols, to enter upon their appren- 
 ticeship to crime, to start, as it 
 were, upon what Bulwer truly 
 designates " the law's royal road to 
 the gallows." 
 
 After a few experiences of the 
 mode of life in gaol, they come to 
 regard it, not as a place of punish- 
 ment, to be carefully shunned, but 
 as a club or hotel, where they are 
 comfortably housed, clothed, and 
 fed, at the public expense. Little 
 wonder that, under these circum- 
 stances, our habitual offenders are 
 frequently found to have recourse 
 to various ingenious devices to fit 
 
tiicmsclves as proper recipients of 
 the hospitalities of our gaols ! 
 
 Mr. Charles Dudley Warner, in 
 his address delivered before the 
 Saratoga Congress in 1884, says : 
 *' It is the right and the duty of the 
 State, in the interest, not only of 
 society at large, but in the true in- 
 terest of the criminals themselves, 
 to subject them to a lengthened 
 sentence of imprisonment in some 
 institution (central prison or other- 
 wise), where their labours will pay 
 for their keep, and where, under 
 proper discipline, they will have an 
 opportunity and an incentive to the 
 formation of habits of industry, of 
 self-dependence and self-respect ; 
 and further, that they should re- 
 main there until, by their conduct, 
 they have shown that they will be 
 self-supporting, law-abiding mem- 
 bers of society. This method of 
 treatment implies that the State 
 has the power of passing indeter- 
 minate sentences of imprisonment; 
 in other words, of sentencing a 
 prisoner to confinement until, in 
 the opinion of some constituted 
 tribunal, he can with safety to so- 
 ciety be discharged. 
 
 " When a man shows by his 
 conduct a fixed determination to 
 be a criminal, and to prey upon 
 society, society is in its nght in 
 saying : ' We will not allow you 
 to carry out your plan of life; we 
 
 will put you in a place where you 
 cannot victimize or terrorize so- 
 cietv, where you will be compelled 
 to earn your own living, and at the 
 same time have every chance 
 afforded you of reforming and ac- 
 quiring habits of industry and self- 
 respect : and there we will keep you 
 until, by your conduct, you give 
 us reason to believe that, if allow- 
 ed to return to the world, you will 
 prove a law-abiding, self-support- 
 ing member of the community.'' 
 
 The cost of this mode of dealing 
 with incorrigibles is, as Mr. War- 
 ner says, infinitely less than the 
 cost of watching, catching, trying, 
 and imprisoning them, on shorter 
 or longer sentences, over and over 
 again, to say nothing of the cost of 
 their depredations. 
 
 It may, I think, be taken as es- 
 tablished, that society will consult 
 its best interests by sentencing in- 
 corrigibles, or confirmed criminals, 
 to indeterminate imprisonment in 
 central prisons or other institu- 
 tions, where a judicious system of 
 discipline is steadily enforced. 
 
 In conclusion, I would solemnly 
 ask that each one here present 
 should consider what criminals we 
 ourselves are; how much we have 
 been forgiven; and, in this same 
 spirit of love and forgiveness, pro- 
 ceed to do our best for other 
 criminals in our land. 
 
 Reprinted from "The Methodist Magazine and Review," November, 189G.