Commitment, detention, care and treatment of the insane : being a report of the fourth section of the International congress of Charities, Correction and Philanthropy, Chicago, June, 1893 / edited by G. Alder Blumer, A. B. Richardson.

  • International Congress of Charities, Correction, and Philanthropy (1893 : Chicago, Ill.)
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Commitment, detention, care and treatment of the insane : being a report of the fourth section of the International congress of Charities, Correction and Philanthropy, Chicago, June, 1893 / edited by G. Alder Blumer, A. B. Richardson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    may cease to be theatrical plays, and become quiet investigations of the criminal’s temperament, mental, moral and physical, and an application of the remedies suggested by the new experimental science of Criminology. The Chairman.—Remarks upon this paper are now in order. There being none, the section will be addressed by Dr. Wines. THE PAROLE SYSTEM. FREDERICK H. WINES, LL. D. I have been asked to say a few words with regard to the parole system. The parole, sometimes called ticket-of-leave, is the conditional liberation of a prisoner, prior to the expiration of the sentence pro- nounced upon him by the court. It differs from a pardon, inasmuch as a pardon is an absolute release. It differs from the shortening of sentence under the operation of what are called “ good time ” laws, because, after a prisoner has earned the commutation of his sentence by good conduct while in prison, he is then absolutely released. But under the parole system he is placed out in the world merely to be tested. The state reserves to itself the right to rearrest him, reincar- cerate him, and compel him to serve out the unexpired term of his sentence, in case he violates the conditions of his parole. Now, this form of release is essentially a modification of the sen- tence originally pronounced. It is, therefore, like all other forms of change of sentence, antagonistic to the public impression that the penalty of crime is and must be a fixed quantity. If it were possible for us to measure crime on the one hand and punishment on the other, and so to adjust punishment to actual guilt that the operation of the criminal law should be absolutely equitable, there would be no room for pardon, which is the remission of penalty, or for the abridgment of sentences as a reward for good conduct in prison, or for the parole system. If the sole basis of the criminal law is retri- bution, both human and divine justice require that the penalty of violated law should be exacted from the offender, and no sentence once pronounced should be subject to modification by the act of any branch of the government, legislative, judicial or executive. Accordingly we find that the parole system has made its way with the greatest rapidity and confidence in countries where the idea that