UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 J. E. Payson
 
 64TH CONGRESS, ) SENATE. ( DOCUMENT 
 
 1st Session. J ( No. 181. 
 
 THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 REPORT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 DELEGATES OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 TO THE 
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS 
 
 HELD AT 
 
 PARIS, FEANCE, IN JULY, 1895. 
 
 MARCH 23, 1896. Referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 
 and ordered to be printed. 
 
 WASHINGTON: 
 
 GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
 1896.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Letter of transmittal of the Secretary of State 3 
 
 International Prison Commission '. 5 
 
 Official invitation to the United States 7 
 
 Proceedings of the Congress : 
 
 Organization and preliminaries 13 
 
 First Section : Penal legislation 22 
 
 Second Section : Prison administration 38 
 
 Third Section : Preventive means 50 
 
 Fourth Section : Children and minors 57 
 
 Close of the Congress 66 
 
 Eeceptious and excursions 67 
 
 Recommendations by the United States delegates 75 
 
 PART II. 
 Special reports : 
 
 British and Continental Prisons. By Gen. Roeliff Brinkerhoff 79 
 
 The Bertillon System. By Maj. R. W. McClaughrey 107 
 
 Anthropometric measurements. By Surg. Paul Richard Brown, U. S. A Ill 
 
 The discharged convict in E urope. By Rev. Samuel J. Barrows 121 
 
 2
 
 Iff 
 
 LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF STATE, 
 
 Washington, March 31, 1896. 
 
 SIR: I have the honor to lay before you, with a view to its consider- 
 ation by the Congress, the report of the delegates of the United States 
 to the Fifth International Prison Congress, which was held at Paris, 
 France, in July, 1895. 
 
 It presents a comprehensive statement of all that transpired on that 
 occasion and contains much valuable information that might profitably 
 be considered with a view to the alleviation of certain phases of human 
 misery without sacrificing any of the absolute prerequisites to or 
 guaranties of social order. 
 
 In connection with this report Gen. E. Brinkerhoff, president of the 
 American delegation, has submitted to the Department, under date of 
 the 19th instant, a request from the International Prison Commission, 
 which is the executive and permanent arm of the Congress, that the 
 Government of the United States be represented by a delegate in its 
 organization. Although this Government suggested and founded the 
 International Prison Congress, it does not contribute anything toward 
 its expense and has never had a representative on the permanent Com- 
 mission. Even the delegates from this country, who have been com- 
 missioned by this Department and who have attended the quinquennial 
 meetings of the Congress, have uniformly borne their own expenses, 
 with the single exception of the late Dr. E. C. Wines, for the payment 
 of whose expenses Congress made provision. 
 
 The subscription to the International Prison Commission is based 
 upon the population of the countries represented, being $5 per 1,000,000 
 inhabitants. Assuming the population of the United States to be 
 65,000,000, the annual subscription would be but $325, or $1,625 for the 
 five years. The money thus received by the International Commission 
 is expended in the publication of monographs, bulletins, reports, and 
 the proceedings of the International Prison Congress, which are sent 
 to the Governments in proportion to their subscriptions. 
 
 The Commission holds a meeting every alternate summer in Switzer- 
 land, and the appropriation of the United States should properly include
 
 4 LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 
 
 the expenses of the delegate from this country. Thus, an annual appro 
 priation of $2,000 would not only defray the subscription of this Gov 
 eminent toward the support of the Commission, but also the expenses 
 at home aud abroad of the United States commissioner. 
 
 It may be observed that the rules of the Commission do not require 
 that any delegate shall commit his Government to any action taken 
 by the Commission; it simply secures the support and cooperation of 
 the different nations represented in the study of the great problems 
 relating to the suppression of crime, the protection of society, the 
 proper treatment of the criminal, the moral rescue of children, the 
 organization of every means for preventing the discharged prisoner 
 from relapsing into the life of crime. 
 
 The American delegation feel very strongly the importance of acced- 
 ing to the request of the International Prison Commission, not merely 
 because the Go vernmen t of the United States appears to be morally bound 
 to support an international enterprise which it practically inaugurated, 
 but because the American people may reap the greatest benefit from so 
 doing. The International Prison Congress is a great humanitary move 
 meiit. It is not confined, as its name might suggest, merely to the 
 question of administering prisons, but to the whole subject of the pre 
 vention and treatment of crime in all its aspects. In this broad aspect 
 of the case it strongly appeals for sympathy and aid, to the end that 
 the work may be prosecuted under the most favorable and most advan- 
 tageous conditions. 
 
 In view of the considerations herein advanced, of others equally 
 cogent that maybe found from a careful reading of the correspondence, 
 of the recommendation of the American delegation, and of the formal 
 request of the International Commission, I strongly urge that the sum 
 of $2,000 annually be appropriated for the subscription to the Commis- 
 sion and for the expenses of the American member thereof. 
 
 If possible, the appropriation desired should be included in the sun- 
 dry civil bill or in some other available form. 
 
 I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 KICHARD OLNEY. 
 
 Hon. ADLAI E. STEVENSON, 
 
 Vice- President of the United States.
 
 INTERNATIONAL PRISON COMMISSION. 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. 0., March 19, 1896. 
 
 SIR: The American delegates commissioned by the Secretary of 
 State to the International Prison Congress held at Paris, July, 1895, 
 have been charged by the International Prison Commission, which is 
 the executive and permanent arm of the Congress, with presenting to 
 the Government of the United States the official request of the Commis- 
 sion that the United States should be represented in its organization. 
 The grounds of this request and all that it involves are presented in 
 the following statement, accompanied by a translation of a letter from 
 the secretary of the Commission. 
 
 Your delegates earnestly hope that the matter may receive prompt 
 consideration from the Government, and that the invitation of the 
 Commission may be accepted. 
 
 With great respect, your obedient servants, 
 
 K. BRINKERHOFF, 
 President American Delegation. 
 SAMUEL J. BARROWS, 
 
 Secretary. 
 Hon. EICHARD OLNEY, 
 
 Secretary of State of the United States. 
 
 THE NEED OF A UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER. 
 
 The United States had the honor of founding, twenty-five years ago, 
 the International Prison Congress. It appointed Dr. E. C. Wines to 
 go to Europe and urge the cooperation of European Governments. 
 Dr. Wines spent a year abroad for this purpose, and his expenses were 
 paid by a Congressional appropriation. As the result of his earnest 
 efforts, the International Prison Congress was held in London in 1872. 
 
 It was then determined to organize the Congress on a permanent 
 basis. A committee called the International Prison Commission was 
 formed, of which Dr. Wines was made president. Invitations were 
 sent by him to various Governments to assist at the session of the 
 Commission called at Bruchsal in 1875. Many countries responded to 
 
 5
 
 6 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 this appeal. The organization of this International Commission was 
 completed in 1878, at the second International Prison Congress, held 
 at Stockholm. Kules and regulations were adopted. The Government 
 of Sweden and Norway was asked to communicate the plan of organi- 
 zation to the different Governments of the world and to invite their 
 cooperation. 
 
 The death of Dr. Wines has interfered with the proper presentation 
 of the plan to the United States. The United States expressed its 
 entire sympathy with the work, but explained that it could only accept 
 after having complied with certain requirements of its constitutional 
 law; that is to say, securing some appropriation from Congress for its 
 subscription to the Commission. 
 
 The other Governments accepting are France, Italy, Switzerland, 
 Denmark, Spain, Bavaria, the free city of Hamburg, the free city of 
 Lubeck, the Netherlands, Eussia, Hungary, and Austria. Since the 
 work of Dr. Wines began five international congresses have been held, 
 and it is the plan to hold them once in five years; but the United 
 States, though it suggested and founded the organization, does not now 
 contribute anything toward its expenses, and is not represented by a 
 delegate on the permanent Commission. It has contented itself with 
 commissioning delegates to the quinquennial gatherings, who, when 
 they have attended, have paid their own expenses. 
 
 The subscription to the International Prison Commission is based on 
 the population of the countries represented, being $5 for each 1,000,000 
 inhabitants. Assuming the population of the United States to be 
 65,000,000, the annual subscription would be but $325, or $1,625 for the 
 five years. The money thus received is expended in the publication of 
 monographs, bulletins, reports, and the proceedings of the International 
 Congress, which are sent to the Governments in proportion to their 
 subscriptions. 
 
 The Commission holds a meeting annually or biennially in Switzer- 
 land, and the appropriation from the United States ought to include the 
 expenses of the delegate from this country. The sum of $2,000 annually 
 would pay for the subscription of the United States to the Commission, 
 and also for the expenses of the United States commissioner in attend- 
 ing the meetings abroad and in collecting valuable information at home. 
 
 It should be said that the rules of the Commission do not require 
 that the delegate shall commit his Government to any action taken 
 by the Commission; it simply secures the support and cooperation of 
 the different nations represented in the study of the great problems 
 relating to the suppression of crime, the protection of society, the 
 proper treatment of the criminal, the moral rescue of children, the 
 organization of every means for preventing the discharged prisoner 
 from relapsing into the life of crime. 
 
 The International Commission at its last meeting invited again the 
 cooperation of the United States in its work, and a letter on the
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 7 
 
 subject, dated January 31, 1896, has been forwarded by Dr. Guillaume, 
 the secretary of the International Commission, asking that the American 
 delegation to the International Congress at Paris, of which the Com- 
 mission is the executive arm, formally present the matter to the 
 American Government and earnestly request its cooperation. 
 
 The American delegation feel very strongly the importance of acced- 
 ing to this request, not merely because the United States seems to be 
 morally bound to support an international enterprise which it inaugu- 
 rated, but because the American people may reap the greatest benefit 
 from so doing. The International Prison Congress is a great humani- 
 tary movement. It is not confined, as its name might suggest, merely 
 to the question of administering prisons, but to the whole subject of 
 the prevention and treatment of crime in all its aspects. 
 
 Within the last twenty-five years, since the Congress was established, 
 the different Governments represented have derived great advantages 
 from studying the criminal codes, reformatory and penal institutions, 
 and preventive methods and legislation in different countries. Thus, 
 France, England, and Belgium have borrowed from the United States 
 the system of probation established in Massachusetts, while Illinois, 
 New York, and Massachusetts have borrowed from France the system 
 now in vogue in that country of identifying criminals, which ought, 
 indeed, to be adopted everywhere in the United States. In many other 
 respects, such as various features of prison administration, the treat- 
 ment of discharged convicts, etc., we have much to learn from Europe. 
 It is also important that the American commissioner should be charged 
 with the duty of presenting to the Commission the best fruits of Amer- 
 ican experience. 
 
 OFFICIAL INVITATION TO THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 At the close of the Congress proper the International Penitentiary 
 Commission, which is the permanent committee of organization, held a 
 session at the College of France on Wednesday, July 10. In addition to 
 the regular members of the Commission, delegates from Great Britain, 
 Austria, and the United States were present, all of whom expressed 
 the hope that their countries might be represented in the permanent 
 organization. M. Duflos was elected an honorary president of the Com- 
 mission. M. de Latour, of Belgium, was chosen president, and M. de 
 Laszlo, of Hungary, treasurer. M. Dr. Guillaume, though wishing to 
 withdraw from the position as general secretary, was induced to retain 
 that position. 
 
 The delegates of the United States urge upon the Government the 
 importance of being represented not only at the sessions of the Con- 
 gress, which are held once in five years, but also in the annual meetings 
 of the International Penitentiary Commission. The congresses have 
 assumed such magnitude that a permanent committee of organization 
 to prepare programmes and questions, secure monographs, and make
 
 8 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 preparations for the numerous volumes of preliminary reports is abso- 
 lutely necessary. 
 
 A letter on tbis subject, dated January 31, 1896, has been forwarded 
 to the president of the American delegation from Dr. Guillaume, the 
 secretary of the International Commission. Accompanying this letter 
 is a communication for presentation to the Secretary of State, which is 
 embodied herewith: 
 
 INTERNATIONAL PENITENTIARY COMMISSION, 
 
 Brussels and Berne, January, 1S9G. 
 To the Secretary of State of the United States: 
 
 We have the honor to lay before your excellency the following facts: 
 
 The luternational Prison Congress which took place in London in 1872, thanks to 
 the initiative of Dr. E. C. Wines, representing officially the Government of the 
 Un ited States, had rather the character of a free assembly, although the larger part 
 of the nations were represented by official delegates. The end in view was less to 
 discuss theoretical questions than to exchange information and to give to represent- 
 atives of penal science the opportunity of seeing and knowing each other. Before 
 separating, the Congress, feeling the need of continuing the work thus begun, chose 
 a commission whose duty it was to arrange a second International Congress. 
 
 After the first meeting at Brussels, the Commission found that to attain the end 
 it sought it was indispensable to give to the Commission an official character. Dr. 
 Wines, president of the Commission, addressed to the various Governments a request 
 for the appointments of delegates to assist at the session of the Commission called 
 at Bruchsal, 1875. The Governments of France, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Italy, 
 the grand-duchy of Baden, Holland, and Switzerland responded to this appeal. 
 Their delegates took part in the discussions of the Commission with the same rights 
 as those who had been appointed by the London Congress. 
 
 In 1877 the officers were asked to draw up a set of rules of organization in order 
 better to define the character of the International Penitentiary Commission. This 
 draft of rules was submitted in 1878, when the Congress met in Stockholm, to the 
 official delegates of the Governments represented at this international gathering. 
 After the discussion and adoption of the plan, the Commission was instructed to 
 address itself to the Government of his majesty, the King of Sweden and Norway, 
 to ask it to please accept the mission of communicating these regulations to the 
 other Governments and to recommend their adoption. His excellency, M. Bjorn- 
 stjerna, who had already shown his great interest in the work of the Congress by 
 accepting its presidency, promptly submitted to the approbation of the Govern- 
 ments represented at the Congress of Stockholm the draft of regulations for the 
 International Penitentiary Commission. 
 
 Eight States accepted the plan purely and simply ; four accepted it conditionally, 
 two declined more or less explicitly to participate in the work of the Commission. 
 
 The States accepting without condition were Bavaria, Denmark, Spain, the free 
 city of Hamburg, the free city of Lubeck, the Netherlands, Russia, and Switzerland. 
 
 The countries which accepted only on certain conditions were Austria, Hungary, 
 France, Italy, and Sweden. 
 
 Those which declined to be represented in the Commission were the United States 
 of America and Belgium. 
 
 The Government of the United States expressed its entire sympathy with the work, 
 but explained that it could only accept after having complied with certain require- 
 ments of its constitutional law, and the Belgian Government reserved the right of 
 sending delegates to the Prison Congress and to accept finally membership in the 
 Commission when it had recognized its utility tor its own country. The English 
 Government, which was not represented officially at the London Congress or that of 
 Stockholm, continued to maintain a neutral position.
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 9 
 
 After having examined the observations made on the scheme of organization by 
 the Governments of the five States which accepted membership conditionally, the 
 Commission, composed of official delegates, met at Paris, 1880, and gave a definite 
 form to the plan, and in 1886, in a session at Berne, it added an interpretative state- 
 ment to dispel all ambiguity and misunderstanding. 
 
 We have the honor of submitting to your excellency a copy of the regulations as 
 adopted in the session at Paris in 1880 and the interpretative act which was added 
 at the session of Berne in 1886. 
 
 Since then the Governments of France, Hungary, Italy, and Belgium have accepted 
 the by-laws and are represented in the International Commission. Together with the 
 other Governments which had before adopted the regulations and taken part in the 
 work of the Commission, they have paid to the treasurer their annual subscription, 
 which has been fixed at 25 francs ($5) per million inhabitants. 
 
 Thanks to these financial resources, the Commission has been able to publish in a 
 quarterly bulletin the documents mentioned in article 6 of the by-laws, and above 
 all the preparatory reports and proceedings of the congresses which, succeeding that 
 of Stockholm, were held in Rome in 1885, St. Petersburg in 1890, and Paris in 1895. 
 Copies of this bulletin are sent to the Governments in proportion to their subscription. 
 
 The Government of His Majesty the King of Belgium has addressed to the Com- 
 mission a gracious invitation to hold at Brussels in 1900 the International Prison 
 Congress. That invitation has been accepted with gratitude by the Paris Congress, 
 in which your honorable Government has shown the liveliest interest by sending 
 official delegates. These are charged by us with presenting and interpreting to your 
 excellency the wishes of the Commission, which hopes to see every country repre- 
 sented in its organization and their delegates taking an active part in its proceedings. 
 
 In the hope of a favorable response, we beg your excellency to accept the assur- 
 ance of our distinguished consideration and of our respectful devotion. 
 
 In the name of the Commission : 
 
 DE LATOUR, President. 
 Dr. GUILLAUME, Secretary. 
 
 In accordance with this request, and believing heartily in the value to 
 the United States as well as to the International Prison Congress of 
 such representation, the American delegates earnestly urge the accept- 
 ance of this invitation and the appointment of a member of the Com- 
 mission by the United States. The expense to the Government, not 
 exceeding $2,000 annually, is inconsiderable compared with the value 
 of being represented in a great international movement for the preven- 
 tion of crime, the protection of society, the rescue of children, and the 
 reformation of the erring. This international movement the United 
 States had the honor of starting, and no country in the world is more 
 interested in promoting it.
 
 REPORT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 DELEGATES COMMISSIONED BY THE SECRETARY OF STATE TO THE 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS AT PARIS, JULY, 1895, 
 
 11
 
 REPORT OF THE DELEGATES TO THE FIFTH INTERNATIONAL 
 PRISON CONGRESS AT PARIS, JULY, 1895. 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. 0., March 18, 1896. 
 
 SIR: As secretary of the delegation of the United States to the 
 Fifth International Prison Congress at Paris, I have the honor to 
 present herewith the report of the delegates commissioned by the 
 Secretary of State. The report has been personally approved and 
 signed by each member of the delegation. 
 
 It is submitted with the hope that it may be found of sufficient value 
 to transmit to Congress, and, as a public document, serve some useful 
 purpose of information and education in this country. 
 I am, sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 SAMUEL J. BARROWS. 
 
 The honorable the SECRETARY OF STATE. 
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONGRESS. 
 
 ORGANIZATION OF THE AMERICAN DELEGATION. 
 
 The invitation to the United States Government to commission dele- 
 gates to the Fifth International Prison Congress was forwarded and 
 communicated by the Department of State to the National Prison Asso- 
 ciation of the United States held at St. Paul, Minn., June 16-20, 1894, 
 with the request that the association should choose a number of dele- 
 gates. A special committee appointed by the association reported the 
 following names, which were unanimously adopted: Gen. E. Brinker- 
 hoff, Ohio; Eev. J. L. Milligan, Pennsylvania; E. W. McClaughry, 
 Illinois; Dr. P. D. Sims, Tennessee; Eev. S. J. Barrows, Massachusetts; 
 Charlton T. Lewis, New Jersey; J. S. Appel, Colorado; Judge J. W. 
 Willis, Minnesota; Eev. F. H. Wines, Illinois; Walter Lindley, M. D., 
 California. 
 
 These gentlemen were accordingly commissioned by the Department 
 of State, but owing to various circumstances only four of them were 
 able to go to Paris, namely, Gen. E. Brinkerhoff, president of the 
 
 13
 
 14 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 National Prison Association; Charlton T. Lewis, president of the Prison 
 Association of New York; Maj. R. W. McClaughry, superintendent of 
 tlie Illinois State Reformatory at Pontiac, 111.; Rev. S. J. Barrows, of 
 the Massachusetts Prison Association. 
 
 The official delegates of the United States were, however, reenforced 
 at Paris by a number of other delegates appointed by the governors of 
 several of the States. These were: C. D. Randall, of Michigan, repre- 
 senting the United States Bureau of Education; Rev. W. M. Pettis, of 
 Tennessee; Mr. John F. Norrish, of Minnesota; Mrs. Deborah C. Leeds, 
 of Pennsylvania; Mr. Lawrence Poland, of Ohio; Mrs. Phebe C. 
 Wright, of New Jersey; Mr.W. M. F. Round,of New York; Mr. Philip 
 W. Ayres, of Ohio; Mrs. Amy Willets, of New York ; Mr. H. C. Ranney, 
 of Ohio, and Mr. Michel Heymanu, of Louisiana. 
 
 At a meeting held at the Hotel Binda June 30 it was decided that 
 the gentlemen thus named, with the official delegates of the United 
 States, should organize as the American delegation. Gen. R. Brinker- 
 hoft' was chosen president and Rev. Samuel J. Barrows secretary. 
 During the sessions of the Congress meetings of the delegation were 
 held from time to time for purposes of business and also for social 
 reunion. 
 
 As some of the delegates thus named will probably make individual 
 reports to the authorities appointing them, the report herewith sub- 
 mitted is limited to the four delegates representing officially the United 
 States. By a vote of this delegation Rev. S. J. Barrows, the secretary, 
 was authorized and requested to prepare this report. 
 
 PRELIMINARY WORK OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION. 
 
 An important feature of these congresses is the large amount of pre- 
 liminary work that is done in preparation for the quinquennial gath- 
 ering. The permanent International Commission, consisting of eight 
 of the most prominent peuologists of Europe, with Dr. Guillauine, of 
 Switzerland, as its efficient secretary, is the organic bridge which unites 
 one congress with the next and give continuity, unity, and develop- 
 ment to the work. 
 
 This Commission prepares a programme more than a year in advance. 
 Specialists in all parts of the world are invited to write papers on 
 questions chosen for discussion. The reports for the present Congress 
 represented the opinions and experience of 240 writers, and amounted 
 to 2,500 pages in print. They were all printed in French three months 
 before the opening of the Congress and were sent in advance to the 
 official delegates. Thus every delegate knew beforehand not only the 
 subjects 011 the programme but the line of argument which would be 
 advanced, and the evidence for and against certain conclusions. Instead 
 of being overloaded by a great mass of papers, the decks were kept 
 clear for discussion. This gave warmth and vivacity to debate. In 
 addition to these reports the Commission secured monographs from 
 many different countries giving facts and statistics in regard to their
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 15 
 
 prison systems. The questions carefully prepared by the Commission 
 on which these monographs were framed were uniform throughout, so 
 that the penological student has an opportunity for comparative study 
 not easily secured elsewhere. This large amount of preliminary mate- 
 rial will undoubtedly prove to be as valuable as the proceedings of the 
 Congress itself. 
 
 OPENING OF THE CONGRESS. 
 
 The Congress was formally opened June 30, at 4 p. in., in the great 
 amphitheater of the Sorbonne. The occasion was honored by the pres- 
 ence on the platform of the President of the Itepublic, Mr. Felix Faure, 
 accompanied by his ministers, the chiefs of the supreme court and of 
 the court of appeals, the members of the penitentiary commission, the 
 members of the French commission of organization, and other gentle- 
 men of distinguished position. In the hemicycle were grouped the 
 members of the Congress and a large number of senators, deputies, and 
 directors of various departments of public administration. The band 
 of the Guarde Republicaine played La Marseillaise. The members of 
 the Congress rose and the President was received with great applause. 
 M. George Leygues, minister of the interior, after greeting the Presi- 
 dent of the Kepublic and expressing thanks for the encouragement of 
 his presence, extended the welcome to the delegates. 
 
 ADDRESS OF WELCOME BY M. LEYGUES, MINISTER OF THE INTERIOR. 
 
 In the name of the Government of the Republic, I extend a welcome to the foreign 
 delegates who have come here to affirm the unchangeable union of those who have 
 devoted their lives to the pursuit of truth and the alleviation of human misery. 
 Science, gentlemen, takes on more and more an international character. The per- 
 petual intercourse which goes on through the press does not suffice. Scientists them- 
 selves must come together to divulge their discoveries and to blend into a universal 
 patrimony the fruits of their meditation and their work. London, Stockholm, Rome, 
 St. Petersburg mark the stations of progress which penitentiary science has traversed 
 until to-day. The work in which you are engaged, gentlemen, is one of the most 
 arduous and noble which can be conceived. To strengthen repressive action and at 
 the same time introduce more humanity in the laws; to ask for indulgence rather 
 than vigor, without abandoning any of the indispensable guaranties of social order; 
 to revive in the soul of the delinquent and the criminal the notion of duty, of right, 
 and of justice, such is the end you propose to yourselves. 
 
 It seemed at first that your ideal was placed too high. You were reproached with 
 attempting the impossible; your generous conceptions were greeted as chimeras; 
 you wore accused of seutimentalism and feebleness. Nothing could shake your 
 faith. You knew better than anyone that there are some of the sick who do not wish 
 to be cured iucorrigibles who need to be put where they can not harm. But you 
 said that all the sick are not incurable, and that there are means of salvation which 
 should at least be applied. Perversity, in your eyes, is only the exception. You 
 have affirmed that human nature is at bottom right, loyal, and generous. You have 
 never despaired of that, and you are right. In the darkest and most ravaged heart 
 there may survive, as in the ruins of a temple, a last lamp, forgotten by the last 
 priest, which burns still for truth and goodness. The question is not of substituting 
 for penal laws a sort of philosophical indifference which will compromise public 
 security. It is the question of stimulating moral forces and developing generous 
 instincts, which are able to prevent the offense or the crime, and, after the downfall,
 
 16 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 of raising and rehabilitating the guilty. No one maintains the irresponsibility of 
 the being who has done wrong. That would be to affirm the inutility of chastise- 
 ment or of recompense. It is true that physical constitution, education, heredity, 
 and misery exercise a direct influence on criminality. Legislators have taken 
 account of these inevitable reactions in the preparation of laws and the gradation 
 of penalties. Upon this point the tradition has not changed, but you made an inno- 
 vation when, breaking with ancient errors, you said that intimidation and fear are 
 not the only means of assuring the amendment of the culpable, but that education 
 and hope are also sure means of obtaining it. 
 
 That simple affirmation was a revolution. You had spoken of goodness; you had 
 pressed a flower in the austere pages of the code. Your doctrine is just; chastise- 
 ment without possibility of pardon and forgetfulness discourages and degrades; the 
 hope of rehabilitation provokes to eifort and restores. You have put principle into 
 practice, but your ambition has not been satisfied. To repress or to amend is well, 
 to prevent is better, and you have wished to drain even the source of evil. The 
 prison congresses have accomplished here the most beautiful part of their work in 
 revising the legislation relative to abandoned or wayward children. To rescue chil- 
 dren from bad treatment, bad examples and surroundings is to fulfill the first of civic 
 duties. Has society the right to punish a feeble being and not to rescue and protect 
 it? To extend to the wayward child a friendly hand, to console it in its distress, to 
 forge'; and make it forget its fault is to make a good citizen of one who might become 
 a useless and dangerous being; that is to serve one's country and perhaps, better 
 still, to serve humanity. It is to your indefatigable propaganda, gentlemen, that 
 is due the reformation of houses of correction and the development of those admira- 
 ble works of patronage which in the last twenty years have appeared upon all parts 
 of the globe. That result is sufficient alone to demonstrate the social and philo- 
 sophical range of your work and your right to public gratitude. Wherever you 
 establish your sessions you receive the highest and most precious proofs of sympathy. 
 Public opinion encourages you and governments deem it an honor to collaborate 
 with you. In combatting moral maladies, in arresting their advance, in extinguish- 
 ing their fires you accomplish work which goes beyond the limits of your action. 
 You help thus to assure the peaceful evolution of progress; for society like organ- 
 ized bodies needs to prosper and to grow in health as well as in liberty. 
 
 Gentlemen, may the bonds of mutual esteem and of reciprocal confidence which 
 unite you already draw you together more closely for the welfare of your countries. 
 May the new efforts you undertake become a success for peace of conscience and the 
 triumph of truth and justice. 
 
 I declare the Fifth International Penitentiary Congress open. 
 
 These noble sentiments of M. Leygues, minister of the interior, who 
 has closely identified himself with the work of prison reform, were 
 greeted with loud applause. Upon nothing was the Congress more 
 unanimous than upon the principles which should govern its action. 
 Prison reformers have yet a great deal to do in educating the public 
 to accept these fundamental principles in which the perfection of 
 society and the reformation of the prisoner go hand in hand. But in 
 the Congress these principles were never doubted or debated. They 
 were the base line by which everything else was measured, and the 
 work of the body was to apply these simple principles to very complex 
 problems. 
 
 RESPONSE OF M. POLS. 
 
 M. Pols, of Holland, vice-president of the International Penitentiary 
 Commission, responded eloquently for the delegates, returning thanks
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 17 
 
 for the generous reception which France had given to the Congress, 
 the preparations it had made for it, and the resources placed at its 
 disposal. Calling attention to the moral and humane significance of 
 the brilliant gathering of distinguished men in that temple of science, 
 and the greeting of the minister of the interior, M. Pols found in the 
 scene and the address an expression not only of individual opinion, but 
 of the moral support of the French people. Referring then to the 
 object of the Congress, he said: 
 
 Who doubts now the value of this work? It is not simply an affair of justice or of 
 administration confided to the intelligent and active care of those in authority; it is 
 above all a social iuterest of the first rank which demands the combined action of all 
 social forces, and of private action joined with that of authority, each mutually 
 sustaining the other. We are, happily, very far from the time when it was thought 
 that justice was honored in being represented 349 cold and impassible, the sword and 
 the scales in her hand, but her eyes bandaged. That symbol of the partiality and 
 integrity of ideal justice was often badly supported by the facts. The bandage 
 symbolized better, perhaps, another quality of justice as formerly conceived, that of 
 not seeing clearly in weighing the crime, but of striking blindly and without dis- 
 cernment the criminal penitentiary science, whose triumphant advance marks the 
 great progress of humanity, has dethroned cold, blind, and impassible justice. 
 
 Recognizing the futility of combatting crime by simply attacking the criminal, 
 of cutting down the weeds without going to the roots, it has completely changed its 
 tactics of repression. Seeking to determine the causes and the movements of crime, 
 it has been quick to see that the responsibility is not to be attributed alone to the 
 material author of the crime. It has recognized the complicity of human nature and 
 of society, the necessity of a complete revolution in the weapons of combat and in 
 the means of attack and defense. In maintaining a horror of crime, it has modified 
 considerably the sentiment concerning the prisoner. If it has not discovered those 
 noble truths, repeated for centuries as beautiful sentences which one might admire 
 while dispensing with their application, namely, that prevention is better than 
 punishment, and that justice does not exclude charity that even there is no 
 justice without charity, as there is no charity without justice it has made them 
 living and vivifying principles of reform, and has infused them into legislation and 
 administration. 
 
 But this movement so powerful and truthful is not due to official initiative, but to 
 the awakening of the public couscience by private action. At the call of chosen spirits 
 the human conscience has awakened from its sleep where it observed a conventional 
 routine, and has overthrown the idol of a blind and brutal justice to substitute a 
 conception more noble and more enlightened. That conception, which we may con- 
 sider as generally adopted, and which has exercised a salutary influence upon legis- 
 lation and practice, is nevertheless far from having attained its full development. 
 It would not even be able to maintain itself if the generous influences which have 
 imparted life to it should now fail, if it did not have that warm vivification which 
 the public conscience may give to it. For one can not deny that it has multiplied 
 questions and singularly complicated the problem of justice, extended more and more 
 the field of study and the difficulties to be solved. This Congress furnishes proofs 
 of that. But it furnishes, at the same time, the proof that the more extensive is the 
 task, the greater is the number and devotion of the workers. Our beginnings were 
 very modest; but from London to Stockholm, Stockholm to Rome, and Rome to 
 St. Petersburg the work of the Congress has not only gradually expanded, but has 
 more and more conciliated the favor of the Governments and public opinion. If 
 death has taken a number of our illustrious colleagues, whose loss we deeply regret, 
 others, inspired by their devotion, have taken their places in large numbers. At the 
 S. Doc. 181 2
 
 18 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 same time the horizon of penitentiary science has been enlarged, and the congresses 
 have had to follow these lines of progress which in part are due to them. The march 
 from St. Petersburg to Paris marked a new stage of progress. The Paris Congress 
 will distinguish itself, we hope, by a special solicitude for unfortunate an d wayward 
 children. Thanks to the growing recognition of the importance of this work, which 
 so appeals to our sympathies, and thanks to the experience acquired at the Congress 
 of St. Petersburg, the International Commission, accepting a proposition of the dele- 
 gate of the Russian Government, has recognized the necessity of reserving a special 
 section for all questions concerning children. It will be a mark of honor to the 
 Fifth Congress that it has devoted so large a part of its attention to that section of 
 humanity which, still more than any others, demands the severe application of the 
 principle that there is no justice without charity. 
 
 Fortunately, if the Congress has a task more extended and more complicated, it is 
 able to enjoy the moral support not only of the Government of France, which has 
 already been assured to us, but also of the nation itself which has taken such a great 
 part in the reawakening of the public conscience and in the generous and powerful 
 movement that has created prison science and made it the common work of all those 
 who interest themselves in the welfare of humanity. 
 
 Belonging ourselves to that section of humanity which insensibly has been led to 
 accord, it may be, too large a place to justice, we welcome above all the adhesion 
 more and more marked and the cooperation more and more warm of that other sec- 
 tion of humanity which is interested above all in the triumph of charity. If peni- 
 tentiary science inclines more and more to accord to woman a distinct place as it has 
 already accorded it to childhood, it needs above all the moral support and the co- 
 operation of woman in the study of the multiplied questions relating to wayward and 
 unfortunate women. The solutions of questions concerning children and these other 
 unfortunates will not advance without the cooperation of woman. The presence of 
 so many distinguished women in our ranks and the presence of so many others in 
 this gathering are happy and auspicious indications that the Congress of Paris will 
 take a new step in its onward march. 
 
 To secure this new success it will only have to maintain the spirit which has 
 inspired its predecessors. Recognizing that our debates and resolutions are power- 
 less to solve these questions except by the confidence which they inspire and the 
 momentum they give to public opinion, it is our duty to merit the moral support 
 which we receive on all sides. Our success is further assured by the good prepara- 
 tion that has been made for our work. 
 
 Mr. Minister, the words of high esteem which you have addressed to the Interna- 
 tional Commission we accept from our hearts as a precious testimony of your good 
 will. Faithful to the mission which the Commission has received from the Govern 
 ments which have united in forming it, it has indicated the direction of our work. 
 But for the preparation of our labors the praise is due in great part to our worthy 
 president, M. Duflos, to the employees of his administration who have assisted him, 
 to the distinguished men who have responded to this appeal to form a committee 
 of organization, to La Soci6t6 Ge"ne"rale des Prisons, and to all those, whether in 
 this or other countries, who by their scientific reports have prepared the ground of 
 discussion. I will not enlarge upon their merit. The presence of these coworkers 
 here compels discretion. But I can not finish without offering to all, and in the first 
 place to our honorable president, the sincere and cordial tribute of our lively grati- 
 tude for the distinguished service they have rendered to the Congress and for their 
 zeal and devotion in assuring its success. 
 
 lam conscious of all that is lacking in the expression of my thought and in my 
 attempt to convey the sentiment of my colleagues, but I am consoled by the hope 
 that the Congress itself by its labors will ofler a testimony which will have more 
 value than would the word of the greatest orator.
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 19 
 
 The foreign delegates then assembled in the grand salon of the 
 Sorbonne, where they were presented to the President of the Kepublic, 
 who was surrounded by his ministers, the president of the Chamber of 
 Deputies, ministers of foreign countries, and by his military escort. 
 
 ORGANIZATION OF THE CONGRESS. 
 
 On Monday morning, July 1, at 9 o'clock the members of the Con- 
 gress reassembled in the grand amphitheater of the Sorbonne to com- 
 plete the organization. M. Pols opened the session and, conforming to 
 a wish formulated by the International Commission that the member of 
 the Commission representing the country in which the Congress meets 
 should be chosen president, he nominated M. F. Duflos as president of 
 the Fifth International Prison Congress. 
 
 OPENING ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT, M. DUFLOS. 
 
 LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: It is not my intention to delay by a long discourse the 
 commencement of your labors, especially as you have heard here developed in ad- 
 mirable language by voices of the highest authority the generous principles which 
 will inspire you in your discussions and the controlling thought which has given 
 birth to the magnificent work of the International Prison Congresses. I can not 
 fail, however, in that duty of gratitude which is imposed upon me. I thank you for 
 the great honor which you have conferred upon me. I would not dare to accept it if 
 I had not been sustained by the powerful cooperation of my eminent colleagues, Com- 
 mandcur Beltrani-Scalia, His Excellency M. Galkine-Wraskoy, and Professeur Pols. 
 Their scientific experience and the brilliant r61e which they have played in pre- 
 ceding gatherings assures a valuable authority to the presidency of which they form 
 a part. The cordial sympathy with which they have honored me up to the present 
 time permits me to hope that I may be able to fulfill the high and difficult task you 
 have confided to me. 
 
 And now, since you have given me the right, in the name of all let me renew to our 
 foreign colleagues the welcome to Paris and to France. So imposing is the character 
 of this gathering, in which the illustrious men of two worlds are mingled, that I 
 shall be pardoned if I give expression to the great joy of my heart that I am able to 
 affirm the universal interest which our studies have attained and the eagerness 
 with which our appeal has been answered. 
 
 It is enough to be in the presence of this assembly to be able to affirm that the 
 labors of this Fifth International Prison Congress will be fruitful, that after some 
 days of scientific discussion, your resolutions prepared by profound studies and the 
 meditation of lofty minds will furnish to criminology and to penitentiary science 
 new lights and numerous elements of progress. From the composition of your pro- 
 gramme and the remarkable preparatory reports which serve as the basis of your dis- 
 cussions, we may discern the growing attention which is given to the moral side of 
 the work and to the necessity of the prevention of crime. Science is resolutely 
 attacking the source of evil, deciding firmly to repress rigorously when that is 
 necessary, but considering repression simply as a makeshift. It is an extreme 
 measure that society should avoid in the greatest possible degree by working for the 
 amendment of the bad and offering to them means of restoration ; above all by 
 employing all its energies to save from crime through preventive education the 
 unfortunate children which misery or bad examples seem to consign to an irregular 
 and depraved existence. 
 
 Therefore, questions concerning vagrancy, drunkenness, and prostitution take the 
 place of highest importance in our programmes. The former third section of the
 
 20 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 Congress Las been divided into two, and all which relates to childhood is made 
 to-day the subject of a special section. 
 
 There is nothing more beautiful, gentlemen, nothing grander than the spectacle 
 presented by this gathering. Is it not singularly moving to see those who belong 
 to the highest intellectual and social ranks, crossing a part of the globe and travers- 
 ing oceans to study together the means of diminishing upon this earth the sum 
 of evil, crime, and misery which skeptics assume can not be reduced, in order to 
 spare themselves the anxiety of the conflict and the labor of research. 
 
 You not only apply yourselves to scientific problems capable of furnishing the 
 mind with delicate satisfactions ; you do not hesitate when you truly believe it will 
 serve the cause of humanity to overcome natural repugnance and lawful indignation. 
 You are inaccessible to fatigue, but the hatred of crime does not drive you to anger; 
 for you know that nothing good, nothing efficacious, nothing durable can be effected 
 if the heart does not come to the aid of the mind. You combat the crime, but when 
 the criminal has been placed momentarily beyond a state of harm you tbink it neces- 
 sary to defend him against himself, to seek to enfranchise him from his instincts, to 
 lead him into light and truth and honor. You feel it necessary to extend to way- 
 ward childhood a protecting hand; if it is necessary often to be severe it is rarely 
 necessary to be unrelenting. In a word, charity animates you as much as the anxiety 
 for social defense. It sustains your hearts while science guides your minds. Honor, 
 then, to charity and science; that is the sentiment under which I propose to you that 
 the Fifth International Congress shall work honor to charity and to science. They 
 are indissolubly joined here. It is through them that the work of progress and peace 
 will be realized; it is in their spirit that we gather here fraternally to-day. 
 
 The address of M. Duflos was frequently interrupted with applause. 
 Like those preceding, it admirably expressed the spirit of the Congress. 
 
 The following list of officers was then unanimously elected : 
 
 Presidents : Messrs. Duflos, director- general of the prison adminis- 
 tration of France; Beltrani-Scalia, counselor of state, Borne; Gaikine- 
 Wraskoy, chief of the administration of prisons, Russia; Pols, professor- 
 of the University of Utrecht. 
 
