Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/109

 CRIME IN STATE AND MUNICIPALITY 93

Another reason why the state courts alone should be invested with criminal jurisdiction is found in the fact that such exclusive jurisdiction tends to secure uniformity in the administration of criminal law. A person now arraigned may secure acquittal through the rulings of any court excluding certain evidence, while in another court a different ruling would result in con- viction; or, if found guilty, a prisoner may receive a sentence of thirty days in one court, and another prisoner under the same circumstances in another court may receive a sentence of three years. These gross divergences between different tribunals in the conduct of trials and in the length of sentences imposed cast disrepute upon the administration of justice and weaken the force of the criminal law. If all criminal trials were confined to the state courts such inequalities and inconsistencies would in great measure disappear. For the state courts, though separ- ated from each other locally, have equal and concurrent juris- diction and collectively constitute, practically, one court; in rec- ognition of this fact, their judges have always aimed at a har- monious procedure; there is a body of practice, of precedent, of tradition, which constantly tends to effect, and does largely effect, a certain unity in judicial thought and action among these co-ordinate courts. The beneficial effect of this unity is now observable in such criminal cases as come to trial in the state courts. Most of the incongruities and contradictions that mar the administration of the criminal law arise from the clashing of the inferior municipal courts.

IMPRISONMENT

There are two kinds of imprisonment, widely different in their nature and object: imprisonment after sentence, which is punitive, and imprisonment before sentence and while awaiting trial, which is a mere continuation of the arrest having no penal feature, but aiming simply at the safe custody of the prisoner. These two forms of imprisonment require wholly different modes of treatment and must be considered separately.

i. Imprisonment: after sentence. It is now universally admitted that the state imprisons the convict from no motive of vengeance or retribution. He is imprisoned for precisely the