y had been tried and found
guilty.

This shocking state of affairs was vigorously attacked during the first
year of the American occupation, and it was thoroughly reformed before
that occupation ended. There was a prompt disposal of all untried cases.
Where it was possible, the prisoners were at once brought to trial. But
in many cases there was nobody to appear against them; perhaps through
lapse of time all the witnesses were dead; and it was impossible to make
even a show of prosecuting them. Such persons simply had to be set at
liberty. The system of jurisprudence was so modified as to assure prompt
trials thereafter. The management of the prisons was made to aim at the
reformation of the prisoners and not simply at their vindictive
punishment. In some prisons schools were opened, to give the inmates
instruction which would conduce to their right living after their
release. Of course the buildings were renovated as far as possible, so
as to make them sanitary and as comfortable as prisoners have a right to
expect their prisons to be.

This led, under General Wood's administration, to a general revision of
the system of courts, court procedure and jurisprudence. In the first
year of intervention, indeed, General Ludlow established a Police Court
in Havana. This was not authorized by Governor Brooke, and was regarded
as of doubtful legality. Nevertheless it remained in operation and
undoubtedly served a good purpose in disposing promptly of most of the
petty cases of arrest for misdemeanor. So valuable was it that General
Wood, on becoming Governor, determined to place its legal status on the
surest foundation possible, by issuing an official order for its
creation and recognition. In this he did not himself escape criticism,
not from Cubans but from Americans. The same people, or the same kind of
people, who had blamed him for paying so much attention to Cuban
education now declared that he had no business to meddle in any way with
the judicial system of Cuba. That was not what America had intervened
for. To such objections little attention was paid. General Wood rightly
regarded it to be his business to do anything in any department of
government that would promote the ends of justice and good government
and the welfare of the Cuban nation.

Police courts were therefore established not only in Havana but also in
the other cities. The Department of Justice was moved to examine into
the conduct of all the courts. W