 Vice-presidents: Messrs. Braunbehrens, subsecretary of state, Prus- 
 sia; Holzknecht de Hort, ministerial counselor, Austria; Laszlo, min- 
 isterial counselor, Hungary; Lejeune, minister of state, Belgium; 
 Marino, member of the superior council of prisons, Spain; Pessina, 
 senator, Italy ; Eandall, United States; Euggles-Brise, director-general 
 of prisons, England; Wieselgren, director-general of prisons, Sweden; 
 Woxen, director- general of prisons, Norway. 
 
 General secretary : Dr. Guillaume, chief of the bureau of statistics, 
 Switzerland. 
 
 Assistant general secretaries: Messrs. Likatchew, inspector-general 
 of prisons, Eussia; Eobin, chief of bureau in the interior department, 
 France. 
 
 Secretaries : Messrs. Prilejaew, chief of bureau of administration of 
 prisons, Eussia; Mouravieff-Apostol, secretary of the imperial legation 
 of Eussia at Madrid; Degournay, auditor of the state council, France. 
 
 COMPOSITION OF THE CONGRESS. 
 
 The Congress was not a mass meeting of individuals. It was made 
 up of 200 official delegates sent by 25 different countries, with the
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 21 
 
 addition of adherents nominated or introduced by the delegates. It 
 therefore represented not any local interest or sectional spirit, but 
 what truly might be said to be the attitude of modern civilization 
 toward the problems which engage it. In addition to the foreign dele- 
 gates, the number of French adherents officially enrolled and person- 
 ally and formally identified with the Congress, though not all present 
 at its sessions, numbered 537, and included many of the most distin- 
 guished names in France. This body was made up of jurists, legis- 
 lators, doctors, sociologists, magistrates, the heads of prison admin- 
 istration, and writers and experts on related branches of applied 
 philanthropy. 
 
 SCOPE AND METHOD. 
 
 The range of inquiry, discussion, and interest has gradually grown 
 broader. Every subject in any way related to criminology, whether 
 preventive, corrective, or administrative, now comes within the field. 
 As noticed in the previous addresses, one of the things which dis- 
 tinguished the Paris Congress from its predecessors was the great 
 emphasis laid upon preventive work and the establishment of a special 
 department for the discussion of all questions relating to children and 
 minors. 
 
 The spectacle of such a gathering of men and women from all parts 
 of Europe and even from Japan to study the whole network of problems 
 which enter into the subject of crime and its treatment was hopeful 
 and inspiring. Philologically the Congress was something of a Babel, 
 but morally it was a Pentecost. Whatever the divergence of ideas and 
 methods, the whole Congress was animated by one spirit. It was a 
 spirit of justice and humanity in search of knowledge and experience, 
 and that is the synonym of scientific philanthropy. Withal, it was 
 animated by a certain hope and faith that banished the specters of 
 pessimism which always haunt the background and sometimes come 
 into the foreground of this theme. 
 
 The Congress was divided into four sections. The first related to 
 penal legislation, the second to prison administration, the third to pre- 
 ventive means, and the fourth to children and minors. Separate sections 
 of each session were held in the College of France in the morning. The 
 questions laid down on the programme for each section were discussed 
 and conclusions formulated. In the afternoon a general session of the 
 whole Congress was held in the amphitheater of the Sorbonne, where 
 each section, through reporters appointed by it, gave an account of the 
 spirit of the discussions and the conclusions reached, which were then 
 voted upon by the whole body of delegates. 
 
 An outline of the work of each section, the questions discussed, and 
 the conclusions reached will now be given.
 
 22 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 FIRST SECTION. 
 
 PENAL LEGISLATION. 
 
 President: Senator Edouard de Fouks, president of the juridical 
 society of St. Petersburg. 
 
 Vice-presidents: Messrs. Foehring, Hamburg; Bensis, attorney- 
 general, Greece; Foiuitski, advocate- general, Russia; Senator Pieran- 
 toni, Italy; Prof. Carl Stoos, Switzerland; Counsellor Starke, Prussia; 
 Professor von Hamel, Holland ; Professor Zucker, Austria. 
 
 Secretaries : Messrs. Kobiquet, advocate to the council of state and 
 the court of cassation; Garon, professor of the faculty of law of Lille; 
 Le Poittevin, professor of the faculty of law, Paris ; Chapsal, auditor 
 to the council of state. 
 
 Associate Secretary : M. Camille Fabre. 
 
 THE RELAPSED CRIMINAL. 
 
 First Question : 
 
 Should a malefactor be regarded as a recidivist until he has 
 renewed the same infraction ? 
 
 Should the augmentation of the penalty be progressive at each new 
 relapse on his part f 
 
 The great plague of penologists as well as of society is the recidivist, 
 the relapsed criminal, the "repeater" or "rounder," as he is more famil- 
 iarly called in this country. He is the man or woman who has gone 
 to prison half a dozen times, or it may be fifty or a hundred. One of 
 the longest and most animated discussions was on the question of 
 classifying the recidivist and the application of penalties. 
 
 The first of these questions as formulated above was theoretical, a 
 question of classification, though not without practical import. The 
 second question was more practical, having for its main object not the 
 definition of recidivism, but the means of repression. 
 
 In some countries a criminal who has been sent to prison two or three 
 times is regarded as a recidivist, without reference to the nature of his 
 otteuse. Under the German system he is regarded as a recidivist only 
 when he repeats the same ofiense. There are recidivists who are acci- 
 dental and occasional; there are those who are professional and anti- 
 social. It is the last, whether he be a general recidivist, committing a 
 variety of crimes, or a special recidivist, confining his infractions to a 
 single line, who is the most dangerous. It was only by the appointment 
 of a special committee to sift and amalgamate points in the discussion 
 that unanimity was finally secured. The real problem is to distinguish 
 between the accidental or occasional and the habitual or professional 
 criminal. The report favored a progressive accumulation of penalties 
 and the infliction of more rigorous sentences in the case of professional 
 criminals.
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 23 
 
 Kesolutions : 
 
 1. The relapse may be, according to the gravity of the case, general, 
 special, or subordinate to conditions of time. 
 
 2. Repression ought to combine in view : 
 
 (a) A progressive augmentation of sentences except in cases formu- 
 lated below. 
 
 (b) The infliction of a more rigorous penalty upon professional 
 criminals. 
 
 3. Tribunals should not be restrained by the first of these rules (a) 
 from recognizing the existence of exceptionally extenuating circum- 
 stances in a decision the grounds of which are distinctly expressed. 
 
 The law ought to establish a special minimum to avoid the abuse of 
 short sentences. 
 
 4. In the second case (b) the law should fix the number of the con- 
 demnations upon the basis of which the courts may decide, according 
 to the nature of the condemnations incurred and the degree of per- 
 versity of the agent, ichether or not the accused is to be regarded as a 
 professional criminal. 
 
 TRANSPORTATION. 
 
 Second Question: 
 
 Should transportation, taken in its broadest sense, be admitted in a 
 rational system of repression; and if so, what particular role should 
 it be called upon to fill f 
 
 The subject of transportation is not now a practical question in the 
 United States nor in England, and the tendencies of modern penology 
 to abandon this system are seen in the fact that the only two countries 
 that now hold to it are France and Eussia. In the Congress the warm 
 debate on this subject was almost entirely confined to representatives 
 of these two countries. 
 
 Previous congresses have dealt with these questions with caution. 
 The Congress in Stockholm in 1878 did not proscribe transportation, as 
 some of the members desired, but passed the following vote: 
 
 The sentence of transportation presents difficulties which do not permit of its 
 adoption in all countries or the hope that it will realize all the conditions of justice. 
 
 The Congress of 1890 in St. Petersburg, held in a country where 
 transportation has been maintained for three centuries, said: 
 
 Against hardened and rebellious criminals prolonged imprisonment or transpor- 
 tation to territories, or dependent possessions of the country interested, may be 
 employed, but always with the guaranties which ought to surround authority for 
 those who are deprived of their liberty, and with the possibility of regaining that 
 liberty by their good conduct according to a system of conditional liberation. 
 
 In 1854 France, after a long and painful experience with defective 
 penal prisons, revised its system, and found new hope in transporta- 
 tion, which was established in Guiana and Jfew Caledonia, an island in 
 the Pacific 25 miles broad and about 240 miles long. It has many
 
 24 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 conditions which adapt it for a penal colony. The French system has 
 been in operation for forty years. A system of conditional liberation on 
 the island without the privilege of leaving it, and with remuneration for 
 work for those who are set free, encourages good behavior. At the 
 expiration of the sentence the liberated form a class by themselves, and 
 have many of the advantages of free immigrants. Undoubtedly the 
 French system is carried on under conditions which are more humane 
 and hopeful than the old prison system which it in some degree replaced. 
 It has distinctly in view the reformation of the prisoner. It recognizes 
 the need of a wide administration and superior personality the need of 
 rewards and encouragements as well as strict discipline. Eelegation 
 or banishment to these colonies is a milder imposition of the penalty. 
 Both of the French reporters to the Congress, Messrs. Charles Petit 
 and Charles Babinet, of the court of cassation, Paris, advocated the 
 French transportation system, and maintained that, while under the 
 old system the number of recidivists was 95 per cent, there are only 5 
 per cent under transportation. It must be remembered, however, that 
 this is a comparison between transportation and the bagnes, or French 
 convict prisons, which the penal colonies replaced. It is not a com- 
 parison between transportation and the best modern system of prisons. 
 
 The Russian reporter to the conference was Prof. N. S. Tagantzew, of 
 St. Petersburg, professor in the faculty of law, honorary member of the 
 university, and a member of the court of cassation. He is one of the 
 distinguished jurists of Eussia. He did not disguise the defects in 
 the administration of Russian transportation. He maintained, how- 
 ever, that transportation combines the essential conditions of intimi- 
 dating the prisoner, securing the safeguard of society and the correction 
 of the criminal, and that it ought not to be excluded from penal meas- 
 ures. But, since the practical application of transportation, as history 
 and experience can attest, presents serious difficulties, it is only to be 
 recommended for States which offer convenient conditions and in a 
 restricted measure. Transportation should be maintained only in coun- 
 tries possessing territory for its application, and especially where they 
 can not secure the repression of crime by seclusion in prison. Trans- 
 portation is not a measure to be extended to a great number of criminals 
 without regard to individual qualities. But it is to be applied in ac- 
 cordance with their physical and moral aptitudes for colonization. 
 
 When the question came up in the first section of the Congress, the 
 system of transportation was warmly and ably attacked by M. Prins, 
 inspector general of Belgian prisons. He maintained that emigration 
 alone can establish prosperous colonies, and that colonization effected 
 by criminals has been a failure. Transportation, he argued, is enor- 
 mously expensive seven times more than that of imprisonment. 
 
 Conspicuous among the Russian opponents of the system was Prof. 
 Ivan Foinitzki, professor of law of the faculty of St. Petersburg. He 
 is one of the highest authorities on penological subjects in Russia, or
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 25 
 
 indeed in Europe. One volume of his treatise on penology is devoted 
 to transportation, and has just been translated into French by M. 
 Georges Bonet-Maury, of Paris. 
 
 Professor Foinitzki examines carefully all the arguments which have 
 been presented in favor of transportation, and rejects them in toto. 
 He declares that transportation up to the present has nothing but 
 negative results to show. 
 
 M. Spassovicz, another Bussian delegate, showed that Bussia had 
 had a rapid growth, but has not yet attained its full development. It 
 was only in 18G4 that the judicial powers had been separated from 
 the administrative. Bussia is now in the midst of penitentiary reform. 
 Transportation has been a means of banishing diiferent rebellious ele- 
 ments. It has been applied for political offenses, for religious offenses, 
 and even to those of a municipal nature. It is certain that it ought 
 to be transformed radically. But before that there is another duty 
 imposed, which is that of improving its prisons. 
 
 The task of defending transportation fell almost entirely upon the 
 French representatives. Its most ardent advocate was Professor 
 Leveille", of the faculty of law of Paris, who maintained that transpor- 
 tation has two virtues, which distinctly belong to it, that it admits of 
 work in the open air and does not exhaust the condemned, and that 
 it prepares at the same time the reestablishment of the liberated. 
 France had committed some mistakes and the laws had needed revi- 
 sion. The sentence had been weakened by an excess of indulgence, but 
 recent regulations have strengthened it, and have stopped the illegal 
 traffic of speculators in convict labor. 
 
 It was evident that only negative conclusions or a compromise could 
 be reached with such a division of opinion. The resolution finally 
 adopted by the section and confirmed by the Congress was as follows: 
 
 Besolution : 
 
 Transportation under different forms, with the ameliorations 
 already realized and those of which it is still susceptible, has its 
 utility, whether for the execution of long sentences for great crimes 
 or for the repression of habitual criminals and obstinate recidivists. 
 
 INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AGAINST CRIME. 
 
 Third Question: 
 
 Ought a certain effect to be given in a country to penal sentences 
 pronounced abroad f 
 
 This question has been discussed at various conferences on interna- 
 tional law held in Europe, and also at the Prison Congress at Borne. 
 No country now executes sentences pronounced by a foreign country. 
 The Prison Congress at Borne said: "The exchange of criminals to 
 undergo in the country of their origin sentences depriving them of 
 liberty pronounced by a foreign judge is not practicable, and would not
 
 26 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 be desirable." Yet several States may be simultaneously interested in 
 the punishment of the same offense, one because the criminal action 
 has taken place upon its territory, another because the action was di- 
 rected against its security, or because of the nationality of the offender 
 or the victim. The relations, interests, difficulties, complexities, and 
 possibilities entering into this question were well set forth in the pre- 
 liminary reports by M. A. Le Poittevin, associate professor of the 
 faculty of law, Paris. 
 
 It is manifest that the want of symmetry in different national codes 
 would prevent the balance of justice from working equably. The dif- 
 ferent speakers who took part in the discussion did not go further than 
 to show how modern nations are interested everywhere to secure the 
 operation of penal justice. To-day malefactors do not recognize frontiers 
 or distances, and may even be organized in international bands. States 
 are less jealous than formerly of their sovereign laws. The different 
 European codes now repress criminal acts in a more uniform manner. 
 Extradition is largely practiced. Certain countries consent to deliver 
 their own citizens, thus confessing that the normal tribunal for an 
 offense is that of the place where the offense has been committed. The 
 old distrust against sentences pronounced in other countries has in 
 part disappeared, and different people representing the same grade of 
 civilization are accepting the authority of a criminal process abroad. 
 
 The Congress expressed the opinion that it is desirable that the inca- 
 pacities which fall upon a person by reason of condemnation pronounced 
 against him from some infraction of common law by the tribunals of his 
 nation should have full force in other countries. Also, that it is desirable 
 that one who is condemned for crime in a foreign country should incur in 
 his own country the same incapacities and deprivations as he would 
 incur if lie had been condemned there. In other words, a person who 
 has been condemned as a thief in one country ought not to be allowed 
 to sit in a jury in another or exercise the rights of an elector or fulfill 
 public functions. 
 
 In the present state of international law, however, the Congress did 
 not ask that these incapacities and deprivations should be directly 
 incurred as the result of a sentence abroad, but that they might be 
 pronounced as the result of a special action by the tribunals of the 
 country of which the prisoner is a citizen, not retrying the case, but 
 confirming the procedure of the foreign court. Again, it proposed that 
 a judge should take account of the sentences that have been pro- 
 nounced against a criminal in foreign courts when he is arraigned for 
 some infraction on national territory. Thus, if a professional thief from 
 Berlin or London is caught in this country pursuing the same trade, 
 there seems to be no reason why he should be regarded as a first offender 
 here when it can be shown that he has been condemned two or three 
 times in those cities or is wanted for crimes committed there. In States 
 having a habitual criminal law the recognition of a criminal's foreign 
 career would thus make a great difference in the sentence imposed.
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 27 
 
 The conclusions were thus formulated : 
 Resolutions: 
 
 1. It is desirable that the incapacities which a person incurs by rea- 
 son of condemnations pronounced against Mm for crime or for viola- 
 tions of common laic by the courts of his country should follow him 
 in full force in all countries. 
 
 2. It is desirable that a native of a country who is condemned for 
 crime or violation of common law in another land should incur in his 
 own country the same disabilities, incapacities, and interdictions as he 
 would incur if he had been condemned there. In the actual state of 
 international laic, the Congress does not ask that these disabilities, 
 incapacities, and interdictions should be the direct result of a foreign 
 sentence, but that they might be pronounced as the result of a special 
 action instituted by the courts of the country of the delinquent. 
 
 3. When a new infraction has been committed on national territory, 
 the judge on fixing the sentence should take account of condemnations 
 pronounced abroad. 
 
 INDEMNITY OF THE VICTIMS OF CEIMB. 
 
 Fourth Question : 
 
 Is the victim of an offense sufficiently armed by modern laws with 
 
 reference to obtaining the indemnity which may be due to him from 
 
 the delinquent f 
 
 The question shows how ethical elements are becoming prominent in 
 these discussions. 
 
 It was felt that modern laws are particularly weak here. In some 
 respects the laws in different countries are harder upon the victim than 
 upon the offender. Thus, in France, while in a case submitted to a jury 
 costs are not assessed upon the complainant if the complaint is sus- 
 tained, in all other cases the complainant is obliged to defray the costs 
 of the process whether for or against him. It often occurs that the 
 victim is too poor to maintain the expenses of a civil suit. Though 
 the effects of the condemned may be confiscated for the benefit of the 
 injured, the delinquent is often insolvent. It was maintained that a 
 portion of the prisoner's earnings might be applied to advantage in this 
 direction. But this would in most cases be but a small amount unless 
 the sentence were long. It was suggested that a fund may be estab- 
 lished by the State, derived from pecuniary fines imposed instead of 
 short sentences, and that the fund thus established might be used for 
 the relief of victims of crime. It was also suggested that restitution 
 might be possible in some cases through the conditional liberation of 
 the offender. The Congress found the subject so important that it 
 recommended to serious consideration the establishment of such an 
 indemnity fund. But inasmuch as it was not wholly prepared to weigh 
 the matter in all its bearings, it decided to commit the subject to the 
 consideration of the next International Congress.
 
 28 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 Resolutions : 
 
 1. Penal legislation ought to take more account than it has hitherto 
 done of the necessity of assuring reparation to the injured party. 
 
 2. When the complaint of the prosecuting party is well grounded he 
 should never be condemned to pay costs. 
 
 The prosecuting party who shall have simply joined his action to 
 that already entered by the public solicitor should, even if he fails, be 
 condemned only to the costs occasioned by his intervention. 
 
 3. The benefit of counsel should be accorded to the injured party in 
 courts for the repression of crime (devant la juridiction de repres- 
 sion). 
 
 4. The public minister in the case of correctional or criminal suits 
 shall be obliged to submit, without expense, to the jurisdiction con- 
 cerned, the demand for damages of the injured party, the right being 
 reserved to the public minister, upon the admission or rejection of the 
 demand, to take such action as may seem desirable. 
 
 5. The indemnity allowed to the injured party shall be guaranteed 
 by a general claim upon the estate and the household goods of the 
 condemned, and that claim shall be made concurrently with that of the 
 public treasurer for the costs of justice. 
 
 6. The Congress decides that there is ground for taking into very 
 serious consideration the propositions ichich have been submitted to it 
 with regard to allowing to the injured party a portion of the gains 
 realized by the icork of the condemned in the course of his detention, 
 and icith regard to constituting a special indemnity fund from which 
 aid may be accorded to the victims of infractions under the penal law; 
 but thinking that it does not possess at present the elements which 
 are necessary for the solution of these questions, it decides to commit 
 them to the more profound study of the next International Prison 
 Congress. 
 
 CLASSIFICATION OF CRIME. 
 
 Fifth Question . 
 
 Is there ground for maintaining in penal legislation the triple 
 division of crimes, delits, and contraventions f If not, what simplifi- 
 cation should be introduced in that division ? 
 
 Classification of crimes is a comparatively ancient method ; the clas- 
 sification of criminals is comparatively modern. In Hebrew, Oriental, 
 and Roman codes we find attempts at the classification of crime, and 
 the estimate of guilt s seen in the varying weight of penalty attached 
 to the offense. No subject has received more attention from modern 
 jurists. Every law enacted by a legislature with a penalty attached 
 becomes a designation of crime, misdemeanor, or contravention. The 
 law and the penalty may be ethical in character or may simply relate 
 to public convenience, like a penalty for obstructing the sidewalk or 
 tearing down an election notice. Modern ideas in regard to the ethical
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 29 
 
 value and relative enormity of offenses are very different from those of 
 former days. In no respect has the spirit of new Italy been manifested 
 more significantly than in the revision of its penal code. In France, 
 under the influence of BeYeuger, great improvements have been made, 
 and in England, one of the most conservative countries in changing its 
 laws, many changes have been effected in the last fifty and even in the 
 last twenty-five years. But the classifications of crime in even the best 
 penal codes are all more or less arbitrary. 
 
 If we wish to get an idea how arbitrary they are we may do so with- 
 out going abroad for the purpose. We may compare the codes of 44 
 of the States of the United States, as Dr. F. H. Wines has done in a 
 paper prepared for our National Prison Congress, 1894. There we find 
 the most remarkable divergencies in the estimate of the comparative 
 guilt of offenses and the punishment which should be affixed to them. 
 Thus, in Delaware the extreme penalty for counterfeiting is three years' 
 imprisonment; in five of the States it is imprisonment for life. In New 
 Hampshire a perjurer may get off with five years; in Maine he maybe 
 imprisoned for life. In Delaware it is assumed that one year is as much 
 as a man deserves for bigamy, but in Tennessee he may get twenty-one 
 years. The value of a nose or eye in Georgia is a year and a half in 
 a jail or chain gang and a fine of $1,000; in Colorado it is worth three 
 years' imprisonment, and in Vermont imprisonment for life. Thus we 
 might go through the catalogue of crimes in the different States. The 
 contradictions presented are remarkable, and as a study in comparative 
 ethics are very curious. Under the Hebrew law of an eye for an eye 
 and a tooth for a tooth the matter was much simpler; but when it comes 
 to measuring the money value of an eye or a nose or the length of impris- 
 onment which forms an equivalent for its destruction it is not easy to 
 secure unanimity. 
 
 In France and in many other countries there is a threefold division 
 of crimes, delits, and contraventions, as there is recognized generally 
 in this country a distinction between crimes and misdemeanors. The 
 Congress reaffirmed the utility of such a threefold division. It may be 
 useful to some extent to classify crime according to the nature and 
 character of the offense, especially on broad and general lines, such as 
 the distinctions between violations of civil and criminal law, offenses 
 against property, and offenses against persons; but the difficulty is 
 in the adjustment of any scale of penalties. When the penalties are 
 arranged on a sliding scale and a great deal of liberty is allowed to the 
 judge in applying them, the difficulties avoided in framing the law 
 reappear in its adminstration. Thus, while each State has a fixed 
 criminal code and a maximum and minimum of penalties, a study of 
 the sentences actually imposed shows the most curious variation and 
 contradictions. The estimates of the comparative enormity of offenses 
 made by prisoners themselves is sufficiently curious, as when the 
 drunkard boasts that he has not been a thief and the thief boasts that
 
 30 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 he has not been a drunkard; but ethical judgment of criminals are 
 hardly more contradictory or amusing than those which have been 
 framed into our laws and which are revealed in their administration. 
 When it comes to the application of the penalty the only final relief 
 for arbitrariness is in the adoption of the indeterminate sentence. On 
 this subject the International Prison Congress shed less light than has 
 been thrown by our National Prison Congress, in which the subject of 
 the indeterminate sentence has been fully developed and expounded. 
 
 While in France the tripartite division prevails, in Holland and in 
 Italy a bipartite division has been adopted: These divisions are of 
 course theoretical, and though they assist in the classification of crimes 
 are not of the greatest importance in the classification of prisoners. 
 
 Eesolutions : 
 
 1. The bipartite division is scientific and rational. 
 
 2. There is no reason for asking the States which have adopted it to 
 abandon it. 
 
 3. But it may be useful to establish a correlation between the clas- 
 sification of infractions and the classification of jurisdictions. When 
 to reach that correlation it is necessary to subdivide the first category 
 of infractions under the name of major and minor delits, or even of 
 crimes or offenses, the tripartite division has a practical character 
 which justifies its maintenance. 1 
 
 Sixth and Seventh Questions : 
 
 These questions, relating to vagabondage and prostitution, were 
 transferred from the first section to the third, and the resolutions 
 adopted are given in the report of that section. 
 
 CONDITIONAL, LIBERATION. 
 
 Eighth Question: 
 
 For what Tdnd of infractions of penal law, under what conditions, 
 and in what measure is it desirable to admit in legislation 
 
 (a) The system of admonitions or remonstrances addressed by the 
 judge to the wrongdoer and taking the place of condemnation? 
 
 (b) The mode of suspending a sentence, whether of fine or imprison- 
 ment, or such other sentence as the judge may pronounce, but which 
 he declares is not to be applied to the prisoner so long as he does not 
 incur a new condemnation f 
 
 ADOPTION IN EUROPE OF CONDITIONAL LIBERATION. 
 
 In the preliminary reports of the Congress, Signor Pessina, professor 
 of law in the University of Naples, pays a grateful acknowledgment 
 to Massachusetts as having first put into operation and developed the 
 
 1 As the French divisions of crime do not have a corresponding meaning in the 
 United States, the words infractions, crimes, del its, and jurisdictions aret left 
 untranslated.
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 31 
 
 system of probation. He gives a brief outline of the Massachusetts 
 system, which he shows has been followed by salutary fruits. The sys- 
 tem has been introduced in Australia. The Howard Association of 
 London conducted a campaign in favor of it in England, which resulted 
 in the adoption of the first offenders' act. According to English law, 
 probation is applied only to those who have never before incurred a 
 sentence, and it is not applied when the sentence is for more than two 
 years. The distinguished jurist Berenger, of France, presented a some- 
 what similar law to the French Senate in 1884, but it did not become 
 a law iu France until 1891. Belgium adopted the same system in 1881. 
 In the French and Belgium system the legal process is never suspended. 
 It is always the sentence alone that is suspended, and in the French 
 system in case of a second condemnation within five years the first sen- 
 tence holds good and must be executed. 
 
 This principle, which has met with opposition from some prominent 
 European jurists, has also its strong advocates, and in the preliminary 
 reports made to the Congress we find it urged by the representatives 
 of France, Eussia, and Italy. It has found an opponent in Professor 
 Kirchenheim, of Heidelberg. It has also been opposed by Professor 
 Pols, of Holland ; the former, not without reason, complaining that those 
 who have imitated the Massachusetts system in Europe have left out 
 its most important feature that of the surveillance exercised by the 
 probation officer. The opposition to this, as well as to many other re- 
 forms in penal legislation, is often based on purely theoretical grounds. 
 Massachusetts has now a solid basis of experience, and the new method 
 has already gained such a hold in England, France, and Belgium that 
 it is not likely to be abandoned. It is only a question of time for it to 
 find a permanent place in the judicial system of all civilized countries. 
 The custom of letting certain criminals go after a brief admonition by 
 the judge is a very old one. It goes back to Koman times. But the 
 custom of conditional condemnations or probation as distinct from mere 
 admonition is a modern development, and it helps to distinguish between 
 the accidental and the professional criminal to give the first an oppor- 
 tunity to recover his footing and to show the second that he can have 
 no footing whatever. Since the adoption of the law in Belgium seven 
 years ago 132,000 conditional condemnations have been made, and of 
 this number the proportion of recommitments has been only 3 per cent. 
 
 As the experience of Massachusetts had been invoked on this sub- 
 ject, two of the American delegates, Messrs. Lewis and Barrows, pre- 
 sented facts and arguments bearing on the question. 
 
 THE PRINCIPLE OF PROBATION ADDRESS BY MR. CHARLTON T. LEWIS. 
 
 In an address delivered at a general meeting of the Congress July 8, 
 Mr. Charlton T. Lewis, official delegate of the United States and presi- 
 dent of the Prison Association of New York, said : 
 
 Many of us are sorry that the eighth question of the first section has
 
 32 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 not been made the subject of more discussion at this Congress. I do 
 not hesitate to affirm that this question is of the highest importance 
 and second in its claims upon our attention to none of those which ' 
 have been considered. But if it were to be studied in all its aspects 
 it would call for the exercise of all the ability and learning of every 
 member present. 
 
 To understand clearly the problems presented by this question it 
 would be necessary to investigate the history of prisons and the origin 
 of the system of legislation by which offenses are classified and a 
 penalty is assigned to each of them, founded on some supposed esti- 
 mate of their comparative desert. Such an investigation would disclose 
 the face that this system has really grown up at random and does not 
 rest upon fixed principles. 
 
 Until very recent times the object sought by imprisonment was to 
 prevent the offender from escaping or from doing further injury, and 
 was not associated with the idea of punishment. There is nothing in 
 the nature of a prison to satisfy the instinct of retribution. Society 
 used to inflict on malefactors death, mutilation, or physical pain in 
 various forms, exile, forfeiture of goods, or fines, disqualifications, and 
 humiliations in many forms, but prisons were used merely to detain 
 persons whose presence at a future time was desired, or else to restrain 
 them ; but since under the pressure of public opinion the infliction of 
 mutilations and flogging have been rejected as inhumane and the death 
 penalty has become extremely rare, the convenient custom has gradu- 
 ally grown up of imprisoning delinquents, and the ingenuity of legis- 
 lators has devoted itself to the useless and absurd attempt to ascribe 
 to each crime or offense a term of confinement graduated according to 
 its supposed enormity. 
 
 On principle, nothing justifies the imprisonment of a man except 
 satisfactory proof that his freedom is dangerous for society. Now, if 
 we accept this principle, two consequences follow logically from it. 
 
 First, that none should be imprisoned except those whose liberty 
 would be a danger for society. Second, that these should be impris- 
 oned, not for periods of time fixed in advance, but just as long as their 
 freedom would be a danger for society. 
 
 The second of these conclusions is the principle of the indeterminate 
 sentence, a principle upon which all recent progress in the theory of 
 penal legislation depends, and from which future improvements in it 
 are to be expected. Every country represented in this Congress now 
 sends to prison multitudes of persons for a fixed number of months or 
 years, according to the name given by law to the particular offense of 
 which each is convicted. This is no more scientific than if the sick 
 were sent to a hospital for a number of days determined in advance by 
 the temperature or the pulse at the invasion of the disease. We send 
 only the sick to the hospital. The necessity of sending them must be 
 established by a thorough inquiry, and if it is once proved, the sick
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 33 
 
 must be detained there until they are cured. And the analogy is a fair 
 one by which it is contended that no man should be imprisoned until 
 it has been ascertained that he is of a criminal character. And when 
 this is known he must be imprisoned until he is reformed or until he 
 dies. 
 
 But the first of the two conclusions which I have named is of still 
 higher importance. To imprison a man is to impose upon him an 
 utterly unnatural life, apart from human society, cut off from the influ- 
 ences and associations which form the mind and character and offer 
 scope for their healthy action and development. It is to consign him 
 to companionship of all that is vilest in the human race; it is to mark 
 him for life as a person unfit for freedom and for association with his 
 kind, and to deprive him after his release of most of the sources of 
 hope and energy which alone could save him. 
 
 The force of this influence is so great that few overcome it. The 
 criminal class is everywhere made up of men who have received their 
 education in prison. Prisons are the universities of crime, whose pupils 
 are, everywhere the enemies of society. They are, then, an evil per- 
 haps a necessary evil, but one whose necessity should be accepted with 
 caution and whose use should be restricted within the narrowest possible 
 limits. If this Congress should devise a method of protecting society 
 against crime to the extent to which prisons are supposed to protect it, 
 while actually confining none but confirmed criminals, it would truly 
 merit a share in the glory of the Savior of men. 
 
 The State of Massachusetts has for several years had in force a law 
 which seems to be a step toward such a revolution as this in penal 
 codes. When a person is convicted of crime for the first time, the 
 judge has the power to discharge him without a sentence of imprison- 
 ment, but retaining him under supervision provided by* the law. Cer- 
 tain men of upright character, of much experience in dealing with 
 criminals, and of sincere philanthropy, are appointed by the court as 
 probation officers. It is their duty in each case of a first offense to 
 investigate not only the criminal act itself, but the life of the offender, 
 his family, his habits, his occupation, and his history. If it appears, 
 on a careful review of all the facts, that there is a strong probability of 
 his reforming and that he will live and support himself without crime, 
 the probation officer may recommend to the court that the offender be 
 permitted to return to his home and to his work under the supervision of 
 the probation officer. He must report from time to time to that officer 
 and prove to him that he is living an upright life, without bad associates, 
 and is sober and industrious. If he succeeds iu this for the time which 
 the court has fixed as that of his probation, the court may entirely 
 remit his sentence and give him a final discharge. But if during his 
 probation he is discovered to be idle, drunken, and vagabond, to asso- 
 ciate with criminals, or, in the judgment of the probation officer, to be 
 in danger of committing further offenses, that officer must arrest him 
 S. Doc. 181 3
 
 34 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 and bring him again before the court, to be sentenced for his original 
 offense. 
 
 In Boston and several other cities faithful and intelligent men have 
 been found to serve the community as probation officers. The results 
 are most encouraging. The proportion of offenders once condemned 
 and imprisoned who become permanent members of the criminal class 
 is well known to be very large. The proportion of persons released 
 on probation who fail to comply with its terms and become liable to 
 imprisonment for the original offense is surprisingly small. I have 
 made several attempts to collect complete statistics, and hope one day 
 to present to the members of the Congress the detailed evidence, but 
 for this occasion it is enough to affirm on the united testimony of the 
 authorities engaged in administering this law, that the new system is 
 rapidly diminishing the number of criminals, and promises to do much 
 toward rendering prisons unnecessary. 
 
 The extent to which this principle can be applied is as yet unknown. 
 Only experience can determine its proper limits. But it has awakened 
 hopes sufficient to justify the profound study of this experiment on the 
 part of all those who know the evils caused by prisons in making men 
 corrupt and criminal; and some go so far as to hope that ultimately 
 the greater number of the prisons of the world may be dispensed with, 
 and that civilized society will learn, by completing and extending such 
 measures as these, that its highest duty toward offenders is not punish- 
 ment or vengeance, but reform. 
 
 THE PROBATION SYSTEM IN MASSACHUSETTS ADDRESS BY SAMUEL J. BARROWS. 
 
 Samuel J. Barrows, secretary of the American delegation, said: 
 One of the most distinctive features of the penal system of Massa- 
 chusetts is the introduction and extension through the State of the 
 probation system. 
 
 This system proceeds on the assumption, well supported by experience, 
 that many persons who are arrested may be saved from a life of crime 
 if sentence is suspended and the convicted person has another opportu- 
 nity to become a law-abiding citizen before the stigma of prison life is 
 fixed upon him. Previous to 1870, when this assumption was framed 
 into a law, it was occasionally the usage to release persons convicted of 
 crime on the application and assurance of certain individuals who were 
 interested in their reformation. In 1878 this function was partially 
 assumed by the State. A law was passed providing for the appoint- 
 ment of a probation officer in each city and town. This law was per- 
 missive, not mandatory. Many towns and cities did not avail them- 
 selves of the privilege. It was, however, adopted in Boston. Twelve 
 years the system was confined to that city. The probation officer was 
 the late Edward H. Savage, formerly chief of police. The work, how- 
 ever, was much too large for a single officer at the central court. In 
 1888 two additional officers were appointed for the Boston court.
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 35 
 
 In 1891, largely through the instrumentality of the Massachusetts 
 Prison Association, a law was passed requiring the appointment of a 
 probation officer in each municipal, police, or district court in the 
 State. The officers are appointed by the judge of the court and the 
 expense is borne by the county. There are now fifty-eight probation 
 officers in Massachusetts. The central municipal court of Boston has 
 seven probation officers a chief and six assistants. One of these is 
 a woman, Miss Hannah M. Todd, appointed under the provisions of a 
 special act of May, 1892, who has furnished and stated much of the 
 information that follows. 
 
 The work of the probation officers is of two kinds: 
 
 First. Investigation. 
 
 Second. The visitation and the oversight of those who are placed 
 on probation. 
 
 1. INVESTIGATION. 
 
 All arrested persons are seen by the probation officer before they 
 come into court. Kindly inquiries are made as to their families, home, 
 occupation, condition. The investigation is not made to obtain evi- 
 dence for establishing guilt, but, by furnishing information as to the 
 general character of the individual, to assist the judge in making his 
 decision. After interviewing the prisoner an investigation is made 
 outside to determine the truth of his statements. This investigation 
 is often superficial, but usually enough information is obtained to ena- 
 ble the judge to act intelligently. In important cases an extension of 
 time is granted to complete the investigation. Registration is made by 
 the probation officer of the facts secured and they are properly cata- 
 logued by a card system that may be available at any time for the 
 information of the court. 
 
 2. VISITATION AND OVERSIGHT. 
 
 After investigation the trial occurs and sentence is pronounced. If 
 the individual is put on probation, the sentence of the court is simply 
 deferred. It may be imposed at the expiration of the term of proba- 
 tion, or the probationer may be surrendered and sentenced before the 
 time expires. During the probation visits are made by the officer as 
 often as once a week; friendly personal relations are established. Pro- 
 bation officers may also aid_in securing employment, in assisting proba- 
 tioners who are away from the city, and in getting friends to interest 
 themselves in their behalf; endeavoring to develop their moral sense, to 
 strengthen the character, and to remove them from bad associations. 
 The application of the probation system gives an opportunity to apply 
 special treatment to individual cases. 
 
 The duties of the female probation officer are confined to female con- 
 victs, and are essentially the same.
 
 36 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 3. LENGTH OF PROBATION. 
 
 In smaller places the term has been about one year. In the central 
 municipal court the term is about five weeks. This is too short a time, 
 says Miss Todd, to gain influence or to decide if the probationer is 
 doing well. 
 
 At the expiration of probation the case may be disposed of in one of 
 four ways : First, by extension of the term of probation ; second, by 
 surrender or by sentence; third, the case may be defaulted by non- 
 appearance at court; fourth, the case may be dismissed. 
 
 For each continuance of the case a reappearance in court is necessary. 
 
 4. PROBATION IN INTEMPERANCE. 
 
 A few years ago many arrests were made in Massachusetts for drunk- 
 enness. This led to the application of the probation law to cases of 
 drunkenness by a special act with particular provisions. The law pro- 
 vides that persons arrested for drunkenness may make to the officer in 
 charge of the place of custody in which he is confined a written state- 
 ment addressed to the court having jurisdiction of the case, giving his 
 name and address, his place of employment, what persons are depend- 
 ent upon him for support, and whether he has been arrested for drunk- 
 enness before within twelve months. If the arrest was made within 
 the jurisdiction of a court having a probation officer, that officer must 
 inquire into the truth or falsity of the statement. On his report the 
 court may direct that such person may be released from custody with 
 out arraignment. Or if it is found that he is an habitual drunkard 
 he may be arraigned and sentenced. The probation officers assist the 
 court by obtaining information as to previous arrests, convictions, and 
 imprisonments. 
 
 These intemperance cases add greatly to the work of the probation 
 officers. In the central municipal court of Boston 7,246 cases of drunk- 
 enness were especially investigated by the probation officers of that 
 court during the year ending September 30, 1894, out of a total of 
 9,104 cases in the entire State. This work at the central court is still 
 done by seven probation officers. The result of the law has been the 
 imposition of longer sentences for habitual drunkards, while occasional 
 offenders have every opportunity to reform. 
 
