Prisoners Idle; Insanity Growing.—Hundreds of prisoners idle,
discipline ruined, disease spreading and insanity increasing, are the
results affecting the Ohio penitentiary brought about by a law passed
in 1906, publicly declare prison officials in that state. The startling
situation was graphically described recently by the Cleveland (O.)
Plain Dealer, in part as follows:
“Penitentiary officials are facing a critical situation, resulting
from the constantly increasing number of prisoners they are compelled
to confine in the idle house. More discouraging than the existing
conditions is the prospect that, in six months at the outside,
practically all the prisoners will be idle. Conditions cannot improve;
they will become graver and graver unless relief is given during the
present session of the legislature.
“In the meantime, on an average 300 men spend twelve hours each day on
the benches in the idle house. This number is augmented on days when
the weather does not permit working the prisoners about the yard. In
one month, when the last contract expires, another hundred will join
these ranks. In six months at the most, when all the contracts will
have been cleaned up, all save the men employed in the administration
of the big prison, which means about 1,000, will be idling. All the
contracts but one have expired; yet most of the men employed in most
of the old shops are still at work. This comes about only through
sufferance; the companies holding contracts are being allowed to
work up the raw material they had on hand at the expiration of their
contracts. This keeps a few men going, but at best is only putting
further away the problem that must be faced.
“Since Dec. 1, more prisoners have become insane than during any
average eight months before the condition arose. In a little over one
month, eight men have been taken to the prison asylum. When all were
working, there was seldom more than an average of one a month who
became insane, and usually it averaged less. This prison officials
attribute directly to increased idleness. Moreover, discipline is more
or less ruined. The men, sitting day after day, with nothing to do but
to stare at the ceiling and turn over in their minds their misfortunes,
are gradually becoming more and more morose, sullen and ugly. Not a
day passes but that prisoners approach the guards and beg to be set at
work. Guards, their hands tied by the legislature, are powerless to
help. Nothing awaits the prisoner but a refusal.
“The air in the room is necessarily foul from the exhalations of these
400 men. Blazing coal stoves at frequent intervals keep the room at
a temperature which, to one going in from the outside, is nothing
short of sickening. The benches themselves are rather narrow, with
twelve or fourteen-inch backs, which, from all appearances, would
become very hard and uncomfortable in little or no time. The floor is
sprinkled with lime at intervals, but after the men have marched in
in the morning presents a dirty gray appearance—that of a thick coat
of dirt covered over with whitewash, mud from innumerable pairs of
boots tracked into it. Wooden boxes, filled with shavings, do duty as
cuspidors. The men, fortunately, are allowed the consolation of a chew,
and to chew one must, in plain English, spit. Yet the possibilities of
acquiring disease are fearful to contemplate.
“Papers and magazines, with a liberal sprinkling of missionary tracts,
are furnished. Most are necessarily out of date, and all are grimy
with much handling. Those facing the windows read with certain injury
to their eyes; those in the center of the room have not light enough
to read at all, while the few at the rear of the room, who have light
from the rear, can read with comfort. But at least half of these idlers
are foreigners and cannot read at all; these can think. Such are the
physical surroundings in this room, intended to house two-score and at
present containing 300 to 400, with several hundred more to be added in
the next few months.
“These men it is who each day beg to be put to work. They feel that
to be put to work. They feel that the hardest drudgery, indoors or
out, would be far preferable to such an existence.
“The cause? A simple one, say those at the head of the big prison,
notably Warden T. H. B. Jones and Capt. C. W. Naas, who had charge of
the contracts. They tell it in three words. The Wertz law. In 1906
the legislature passed this act, which just now is working such havoc
with the penal institution. The law abolishes contract labor, at the
demand of labor organizations that competition with prison made goods
was unfair to labor. It provides that convicts must be employed in
remodeling the institution and in making only such goods as are used
in state institutions. The legislature neglected to provide money for
installing machinery necessary for so doing and also neglected to
compel state institutions to use the prison made product.”
