ishment and Reforma No 313-315. he is confined in the same or in some local jail. Most of Wines, Punthese institutions seem to have taken no share in the great advance movement for better prisons and better methods. tion, Ordinarily they are unhealthy; often they are worse. work is provided in most instances except possibly on a chain gang, neither is there any classification of prisoners according to age or crime. As all are thrown together, and idleness prevails, local prisons cannot be said to be effective agencies in the prevention of crime. Blackburn, In some States no prisons, state or local, are provided for Lease the permanent retention of prisoners, and the labor of the system. convicts is sold to contractors who take entire charge of them, often giving them the poorest of food and treating B. F., in them with barbarity. The usual results are all that even Leslie's Pop. Mag., a system of punishment should not include, and the only attempted justification of the disgraceful system is the 595-606. annual sum paid for the services of the convicts. 117. Reform of Juvenile Offenders. courts and probation. F. M., in Reu of Revs., Society's change of Juvenile attitude toward criminals is nowhere so conspicuous as in its treatment of youthful citizens who break the laws. Since the crimes of even adults are considered to some extent the results of disease, an effort is made to correct in Bjorkman, children physical defects which may cause lawlessness, and to give them incentives to better living. In most of 33 (1906), our large cities youthful offenders are now tried in special 305–311. juvenile courts, where justice is tempered with so much mercy that first offenders are almost invariably placed upon Boies, Science of probation for several years, during which they are kept Penology, employed, if possible, and required to report regularly to a 245-263. court officer. The value of the work of reformation being accomplished by the famous "boy's judge," Ben. B. Lindsay of Denver, and other conscientious and able jurists in these courts cannot be estimated. When a youth can no longer be allowed his freedom on Reform probation, he is sent to one of the state reformatories for schools. juvenile offenders which are found in almost every part of Boies, General health laws. General quarantine. our country. By means of strict discipline, by training the boys and the girls to use their minds and their hands to advantage, and by teaching them self-control and the rights of others, an earnest and fairly successful attempt is made by these schools to change them into useful citizens. Often their later careers are watched to prevent the graduates from reëntering a career of crime, for the difficulties encountered by a man who has served a sentence in a prison or reform school are very great, even when he desires to follow the right path. PROTECTION OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH 118. Contagious Diseases. There has been a great advance during the last quarter century in the demand for more complete laws protecting public health. Those now in use include laws to prevent the introduction or spread of contagious or infectious diseases, laws requiring the adoption of strict sanitary regulations in cities, those which prescribe standards for food of different kinds as well as laws regulating the sale of drugs and the practice of medicine. There is comparatively little danger from great epidemics as in the past, first, because people realize that these have been fostered by filth, and, second, because at all our ports Wyman, W., strict quarantine is established, if there is possibility of in Forum, 26 (1898-9), 684-692. Local introducing any plague. This combination of removing probable causes and of exclusion has proved quite effective. The destruction in swamps of mosquitoes that carry yellow fever germs has eradicated to a large degree that terrible scourge. The national government does an important work in preventing the introduction of disease from abroad by medical inspection of immigrants (§ 290), and by supplementary quarantine regulations. When people are crowded together as in large cities, extra quarantine. precautions are necessary to prevent the introduction and spread of disease. The city health department, with its phy. sicians and inspectors, has especial charge of all cases of contagious or infectious diseases, which are carefully isolated so that others may not be infected. When epidemics are raging, an entire city or some section of it is subjected to very strict quarantine to confine the danger within a limited area. So successful have these sanitary regulations become that the proportion of deaths from the more common infectious diseases is now very much smaller than a few years ago, while the terrible curse of smallpox has almost died out, owing largely to the use of vaccination. measures. 119. Sanitation. In cities, particularly, there is especial General danger from diseases like typhoid fever, which are developed sanitary from an impure supply of water, or which come from defective plumbing, an inadequate supply of fresh air, the accumulation of dust, rubbish, or filth in yards or streets, and, more than all else, a defective system of sewage disposal. Am. Mun. In the country and in cities a century ago each house- A supply holder had his own well, but allowed refuse to collect on of pure water. his premises or to drain into the nearest depression. If lots are large and near neighbors are not numerous, the risks of contamination may be considerable, but not serious. Zueblin, In cities a failure to keep the water supply free from impurities produces quickly disease and death. Where cities 102-105, depend on near-by sources of water supply, as do many of 116–120. those near the Great Lakes or on large inland rivers, some wastes of that city or other cities are sure to be found in the water used for drinking. Some cities aim to secure pure water by carrying it long distances from lakes whose watersheds are cleared of possible impurities. Others use some system of filtering the water, following the lead of many European cities. Others seek only to remove the chief sources of contamination by disposing of their sewage in some less dangerous way. Building To the plumbing and building inspectors falls a share of regulations the life-saving work, for, particularly in large cities, a fair and health. |