 The whole number of cases referred to be investigated by probation 
 officers during the last year was 47,249, of- which 15,607 were from the 
 central court of Boston. Of this whole nnmber of cases investigated 
 5,317 were put on probation. Of these, 1,180 were placed in charge of 
 the probation officers of the central municipal court of Boston. Of 
 'this latter, 461 were women, and were placed under the charge of Miss 
 Todd. Most of the women are arrested for drunkenness and prostitu- 
 tion. It is seldom that a woman is arrested for drunkenness who has 
 just begun to use intoxicating drink.
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 37 
 
 Miss Todd says: 
 
 Many of those coming under onr care are deficient in mental qualities, and have 
 almost no moral perceptions. They follow any path open to them as long as it does 
 not call for the exercise of any power of resistance. Still others are broken down 
 from overwork and trouble and are in sore need of friendly help and strength. By 
 the means of probation a person taken early on the downward career, when the 
 vices are more largely tendencies than habits, can usually be influenced to a better 
 life. Under probation there is every incentive to do well,' as the sentence of the 
 court is only suspended, and though under the surveillance of the court the proba- 
 tioner is under a moral restraint only, and this gives opportunity for the exercise of 
 self-control and a motive to enter on a new life away from old associations. While 
 we can not expect that the habits and tendencies which have made a person a crim- 
 inal or a delinquent will be overcome in a few weeks, we do find that in many cases 
 the possibility of imprisonment arouses them to a sense of their danger and shows 
 them whither they are drifting. 
 
 The value of probation depends largely on the amount of personal effort and 
 interest which the officers can put into it ; it is important to see frequently those 
 placed in our care, as often as possible in their own homes or at their work, so that 
 we may touch their daily life and bring to them fresh spirit and influence. These 
 visits should be made in a friendly spirit, not to find out all the unfavorable things 
 about the probationers, but to help them to regain confidence in themselves, and to 
 brighten up their lives a bit. 
 
 A judge in one of our suburban courts says : 
 
 I am impressed more and more every day with the importance of the probation 
 officer. His work does more to prevent the weak from falling and to build up the 
 unfortunate than most people have any idea of. 
 
 The first section then concluded its deliberations by passing the fol- 
 lowing resolutions, which, with the previous ones, were ratified by the 
 general assembly. 
 
 Resolutions : 
 
 The application of admonition by the judge, and that of the sus- 
 pension of the sentence after condemnation, lead to almost identical 
 results. In consequence, it is unnecessary to add the system of admo- 
 nition to that of the suspension of the sentence. 
 
 Those systems of legislation which permit tribunals for the repres- 
 sion of crime to grant a suspension of sentence to first offenders, con- 
 demned to short sentences, comprise the best provisions known.
 
 38 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 SECOND SECTION. 
 PRISON ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 President: M. Goos, inspector-general of prisons, Denmark. 
 
 Vice-Presidents : Gen. E. Brinkerhoff, president of the National 
 Prison Association, United States; Professor Brusa, Italy; M. Dunant, 
 president of the council of state, Geneva; Director-General Gripen- 
 berg, Finland ; Director Ogawa, Japan ; Professor Prins, Belgium; Mr. 
 Spearman, magistrate, England; Director Stevens, Belgium; Senator 
 Zakrewsky, Russia. 
 
 Secretaries : MM. Fournier, Granier, Budin, general inspectors to the 
 minister of the interior. 
 
 Bouillard, chief of bureau under the minister of the interior. 
 
 Assistant Secretary: M. Gramaccini. 
 
 The programme of the second section embraced many important 
 questions, such as the accurate identification of prisoners, regulations 
 for prisons for women, the subject of prison labor, the compensation of 
 prisoners, and other related themes. 
 
 IDENTIFICATION OF CRIMINALS. 
 
 The question of the identification of convicts or those under arrest is 
 of great practical importance. It came before the Congress in the 
 
 First Question : 
 
 Is there occasion to generalize and unify methods of anthropometry 
 and to examine the conditions under which an understanding might be 
 recommended in this respect ? 
 
 The members of the Congress had an opportunity to see the working 
 of the system invented by Dr. Bertillon, of Paris. It substitutes for 
 the old-fashioned extemporaneous method of identifying a criminal 
 through the treacherous memory of prison officers, policemen, or wit- 
 nesses, a scientific and practically exact method of measurement which, 
 together with photographs, constitute a complete identification of any 
 person who may be subjected to them. Its utility is not confined to 
 the identification of criminals who reappear at the same court or at the 
 same prison. By a system of exchange between different States and 
 countries, it may be used to identify criminals who go from one place 
 to another. In our own country prisoners may easily transfer their 
 operations from State to State, but with the Bertillon system in gen- 
 eral use it would be possible to distinguish these habitual criminals 
 from first offenders, and sentence them under habitual criminal laws. 
 Communication is now carried on between police agents of the large 
 cities, but identification has been based too much on photographs and 
 crude, unscientific methods. The Bertillon system has already been 
 partially introduced in some States of this country. The value of an
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 39 
 
 interstate and international system of this kind is beyond question. 
 The Congress recognized this fact and passed the following 
 
 Resolution : 
 
 It would be of great advantage to reach some prompt international 
 agreement as to the unification of anthropometric processes. 
 
 PRISONS FOR WOMEN. 
 Second Question : 
 
 Is it well to apply to prisons for women special regulations possibly 
 very different from those established for male prisons in respect to 
 work, discipline, and dietary f 
 
 Is it well to apply to women a special system of penalty f 
 
 This question gave an opportunity for some of the women delegates 
 to the Congress to give the result of their experience and observation. 
 There were warm advocates for the separate system for women as for 
 men. But we suspect that if the delegates could have seen the women's 
 prison in Massachusetts and learned the remarkable results there 
 obtained, faith in the separate system as the best method except for a 
 very brief period at the beginning of the sentence would have been 
 greatly shaken. Certainly the people of that State have no reason to 
 change the present method of administration, which is based distinctly 
 upon the reformatory idea. 
 
 Eesolution: 
 
 It is equitable and necessary to provide in the regulations different 
 prescriptions for men and for women, as well from the physical point 
 of view as from the moral and intellectual. 
 
 Cellular imprisonment should be applied during the time of arraign- 
 ment. The principle of cellular imprisonment ought to be adopted for 
 women, whatever may be the duration of the sentence. 
 
 PRISON LABOR. 
 
 Third Question: 
 
 Should we admit sentences privative of liberty in the course of which 
 work is not obligatory f 
 
 Is not work in all prisons indispensable as an element of order, 
 preservation, moral power, and health f 
 
 The need of manual labor in all prisons as an element of order, 
 hygiene, and moral power was strongly affirmed by the Congress, as it 
 has been affirmed by our own national association, and indeed by every 
 experienced prison warden the world over. No principle ought to be 
 more firmly embedded in the public mind. All the reporters to the 
 Congress were unanimous in their opinion on this subject. 
 
 Eesolution : 
 
 Manual labor ought, as a general rule, to be obligatory in all 
 sentences involving a privation of liberty.
 
 40 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 COMPENSATION FOE PRISONERS. 
 
 Fourth Question : 
 
 Have prisoners a right to wages f Should the product of labor be 
 employed at first to cover the expenses of subsistence of all the pris- 
 oners of the same category, reserving for each of them a fixed part of 
 the product and giving, under the title of recompenses, gratuities to 
 the more meritorious f 
 
 The tendency and indeed the practice in Europe to-day is to give to 
 prisoners a share of the product of their labor. Whether this share 
 shall be called wages or a gratuity is not merely a matter of nomencla- 
 ture; it is a matter of principle. Just how people may divide on a 
 principle while they are perfectly willing to unite on a fact was seen 
 in one of the most exciting and prolonged debates of the Congress, on 
 the question whether a prisoner had a right to wages. It was not the 
 wages but the right which was the subject of dispute. It was a question 
 of ethics over against a question of expediency or of practical adminis- 
 tration. An eloquent minority maintained the right of the prisoner to 
 receive compensation for his labor, and, what rarely happened, the Con- 
 gress became very nearly divided on the matter. Of eleven reporters 
 of different nationalities who had written on this subject preliminary 
 to the meeting, five were in favor of the right of the prisoner to wages, 
 six admitted only gratuities as recompenses for good conduct and work. 
 Monsieur Paul Cuche, of the Societe des Prisons, in his review of the 
 sections of the Congress, has said : 
 
 Everybody was practically agreed that it is indispensable to any good penitentiary 
 regime that it should recognize the efforts of the prisoner through some remunera- 
 tion. If the prisoner is not stimulated to work by the alternative play of recom- 
 penses and of punishments we might prevent him from being idle by the menace of 
 chastisement, but we could not make him an industrious man, for in taking away 
 the hope of gain we have deprived his productive activity of its principal resource. 
 
 Penitentiary work to be moral in its effect must be paid, but shall 
 this remuneration be in the form of wages or a bounty ? Shall the 
 prisoner who works have a right to exact from the State recompense 
 for his work upon the basis of a determined tariff 1 ? Or shall pecuniary 
 encouragement be accorded rather with reference to the moral value 
 than with reference to the industrial value of his efforts? It was seen 
 that the concession of the prisoner's right to wages would carry with 
 it a good many other rights which the Congress was not prepared to 
 concede and which it might be dangerous to affirm ; and the result of 
 this, perhaps the most animated debate of the Congress, was finally 
 the passage of the following vote : 
 
 Resolution : 
 
 The prisoner has no right to wages, but it is for the interest of the 
 State to give him some recompense. The remuneration assigned the 
 prisoner should not be left to the decision of the administration, but 
 fixed by general rule.
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 41 
 
 This decision of the Congress, as already said, is in conformity with 
 the actual practice which exists in most of the countries in Europe. The 
 system now exists in France, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, 
 Austria, Hungary, Norway, Sweden, Eussia, and has just been intro- 
 duced in Japan. It is customary in these countries to place a certain 
 amount, depending upon his labor and good behavior, to the credit of 
 the prisoner. This amount is generally divided into two portions, not 
 always equal portions, one of which he may spend while in prison under 
 the supervision of the administration to add to his comforts or to send 
 to his family. The other portion is reserved to the time of his dis- 
 charge. In France, at the Maison Centrale, at Melun, the average wages 
 of the prisoner is 1 franc 78 centimes, or about 35 cents a working day. 
 A three-year prisoner has to his credit on leaving an average of $50, 
 a four-year prisoner an average of $70, a five-year prisoner an aver- 
 age of $90. At the Maison d'Arret, of Eouen, the average recompense 
 per day is from 50 centimes to 1 franc 25 centimes say, from 10 to 25 
 cents a day. At Poissy, in France, the amount given to discharged 
 prisoners from their earnings is for one year about 81 francs ($16.20), 
 for two years 187 francs ($35.40), for five years 562 francs ($112). 
 
 During the discussion figures were cited by the director of a central 
 prison to show that certain prisoners gained from 5 to 7 francs a day, 
 and one man had actually gained 15 francs, or about $3 a day. Eep- 
 resentatives from Switzerland and Belgium showed that such extremes 
 could not occur in their country. In some countries the amount which 
 the prisoner has at his discharge is extremely small. In England, the 
 prisoner is not credited with remuneration on the basis of his work, but 
 receives certain rewards which may be available at his discharge. He 
 receives 10 shillings on leaving a local prison. On leaving a convict 
 prison, where the sentences vary from three years to life, the highest 
 amount available on discharge is 6. 
 
 The practice of assigning to prisoners a small portion of their earn- 
 ings has been introduced in a few States in this country. It is a 
 method which needs a much wider application, that the prisoner may 
 have the advantage of a healthy stimulus to labor, and be able to apply 
 some of his earnings to the relief of his family. In the Eastern Peni- 
 tentiary, Philadelphia, the salutary results of this system, both for the 
 prisoner and his family, have been amply proved. At the time of the 
 Johnstown disaster the prisoners contributed over $500 to the relief of 
 the distressed survivors. 
 
 THE MULTIPLICATION OF RECOMPENSES. 
 
 Fifth Question: 
 
 With the aim of influencing prisoners rather through hope than 
 through fear, is it advisable to multiply recompenses? 
 
 While recognizing the fact that a prisoner should be influenced more 
 by hope than by fear, the Congress did not recommend the multiplica-
 
 42 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 tion of rewards or anything which would interfere with the strictness 
 and equality of prison discipline. 
 
 Resolution : 
 
 Without discussing the question of penitentiary systems, the Con- 
 gress does not think it desirable that recompenses should be multiplied. 
 
 PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 Sixth Question: 
 
 In what form and under what conditions should disciplinary pun- 
 ishments be pronounced and applied f 
 
 One of the best reports on this subject was furnished by M. Albin 
 Uhlyarik, director of the penitentiary of Sopron, Hungary, who main- 
 tained that disciplinary penalties ought always to preserve a humane 
 character and have for their end the correction of the individual and 
 never impair his health by too rigorous measures. Intermittent and 
 capricious indulgence is as harmful as a too exacting rigor, which, dic- 
 tated by passion, is nearly always unjust, and naturally engenders 
 bitterness and impassability in the prisoner. The individual character 
 of the prisoner ought always to be studied before applying discipline. 
 M. TJhlyarik believed strongly in the cellular system. Corporal pun- 
 ishment has been long since banished in Hungary, and M. Uhlyarik 
 does not desire its reestablishment, yet he desired the extension ot 
 disciplinary punishments. In the majority of cases the punishments 
 in existence are usually effectual, but in the case of obstinate resistance 
 a cage, such as that employed in Saxony, is necessary. Irons, chains, 
 and the camisole should only be employed during some hours. We can 
 conceive of a disciplinary punishmemt more strict than that now 
 employed which can be applied long enough to reduce the recalcitrant 
 prisoner and force him to submit absolutely his will to that of his 
 superiors, but which shall not impair health or lead to suicide. 
 
 After a discussion of various methods the section passed the follow- 
 ing 
 
 Resolutions : 
 
 1. Regulations posted in the prison ought to warn against the 
 principal infractions and indicate the different penalties. 
 
 2. The penalty ought to be pronounced after serious inquest and 
 after having heard the prisoner. 
 
 3. The sentence ought to indicate the time the penalty must be 
 endured. 
 
 CLASSIFICATION OF PRISONERS. 
 
 Seventh Question : 
 
 In the interest of general discipline and the reformation of criminals 
 is it better to make a selection of the best or of the worst f 
 
 The subject of the classification of prisoners is at the basis of all 
 prison management. Where there is no attempted classification and
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 43 
 
 prisoners are indiscriminately thrown together the evil communications 
 which corrupt good manners are soon evident. M. Steven, of Bel- 
 gium, an ardent advocate of the cellular system, did not lose his 
 opportunity to urge its advantages. Isolate the condemned and the 
 question is settled. But it may be added that such a method is not 
 classification, but isolation, and that it is physical, not moral. In the 
 graded system and the reformatories, of which Elmira, N". Y., is the old- 
 est and most prominent example, the character of a prisoner under a 
 system of marking and grading soon determines his classification, and 
 under a wise prison system habitual criminals will not be committed to 
 the same institutions as first offenders. 
 
 Kesolution : 
 
 In the interest of general discipline and of amendment it is better to 
 make a selection of the worst. 
 
 THE CRIMINAL INSANE. 
 
 Eighth Question : 
 
 Upon what principle should the duration of sentences be calculated 
 in the case of criminals afflicted with mental alienation f 
 
 1. When they are shut up in special quarters under penitentiary 
 administration ? 
 
 2. When they are transferred to insane asylums, properly so-called ? 
 
 That is to say, when a criminal, in the course of his sentence, is 
 attacked with insanity and put in an asylum, ought the time passed 
 there to be counted in estimating the length of his sentence? A volu- 
 minous report was made by M. Paul Fournier, inspector-general of the 
 administrative service of the department of the interior of France, who 
 presented a large amount of information concerning the regulations 
 and usages of different countries. In the discussions the majority of 
 speakers took the ground that the time spent in an asylum, whether 
 within or without the prison administration, ought to be counted as 
 part of the duration of the sentence. The question was pertinently 
 asked, Why should there be any distinction between physical and men- 
 tal maladies ? A prisoner who is sick and in the prison hospital does 
 not have, on recovering, to make up the time thus spent, and why 
 should one who suffers from mental malady, one of the most unfortu- 
 nate of all diseases, be subjected to a more severe regime? In most 
 countries under modern laws, as appears from M. Fournier's report, if 
 an insane prisoner recovers his health before the expiration of his sen- 
 tence he is returned to the prison from which he came to complete his 
 sentence. But if recovery does not take place until after the expira- 
 tion of the time of sentence he is then set free. Figures furnished by 
 M. Monod, of Paris, showed that in the period of five years from 1886- 
 1890, 600 criminals escaped condemnation on the ground of insanity. 
 It also appears that insanity among the prison population is much 
 greater than it is outside. -The percentage of the insane in the free pop-
 
 44 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 ulation of France in 1886 was 0.40 ; in the prison population, 4.26. In 
 1887 the figures stood 0.39 in the free population to 2.94 in prison; in 
 1888, 0.39 to 4.01 ; and in 1889, 0.42 to 4.07. 
 
 Resolution : 
 
 In calculating the duration of the imprisonment of criminals afflicted 
 with mental alienation, the time spent in an asylum for the insane, or 
 in insane wards of prisons, should be reckoned as part of a prisoner's 
 sentence. If the laio grants a reduction of the time of imprisonment 
 fixed by the sentence on condition that it shall be served in solitary 
 confinement, the Congress is of the opinion that the insane prisoner 
 should continue to profit by this privilege even though during his 
 dementia he has been placed under a congregate regime. 
 
 The Congress is of the opinion that in the programme of the second 
 section of the Sixth Congress the two following questions shall be 
 included: 
 
 1. What rule shall be adopted to insure the possibility of permanent 
 medical supervision of the mental state of prisoners ? 
 
 2. How should asylums or quarters for insane prisoners be organ- 
 ized so that the exigencies of treatment may be combined icith repression 
 of crime f 
 
 PHYSICAL, EXERCISE IN PRISONS. 
 
 Ninth Question: 
 
 Has sufficient account been taken thus far in Ihe regime of prisons 
 of the influence of physical exercise with reference to the reformation 
 of prisoners f 
 
 This question received more attention in the preliminary reports than 
 in the discussions of the Congress. M. Bailly, director of the Central 
 Prison of Gand, Belgium, maintained that sufficient attention has not 
 been paid to physical exercises. One reproach passed upon all prison 
 systems, whether separate or congregate, has been that they have a 
 debilitating effect upon the organism of the prisoner. This result has 
 been attributed by some to the lack of alimentation, by others to the 
 deprivation of liberty or to the absence of ventilation. There are those 
 who maintain that this debilitating action is more apparent than real, 
 and that it is to be traced to the low organization of the prisoner. M. 
 Bailly proposed a system of gymnastics which could be applied with- 
 out the establishment of a gymnastic hall in prisons, but by means 
 of exercises simple and practicable. Dr. Baer, physician in chief of 
 the prison at Plotzensee, Prussia, maintains that we have not sufficient 
 information as yet to make a just comparison between the health of 
 prisoners in the penitentiaries of different countries, and above all to 
 compare the health of prisoners with that of the free population. But 
 he concludes that the mortality of prisoners is determined by two 
 factors first, the regime of the prisons, and secondly, the organic
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 45 
 
 peculiarities of the social class which furnishes the larger number of 
 prisoners. The great majority of the prison population is composed 
 of individuals belonging to the most indigent classes, whose mortality 
 is higher than amoug the more prosperous classes. Nevertheless, the 
 sentence of imprisonment involves elements pernicious to health. 
 
 Attention was called by M. Kazarine, of St. Petersburg, to the 
 gymnasium and physical exercises conducted at the Elmira Reform- 
 atory, New York, as well as to the military regime established there. 
 With the exception of the Elmira Reformatory, physical exercises in 
 nearly all prisons are confined to the promenade and the movements 
 necessary to the execution of the hand labor of the prisoner. M. Kaza- 
 rino recommended recourse to appropriate physical exercises. M. 
 Gramaccini believed the best exercise was obtained in work at differ- 
 ent trades. Dr. Curti, director of the penitentiary of Zurich, also 
 believed that the activity of the muscles should be developed through 
 labor, and that care should be taken in introducing prison industries 
 to consider their sanitary effect. In establishing a penitentiary a suf- 
 ficient quantity of land should be obtained to conduct some forms of 
 agricultural labor, or if this is not always practicable a penal colony 
 may be founded where prisoners adapted to that work can devote them- 
 selves to agriculture for a longer or shorter time. There were other 
 advocates of physical culture. But M. Stevens, of Brussels, maintained 
 that sufficient account was already taken of physical exercises in the 
 regime of prisons and that it is not desirable to increase it. 
 
 The question was carried into the general assembly, where the follow- 
 ing resolution was passed : 
 
 Resolution : 
 
 It is desirable that icorlc rather than gymnastics should be relied 
 upon in the reformation of prisoners. 
 
 A proposition by M. Kazarine that owing to the interest which the 
 question of physical exercises has awakened, and notably in America 
 in the Elmira Reformatory, this question be inscribed on the programme 
 of the next Congress, was passed by a large majority. 
 
 AMERICAN PRISON SYSTEMS BY GEN. R. BRINKERHOFF. 
 
 At the general session of the Congress held in the Sorbonne July 8, 
 1895, Gen. R. Brinkerhoif, of Mansfield, Ohio, president of the Ameri- 
 can delegation, gave the following address : 
 
 I have been requested by the general secretary of the Congress, Dr. 
 Guillaume, to give, on behalf of the American delegation, a brief account 
 of the reformatory methods peculiar to our country, and especially of 
 the Elmira system, which is now being extended rapidly to all our 
 States. 
 
 Curiously, the three great prison systems of the world originated in 
 America.
 
 46 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 (1) The separate system, which has been so eloquently advocated in 
 this Congress, and so largely adopted in Europe, had its beginning in 
 Philadelphia over sixty years ago. It still exists there, and is admira- 
 bly administered, but it has been abandoned in all other prisons in our 
 country. We do not believe in it, except for prisoners awaiting trial, 
 and, to a very limited extent, in exceptional cases, for others. 
 
 (2) The congregate system of associated labor by day and cellular 
 separation by night had its origin in Auburn, N. Y., over fifty years 
 ago, and is now universal in America for all life prisoners, and for 
 recidivists and iucorrigibles. 
 
 (3) The Elmira system is based upon the indeterminate sentence and 
 conditional liberation. Such liberation is known as a parole, which is 
 obtained through a marking system of merits and demerits, and a 
 progressive classification. 
 
 This system is applied only to young men under 30 years of age, and 
 convicted of felony for the first time. It had its beginning at Elmira, 
 N. Y., in 1876, under the administration of that prince of penologists, 
 Mr. Z. R. Brockway, and its results everywhere have been exceedingly 
 satisfactory, and results, after all, are the crucial test of any system. 
 
 Elmira now has over 1,200 prisoners, which is 400 more than any 
 reformatory prison ought to have, and for ten years past it has had 
 over 800, and yet a careful record of all prisoners discharged shows 
 that of the whole number 82 per cent reestablished themselves in society 
 as honest and respectable citizens. 
 
 The methods of administration by which these results were attained 
 I will not now attempt to present for the reason that we have with us 
 Maj. E. W. McClaughry, of Illinois, who has had large experience in 
 the administration of the Elmira system, and also of the Auburn sys- 
 tem, who will follow me on this platform with a brief statement and will 
 answer all questions you may care to propound to him in regard to it. 
 
 The prisons of the United States, so far as I have been able to com- 
 pare them with those of Europe, stand well. In dealing with short 
 term prisoners, and with prisoners awaiting trial, and also in dealing 
 with discharged prisoners, Great Britain and Ireland are far ahead 
 of us, but beyond that we are not afraid to invite comparison, and in 
 some respects I think we are in advance. 
 
 In Europe deterrence and repression seem to be the dominant ideas 
 in dealing with the criminal classes, but with us they are reformation 
 and prevention. We have repudiated the lex talionis idea of an eye 
 for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. In the days of Moses, under the 
 conditions then existing, it doubtless was the best system attainable, 
 but we of this day and generation are living in the Christian era, under 
 the teachings of the Divine Xazarine, in which love, and not hate, is 
 the governing idea. 
 
 In dealing with criminals, therefore, the dominant idea in America 
 is the protection of society, and any infliction upon a prisoner with any 
 other motive in view is an outrage upon the inalienable rights of man.
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 47 
 
 We believe in deterrence by severity also, if that alone will protect 
 society, and therefore, in Ohio, when a man is convicted for a third 
 time for a felony we adjudge him an habitual criminal, and send him 
 to prison for life. So also for misdemeanants, who are mostly chronic 
 drunkards, we have recently enacted a law which provides for a first 
 offense a penalty in the discretion of the court; for a second offense 
 the penalty must be double that of the first; for a third offense a 
 penalty double that of the second; and for a fourth offense, imprison- 
 ment for three years, with the privilege of parole for good conduct. 
 
 Upon the whole, however, we believe that prevention and reforma- 
 tion are the roads we must travel if we are to make any large progress 
 in the reduction of crime. Therefore we are adopting the Elmira 
 system for the reformation of adult criminals, industrial training for 
 juvenile offenders, and the probation system for misdemeanants con- 
 victed of a first offense. 
 
 For juvenile offenders we now have about seventy reformatories or 
 industrial schools, as they are usually called, from which the graduates 
 average fairly as good citizens as those from our public schools. 
 
 But more than all these, we believe in prevention, by giving to all 
 children in our common schools an education of the hand and heart 
 equally with the head. We believe also that the State should supple- 
 ment the public schools with the kindergarten, for the training of the 
 children under 6 years of age. 
 
 Do this, and the tide of crime, which is steadily rising in most 
 countries, will begin to recede, and we shall enter a new and better 
 era of the world's history. 
 
 Following General Brinkerhoff, Maj. B. W. McClaughry, superin- 
 tendent of the State reformatory, Illinois, made additional remarks 
 on the reformatory system in the United States. 
 
 THE REFORMATORY SYSTEM BY R. W. M'CLAUGHHY. 
 
 Crime in the United States of America presents many great and 
 important problems. Where the individual citizen is so prominent a 
 factor in the Government as he is in our country his relation to that 
 Government and its laws must always be a question of first importance. 
 
 In most of the States of the Union imprisonment for felony deprives 
 the prisoner after his release of the right to vote for officers of the 
 Government or members of the lawmaking power, but this deprivation 
 is not counted by the offender as a severe penalty, because he can easily 
 remove from the State in which he lost his citizenship to another and 
 there resume the privilege of voting without danger of being disturbed 
 in it. This condition of things, however, tends to breed a class of 
 citizens who are in sympathy with crime, who encourage criminality, 
 though possibly no longer actively engaging in crime themselves, and 
 who, together with the active criminals, form what is known as the 
 crime class. It is estimated that this class numbers half a million in
 
 48 FIFTH INTEKNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 the United States, and that not more than one hundred thousand of 
 them are in the different prisons or in any kind of duress. 
 
 Foreseeing the evils which must result from so conducting our penal 
 systems as to leave the inmates released from our prisons permanent 
 enemies of society, many of our best citizens have long striven to bring 
 about reform in the management of our prisons as well as in the admin- 
 istration of our criminal laws. For more than one hundred years the 
 Pennsylvania Prison Association, which was called at the date of its 
 organization "An association for the alleviation of the miseries of 
 public prisons," has occupied a prominent position, and has greatly 
 influenced legislation, not only in Pennsylvania, but in many other 
 States of the Union. The efforts of the late Dr. E. C. Wines, which 
 resulted in the organization of the National Prison Association, did 
 very much to awaken inquiry and arouse public sentiment, not only as 
 to the condition of the prisons and jails of the United States, but also 
 as to the effect of imprisonment itself upon those who must return 
 after their release from prison to society, to be either helpful or hurtful 
 members of it. 
 
 For more than a quarter of a century the National Prison Associa- 
 tion has been engaged in this work, by annual meetings, discussions, 
 and publication of papers and addresses. The more these questions 
 were discussed, the greater has become the dissatisfaction with that 
 feature of the old prison system under which offenders were sentenced 
 to prison for a definite number of years. In many States of the Union 
 the jury of twelve men, which decides upon the guilt or innocence of the 
 person charged with crime, has also the power to fix his sentence if he 
 is found guilty. As a result, local prejudice concerning different kinds 
 of crime is always shown, more or less, in the findings of the jury. 
 For example, in sections where the means of transportation are primi- 
 tive and limited, the stealing of horses or beasts of burden is punished 
 savagely by the jury ; much more so than crimes which are considered 
 more serious in communities where railroads abound. Thus, States 
 which extend through several degrees of latitude, the different parts 
 of which are settled by people of widely divergent social ideas and 
 customs, frequently present very striking examples of inequalities of 
 sentences when they have been fixed by juries. The injustice of such 
 a system is painfully apparent iu the penitentiary of the State, to 
 which all these offenders are sent. The power of the executive to par- 
 don or commute is constantly appealed to, in order to equalize, to some 
 extent, the unequal penalties thus inflicted. If this power is exercised 
 to any great extent, it results in such severe criticism of the executive as 
 tends to beget contempt for the law of which he is the representative. 
 
 The constant discussion of these questions resulted in the establish- 
 ment, nearly twenty years ago, in the State of New York of a prison 
 which is called a State Reformatory. It was organized and is governed by 
 Mr. Z. E. Brockway. who is justly considered one of the foremost penol 
 ogists in America. To this prison are committed persons under the
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 49 
 
 age of 30 years, who have been convicted of felonies. Xo limit is fixed 
 to the sentence, save that it may not exceed the maximum term of 
 years fixed by law for the crime of which the party has been convicted. 
 The power is conferred upon the board of managers of the reformatory 
 to release on parole whenever suitable employment is secured for him 
 outside, any prisoner who has given satisfactory evidence to the author- 
 ities that he is able and willing to obey the law, earn his living, and 
 become a good citizen. He is required to give an account of himself 
 in writing, each mouth, to the governor of the reformatory, and this 
 account must be indorsed as correct by his employer. For any viola- 
 tion of the conditions of his parole, he may be arrested upon warrant 
 issued by the reformatory, returned thereto, and required to serve out 
 so much of the remainder of his sentence as the authorities deem best. 
 If he gives satisfactory evidence while serving his parole which is in 
 no case for less than six months that he will remain at liberty with- 
 out violating the law, and that his final release is not incompatible with 
 the welfare of society, it may be granted. 
 
 The system of treatment pursued with the criminal while in the 
 reformatory compels the study of him in his social condition and his 
 human relations. Education and labor form important parts of the sys- 
 tem. He is given to understand that he can not be sent forth into 
 society until his antagonism to it shall have ceased, and he shall have 
 developed the ability and purpose to become a good citizen. Schools 
 of letters and of trade instruction are important factors in the work of 
 the reformatory. Instruction in ethics, as well as in those fundamental 
 principles of religion which are everywhere recognized as the founda- 
 tion of social order, is regularly given. In all this work there is no 
 relaxation of necessary discipline. In fact, the discipline in the reform- 
 atory is more severe than in the penitentiary. Old habits, tastes, and 
 associations must be changed before the inmate can be pronounced fit 
 to be again a member of society. When the inmate finds that his free- 
 dom depends upon his fitness for freedom he begins to study the things 
 which make for that end, and the efforts he puts forth, when properly 
 encouraged and directed, make of him, finally, and in a majority of 
 cases, a very different individual from the one received, under his name 
 and number, into the reformatory. 
 
 The result of this experiment in America has been all that its advo- 
 cates expected, though not all that they hope to accomplish. The care- 
 fully ascertained percentage of reformation has been sufficiently large 
 to warrant the friends of the system in urging its adoption in all the 
 States, and such has been the success of the system when fairly tried, 
 that it is believed the time is not far distant when, in the United 
 States, criminals will be sent to reformatories instead of penitentiaries, 
 just as our insane are now committed to our great hospitals to be 
 cured, if possible; if not, to be kept in such humane seclusion as will 
 prevent them from being a menace to society. 
 S. Doc. 181 4
 
 50 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 THIRD SECTION. 
 
 PREVENTIVE MEANS. 
 
 President: M. de Latour, general secretary to the minister of justice, 
 Belgium. 
 
 Vice-presidents: Messrs. Privy-Councilor von Bernewitz, Saxony; 
 Marumo, Japan; Professor Nocito, Italy; General Advocate Slout- 
 cliewsky, Kussia; Attorney - General Smedal, Norway; Professor 
 Typaldo-Bassia, Greece Inspector-General Simon Van der Aa, Hol- 
 land; Provincial Councilor Van der Veken, Belgium; Minister Van- 
 nerus, Luxemburg; Ministerial Councilor Weizsaeker, Wurtemberg. 
 
 Secretaries: Messrs. Brunot, inspector-general of tlie minister of the 
 interior; Albert Riviere, general secretary of La Societe Generate des 
 Prisons. 
 
 Assistant secretaries: Messrs, von Engelberg, Baden; Didiou, Bel- 
 gium; de Kister and de Chaverdow, Russia; Billecocq, Drucker, Gar- 
 nier, Laguesse, Morgat. 
 
 Having but rive questions to consider instead of nine, as in the pre. 
 vious section, the third section was able to devote more time to each 
 subject referred to it. Many of the most distinguished delegates 
 engaged in the discussions. 
 
 SUPERVISION OF DISCHARGED CONVICTS. 
 
 First Question : 
 
 What measures shall be taken to prevent prisoners from wasting 
 their accumulations on discharge, and, because without resource, fall- 
 ing again into crime? 
 
 Voluminous reports were presented upon this subject from various 
 countries. The United States, however, was not represented among 
 them. But there is no country in which the question of the care of 
 discharged prisoners needs to be more earnestly considered than in 
 our own. In this respect we are distinctly behind many countries of 
 Europe. The Secretary of the United States delegation having made 
 during this and a previous visit to Europe a special study of methods 
 of aiding discharged convicts, has presented the result of these obser- 
 vations and inquiries in a special paper in the second part of this 
 report. 
 
 As remarked on a previous page, it is customary very generally in 
 Europe to assign a portion of the prisoner's earnings to him, part of 
 which constitutes a reserve fund against the day of his discharge. The 
 question of how the sum shall be administered on his release whether 
 it shall be given to the prisoner directly or placed in the hands of the 
 mayor or some public functionary, held by a patron appointed for the
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 51 
 
 prisoner, or put in the hands of some society for discharged prisoners- 
 excited much discussion; but as these various methods are considered 
 in the special paper referred to, they are not summarized here. 
 
 The following vote taken by the section was reaffirmed by the general 
 assembly : 
 
 ^Resolution : 
 
 1. It is desirable that the prisoner should not have at his discharge 
 the free disposition of his reserve. 
 
 2. The Congress holds that the prisoner's accumulation should be 
 committed (whenever its importance, the morality of the person lib- 
 erated, or other circumstances justify a measure of this kindj to a 
 sailings bank, to an authority of the place where the discharged pris- 
 oner settles, to a society of patronage offering all the necessary guar- 
 anties, or to persons approved by the administration, to be remitted 
 to Mm according to his needs. 
 
 3. The Congress expresses the opinion, moreover, that among these 
 methods preference should be given to the intervention of societies of 
 patronage. 
 
 PRISON SCHOOLS, LIBRARIES, AND JOURNALS. 
 
 Second Question : 
 
 How should prison schools and libraries be organized so that they 
 may truly benefit prisoners whether awaiting trial or under sentence? 
 Is it well to put into the hands of prisoners periodicals and other 
 publications especially prepared for them? 
 
 Nine reporters, representing Italy, Belgium, England, Portugal, 
 Switzerland, and France, wrote on this subject. 
 
 M. Jules Steeg, inspector-general of public instruction of Paris, 
 showed, by facts, figures, and arguments, the value of prison libraries 
 and schools. Statistics show that as the number of the illiterate dimin- 
 ishes in France the diminution is seen also among prisoners. A study 
 of the statistics relating to schools in the Central prison, shows that 
 out of 4,442 prisoners 3,G67 had profited by instruction in prison 
 schools. It had been found that 775 did not profit much by it, except 
 perhaps in being able to retain the little they knew on entering prison. 
 In the prisons for women, judged by the examinations, 75 per cent 
 have profited by instruction. Taking the prisons as a whole, if the 
 schools appear to be of little value to 40 out of 100, they at least profit 
 (JO out of 100, and that is a result well worth obtaining. Many who 
 are illiterate are taught to read, write, and calculate. In institutions 
 where prisoners aie committed for short sentences, there is less oppor- 
 tunity for schools to do their work; but even here they may be of great 
 value. In establishments distinctly reformatory and correctional, the 
 school must be the center. It is not an accessory, not even an auxiliaiy ;
 
 52 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 it is an instrument to which everything else should contribute. The 
 correctional establishments for the young in France contain 5,000 boys 
 and about 1,000 girls. Whether by reason of their age or by reason of 
 the state of neglect in which they are found, 35 out of 100 boys comp 
 there absolutely illiterate, and 50 out of 100 girls. The schools in 
 these institutions should be as good as those of the public primaries, 
 and they should be submitted to frequent and vigilant inspection. The 
 prison library is the natural complement of the school. It should be 
 developed and improved. The books most sought are books of travel 
 and adventure, novels, and tales. A small number choose scientific 
 works. Works on religion, morals, and political and social economy 
 are passed by. 
 
 M. F. Thiry, professor of the University of Liege, admitted the excel- 
 lent counsel furnished by chaplains and directors, but maintained that 
 it is insufficient. They are regarded as official agents of the institution 
 in which they are confined, and do not always inspire confidence. The 
 best means of conveying moral instruction given by persons not con- 
 nected with the prison consists in lectures to the prisoners by members 
 of the committee of patronage attached to many European prisons. 
 
 M. Louis Riviere proposed the establishment of a special journal for 
 prisoners. 
 
 M. Brunot called attention to the great precautions that should be 
 taken in conducting such a journal. 
 
 M. Albert Riviere said that no one dreamed of introducing the lib- 
 erty of the press into prisons. He proposed a journal under the con- 
 trol of the prison administration, the articles to be written by ministers 
 of different religions, by prison officials, members of prisoners' aid so- 
 cieties, professors, and magistrates of places near the prison. Several 
 publications of that kind were noted in Russia, in Switzerland, and 
 America. The Summary of Elmira Reformatory was mentioned as the 
 work of prisoners themselves. 
 
 Representatives from Belgium and Italy showed the utility of lectures 
 given by persons not connected with the administration. The corre- 
 spondence of prisoners showed the value of the impression produced. 
 
 Resolutions : 
 
 1. Schools ought to be so organized as to be equally useful to prison- 
 ers accused or condemned, who are illiterate, and to those who have 
 already had some instruction. They ought not only to furnish instruc- 
 tion in the branches of knowledge in which prisoners are lacking, but 
 also appropriate moral education. That instruction, without tcound- 
 ing the religious beliefs of any prisoner, ought to be penetrated by a 
 religious spirit an indispensable element in moral culture. 
 
 2. Prison libraries having for their principal end the instruction and 
 moral culture of prisoners should be organized in the same spirit. 
 They should contain, in addition to moral and religious ivories, inter-
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 53 
 
 esting books of travel, the best novels, and illustrated publications. 
 The establishment and constitution ofthexe libraries depend upon the 
 prison administration, which may accept the aid of individuals or of 
 associations, especially in procuring for foreign prisoners books written 
 in their oicn language. For that purpose, there is ground for recom- 
 mending an exchange of books and other publications between the 
 administrations of different countries. 
 
 3. It would be well to put into the hands of prisoners a special 
 weekly publication, the editorship of which should be controlled by the 
 administration. 
 
 IRRESPONSIBLE DELINQUENTS. 
 
 Third Question : 
 
 What measure should be taken in the interest of social security 
 against irresponsible delinquents, or against those ichose responsibility 
 is diminished at the moment of the crime or the offense by mental 
 alienation f 
 
 Five reports were written upon this important question some by 
 doctors, others by lawyers combining the legal and medical views. 
 A large number of crimes to-day are committed by those who are not 
 responsible, or whose responsibility is diminished when the act is com- 
 mitted. Society, said Dr. Motet, may not punish criminals who are not 
 guilty, but it is its duty to take precautions to prevent them from doing 
 harm. He proposed the organization of establishments intermediary 
 between the prison and the asylum, where such persons could be put 
 under surveillance. 
 
 In a previous section the question what should be done with crimi- 
 nals who become insane during imprisonment was considered. The 
 present question relates to those who are insane when they commit the 
 crime. 
 