Unusual Prison Supervision Proposed in Texas.—By a bill now pending
before the legislature of Texas it is proposed to place at the
head of the penal system of the state an officer with the title of
“Supervisor of Prisons,” who shall have had some scientific training
in the subjects of criminology and prison sanitation. His salary is
to be $2,400 a year and his term of service to be two years. The
office is to be an appointive one, made on the recommendation of the
prison commission. Two assistant supervisors may also be appointed, at
salaries of $1,500 each.
It shall be the duty of the supervisor to visit at least once each
year every county jail, city jail, reformatory, juvenile training
school, county and city convict farm and alms house in the state. His
business shall be to enforce the humane and economic management of such
institutions and to aid in securing erection of sanitary buildings for
the accommodation of the prisoners. He shall have power to investigate
the management of all such institutions and the conduct and efficiency
of persons charged with their management. Reports shall be made of
such investigations to the governor and to the local authorities,
together with orders relative to improvements which in his judgment
shall be required. And it shall be the duty of said courts of county
commissioners, city commissioners or boards of aldermen to obey such
order, and provide for the payment of the expenses incurred necessary
to a compliance with said order out of the funds of the county or city
or by issuing county or city warrants for this expense.
The power of summoning witnesses, administering oaths and taking
testimony is conferred upon the supervisor and his deputies to enable
the conducting of such investigations as are provided for in the bill.
It is intended also that the evidence of prisoners or ex-prisoners
shall be taken when necessary to ascertain the facts about the
management or condition of penal institutions.
When the interests of the inmates of any institution demand it the
supervisor may order their removal to other quarters, the expenses
of the transfer to be borne by the city or county. And fines for the
refusal by city or county officers to obey such orders are provided for.
Special provisions are made for the assistance and rehabilitation of
paroled prisoners, data in reference to whom shall be kept on file in
the supervisor’s office. Local probation officers, serving without pay,
shall assist in this work.
The Jails of Illinois.—The Chicago Tribune, commenting on the
recent report of the Illinois board of state charities that “conditions
in most Illinois jails are no better now than in 1870, when they were
abominable,” says that no one will venture to question the accuracy of
the report.
“These and other shameful violations of law,” continues the Tribune,
“have been unnoticed and unchecked by successive grand juries and
judges. And what is sadder yet, there has been no popular protest
anywhere against the jail horrors and abominations set out in the
report of the state charities commission. Even in countries where the
odious jail conditions are well understood there is no public opinion
which condemns them. Must we conclude that local self government as
far as jails are concerned is a failure, and that some humane and
intelligent central authority should take the matter in hand and
enforce obedience to the laws?”
That uncivilized portions of humanity still seem to exist when jails
are under consideration is evidenced by a Kansas newspaper editorial on
the Illinois report, part of which we print.
“From the state charities commission of Illinois comes the latest wail
about jails which are not up to Waldorf-Astoria standards. In fact, it
is claimed that the jails are as bad as they were thirty years ago,
when they were not suitable to the whims of any high-class jail bird,
who was accustomed to all the comforts of home and modern conveniences.
“In view of the fact that a number of more or less prominent citizens
of the state seem to be threatened with a sojourn in the prisons of
that state, the plea for better plumbing and lace curtains is in
order. But, as a general proposition, these wails for the downtrodden
prisoners are overworked a good deal. While it is nice to talk about
Reform, and not punishment, being the object of prison sentences, the
facts are that it is hard to obtain the one result without the other.
“If all the suggestions of the prison reformers would be followed out
explicitly, and to their logical conclusion, the jails would soon
become such gilded palaces of sin that most of us would put up there
from choice, and it would be difficult for the hotel keepers to make a
living, or the waiters to get rich. And, when the jails finally were
accepted as the highest standard of luxury, the kicking against them by
the downtrodden prisoners who broke into a feed store in order to get a
comfortable home for the winter, would continue.”
We beg to dissent from the Kansas authority, and still maintain that
reform as well as punishment is the purpose of imprisonment, and that
torture and filth and vice are not conducive to the progress of society.
The St. Louis (Missouri) Star, commenting on the Illinois report,
says:
“If such a board made so little impress upon the actualities of prison
management in Illinois in forty years, it is discouraging indeed.
“It is no wonder that such papers as The Star fail to impress upon
the people of Missouri the need for a different penal system in this
state and an entirely different character of prisons.
