Abstract

It Seems to Heywood Broun

Prohibition stands in the way of prison reform because the first step in any amelioration of prison conditions lies in lessening congestion and quite literally the Volstead act and all attendant legislation creates criminals. It is opined that a very large percentage of the people in the U.S. jails today are serving sentences for doing something which was no crime at all fifteen years ago. The Jones Bill may prove a deterrent or it can work out merely to increase the number of prison inmates through its provision for longer sentences. Sooner or later one shall have the perfectly logical legislation that the man who buys is as guilty as the one who sells and if there is anything like adequate enforcement of such ordinances America ought to be able to boast the largest prison population ever known in history.