 Other specialists opposed the establishment of special asylums for 
 such persons, and some discussion took place as to the part magistrates 
 and doctors should have in the responsibility of disposing of such delin- 
 quents. But the following resolutions were passed : 
 
 Resolutions : 
 
 1. The International Penitentiary Congress is of the opinion that 
 special asylums or quarters ought to be assigned for the confinement, by 
 virtue of some judicial decision, of the insane prosecuted or condemned 
 by a court and acquitted by reason of their mental state. 
 
 2. There is reason for adopting the principle of the triple interven- 
 tion (a) of judicial authority; (b) administrative authority; (c) and 
 of the doctors of the asylum in authorizing the discharge of such 
 prisoners.
 
 54 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 VAGRANCY. 
 
 Fourth Question : 
 
 Would not the indefinite confinement in houses of industry of adult 
 vagrants in a state of chronic pauperism be preferable to condemna- 
 tions to definite periods f 
 
 The relation between this question and that of No. 6 in the first sec- 
 tion decided the committee on organization that the two sections should 
 join together and discuss the subject in the grand amphitheater of the 
 Sorboime. Eleven reporters presented monographs upon this impor- 
 tant question showing the method of dealing with vagrancy in differ- 
 ent countries. Mention was made of the creation in Switzerland of 
 special shelter stations and lodging places; the agricultural colonies iu 
 Germany under Pastor Bodelschwiugh; the colonies of Holland; the 
 efforts in France made by M. Jules Simon, Pastor Robin, and M. Lefevre, 
 and of the enactment of the Belgian law of November 22, 1891, due to 
 the efforts of that great humanitarian, M. Lejeune. This law contains 
 remarkable provisions for the repression of vagrancy and of mendicity 
 in children. After a long discussion, the most important points devel- 
 oped were embodied in the 
 
 Resolutions: 
 
 1. Society has the right to take measures icliicli may even be coercive 
 for social preservation against mendicants and vagrants. With this 
 right goes the corresponding duty of organizing public assistance, pri- 
 vate aid, and patronage. 
 
 2. Mendicants and vagrants may be treated differently according as 
 they are 
 
 (a) Indigent or infirm invalids; 
 
 (b) Accidental mendicants or vagrants; 
 
 (c) Professional mendicants or vagrants. 
 
 The first ought to be assisted so long as they have not the necessary 
 strength to obtain the means of subsistence. 
 
 The second, depending upon public or private assistance, should be 
 collected in refuges or shelter stations, methodically organized, where 
 work is obligatory. 
 
 The third ought to be the object of repression severe enough to prevent 
 relapse. 
 
 3. The most effective method against professionals is a sentence to 
 prolonged confinement in special labor colonies. The inmates should be 
 
 liberated when, by reason of their amendment or by reason of their 
 probable reestablishment in society, their detention does not appear to 
 
 be longer necessary. 
 
 Work in these colonies ought to be regarded not only as a means of 
 repression, but, above all, as a factor in reformation. 
 
 (These resolutions apply also to question 6 of the first section.)
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 55 
 
 INTEMPERANCE. 
 
 Fifth Question: 
 
 With reference to the prevention of drunkenness, what are the 
 advantages of axylums for the curative treatment of inebriates; and 
 ic hat are the results obtained in these establishment*? 
 
 But two reporters wrote on this important question, namely, Professor 
 Dyincha, of St. Petersburg, and Dr. Magnan, chief physician of the 
 asylum of St. Anne, Paris. Each of these gentlemen treated the -ub- 
 ject historically, and much information was presented in regard to 
 methods in different countries for the prevention of intemperance. 
 Professor Dymcha showed that the science of penal law is far from 
 having indicated clearly the means of preventing the crimes and rav- 
 ages which accompany intemperance. There was a time when penal 
 laws attacked individual liberty and punished the immoderate use of 
 spirituous liquors independently of the consequences of drunkenness. 
 But now the law does not generally chastise drunkenness itself; it 
 demands the presence of other circumstances disorder on the streets, 
 the dangers of public security, etc. The French law of 1887 punishes 
 even the fact of being found in a state of drunkenness in a public place, 
 but most of the codes connect drunkenness in some way with disorder. 
 Professor Dymcha showed by facts and statistics the obligation the 
 State is under to take part in the battle against intemperance. Ele 
 referred to the results which had been achieved in Norway by a com- 
 bination of society and the State. 
 
 While Professor Dymcha brought out the legal aspects of the ques- 
 tion and favored the establishment of asylums to which inebriates might 
 be legally committed, Dr. Magnan treated the subject largely from a 
 medical point of view. He showed the great increase of alcoholism in 
 France in nineteen years, and pointed out the terrible results in idiotic, 
 degenerate, epileptic, and perverse children. He gave a history of the 
 development of asylums for the treatment of intemperance in the United 
 States, going back to the work of Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia, 
 in 1804, and showing the development of institutions at Binghamton, 
 N. Y., in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Chicago, and elsewhere. Estab- 
 lishments have been founded in England, Switzerland, Germany, and 
 in other countries. The history of the temperance movements in various 
 lands and of the organization of societies to combat the evil was also 
 detailed. Dr. Magnau believed that these institutions are excellent, 
 but they need to be supported by temperance societies, temperance 
 cafes, and other moral influences, and by legislation restricting, regu- 
 lating, and supervising the production of alcoholic liquors. 
 
 Senator Zakrewski, of Russia, gave information concerning the monop- 
 oly of the liquor traffic which Russia has already established in four 
 departments since the 1st of January, 1895, and which will be extended 
 to other portions of the Empire. This step will involve a great falling
 
 56 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 off in the receipts of the Government, but the step is taken from moral 
 considerations only. 
 
 Madam Corroine Eiotrovska wished to prohibit wholly the sale of 
 liquors, as in some States of the United States, notably the State of 
 Maine. 
 
 M. Taverni said that in Sicily there are many crimes, but few victims 
 of alcoholism. Dr. Magnan replied that there is less alcoholism in a 
 country where they drank natural wines, but in Paris it was otherwise. 
 M. Tarde said that it was not possible to exaggerate the influence of 
 alcohol upon crime. The result of the discussion was thus formulated. 
 
 Kesolutions : 
 
 The Congress, moved by the gradual increase of alcoholism the 
 principal cause of which is the consumption of nonrectified spirits or 
 of drinks artificially composed, and ichose influence is seen more and 
 more every day in the development of criminality is of the opinion 
 that to combat this scourge the public authorities should combine their 
 action with that of free association for prophylactic and therapeutic 
 measures. 
 
 Among prophylactic measures the Congress recommends, on the one 
 hand, the regulation of taverns, the limitation of their number, the 
 reduction of taxes on hygienic drinks, the rectification of spirits for 
 industrial uses; on the other hand, it recommends temperance unions, 
 associations, and establishments, and the propaganda u'hich they may 
 organize, to influence manners and habits. 
 
 From a therapeutic point of view, each country ought to establish 
 inebriate asylums, in which labor shall be well organized; their num- 
 ber to be determined by the statistics of intemperance in each region. 
 Legislative provisions should regulate commitment to these asylums 
 according as the inebriate may ask to be treated, or shall have been 
 the subject of repeated condemnations for drunkenness, or when his 
 habitual drunkenness shall become a peril to himself and to the security 
 of others. Discharge from these establishments should be likewise 
 regulated by law.
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 57 
 
 FOURTH SECTION. 
 
 CHILDREN AND MINORS. 
 
 President: Mr. von Jagemann, minister of Baden at Berlin. 
 
 Vice-presidents: Messrs. Councilor Armengol y Cornet, Spain; 
 President Canonico, Italy; Dr. Dimitri Drill, Russia; Councilor 
 Fuchs, Baden; Privy Councilor Kapustine, Russia; Joao da Silva- 
 Matos, Portugal; Director Stockmar, Switzerland; Councilor Thele- 
 manii, Bavaria; Judge Fekete de Nagyivany, Hungary. 
 
 Secretaries: Messrs. Vmcens, chief of bureau to the minister of the 
 interior; Passez, solicitor of the council of state and the court of 
 cassation; M. Pichat, auditor of the council of stare. 
 
 Associate secretaries: Mile. Poet Lydia, doctor of law, Italy; M. 
 Kazarine, Russia; M. de Westmann, Russia; M. Nassey, France. 
 
 As already said, the fourth section was a new department, established 
 the first time at this Congress. It proved to be one of the most popu- 
 lar sections. The largest hall in the College of France was assigned 
 to it. While the first section was largely composed of lawyers and the 
 second of prison officials, the fourth section was more general in its 
 membership, having a good representation of the bar, the clergy, and 
 of prison experts; also directors of educational and correctional insti- 
 tutions for the young, Protestant ministers, Roman Catholic priests, 
 Jewish rabbis, and a large delegation of women. Its deliberations 
 covered eight questions, which are taken up in detail. 
 
 THE LEGAL AGE OF MINORITY. 
 
 First Question : 
 
 Is it desirable to extend the limit of penal minority for boys unto the 
 age when they are eligible for military service? By penal minority is 
 understood the period during which the judge pronounces an acquittal 
 for lack of discernment or commits to an establishment for correc- 
 tional education. 
 
 In the preliminary reports the professors, lawyers, and magistrates 
 were generally in favor of fixing the legal age of minority in its penal 
 sense at 18 years. But the directors of colonies and correctional insti- 
 tutions for the young were alarmed at the idea of being forced to receive 
 boys from 16 to 18 years, who might be a disturbing element. M. Felix 
 Voisiu, the general reporter, advocated the age of 18. The reference to 
 military service in the question was dropped, because it was desirable 
 to apply the same limit to girls as to boys. In the discussion that fol- 
 lowed it was strongly maintained by able speakers that no boy or girl 
 should be considered as a criminal when educational discipline will 
 suffice for his reformation. It was urged that the difference between
 
 58 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 discernment and want of discernment recognized in tbe courts ought 
 to be removed at an early day. The judge should not be expected to 
 conduct such a difficult and delicate inquiry in which the only guide 
 for his judgment must be the witnesses called to enlighten him upon 
 tbe character, education, and intelligence of the accused. Witnesses 
 are often embarrassed in choosing between the good inspirations of 
 their hearts and their sense of severity, so that not much light is thrown 
 upon the degree of discernment or responsibility of the boy. Up to a 
 certain age all this question of precocity or discernment should be set 
 aside and the only questions concerning a child should be those of his 
 education, whether in a family, in a special institution, or when placed 
 out under guardianship. Penal minority means, therefore, that period 
 in which only measures of education are taken into account. When 
 we are obliged to pronounce sentences, then we enter into the period of 
 penal majority. But at what age shall it be fixed? Some maintain at 
 the age of 16, some at 18. 
 
 In the United States, children are guarded in a number of States by 
 wise laws which separate them from older criminals and commit them 
 to educational rather than penal institutions. In other States, little 
 attention has been paid to classification, and young boys are often com- 
 mitted to prison with older criminals. 
 
 Eesolution : 
 
 It is desirable to fix the limit of penal minority at 18 years, on con- 
 dition that children sent to houses of correction after the age of 16 
 shall not mingle icith the others. 
 
 GUARDIANSHIP BY THE STATE. 
 
 Second Question : 
 
 In what cases should the right of guardianship by the State be sub- 
 stituted for the forfeiture of paternal authority f 
 
 Is it desirable in all circumstances to commit to criminal tribunals 
 the determination of the right of guardianship f 
 
 M. Justin De Sanctis, director of the Institute of Paternal Correction 
 of Pisa, Italy, while he felt that paternal rights should not be forfeited 
 except in grave cases, showed, on the other hand, the great need of pro- 
 tecting children from pernicious counsels, bad examples, occupations 
 which deform their bodies, and from the brutality of parents. Aban- 
 doned children are forced into thievery. They may become prostitutes 
 or murderers. When the father of the illtreated child is reproached, 
 he falls back upon his paternal right. " I am his father," is the response 
 of a man who wickedly deals his children cruel blows, sets them a bad 
 example, and uses them for dishonest gain. The children who should 
 be put under the guardianship of the State are the abandoned, the mal- 
 treated, and those that are badly brought up. M. Sanctis found that
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 59 
 
 most jurists and social scientists would agree that parents should forfeit 
 paternal authority in the cases mentioned of abandonment and cruelty; 
 but when parents turn to the State and ask its aid in helping them to 
 correct their children, opinions differ. Yet when a parent asks the 
 iState to assume guardianship, he practically confesses his inability to 
 control his child. ]f he is allowed, as sometimes occurs, to interfere 
 with his boy's education at a house of correction, and even to withdraw 
 him, the boy may fall again into bad Habits and may lapse into delin- 
 quency. The right of tutelage by the State ought to be substituted 
 for that of a parent whenever the parent is found unworthy to exercise 
 it. M. Sanctis did not believe it would be well to let the courts decide 
 upon the right of guardianship. The law ought to fix precisely the 
 conditions, and its provision should not be subject to arbitrary inter- 
 pretations. In leaving it to judges to decide in each particular case, 
 we can not have a uniform system. 
 
 This question was also the subject of an able report by Mr. C. D. 
 Eandall, of Coldwater, Mich., a delegate to the Congress from the 
 United States Bureau of Education. Mr. Eandall treated the question 
 at first historically and presented in detail the English and American 
 practice, supported by numerous citations, giving also a summary of 
 the Michigan law. Mr. Eaudall did not wish to exaggerate the rights 
 of children, but he asked that the prevention of crime and of pauperism, 
 through child saving, should have the prominence it deserves. He 
 urged that the law should continue to extend protection to dependent 
 and ill-treated children, to the point of annulling parental rights when 
 necessary. 
 
 M. Armengol y Cornet, reporter of the court of Barcelona, Spain, ren- 
 dered a report in practical agreement with the preceding, and showing 
 the need of protecting stepchildren from cruel parents. Eeports were 
 also presented by M. Felix Voisiu, of Paris, Dr. Louis Fuld, of May- 
 ence, and M. de Moldenhawer, of Poland, who rendered a full and very 
 able report discussing contemporary laws. 
 
 In the discussion a number of speakers took the ground that the civil 
 court should determine the question of the right of guardianship except 
 in cases where the criminal courts have to decide on the un worthiness 
 of parents. 
 
 Eesolutions : 
 
 1. The icithdrawal of the right of guardianship may be substituted 
 for the forfeiture of paternal power in such cases as the courts may 
 determine. 
 
 2. Civil courts should determine questions relating to tutelage and 
 the right of guardianship, but criminal courts before irhich parents 
 are convicted of crime may withdraw from them the right of guard- 
 ianship.
 
 60 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 SCHOOLS AND HOUSES OF CORRECTION. 
 
 Third Question : 
 
 Should there not be substituted for the single and ordinary type of 
 the house of correction a series of establishments suitable for different 
 classes of minors as defined by penal law f 
 
 Should not the school of preservation (VEcole de preservation) or 
 house of correction (Maison de premier degre) be reserved simply for 
 mendicants and vagrants ? 
 
 What is the most effective way of preventing mendicity and vagrancy 
 in minors f 
 
 The president of the section asked that this question might be joined 
 with the fourth, which was thus formulated: 
 
 Fourth Question : 
 
 By what authority should sentence be pronounced upon children 
 guilty of infractions of the law f 
 
 Upon what principles shall it be decided whether these infractions 
 involve 
 
 (a) Penal condemnation and incarceration in a penal institution 
 properly so called ? 
 
 (b) Or commitment to a special house of correction for vicious or 
 undisciplined children ? 
 
 (c) Or sending them to an educational establishment intended for 
 pupils under the guardianship of public authority? 
 
 Should the age of children be the only element considered in making 
 these distinctions and determining decisions, and under what con- 
 ditions f 
 
 (d) Upon what principles and according to what procedure should 
 children confined in these establishments be liberated temporarily, 
 conditionally, or definitely f 
 
 (e) Under icliat conditions may minors be regarded as relapsed 
 offenders (recidivists) and what consequences should such a relapse 
 entail f 
 
 Xo less than sixteen reporters passed upon the sixth question and 
 ten upon the fourth. It would swell this report too much to give an 
 abstract of all these reports. The difference of opinion presented in 
 the discussion was such that a special committee was appointed to 
 amalgamate different views. The report of this committee, amended 
 and enlarged, led to the following conclusions, which embody the most 
 important suggestions: 
 
 Resolution : 
 
 1. Children arraigned before courts of justice may, according to their 
 age and the nature of acts for which they have been arrested and their 
 degree of discernment, be sent to establishments, public or private, either 
 of a benevolent and preservative or reformatory character.
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 61 
 
 Children under 12 years should always be sent to institution* of 
 preservation. Sentenced children should be kept in separate quarters. 
 
 2. It is desirable that the name given to these establishments should 
 not be such as to prejudice the future of the child by affixing a stigma. 
 
 3. The court has the right to decide whether the child shall be placed 
 under guardianship. The choice of the system of education (penal, 
 reformatory, or preservative] may be decided by the authority to which 
 the education of the child is committed. 
 
 4. The question of relapse was recommitted to the first section of 
 the Congress. 
 
 5. Provisional liberty should be granted when the child shall have 
 received a sufficient amount of general and technical schooling, and 
 with the consent of the administrative authority, provided also that 
 the child shall be subject to continual surveillance, that he shall be pro- 
 vided icith work and with conditions necessary for his material and 
 moral welfare. 
 
 6. To prevent children from becoming vagrants or mendicants : 
 
 (a) Unworthy parents must be deprived of the right to rear children, 
 and those who trade in mendicity must be punished. 
 
 (b) Honest parents who are incapable of giving proper oversight to 
 their children must be helped to fulfill their mission, by strictly enforc- 
 ing the school laics and by establishing nurseries, creches, kindergar- 
 tens, maternal schools, and other similar institutions. 
 
 (c) Adolescent or abandoned orphans should be offered the means of 
 avoiding vagrancy and mendicity, and received in temporary asylums 
 u'liere work is provided. Only voluntary vagrants or mendicants 
 should be treated as delinquents. 
 
 1. If it is proved that the vagrancy or mendicancy of the child is 
 due to the fault or the negligence of persons icho have authority over 
 him, these persons shall be prosecuted and sentenced to fine, impris- 
 onment, or to privation of their civil rights, or to one of these three 
 penalties, without forfeiture of rights of parentage or privation of 
 guardianship. 
 
 8. In that case, after the organization of preventive means, parents 
 guilty of neglecting their children may be declared in whole or in part 
 responsible for the expenses of guardianship and the education of 
 minors. 
 
 9. Proprietors of hotels and lodging houses who give permanent or 
 temporary shelter to minors to expose them to an immoral life shall be 
 condemned to some correctional penalty. After the first infraction the 
 court may order the establishment to be closed, and this should be 
 obligatory in case of relapse.
 
 62 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 PHYSICAL EDUCATION FOR MINORS. 
 
 Fifth Question : 
 
 Is it necessary to assign a large place to rational physical education 
 in houses of detention for children f 
 
 The thirteen reports presented on this question as analyzed by M. 
 Nassoy were unanimous in assigning a large part to rational physical 
 education. While some of the writers outlined a system of gymnastics, 
 and reference was again made to the experiments at the Elmira Eeform- 
 atory, it was also maintained by some of the reporters, and urged by the 
 reporter-general, that the best form of exercise was to be found in some 
 form of work, above all in agricultural labors. In cultivating theground, 
 children in agricultural colonies not only become robust, but learn to 
 gain an honest living. From a moral point of view, therefore, the 
 advantages of this form of exercise are great. The fatigue which follows 
 labor is salutary and a protection against temptation. 
 
 Mine. Bogelot, of Paris, and the Oountess Oppezzi felt that sufficient 
 physical exercise in the open air is not furnished to young prisoners. 
 They believe that some form of outdoor labor in the way of horticulture 
 or farming ought to be more general. 
 
 At the conclusion of the discussion, the resolution proposed by M. 
 Nassoy was unanimously adopted : 
 
 Eesolutiou : 
 
 The preponderant place in rational physical education should be 
 given to manual labor, and particularly to agricultural labor, in the 
 open air for both sexes. 
 
 MINIMUM OR MAXIMUM PENALTIES. 
 Sixth Question : 
 
 Would it be ic ell to fix a minimum time sentence in sending minors 
 to houses of correction f 
 
 Would it be well to decide that in all cases where minors have been 
 condemned they should be committed until their majority under civil 
 law to a penal house of correction f 
 
 Three of the reporters on this question, as directors of colonies and 
 institutions for the young, treated the matter from the practical stand- 
 point, and showed the inutility of short sentences for children who 
 need the prolonged influence of education. M. Felix Voisin, in ana 
 lyzing these reports, asks how a magistrate is to know when he pro- 
 nounces a definite sentence on a youthful delinquent what period will 
 be necessary for his reformation. 
 
 Professor Thiry also showed the inutility of definite sentences. It 
 was clear to some of the American delegates that the logic effectively 
 expressed in behalf of an indeterminate sentence for minors applied
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 63 
 
 with great force to adult prisoners, especially when it is considered that 
 the average age of the majority of prisoners is not much above the 
 age of civil majority. In this debate Mr. Michel Heymann, an official 
 delegate from the State of Louisiana, did not wish to hear of the word 
 "sentence" applied to a child. The child, he said, is not a criminal; it 
 may be sick or perverted. It needs to be guarded, trained, educated, 
 mid reformed, but all idea of penalty which degrades or fixes a stigma 
 upon its life must be set aside. M. Yoisin, in reply to a statement that 
 the courts might not wish to give up the right to fix a minimum sen- 
 tence, said that commitment to a house of correctional education ought 
 not to be regarded as a penalty. It is a measure for the protection of 
 the child. It is for the educator to decide when the task of education 
 is complete. 
 
 M. Lejeune, of Belgium, asked that in the conclusions voted the words 
 "correctional' 1 or "penitentiary'' as applied to houses of education 
 should not be used. These words ought not to be pronounced against 
 a child, whose future must always be held in mind. 
 
 .Resolution : 
 
 1. When the care of the child has been assumed by the Government, 
 or it has been placed under administrative guardianship, this care 
 should extend to the age of majority. 
 
 2. There is ground for concluding that in all cases where minors 
 hare been condemned they should be placed under administrative 
 guardianship until the age of civil majority. 
 
 3. A decision of the court may end the guardianship when the 
 authorities think that the educational task is finished. 
 
 THE SUPERVISION OF CHILDREN PLACED IN FAMILIES. 
 
 Seventh Question : 
 
 Hoic and by whom should oversight be maintained under the placing- 
 out system; that is, of abandoned or assisted children and those from 
 penitentiary colonies who are placed individually in families f 
 
 The danger of placing children in families without proper supervision 
 was recognized in the various reports. Some of the writers proposed 
 that inspection should be made by the agents of the institutions to 
 which such children may have been committed before they were placed 
 out. This is practically adopted in the case of children who are thus 
 placed from the French penitentiary colony of Mettray. There are 
 always a certain number of applications for such children. It is the 
 duty of the agent to visit them. In distant localities patrons, priests, 
 ministers, or members of some charitable society visit the children, and 
 correspondence is maintained with the patrons as well as with the 
 children. But supervision, ic was maintained by Captain Cluze, of 
 Mettray, should be friendly rather than official. The work is best done
 
 64 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 by societies of patronage. Messrs. F. Walter and A. Tiinofeef, of Rus- 
 sia, presented an interesting report, considering first the inspection of 
 children who had previously served in correctional institutions, and 
 then of those placed directly under guardianship in families. In tlie 
 first case guardians should have some responsibility to the administra- 
 tion of these institutions. In other cases societies of patronage should 
 exercise a surveillance in the way of friendly visiting without the inter- 
 vention of the police and devoid of an official character. The patrons 
 should be animated by a benevolent spirit. 
 
 The State should cooperate with these societies, as in England. Dr. 
 Emile Barthes, of Caen, showed that the question had been discussed 
 very fully for the last thirty or forty years. He believed that such 
 societies of patronage had attained a greater success in Germany, and 
 referred to the society of Elberfeld. Messrs. Louiche-Desfontaiue and 
 Godefroy thought that surveillance should be exercised concurrently 
 by the societies of patronage and by public authority. M. Lejeuue, of 
 Belgium, formerly minister of justice, spoke from official experience of 
 the great value of the inspection by societies of patronage. The direc- 
 tors of these societies had said to him: "We do not wish to submit to 
 governmental supervision. If we must do that we prefer to give up 
 the work. If you have confidence in us, give us your children; if you 
 do not have confidence in us, why do you intrust the children to us ?" 
 He had had that confidence. He had given to them complete supervi- 
 sion of the wards of the Government, and he had never regretted this 
 decision. In Belgium the supervision of children placed out is con- 
 ducted by these societies with tact and discretion. No such results 
 could ever be obtained by governmental supervision, which perpetually 
 reminds the child of its origin and becomes formal and perfunctory. 
 M. Lejeune spoke then, as always, with elevation and power, and the 
 resolution proposed by him was adopted. 
 
 Eesolutiou : 
 
 Children who are placed in families under administrative guardian- 
 ship or who are wards of the Government can only be effectively super- 
 vised through societies of patronage. 
 
 THE PREVENTION OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 Eighth Question : 
 
 What means should be employed to prevent and repress the prostitu- 
 tion of minors ? 
 
 Is it not desirable that an understanding should be established be- 
 ticeen different nations for the purpose of preventing the prostitution 
 of young girls placed in foreign countries and too of ten lured into vice 
 through the intrigues of certain persons or agencies f 
 
 M. Minod and De Meuron, of Geneva, in a preliminary report, showed 
 that 60 per cent of the girls leading an abandoned life in Zurich had
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 65 
 
 fallen before 17 years of age, arid 88 per cent before 20 years. Those 
 who are engaged in the trade seek to furnish to these houses girls as 
 young as possible. The State should not recognize prostitution as a 
 trade. It should be interdicted to minors. 
 
 The section discussed also the question submitted to it by the first 
 section as to what means should be adopted to prevent the expatria- 
 tion of young girls for the purpose of prostitution, and the two sections 
 were united in this discussion. 
 
 M. Yves Guyot presented areport abounding in facts showing the trade 
 carried on in young girls between different countries. A great many 
 are induced to emigrate by the promise of places. A large trade is 
 carried on in Germany and Austria and Belgium in this direction. Lon- 
 don, Constantinople, North and South America, and Australia furnish 
 a market for this traffic. Keference was made to the investigations in 
 London on this subject. Belgium, Holland, Austria, and Eussia have 
 concluded treaties or taken measures to prevent this traffic. But the 
 effort has been only partially successful, owing to the lack of coopera- 
 tion in different countries, the want of uniformity in the laws for pun- 
 ishing these crimes, and the difficulty of establishing the proof of such 
 facts as enter into the commerce in young girls. 
 
 M. Guyot proposed an international conference to study measures for 
 the repression of the traffic. The discussion was earnest and animated. 
 Numerous resolutions and amendments were offered, and the session 
 was suspended to permit the authors of various measures to consolidate 
 their propositions. The result was the amalgamation of several reso- 
 lutions offered by different members and adopted almost unanimously 
 as follows : 
 
 Eesolutions : 
 
 1. A bduction by fraud or allurement for prostitution, the employment 
 of such means to constrain even one who has reached majority to lead 
 a life of prostitution, ought to be severely repressed, with an increase 
 of the penalty in case of relapse. 
 
 2. It is recommended that a conference of delegates of different Gov- 
 ernments be called to take international measures against the abduction 
 of girls. 
 
 3. The best means for repressing the prostitution of minors: 
 
 (a) To raise to 15 years the age in which seduction is considered as 
 criminal. 
 
 (b) To increase the number of reform schools, asylums, refuges, and 
 other establishments of the same kind, designed for icayward young 
 girls. 
 
 4. Recognizing the influence of religious education upon public mo- 
 rality, it is necessary to consider the important place which should 
 always be accorded to it. 
 
 5. Every minor of either sex less than 18 years of age found in an 
 S. Doc. 181 5
 
 66 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 habitual state of prostitution shall be conducted, after a preliminary 
 examination, before a court tchich, according to circumstances, shall 
 commit the minor to his or her parents or to some house of refuge, 
 education, or reformation, or to some honorable family, until the age 
 of civil majority. 
 
 6. The Congress is of the opinion that the question of the regulation 
 of prostitution ought to be a part of the programme of the next Con- 
 gress. 
 
 INTERNATIONAL PATRONAGE. 
 
 Before separating, the fourth section adopted the following resolu- 
 tion in regard to international cooperation in aiding and protecting the 
 young through the societies of patronage in different countries: 
 
 Resolution : 
 
 The Congress is of the opinion that with as little delay as possible 
 international relations of patronage and oversight for abandoned 
 children and those discharged from correctional institutions should be 
 established between different States, and more particularly upon the 
 borders of adjoining countries. The aim of this international pat- 
 ronage should be not only to come to the aid of the young and of chil- 
 dren surviving their parents, but above all to see that they are promptly 
 directed to their native countries, and there committed to societies of 
 patronage, if they exist. 
 
 CLOSE OF THE CONGRESS. 
 
 In the reports of the different sections the discussions at the general 
 sessions of the Congress and the resolutions there adopted have been 
 included. The most important work was done in the separate sections, 
 and for the most part the action of the general sessions was but a rati- 
 fication of that of the different sections, though at times the debate 
 was transferred from the small halls to the larger one and continued 
 with great warmth. The resolutions given in the preceding pages 
 sometimes represented a compromise; but sometimes they express very 
 well the whole spirit of the debate, and were made up from various 
 propositions advanced during the discussion. 
 
 The closing session of the Congress was beld in the amphitheater of 
 the Sorbonne, Tuesday, July 9. In giving the closing address M. Duflos, 
 the president, to whose large ability and untiring devotion so much of 
 the success of the Congress was due, said : 
 
 We have reached the end of onr labors. In these ten days a large task has been 
 accomplished. Thirty questions were comprised in our programme. All have been 
 studied with the greatest care. They have given rise to wise and profound discus- 
 sions in the sections and in the general assembly. 
 
 The results have exceeded our expectations. Never has a programme more fully 
 charged been submitted to the Congress. We have the right to be proud of the 
 results which prove the vitality and worth of the Congress.
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 67 
 
 And now we are about to separate after ten days of devoted work, and after hold- 
 ing sessions in which there has been an admirable exchange of ideas, with intervals 
 of fraternal relaxation to strengthen old friendships and form new ones, and to 
 afford the pleasing spectacle of men belonging to twenty-five different nations 
 marching hand in hand, united by the same desire, illumined by the same glowing 
 zeal, defending different opinions with ardor and vivacity, but with one aim and 
 one purpose. It is not without heaviness of heart that I address you on the eve of 
 your departure. We hope you will bear a lasting remembrance of your visit here, 
 that you will part with the assurance that you leave behind you in Paris sincere 
 and devoted friends. Sometimes turn your eyes toward us, sometimes bend your 
 ear toward France, and you will hear the beating of our hearts, and across the dis- 
 tance you will see our arms lifted toward you and we, ourselves, saying to you, 
 "Friends, confide inns; rely upon our unalterable attachment. Soon we hope to 
 unite again with you in the pursuit of generous objects. We shall not forget you. 
 The ties which bind us are those which can neither be broken nor relaxed." 
 
 No, ladies and gentlemen, it is not an adieu that we have to say at this time. The 
 Belgian Government, through its eminent and sympathetic representative, M. de 
 Latour, has made known to the International Penitentiary Commission that it will 
 offer hospitality in 1900 to the Sixth International Prison Congress. The Interna- 
 tional Commission has replied with thanks for this friendly and gracious invitation, 
 which has secured the unanimous acceptance of all the nations represented in the 
 International Commission. I have raised my hand with my colleagues, regretting 
 that as a Frenchman I could not vote twice in favor of the proposition. Brussels is 
 not far from Paris. We may hope, then, that the Congress of Brussels will furnish 
 for our foreign guests an opportunity to come to Paris and assist us in our festal cele- 
 brations in the interest of industry, commerce, and art which the Government of 
 France has prepared for the end of the century. 
 
 Au revoir, then, ladies and gentlemen. We extend to your countries, your families, 
 and everything which is dear to you, our most sincere and affectionate wishes. 
 
 RECEPTIONS AND EXCURSIONS. 
 
 No account of the Congress would be complete without reference to 
 the receptions and other courtesies extended to the delegates and the 
 excursions organized, not only to furnish recreation, but to give an 
 opportunity to visit representative French institutions. 
 
 The evening before the opening of the Congress, Saturday, June 29, 
 the members of the Congress attended a reception given by M. Felix 
 Faure, President of the French Eepublic, at the Palais d'filysee. The 
 members were individually presented to the President. The gardens 
 and salons were thrown open to the guests, and delightful music was 
 furnished by the Guarde E6publicaine. 
 
 The opening session of the Congress at the Sorbonne, Sunday after- 
 noon, June 30, has already been described. The same evening, at 7 
 o'clock, a grand banquet was given by the committee of organization 
 to all the foreign members in the great dining hall of the Hotel Conti- 
 nental. Six hundred covers were laid, and care was taken that every 
 foreign guest should be brought into personal relation at the table with 
 representative Frenchmen. The minister of the interior, M. Leygues, 
 presided. Other officers of the French Government and foreign ambas- 
 sadors sat on his right and left. M. Leygues made a brief address of 
 welcome, which was responded to by M. Galkine-Wraskoy, the head of
 
 68 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 the Russian delegation. After the dinner followed a reception lasting 
 till midnight. 
 
 Tuesday, July 2, the President of the Eepublic and Mme. Felix Faure 
 received at dinner the officers of the Congress and the presidents of 
 the different foreign delegations. 
 
 On Wednesday, July 3, two excursions were provided. Half of the 
 Congress proceeded by a special train to Melun, where they visited the 
 great penitentiary at that place, at which all the preliminary reports 
 of the Congress, amounting to 2,500 pages, and the daily bulletins of 
 the proceedings were printed. A visit to the palace of Fontainbleau 
 and a drive through the forest followed. A banquet was given in the 
 palace to the two hundred excursionists. M. Duflos, the president of 
 the Congress, in a happy speech spoke of the friendship, the confidence, 
 and the high ideals which animated the members, and concluded by 
 quoting the spirit of Longfellow's verse: 
 
 Let the dead Past bury its dead ! 
 Act act in the living Present ! 
 Heart within and God o'erhead ! 
 
 Toasts were offered and addresses made by Messrs. Galkine-Wraskoy, 
 Braunbehrens, Pierautoni, de Latour, Tarassow, de Dychma, and Eeboul. 
 
 On the same day another delegation of members, among them a large 
 number of ladies, visited the Pantheon, la Conciergerie, les luvalides, 
 and proceeded by steamer to St. Cloud. Dinner was served on the 
 boat, and toasts were offered by Messrs, von Jagemann and Puibaraud. 
 The excursion was terminated by a visit to the national manufactory 
 at Sevres. 
 
 On Thursday, July 4, a grand banquet was given in the Eiffel tower 
 to 200 guests by the Societe Generale des Prisons. The president, 
 M. Felix Voisin, extended the welcome of the society whose distin- 
 guished contributions to penology are known the world over by all stu- 
 dents of criminology. "This gathering," said M. Voisin, "is invaluable 
 for us, for it consecrates old friendships and permits us to form new 
 ones." He spoke of the great change that had taken place in twenty 
 years. In that time the members of the Congress had learned to work 
 together for the progress of penitentiary science, in which their minds 
 and hearts were closely united. 
 
 M. Lejeune, of Belgium, in extending thanks to the society spoke of 
 the new spirit of hopefulness which inspires the pursuit of ideal justice. 
 We are seeking to know true justice; we wish to possess it and to 
 practice it. In that research our eyes are turned toward France, which 
 has done so much for the inspiration of human progress. All whose 
 efforts are turned and whose hearts are drawn toward that aspiration 
 of true human justice are filled with a sentiment of profound gratitude 
 for the light which La Societe Generale des Prisons has thrown upon 
 its way. 
 
 M. Eibot, president of the council to the French Government and
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 69 
 
 honorary president of the society, offered a toast celebrating the col- 
 laboration of all nations in the great task which has united them in this 
 Congress. If France had played an honorable part in the march of 
 progress, as M. Lejeune had said, it is because she has known how to 
 borrow generous ideas from the nations about her. It is the sympa- 
 thies which have united France to all other foreign nations which have 
 enabled her to hold on some occasions, and not without honor, the 
 standard of progress and of civilization. He would be very blind and 
 narrow in his conceptions who should affirm to-day after all the changes 
 which have renewed the face of the world that a nation is sufficient to 
 itself in the task which is imposed upon it. In the contest in which 
 we have engaged against misery, against vice, against those evils 
 which beset humanity, we can not be isolated. We must sustain each 
 other. We must join our efforts, our thoughts, and, permit me to add, 
 our hearts. We have begun that battle and we will continue it. The 
 years are short, but the lives of nations and the life of humanity are long 
 and we ought to take with us when we leave this earth the conscious- 
 ness that we have been able to do something to promote the progress 
 of humanity and civilization. 
 
 M. Pessina, of Italy, rendered a tribute to the great work of the so- 
 ciety, which by its publication and its energetic efforts had instituted 
 a permanent inquiry into the penitentiary institutions of France and for- 
 eign countries. He congratulated them upon the results. We are not 
 moved by blind sentimentalisrn. Penal justice, as we understand it, is 
 the skillful surgeon cauterizing the wounds of society. 
 
 M. Leygues, minister of the interior, addressing the members of the 
 Congress, said that in twenty-five years they had accomplished a revo- 
 lution. They had effaced from the entrance of their prisons the words 
 which Dante placed over the entrance to hell, " All hope abandon ye 
 who enter here." That was true once, but thanks to you it is no longer 
 true to-day. The Government is happy in cooperating with you because 
 your work is not only penitentiary work ; in enlarging your field of 
 action, you engaged in a work which is social, political, and philosoph- 
 ical. 
 
 M. Trarieux, minister of justice, spoke of the deep interest which 
 the department of justice had in the work of the Congress. Judges 
 and magistrates were largely represented in these gatherings. Along- 
 side of philosophers, scientists, and professors there were advocates 
 and counselors of the highest courts who came to join in the study of 
 reforms in which they have often taken the initiative and in which 
 their advice may always be valuable. He wished that not only a select 
 number, but that the entire magistracy were enrolled under their ban- 
 ner. What becomes of good laws if they are not applied by judges 
 capable of understanding and administering them in the same spirit 
 in which they have been framed? The good judge needs to be versed 
 in penal science. Justice is the supreme end. There was no barrier,
 
 70 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 he said, between him and his colleague, the minister of the interior, 
 who presided over penitentiary administration. Justice is not impla- 
 cable chastisement and blind exemplary punishment; true justice is 
 benevolent toward the weak, compassionate to childhood; it is justice 
 combined with sensibility; it seeks to restore the guilty through mercy 
 combined with severity. 
 
 Addresses were also made by M. Canonico, of Italy; M. Galkine- 
 Wraskoy, of Russia; and M. F. Duflos, president of the Congress, who 
 also rendered a tribute to the work of the society, and closed by offer- 
 ing a toast to the sentiments which animate all civilized people for the 
 continual progress of science and of the triumph of justice, law, and 
 goodness. 
 
 On Saturday, July 6, the members of the Congress were the guests of 
 the general council of the Seine, and visited the departmental prisons 
 and institutions of Nanterre and of Montesson. 
 
 Sunday, July 7, the Congress visited the penitentiary colony of 
 Douaires and the special asylum for the criminal insane at Gaillou. 
 The visits to these and other institutions were of the greatest interest 
 to the delegates, who found much to commend in their administration, 
 but most of all the hopeful, progressive, humanitarian spirit which per- 
 vaded them. 
 
 The same evening a brilliant reception was given by the minister of 
 the interior to the members of the Congress. Members of the diplo- 
 matic corps, a large number of senators, deputies, officers of the army, 
 artists, and men of letters were present. The apartments were beau- 
 tifully decorated, the garden was illuminated, the band of La Garde 
 Republicaiue played selections from French composers, and the guests 
 had the pleasure of hearing distinguished actors of the Comedie fran- 
 9aise. 
 
 Monday evening, July 9, a dinner was offered by the foreign dele- 
 gates to the French committee of organization. It was held in La 
 Maison Bubat, Champs-FJysees. The dinner was given in a tent deco- 
 rated with the flags of all nations, while an excellent orchestra rendered 
 the national airs of different countries. 
 
