London, April 7.—The English home office publishes the report of Sir
Evelyn John Ruggles-Brise, chairman of the English prison commission
and the British representative at the Prison Congress held at
Washington last October. In his report Sir Evelyn commends American
state prisons and reformatories, but condemns the system in vogue in
city and county jails. He says that among the latter “many features
linger which called forth the wrath of John Howard, the great English
philanthropist, noted for his exertions in behalf of prison reform at
the end of the eighteenth century.
“Promiscuity, unsanitary conditions, the absence of supervision,
idleness and corruption—these remain features of many places,” says
the report.
After describing some of the evils he saw Sir Evelyn concludes:
“Until the abuses of the jail system are removed it is impossible
for the United States to have assigned to her by general consent
a place in the vanguard of progress in the domain of ‘la science
penitentiare’.”