Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/117

 CRIME IN STATE AND MUNICIPALITY 10 1

lance in the suppression of vice and to purge itself of the criminal class. Whether the large expense here advocated can be justified on the ground of political economy depends upon the answers to be given to some very complicated questions: What is the direct and indirect cost of crime to a community ? What would be the saving in money to a state if 80 or even 50 per cent, of its convicts were rescued from a life of crime and transformed into industrious and law-abiding citizens ? In the light of experience, estimating the results that have been actually wrought by reform- atory prisons, it is possible, by careful computation, to arrive at but one conclusion. The establishment of a reformatory prison, and its operation through skilled managers upon approved scientific methods, yield larger pecuniary returns to the public than the investment of an equivalent amount in any other public work whatsoever. It would not be difficult to prove that the pecuniary benefit gained by the people of the state of New York from the Elmira Reformatory has already far exceeded in amount all that the state has expended both in the erection and in the maintenance of that institution. 1

Another objection that may be urged to the exclusive control of prisons by the state is the danger that they may be made the " spoils " of party politics. That is precisely the evil which has ruined the county jails, and which must always prove fatal to any prison or prison system brought under purely partisan con- trol. There is only one way of meeting this evil, and that is by a system of efficient inspection and supervision, with power to correct abuses; and such supervision can be made efficient only by the support of an enlightened and alert public spirit. If all the prisons in the state were brought under a central and uniform control, the system on which they were managed would command a greatly increased importance and publicity; the obscure and petty jails now existing would be supplanted by great institu- tions, avowing large aims and claiming to be conducted on scien- tific principles; the public attention and interest would be arrested, and abuses which pass unnoticed and unknown in the local jails would become impossible under the administration of

1 Cf. The Science of Penology, by Henry M. Boies, pp. 135, 161.