When we mention prison statistics it must be acknowledged, of course, that men and women in all denominations occasionally do wrong, that no denomination is above criticism, and that good and bad people are found in all denominations. There are, however, certain points of contrast between the Roman and the Protestant churches, points which, we believe, arise primarily because of their different moral codes. Various studies indicate that of the prison population, Roman Catholics constitute a higher percentage than do those of any other church operating on the US scene, and that while the RC percentage in the general population is about 22% their percentage in the jails and penitentiaries and in juvenile delinquency is approximately TWICE that.
An examination of the crime records of any large city in the US shows that the type criminal turns out with surprising frequency to be Roman Catholic or to have a Roman Catholic background. The Annual Reports of the Commissioner of Correction of the State of New York, for the years 1940 through 1946, shows that a consistent 50% of the criminals committed to New York's two largest prisons, Sing Sing and Dannemora, year after year were Roman Catholics, while the Roman Catholic population in the state was approximately 27%
An analysis of criminal records in Sing Sing, which was made by a Roman Catholic chaplain and published in the magazine Commonweal, December 14, 1932, revealed that of a total of 1,581 prisoners no less than 855 were Roman Catholics. Emmett McLoughlin says concerning his work in Phoenix, Arizona: "As chaplain of the local jail, I was shocked at the percentage of Roman Catholics among the unwilling guests. Wondering if the same incidence prevailed in other jails and penitentiaries, I found a study written by a Franciscan, the Roman Catholic chaplain of Joliet Penitentiary in Illinois. He discovered that the Catholic percentage among prisoners in America is about TWICE their percentage in the total population." Frank
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