This is one of the best known and most popular works on crime. The first edition was published some years ago. The new chapters are on sentences, capital punishment, pauperism, intemperance, prostitution, and social crimes. The author is most favorably situated for catching the best thought of the age, and his counsels deserve attention, although his conclusions are by no means unanimously received by students of crime.
Of special interest to us is a chapter on "The United States Crimes against Prisoners," the chief offense being the local jails. Examples and authorities are cited until it makes an American ashamed that such things can truthfully be told of us. "The jail at Carmel is certainly bad enough, but such a jail is possible in every county, as long as the present vicious system lasts. The present system is simply a part of the political scheme of the state, and every jail is merely a plum which the sheriff gets out of the political pie." The imprisonment of innocent witnesses in such jails occasionally occurs, and the infamy of such acts is manifest. The leasing of convicts in the southern states is justly condemned.
Mr. Tallack renews his attack on the Elmira system in this edition. It seems not a little singular that his charge should be that discipline is too easy and comfortable, while the trial of Mr. Brockway was for cruelty and undue severity. This discussion is by no means exhaustive. The Chicago Tribune is given as the authority for the alarming statement that the number of murders in the United States has increased from 1808 in 1885 to 9800 in 1894, and that only 132 persons were legally executed while 190 were lynched. Even if these figures must be discounted they indicate a growth of serious crime which demands most vigorous investigation and action. The work as a literary product lacks organic unity and progress. It is not well articulated and lacks the power which comes from a well-conceived plan. For all that it is a book which cannot be ignored in the literature of the subject.
