Mr. Pilcher has thrown himself into the undertaking with singular
diligence and intelligence, and has entered thoroughly into the spirit
of modern scientific treatment and research.
The newest and most original feature of the prison is the Clinic
Building, in which the study and classification of the prisoners is to
take place, and in which, as well, the general medical and surgical
work of the institution will be carried on. It provides for the
complete physical and mental examination of every inmate. It contains
the hospital wards, dispensary, operating rooms and laboratories
and X-ray plant, and indeed, it corresponds on a small scale to the
hospital of any community, but differs from this in that it assumes
that the whole population of the community may be abnormal, and
therefore requires that every member of it shall at some time pass
through the clinic for purposes of study and analysis. For this reason,
the psychiatric or mental division of the clinic is relatively more
accentuated.
It requires courage to attack such a problem as this, an attack that
may carry us into troublesome social fields. It seems to be a fact,
however, that no other method gives promise of relieving society of
any considerable part of this burden of suffering and cost. We must
not expect ever to be entirely rid of this burden, just as we shall
never be rid of the burden of physical and mental disease; but just
as science has diminished and is still diminishing these latter, so
we have reason to believe that similar scientific methods, properly
applied, will diminish the burden of anti-social behavior, and help
us to approach the irreducible minimum, a minimum which must probably
always exist in a human world like ours, but a minimum from which we
are at present still very far.