Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/471

 AMERICAN REFORMATORY SYSTEM 457

each." "Justice is always the distribution of natural equity among unequals," but, what human intelligence is sufficient for these things? Our human equity and clemency, esteemed equi- table, must infract the strict rule of justice. Notwithstanding the world-wide similarity in terminology of crimes there is great dissimilarity of the penalties attached; and, within the discre- tionary margin of the laws, different magistrates and the same magistrate at different times fortuitously change the notion of desert and vary penalties. Casual circumstances and personal peculiarities and moods so affect the. judgment of men as to pre- clude uniformity of rule or practice. And so different is the experience of imprisonment upon different prisoners — one's pri- vation another's privilege — that uniformity itself would subvert the intended equality. The blindfold image of justice is most appropriate, for it not only typifies the intended impartiality but also the impossibility for a correct adjustment of the scales.

It is believed that the nearest possible approach to criminal justice is reached unsought — when 'tis left to nature; that "ac- cording to the natural order of things, the way of the trans- gressor is (already) hard;" and, that nature's truest requital for every phase of morbidity — whether of the body, the mind, or the social status — is found in the necessary accompanying pains of the process of recovery.

DETERRENCY

Little reliance is had on the deterrent principle alone for restraint of crimes or regulation of the conduct and character of offenders. No doubt the experience of pain and pleasure pos- sesses a certain educational value, teaching what is profitable and the reverse; but fear is at best but the beginning of wisdom and fear always evidences and usually effects a reduced and in- constant mental condition. Welfare and adversity, antithetically related, supplement each other, but there is a wide difference of the mood and degree of stability when the one or the other is pursued. Avoiding adversity is as voyaging among reefs and breakers in fear of wreck, while pursuit of welfare is like follow- ing the charted ocean path voyaging wide at sea. Strong and