 M. Galkine- Wraskoy, in offering a toast to the President of the French 
 Eepublic, said that France is not only a hospitable land for strangers; 
 it is also hospitable to ideas of justice and of charity, those great 
 influences which elevate civilization and contribute to fraternal sympa- 
 thy among nations. 
 
 M. Pols, of Holland, expressed his gratitude for the sympathy they 
 had received and for the generous efforts which had been made to 
 facilitate their labors. He thanked all the officers of the Government 
 and the committee of organization. 
 
 M. Canonico, of Italy, called attention to the immense labor which 
 the committee of organization had undertaken and fulfilled. Eeferring
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 71 
 
 to M. Duflos, he said the general has been worthy of his army, and the 
 army has been worthy of its general. They had succeeded so well 
 because they had been animated by noble and generous sentiments. 
 
 A toast was offered by M. Braunbehrens to La Societe" ge"uerale des 
 prisons, and M. de Latour offered a toast of thanks to the city of Paris, 
 which had extended such magnificent hospitality. Paris offers a splen- 
 did aggregation of elegance and of the most beautiful productions of 
 science, art, and of letters. But they had seen behind all this incom- 
 parable splendor something more precious the noble sentiments which 
 inform the soul and heart of France. 
 
 M. Leygues, minister of the interior, responded on behalf of the 
 French Government, M. Voisin for La Society des Prisons, and 
 M. Duflos for the committee of organization. 
 
 An incident especially interesting to Americans was the tribute paid 
 by Dr. Guillaume, the general secretary, to the late Dr. E. C. Wines. 
 Dr. Guillaume said: 
 
 In every prison congress the name of their promoter, Dr. Wines, is pronounced with 
 gratitude and veneration. His Excellency M. Galkine-Wraskoy has just reminded 
 me of the sacred duty of filial gratitude which we owe to the man who has stimu- 
 lated in every country this admirable movement in behalf of penitentiary reform 
 and of the prevention of crime. Animated by a faith which moves mountains, but 
 calm and methodical, he began by creating the American Prison Association, in 
 which ideas practical rather than theoretical have beeu discussed that have been for 
 the most part realized. It is sufficient to mention among things realized the inde- 
 terminate sentence, the probation system, and the Elmjra Reformatory. After hav- 
 ing stimulated the reform in the United States, Dr. Wines wished to set in motion a 
 similar movement in Europe and unite the efforts of the State with private initia- 
 tive in this field of activity. The difficulties were great, for then the governments 
 considered members of benevolent societies as dreamers and metaphysicians, while 
 these on the other hand considered public officials as doctrinaires and bureaucrats. 
 To overcome these difficulties, Dr. Wines, in spite of his great age, undertook to visit 
 every country of Europe and to personally plead his cause before sovereign and 
 influential statesmen. Thanks to his perseverance and to the special tenacity of 
 his race he succeeded in organizing, in 1872, the London Congress, and six years later 
 that of Stockholm. 
 
 But, gentlemen, that which has not been sufficiently known and not sufficiently 
 said is that this immense work of Dr. Wines would have been impossible if he had 
 not been always accompanied and seconded by his wife, Mrs. Emma Wines, who 
 constantly served as his active, intelligent, and devoted secretary and translator. 
 Dr. Wines was of the opinion that without the cooperation of woman the work of 
 penitentiary reform would not be crowned with permanent success. 
 
 In the London Congress he received the support of distinguished women, among 
 them Miss Mary Carpenter, the wife of the venerated Barwick Baker, and others, 
 who gave animation and brilliancy to the discussions of that first international 
 gathering. 
 
 At Stockholm, at Rome, and at St. Petersburg the number of women who distin- 
 guished themselves as authors of reports, as orators, or as directors of establishments 
 for unfortunate children or of aid societies constantly increased, and we mention 
 with respect, among others, Mme. d'Oliverona, Dona Areual, Signora Lydia Poet, 
 Mines. Dupuy et Brunot, and her royal highness the Grand Duchesse of Oldenburg. 
 
 At the Paris Congress the circle is still larger, and it is possible that the question 
 relative to the education of unfortunate children which figure on the programme
 
 72 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 have procured for the Congress the sympathy of so many distinguished women that 
 we may he permitted to call them our sisters of charity, both lay and religious. 
 Dr. Wines, if he were still among us, would thrill with joy at seeing bis dream real- 
 ized, the active cooperation of woman in tbe education of abandoned cbildren and 
 youth. 
 
 We are proud also, ladies, to-day, at being honored with your presence, and happy 
 at beiug able to offer our sentiments of gratitude and respect to Mrs. Leygues, 
 Mrs. Duflos, Mrs. Robin, Mrs. Pissard, Mrs. Coroine, Mrs. Rosenberg, and all those 
 ladies who have assisted at the Congress and those who in every country and under 
 whatever title are helping in the rescue of wayward and unfortunate children. We 
 beg them to continue their powerful support and effective cooperation, and believing 
 with us in the perfectibility of the human race, to help to raise the moral and intel- 
 lectual level of society and to prepare for it a better future. 
 
 Dr. Guillaurne closed by offering the health of Madam Faure, wife of 
 the President of the Kepublic. 
 
 Gen. E. Brinkerhoff responded to the compliment which had been 
 paid to the influence of the United States in forming the Congress: 
 
 Mr. PRESIDENT, AND LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: On behalf of the American dele- 
 gation, I desire to express our appreciation of the high honor accorded our country 
 by Dr. Guillaume in the tribute he has given to the services rendered by our dis- 
 tinguished countryman, Rev. Dr. E. C. Wines. No other man in America has done 
 so much for tbe reformation of prisons as Dr. Wines. To him we owe the organiza- 
 tion of our National Prison Association, which has met annually from 1870 to 1895, 
 and every year in a different State, and its influence for good in prison progress has 
 been more potential than all other causes combined. The National Prison Associa- 
 tion of America was organized in 1870, and out of it grew the International Prison 
 Congress, which held its first session in London in 1872. and therefore America is 
 proud to unite with Europe in according high honor to that godly man and Chris- 
 tian philanthropist. 
 
 Dr. Guillaume has suggested the desirability of a representative from America 
 upon the International Prison Commission, and I am very glad to say that this sug- 
 gestion has been anticipated by the American delegates. At a meeting held July 4, 
 it was voted by the American delegation to present the matter to the National As- 
 sociation. I hope America will have a member upon the International Commission 
 for the Congress of 1900. 
 
 And now, Mr. President, in conclusion, allow me to say, on behalf of the Amer- 
 ican delegation, that we are glad to be here, and that we appreciate very highly the 
 many courtesies we have received from the delegates of other countries, and espe- 
 cially that we appreciate the wonderful hospitality of the citizens of Paris and of 
 France in the entertainments and attentions, botli official and unofficial, that have 
 been extended to us and to all other members of the Congress. America is the friend 
 of all nations and the enemy of none, but she is especially friendly to the Republic 
 of France. 
 
 On Tuesday, July 9, a grand reception was given by the city of Paris, 
 at the Hotel de Ville. In the splendid banquet hall 350 covers were 
 laid, and toasts were offered by the president of the municipal council 
 and M. Galkine-Wraskoy. After the dinner a brilliant literary and 
 musical soiree was held in another grand salon, one of the features of 
 which was a reproduction of early music upon ancient instruments, 
 some old-time dances in the costumes of the period, and songs and 
 arias, popular and classical.
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 73 
 
 Wednesday. July 10, a parting soiree to the members of the Congress 
 was extended by the department of general inspection under the min- 
 ister of the interior. A reception was held at the Palmarium, and the 
 interchange of friendship and words of farewell were enlivened by a 
 literary and musical programme. 
 
 A TRIBUTE TO LAFAYETTE. 
 
 In view of the fact that the anniversary of the declaration of Amer- 
 ican Independence occurred during the session of the Congress, it was 
 suggested by Mr. Henry C. Eanney, of Cleveland, Ohio, that there 
 could be no more appropriate way of observing it than by making a 
 pilgrimage to the tomb of Lafayette and decorating it with flowers. 
 The proposition was received with great unanimity and satisfaction by 
 the American delegates, and a special committee, of which Mr. Ranney 
 was chairman, was appointed to make the necessary arrangements. 
 A general invitation was extended to Americans in Paris to accompany 
 the delegation. On the morning of July 4 the delegation proceeded by 
 carriage to the cemetery of Picpus, in which is the tomb of Lafayette. 
 A beautiful wreath of flowers, fitly inscribed, was placed upon the 
 tomb, and Mr. Charlton T. Lewis, of New York, who had been requested 
 by the delegates to make the address, spoke substantially as follows : 
 
 LADIES AND GENTLEMEX, CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES SOJOURNING IN THB 
 CAPITAL OF THE GREAT SISTER REPUBLIC : There is not among all the scenes around 
 which cluster the interesting and memorable associations of European history one 
 place more suggestive to us of deep feelings and of far-reaching thoughts than this. 
 Here lie the mortal remains of the leader in that great movement which began by 
 reenforcing the New World in its struggle for freedom, at its most critical hour, by 
 the public opinion and the military power of the foremost monarchy in the Old World, 
 and which continued until the reflex wave of the spirit of emancipation flowed back 
 upon these shores. Nay, his guidance of the movement lasted through nearly two 
 generations of men, until its triumphs in both hemispheres was assured ; and we see 
 around us here, in the orderly freedom and progressive institutions of renovated 
 France, the conclusive evidence that the movement itself has not yet culminated, 
 but may be expected to go on for the lasting encouragement of civilization and for 
 the consummation of the best hopes of mankind. Lafayette in early youth was an 
 important and perhaps an essential force in bringing about the independence of the 
 American colonies and the foundation of the great Western Republic, and after- 
 wards, through a long life of devotion to the principle that all sovereignty is vested 
 in the whole people, became the foremost representative of the most progressive 
 social organization, that which combines the highest freedom with the maintenance 
 of civil order, in the Old World. His life earned the title of the " Hero of liberty 
 on two continents." But that life has never been written. 
 
 The literature which we call history has been too much influenced by the tradi- 
 tional notions of mediaeval culture on the one hand, or by the anarchic passions of 
 a disorganizing social philosophy on the other; and the noble conservatism, the dis- 
 interested patriotism, the self-sacrificing love of humanity, the genius for divining 
 the worth of principle and for controlling and simplifying by it all notions and 
 suggestions of immediate policy, have never been fully appreciated by the popular 
 writers who depict to us the stormy days through which France has passed from 
 tyranny to self-government. Lafayette himself deliberately refused throughout his 
 later years to write those memoirs for which his friends and the friends of truth so
 
 74 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 often asked him. No life of modern times is so romantic as his; no life in any age 
 was ever so full of wonderful vicissitudes. More than once, and for considerable 
 periods, he was at the summit of power, and practically the dictator of France; 
 more than once he was the idol of the people, and his popularity outshone that of 
 his country's most successful warriors and most influential statesmen. At other 
 times he was proscribed now by the voice of the mob assuming to be the voice of 
 the nation, and again by the will of the military tyrant who had bent or broken 
 everything else before him save the mind and will of Lafayette. But amid it all the 
 faith of the hero was serene and firm in the ultimate triumph of truth, and, declin- 
 ing to give to the world any apology or story of his own life, he simply declared, 
 "The day will come when liberty shall be established in the Old World as in the New, 
 and then history will set every man and every fact in its right place." Now that 
 his two countries, each of which long recognized in him its foremost citizen, have 
 become, the one the controlling power in the Western Hemisphere and the other 
 the leader of civilization on the continent of Europe, and both have achieved a com- 
 plete social organization on the basis of orderly freedom, the time has come when 
 the name of Lafayette may be set in its true place. We salute his ashes with infi- 
 nite gratitude for his services to our own land, and we call upon all the citizens of 
 republican France, who are enjoying the freedom for which he struggled and suffered 
 through a long life, to join us in placing a garland upon his grave. 
 
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 
 
 The members of the American delegation gratefully acknowledge the 
 courtesies, attention, kindness, and hospitality, official and unofficial, 
 which they received in Paris. So generous and abundant was this 
 hospitality that it would not be possible to acknowledge it all in detail, 
 Special thanks must be rendered, however, to M. Duflos and M. Robin for 
 their unfailing courtesy and their untiring zeal. We wish, likewise, to 
 render thanks to everyone in the administration of the interior depart- 
 ment who by clerical or personal labors contributed to the convenience 
 of the delegates. To Dr. Guillaume, the general secretary, who was so 
 intimately associated with the late Dr. Wines in the establishment of 
 the series of International Congresses, and who has held the honor- 
 able post of general secretary for so many years, the American dele- 
 gation are indebted for an official and personal interest which never 
 flagged. 
 
 The secretary of the delegation returns thanks to M. Duflos for 
 forwarding documents, and also to the secretaries of the Societe Gener- 
 ale des Prisons, whose admirable summary of the proceedings of the 
 Congress has been of great service in the preparation of this report, 
 especially as the official proceedings of the Congress are not yet 
 available. 
 
 A beautiful souvenir of the Congress is retained by each delegate in 
 the shape of a commemorative medal, bearing on one side what the 
 classical student might regard as a head of Minerva, but which seems 
 to symbolize the fair features of the still youthful French Republic. 
 The reverse presents a view of Paris, with the Palace of Justice and 
 Notre Dame as conspicuous figures. The medal, engraved by Roty, is 
 a beautiful piece of workmanship, and the name of the delegate receiv- 
 ing it is engraved on it.
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 75 
 
 RECOMMENDATIONS BY THE AMERICAN DELEGATES. 
 
 The official delegates of the United States, in closing this report, 
 respectfully submit a few recommendations derived from their studies 
 and experience at home and abroad: 
 
 (1) The general adoption by the different States and municipal police 
 departments of the Bertillou system of identifying criminals as described 
 in the two papers in the second part of this report. In order to secure 
 the largest results a central bureau should be established at Washing- 
 ton under the control of the Department of Justice, and supported by 
 the General Government, to which duplicates of all Bertillou measure- 
 ments should be sent, and where they should be so classified that the 
 identification of an habitual or professional criminal arrested in any 
 State or Territory of the United States may be rendered certain through 
 the information furnished from said bureau. 
 
 (2) The adoption by the different States of the indeterminate sen- 
 tence , and the parole law when combined with a proper reformatory 
 system. 
 
 (3) The centralization of prison administration in each State, so as 
 to secure uniformity and improvement in method. 
 
 One of the most marked tendencies in modern penology is the treat- 
 ment of crime as a general rather than as a local disease. The different 
 penal codes in the different States, with all their confusion and contra- 
 diction, show local estimates of the nature of crime, and the system of 
 treating it has been founded likewise on local ideas. Thus, in most 
 States there are county prisons. These vary greatly in method and 
 administration. The system is expensive and ineffective. Perhaps no 
 better means for the perpetuation of crime could be devised than that 
 of the county jail in which prisoners of all ages and classes are huddled 
 together promiscuously. A few State institutions, thoroughly equipped 
 and organized, can deal with criminals better than twenty or fifty scat- 
 tered throughout the State. In England the local method of treating 
 crime and criminals prevailed for many years, until finally the whole 
 prison system was taken into the control of the National Government. 
 The number of prisons was soon reduced from more than a hundred to 
 fifty-nine, and there was a gradual falling off in the prison population. 
 Centralized systems of administration have been adopted in most con- 
 tinental countries. It is evident that under such a system greater 
 uniformity can be secured. In this country we can not have a central- 
 ized Federal administration of prisons ; but there is no reason why there 
 should not be a central administration in every State. 
 
 We also earnestly recommend that in the erection of the proposed 
 new jails in Indian Territory by the Federal Government, they be 
 planned upon the best English or Belgian models, so as to secure the 
 absolute separation of prisoners awaiting trial. 
 
 (4) We recommend the adoption of a system of probation as now 
 established in Massachusetts and adopted with various modifications
 
 76 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS.. 
 
 in France, Belgium, England, and Australia. We add, however, that 
 the system of investigation and supervision established in Massachu- 
 setts, with probation officers at every criminal court throughout the 
 State, is an important and desirable feature, which ought not to be 
 overlooked in the adoption of this system by other States. 
 
 (5) We believe that the system which now generally prevails in 
 Europe of allowing prisoners a portion of their earnings, either in the 
 shape of a gratuity or as a wage for their labor, may be adopted profit- 
 ably in the United States. Its value has already been demonstrated 
 in Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and possibly in other States. 
 
 (6) Ko prison system can be effective which is not reformatory in its 
 character. As essential elements in a reformatory system, we would 
 name the necessity of prison labor, prison schools for general, manual, 
 and technical education, combined with moral instruction, the indeter- 
 minate sentence, a proper system of grading, and the parole law. 
 
 (7) We urge the organization in the United States of societies of 
 patronage for aiding discharged prisoners and refer to an exposition of 
 European methods in a paper, accompanying this report, prepared by 
 Samuel J. Barrows. 
 
 (8) We recommend that the Department of Justice be authorized 
 and empowered to obtain and publish the annual statistics of accusa- 
 tions, arrests, trials, and convictions for crime in the different States 
 of the American Union, so that the truth maybe known on this sub- 
 ject and the variation in the amount of crime due to varying social 
 conditions may be recorded for comparison in years to come. 
 
 (9) We are glad to see that the General Government, by the estab- 
 lishment of a Federal prison at Fort Leaven worth, has recognized its 
 responsibility for the care and treatment of prisoners convicted of viola- 
 tions of Federal laws, and trust that appropriations will soon be made 
 to carry into effect the law now on the statute book authorizing the 
 erection of three Federal prisons. 
 
 (10) Finally, your delegates would strongly recommend the appoint- 
 ment of a member to represent the United States on the permanent 
 commission of the International Congress. The reasons for this rec- 
 ommendation are set forth fully in the introduction to this report. 
 
 ROELIFF BRINKERHOFF. 
 EGBERT W. MCCLAUGHRY. 
 CHARLTON T. LEWIS. 
 SAMUEL J. BARROWS.
 
 II. 
 
 SPECIAL REPORTS. 
 
 77
 
 BRITISH AND CONTINENTAL PRISONS. 
 
 By Gen. ROELIFF BRINKERHOFF, 
 President of the American Delegation at the International Prison Congress in Paris. 
 
 On my way to Paris to attend the International Prison Congress, and 
 also in returning, I embraced the opportunity to visit charitable and 
 correctional institutions in the British islands and upon the Continent, 
 as far as my time would permit, and it seems proper that I should 
 make some report of observations made and impressions received. 
 
 Of course, in a flying visit of an hour or two at an institution no 
 inspection can be made that would warrant any attempt at a detailed 
 report, but to one familiar with similar institutions in America it is not 
 difficult to arrive at satisfactory conclusions as to comparative merits 
 and results. 
 
 In Europe penal institutions are not open to the general public as 
 they are in America, and to visit them permits must be secured through 
 departments of justice or other central authority, and I am not sure 
 but in this requirement they are nearer right than we are. However, 
 through the courtesy of our American ministers and consuls applica- 
 tions were made in advance and permits secured, so that there were no 
 detentions anywhere, and officials everywhere gave me prompt and 
 courteous attention, and every opportunity was offered for inspection 
 and information. 
 
 I was accompanied by my colleague from Ohio, Mr. Philip W. Ayres, 
 of Cincinnati, and as he could speak both French and German he was 
 of great service upon the Continent as interpreter. 
 
 We landed at Queeustown June 7, and spent three weeks in Ireland, 
 Scotland, and east England, before going to Paris, and then on our 
 return, in August, we spent two weeks in south and west England. 
 
 BRITISH PENAL INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 Prior to 1877 all prisons in the British islands were under the control 
 of the county authorities and some were good and some were bad, and 
 there was no general system of management; but in 1877 by act of 
 Parliament, known as the prisons act, all the prison establishments in 
 the three kingdoms, and their contents, except goods manufactured for 
 
 79
 
 80 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 sale and materials provided for that purpose, were transferred to the 
 General Government, in the home secretary. 
 
 In rearranging the distribution of prisoners, power was given to the 
 secretary to set apart certain prisons for particular classes of prisoners, 
 and it was provided that if, in pursuance of such classification, a pris- 
 oner was moved out of the jurisdiction he belonged to, he should, on 
 discharge, be sent back thither at the public expense. As the closing 
 of a prison, which any authority had provided for its prisoners, ren- 
 dered necessary the assignment of some other prison for that purpose, 
 the secretary of state was empowered to substitute such other prison 
 accordingly; and further, a general power was given to the secretary 
 of state to permit prisoners to be committed to a prison in an adjoining 
 county. 
 
 The prison acts of 1877 abolished the "visiting justices," who had 
 prior to that time controlled the prisons in the several counties and 
 transferred the powers and duties of those bodies to a prison commis- 
 sion in each of the three kingdoms, to be appointed by the home secre- 
 tary, and these commissions have the appointment and control of the 
 officers and the administration of all prisons in regard to discipline, 
 buildings, contracts, and expenditures of all kinds, subject, however, 
 to rules and regulations prescribed by the home secretary. These rules 
 are the same in all prisons of similar grades in the three kingdoms, 
 and the results are that the only differences in prisons are such as 
 arise from differences in construction and equipment or efficiency of 
 administration. 
 
 This rigorous uniformity doubtless gives a higher average efficiency, 
 but it cuts off all initiative on the part of prison officers, and it is a 
 serious question whether this procrustean uniformity is not a hindrance 
 to progress in many directions. Upon the whole, the system works 
 well, but it would seem desirable that prison governors should have 
 some latitude for the expression of their own individuality. 
 
 VISITING COMMITTEES. 
 
 As a partial check, however, upon the evils of centralization, the act 
 of 1877 created for each county what is known as a visiting committee 
 of justices, appointed by the court of general sessions from the magis- 
 trates of the county, whose functions are to hear and examine into 
 reports against prisoners in local prisons and to award punishments 
 for them; to report on any abuses within the prison which may come 
 to their knowledge, and to hear any complaints the prisoners may make. 
 
 The number of local prisons taken over by the Government was too 
 large to admit of frequent visitation by the commissioners, and there- 
 fore they are assisted by inspectors who pay monthly visits of inspec- 
 tion and hear prisoners' complaints, but do not try them for prison 
 offenses. The latter function is filled by the visiting committee of local 
 justices.
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 81 
 
 Corporal punishment is allowed to a limited extent in British prisons, 
 but can only be inflicted upon the order of the committee of visiting 
 justices, after a fair hearing of the case on both sides. 
 
 Under this system of supervision and inspection, it would seem that 
 abuses to any large extent can not exist without detection. 
 
 GRADES OF PRISONS. 
 
 For prisoners convicted of felony there are two grades of prisons. 
 Those for high crimes, or under sentence of penal servitude, as it is 
 termed, are called convict prisons, and the others are known as local 
 prisons. All prisoners sentenced for more than two years are for penal 
 servitude. 
 
 In England there are six convict prisons, but this number is to be 
 reduced to five. In these prisons the prisoners are worked in associa- 
 tion upon the public works, under the Auburn system. Prisoners of 
 this grade, however, are kept in a local prison for nine mouths after 
 their conviction, under the separate system, in solitary confinement. 
 This period, however, can be shortened by good behavior. 
 
 Local prisons, which prior to 1877 were county jails, are now occupied 
 by prisoners not sentenced to penal servitude, which includes prisoners 
 awaiting trial, and misdemeanants. To this there is no objection on 
 account of corrupting associations, as each prisoner, with limited 
 exceptions, is separated from every other prisoner and works in his 
 cell. The cells are much larger than in American jails. Twice a day 
 prisoners are permitted to exercise in the open air in places prepared 
 for that purpose under supervision of an officer. 
 
 In London, however, all prisoners awaiting trial are confined in 
 Hollaway Prison under the separate system. 
 
 Every prison has a governor, or officer acting as such, a chaplain, a 
 doctor, clerks and storekeepers, a matron and warders of various grades, 
 all of whom come in under civil service rules, and no changes are made 
 except for misconduct or inefficiency. In the larger prisons there are, 
 in addition to the employees named above, a Roman Catholic priest, 
 a schoolmaster, a druggist, a hospital nurse, and an artisan warder to 
 look after the buildings. 
 
 Under this centralized system of management, all prisons of the 
 same grade are uniform in their administration, and when you have 
 seen one you have practically seen all. 
 
 In connection with each prison there is a discharged prisoners' aid 
 association, which is of great value in securing work for prisoners and 
 giving them a new start in life. These societies are voluntary and are 
 not controlled by the Government, but they work in harmonious co- 
 operation with prison officials, and their funds are supplemental by 
 the Government grants. There are probably 100 of these societies in 
 the British islands. The number reported for England is 67. 
 S. Doc. 181 6
 
 82 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 JUVENILE REFORMATORIES. 
 
 Juveuile reformatories are not under the control of the British com- 
 missions, but are mainly private institutions under Government subsidy 
 and inspection. They are known as certified reformatories and certi- 
 fied industrial schools, and there are about 200 of them in the British 
 Islands. 
 
 These institutions, so far as I saw them, did not, on an average, com- 
 pare favorably with similar institutions in America. British prisons, 
 however, as a whole, are in advance of ours, although there are individ- 
 ual prisons in America that are equal to any in the world, but they are 
 rare exceptions. 
 
 IRISH PRISONS. 
 
 The first prison we visited in Ireland was a local prison at Cork, 
 known as the Cork Male Prison, and we were afforded every facility 
 for inspection by the governor, who accompanied us. We found the 
 prison admirably managed in all of its departments and a model of 
 cleanliness. There were 188 prisoners, some of whom were awaiting 
 trial, and a few were military prisoners. The average number for the 
 year is about 200. The cells were 8 by 15 feet in size. 
 
 The next prison visited was Mount Joy, in Dublin, June 8. This is 
 both a convict and local prison, where 325 prisoners were under sen- 
 tence for penal servitude and 232 for short sentences or awaiting trial. 
 We were accompanied by one of the prison commissioners for Ireland 
 and by the governor of the prison. The cells were 7 by 13, and 9 feet 
 high. We also visited the convict prison for women near by, with 217 
 inmates. We spent three or four hours in going through them. The 
 administration of these prisons, including the Cork local prison, is far 
 superior to any we have iii Ohio, and there are but few in America that 
 equal them, and I have no doubt this superiority of management 
 extends to all Irish prisons, for they are all under the control of the 
 prison commission and the same rules and regulations are applicable 
 to all of them. At Mount Joy Prison the report of the governor for 
 the year ending March 31, 1895, indicates the employment of convicts as 
 "tailoring, shoemaking, smithing, etc.," for the prison service generally; 
 baking bread for all the Dublin prisons; cutting firewood, making mats, 
 matting, etc., chiefly for other public departments; making wire net- 
 work, cleaning, gardening, etc., for the service of the prison; erecting 
 new buildings and keeping existing buildings, fences, etc., in proper 
 repair. 
 
 The governor reports the convicts in general as well-behaved and 
 amenable, with but few punishments, none of which were corporal. 
 One of the commendable features of Mount Joy are the houses for 
 married warders outside of the prison wall. 
 
 The prison commissioners, three in number, impressed ine as very
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 83 
 
 superior men, and prison officers and prison employees are especially 
 trained to their work, and their terms of office are during good behavior, 
 and upon retirement receive a pension. 
 
 JUVENILE REFORMATORIES. 
 
 At Belfast, June 10, we visited in the morning the Malone Protestant 
 Institution for boys, which seems rather an asylum for homeless boys 
 than a reformatory. There were 76 boys who were sent there by mag- 
 istrates. There are 36 acres of ground and the boys seemed fairly well 
 cared for, but the institution did not compare favorably with similar 
 institutions in America. In the afternoon we visited the training ship 
 Grampian, Commander A. J. O'Rourke, a retired naval officer. This is 
 one of quite a number of training ships in the British Islands and the 
 first of its kind I had ever seen, and I was greatly interested and 
 pleased. The ship was an old, discarded three-decker man-of-war, but 
 in good repair and condition for occupancy for the training of boys to 
 be sailors. The average number of boys was 240 and the per capita 
 cost of maintenance per annum about $80, a part of which is paid by 
 the Government and part by the municipality. In addition to the 
 ordinary requirements of a seaman, the boys were taught tailoring, 
 shoemaking, and carpentering. 
 
 The regular school curriculum seemed very thorough, under compe- 
 tent teachers, and the whole administration of the ship seemed efficient 
 in all departments. Commander O'Rourke and his wife reside upon 
 the ship, and the daily life of the ship is that of one large family. In 
 the matter of preventive and reformatory work, I saw nothing abroad 
 more worthy of imitation in America than the training ship for boys in 
 the British Islands. 
 
 BELFAST UNION WORKHOUSE. 
 
 A workhouse in the British Islands is not a place for the punishment 
 of misdemeanants as in America, but is a place for the care of the 
 dependent poor. 
 
 The Belfast workhouse is a large institution with a population rang- 
 ing from 3,000 to 4,000, according to the season. There are four depart- 
 ments, numbering the day we were there, lunatics, 500; children, 220; 
 sick in hospital, 1,467; aged and infirm, 900. The amount of ground is 
 only 32 acres, which is not sufficient, and the four departments ought 
 to be separate institutions, but still the administration seemed very 
 efficient, and the inmates are probably as well cared for as they can be 
 under the circumstances. 
 
 One feature was especially praiseworthy, and that was that every 
 inmate, not physically incapacitated, should be engaged every day in 
 some productive employment. 
 
 The whole system of caring for the poor in the British Islands, and 
 especially in the manner of administering outdoor relief by coutribu-
 
 84 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 tions in money, did not impress me favorably. We have the same gen- 
 eral system in America, with some improvements, but America and 
 Great Britain are both far behind most continental nations in dealing 
 with the poor. At Glasgow, in Scotland, we visited a similar institu- 
 tion, known as the Baruhill Poorhouse, but its average population was 
 only 1,060, and therefore was less crowded, and its administration 
 seemed very efficient. In the employment of inmates it was especially 
 noteworthy, and everyone not physically incapacitated was utilized in 
 some way. The amount of laud belonging to the institution is 30 acres, 
 which is about the same as at Belfast. 
 
 The inmates in both of these institutions are employed mainly in the 
 usual routine of household requirements and in making bunches of 
 kindlings for sale to outside customers. 
 
 SCOTCH PRISONS. 
 
 Scotch prisons, like those in Ireland and England, are under the 
 uniform regulations prescribed by the home secretary in London, and, 
 judging from what we saw, are practically the same in their results. 
 
 In Glasgow we visited a prison with 166 cells for male prisoners 
 awaiting trial, and admirably arranged and administered so as to 
 insure absolute separation; also Her Majesty's prison for females, with 
 240 inmates, under the separate system, and managed entirely by 
 women. 
 
 In the male prison the size of cells is 7 by 10 feet, and in the female 
 prison 8 by 10 feet. Both are local prisons. At Perth we found a 
 prison with 600 cells and only 200 prisoners. It is a convict prison, but 
 most of this class are now taken to Peterhead, which is the main con- 
 vict prison for Scotland. Vacant cells, however, is a notable feature in 
 most prisons in the British Islands, and verified the statistics which 
 indicate a steady decrease of crime in recent years. 
 
 In Edinburg we visited Her Majesty's prison known as the Galton 
 Jail, with 254 male prisoners and 80 females. All work in cells under the 
 separate system. The industries are mat making, repairing sacks, and 
 oakum and rope picking. Architecturally and constructively this is 
 the best prison we saw. The cells are 8 by 13 feet in size. 
 
 ENGLISH PRISONS. 
 
 In England there are 57 local prisons and 6 convict prisons. All of 
 the latter are south of London, and of these we visited but four, one 
 north, one central, and two south. 
 
 At New Castle on Tyne we found an old structure with something 
 over 100 prisoners (one third of whom were females), and apparently 
 well administered. The industries for males are stone breaking, ship- 
 fender making, gun sponge making, oakum picking, and prison repairs ; 
 for females, washing, knitting, and repairing.
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 85 
 
 PENTONVILLE PRISON. 
 
 Pentonville Prison in London was opened in 1842, and in construction 
 was modeled after the Eastern Pennsylvania Penitentiary, and all Brit- 
 ish prisons since built are more or less imitations of Pentonville.. Here 
 we found about 1,000 prisoners. Here, for the first time, we found a 
 tread wheel in operation, furnishing power for grinding flour for prison 
 use. On it 280 men can be employed if necessary. The rule is fifteen 
 minutes on and five off for five hours a day. It is a barbarous form of 
 labor and is being supplemented by regular industries in most British 
 prisons. Other industries at Pentonville are: mail-bag and coal-sack 
 making for the Government, baking bread for the prison, and at Hallo- 
 way (where all prisoners in London awaiting trial are held), oakum 
 picking, shoemaking, tailoring, blacksmithing and joiner's work, and 
 sack and brush making. The cells at Pentonville are 8 by 15 feet, with 
 680 cubic feet of air 5 hospital cells, 1.000 cubic feet. 
 
 PARKHURST. 
 
 Parkhurst prison on the Isle of Wight is the one to which prisoners 
 under sentence to penal servitude are sent, who, through any physical 
 weakness or infirmity, are not considered strong enough for labor upon 
 the public works. 
 
 The average number of prisoners is about 600, and are all high-grade 
 criminals sentenced for more than three years. Here, as in all of the 
 six prisons of this class, the prisoners work in association under the 
 Auburn system of associated labor by day and cellular separation at 
 night, and taking it as a whole I do not know of any prison of that 
 system in the world which is more efficiently administered. 
 
 All prisoners convicted of their first offense are known as the " star 
 class" and wear a star, and are kept entirely separate from the o fliers 
 who are recidivists and wear a chevron on their clothing indicating the 
 number of previous convictions. These two classes have separate wards 
 and a separate hospital. 
 
 The prisoners are employed in a great variety of industries. Some 
 work upon the farm, some at the various trades, as masons, sawyers, 
 carpenters, smiths, painters, etc., and a still larger number in manufac- 
 turing industries, as tailors, knitters, shoemakers, harness makers, mail- 
 bag makers, fender makers, pickers, net making, etc. The prison report 
 of the previous year shows as work done for the Admiralty 7,500 seamed 
 bags, 4,132 fenders, 1,254 sailors' caps for Greenwich school, and 816 
 nets. Here also is a fully equipped printing establishment operated by 
 120 prisoners, in which printing is done for all the prisons of England. 
 
 Prison punishments are mainly deprivation of privileges and solitary 
 cell with bread and water diet. Formerly a dark cell was used, but this 
 has been abandoned for the reason, as Colonel Partridge, the governor,
 
 86 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 affirmed, that a lighter cell was equally efficient and more humane. 
 Corporal punishments are only allowed in cases of assaults upon officers, 
 and then only upon the order of an inspector of the prison commission 
 of London. Opportunity is afforded every day to each prisoner to meet 
 the governor if he so desires for complaint or consultation. 
 
 JUVENILE REFORMATORIES. 
 
 Among the philanthropists who succeeded Howard in the work of 
 prison reform, one of the most active and useful was Mary Carpenter, 
 of Bristol. In the reformation of delinquent and neglected children 
 she was especially efficient, and besides advocating their cause in her 
 writings she founded several reformatories, one of which, the Red 
 Lodge Reformatory, for girls, at Bristol, she both endowed and super- 
 intended. Red Lodge was established in 1854, and is still in active 
 operation as a licensed reformatory. Here we found 48 girls commit- 
 ted by magistrates, and the Government allows for their support from 
 5 to 7 shillings a week. These girls are sent for definite terms, but 
 not less than three years. After three years they can be placed out, 
 with three years' supervision, and may be returned if they go wrong. 
 They are visited every month by the matron or her assistant. Formerly 
 an agent was employed, but it was found that visitations from the 
 Lodge were more efficient. At the Lodge the girls go to school, and are 
 taught all kinds of household work. They also do laundry work for 
 outside customers, and make all the clothing for the boys of the indus- 
 trial school. During the three years the girls are under supervision 
 after being placed out; one-half of their earnings is kept and deposited 
 to their credit in the savings bank, and is paid to them after super- 
 vision ceases. The institution is supervised four times a year by a 
 Government inspector. 
 
 INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL FOR BOYS. 
 
 The industrial school for boys at Bristol was established by Mary 
 ' Carpenter in 1856, and is known as the Park Row Male School. Here 
 we found 74 boys who are committed by magistrates as vagrants, 
 truants, or incorrigibles. For their keeping 7 shillings a week is paid 
 by the Government until they are 10 years old, when the amount is 
 reduced. 
 
 The boys do housework, gardening, shoemaking, and tailoring out of 
 school hours. They may be kept until 16 years old, but after eighteen 
 mouths a boy may be placed out on parole, with supervision for three 
 years. The general methods of management and supervision are the 
 same as in the girls' school, and the results seem very satisfactory, as 
 90 per cent of the boys discharged are reported as doing well. This 
 institution has an agent in Canada who gets places for boys, and the 
 institution pays their fare.
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 87 
 
 KINGSWOOD REFORMATORY SCHOOL. 
 
 We also visited another institution, 4 miles from Bristol, known as 
 the Kingswood Reformatory, located where John Wesley lived and 
 preached, and where he had a theological seminary and training school 
 for preachers. The little chapel where Wesley preached is now used by 
 the reformatory people for morning and evening prayers. The quaint 
 old pulpit remains as Wesley left it. Here we found 107 boys, com- 
 mitted by magistrates for minor offenses, between the ages of 10 and 16, 
 who may be held until 19. They are taught industrial employments and 
 go to school three hours a day. The equipment of the institution was 
 not what it ought to be, but improvements were in progress, and the 
 administration seemed intelligent and efficient. 
 
 HARDWICKE REFORMATORY. 
 
 The Hardwicke Reformatory, 4 miles east of the city of Gloucester, 
 is especially interesting as being the first reformatory for boys in Eng- 
 land, and was established by T. Barwick Lloyd Baker, esq., on his 
 estate at Hardwicke Court in 1851, and was supported at his own 
 expense. He was assisted by a friend who acted as a voluntary super- 
 intendent, and they started with 3 young thieves from London. Their 
 success was phenomenal, so that by 1855 there was scarcely a regular 
 habitualboy thief in the courts of Gloucestershire, and from the inspi- 
 ration of this success the reformatory system went all over the British 
 islands. Mary Carpenter followed with her reformatory for girls, first 
 ill Gloucester and then in Bristol. Hardwicke has 40 inmates and has 
 a capacity for double that number. It has 60 acres of ground well cul- 
 tivated. There are flower gardens and greenhouses, and the boys are 
 instructed in horticulture and general farming. Tailoring and carpen- 
 tering are also taught. Thomas Gee, the superintendent, has been in 
 charge for forty years, and during that time has had charge of over 1,000 
 boys, 94 per cent of whom are reported as reformed. It is still doing 
 good work, although, on account of location and other reasons, it is 
 likely to be abandoned. However, it has had a famous history and 
 has done a noble work. 
 
 GLOUCESTER JAIL. 
 
 We visited the Gloucester Jail, which like other local jails is con- 
 ducted wholly on the separate system. One part of it was built in 1791, 
 in accordance with the suggestions of John Howard, and is said to have 
 been the model of the Cherry Hill Penitentiary at Philadelphia, which 
 gave name to the separate system all over the world as the Pennsyl- 
 vania system. This is not improbable, as William Penn and many other 
 Quaker settlers in Pennsylvania were from southwestern England. 
 The separate system, however, really originated in Ghent, Belgium, 
 where Howard found it.
 
 88 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 ASHFORD REFORMATORY. 
 
 At Ashford, in the county of Kent, we visited a reformatory for boys, 
 located on 80 acres of land, which resembled in its curriculum our ordi- 
 nary juvenile reformatories in America, although its equipment was 
 much plainer. The buildings are as inexpensive as any ordinary farm- 
 house, and furniture and chairs are bare boards, and in the dormitories 
 there is no heat in the coldest weather. 
 
 These features predominate in all European reformatories, and the 
 reasons given are, that the boys when placed out will be in homes where 
 accommodations will be no better, and to accustom them to luxuries in 
 the reformatories would make them dissatisfied with the homes to 
 which they go outside. 
 
