POVERTY, DESTITUTION, OVERCROWDING, AND CRIME
The majority of persons in prison there because of their poverty-- Poverty and drink--Poverty and petty offences--Poverty and thrift-- Poverty and destitution--Case of theft from destitution--Poverty and vagrancy--Unemployment and beggary--Formation of professional offenders--The case of the old--The degradation of the unemployed to unemployability--No ratio between the amount of poverty alone and the amount of crime--A definite ratio between density of population and crime--Slum life--Overcrowding--Cases of destitution and overcrowding--Overcrowding and decency--Poverty and overcrowding in relation to offences against the person--The poor and officials--The absence of opportunity for rational recreation--The migratory character of the population--The multiplication of laws and of penalties--Transgressions due to ignorance and to inability to conform--Contrast between city and country administration--Case of petty offender--Treatment induces further offences--The city the hiding-place of the professional criminal--Crime largely a by-product of city life.
While the majority of prisoners were under the influence of drink at the time they committed the offences for which they are convicted, it is equally true that they are in prison because of their poverty. They are there because they are unable to pay the fines imposed on them. Their offences may be attributable to drink, but their imprisonment is due to want of money. There are many who are most estimable citizens, though poor; poverty alone does not lead them to prison. On the other hand, there are many people who drink to excess and do not transgress the law; their drunkenness alone does not lead them to jail; but while a man may be poor and virtuous, his poverty will compel him to live under conditions in which any vices he has may easily develop into crimes or offences.
It is sometimes said that poverty, and especially the poverty of the masses, is the result of drink, but no statement was ever more grotesquely untrue. That drink aggravates poverty is obvious; but no one can shut his eyes to the fact that all poor people do not drink, and that all teetotalers are not rich. Drink is often a cause of poverty; but to attribute poverty mainly to drink is wantonly to libel thousands of our poorer fellow-citizens who live far cleaner lives than many of their critics. On the other hand, it is equally unsafe to attribute drinking mainly to poverty, for many who indulge freely are possessed of considerable means, and the practice is not peculiar to any social condition. That some are driven to drink as a refuge from the monotony of their lives is undeniable; but if poverty makes some men drunkards it makes others teetotalers. They see that their chances of "getting on" are less if they take drink than they would be if they kept strictly sober, and they abstain till they have attained their object; though they may make up for their abstinence afterwards.