In conclusion, permit me to say that in preparing this very brief paper, I have been influenced by the sole desire of presenting some practical thoughts or suggestions that might be of service or advantage to the institute, and not merely to furnish entertainment for the members. The field of criminal law and criminology is a broad one, and the science of jurisprudence is still open for advancement.

The law has not been reformed to a state of absolute perfection, and if I have submitted any suggestions that will be found of any help or advantage to this institute or that will result in improving the procedure or the laws, I will be content and satisfied.

I now declare the annual meeting of the institute for the year 1917, to be in session and ready for the transaction of business.

ADDRESS.

BY

THOMAS MOTT OSBORNE.

It is with great modesty that I speak with American interest on criminal law and criminology. Perhaps some of my hesitation in speaking before such an august body comes from a feeling of participation in criminology myself to such an extent that I am a little doubtful as to my reception before such a body. I think the older I get the more convinced I am of the common bond of crime that there is in most of us-an experience which has been by no means lessened by my own personal experiences in prison both as a prisoner and as an officer. In fact I have repeatedly said during the last month that I feel much more at home in a prison uniform than in Uncle Sam's, which I think must point to the fact that I am one of those creatures that we have often heard about but never seen a member of the criminal class. I tried to write something which would be worthy of this occasion. Unfortunately I have been so exceedingly busy that I have been unable to complete it; part of it has been typewritten; a considerable portion of it has not been, and some of it has not been written at all, so that with your permission the latter part of it will be more or less impromptu and you will have to take the best I can give you under the circumstances.

Now it is not generally understood but it is true that the strength of sin is the law. The strength of the criminals and the crooks lies not in their bad qualities but in their good qualities. It is because criminals are so loyal that they are dangerous. It is the good qualities in them that makes them attractive.

No prison could be well run which did not have a system of classification but the trouble is people say you must classify and leave the matter there, or else prisoners are classified according to the fantastic notion or imperfect understanding of a prison official of the men in his charge. They claim there are eight varieties of criminals.

Why stop at eight varieties? Why not name 18 or 57.

Now when it comes to this question of the determination of a system of classification we find that most institutional experts begin by ruling out the incorrigible. A book I have quoted a little while ago goes on to say the incorrigible should be at once set aside by himself. Now let's see.

The experience I have had in the short space of a month that I have been at the naval prison at Portsmouth simply confirms me in my belief. I found most extraordinary energy and efficiency on the part of the committee elected by the men. Precisely the same thing happened at Auburn and Sing Sing as happened there. It is very extraordinary, the coincidences that have taken place, and yet, of course, the circumstances are very different. The large majority of the men in Auburn and Sing Sing were distinguished by destructive activities before entering the prison, while a large majority of the naval prisoners were distinguished by constructive activities before entering. But the reaction when freedom was given to these prisoners to carry to a certain extent their own life in their own way is astonishing to see. It is interesting to note how human nature reacts precisely the same way in the case of the men in state prisons as in the naval prison with boys not criminals.

There is an old timer I would like to tell a couple of stories about. The first time the prisoners in Auburn Prison were to be let out into the yard was on Decoration Day, 1914. They elected a committee, prepared a list of events and took it to the warden for his approval. Warden Radigan looked it over, approved it and handed it back to the secretary, the fellow I spoke of as the old timer. He then said to the warden: "Some of the boys have suggested that an additional event be added at the end here, to consist of a wall-climbing contest."

It was a little later in the year, or in the next fall, I think, when some good people down in the city of New York were planning to have moving pictures taken to show the difference between the old and new system, but couldn't raise the money at that time. It was suggested that if the warden would let the men get up an entertainment and give it two or three nights the money could be raised. The old-timer secretary looked over at me and said: "Well, if the warden will give permission for one or two of us to go outside one night we will raise the money."

There was another old timer, a friend of the secretary, down in Sing Sing with a long term behind him and a longer term in front of him, at the period when there were various rumors about my being displaced by another warden. I did not know from day to day as to how long I would stay there and this fellow coming up to me and pointing his finger at the middle button of my coat said: "Warden, I want you to distinctly understand if you go, I do."

Now as to mental defectives. Did you ever hear the story about the condensed milk in Auburn Prison? It happened after the league started and what I didn't know at the time I learned since. There were four prison officials superintending the rearrangement of the store-room and there were 10 prisoners working under the four prison officials. In the inner store-room, with a padlock on the door, was some condensed milk, and while this work was going on under the eyes of the four vigilant officials, these 10 prisoners succeeded in making away with four cases-120 cans of condensed milk-three cases I think it was. They got the milk, broke up the cases, threw the kindling with other rubbish in one of the corners, got the 120 cans across the yard and into the prison where they were distributed through the cells. A cell is 7 feet long and 3 feet wide and does not have many possibilities of concealment, but when the prison officials sought the cans they searched every cell block and failed to find a single can. In one of the cells there were 27 cans hidden and the very guard, the captain who conducted the search, had 16 cans hidden in his own. locker because a trusty was in on the game and he thought the captain's locker was the safest place to conceal the milk. Of course, the captain never thought of looking in his own locker. The Mutual Welfare League, when they realized this would be apt to bring discredit upon the body of prison officials, set to work and returned to the prison officials 87 cans. The rest was disposed of and unfortunately not obtainable.

Many stories could be told to illustrate the cleverness of the prisoners. When you are speaking of mental defectives don't forget that in any prison there is probably collected a larger amount of cleverness, intelligence and mental efficiency than in any other space of equal size. It is perfectly understood at Portsmouth that if you want anything well done you go to one of the

prisoners never the guards. Some criticism was made there to me the other day. I asked what the matter was. The prisoners said a certain thing could only be done by one of the prisoners who knows something about it-those marines don't know anything. Of course, that was putting it a little strong.

Now I have been accused of being against classification and against segregating those mentally defective. I am not. There are many men in every prison-there are men in the naval prison at Portsmouth who are not fit to be there because they are not mentally all there. They should be carefully examined. We should have a psychopathic clinic connected with every prison, and those men should be removed to a different kind of institution than a state prison or naval prison. What I am objecting to is the artificial and arbitrary system of classification which most prison officials have in their minds. They want to do the classification. Now, of course, I am well aware that the person most fit to classify such subjects as these, as well as others, in state prisons, is myself. I am sure of that because I am perfectly well satisfied that I know more about it than anybody else. But speaking seriously I would not trust myself or any other human being to classify a group of people. Nobody is fit to be trusted with it because no human being can look into the soul of any other human being and know what is there, and it is not necessary. If you just wait and have a system elastic enough so that these men can have some kind of real existence, they will classify themselves-they will classify themselves. You don't need to do it. They will classify themselves correctly instead of you classifying others incorrectly. The terrible mistakes made in attempting classification is part of the tragedy of the old principle.

Let's see what is common sense prison management. In summing up I have drafted just a number of suggestions. In the first place, abolish the grand jury. It has ceased to be a safeguard for those who needed a safeguard and has become a political weapon too dangerous to be trusted to anybody. The State of Michigan gets along without any grand jury and I am not aware that justice suffers in the State of Michigan any more than in other states. I do not know how many other states have abolished it. It is undemocratic just as secret diplomacy is undemocratic. We need to have things done in the light in a democracy, and a