 At Ashford they go to school five and one-half hours a day. The 
 trades taught are carpentering, tailoring, blacksmithing, and farming. 
 They also have military drill and athletics. It is a question whether 
 there is not too much work and too little play. Upon graduation they 
 go for the most part into the army as soldiers. 
 
 KING'S NORTON UNION. 
 
 King's Norton Union Cottage Homes, of Birmingham, was estab- 
 lished in 1887 for the purpose of separating children in the workhouse 
 from adult paupers and the influences attaching thereto, and is a pre- 
 ventive rather than a reformatory institution. 
 
 The plan adopted was the family system, which has grown from two 
 cottages in 1887 to eight in 1895; and others will be added as needed. 
 The cottages are models in architecture and arrangement, and are 
 superior to any others I saw in Europe. Each cottage accommodates 
 a family of twenty children in charge of a foster father and mother. 
 The children are not grouped according to size or sex, but are arranged 
 so as to make a large family, similar to a large family outside. Some 
 of the children are large and some are small, some are boys and 
 some are girls. Each household is conducted like any outside house- 
 hold entirely independent and cares for itself in all family arrange- 
 ments. The older children look after the younger, and all do their 
 share of the household work, under the direction of the foster father 
 and mother. The schools are conducted the same as in any outside 
 village, and each household sends its quota. The hospital, however, is 
 a separate building, where the children are cared for in case of sick- 
 ness. There are workshops for industrial training, in which trades 
 are taught in shoemaking, tailoring, carpentering, engineering, fitting, 
 gardening, and bricklaying. There is a swimming pool, where all 
 the children are taught to swim. They are also thoroughly drilled in 
 athletics, I was told there are now several institutions in England 
 conducted on this plan, and its special features are worthy of imitation 
 in America,, The average number of children in the homes during the 
 year was 154.
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 89 
 
 TRAINING SHIP AKBAR. 
 
 At Liverpool we visited the reformatory training ship Akltar, which, 
 like the Grampion at Belfast, is an old-fashioned three masted ship of 
 war, with a retired navy officer, Captain Hicks, for its chief officer. 
 There were 187 boys, from 14 to 16 years of age, committed by magis- 
 trates. They may be held till 19. They are in charge of the super- 
 intendent, 1 officer, 2 teachers, a chaplain, 7 trainers in the duties of 
 a sailor, and a cook. 
 
 There are six grades in the schools, the same as in the public schools. 
 The boys are taught all matters pertaining to the life of a sailor, of which 
 tailoring and carpentering are a part. The reformatory association have 
 land on shore for football and other games, and daily a section of the 
 boys goes ashore. There is also a brass band made up from the boys. 
 In the hold of the ship is a gymnasium, and on the upper deck a read- 
 ing room and piano. The chaplain gives regular religious instruction 
 and holds services on Sunday. ^Nothing I saw in the British Islands 
 impressed me more favorably as worthy of imitation in America than 
 the training ships. 
 
 RECAPITULATION. 
 
 Of course it is not possible for a transient American to comprehend 
 the British system for dealing with the criminal classes in all its details, 
 and therefore some of my inferences and conclusions are doubtless 
 incorrect; but still, its general outlines can be stated with reasonable 
 accuracy, and therefore I recapitulate its leading features: 
 
 (1) Centralization of administration , which is centered in the home 
 secretary in London, and conducted through a prison commission in 
 each of the three kingdoms. 
 
 (2) The classification of all prisons into two grades : 
 
 (a) Local prisons in which are confined all prisoners convicted of 
 felonies or misdemeanors and sentenced for less than two years. This 
 does away with jails and workhouses as we know them in America, but 
 to this there is no large objection so long as each prisoner is kept 
 entirely separate from every other prisoner. A perfect example of an 
 English local prison can be seen in America at Media, Pa., and it is the 
 best administered jail I have seen in America. I am told that there is 
 another at Chester, and possibly there are two or three others in that 
 State. 
 
 By placing local prisonsunder one administration, and thus permitting 
 the concentration of prisoners, many local prisons have been abandoned 
 and only the best have been retained. The result is better accommo- 
 dations and more intelligent treatment in administration. 
 
 (6) Convict prisons, to which all prisoners convicted of felony and sen- 
 tenced for more than two years are confined. Of these prisons there 
 are six (or seven, if we include the lunatic asylum for insane criminals 
 at Broadmoor). They are Dartmoor, Portland, Borstal, Dover, Woking,
 
 90 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 and Aylesbury. In these prisons all prisoners are worked in asso- 
 ciation under the Auburn system, with cellular separation at night. 
 
 (3) Classification of prisoners sentenced to penal servitude. Every 
 convict may, during his sentence, pass through four classes, called the 
 probation, the third, the second, and the first class, and certain selected 
 prisoners are also placed, during the last year of their sentences, in a 
 special class. The probation period must last for one year; nine 
 months of it are passed in a separate cell, usually in a local prison, and 
 the other three months on public works. Promotion or degradation in 
 these several classes is regulated by a marking system, and by good 
 conduct a sentence can be shortened one-fourth, and a conditional 
 release can be secured upon a ticket of leave. 
 
 (4) Supervision by inspectors and visiting committees. Every prison 
 is inspected monthly by a visiting committee of justices appointed by 
 the court of quarter sessions, and also by an inspector appointed by the 
 prison commission. 
 
 (5) Punishments more severe than a deprivation of privileges can 
 only be inflicted in local prisons by order of the committee of visiting 
 justices, and in convict prisons by a prison inspector. 
 
 (6) All prison officers are appointed through civil-service examina- 
 tions, and there are no removals except for causes not political. 
 
 (7) The methods of employment in British prisons are threefold. 
 
 (a) In convict prisons labor upon the public works, and in the manu- 
 facture of anything that may be required for use in the army or navy 
 or other Government departments. At Dover an immense granite pier 
 half a mile long has been built by prison labor. At Portland a break- 
 water 2 miles long and running into the water 50 or 60 feet is being 
 built; at Chatham dockyards, covering 540 acres, and also immense sea 
 walls. For the army and navy boots, shoes, clothing, and many other 
 things are made, and for the postal department mail bags, etc., and in 
 this way all convict prisoners are kept busy. 
 
 (b) In local prisons the employments are less satisfactory, as prison- 
 ers for the most part work in their cells, and their labor is not remu- 
 nerative; but as a whole some occupation is furnished. 
 
 (c) In some prisons the treadmill, the shot drill, the crank, the cap- 
 stan, and stone breaking are still in use, but they are punitive rather 
 than remunerative or instructive. 
 
 (8) Supervision of discharged prisoners, by prisoners' aid associations, 
 and there is at least one such association for each prison. These asso- 
 ciations are voluntary, but when approved by the inspector their funds 
 are supplemented by the Government, and their purpose is to lend a 
 helping hand to such prisoners as need help and desire to lead an honest 
 life. 
 
 (9) As a deterrent upon recidivists or habitual criminals the courts 
 are allowed, upon a second or later conviction, to pass sentence not 
 only for a definite period, but also for seven years' police supervision
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 91 
 
 after discharge, with a liability for misconduct to be returned to prison 
 for the remainder of the seven years. 
 
 (10) Juvenile delinquents are treated under a dual system. 
 
 () In a reformatory, which is a place of punishment for a convicted 
 offender, as well as a place of training, and reception into a reforma- 
 tory must be preceded by a period in a local prison of not less than 
 ten days. 
 
 (b) In an industrial school, which is purely a preventive and training 
 institution for vagrants and neglected children, from which the conviction 
 for certain crimes will exclude the child. 
 
 Reformatory and industrial schools are not provided by the State, nor 
 is there any obligation on any local authority to provide them or con- 
 tribute to them, or on any court of justice to send children to them, or on 
 managers of such schools to receive the children whom the magistrates 
 commit, but such aid is permissive and permitted to all satisfactory 
 institutions. 
 
 A reformatory or industrial school may be established in two ways: 
 (1) By private individuals, either as a proprietary institution or as a 
 charitable institution. (2) In England, by the magistrates at quarter 
 session in counties and boroughs, and in Scotland by a county board. 
 A school board may also establish an industrial school, and the county 
 or borough authorities may aid. The total number of these institu- 
 tions is now about two hundred, one-third of which are reformatories 
 and two-thirds industrial schools. 
 
 This, in brief, is the framework of the British penal system. Of 
 course there are other features peculiar to it, but they are mainly matters 
 of detail. 
 
 RESULTS. 
 
 The results of the British system upon the whole has been more sat- 
 isfactory than that of any other country, if we are to judge by its 
 efficiency in reducing crime. 
 
 Judging by the criminal statistics for the twenty years during which 
 the system has been in operation, the reduction is from a daily average 
 of 20,301 in local prisons in 1876 to 13,383 in 1893. This, however, is 
 mors apparent than real, and can be largely accounted for in various 
 ways; but still the most conservative authorities seem to agree that 
 there has been a reduction in crime of about 25 per cent, without count- 
 ing the increase of population, and this is very satisfactory, and 
 especially in view of the fact that in all other countries there has been 
 a steady increase of crime and no reduction. 
 
 To an American the British system seems more repressive than re- 
 formative, and my own opinion is that if our American system could be 
 administered with equal efficiency we could obtain equal, if not better, 
 results. Certainly our juvenile reformatories, as a whole, are superior 
 to those in the British Islands, and our reformatories for young felons
 
 92 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 on the Ehnira system show better results than any equal number of 
 British prisons. 
 
 What we want in America, and that we must have if we are to make 
 any large progress in prison management, is a more thorough business 
 management, which can only be obtained by officials especially trained 
 for their work, in a service as permanent as that of the Army or ifavy, 
 and as free from political interference. 
 
 OUR SPECIAL WEAKNESS. 
 
 Compared with the English system, our greatest deficiency is in our 
 county jails, and no efficiency in administration can remedy it to any 
 large extent so long as wejieep our prisoners awaiting trial in associa- 
 tion in a common hall, with all the corrupting influences that such 
 association permits. 
 
 Our county jails, with old and young, innocent and guilty, old offend- 
 ers with new beginners, forced into association for days and weeks aud 
 often months, are compulsory schools of crime, and so long as they 
 remain there can be no large reduction in the rising tide of crime. Our 
 jail system, it is true, came from England, but it is the system of a hun- 
 dred years ago, which John Howard revolutionized. In England every 
 prisoner, from the time he enters the prison van at the police station 
 until his conviction and transfer to a convict prison, is entirely sepa- 
 rated from every other prisoner, and sees no one but the prison officials 
 and his legal adviser. 
 
 Our first and paramount duty is to revolutionize our county jails. 
 We might as well attempt to drain a pestilential pool with an inlet 
 larger than the outlet as to expect a reduction of crime under existing 
 conditions. 
 
 PROPOSED IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 During the past year there has been a very protracted aud thorough 
 investigation of the British prison system by a Parliamentary committee 
 of eight members, of which Herbert Gladstone was chairman, and their 
 report recommends for twenty-five changes which they deem desirable. 
 A few of the most important are as follows: 
 
 (1) That unproductive labor should be abolished wherever possible, 
 which means treadmills, shot drills, oakum picking, and the like. 
 
 (2) Association for productive and technical instruction to be extended 
 gradually and with due caution throughout the prisons. This is in 
 accord with our American ideas of prison labor. 
 
 (3) Every effort should be made to secure additional orders for work 
 from Government departments. In American prisons but little of 
 this kind of work is done, and there is no apparent reasons why all 
 our prisons, State and national, should not be utilized in that way. It 
 is a form of labor to which labor unions in Great Britain do not object, 
 for the reason that it does not cause competition in outside markets.
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 93 
 
 (4) Habitual criminals to be kept as a class apart from the other pris- 
 oners. It should be considered whether a new form of sentence might 
 not with advantage be placed at the disposal of the judges, by which 
 these prisoners should be segregated under special conditions for long 
 periods of detention. This has already been authorized in the State 
 of Ohio and several other American States, although not sufficiently 
 enforced. 
 
 (5) That two or more prisons should be selected as training schools for 
 all ranks of the prison staff, and be placed under the charge of the most 
 experienced officers in the service, and that probationers should not be 
 returned as belonging to the prison staff. This is in accordance with 
 the practice in France, where a regular school is established at La 
 Sante Prison, in Paris, for the instruction of prison officers from the 
 various prisons of the Republic, and such schools are greatly to be 
 desired in America. 
 
 (6) That the Government grant to prisoners' aid societies should be 
 increased and extended to associations conducted on approved methods 
 for the treating of discharged prisoners. The success of the British 
 system in reducing crime is very largely due to these associations, and 
 one of our greatest needs in America is an efficient prisoners' aid asso- 
 ciation for at least every convict prison, and there ought to be one in 
 every large city for local prisons. 
 
 (7) That annual conferences should be held of representatives from 
 the higher ranks of prison officials, managers of reformatories, visiting 
 committees, and prisoners' aid associations, for the purpose of ex- 
 changing experiences and ideas, and of establishing closer relations 
 between all officials and public bodies responsible for the management 
 of prisons and the treatment of prisoners. 
 
 This is fully in accord with the practice in America where for twenty- 
 five years the National Prison Congress has held annual sessions for 
 the purposes named above. 
 
 It ought to be the duty of the managers of every penal and reforma- 
 tory institution to be represented by one or more delegates, and their 
 expenses should be paid from the funds of the institution. 
 
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 
 
 For British courtesies I desire to acknowledge very gratefully the 
 prompt and helpful attentions given us by prison governors, who, every- 
 where in the British islands, accompanied us in person in prison inspec- 
 tions and answered patiently all inquiries we cared to make. 
 
 Our thanks are also due to prison commissioners, and especially to 
 their chairman, Mr. J. S. Gibbons, in Dublin; Mr. A. Beatson Bell, in 
 Edinburgh, and Mr. E. Ruggles Brise in London, all of whom we again 
 had the pleasure of meeting in Paris. Also, to Mr. Roosevelt, our 
 American secretary of legation in London, and our American consuls
 
 94 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 \vlu-ieverweweut, for courtesies received. In fact, all over Europe 
 our American consuls were equally kind and helpful, and prison officials 
 everywhere gave us every attention that could be desired. 
 
 UPON THE CONTINENT. 
 
 Upon the Continent we visited a number of prisons and reformatories, 
 but owing to my inability to ask questions, except through an inter- 
 preter, or to read the prison literature of the countries visited, I was 
 at a great disadvantage in seeking to comprehend their systems satis- 
 factorily. Therefore my report is restricted mainly to what I saw with 
 my own eyes in the prisons visited. 
 
 PRISONS OF FRANCE. 
 
 In France I visited only four prisons and a reformatory, and those 
 were in Paris and vicinity, and I presume were not among the best. 
 
 MELUN. 
 
 The first prison we visited was on the 3d of July, at Melun, 20 miles 
 from the Lyons station, in company with other delegates, on a special 
 train supplied by the Government. Here we found about 500 prisoners 
 who are under the Auburn system of associated labor by day and 
 cellular separation at night. The cells are 6 by 8 feet, and seemed 
 clean and well ventilated, but there is no heat supplied for warming 
 them. One hundred and seventy-five prisoners are employed upon 
 Government printing, and the others upon various industries, and the 
 prison seemed well administered. 
 
 NARTERRE. 
 
 On July 6 there was an excursion to St. Germain, and on our way, 
 13 miles out, we stopped to visit Narterre, which is a large prison for 
 misdemeanants, with 4,500 inmates, employed upon various industries 
 with associated labor. The prison seemed fairly well administered, 
 but with such a large number of prisoners in association no satisfac- 
 tory results in the way of reformation could be expected. 
 
 LE ROQUETTE. 
 
 La Grand Roquette is a depot for sentenced prisoners awaiting re- 
 moval to a central prison or penal colony, or to execution for a capital 
 crime. Here, also, we found 360 misdemeanants, sentenced for less than 
 one year, employed in association in making rat and bird traps and 
 paper bags and files. In the way of reformatory influences, either 
 educational, moral, or religious, there were none apparent. There is a 
 chapel, but the governor informed me that ordinarily not more than 
 ialf a dozen attended.
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 95 
 
 At this prison is the place of execution for Paris prisoners condemned 
 to death. The executioner for all France is M. Deibler, who takes his 
 machine with him wherever needed. We were shown the cells where 
 prisoners are held for execution. In each cell are three chairs one for 
 the prisoner and two for the guards. The executions are public in an 
 open space fronting upon a street, and take place at daylight in the 
 morning. In a courtyard we were shown the place where Archbishop 
 Durboy and five other hostages were shot to death by the Communists 
 in 1870. 
 
 THE CONCIERGERIE. 
 
 The Conciergerie is a prison where prisoners awaiting trial are held. 
 It is centuries old, and is a bad place, with scarcely any redeeming 
 qualities. Here Marie Antoinette was imprisoned and went to the 
 guillotine, and here tragedies without number have been enacted, and 
 we were glad to get out of it. 
 
 MONTESSAN. 
 
 On our excursion to St. Germain, we returned by steamer on the 
 river Seine and stopped over to inspect the Montessan Eeformatory 
 buildings, which are nearly ready for occupancy, and will accommodate 
 400 boys. The institution will be conducted upon the family system, 
 and the cottages and other structures were all new and seemed very 
 well planned and arranged. It was noticeable, however, that there 
 was no church or chapel, and it was claimed that it was not needed. 
 
 BERTILLON SYSTEM. 
 
 The Bertillon system for the identification of criminals, which is now 
 in use in most European countries, had its origin and most efficient 
 administration in Paris, and we were glad to avail ourselves of an invi- 
 tation from Mr. Bertillon to visit the bureau of the police department? 
 where measurements are taken and where the records for all France are 
 kept. There are many thousands of these records, but they are so clas- 
 sified and arranged that whenever an arrest is made and measurements 
 taken it can be determined in a few moments whether the prisoner has 
 ever before been under arrest or conviction. 
 
 While we were there a prisoner newly arrested was brought in for 
 identification, and when his measurements were taken and turned over 
 to the attendants in charge of the bureau, it was scarcely ten minutes 
 before his photograph was brought, with a full account of a previous 
 criminal record. 
 
 As an efficient agent for the repression of crime, the Bertillou system 
 is of the highest value, and it ought to be in operation all over the 
 United States, with a central bureau at Washington under the support 
 and direction of the General Government.
 
 96 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 SCHOOL FOR WARDERS. 
 
 A commendable feature in the French prison system is the school for 
 warders, at La Sante prison in Paris. Here 48 chief warders from the 
 provincial prisons come annually, in two parties of 24 each, staying for 
 six months, during which time they receive instruction by lectures and 
 classes in various branches of knowledge pertaining to their work. 
 They also are taught the practical application of the Bertillon method 
 of criminal identification. 
 
 PRISONS OF SWITZERLAND. 
 
 In Switzerland, as in the United States, there is no Federal control 
 of prisons, and each of its twenty-two cantons has its own prisons, and, 
 doubtless, as with us, some are good and some are bad. Of these, we 
 visited three prisons and one reformatory. 
 
 The reformatory was near the city of Bern, and was very similar in 
 construction and management to the reformatory at Ashford, England. 
 Everything was very plain, but the 60 boys seemed well cared for, and 
 the results reported were very satisfactory. 
 
 LENZBOURG. 
 
 The prison at Lenzbourg, in the Canton of Aargau, is said to be the 
 best in Switzerland. It was built in 1864, and is a well-planned radiate 
 structure, with three tiers of cells and a chapel. The cells are 8 by 9 
 feet and are warmed by steam. Here we found 176 prisoners, 43 of 
 whom were women; 89 were felons, 44 misdemeanants; 17 were await- 
 ing trial, and 26 were reformatory boys. A few of these prisoners were 
 from other cantons. All prisoners, except recidivists, after three months 
 in solitary confinement, are worked in association under the Auburn 
 system in silence, with cellular separation at night. 
 
 Recidivists are under the separate system during the entire term of 
 imprisonment. Short-term prisoners, not recidivists, work in shops at 
 the rear of their cells, and each cell block constitutes a class by itself. 
 In the north cell block on the first floor is cloth making; the second 
 floor, shoemakiug; third floor, shoemakiug; fourth floor, schoolroom. 
 In the west cell block the first floor, blacksmithing; second, carpenter- 
 ing; third, cabinetwork; fourth, bookbinding. The south cell block is 
 occupied by female prisoners. All industries are upon State account, 
 and all prisoners are fully occupied. In the Canton of Aargau there is 
 no death penalty, and murderers are sentenced for life. 
 
 In this canton, with a population of 200,000, there are eleven districts 
 with a local lockup in each, where prisoners awaiting trial are for the 
 most part confined. The prison seemed well administered in all depart- 
 ments, and its director, as the prison governor is called, is an accom- 
 plished offical, and the prison staff are especially trained for their work, 
 and there are no political changes in any Swiss prison. Attendance 
 upon chapel services is not compulsory, but as a rule all go.
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 97 
 
 ST. GALL. 
 
 At St. Gall, in the canton of the same name, we found 144 prisoners, 
 comprising felons, misdemeanants, and vagrants. All sentenced for 
 a year or more are kept under the separate system. For less than a 
 year they work in association. None are less than 16 years of age. 
 The director is appointed by the Government for three years, but is 
 now serving his third term. He nominates all subordinates. Pris- 
 oners can reduce their sentence by good conduct, and for such conduct 
 receive 5 cents a day in addition to their good time. 
 
 Recidivists are not entitled to good time. Attendance upon chapel 
 service is compulsory unless a prisoner has no religion, and so far there 
 are none such. Three-fifths are Roman Catholics and two-fifths Protes- 
 tants. The prison is inspected by five inspectors, who receive 5 francs 
 ($1) a day for that service. Work is on State account, under a business 
 manager. 
 
 BASEL. 
 
 At Basel we found a prison similar in most respects to St. Gall, with 
 198 prisoners 172 men and 26 women and the total number for the 
 year, 520. As at Leuzbourg, all prisoners are in solitary confinement 
 for the first three months on piecework, and then work in associa- 
 tion. The industries are shoemaking, brush making, tailoring, wicker- 
 work, etc. 
 
 GERMAN PRISONS. 
 
 Iii Germany, as in Switzerland and the United States, there is no 
 central authority for the control of prisons, and each province has its 
 own regulations; but doubtless, as in America, they have a family 
 resemblance to each other. The best of these prisons are said to be in 
 Baden and Rhenish Prussia, where we visited several of them. 
 
 In Baden, as far as I could understand, there are four kinds of 
 prisons, viz, district prisons, fortresses, houses of correction, and central 
 prisons. The punishment in the first two is simply detention or depri- 
 vation of liberty, the district, prison being for persons under exami- 
 nation and awaiting trial, or those sentenced to less than six weeks' 
 imprisonment. Sentences above that term are endured in the central 
 prison, which corresponds to the convict prisons in England, and the 
 district prisons to British local prisons. 
 
 In each province, however, all prisons are controlled by its own central 
 authority, or department of justice. 
 
 FREIBURG. 
 
 July 23 we visited the central or general prison at Freiburg, in Baden. 
 
 Here we found 396 prisoners, all men, serving sentences from one to 
 
 twenty years. There were also a few prisoners awaiting trial. About 
 
 100 prisoners are worked in association and the remainder in separate 
 
 S. Doc. 181 7
 
 98 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 cells. All would be separate except for want of cell room. All prison- 
 ers are at work in various industries, and their earnings pay about one- 
 half of the running expenses of the prison. Prisoners are allowed a 
 part of their earnings as an incentive to good conduct, which is given 
 to them when they go out, or a prisoner may give one-half to his family 
 during his imprisonment. If the prison authorities doubt his reforma- 
 tion, his earnings, on release, are given to the prisoners' aid association, 
 to be disbursed in his behalf as they may deem best. A recidivist only 
 gets one-fifth as much as other prisoners, and upon a second conviction 
 he gets nothing, In the prison dietary short-term men get meat once 
 in three days and soup three times a day, and coffee three mornings in 
 a week; the physician can order a special diet. All industries are upon 
 State account, under the direction of a business manager. 
 
 All prisoners under the separate system work in their cells and at 
 chapel service they are so seated, in separate boxes, that they only see 
 the officers and officiating clergyman on the platform, and in the schools 
 also the same arrangement is maintained. 
 
 When out of their cells each prisoner wears a mask. All prisoners 
 under 35 years of age go to school, in which there are six grades, or 
 classes, and each class has three hours of instruction in a week under 
 two regular teachers. Order is maintained by a military guard of nine 
 soldiers, in three relays on the outer wall, and twelve civilian guards 
 inside, of whom five are on duty at night, and the others sleep in cells 
 which are about 10 by 12 feet in size and make comfortable bed rooms. 
 Each prisoner has exercise for half an hour night and morning in the 
 open air in airing courts, so arranged as not to see any other prisoner, 
 but all are under the eye of a guard at a central point of observation. 
 There are no corporal punishments and discipline is maintained by the 
 deprivation of privileges. 
 
 The prison officers are appointed by the Grand Duke of Baden through 
 the department of justice at Carlsruhe and all employees come in through 
 strict civil-service rules and six months' probation, and service then 
 becomes permanent during good behavior. The present director has 
 been in charge for twelve years and is a very superior prison man. His 
 salary is $1,500 a year. The prison is regularly visited and supervised 
 by an inspector from the department of justice. 
 
 One noticeable feature in this prison, which was new to me, is the 
 conference of prison officers, which is held in the director's room every 
 third day. This conference is composed of the director, doctor, two 
 chaplains, two teachers, and the bookkeeper, and by it all prison mat- 
 ters are carefully considered and discussed, and the director then 
 determines what action shall be taken. We found similar conferences 
 in other German and Belgian prisons, and they were considered of the 
 highest value. Attached to the prison are 35 acres of ground upon 
 which are dwelling houses that are furnished rent free to the officers. 
 Prisoners under the separate system are visited daily by some of the
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 99 
 
 prison officials, and work for the day is assigned them. The chaplains 
 must visit each prisoner in his cell at least once a mouth. There is 
 also a bell call that he can use at any time in case of need. Upon the 
 whole, the Freiburg prison is one of the best administered prisons that 
 I saw in Europe. 
 
 BRUSCHAL PRISON. 
 
 July 24 we visited Bruschal male convict prison. It has 400 prison- 
 ers, and was built in 1848. Only high-grade criminals are confined 
 here, and no sentences are for less than one year. In Baden the death 
 penalty may be inflicted for murder by the guillotine, but it is usually 
 commuted to a life sentence; only three have been executed in the 
 province of Baden in three years. 
 
 At Bruschal the separate system prevails, but after th~ee years 
 prisoners may be worked in association. The regulations of the prison 
 are mainly the same as at Freiburg, although there are some variations, 
 e. g., prisoners have two hours a week in school instead of three. One 
 prisoner in each corridor works outside, without a mask, in cleaning 
 halls, carrying water, etc. Every prisoner without a trade is taught 
 one by the labor overseer. The trades are carpentering, shoemaking, 
 tailoring, coopering, basket making, rope making, and lock making. 
 The official staff is the same as at Freiburg, and they have a confer- 
 ence twice a week, at which each officer makes a report, and discussion 
 follows. The condition and progress of every prisoner is carefully con- 
 sidered. The overseer in each ward visits each cell several times a day 
 to see the work of prisoners. The guard also sees the prisoners often 
 and the teacher goes in when necessary. The chaplains visit twice a 
 month, and the general director of work quite often. The prison gov- 
 ernor sees every man in his cell once a month. 
 
 The Grand Duke of Baden has the power to pardon and the depart- 
 ment of justice may parole. Prisoners' aid associations care for prison- 
 ers after discharge. In the German Empire there is a prison association 
 for general conference, which meets every two years and is similar in 
 its objects to our National Prison Association in America, which meets 
 annually. 
 
 At Bruschal religious services are held in the chapel every day and 
 attendance is compulsory, except for special reasons approved by the 
 prison conference. 
 
 BRUSCHAL DISTRICT PRISON. 
 
 At Bruschal district prison there are both males and females, of 
 whom there are four classes: (1) Criminal recidivists; (2) young crimi- 
 nals; (3) insane criminals (temporarily); (4) workhouse for women. 
 
 Men convicted four times come here. They work part separate and 
 part in association. Young prisoners from 12 to 18 years of age come 
 here, both boys and girls. Also, women criminals for long and short 
 terms. All young criminals go to school six or eight hours a week. In
 
 100 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 addition, two hours a week is given for wood carving, two for indus- 
 trial training, and two for special trade schools. A boy at 18 is trans- 
 ferred to the convict prison at Bruschal or Freiburg. A girl at 18 goes 
 to the women's department. The prisoners here do the washing for 
 the male convict prison and also for the general prisons at Freiburg, 
 Mannheim, and Eastadt. They also do baking for a number of private 
 institutions, for which they are paid. The number of prisoners at the 
 time of our visit was 395, as follows : 
 
 Criminal recidivists 104 
 
 Young criminals 56 
 
 Criminal insane. 18 
 
 Adult women criminals 65 
 
 Workhouse women 134 
 
 Girls between 12 and 18. .. 18 
 
 Total 395 
 
 MANNHEIM DISTRICT PRISON. 
 
 July 25 we visited the district prison at Mannheim, with 186 prison- 
 ers, all males under sentence from one month to three years, partly sepa- 
 rate and partly in association. As a rule, the worst cases are alone. 
 The prison was originally a nunnery, but was changed to a prison in 
 1700. The industries of the prison are stripping tobacco, making paper 
 bags, tailoring, carpentering, and making locks. Prisoners under 36 
 years of age are taught reading, writing, and arithmetic by teachers 
 from the public schools, in two classes, each seven hours a week. One 
 hour a week in drawing is also given. 
 
 Two chaplains hold religious services twice a week and give their 
 entire time to the visitation of prisoners, and must see every prisoner 
 at least twice a mouth. 
 
 The director is appointed by the Grand Duke and nominates all sub- 
 ordinates, and these after three years' service, and found satisfactory, 
 receive a permanent appointment, with pension upon retirement. The 
 director was a judge of one of the courts and has been in service four 
 years, and expects to return to the bench with the experience gained 
 as a prison governor. The earnings of the prison are about 60 per cent 
 of the running expenses. 
 
 MANNHEIM JAIL. 
 
 We also visited the Mannheim jail, with 39 prisoners awaiting trial, 
 and 53 women, a part of whom were awaiting trial, and the remainder 
 under sentence for short terms. Prisoners awaiting trial are furnished 
 work if they wish it. 
 
 ROYAL PRUSSIAN PRISON. 
 
 July 26 we visited the Royal Prussian Prison, near Frankfort on the 
 Main, with about 500 prisoners. It is a new radiate structure and well 
 planned and well built. This is one of the three general convict pris- 
 ons in Rhenish Prussia. The other two are at Cologne and Dussel-
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 101 
 
 dorf. They are under the control of the department of justice at 
 Berlin. They resemble the prisons of Baden, but with some variations. 
 No prisoners here are under sentence for more than ten years. Prison- 
 ers over one year can reduce sentence 25 per cent by good conduct, 
 and receive one-third of their earnings. Prisoners work in their cells 
 under the separate sytern, except a few for special work in association. 
 The industries are numerous, among which are: Shoemaking, 11; mak- 
 ing corsets, 71; knitting on machine, 71; tailoring, 18; paper sacks, 30; 
 carpenters, 21; weaving, 10; brushes, 13; pulling hair, 22. 
 
 There is school room for 40, with four divisions. Each class has one 
 hour each day. There is one teacher, with the chaplains to assist. 
 The Protestant chaplain gives six hours a week and the Catholic four. 
 Church services on Sunday and Bible class on Monday, and with attend- 
 ance compulsory. Every evening there are singing exercises. Chap- 
 lains also visit prisoners in their cells. Prisons in Rhenish Prussia are 
 under the control of the department of justice in Berlin. 
 
 COLOGNE. 
 
 At the Royal Convict Prison in Cologne we found 1,268 prisoners 
 1,034 men and 234 women. The women were in a separate building. 
 With few exceptions the prisoners work in association and sleep in 
 association dormitories contain from 15 to 20 beds. As a rule the 
 sentences are for less than five years. The discipline and management 
 was much inferior to the prisons elsewhere in Germany, and upon the 
 whole was more unsatisfactory than any others we saw in Europe. 
 
 BRAUWEILER WORKHOUSE. 
 
 At Brauweiler Workhouse, 4 miles from Cologne, we found 1,100 
 prisoners 900 men and 200 women. They are largely vagrants, tramps, 
 and chronic drunkards. Drunkards are not considered chronics until 
 the third or fourth offense. They are put to work at various industries, 
 and the institution falls short of self-support only about 20 per cent. 
 No prisoner is sent for less than six months, and may be retained two 
 years, in the discretion of the director. They have religious service 
 every day, and night schools. They have a conference of officers at 
 least once a week and sometimes often er. The buildings originally 
 constituted a monastery and are ornamental and substantial. The 
 religious services are held in the fine old chapel, and the cloisters are 
 used for dining room and kitchen. This institution is a model of its 
 kind and superior to any of our American workhouses in its system and 
 administration. 
 
 DEPENDENT CHILDREN. 
 
 In dealing with dependent children the province of Rhenish Prussia 
 has a system peculiar to itself. The province has an officer, with sub- 
 ordinates, who divide the province into districts, and they look after 
 all dependent children as wards of the State. The boarding-out sys- 
 tem is their main reliance, although for temporary shelter and prepara-
 
 102 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 tion institutions for the care of children are provided, but it is only 
 temporary, and they are then boarded out. Until 14 years of age they 
 go to school. After 14 they are expected to learn a trade, and are 
 placed out under supervision of some person, which is usually the 
 local school-teacher. 
 
 FALLEN WOMEN. 
 
 Near Cologne is an institution for the reclamation of fallen women, 
 under the charge of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. Here we 
 found 240 girls over 14 years of age, the most of whom had gone 
 astray. They are kept until they become of age, or until they can go 
 safely to a good place. They are taught various industries, and to all 
 appearances are successfully handled, and two-thirds of the graduates 
 are reported to have done well, and many of them are married and 
 have good homes. The institution is admirably managed and is self- 
 supporting. In fact, taking it all in all, in its various departments, I 
 have never seen any other institution so complete in all its appoint- 
 ments and so scrupulously clean. The sisters are dedicated to their 
 work for life, and receive no pay. Whatever property they had went 
 into the general fund of the institution when they joined it. The spirit 
 of Christian charity and kindness pervades the whole atmosphere of 
 the institution, and the business ability displayed in the management 
 is superb. There were 70 sisters at the institution, but some of them 
 were in training for branch institutions elsewhere. 
 
 DUSSELDORF. 
 
 July 31 we visited the Provincial Prison at Dusseldorf, in which we 
 found 489 male prisoners. It is a new, well-planned radiate prison with 
 488 cells for males and 80 for women, and only occupied about a year. 
 The prisoners were mostly young men, and none sent for more than 15 
 years. The prison staff consists of the director, three instructors, two 
 chaplains, a teacher, bookkeeper, cashier, and secretary. These officials 
 hold a conference at least twice a week, at which all prison matters are 
 considered and discussed, and the director then decides. The council 
 also recommends pardons for such as are considered worthy. In every 
 room there is hung upon the wall a numbered list of all articles, whether 
 large or small, that belong to that room, for which the person in charge 
 of the section to which the room belongs is responsible, and is held to 
 a strict accountability. The general regulations are similar to those of 
 Baden and Frankfort, and the entire administration seemed excellent. 
 In this prison the separate system prevails, and prisoners work in their 
 cells. 
 
 PRISONS OF HOLLAND. 
 
 The people of the Netherlands, in prison reforms, as in many other 
 things, were pioneers, and their penal and correctional institutions are 
 very creditable. There are four classes of prisons: (1) The central 
 prison for persons sentenced to eighteen mouths and upward; (2) 
 detention prisons for less than eighteen months; (3) prisons of arrest
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 103 
 
 for those sentenced to three months or less; (4) police prisons for those 
 condemned to one month or under. In the last three named are also 
 kept prisoners awaiting trial. All persons, except those for short terms, 
 are, if possible, taught a trade. All prisons are cellular. 
 
 ARNHEIM PRISON. 
 
 The first prison visited was at Arnheim, in the province of Gelder 
 land, and its plan of construction and arrangement is different from 
 any other I have ever seen. It is built in a circle, and the tiers of cells 
 are around a central court covered with glass. The cells are 9 by 13 
 feet. There were 216 prisoners, 10 of whom were women, and there 
 were no sentences over five years. The separate system prevails, and 
 all prisoners work in their cells, and the industries are upon state 
 account. An account is kept with each prisoner and a portion of his 
 earnings is allowed him. The entire administration was very commend 
 able, and in cleanliness and sanitary arrangement it is unsurpassed. 
 
 THE NETHERLANDS METTRAY. 
 
 At Zutphen, 16 miles east of Arnheim, we visited a reformatory for 
 boys known as the Netherlands Mettray, which is supported by volun- 
 tary contributions. There were 130 boys, committed by parents or 
 magistrates, who came from all parts of the Netherlands. They are 
 kept until 18 years of age, and after 14 learn a trade. There were four 
 caretakers, two teachers, and the director. In Holland and Belgium 
 the hours of labor are longer than elsewhere, and this rule extends to 
 the reformatory. After 14 years of age the hours of work are : From 
 8 to 12 a. in., four hours; from 1 to 4.30 p. m., three and one-half hours ; 
 from 5 to 8 p. m., three hours. Making a total of ten and one-half hours, 
 which to an American seems excessive and almost cruel, but it was in 
 accordance with the customs of the country, and the boys seemed 
 happy under it, and certainly they became accustomed to continuous 
 labor. In the winter the hours are shortened to nine and one-half 
 hours, closing at 7 p. m. 
 
 AMSTERDAM PRISON. 
 
 At Amsterdam, in the suburbs, we visited a prison with about 200 
 prisoners, 29 of whom were women. No sentences to exceed five years. 
 This prison is supervised by eleven commissioners, called the college of 
 regents, who serve without pay. The director is appointed by the 
 Crown, and he nominates his subordinates. In Holland prisons there 
 is no conference of officers, as in Germany. The prison regulations and 
 management are practically the same as at Arnheim. 
 
 ALKMAR REFORMATORY. 
 
 At Alkmar, 40 miles north of Amsterdam, we visited what is known 
 as an administrative reformatory for boys. This is a State institution 
 with 101 boys committed by magistrates for crime or vagrancy, or
 
 104 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 because of worthless parents. The place is inclosed by a wall, and 
 what we saw of it did not compare favorably with similar institutions 
 we saw elsewhere. For the first and only time in all Europe, we were 
 refused admission to the interior departments, for the reason, alleged 
 by the director, that our permit from the department of justice did not 
 name reformatories in so many words, and only specified prisons and 
 workhouses. Evidently the greater included the less, but the director 
 was inexorable. However, we saw enough to satisfy ourselves that our 
 exclusion was no great loss. The boys were outside in the yard, under 
 military drill, without uniform or arms, and we could see in passing the 
 shops that the ordinary trades of such institutions were taught. 
 
 THE HAGUE. 
 
 We also visited an old prison at The Hague, which is no longer of 
 much use except as a curiosity. A small part is retained in use as a 
 station house. The remainder is only kept as an object lesson of the 
 horrors of prison cruelties in previous centuries. Here all of the old 
 instruments of torture are on exhibition, and we realize more fully how 
 great is the progress that has been made during the present century, 
 and can thank God and take courage for the century to come. 
 
 ROTTERDAM. 
 
 At Rotterdam we visited a modern radiate and cellular prison with 
 260 prisoners under sentences not exceding five years. All are under 
 the Pennsylvania, or separate system, and each prisoner works in his 
 cell. The industries are various, but are mainly tailoring, cabinetmak- 
 ing, carpentering, weaving, and mat making. There are no corporal 
 punishments, and no conference of officers, as in Germany, but each 
 officer reports to the director every morning. The prison seemed well 
 administered in all departments. 
 
 PRISONS OF BELGIUM. 
 
