h persons, but was of no value as a
corrective to the defendants themselves.

Startled by such disclosures, I resolved to study conditions at close
range and went into the homes of some of these offenders against the
law, taking with me interpreters, for the great majority of them were
foreigners. In many of these homes poverty had done its worst. Every
surrounding influence favored undesirable citizenship; every turn
presented flagrant violations of the law; the tumble-down stairways, the
defective plumbing, the overflowing garbage boxes, the uncleaned streets
and alleys, all suggested that laws were not made to be enforced. Many
of the unfortunates whom I saw there regarded the law as a revengeful
monster, a sort of Juggernaut that would work fearful ruin upon any one
who got in its way, but otherwise was not a matter of concern. When I
explained to them that the law was their friend and not their enemy,
they did not appear to comprehend.

In one place there was a broken-down woman with six children. Two of the
children had been arrested for stealing coal from a car. The mother
explained that her "man" was in the Bridewell sobering up from one of
his frequent drunks and that they had no money to buy coal, which was
plainly apparent. Here were children forced to become criminals because
the law was helpless to correct their father.

"_The House of Corruption_"

In substantially every case that I investigated, I found that,
notwithstanding the efficient management of our work-house, the offender
had come out a less desirable member of society than when he went in;
his employment was gone, his reputation was injured, his will weakened,
his knowledge of crime and criminal practices greatly increased. As one
young girl expressed it: "It is not a House of Correction, but a House
of Corruption."

I decided, therefore, to try the plan of suspending over such offenders
the maximum sentence permitted by law, and allow them to determine by
their subsequent conduct whether they should lose or retain their
liberty, with the full knowledge that further delinquency meant, not
another trial with its possibility of acquittal or brief sentence, but
summary and severe punishment. As a condition precedent to allowing such
an offender his liberty, I required him to promise that he would not
again indulge in the thing which was responsible for his wrong-doing. In
the great majority of cases this was the use of intoxicating liquor; i