He commended the system recently adopted in the District of Columbia under which inebriates are sent to an institution in the country, where they are allowed to work in the open air under wholesome environment and are not branded as of the criminal class. “Sooner or later the student of criminology must come to a realization of the importance of the study of the child.” Heredity was mentioned as a factor in the problem, and the subject of early environment should receive careful study.
He congratulated the Association for their good work in advocating the adoption of laws providing for the Indeterminate Sentence. This does not mean that a man must always be discharged before the time of his maximum sentence, it may also mean the creation of tribunals to decide whether a man is ready to be let loose upon society regardless of the time of his sentence. In other words, our prisons and reformatories should be conducted as hospitals and as institutions for those whose minds are diseased, from which patients are discharged upon recovery of their malady.
The interest of the citizens of Omaha was displayed in their attendance at the mass meeting held on Sabbath afternoon in the Auditorium of the city. This building has accommodations for several thousand, and was nearly filled. This meeting was addressed by Professor Henderson, Warden Gilmour of Toronto, Canada, Bishop Tihen of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lincoln, Neb., and Maud Ballington Booth. It is not my intention in this communication to present to you even a synopsis of what was said on this great occasion, but such meetings arouse interest in our cause to many whom our published reports never reach.
Professor Henderson condemned the changes of officials in our prisons on account of political conditions. He condemned the construction of iron cells for prisoners, saying that it was absurd that in the construction of prisons some dealer in structural iron should impose upon the officials a building more suitable for the caging of animals in a zoölogical garden.
Warden Gilmour of Toronto, Canada, emphasized the importance of fresh air and sunshine as a reformatory agency. “If we can take our prisoners from the jails and the workhouses and build them up physically, which we must do first if we would build them up morally, we have made the first great step toward reform.” He has a farm of 840 acres, to which he has sent from 800 to 900 prisoners. Of them, he has failed in the reform of 3 out of each 100, and has succeeded in 97 out of every 100. The great majority of our jail population does not consist of criminals, he said, but of men who have been the victims of their environment. With the proper environment, such as fresh air and sunshine, wholesome work, kind treatment, trust reposed in them, and the sympathy and help of men and women interested in their welfare, they become useful members of society.