 Belgium is the only country in the world in which the Pennsylvania 
 system of absolute separation of prisoners of all grades and terms of 
 sentence is in operation, except long-term prisoners after ten years' 
 service. At the end of that period a prisoner may claim to go into 
 association, and they are then removed to Ghent, where they work and 
 eat in company, but have separate sleeping cells. In all prisons except 
 Ghent the prisoner never leaves his cell save for chapel or exercise; at 
 the former he is in a separate box or compartment, the latter he takes 
 alone in a narrow yard. His life, however, is not one of absolute soli- 
 tude. He is visited frequently by his warders and schoolmasters and 
 trade instructors; chaplain, governor, and doctor also break the monot- 
 ony of his life. According to the Belgium view of the case, he lives in 
 association with the prison staff, not with his fellow-criminals. 
 
 That there are advantages in this system is evident, and penologists 
 generally, the world over, concede that absolute separation should be
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 105 
 
 the rule for prisoners awaiting trial, and largely for short-term pris- 
 oners under definite sentences; but beyond that there are so many dis- 
 advantages and objections that in America the system has been entirely 
 abandoned, except at the Eastern Penitentiary of Pennsylvania, and it 
 is not likely to be extended except for the classes of prisoners herein- 
 before mentioned, and for whom it is greatly to be desired. 
 
 The Belgium prisons in their entirety are the best administered in 
 the world, and worthy of imitation in many directions. 
 
 PRISON AT LOUVAIN. 
 
 The prison at Louvain is for high criminals, with no sentences less 
 than five years. It is radiate in form, with 600 cells and an average of 
 about 500 prisoners. Separation is the most complete of any seen 
 anywhere. The rules require the chaplains, of which there are two, to 
 visit 50 prisoners every day, and the director 20; but they do not find 
 it practicable to do so continuously. The prisoners, however, are 
 visited every day by directors of work and other officers. There is a 
 conference of officers every morning to hear reports and arrange for 
 the duties of the day. Long-term prisoners, after ten years, are allowed 
 to go to Ghent if they so desire, but it is claimed that hardly one in a 
 hundred so chooses. Cells are 8 by 13 in size, and are heated by hot 
 water. There are three tiers of cells above the basement, and three 
 grades of prisoners. Those of the first grade receive one-half of their 
 earnings, those of the second grade four-tenths, and those of the third 
 grade three-tenths. The industries of the prison are various, and 
 every prisoner who has no trade is carefully taught one in a regular 
 apprenticeship. All illiterate prisoners are taught reading, writing, 
 arithmetic, elementary notions of grammar, history, and geography, 
 and the elements of geometry and linear drawing. Libraries are found 
 in all prisons, containing not only works of a religious and instructive 
 nature, but also romances, poetry, and other entertaining books, all of 
 which, however, are of a moral and improving type. The exercises of 
 worship and religious instruction are organized with great care, and 
 the religious sentiment is regarded as the most important element in 
 penitentiary education. 
 
 The organization of the prison staff is very complete. The employees 
 begin, so to speak, on the lowest round of the ladder, and step by step 
 they may reach the position of director; and no one is considered fit 
 to be a director except through long training and experience. In per- 
 fection of administration there is no prison in the world superior to 
 that at Louvain. 
 
 BRUSSELS PRISON. 
 
 In the prison at Brussels we found 530 prisoners, all males, with sen- 
 tences varying from six months to five years. The prison is radiate, 
 and is similar in construction and administration to Lou vain. Here 
 there are three chaplains (Catholic priests) and two teachers, who give
 
 106 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 their entire time to the work. The prison is visited and inspected 
 monthly by a board appointed by the director of prisons of the depart- 
 ment of justice. They serve without pay and are eight in number. Com- 
 mittees of prisoners' aid associations also visit the prison. No corporal 
 punishments are permitted in Belgium, and there are no capital pun- 
 ishments. For twenty-five years all sentences to death have been com- 
 muted to imprisonment for life, and that is now the established rule. 
 
 GrHENT PRISON. 
 
 The Ghent prison for more than a century has been the model of 
 the world in construction and administration. This was the first 
 prison, and about the only one, that John Howard could fully com- 
 mend. The prison was clearly the model of the prison at Philadelphia. 
 
 Here we found about 1,200 prisoners. The prison is divided into 
 eight sections : A is for administration ; B, for prisoners with sentences 
 from one to three months; C, three to six mouths; D, life prisoners; 
 E, hospital and administration; F, boys from 16 to 18; G, boys from 18 
 to 21; H, for prisoners for whom there was no room at Louvain. 
 
 Each division is kept entirely separate from the other divisions. 
 There are three tiers of cells and a basement. The upper and lower 
 tiers are used for workshops, chapel, dining rooms, etc., with a separate 
 dining room for each section. However, there is but one kitchen for all 
 the sections. With the exception of section H, all prisoners are under 
 the Auburn system of associated labor by day and cellular separation 
 by night, and in its administration it has no superior. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 From this review of European prisons, my conclusions are that what- 
 ever superiority they have, and in which we would do well to imitate 
 them, is, namely: 
 
 (1) In the separation of prisoners awaiting trial. 
 
 (2) In the greater efficiency of administration by trained experts and 
 a continuous service. 
 
 (3) In the post-penitentiary treatment of prisoners through prison- 
 ers' aid societies. 
 
 In some directions America is clearly in advance of Europe: 
 
 (1) Our Elmira system of progressive classification under the inde- 
 terminate sentence. 
 
 (2) In our system of juvenile reformatories. 
 
 (3) In the Massachusetts system of probation under suspended sen- 
 tences. 
 
 So, when we come to balance accounts, Europe has about as much to 
 learn from America as America has from Europe, so that there is no 
 occasion for boasting on either side, but every reason to exchange expe- 
 riences and compare methods and endeavor in all directions to make 
 progress in the future.
 
 THE BERTILtON SYSTEM. 
 
 By Maj. R. W. MCCLAUGHRY. 
 
 In 1881, when the question of deportation of habitual criminals 
 agitated the minds of the French people and was discussed in the 
 National Assembly, M. Alphonse Bertillon first presented to the public 
 of Paris a method of describing persons and identifying individuals 
 vastly superior to all the old methods, with their vague indications of a 
 person's height, the color of his hair and eyes, his complexion, the size 
 or form of his nose, chin, forehead, etc. 
 
 To show the defects of the old methods M. Bertillon stated, from 
 personal measurements and observations made in Paris with over 
 10,000 subjects, that among a hundred persons of same height thus 
 observed 87 had what is commonly called " brown" hair, 10 had blonde 
 hair, 2.7 had black hair, and 0.3 (3 in every 1,000) had red hair. 
 
 A person with "brown" hair has, therefore, no distinction from nine- 
 tenths of the total population. In other words, in nine out of ten times 
 a description of the color of the hair would be useless, or nearly so. 
 The color of the hair, therefore, has a characteristic descriptive power 
 only with the blonde, black, and red headed. One might as well, in a 
 lesser proportion, require a man's description to state whether he was a 
 hunchback or not. An individual ranged in the category of nonhunch- 
 backs would have this characteristic common with 9,999 out of every 
 10,000 persons. Still more difficult is description considered in connec- 
 tion with the terms " long, large, medium, small," etc., which, in ordinary 
 descriptions, means to convey an idea of the appearance of the nose, 
 forehead, mouth, etc. One sees hardly anything else but "medium;" 
 and what appears small to one person to-day may to-morrow be described 
 as large by another. 
 
 Similar difficulties appear in the description of the color of the eye, 
 one-third of the subjects observed of even height having hazel eyes, 
 one-fourth what is commonly styled gray, one-seventh blue, and one- 
 fourth of indistinct color. 
 
 The same with the height. Nearly one-third of all measured, range, 
 within the small limit, between 1.65 meters to 1.70 meters; one-third 
 from the dwarf to 1.65 meters, and one-third from 1.70 meters to the 
 
 giant. 
 
 107
 
 108 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 These are the principal features of the old-style descriptions. 
 
 Photographs, while valuable in verifying the identity of an individual, 
 are altogether impotent to help you discover this identity, if you have 
 no other means but your eyes to search for the picture among the thou- 
 sands in an ordinary collection. 
 
 All these difficulties are obviated by the new Bertillon method of 
 identification, which consists of the measurement and subsequent 
 classification and subdivision of such parts of the human body as do 
 not change in size after a person has attained his full growth such as 
 the length and width of the head, the length of the middle and little 
 fingers, the length of the foot, forearm, etc., the height of the figure, 
 the measurement of the outstretched arms, and the trunk of a person 
 seated, etc. A man individualized by measurements of this character 
 is mathematically identified. This system proceeds upon the known 
 basis that it is practically impossible to find two persons showing 
 exactly the same authropometric indications in every particular just 
 mentioned ; consequently accurate measurement of each individual will 
 invariable lead to his identification and separation from all others. 
 
 But in order that this identification maybe of use in discovering the 
 habitual criminal, a system of classification is required by which such 
 a result may be reached without great expenditure of time and trouble 
 in searching. 
 
 Suppose we have a collection of 60,000 descriptions of men, and 
 divide them into three equal groups, according to the measurement of 
 the length of the head those with small length, 20,000; those with 
 medium length, 20,000; those with large length, 20,000. 
 
 To make these groups approximately equal it is evidently necessary 
 that the series of medium length of head should be of less extent than 
 those of large or small length, and should contain, for instance, only 
 the individuals measuring from 19 to 19.4 centimeters (metric system), 
 while that of large length should contain all the individuals measuring 
 19.5 and more, and that of the small length all those measuring less 
 than 19 centimeters. 
 
 The same rule is applicable to the classification of all measurements, 
 as nature itself commends and treads the " golden mean " in preference 
 to the abnormally small or large. Each one of these original divis- 
 ions is then subdivided, on the same principle, without regard to the 
 length of the head of the individual, into three groups, according to the 
 width of the head. These new subdivisions, numbering 3 x 3=9, would 
 then contain those with heads of small width, 6,000 descriptions and 
 over; of medium width, 6,000 descriptions and over; of large width, 
 6,000 descriptions and over. 
 
 Experience proves that the width of the head of most people varies 
 independently of the length. In other words, if the head of an indi- 
 vidual measures a certain length it does not necessarily follow that its 
 width can, even approximately, be determined thereby.
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 109 
 
 The length of the middle finger will give a third indication, dividing 
 the 9 groups we already have into 3 groups each, making 27 groups in 
 all, with the following result: Those with small middle finger, 2,000 
 descriptions; with medium middle finger, 2,000 descriptions ; with large 
 middle finger, 2,000 descriptions. 
 
 Another subdivision by the measurement of the foot (in three classes 
 small, medium, and large) will reduce the 27 groups of 2,000 into 81 
 of over GOO each. Each will again be subdivided into still smaller 
 groups by taking the forearm as basis of subdivision. Another sub- 
 division is effected by the measurement of the height, another by the 
 little finger, the ear, etc. A division of the length of the forearm would 
 give a quotient of 200, reduced by a division of the height to 66, again 
 reduced by the little finger to 22, by the ear to 7, and so on. The 
 meaning of all this is that by the means of 8 coefficient anthorpometric 
 measurements, each divided into 3 mathematically defined classes of 
 small, medium, and large, a collection of as many as 60,000 descrip- 
 tions could" be divided into groups of no more than 7 or 8 descriptions 
 each, which it would be an easy matter to examine rapidly and care- 
 fully, and with the desired results. 
 
 Suppose, again, that a criminal is arrested under an assumed name, 
 and we wish to ascertain whether he has been measured and photo- 
 grr.phed before. We take an exact measurement of the length of his 
 head and will know at once in which of the main divisions we can find 
 his name. The width of his head will lead us more specifically to the 
 place his description can be found. The length of his middle finger, of 
 his foot, forearm, height, little finger, ear, etc., will enable us to arrive 
 at the exact place where his photograph and description have been 
 filed if at all. 
 
 If a measurement coincides exactly with the figures on the limit of a 
 division, the search has also to be made in the next lower or higher 
 adjoining division. 
 
 Experience has demonstrated that the different parts of the human 
 body are not by any means in constant congruity, one with each other. 
 One person is of small stature, but has a large head and large feet; 
 another has small feet and short fingers, but is of tall stature. The 
 variations in individuals are so great, and the precision of the measure- 
 ments so minute and perfect, that among a hundred thousand subjects 
 there are hardly ten who will show even approximate figures on every 
 indication. But even these few can, by the description, according to 
 the Bertillou method, of the eye and the nose, and the form and loca- 
 tion of accidental scars and marks, be individualized, almost beyond 
 a possible doubt or confusion. 
 
 If I know how to spell a word, "bread," for instance, and wish to find 
 it and its definition in the dictionary, I look first for the letter B, elimi- 
 nating the 25 other letters of the alphabet; then I find E as a subdivi- 
 sion to B, then E as a subdivision to BE, then A and D in a similar way,
 
 110 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 until I find that very word in the only place in the dictionary where, if 
 correctly spelled, it can properly be filed. Similar analyses and elimi- 
 nation are made in searching for a description in an anthropometrical 
 file, with results almost equally favorable. 
 
 The volume containing M. Bertillon's instructions for taking anthro- 
 pometric descriptions will bear convincing testimony to the thorough 
 and thoughtful manner in which he has treated his subject. Of neces- 
 sity he enters minutely into the details of execution, but demonstrates 
 that the practice of it is very simple, expeditious, and easily learned; 
 that it is an operation, the performance of which is within the range of 
 the intelligence of an ordinary person and requires but a few minutes 
 of time. 
 
 The history of the practical application of the Bertillon method of 
 identification runs back, even in France, but a few years. Inaugurated 
 by the prefecture of police in Paris at the end of 1882, 49 individuals 
 were, by this method exclusively, recognized as habitual criminals in 
 1883, after all other means of identification had failed; 241 were by 
 the same means identified in 1884, more than 500 in 1885, and a pro- 
 portionally increasing number for each year since. 
 
 The intrinsic value of the system, recognized and proven by such 
 results, so strongly recommended itself to M. Herbette, councilor of 
 state and director- general of the penitentiary administration in France 
 (a branch of the department of the interior), that he lent M. Bertillon 
 his powerful assistance in getting the system officially recognized and 
 extended throughout France, where, in police as well as penitentiary 
 circles, it is now universally adopted and successfully practiced. 
 
 The public press in various parts of the country has from time to 
 time favorably commented on the system as practiced in the United 
 States. Professors of colleges and universities have looked into its 
 workings and pronounced it a success. Officers of the army are seri- 
 ously considering it with a view of advocating its adoption for the 
 identification of deserters; and departments of police all over the 
 United States are beginning to appreciate its merits, and to assist in 
 its general adoption. The Bertillon system is in a fair way of becom- 
 ing a fixture of permanent and universal usefulness in the United States 
 and Canada. 
 
 Words need not be wasted in demonstrating the utility of the Bertil- 
 lon system in the identification of criminals and in the separation of 
 the habitual or professional from the occasional or first offender, or in 
 pointing out the facilities in recording descriptions it offers to police 
 officials, the wardens of prisons and penitentiaries, and the superin- 
 tendents of reformatories. 
 
 The objection has been raised that such an accurate and minute 
 description of a man as the Bertillon method affords would do great 
 injury to the first or occasional offender by placing him in the same 
 category and in the same files with hardened and professional criini-
 
 FIFTH INTEENATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. Ill 
 
 nals. This is a fallacious and misleading argument. On the contrary, 
 the Bertillon method gives more protection to that class of unfortunates 
 than any other mode hitherto practiced in describing a person. The 
 description of an individual, according to the Bertillon method, is buried 
 and hidden in the classified files, never again to be resurrected or exam- 
 ined, unless called forth by a duplicate description taken from the 
 identical person and occasioned by a subsequent offense. 
 
 The general utility of the system can not be better elucidated than 
 by quoting some of the remarks made concerning it by M. Herbette at 
 the International Prison Congress at Eome, in November, 1885. 
 
 He set forth all the services already rendered by the system of 
 anthropometric descriptions, together with those that it would yet be 
 called on to perform. He dwelt upon the assistance that the system 
 could be called upon to render toward identifying international male- 
 factors, who so readily adopt names and countries other than their own. 
 Crime becoming in some sort professional, and, as it were, a specialty 
 in the hands of a few individuals who know how to profit by the prog- 
 ress of civilization and escape repression, it is natural that society 
 should, in retaliation, avail itself of the discoveries of science in order 
 to baffle their schemes. 
 
 The application of M. Bertillon's method has justified the hopes it 
 inspired. At Paris, at Versailles, at Meluu, at Poissy, at Lyons, etc., 
 the system is adopted in its integrity. A few days have sufficed to 
 teach it to the guards and officers in charge. 
 
 Ascending to more general considerations, and praising the success- 
 ful efforts of M. Bertillon, M. Herbette demonstrated how this ascer- 
 tainment of the physical personality and undeniable identity of in- 
 dividuals, arrived at an adult age, may be made to answer for needs 
 the most real and service the most, varied : 
 
 Should it be a question, for example, of giving to the inhabitants of a country, 
 the soldiers of au army, or travelers visiting the most distant lands, individual 
 descriptions or charts of peculiar marks enabling them to identify themselves, or be 
 recognized at all times; should it be a question of preventing false impersonations; 
 should it be a question of recording all the distinctive marks on an individual on 
 bank drafts and letters of credit, or in documents, titles, and contracts, where it is 
 desirable that his personality should be established for his own interest, for the 
 interest of third parties, or for the interest of the State, the system of anthropometric 
 descriptions will in each instance find its proper office. Should there be a certificate 
 of life, a policy of life insurance, or occasionally a certificate of death to be drawn 
 up ; should there be something needed to certify to the identity of an insane or 
 unconscious person, who may be seriously wounded or disfigured so that he can 
 hardly be recognized ; in case of sudden or violent death, the result of crime, of 
 accident, of shipwreck, of battle, how serviceable it would be to trace these private 
 marks, unchangeable in each individual, endlessly variable between individuals, 
 indelible, in part at least, until death. 
 
 The advantage of it would be still more manifest if it were necessary to establish 
 the identity of people far away, after a lapse of time, when their external appear- 
 ance, their physiognomy, their features, and physical habits have become changed, 
 either naturally or artificially; and that without removal or expense, by a simple
 
 112 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 exchange of notes or figures forwarded from one country to another, from one conti- 
 nent to another, in a manner to make it known in the United States who such a man 
 is who came from France, and to ascertain whether such and such a traveler met 
 with at Rome is indeed the same person who was measured at Stockholm ten years 
 before. 
 
 In a word, to fix the human personality, to give each human being an identity 
 and individuality certain, durable, invariable, always recognizable and always 
 capable of being proven such seems to be the broadest aim of the new system. 
 
 It may be said, in consequence, that the range of the problem, as well as the impor- 
 tance of its solution, passes far beyond the limits of penitentiary work, and of the 
 interest (although quite considerable) in the action to be taken on penal questions 
 by the various nations. 
 
 Such are the motives that have induced us to give the labors of M. Bertillon and 
 their practical usefulness the publicity that befits them. 
 
 In conclusion, one thing more ought not to be lost sight of. I quote 
 M. Bertillon's own words : 
 
 Although the details of the system have been decided on, I would not refuse to 
 adopt any new modification offering superior advantages, no matter how the change 
 might affect the French collections to date. I beg of the prison and police authori- 
 ties of other countries, who are disposed to adopt the authropometric system, not to 
 introduce special modifications of their own, which would tend to destroy the uni- 
 formity of the system, when it is an easy matter for all to act in concert as regards 
 the different measurements to be taken, the choice of instruments, and the modus 
 operandi. 
 
 It is at the very outset of these questions that we must lay the foundation for the 
 future internationalization of the system, without waiting for routine on one hand, 
 and the yearly accumulations of dissimilar informations on the other, to put insur- 
 mountable obstacles in the way.
 
 ANTHROPOMETRIC MEASUREMENTS. 
 
 By PAUL RICHARD BROWN, M. D., 
 Major and Surgeon, United States Army. 
 
 Quetelet, the illustrious Belgian scientist, first demonstrated the fact 
 that mathematical laws determine the distribution of the forms and 
 dimensions of all animate things. The frequency with which a form or 
 dimension occurs progressively diminishes as it is removed from the 
 mean. This decrease is in almost exact concordance with a simple math- 
 ematical formula : Newton's binomial theorem the law of the coeffi- 
 cients of the binomial in its development. 
 
 If we go into a forest of oaks of every age and size, what an infinite 
 variety not only in heights, but in forms. However, if we examine into 
 the matter a little more closely; if we classify all the trees according 
 to their ages, there will be an entirely different aspect of affairs; there 
 still will be differences in heights, but between the tallest and shortest 
 trees all the others will be grouped in accordance with the law above 
 mentioned. 
 
 The trees of average height will form much the most numerous group, 
 and in proportion as the various trees are removed from this average 
 height they will become rarer and rarer. At the extreme limits there 
 will be only a few exceptional individuals. This numerical decrease is 
 not simply a result which is observed but it can be mathematically 
 calculated independently of all observation. The number of trees, 
 whether giants or dwarfs, is determined according to a law as fixed as 
 that which presides over the symmetrical development and arrangement 
 of their leaves. The mean of form or dimension may vary greatly, so 
 far as man is concerned, from one race to another, but the mean once 
 found, there need be no further difficulty. For instance, so far as the 
 height is concerned in each country the oscillations will be abouta mean 
 greater or smaller which will be determined by the influence of race, 
 climate, differences in food and occupation, etc. As all the forms and 
 dimensions of man oscillate or vary between a maximum and a mini- 
 mum, necessarily the forms and dimensions intermediate bet ween these 
 two extremes will form much the largest proportion of the cases; hence 
 the necessity of three grand divisions the small, the medium, and the 
 great. 
 
 S. Doc. 181 8 U3
 
 114 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 The terms describing these divisions of forms and dimensions may 
 greatly vary, but the dominant idea will always be the same. It has 
 been conclusively demonstrated that after 21 years of age, the various 
 bony lengths of the human body remain practically unchangeable 
 throughout life, and vary greatly from one individual to another. The 
 Bertillon system of anthropometric identification is simply a practical 
 application of the great scientific truths discovered by Quetelet and 
 published to the world by him in his work upon anthropometry, and 
 but for this philosopher there would have been no so-called Bertillon 
 system. 
 
 The identification of criminals is only a part, au important part it is 
 true, of the Bertillon system. It has aims loftier and greater than the 
 mere determination of the personal identity of criminals. In many 
 ways a determination of physical personality may be advantageous to 
 society in general independently of its efficacy in the prevention and 
 repression of crime. Wherever and whenever the establishment of the 
 identity of an individual is essential to secure his interests, the inter- 
 ests of his associates, or those of the State, the Bertillon system is 
 capable of rendering valuable service. If we wish to determine the 
 identity of a victim of a railway accident, of a soldier killed in battle 
 in all cases where the body has been destroyed to such an extent that 
 it is unrecognizable by any of the ordinary methods of identification 
 the Bertillou system again proves its value. 
 
 Numerous cases have been brought to light by the agents of the 
 United States Pension Bureau where individuals have assumed the 
 name and civil condition of other persons and for years have fraudu- 
 lently been drawing pensions from the Government. 
 
 Had the soldier whose name has thus been appropriated been meas- 
 ured and examined according to this system on his entry into the serv- 
 ice, no such fraud would have been possible, or at all events would 
 soon have been detected. Had a similar system been in use in our 
 armies during our last war, there would have been no bounty jumping, 
 which at one time threatened the integrity of the Army of the Potomac. 
 Were this system in general use, a dead body at the morgue, a man 
 attacked by paralysis on the street and unable to give his name and 
 address, a lunatic running amuck, etc., could readily be identified and 
 there would be no danger of having those nearest and dearest to us 
 consigned to the oblivion of the potter's field. The famous Tichborn 
 claimant case could have been settled in five minutes had both parties 
 been previously examined and measured. Hundreds of applications 
 of this system, entirely distinct from criminal identification, will sug- 
 gest themselves to anyone familiar with its principles. 
 
 An international extension of this system would soon terminate the 
 depredations of foreign criminals who change their names with every 
 change of domicile. Professional criminals are quick to utilize to their 
 own advantage every improvement made in the arts and sciences bear-
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 115 
 
 ing upoii their specialties. The use of dynamite for the purpose of 
 destroying the locks of safes may be mentioned as an illustration. 
 
 Criminology should likewise have recourse to these discoveries when- 
 ever their employment is likely to foil the stratagems of professional, 
 habitual criminals. 
 
 The Bertillon system is not in the experimental stage; the problem of 
 anthropometric identification has been solved and the sociological value 
 of this method clearly demonstrated by a practical test, which in France 
 has extended over a period exceeding ten years. This system is in gen- 
 eral use throughout France, Belgium, Switzerland, Russia, several 
 South American Republics, and is now being introduced into England, 
 so slow to adopt new methods, especially if they are French. 
 
 In the United States it is in practical operation in Illinois (intro- 
 duced by Maj. R. W. McClaughry in 1887), Michigan, Wisconsin, and 
 within the last eighteen months it has been legalized in the State of 
 Massachusetts. On the 6th of March, 1896, it was also formally and 
 definitely adopted by the police department of the city of New York. 
 
 It may be asked how the Bertillon system can aid in the capture of a 
 criminal who is at large. It can not, unless he previously has been 
 measured and examined. Let us suppose, for instance, that a murder 
 has been committed in Chicago and the murderer arrested and measured, 
 but by some means he manages to escape. He comes to New -York 
 and is arrested for some trivial offense vagrancy, for example. The 
 Chicago measurements having been mailed or telegraphed from that 
 city to New York at the time of this criminal's escape, the man is at 
 once identified. Were this system in practical operation throughout 
 the whole country, all the professional criminals of the United States 
 would soon be known to the police authorities of our large cities. When 
 France adopted the Bertillon system, there was an exodus of habitual 
 criminals to Belgium; Belgium in self-defense adopted it and the mal- 
 efactors flocked into Switzerland. When Switzerland, in turn, fell into 
 line, there was a hegira to other countries, etc. The Bertillon sys- 
 tem consists of three distinct parts: First, the measurements of certain 
 bony lengths of the human body, called anthropometric; second, a 
 systematic analysis of the features of the face; third, an exact ana- 
 tomical localization of the various scars, marks, congenital or acquired, 
 of the subject under examination. Of the various bony lengths of the 
 body, Bertillon has selected certain of these lengths which vary greatly 
 from one individual to another and which admit of easy measurement 
 and of still easier classification. 
 
 These lengths are as follows: The antero-posterior and transverse 
 diameters of the head; the bizygomatic diameter; the length of the 
 middle finger; the length of the little finger; the length of the foot; 
 the cubit or distance from the point of elbow to the end of the middle 
 finger; the stretch or distance between the extremities of the middle 
 fingers when the arms are extended crossways; the height proper and
 
 116 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 the height of the subject when seated. To these measurements are 
 added the length of the ear. an organ which is virtually unalterable 
 throughout life. 
 
 The measurements of the head, middle finger, foot and cubit, which 
 are capable of being taken with more exactness than the others, may 
 be termed the grand classification measurements. The instruments 
 employed are a head caliper and two measures which somewhat resem- 
 ble those employed by shoemakers. There is also a plain wooden 
 measure for taking the height and trunk. They are inexpensive, and 
 in an hour's time any schoolboy 15 years old of average intelligence can 
 be taught their modus operand!. After these various measurements 
 come a systematic analysis and classification of the features of the 
 face in accordance with the same grand principle enunciated above; 
 the oscillation of all forms and dimensions between a maximum and a 
 minimum. The results of these analyses are called descriptive data. 
 They apply both to form and dimension. The following analysis of the 
 profile or outline of the bridge and base of the nose will give an idea 
 of these analyses : 
 
 The profile of the bridge of the nose may be rectilinear (the mean), 
 convex, or concave (the extremes), and the qualifying term sinuous, if 
 necessary, may be applied to each one of the above forms. Thus a 
 nose would be called convex-sinuous in which the general profile of the 
 bridge of the nose was convex and also somewhat undulating. The 
 base of the nose may be horizontal (the mean), elevated, or depressed 
 (the extremes). 
 
 Thus it will be seen that a nose with convex, rectilinear, or concave 
 bridge may be elevated, horizontal, or depressed so far as its base is 
 concerned. By the use of the parentheses and underlining we can 
 modify each of the above qualificatives. For instance, employing these 
 characters, the series of concave nose bridges could be arranged as 
 follows: (concave), concave, concave. 
 
 The word concave within parentheses would signify a nose bridge 
 but slightly concave, the word concave without parentheses or underlin- 
 ing would be interpreted as middling concave, and concave underlined 
 as markedly concave. It is thus evident that the outline of the bridge 
 of the nose may be the subject of seven appellatives as follows : Convex, 
 convex, (convex), rectilinear, (concave), concave, concave. This form of 
 seriation may also be applied to any feature of the face. The eyes are 
 classified according to the amount of orange-yellow pigmentation pre- 
 sented by the iris, the scale extending from the pale-blue eyes of the 
 blonde races of the Scandinavian peninsula to the maroon or very dark- 
 brown eyes of the inhabitants of the Dark Continent. There are seven 
 classes in all, each with nine subdivisions, which are indicated on a 
 chromolithographic chart. Certain data are also noted in regard to 
 the coloration of the complexion, which may be pigmentary or san- 
 guineous, or a combination of both.
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 117 
 
 The pigmentary coloration takes into consideration the amount of 
 pigment or coloring matter in the skin; the sanguineous, the amount 
 of blood circulating through the skin, which its transparency enables 
 us to perceive. Thus, with a florid Englishman the sanguineous col- 
 oration would be great, and the pigmentary coloration slight; with a 
 pale, dark Italian the sanguineous coloration would be slight, and the 
 pigmentary coloration great. The third part of the Bertillon system 
 consists in an exact anatomical localization of the scars, marks, and 
 deformities of the subject examined. 
 
 Certain anatomical points, called guiding points, are employed to 
 determine their exact location. For instance, for the chest the nipples 
 and the fork or notch between the collar bones are used as guiding 
 points, and for the abdomen the navel. The imaginary line called the 
 median line is also a means of localization. A tattoo mark of a heart 
 transfixed with a dagger, located upon the breast of a subject, would 
 thus be described: Pierced heart, 3 by 2 centimeters, at 4 centimeters 
 under right nipple and at 5 centimeters from median line of body; that 
 is, an imaginary line dividing the body antero-posteriorly into two 
 equal parts. As regards the time required for making these various 
 measurements, descriptive analyses, and anatomical localizations, Ber- 
 tillon himself says "that with two individuals, one measuring, exam- 
 ining, and dictating, and the other recording, the time employed in 
 making one examination is usually seven minutes." Bertillon has 
 devised an ingenious system of abbreviations for the registration of 
 the various descriptive data, marks, etc., which materially shortens 
 the time of operation. 
 
 The question may now be asked whether an individual of average 
 ability can readily learn this method which at first sight may seem some- 
 what complicated and abstruse. If the directions of Bertillon are faith- 
 fully carried out, the average policeman can, after an hour's instruction, 
 make all the measurements required ; in less than a week's time all the 
 knowledge required to put the system in practical operation can easily 
 be acquired. 
 
 In Paris and several of the large cities of France the subject is also 
 photographed, profile and full face, on cards a trifle smaller than the 
 ordinary carte de visite photograph. These photographs have a reduc- 
 tion of one-seventh, and the negatives are never retouched. The phrase 
 reduction of one seventh may possibly not be fully understood and some 
 further explanation may be necessary. In other words, any length upon 
 a subject sitting in the photographic chair will be reduced to one- 
 seventh its original length in the ground glass plate of the camera. If 
 our hypothetical subject holds a rod 28 centimeters long at the external 
 angle of his left eye, the image of this rod reflected on the ground glass 
 plate should be 4 centimeters in length. 
 
 The distance required between the camera and the subject in order to 
 have this reduction will be found by having someone hold a rod similar
 
 118 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 to the one just mentioned, and then increasing or lessening the distance 
 until the proper reduction is ascertained. This distance once found, 
 the supports of the camera and the chair should be permanently fas- 
 tened to the floor of the studio. 
 
 The classification of the results obtained will next demand notice. 
 Certain measurements above mentioned have been termed the five grand 
 classification measurements, viz, length and width of head, length of 
 middle finger, length of foot, and length of cubit. Following out the 
 dominant idea of the system, a head length may be small, medium, or 
 great and the other measurements may be qualified with the same terms. 
 
 In the central office atParis there are two large cases filled with pigeon- 
 holes, one designed for the alphabetical classification of the descrip- 
 tive cards, the other for their anthropoinetric classification, duplicate 
 cards being made out for each subject examined. The anthropoinetric 
 case is divided horizontally into three equal compartments for lengths 
 of head and vertically into three other divisions for breadths of head, 
 and further subdivided for the three classes of middle finger, foot, and 
 cubit lengths. The anthropoinetric descriptive cards are filed in lidless 
 sliding boxes upon the front of which are pasted paper slips with the 
 roman numerals I to V, inclusive, printed upon them, these numerals 
 corresponding to the grand classification measurements to be found in 
 that particular box. Suppose now, for example, that a criminal or 
 suspect has just been brought to the central office of the prefecture 
 of police and the authorities desire to ascertain if he ever has been 
 measured and examined. If this be the case, and he gives his true 
 name, the task is easy; a search is at once made in the alphabetical col- 
 lection and his descriptive card immediately found. But the prisoner 
 may claim that he has never before been arrested. His various measure- 
 ments are then taken, his descriptive data registered, and his scars, 
 peculiar marks, etc., noted and recorded. 
 
 Search is then made in the anthropometric collection. This collec- 
 tion now contains something over 150,000 descriptive cards. We read 
 on the card just made out that the subject's head length is 187 milli- 
 meters. As the medium class of head lengths extends from 185 to 190 
 millimeters, both numbers inclusive, we at once put him in the medium 
 class, and thus eliminate 100,000 cards from the collection. 
 
 We find that his head breadth is small, and, following out the same 
 principle, we eliminate two-thirds of the remaining 50,000, or about 
 33,334, leaving still remaining 16,666. The same method of elimina- 
 tion is then pursued with the length of the middle finger, and we reduce 
 the number of cards in the collection to 5,555. Again eliminating by 
 the length of the foot, we make a further reduction to 1,850, which is 
 still further reduced by the cubit to a group of about 620. The height 
 reduces this last number to about 205 cards which is again subdivided, 
 always following out the same plan, by the bizygomatic diameter, the 
 length of the little finger, the length of the ear, height of trunk, and
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 119 
 
 stretch to a filial group f of about a dozeu cards, which are arranged 
 according to the color classes of the iris. After the various measure- 
 ments have disclosed the location of the card, the descriptive data and 
 anatomical localization of the various scars, marks, etc., absolutely 
 prove, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that one and the same individ- 
 ual is described in both cards. 
 
 In Bertillon's work upon Authropometric Identification full direc- 
 tions may be found in regard to the manipulation of the anthropo- 
 metric instruments, and peculiarly excellent plates render it almost 
 impossible for the most stupid individual to misunderstand the direc- 
 tions. Full information will also there be found in regard to the 
 correct manner of observing the various features, making out the 
 descriptive data, the anatomical registration of the scars, marks, etc. 
 Various plates explain to the reader his own position and that of the 
 subject during the various measurements. No possible mistake can be 
 made by anyone carefully following out Bertillon's directions in all 
 their minutiae. In this hurried resume only the barest outlines of this 
 system have been given, which seems to me more and more wonderful 
 the more I know of it. 
 
 When I think of the vast results of which it is capable in the pre- 
 vention and repression of crime, I believe I do not exaggerate when I 
 say that Quetelet and Bertillon are two of the greatest benefactors of 
 the human race which this century has brought forth, and that the 
 jurists and crimiuologists of the twentieth century will be amazed when 
 they read of the stupidity and ignorance of those nations that did not 
 adopt this wonderful system of anthropoinetric identification as soon 
 as it was made known to them.
 
 THE DISCHARGED CONVICT IN EUROPE. 
 
 By SAMUEL J. BARROWS. 
 
 In a trip made to Europe in 1892-93 the writer visited many European 
 prisons, and also gained some information in regard to work for dis- 
 charged convicts in European countries. His presence as a delegate 
 to the International Prison Congress at Paris in July, 1895, offered an 
 opportunity for special inquiry and for securing information through 
 personal conference and official reports not easily obtained elsewhere. 
 
 More than a year before the meeting of the Paris Congress a series 
 of questions was sent to officials and delegates of different countries, 
 inviting the preparation of statistics and monograph concerning the 
 administration of prisons. Included in these questions were some 
 bearing upon work for discharged convicts. One of these questions 
 was what amount prisoners might save in prison in preparation for 
 their discharge; second, what means should be taken after discharge 
 to see that this money was not wasted. A third question related to the 
 existence and activity of prisoners' aid societies. 
 
 As usual in the collection of such data, too many countries failed to 
 respond. Nevertheless, the result was the preparation of some valu- 
 able monographs and reports in different countries. 
 
 The limits of this paper will permit nothing but the briefest summary 
 of principles, methods, and results which these reports illustrate. 
 
 FRANCE. 
 
 The monographs concerning French institutions are among the most 
 complete. Among the prisons chosen to illustrate the system are those 
 of Melun, Poissy, and Berrouaghia for men; the Maison Centrale de 
 Kennes for women; the prisons celulaire d' Angers and of Lyons and of 
 Kouen for both sexes, and several establishments for boys and girls. 
 In the French system prisoners are allowed a certain portion of their 
 earnings. This is divided into two parts, one of which they may dis- 
 pose of while in prison, the other constituting a reserve against the 
 time of discharge. 
 
 The Maison Centrale de Melun has a prison population of 605. The 
 average amount accruing to the prisoner on his discharge is, for three 
 
 121
 
 122 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 years of detention, 250 francs; four years, 350 francs; five years, 450 
 francs. A part of their earnings may be sent to their families during 
 their imprisonment, or may be spent for fruit, letters, and other ex- 
 penses approved of by the administration. A portion of the reserve 
 is applied to the cost of clothing and of sending the prisoner to his 
 home. The rest is sent by postal order to his place of residence. Only 
 those who are pardoned or liberated conditionally receive their money 
 at their discharge. Prisoners may voluntarily place their reserve in 
 the hands of the societies of patronage, as most of the prisoners' aid 
 societies in France are called, the society acting as a savings bank. 
 Outside of this no special measures are taken to prevent the prisoner 
 from wasting his earnings. A society of patronage at Melun assists 
 every year 1,200 tramps mendicants and tramps but we are told that 
 the discharged prisoners of the Centrale Maisou rarely apply for its 
 benevolent intervention. 
 
 At Poissy the average amounts given to discharged prisoners from 
 their earnings are for one year, 81 francs ($16.20) ; two years, 187 francs 
 ($35.40) ; three years, 373 francs ($74.60) ; four years, 407 francs ($81.40) ; 
 five years, 562 francs ($112.40). These figures are so variable that the 
 difference obtained by some workers in three years is superior to those 
 obtained by others in four years. Prisoners' aid societies aid the con- 
 demned at their liberation, after having received information in regard 
 to their sincerity and worthiness from the prison administration. They 
 seek work for them and try to establish them in friendly relations in 
 the section of country from which they have come, or they shelter them 
 in asylums for some days. At Poissy, four societies lend their aid to 
 discharged prisoners. There is the Societe" generale pour le patronage 
 des liberes which was established in 1871 whose seat is at Paris. Its 
 president is the distinguished senator, legislator, and penologist, M. 
 Berenger. This society holds special relations with the director. The 
 conditionally liberated who are not immediately able to find employ- 
 ment are received provisionally in a special asylum where they are 
 assisted by work. The reserve gained in prison remains in the hand 
 of the society until the proteges are properly placed. A second society 
 is the Societe" centrale de patronage des liberes, whose president is M. 
 Steeg, inspector- general of primary education. Its seat is at Paris and 
 and at Versailles. Every month a delegate visits the prison and ques- 
 tions the prisoners who are nearing their discharge. The special end 
 of the society is to reconcile prisoners with their families or to serve as 
 an intermediary between the condemned and other persons. A third 
 society has for its object the aid of volunteers in the military service 
 who may be found in correctional establishments and who undergo 
 imprisonment before their conscription. These young prisoners are 
 sent on liberation to the department asylum of Nanterre. They are 
 often transferred to the disciplinary batallions of Africa. A fourth 
 society is the Socie"te de patronage des libe"res repentants, founded in
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 123 
 
 1876 and engaged especially with prisons for short sentences in the 
 department of Seine et Oise. 
 
