IN GAOL

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 79, 3 April 1926, Page 21

IN GAOL

"Thet Criminal." By Sir Basil Thorn.-',' '; son.. London: Hodder and Stough- :•'.-■ ■ ton; If Sir Basil Thomson, a former governor of Dartmoor Prison, is correct ' then the payment of the dole in Great Britain has resulted in economy in prison expenditure. In his interesting and enlightening book, "The Crimi»al>" he endeavours to show that "crime waves" aro inventions of the fiewspapers. Carefully compiled statistiea show that crime is generally declining; but if the curve rises above ,the gradually falling normal level the movement is generally associated with industrial depression, whereas revi.yal in trade sends it down again. "It "is probable," says Sir Basil, "that the downward tendency of crime will be Uaaintaincd." „ This statement of the tendency for Crime to Bhrink has an important bearing on. the. prisoner and his treatment in gaol. As it is 87 per cent, of the male convicts are in the recidivist class, »nd almost all of them are professional criminals.' Crime, in short, is their .''job." They aro not mentally defective^ they are not physically unfit, they site'not, cowards; on the contrary, they are alert, courageous, resourceful, and far from being weaklings. They aro' "game" to the last. If they receive a >jong! sentence they face it like men, as.all m the game, and work well, and conduct ■ themselves decently in. order to/gain remission marks and so. slowly . hasten their liberation in order to get to;': work: again. Sir Basil Thomson tiiimk* if this class were eliminated frpm criminal returns the effect would b«Katartling, aB the professional crimi-nal-is. a. recruiting sergeant for the criminal army. -,' Even more important (writes Sir Basil Thomson) is the detection, and punishment of the receiver of stolen property, who alone can make the field work of the predatory criminal profitable. This brings the author to the detec-tive.;f<>ree.-High efficiency there, he hold*, would solve the problem of the predatory professional criminal. He goes- farther, asserting that if the detective corps had kept pace with changing methods of the professional, "it is ■af c. to say that many of these would, have-gone out of business." He gives facts and figures in support of his belief, Jsut admits that the work of detection': of crime is often hampered by people, especially those owniig great department stores, who are ''the worst offenders" in refusing to prosecute from the sordid motive that business may thereby be prejudiced.,' Blackmail cases are said to be increasing' from the pernicious reluctance to 1" prosecute. Sir Basil Thorneon '» "solution of the criminal problem is in the certainty, not so much in the length:*of, the sentence. If Crime is increasing, which the author does not for a moment admit, it is not attributable -...to"' treatment of the prisoner, but to the; perfection of the professional criminal./in his craft and, the failure • of the criminal investigation expert to kep pace with him. v The author's remedy is much Icsg convincing than aro his observations and deductions of prison life xipou' character. He refuses to accept Lbm--4 broso'sV ideas of a, definite criminal type, r From practical experience Sir Basil' Thomson is satisfied that there is notf-much, if any,- difference in ' "type"'^between the men who are in gaol' ajrtd the men who are outside — the .birds in the, cage are identical with those flying about, but the same species. He dismisses "head measurements" as evidence of a criminal breed, showing how '.'comparison of the head measurements of undergraduates at Oxford; Cambridge, and Aberdeen showed that the prison inmates, as a whole, are closer'in head measurement to the universities' generally than the students of the different universities are to one another." ..There is no criminal type, nor even a prison type, although men in the .prison uniform with their hair cut , ihprt soon fall into the convict ways 'of marching, and this sometimes im- ■ presses the casual visitors. I defy : anyone to pick.out from any chance aggregation of his fellow-country- ' men an ex-prisoner, even if-he were ! told-' that one was present, more easily than he would detect an expostman, or an ex-policeman. Prison as a "rest home" may not liave many applicants for admission. Nevertheless, the 1 regular hours, not 1 ovef strenuous work, good, if plain, food,, and .compulsory cleanliness, "set Up" many men who would have physically, gone, to pieces but for their sentence*.;. Of Dartmoor, Sir Basil says:— ..iThere is a social life in the place ■which tiO; visitor can guess at from the-glijjipse he has of blue-clad con-victs-inarching out to labour tinder an armed guard. He knows nothing of the real world behind the walls, ; where men pursue their little ambii^tloas,. their little friendships, their 'littie quarrels, and even laugh over their, disappointments ju3t as they do in the great world outside. If a prison is not exactly a hydropathic establishment or sanatorium it is.no''doutit correct to describe it as something in the nature of a blend of'factory, monastery, and barracks. Efx from, being hostile to prison reform ■.■&; reformers, Sir Basil Thomson reveals the/ attitude of the prisoner (as he has noticed it) towards their well-inten-tioned benefactors. < :• Prisoners (he 1 writes) admire their disinterested philanthropy and some Of .them; turn it to their own profit: j the others are mildly amused, and \ Afterwards italk of them with a sort : of; pitying patronage to their disci- , plinarian keepers, with whom they ' have a complete understanding. . . ' They are hard, practical men, with many good points about them, who havo deliberately chosen crime as a means of livelihood. The only argument that- appeals to them is selfinterest ...... 'their hand i 3 not against every man; you can wake in ; them no sense of moral degradation: ithey choose^to make their own living 'in their, own way, and do not whine . over their ill-fortuno when they arc arrested. The convict does not imagine himself to be; a bad man, but an unlucky one in being caught, keen' only on one thing: freedom to resume as soon as he leaves the prison gates. As the author makes perfectly clear after a long experience of convicts, a few mon may deve'lop'character in prison, but "tho majority■■'swim with the tide and drift into, the .easy back-waters whore their old criminal associates arc waiting for them." :... Tho popular idea that illiteracy, alcoholism, .and poverty aro tho causo3 of crime, Sir Basil Thomson dismisses as "unsound, showing t.liafc those who have!" had' no schooling are tfie least frequently convicted," and that "alcoholism is not a cause of crime, for the Tvorst recidivists, as a rule, do not 'drink." Sailors, miners, and labourers are. relatively free from crimes against property, whereas clerks, shopkeepers, and men engaged in commerce seem to furnish more than their proper quota. It is difficult to Tosist temptation to quote very freely from this authoritative work,, so profound is its human interest. Numerous arc its incidents of tragedy and comedy in real life, but one will, perhaps, suffice, as illustrative of prison experience that "good conduct" men aro more odious to their follow-convicts than are warders and

officers. The chaplain at Portland once asked an old convict, who had worked very well in the stone quarries, what he would do when he was released. "I'll tell you, sir,"he said. "You know the little pub with the balcony— the one you can see from the quarry T Well, I'm going there. I'll order the longest glass of whisky and soda they can give me, and just lie in a deck chair with it, watching the other beggars work."