by the laws. Society owes this duty to itself, and, if well performed, such a registration of habitual offenders would tend to restrain no small number of them. Upon this point, and to illustrate the importance of such records we need only quote the first results of the registration which was prescribed under the Prevention of Crime Act, in Great Britain (1871), and the Habitual Criminals Act, which provided that a register shall be kept of all persons convicted of crime in the United Kingdom, "crime" being interpreted, in those laws, as "any felony, and some. other offences." The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolitan District reported, in 1874, that "the registration of habitual criminals has been continued as heretofore, but the numbers on the registry have increased so rapidly that there are now 117,568 names on the register, and they increase at the rate of 30,000 per annum." The fact that all this registration falls short of its purposes for identification of individuals in consequence of defects in the method of registry and personal description, may well remind us that any such half-way legislation as leaves the descriptive list of each person quite incomplete, or which, like the New York Habitual Criminals Act (1873), utterly breaks down because it provides no basis and forms for the description or identification of the offender who is brought under arrest. As we have explained this more fully in the section on Habitual Criminals, the following brief account of the practical operations under the new penal laws in Great Britain and Ireland is suggestive of improvements now required in New York. Sir Walter Crofton, whose name has become synonymous alike with that of humanity and with that of successful correctional discipline, undertook not only the difficult task of reforming criminals, but of so hunting down the crime classes that, as he himself says: "Crime as a professed vocation will be far too perilous for general following." The "Habitual Criminals Act" of Great Britain has been made effectually useful just in proportion as the description and registration of the individuals of that class have been accurately made. As a prison reformer, Sir Walter Crofton, acting as chairman of the Board of Directors of Government Prisons in Ireland, prescribed the following form of personal description for each individual who, under arrest, is suspected of being an habitual or frequent offender. Particulars of former conviction as far as is known or can be ascertained: Name County where tried.. Date of conviction.. Crime.... Sentence. When discharged from convict prison........ Whether identified as having been a convict, and by whom..... In the State of New York a Department of Public Justice and a Bureau of Statistics pertaining thereto, would at once set in order all necessary methods for recording the movements of crime and offenders. A Department of Public Statistics would not make perfect work, without judicial help and expert supervision in this special branch of statistics. Every consideration of economy and efficiency urges the institution of a State Department of Justice. But years may elapse before the people of this State will institute such a Department, or before there will be a separate Bureau or State Department of Economical and Social Statistics. These very useful branches of public service may be the outcome of well-performed duties, which should now be attended to with scrupulous care by separately responsible officials in existing departments of public service. From the examination which the writer has made for the Prison Association regarding this subject, in relation to the causes and repression of crime in the State, he respectfully submits the following suggestions, in addition to those which are embodied in the concluding pages (33 to 37) of the official report of the Executive Committee in this volume: That, under existing laws (Chapter 604, Session Laws, 1867, and Revised Statutes, Part IV, Chapter III, Title I, Article first), and with whatever amendments of law and methods may now be practicable, there should be scrupulous completeness in the records of all acts by magistrates and courts, and by the sheriffs, jail-keepers and superintendents of local penitentiaries, concerning every person held in custody, and with full particulars, as the laws require, concerning every person convicted of crime or misdemeanor. That the faithful performance of these several duties shall be strictly enforced by the Secretary of State and the Attorney-General, and that a method of inspection may be directed by those two Heads of Departments for securing a prompt compliance with all prescribed forms and duty under the law. That in every local penitentiary, the prisoners who were sentenced for felonious crimes (punishable in State Prison) for the term of one year or more, shall have a special and separate registry of their respective cases kept in the same manner and under the same headings of specifications as the convicts in the State Prisons have. That under the Habitual Criminals Act the Chief or Superintendent of every city police force, and in counties in which there is no city, the county sheriff,- should keep a record of Habitual Criminals known to them in the respective counties in which they hold office. Further, that the term "habitual" may be used in such records as signifying such frequency and methods of crime as to indicate design to repeat the same or similar acts. That the elements of information which are entered upon the transcripts of "courts of record" returns, for transmission to the Secretary of State, shall be as complete and well verified as possible, and that the returns which, under the laws, the Secretary of State requires at the hands of sheriffs, shall also be as complete as possible. That all returns of records from the Special Sessions and City Police courts should be strictly correct in their details whether complete or not, any doubt of entire correctness being entered in such records. That the registration and descriptive records of prisoners in the several prisons and penitentiaries and the personal description and the other facts which are registered shall be stated in terms and with carefulness that shall be adapted to promote the purposes of justice, and to secure a correct basis for the identification of each prisoner, and that the Superintendent of prisons should cause to be kept at his office at the Capital of the State, a complete and reasonably abbreviated Transcript Register of all the Felon Prisoners, as reported (quarterly) from each State prison and from each Penitentiary. (Such an official return to the Secretary of State, from any Penitentiary, may be required under Chapter 259, Laws of 1839, and various subsequent Acts, but an amendment will be necessary to provide adequately for the registration here suggested.) Finally, it may justly be recommended that, in the system of records adopted in each State prison and penitentiary, and in each county prison, and all reformatories in the State, the specifications and purposes mentioned in the 7th Section of Chapter 173 of Session Laws of 1877, relating to individual prisoners may be advantageously carried out. In submitting these statements, the writer begs to express the hope that whoever undertakes to keep or to use any records of crime will bear in mind the importance of excluding from them all sources of error and indefiniteness, and of keeping each prisoner's record truthful and free from prejudiced statements. Dismal as the study of criminal records is, the duty of guarding each convict's record against misstatement, is plain. So far as transcripts and registers are concerned, it is a public record, and, in the words of Robert Livingston, such a record is a "written memorial made by a public officer authorized by law to perform that function, and intended to serve as evidence of something written, said or done." In the records of crime and of offenders, no error or indefiniteness should be permitted. For this reason the forms must be prescribed and supplied by a central source of responsible authority in the State, and should be vigilantly supervised and inspected under the direction of such authority. With such a provision by the State, the officers who shall become responsible will find a true reward in the fact that they promote private happiness and virtue by aiding to establish the principles of public justice. CATALOGUE AND RULES FOR PRISON LIBRARIES. To aid in the most suitable selection and economical maintenance of Reading Matter in the Prisons and Jails. PLAN AND PURPOSES OF THIS CATALOGUE FOR PRISON LIBRARIES. Good books are good friends, and they are very useful friends to persons in adversity as well as to those in prosperity. The following catalogue of books for Prison Libraries contains classified lists of more than a thousand volumes which are well adapted to increase the happiness and welfare of the prisoners and to benefit them in after life when released from confinement. The value and influence of every book in this catalogue have been carefully considered, and the titles have been so arranged and lettered that any prison, large or small, any jail or prisoner may make selections from these classified lists according to estimated excellence or the reader's preference. Thus, For a Library of 50 Books, those marked a, may be taken as suggesting order of excellence. ADDITIONS may be made from time to time to a prison library wher ever established, and the newly added volumes should be duly classified and consecutively numbered as though they were originally in thę foundation of the catalogue. The letters a, b, c, d, etc., may represent the order or degree of relative merits and usefulness; yet this lettering is merely a convenient aid to the persons who select the libraries or read the books. LIBRARIANS may mark thus under the title of any volume, in the catalogues, for the easy reference of prisoners, the books which are already contained in their library - thus, Life of Abraham Lincoln. May label every shelf in the library according to the headings in the catalogue; and may have the books neatly covered, and marked on |