 While we find the director of the Maison Centrale of Poissy recog- 
 nizing the services of four societies for discharged convicts, the direc- 
 tor of the prison for women at Eennes complains that all his efforts 
 have been in vain to establish an aid society for prisoners in that 
 vicinity, owing to local causes. He recognizes, however, the services of 
 the sisters of the order of Marie- Joseph. At Angeres, where there is a 
 cellular prison for both sexes, the work of the aid society is gratefully 
 recognized by the director. It is composed of magistrates, landlords, 
 and of some rich manufacturers in that city. 
 
 The aid society of Lyons stands in close relation to the administra- 
 tion of the prison. An agent and also a committee of the society visit 
 the prison and inquire into the condition of those who ask aid. This 
 society extends its activities to all the penitentiary establishments in 
 the southeastern part of France. 
 
 In Eouen a society was organized in 1874, which is one of the most 
 active and vigorous in France. It comes into relation with prisoners 
 before they are discharged. Its resources consist of subsidies by the 
 State and the city of Eouen, of fees remitted to it by members of the 
 jury, and of the earnings of prisoners committed to its care, amount- 
 ing, all told, from 4,000 to 7,000 francs a year. There are other insti- 
 tutions, such as lodging houses, which do not confine themselves 
 to aiding prisoners, but which have often prisoners among their bene- 
 ficiaries. One of these lodging houses received in 1893 11,652 individ- 
 uals, of whom 9,991 were men, 1,281 women, and 380 children. Another 
 asylum on a private foundation has furnished nearly an equal amount 
 of assistance. Still another society provides the needy with work, fol- 
 lowing a plan adopted generally in societies of this kind in France, of 
 giving each individual some occupation for half a day which will entitle 
 him to his daily bread and lodging. The other half of the day is 
 devoted to the seeking of some regular employment. In the year 1893 
 9,756 days' work was furnished for 1,361 persons, and the amount dis- 
 pensed in wages amounted to 10,208 francs. The resources of this 
 society in 1893 amounted to 35,681 francs and its expenses to 19,185 
 francs. In connection with the agricultural colonies and institutions 
 for minors there are nearly always aid societies and committees. 
 
 The Socie"te pour le patronage des liberes has been mentioned. The 
 report before me made for the general assembly in June this year gives 
 an account of its work for the last year, including the admirable address 
 of the president, M. Bereuger. The society was founded in 1870. 
 " That which impresses one most," said the president, " in looking back 
 over the past twenty-five years is the progress of ideas." When it was 
 founded, but little was known about the patronage of prisoners, and 
 that was met with incredulity and mockery. To these early doubts a 
 confidence and an eagerness have succeeded whose results. are seen
 
 124 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 every day. The Government now gives important sums for this work 
 and the chambers vote them without difficulty. For twenty-five years 
 the society has patiently done its work. In its first year it assisted 
 from 80 to 100 discharged prisoners and had an income of 8,000 or 
 10,000 francs and 200 members. To-day it assists 3,400 prisoners and 
 has an income of 113,000 francs ($22,600) and 800 subscribers. In 
 1879 a temporary asylum was created. In 1881 it was decided to extend 
 assistance to women, and a new asylum was established. A second 
 asylum was established in 1890, especially for those liberated con- 
 ditionally, and the number of assisted rose to 3,300. The total number 
 of prisoners received from the beginning is exactly 33,028. The intro- 
 duction of work into these asylums in 1891 helped prisoners and 
 improved the finances of the society. Work has since been established 
 in the house for women. The obligation to work is regarded as a great 
 protection against the idle and hypocritical. A new rule imposes four 
 days of work without wages in return for the shelter. 
 
 The introduction of work has reduced the expense from 35 francs 
 to 17 francs 25 centimes for each prisoner, a reduction of 50 per cent. 
 The figures for the last year show that 271 have been furnished with 
 aid to return to their homes, 17 were reconciled with their families, 249 
 were enlisted as soldiers, 822 were placed at work, 170 were assisted 
 without the asylum, 7 left the country, a total of 1,536. Of the income 
 of the society 54,000 francs is received from the work of inmates, 54,000 
 from different subsidies, and 11,000 from subscribers. The association 
 own two of its asylums, valued at 126,000 francs, with merchandise 
 worth 15,000. This society is one of the finest examples of a living, 
 active organization. 
 
 Another important organization is the society for the aid of Protes- 
 tant discharged convicts. It was founded in 1869 by the Eev. E. Eobin, 
 who has written a work on the penitentiary question. Its receipts in 
 1894 were 6,590 francs; its expenses 5,875 francs. Since its organiza- 
 tion in 1869 it has aided 3,678 prisoners. There is also a Protestant 
 society working among women prisoners, which has a modest asylum. 
 Its work is not numerically large, but earnest, personal, and sympathetic. 
 
 One of the most active of the labor homes is established at Melun. 
 During the year 1894 it aided 1,246 inmates. Of these but 75 pre- 
 sented themselves a second time, 7 a third time. The majority stay 
 from one to four days. This society receives and expends about 10,000 
 francs. 
 
 An important step was taken in 1893 for the union of all societies of 
 patronage in France. The first congress of these societies for that 
 object was held in Paris in 1893, and the second congress in Lyons in 
 1894. A permanent commission was formed and a central bureau 
 established. The object of this bureau is not to interfere with the 
 special work of each society, but to furnish a center for information 
 and mutual aid. There are now 50 of these affiliated societies in
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 125 
 
 France. The central bureau is composed of 25 members elected for 
 five years. 
 
 On this central committee are the names of distinguished lawyers, 
 professors, judges, and philanthropists. The honorary presidents are 
 the eminent senator, author, and member of the French Academy, 
 Jules Simon, and M. Charles Petit of the court of cassation. The 
 active president is Dr. Theodore Koussel, senator, member of the 
 institute, and president of the superior council of public assistance; 
 Messrs. B6renger and Albert Riviere are on the central committee. 
 
 The Socie"t6 gdnerale des Prisons has for its object the study and 
 development of all questions relating to penology, and has made a dis- 
 tinguished name for itself the world over among penologists. It has 
 enlisted the cooperation of some of the most eminent of French jurists 
 and philanthropists in the discussion of practical and fundamental 
 questions. Its publications take the highest rank. It was my priv 
 ilege during the session of the Prison Congress to attend on the 4th of 
 July the dinner given in the Eiffel Tower by this society to the foreign 
 delegates. The addresses on that occasion were marked by an earnest- 
 ness, dignity, and sympathy, which were beautiful indications of the 
 development of the humane sentiment not only in France, but through- 
 out the world. 
 
 The national organization of these aid societies in France having 
 been formed but two years ago, it is too early yet to seek practical 
 results from this feature. But an interesting report by M. E. Cheysson 
 shows just how such a central bureau may be useful. And it is inter- 
 esting to note that as a result of the interest awakened by the forma- 
 tion of its national organization fifteen new societies were organized 
 between May, 1893, and June, 1894, and some old societies have been 
 revived. At the same time the Soci6te generale pour le patronage des 
 liberes has established ten new sections in different parts of France 
 under advice of the central bureau. Thus the seed of a new interest 
 in behalf of the prisoners has been sown everywhere in France and is 
 bearing excellent fruit. 
 
 SPAIN. 
 
 When we turn to Spain, there is a decided contrast to the condition 
 of things in France. Institutions of patronage do not exist distinc- 
 tively for prisoners. They are more a matter of retrospect. There is 
 evidence that some three hundred and fifty years ago Spanish nobility 
 founded a society which concerned itself in securing justice for poor 
 prisoners, obtaining pardon for their misdeeds, and giving them mate- 
 rial aid. This society, founded in 1537, existed until 1649, one hundred 
 and twelve years, at Seville. Other societies were founded in the last 
 century and early in the present one. In 1840 the Sociedad Filantropica 
 was formed for the reformation of the prison system of Spain. It 
 worked with activity and success until weakened and arrested by
 
 126 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 political causes. Among its most distinguished members was Ramon 
 Lasagra. One of the Spanish reporters to the Prison Congress says 
 the patronage of prisoners in Spain seems to have completely fallen 
 into forgetfuluess. The prison system allows a reserve fund to the 
 prisoner from his earnings, but no effort is made upon his release to 
 supervise its expenditure. 
 
 AUSTRIA. 
 
 In Austria aid for discharged convicts has only lately begun to 
 develop. Conditional liberation does not exist, but the system of allow- 
 ing prisoners a portion of their earnings has been adopted. At the 
 penitentiary at Marburg the amount of money due to prisoners on dis- 
 charge averages from 5 to 7 florins ($2.50 to $3.50) a year. For the 
 aid of worthy prisoners from this penitentiary there is a society, formed 
 in 1891, under the presidency of its director. It has a membership 
 extending ov^r the Empire, the fee being 50 kreutzers a year less than 
 50 cents. The mayor and the cure of each commune are counselors of 
 the society. The membership is 561 . In the three years following its 
 organization, it procured work for 191 prisoners, reconciled 61 with 
 their parents, bought railroad tickets for 247, and expended 1,600 florins 
 ($800) for clothing and gifts. The investigation it has made in regard 
 to those it has assisted shows that only 3.06 per cent have returned to 
 crime, while where patronage has not been extended the recidivists 
 reached 60 per cent. There is a fund for the aid of discharged prison- 
 ers, under control of the state, for the penitentiary at Marburg, which 
 fund is at the disposition of the director. In the two prisons for 
 women, that of Maria-Nostra and the prison of St. Maria Madelaine, 
 the discharged receive a portion of their earnings, averaging about 5 
 florins ($2.50). Eeligious orders assist them on release. A legacy of 
 7,900 florins is devoted to the aid of female prisoners. The report saya 
 that the development of societies of patronage in Austria leaves much 
 to be desired. 
 
 HUNGARY. 
 
 In the Kingdom of Hungary there are 20 voluntary organizations 
 whose funds are augmented when necessary by the minister of justice. 
 These societies are administered by persons without official relations. 
 Where the assistance of the society is lacking, the royal attorney (pro- 
 cureur) is able to aid the discharged to the amount of 15 florins ($7.50) 
 per man. In addition to this, the average amount available to the pris- 
 oner from his earnings on discharge is about 12 florins a year ($6). The 
 penitentiary of Vaez has a special assistance fund, derived from the 
 labor of prisoners. It amounts at present to 15,567 florins. The 
 interest of the sum alone is used. 
 
 Three years ago in Hungary I visited personally the home for dis- 
 charged prisoners established in the suburbs of Budapest, under the 
 auspices of the Budapest Verein filr Unterstiitzungen entlassener
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 127 
 
 Strafgefangenen. It was my privilege to meet the founder of this 
 institution, Dr. Francis Scekely, a judge of the supreme court of jus- 
 tice, which is the highest court in Hungary. Dr. Scekely has not only 
 established this home, but introduced a special industry, the making 
 of straw covers for bottles, and in connection with a friend, invented a 
 machine for their manufacture, so that Hungary no longer needs to 
 import them, but is even able to export them. The institution is partly 
 supported by the income from fines imposed by the code. Thirty per 
 cent of this money in Budapest goes to the institution. It amounts to 
 about 8,000 gulden. The society consists of 600 members. The insti- 
 tution has from 36 to 40 men, and occasionally 2 or 3 women, for whom 
 there is a separate part of the house. This seemed to me to be one of 
 the best labor homes I had seen, as one may see iii Budapest one of 
 the best jails in Europe. More satisfactory than the institution was 
 the pleasure of finding an eminent judge in Hungary giving so much 
 of his thought, time, and inspiration to aiding discharged convicts 
 while acting as the honorary president of the society named. 
 
 SWEDEN. 
 
 Aid societies exist in all the principal departments of Sweden, and 
 there is a central society at Stockholm. The prison population of 
 Sweden is small, so that the work of the aid societies does not make a 
 large show in statistics. Prisoners do not receive wages as such for 
 work, but are given a premium for industry and good behavior, which 
 does not exceed 9 cents a day. Half of this premium is available dur- 
 ing the stay in prison ; the remainder is deposited for him in the postal 
 savings bank, and he is not allowed to touch it until after he has been 
 a month out of prison. 
 
 DENMARK. 
 
 The same principle of allowing prisoners to accumulate a reserve 
 from their earnings or money in the shape of a prize or gratuity pre- 
 vails in Denmark. There are a number of aid societies, which have at 
 Copenhagen a central organization, with an office and a paid agent. 
 The inspector of the prison or the chaplain is usually the president of 
 the local societies, and two or three other officers of the prison are 
 members or directors. Assistance is given in the form of clothes, tools, 
 railroad tickets, or orders for food. The society has been in existence 
 for thirty-five years. Its revenues are mainly from private contribu- 
 tions, but the State treasury also gives aid. As little assistance as 
 possible is given in money. 
 
 SWITZERLAND. 
 
 Switzerland is a country of less than 16,000 English square miles. 
 It is little more than twice as large as Massachusetts and less than 
 half the size of the State of Ohio. Yet Switzerland has fourteen socie- 
 ties for discharged convicts. The central committee of each society
 
 128 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 has its office in the chief city of each Canton. It is interesting to note 
 that in the Canton of Soleure a police department fulfills the work of a 
 society of patronage and that at Bal-campagne and also at Tessin the 
 director of the penitentiary fulfills the discharge of this duty. The 
 Swiss societies are each administered by a central committee chosen by 
 the general assembly. In addition to this, several societies have a com- 
 mittee of women who care for women prisoners. Indeed, the members 
 of the societies comprising a district or part of a Canton can constitute 
 themselves a section, having a president at their head. Zurich is a 
 Canton of 687 square miles, with a population of 284,000 inhabitants. 
 It has a society with eleven such committees. One can thus see how 
 fruitful in results may be the work of a society so thoroughly organ- 
 ized and whose committees and patrons work within a limited terri- 
 tory. Nowhere in the world, I suspect, is so much done toward bringing 
 helpful patrons into direct personal relation with liberated prisoners as 
 in Switzerland. The idea is that no prisoner shall really lack a patron. 
 These district committees are composed of charitable men and women, 
 well known in the place where they live for their devotion to those 
 that suffer. They carry the spirit of philanthropy into the smallest 
 borough. 
 
 Some societies, notably of the Neuchatel, replace these district com- 
 mittees by corresponding members who have the same duties. In an 
 eloquent discourse, pronounced by Mr. Edouard Blache, on the patron- 
 age of discharged prisoners in Switzerland, which was delivered before 
 a distinguished audience of judges, civil and military authorities in 
 France, he called attention to the large number of societies which have 
 at their head the director or the chaplain of a penitentiary, or some 
 prison official, or a minister of some denomination. Such cooperation 
 could not be found in every country, owing to political or religious 
 divisions, but in Switzerland, an essentially democratic country until 
 lately profoundly troubled by religious discussions, it is recognized by 
 all that the patronage of prisoners is a neutral territory where men of 
 all parties and of all social classes may be found. "Among us," said 
 M. Lardy, "in that which relates to patronage, there are no more divi- 
 sions of churches, parties, or social conditions; all are in agreement, and 
 that has been the case for the last twenty- three years." " This union," 
 says M. Blache, "of all the vital forces of the nation joined for the 
 same effort is the main cause of the success of the Swiss societies of 
 patronage." The number of members in these societies has been grow- 
 ing from year to year. That of Neuchatel, which began with 219 mem- 
 bers, now numbers 1,800. To secure popular interest and support, the 
 membership fee is placed very low. 
 
 The main work in each society falls upon the central committee, 
 especially the delicate task of choosing among those prisoners who 
 appear to be worthy of patronage and of designating a patron for 
 them. The extension of aid is made, not through money, but through 

 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 129 
 
 work and personal sympathy, counsel and interest. This personal rela- 
 tion with the prisoner begins before he has left the prison. The society 
 does not wait until some homeless or discouraged prisoner knocks at 
 the door of its office. It goes to him as the father went to meet the 
 prodigal son, while he is yet a great way off. Systematic visits are 
 made to the prison. Every prisoner knows that he may apply for aid 
 if he needs it and merits it. The director of the prison who, as already 
 said, is a member of the committee, furnishes his colleagues with what 
 they need to know concerning the character, the improvement, and sin- 
 cerity of the prisoner. They learn his age, origin, profession; they 
 know when he is coming out and what measures need to be taken in 
 regard to him. Reports are carefully and formally made concerning the 
 health of the prisoner, his special aptitude for work, his education, his 
 weakness, the condition of his family, and the sum of money which he 
 has earned. Instead of remitting the money to the prisoner, which in 
 other countries has often proved a great temptation to waste and 
 debauchery, the reserve due him is deposited in the savings bank and 
 the book is generally given by the central committee to the patron who 
 is chosen to be a friend, guide, and counselor to him. This direct indi- 
 vidual and personal relationship which is established between the patron 
 and his protege' is one of the most vital features of the Swiss system. 
 No prisoner thus conies out friendless. 
 
 To this friend is committed the work of directing the prisoner in the 
 right way, of continuing his moral education, and of following him 
 until he is restored and rehabilitated. Personality thus has an immense 
 place in the Swiss system. "Everything depends upon the choice of a 
 patron," said the eminent president of the society at Neuctiatel.. " If 
 prisoners have the fortune to find a good patron they nearly always 
 reform." It is not always easy to find a man devoted and charitable 
 and ready to sacrifice himself to this task. " Yet," says M. Blache, 
 "we are able to cite examples of patrons in Switzerland who have 
 guided with success a dozen and even fourteen discharged prisoners. 
 The duties of the patron, his sphere and mode of action are described; 
 his first mission is to seek for his protege some place where at the 
 moment of his liberation he may be able to gain an honest living. He 
 must see that his protege has a place, if possible, with a new environ- 
 ment, removed from the baleful influence to which he was exposed 
 before. In France and elsewhere complaint has been made of that 
 public hostility which often paralyzes the efforts of those who seek to 
 find work for prisoners. " There is no lack," says M. Blache, "of sym- 
 pathy for the prisoner who groans upon the damp straw of his dungeon, 
 but when the condemned has paid his debt to society he often meets 
 with nothing but disdain and contempt." The Swiss societies would 
 long since have been wrecked had they not succeeded in diffusing 
 among the masses more just ideas in regard to liberated prisoners and 
 made the people understand that it is for their interest to associate 
 S. Doc. 181 9
 
 130 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 in this work. It can not be said that this hostility to discharged pris- 
 oners has totally disappeared in Switzerland, but it may be affirmed 
 that the popularity of the societies in Switzerland, the confidence they 
 have inspired, and the results they have obtained, render the task of 
 their central committees or of the patrons much easier. If circum- 
 stances permit, the patron seeks at the very outset to reconcile the 
 prisoner to his family and immediate friends. This is usually followed 
 with the best result. 
 
 The Geneva society has established an asylum where prisoners are 
 received on the day of their liberation for whom it has not been possi- 
 ble to find permanent employment. Provisional work is found for 
 them through two societies for furnishing temporary employment. The 
 society at Neuchatel has no asylum, and proceeds in a different man- 
 ner to place its proteges. It establishes a list of corresponding mem- 
 bers, and through a special employee paid for this work a list of 
 persons in the canton who are disposed to give occupation to dis- 
 charged convicts. This list contains all particulars in regard to the 
 number of workmen, the number of apprentices, and the conditions 
 imposed in each establishment. Contractors and employers willingly 
 admit discharged prisoners in their establishments, for they are assured 
 by a double guaranty; first, the surveillance of the patron, who is 
 kindly if the prisoner behaves well, but in the case of disobedience or 
 misconduct may impose a penalty 5 secondly, the engagement by the 
 society to cover the cost of depredations of which it might be a victim 
 through the employment of prisoners. But in twenty-three years the 
 society has not had to expend a cent on this account. The develop- 
 ment of patronage in workshops is dependent to some extent upon 
 the reception which honest workmen accord to discharged prisoners. 
 It is possible for them to make his life miserable by reproaches, but 
 the law department of Neuchatel, in its desire to extend a support to 
 the prisoners' aid societies, has decided that whoever malevolently and 
 without sufficient excuse publicly reproaches a prisoner in regard to 
 the act he has committed or the sentence he has incurred, shall be 
 punished by imprisonment of a month or a fine of 100 francs. 
 
 The society avoids as much as possible giving indiscriminate aid; 
 but it is often necessary to provide a prisoner with clothes, overalls, 
 or tools, before he can get work. At Xeuchatel the care of making the 
 necessary purchases is devolved upon the patron. 
 
 When a patron has found a place for a discharged prisoner, his work 
 is far from finished. In the Canton of Neuchatel patronage involves 
 two distinct elements. The patron gives his protection and aid to the 
 prisoner intrusted to Mm. He stimulates his zeal by giving him from 
 time to time a part or the whole of his accumulations in prison. On 
 the other hand, the prisoner is submitted to a surveillance which is 
 very different from the surveillance of the police. Its duration is 
 decided by the central committee upon the report of the patron. The
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 131 
 
 patron presents each year a circumstantial report upon the result of 
 his activity. Formerly, the only penalty which a discharged prisoner 
 incurred for insubordination or misconduct was the withdrawal of aid; 
 but since 1892 the council of the Canton of Neuchatel, by an amend- 
 ment to the penal code, enables the committee of the society to com- 
 plain of an insubordinate prisoner before the proper authorities and to 
 inflict a punishment whose maximum is fixed at three days' imprison- 
 ment. This power is used with great discretion, so as not to alienate 
 the objects of aid. This surveillance is not only extended to those who 
 have voluntarily placed themselves under the patronage of the society, 
 but the penal law now intrusts to the society the surveillance for a 
 period of five years or more of every prisoner less than 18 years of age. 
 He is obliged to conform to the injunctions of his patron and of the 
 committee, under a penalty of being seni again to prison for a period 
 not exceeding six months. The society also cares for minors who have 
 been acquitted as irresponsible, but who need to be placed in some 
 house of correction or discipline. 
 
 It is thus seen that the society acts in close relationship with the 
 State, although its activities depend almost wholly upon private interest 
 and devotion. The State not only gives moral support, but aids by 
 subsidy. 
 
 The practical result of this system is seen in the reduction of the 
 number both of prisoners and of recidivists. In the Canton of Neu- 
 chatel there has been a reduction of 50 per cent in the number of 
 prisoners. The recidivists, which in 1870 were in a proportion of 75 
 per cent, were in 1892 only 4 per cent. In the Cantons of Switzerland 
 which are deprived of these aid societies, recidivism still works its 
 ravages. In 1890, of 225 prisoners assisted by the Neuchatel society, 
 only 6 have fallen. In 1891, of 264 discharged prisoners aided, 10 have 
 been reconvicted. In 1892, of 360 aided, 15 have fallen. In the society 
 of the Canton of Geneva, of 496 condemned men whom it has aided, 
 but 17 had received new condemnations. M. Blache believes that a 
 part of these results must be credited to the excellent penitentiary 
 system of Switzerland. It is a system of at first solitary cellular con- 
 finement, then progressive life in common, and afterwards conditional 
 liberation. 
 
 Since 1888 there has been a union of the different societies in Switzer- 
 land, with a central organization, without sacrificing the individual 
 character or autonomy of each society. This union has been fruitful in 
 practical results. 
 
 No man in Switzerland has done more for the development of the 
 penal system of that country than Dr. Guillauine, director of the fed- 
 eral office of statistics and general secretary of the Commission of the 
 International Prison Congress, and to him I am indebted for many facts 
 and reports in relation to aid for discharged prisoners.
 
 132 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 Iii England, according to the report of the prison commissioners, 
 there are some ninety prisoners' aid societies. In preparation for the 
 Paris Congress, Mr. E. Ruggles-Brise, commissioner of prisons and the 
 official delegate to the Paris Prison Congress, sent a s.eries of special 
 inquiries to every aid society in connection with the prisons, asking for 
 definite information. Through the personal kindness of Mr. Ruggles- 
 Brise, I had the opportunity at the home office of looking over the large 
 amount of information thus acquired. The paper by Mr. E. Haggles- 
 Brise, written as a result of this examination, was a valuable contribu- 
 tion to the preliminary reports of the Congress. 
 
 Among the answers received from these societies, that of the governor 
 of Stafford prison furnishes one of the best examples of the English 
 method. Two societies are connected with this prison, the North Staf- 
 fordshire and the South Staffordshire aid societies. In addition, the 
 Litchfield Labor Home, the County Police Mission, and some various 
 female rescue and preventive homes cooperate with the societies men- 
 tioned. The names of all prisoners selected for inquiry are every week 
 submitted to the governor, who is a member of the executive committee 
 of both societies. The governor, at his discretion, reduces or adds to 
 the list. The societies take charge of and expend through paid agents 
 all prisoners mark money. The chaplain is secretary to the two socie- 
 ties. In conjunction with the governor he selects places for the agents 
 to see and inquire into. The agents are under his authority, and he is 
 responsible to his executive committee, to whom he submits a monthly 
 balance sheet, giving full details of all the work done in every way. 
 Under the English system the law provides for a visiting committee 
 for each prison, which is made up mainly of magistrates. Its members 
 are nearly all subscribers to these societies and several belong to the 
 executive committees. The agents are paid a fixed salary and expenses. 
 Especial attention is paid to female prisoners. Ladies' committees 
 exist in almost any town in the county. The fundamental rule is "No 
 money aid." Clothes, tools, food, etc., are purchased and lodgings pro- 
 vided while work is being found. The prisoners' gratuities are paid 
 by the societies. 
 
 The society does not profess to deal with habitual criminals beyond 
 taking charge of their mark money and doing their best to find work 
 for them. The societies do their utmost for first offenders and for pris 
 oners with one or two convictions. There is a labor home for female 
 prisoners. The chaplain, though favoring a home for female prisoners, 
 does not regard a labor home for men as a form of aiding discharged 
 convicts that it would be well to resort to frequently. Four thousand 
 one hundred and eighty-nine prisoners were discharged from Stafford 
 in 1893. Twenty per cent of this number came before the agents of the 
 two societies. Pecuniary assistance, not cash, was given to 400; work
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 133 
 
 was found for 223. Less than 10 per cent of the men and women dealt 
 with by the two societies have been recommitted to prison. 
 
 The various prisoners' aid societies of England, of which 67 are re- 
 ported and there are about 90 in Great Britain illustrate one impor- 
 tant advantage secured by their multiplication and cooperation. They 
 become centers for the education of public opinion concerning all ques- 
 tions of prison reform. The English societies bring to bear upon Par- 
 liament and upon the Government the force of their influence to secure 
 better methods and better legislation. Thus, in 1893, a congress of the 
 various prisoners' aid societies in England was convened in London, to 
 which 50 societies sent deputies. At this conference resolutions were 
 passed recommending amended legislation for habitual drunkards, rais- 
 ing the question of gratuity to ticket-of-leave men, and urging the non- 
 imprisonment of children. The committee of the North Staffordshire 
 society say: 
 
 Your committee have for some years lamented the isolated conditions under which 
 the various societies have hitherto been content to work. Apart from the intrinsic 
 value of the four reforms above specified, we attach paramount importance to that 
 fast-growing spirit of cooperation, combination, and free interchange of experience 
 by which they have been brought within the range of practical possibilities. 
 
 In the valuable report of Mr. E. Ruggles-Brise already referred to, 
 the essential elements of the treatment of discharged convicts are 
 described and the work that is done by the aid societies, the temporary 
 homes, and the Salvation Army is warmly recognized. In England the 
 prisoner does not receive a portion of his earnings as such, but receives 
 certain gratuities. On his discharge from a local prison that is to say, 
 a prison in which the sentences are of short duration, from one day to 
 two years he may receive not more than 10 shillings. On leaving a 
 convict prison where the sentences vary from three years to life the 
 highest amount available to him is 6. Above a certain minimum sum, 
 the aid societies take charge of the gratuities for the prisoner. The 
 Government also gives certain sums to these societies. The amount 
 given has generally been based on the requirement that private dona- 
 tions should reach an equal amount, or that the subsidy given by the 
 Government should be limited by the amount received from other 
 sources. "The principal difficulty," says Mr. Euggles-Brise, ''which 
 retards the work of the reformer is the shortness of sentences. More 
 than half of the sentences are for less than fifteen days. Thirty-eight 
 per cent are condemned to a week or less. Thirteen per cent only 
 remain prisoners long enough to obtain a gratuity on their discharge. 
 Thus, in the case of the great majority of prisoners they have very little 
 if any occasion to exercise their beneficent influence. In spite of this the 
 prisoners' aid societies are in communication with nearly all the prisons 
 throughout the United Kingdom and are doing an immense amount of 
 good. The energy, zeal, and devotion excited by that special form of 
 charity from one end of the Kingdom to the other are truly admirable."
 
 134 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 Agents are employed to-day in most all prisons ; in some, two agents 
 are employed, one for the male and one for the female prisoners. 
 
 No question in England, we are told, has given rise to so much 
 diversity of opinion as that relating to the establishment of temporary 
 homes for men. In general, in England, public opinion is against the 
 adoption of such a system. On the Continent it is more favorable to 
 these establishments. Mr. Ruggles-Brise doubts if the opinion common 
 in England is correct. But little has been done in this direction in 
 England during the last twenty years. Canon Jacobs, of Portsmouth, 
 believes strongly in labor homes, and says, "Our missionaries rarely 
 fail to find work for those who have passed through the labor home and 
 are benefited by it." Mr. Ruggles-Brise is of the opinion that every 
 prison ought to have a labor home in connection with it. Some prisons 
 take advantage of the homes or shelters established by the Salvation 
 Army, which do a great amount of good. As for refuges for women, 
 public opinion is practically unanimous in their favor. Semi-official 
 refuges for women have obtained excellent results. They are applied to 
 long-sentence convicts, not to local prisons. Generally speaking, they 
 depend upon conditional liberation after the expiration of a third of the 
 sentence, with power to recommit the prisoner in case of misconduct. 
 
 In England the curious are strictly excluded, but every facility is 
 offered to persons properly accredited and recognized whose object is 
 the well-being of a prisoner. 
 
 OTHER COUNTRIES. 
 
 Prisoners' aid societies also exist in Germany, Belgium, Holland, 
 Italy, and Russia. The Duchy of Baden alone has 59 district commit- 
 tees, grouped under the direction of a central committee. The custom 
 of giving prisoners gratuities or a portion of their earnings as a reserve 
 fund against discharge, prevails in nearly all European countries, and 
 it even extends to Japan, where conditional liberation has also been 
 introduced. 
 
 ACTION OF THE FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS. 
 
 So far as the discharged prisoner is concerned, discussion at the Fifth 
 International Prison Congress centered in the question, What means 
 should be taken to prevent discharged prisoners from wasting their 
 accumulation on leaving prison, and thus falling again into crime? The 
 action on this subject is given in the report of the third section. 
 
 CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 From this wide survey of European methods, what conclusions may 
 be drawn in regard to our own country? 
 
 (1) The weight of evidence shows that in the countries and districts 
 where aid for discharged prisoners is most actively and efficiently 
 organized there has been a marked decrease in the percentage of 
 recommitments to prison.
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 135 
 
 (2) Where aid for prisoners is most sufficiently organized, we find also 
 an improved prison system and a due attention to preventive agencies. 
 One can not take hold of one end of this prison problem earnestly with- 
 out being obliged to take hold of the other. It was the Prisoners' Aid 
 Society at Baltimore that discovered that a children's aid society was 
 needed. As we have seen, the prisoners' aid societies in England are 
 earnestly advocating preventive measures. 
 
 (3) In England, France, Switzerland, and in some other countries, 
 prisoners' aid societies are vastly more numerous and active than iii 
 the United States. For the most part they are officially recognized and 
 aided by Government funds, and their work is carried on in cooperation 
 with prison officials. The question rises whether we should not have 
 prison associations in every State of the Union, with committees or 
 district societies in every county or wherever there is a prison. 
 
 The opposition of many wardens in this country to such societies may 
 be attributed to the unbusinesslike and unpractical manner in which 
 such organizations have worked, though as a matter of fact there are 
 so few societies in active existence in this country that few wardens 
 have had much experience with them. If societies in this country like 
 those in Switzerland and in England were brought into close relation 
 with the wardens and claplains of prisons, they would gain by the prac- 
 tical wisdom and experience which prison officials have acquired. 
 
 (4) We can not separate the proper treatment of discharged convicts 
 from the large question of prison administration. When a man returns 
 to prison a second or third time it may be because when he went out he 
 was not properly educated to go back into society, or it may be because 
 society was not properly educated to receive him. Those who have to 
 deal with discharged convicts know the difference in dealing with a 
 prisoner who has come from a house of correction and one who comes 
 from Reformatory. If one has learned a trade, or has had the manual 
 education which lies at the basis of all trades, it is not so difficult to 
 place him. But if one comes out of prison without education, it is 
 hard to tell which is more helpless, the prisoner who asks for aid or the 
 man who would like to aid him. 
 
 On the other hand, let us not make the mistake of assuming that the 
 best prison system and the best prison officers can wholly decide the 
 fate of the discharged convict if society is hostile and apathetic toward 
 him. The work that is done within prison must be supplemented by 
 sympathetic and helpful work when the prisoner comes out. 
 
 (5) In regard to the establishment of labor homes, the writer, while 
 admitting their practical usefulness in certain places and under wise 
 management, believes that when the indeterminate sentence, or some 
 wise form of conditional liberation is universally adopted, there will be 
 little if any need of such labor homes for discharged prisoners. The 
 prison can shelter them until they are reasonably assured of work 
 outside.
 
 136 
 
 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 
 
 (6) Of all the systems and methods examined, none seems so wise, so 
 fruitful, and so promising as the Swiss system, in which every prisoner 
 not a confirmed recidivist may have a patron who shall be to him a 
 guardian and friend. Nothing can take the place of that form of 
 practical Christianity which the Apostle Peter illustrated Avheii he 
 said "Silver and gold have I none," but gave his right hand to the 
 man at the gate. It is not money, but the right hand extended through 
 the probation system which many a convict needs when he stands in 
 the court of justice, it is the right hand of education and discipline 
 which he needs in prison; and it is the right hand of friendship, sym- 
 pathy, and fraternity which he needs when he passes once more from 
 prison into the great, wide world.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Acknowledgments 74, 93 
 
 Address of welcome by M. Leygues 15 
 
 American prison systems, by Gen. R. Brinkerhoff 45 
 
 Amsterdam prison - 
 
 Alkmar reformatory 103 
 
 Anthropometric measurements 107, 1 13 
 
 Arnheim prison 103 
 
 Ashford reformatory _. 
 
 Austria, Discharged convicts in 126 
 
 Barrows, S. J. , Probation system in Massachusetts - _ . 34 
 
 Basel 97 
 
 Belfast union workhouse . 
 
 Belgian prisons 104 
 
 Bertillon system 75, 95, 107 
 
 Brauweiler workhouse 101 
 
 Brinkerhoff, Gen.R.: 
 
 American prison systems. ..... 45 
 
 Reforms by. 72 
 
 British and continental prisons 79 
 
 British and continental prisons 79 
 
 Bruschal prison _ - . 99 
 
 Bruschal district prison 99 
 
 Brussels prison 105 
 
 Centralized administration 75 
 
 Children and minors i 57 
 
 Classification of crime . . 28 
 
 Classification of prisoners 42 
 
 Cologne 101 
 
 Compensation for prisoners 40 
 
 Conditional liberation - - 30 
 
 Conciergerie 95 
 
 Conclusion as to European prisons _ 106. 
 
 Conclusions on discharged convicts 134 
 
 Congress, composition of 20 
 
 Scope and method 21 
 
 Opening of 15 
 
 Organization 19 
 
 Close of 66 
 
 Criminal insane 43 
 
 Denmark, Discharged convicts in . _ _ 127 
 
 Dependent children 101 
 
 Discharged convicts: 
 
 Supervision of 50 
 
 in Europe ... 120 
 
 Duflos, M. , Opening address of 19 
 
 Dusseldorf 102 
 
 Dutch prisons 102 
 
 .English prisons 84 
 
 England, Discharged convicts in 132 
 
 Fallen women . . 102 
 
 Federal prisons 76 
 
 France, Discharged convicts in ... 120 
 
 French prisons 94 
 
 Freiburg . . 97 
 
 German prisons 97 
 
 Ghent prison 106 
 
 Gloucester jail 87 
 
 137
 
 138 INDEX. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Grades of prisons 81 
 
 Gratuities for prisoners 7ft 
 
 Guardianship by the State .. .. 58 
 
 Guillaume, Dr., Tribute to E. C. Wines ... 71 
 
 Hague, The 104 
 
 Hardwicke reformatory 87 
 
 Hungary, Discharged convicts in 12ft 
 
 Identification of criminals 38, 107 
 
 Indemnity of the victims of crime 27 
 
 Indeterminate sentence. 75 
 
 Industrial school for boys. 8ft 
 
 Intemperance _ 55 
 
 International Prison Commission: 
 
 Need of a United States commissioner 5 
 
 Official invitation to United States 7 
 
 Preliminary work 14 
 
 International cooperation against crime 25 
 
 International patronage 6ft 
 
 Irish prisons 82- 
 
 Irresponsible delinquents 53 
 
 Juvenile reformatories 82, 83, 8ft 
 
 Kingswood reformatory school 87 
 
 King's Norton Union 88 
 
 Lafayette, A tribute to 73 
 
 Legal age of minority 57 
 
 Lenzbourg 98 
 
 Letter of transmittal of Secretary of State 3 
 
 Letter of transmittal to Secretary of State 13 
 
 Lewis, Charlton T.: 
 
 Address of 31 
 
 Tribute to Lafayette 
 
 Leygues, M. , Address of welcome 15 
 
 Le Roquette 94 
 
 Louvain prison .-... 105 
 
 Mannheim district prison _ 100 
 
 Mannheim jail... 100 
 
 Melun 94 
 
 Montessan 95 
 
 McClaughry, R.W., The Reformatory System 47 
 
 Minimum or maximum penalties 62 
 
 Minority, Legal age of 57 
 
 Narterre 94 
 
 Netherlands Mettray 103- 
 
 Our special weakness 92. 
 
 Parkhurst 85 
 
 Penal legislation 22 
 
 Pentonville prison. 85 
 
 Physical exercise in prisons 44 
 
 Physical education for minors. 62 
 
 Pols, M. , Response of 16 
 
 Preventive means 50- 
 
 Prevention of prostitution 64 
 
 Prison administration 38 
 
 Prison at Louvain 105 
 
 Prison journals 51 
 
 Prison labor 39 1 
 
 Prison libraries 51 
 
 Prison schools 51 
 
 Prisoners' aid societies 76 
 
 Prisons for women 39 
 
 Prisons of Belgium 104 
 
 Prisons of Holland 102 
 
 Prisons of Switzerland 96 
 
 Probation 26,34,36,75 
 
 Proposed improvements in England 92 
 
 Prostitution, Prevention of... 64 
 
 Prussian prison 1 00-
 
 INDEX. . 139 
 
 Page. 
 
 Punishments 42 
 
 Receptions and excursions 6? 
 
 Recidivists 22 
 
 Recommendations by the United States delegates 7> 
 
 Recompenses, The multiplication of 41 
 
 Reformatory prisons . . 76 
 
 Reformatory system, R. W. McClaughry 47 
 
 Relapsed criminals 22 
 
 Response of M. Pols 16 
 
 Royal Prussian prison .._ 121 
 
 Rotterdam . 104 
 
 School for warders 96 
 
 Schools and houses of correction 60 
 
 Scotch prisons 84 
 
 Spain, Discharged convicts in 125 
 
 St. Gall 97 
 
 Statistics of crime 76 
 
 Supervision of children placed in families 63 
 
 Supervision of discharged convicts.. ...'-... 50 
 
 Switzerland, Discharged convicts in 127 
 
 Swiss prisons 96 
 
 Sweden, Discharged convicts in 127 
 
 Training ship Akbar. 89 
 
 Transportation 23 
 
 United States delegation, Organization of 13 
 
 United States jails 75 
 
 Vagrancy 54 
 
 Visiting committees 80*
 
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