tions, I say, although kept going from public funds,
refuse, absolutely refuse, to give training to any youthful delinquent
who suffers from physical infirmity or mental weakness.

Think of it again! all youthful delinquents suffering from any infirmity
of body or mind, are refused reformative treatment or training in all
publicly supported institutions established for delinquent youth.

He may be a thief, but if he is a hunchback they will have none of him.
He may be a danger to other children, if he has fits he will not be
received. He may rob the tills of small shopkeepers, but if he is lame,
half-blind, has heart disease, or if his brain is not sound and his body
strong, if he has lost a hand, got a wooden leg, if he suffers from any
disease or deprivation, prison, and prison only, is the place for him.
So to prison the afflicted one goes if over fourteen; if under fourteen
back to his home, to graduate in due time for prison.

This is no exaggeration, it is a true picture, and this procedure has
gone on till our prisons have become filled with broken and hopeless
humanity.

Could any one ever suggest a more disastrous course than this? Why,
decency, pity, or just a grain of common sense ought to teach us, and
would teach us if we thought for a moment, that it is not only wrong but
supremely foolish.

For there is a very close connection between neglected infirmity, mental
or physical, and crime, a connection that ought to be considered, and
few questions demand more instant attention. Yet no question is more
persistently avoided and shelved by responsible authorities, for no
means of dealing with the defective in mind or body when they commit
offences against the law, other than by short terms of useless
imprisonment, have at present been attempted or suggested. It seems
strange that in Christianised, scientised England such procedure should
continue even for a day, but continue it does, and to-day it seems as
little likely to be altered as it was twenty years ago. Let me
then charge it upon our authorities that they are responsible for
perpetuating this great and cruel wrong. They are not in ignorance,
for the highest authorities know perfectly well that every year
many hundreds of helpless and hopeless degenerates or defectives are
committed to prison and tabulated as habitual criminals. Our authorities
even keep a list on which is placed the names of these unfortunates who,
after prolonged experience and ca