The Manufacture of Criminals.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 5 January 1892, Page 2

The Manufacture of Criminals.

In the Forum is an article by MrW. P. Andrews of how the Americans are creating criminals by their extravagant leniency to convict prisoners. It is almost incredible, were it not that it is set forth with ,- due detail, that the criminals in some of the American prisons are fed on

the fat of the land,' provided with fruit collations every Saturday, and that brass bands, negro minstrels orphestral selections, the best lecturers of the day, together with flowera, pictures, and Cbromr Christmas cards, are provided fo; them either by the State, or by th( charitable members of the com muriity The result is that in fifty years the ratio of prisoners has risen from one in eight hundred of th* population to one in four hundred, while in the city of Boston one person in every two hundred and twenty-two is a prisoner. In Massa ehusetts the population has trebled, and the number of prisoners has increased fifty-fold ; nor is this surprising when we read that a physician had, aftertwo years of imprisonment, declared that it was just a vacation, ; the library being very entertaining, j and first-rate players of dominbes and checkers being found among the men.