Chapter II: Poverty, Destitution, Overcrowding, and Crime

The majority of persons in prison there because of their
poverty--Poverty and drink--Poverty and petty offences--
Poverty and thrift--Poverty and destitution--Case of theft
from destitution--Poverty and vagrancy--Unemployment and
beggary--Formation of professional offenders--The case of
the old--The degradation of the unemployed to
unemployability--No ratio between the amount of poverty
alone and the amount of crime--A definite ratio between
density of population and crime--Slum life--Overcrowding--
Cases of destitution and overcrowding--Overcrowding and
decency--Poverty and overcrowding in relation to offences
against the person--The poor and officials--The absence
of opportunity for rational recreation--The migratory
character of the population--The multiplication of laws
and of penalties--Transgressions due to ignorance and to
inability to conform--Contrast between city and country
administration--Case of petty offender--Treatment induces
further offences--The city the hiding-place of the
professional criminal--Crime largely a by-product of city
life 67-94

CHAPTER III IMMIGRATION AND CRIME

The stranger most likely to offend--The reaction to new
surroundings--The difficulty of recovery--The attraction
of the city--The Churches and the immigrant--Benevolent
associations--The alien immigrants--Their tendency to hold
themselves apart--Deportation--A language test required--
The alien criminal--His dangerous character--The need for
powers to deal with him 95-102

CHAPTER IV SOCIAL CONDITIONS AND CRIME

The millionaire and the pauper--Ill-feeling and
misunderstanding--Social ambitions--Case of embezzlement--
Preaching and practice--Gambling--The desire to "get on"--
The need to deal with those who profit by the helplessness
of others--Political action--Its difficulty--Legislation
and administration--The official and the public--Personal
aid--Fellowship 103-116

CHAPTER V AGE AND CRIME

The inexperience of youth--The training of boys--Case of a
truant--Another case--Intractability--The foolishness of
parent and teacher--The absence of mutual understanding--
Recreation--Malicious mischief and petty theft--The cause
thereof--The need for instructing parents--Pernicious
literature--The other kind--The modern Dick Turpin--The
boy as he leaves school--Amusements--Repression--
Blind-alley occupations--The adolescent--Physical strain
of many occupations--Unequal physical and mental
development--The street trader--Hooliganism--Knowledge
and experience--The perils of youth--Old age 117-139

CHAPTER VI SEX AND CRIME

The position of woman--The posturing of men--Love and
crime--Two cases of theft from sexual attraction--The
female thief--Case--Blackmailing--Jealousy and crime--Two
murder cases--Case of assault--Fewer women than men are
criminals--Their greater difficulty in recovery--Young
girls and sexual offences--The perils of girlhood--Wages
and conduct--Exotic standards of dress--Ignorance and
wrongdoing--The domestic servant--Her difficulties--
Concealment of pregnancy cases--The culprit and the
father--Morals--The fallen woman--Bigamy 140-160

CHAPTER VII PUNISHMENT

The universal cure-all--The public and the advertising
healer--The essence of all quackery--The quackery of
punishment--Rational treatment--Justice not bad temper--
Retribution--Our fathers and ourselves--Their methods not
necessarily suitable to our time--Capital punishment--The
incurable and the incorrigible--Objections to capital
punishment apply in degree to all punishment--The "cat"--
The executioner and the surgeon--Whipping and its
effect--The flogged offender--The act and the intention--
Pain and vitality--Unequal effects of punishment--Fines
and their burden--Who is punished most?--Punishment and
expiation--Punishment and deterrence--Social opinion the
real deterrent--Vicious social circles--Respect for the
law--Prevention of crime 161-185

PART III THE TREATMENT OF THE CRIMINAL

CHAPTER I THE MACHINERY OF THE LAW

The police and their duties--Divided control--Need for
knowledge of local peculiarities--The fear of
"corruption"--The police cell--Cleanliness and
discomfort--Insufficient provision of diet, etc.--The
casualty surgeon--The police court--The untrained
magistrate--The assessor--Pleas of "guilty"--Case--Apathy
of the public--Agents for the Poor--The prison van--The
sheriff court--The procurator-fiscal--Procedure in the
higher courts--The Scottish jury 189-209

