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157 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. i (1931)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0157 and id is 1 raw text is: FOREWORD

THE riots and disturbances which have in recent years occurred in our
prisons have served to focus public attention on our methods of dealing
with criminals. Many persons have come to wonder if we have not,
after all, been pursuing false idols. We have begun to lose faith in the
mighty citadels of impenetrable walls which once made our prisons show
places of civic architecture. We are realizing that they have failed in
their task of protecting us against crime.
True enough, the prison has come to be the last resort of penal treat-
ment, when all other measures have proved wanting. This has made
the prison's work a fearfully difficult one. Yet we are compelled to con-
clude that, since the vast majority of prisoners will be returned to normal
social life at the expiration of their sentences, our prisons must be ra-
tionally adapted, in organization and functions, to the complicated task
which faces them. If this means the renunciation of vindictive theories
and policies, let us renounce them. If it means more science in penal
treatment, let us have more science. The fact is that our prisons must
become effective and dynamic agencies of social protection which, if
humanly possible, will return the prisoners to society better men than
when they entered the institutions.
To those who are looking for information on the work of our prisons,
this volume is offered-not in the expectation that it will remove all
doubts or answer all questions, but rather in the hope that it may
stimulate thought by its presentation of problems which require solution.
EDwIN H. SUTHERLAND
THORSTEN SELLIN

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