CHAPTER II THE PRISON SYSTEM

Centralisation--The constitution of the Prison
Commission--Parliamentary control--The Commissioners--The
rules--The visiting committee--The governor and the
matron--The chaplain--The medical officer--The staff 210-219

CHAPTER III THE PRISON AND ITS ROUTINE

Reception of the prisoner--Cleanliness and order--The plan
of the prison--The cells--Their furniture--The diet--The
clothing--Work--The Workshops--Separate confinement and
association--Gratuities--Prison offences--Complaints--
Punishment cells--Visits of the chaplain--Visits of
representatives of the Churches--The gulf between visitor
and visited--The Chapel--The Salvation Army--Rest--
Recreation--The prison Library--Lectures--The
airing-yard--Physical drill 220-242

CHAPTER IV VARIATIONS IN ROUTINE

The sick--Prison hospitals--The removal of the sick to
outside hospitals--The wisdom of this course--The
essential difference between a prison and other public
institutions--The treatment of refractory prisoners--The
folly of assuming that rules are more sacred than
persons--The position of the medical officer in relation
to the prisoner--The danger of divided responsibility--The
untried prisoner--His privileges--Civil prisoners--
Imprisonment for contempt of court--The convict--Short and
long sentences 243-257

CHAPTER V THE PRISONER ON LIBERATION

His condition--His need--Alleged persecution of
ex-prisoners--Discharged prisoners' aid societies--Work--
Temptations--The discharged female offender--The attitude
of women towards her--"Homes"--The women's objections to
them--Pay--The religious atmosphere and the harmful
associations--The effect of imprisonment 258-270

CHAPTER VI THE INEBRIATE HOME

The need to find out why people do wrong before attempting
to cure them--Enquiries as to inebriety--The inebriates--
Official utterances--Cost and results--The grievance of
the unreformed--The time limit of cure--The causes of
failure--The fostering of old associations--The prospect
of the future spree--The institution habit 271-283

CHAPTER VII THE PREVENTION OF CRIMES ACT (1908)

The Borstal experiment--Provisions for the "reformation of
young offenders"--Is any diminution in the numbers of
police expected?--Preventive detention--The implied
confession that penal servitude does not reform and the
insistence on it as a preliminary to reform--The prisoner
detained at the discretion of the prison officials--The
powers of the Secretary of State--The change under the
statute--The necessary ignorance of the Secretary of State
by reason of his other duties--The "committees"--The
habits to be taught--The teaching of trades--The ignorance
of trades on the part of those who design to teach them--
The difficulty of teaching professions in institutions
less than that of teaching trades--The vice of obedience
taught--Intelligent co-operation and senseless
subordination--The military man in the industrial
community 284-303

CHAPTER VIII THE FAMILY AS MODEL

The basis of the family not necessarily a blood tie--
Adoption--The head and the centre of the family--The
feeling of joint responsibility--The black sheep--
Companionship and sympathy necessities in life--Reform
only possible when these are found--"Conversion" only
temporary in default of force of new interests--The one
way in which reform is made permanent 304-310

CHAPTER IX ALTERNATIVES TO IMPRISONMENT

What is required--The case of the minor offenders--The
incidence of fines--The prevention of drunkenness--Clubs--
Probation of offenders--Its partial application--Defects
in its administration--The false position of the probation
officer--Guardians required--Case of young girl--The plea
of want of power--Old and destitute offenders--Prison and
poorhouse 311-328

CHAPTER X THE BETTER WAY

The offender who has become reckless--If not killed they
must be kept--The failure of the institution--Boarding
out--At present they are boarded out on liberation, but
without supervision--Guardians may be found when they are
sought for--The result of boarding out children--The
insane boarded out--Unconditional liberation has failed--
Conditional liberation with suitable provision has not
been tried--No system of dealing with men, but only a
method--No necessity for the formation of the habitual
offender--The one principle in penology 329-339

INDEX 343-348