“For years we have been preaching the doctrine of the reformatory
principle in prison management, of proper industry, of sanitary
prisons, of segregation of prisoners into classes, of plenty of outdoor
work for prisoners, of instruction in trades, of reformatory influences
tending to keep men out of the penitentiary after they have been
released, and of proper local jails and places of detention.
“Yet the same dark ages this commission asserts to rule in Illinois
hold sway in Missouri, with little promise of abdication. Governor
Hadley has recommended one reform, the establishment of an intermediate
prison for first offenders, which should by all means be done, though
this is but one of the many reforms necessary to take us even within
sight of the outer confines of the dark ages.
“Yet, discouraging as is the progress made, sociologists and
penologists will not cease their campaign of education on this subject
of prison reform and the treatment of criminals as individuals and not
as a class. The light will be seen in time.”
“Men With a Past.”—Under this title an editorial in the New York
World continues:
“A Brooklyn lawyer, suspended from practice, who disappeared seven
years ago and was thought to have committed suicide, reappears as the
leader of the minority in the Michigan Senate. The Chief of Police at
Danville, Va., is recognized after many years as an escaped convict
under sentence in Georgia.
“During the recent political campaign a candidate for governor in a
western state was identified as one who in youth had participated in a
crime of violence on the Texas border. The governor-elect of a southern
state proves in infancy to have been a foundling.
“It is pleasing to note that in every one of these cases identity was
admitted and that the honorable record of after-life was generally
accepted as atoning for early misdeeds or obscure origin. Exposure,
therefore, while painful in some instances, has not operated to
discourage those who in many other places are seeking honestly and
industriously to overcome the disadvantages of a bad start.
“Experiences such as these give heart to optimists, furnish
prison-reformers with ever-increasing zeal and prove the genuineness
of a democracy which does not dwell unduly upon the past of anybody or
anything.”
Tramps, Stop Tramping!—The following article is making the rounds of
the local newspapers in Pennsylvania, evidently “accelerated” by the
tramp nuisance:
“The damage done by tramps to the railroad property every year is
estimated at $25,000,000. The damage to private property which the
tramps reach by railroad is probably far greater. If it were not for
‘ride stealing’—this is the assertion of men who have spent years
studying the vagrancy problem—the ‘hobo’ could be practically put
out of business. Free transportation is an absolute necessity of the
profession.
“The ‘hobo’ may seem highly amusing to the readers of comic papers;
and he is a valuable source of income to joke-smiths and the artists
who draw fantastic pictures of the ‘Weary Willie’ begging a piece of
pie. But he is no joke to railroad men. For he is continually breaking
into cars, assaulting employes, or tampering with equipment in a way to
endanger the lives of passengers.
“The Lehigh Valley has been one of the most active among railroads
attempting to end the abuse, but the leniency of local magistrates has
operated in the tramps’ favor. To put a tramp in jail is expensive
for a small community; the authorities usually content themselves by
telling the offenders to ‘move on.’ Thus he is merely dumped upon some
other community. The practice works as an endless chain—each town
passing on its tramps and in turn receiving the tramps that have been
passed on by other towns.
“Some charity organizations have interested themselves in the problem,
and seek to co-operate with the railroads in bringing trespassers to
justice. Compulsory labor of some kind it is thought would be the most
powerful deterrent, but that remedy meets the opposition of the labor
unions; they say it would be putting ‘convict labor’ into competition
with honest workingmen. A helpful move would be for the state to
relieve local governments from the expense of punishing offenders, as
the cost of keeping a tramp supplies the most powerful motive for the
magistrate to let him go.”
In this connection, the annual report of the New York State Board of
Charities is significant. It renews its recommendation, made to the
legislature of 1910, for the establishment of a farm colony for tramps
and vagrants. It points out that these classes are now kept practically
in idleness in the penitentiaries, jails and workhouses at an annual
cost of $2,000,000, whereas, following the example of a number of the
countries in Europe, they could be humanely maintained and cared for in
farm colonies, which could be made self-supporting through their labor.
Public Defenders Wanted in Cleveland.—The Legal Aid Society of
Cleveland, Ohio, is reviving a plan for the appointment of assistants
to the county prosecutor, whose work shall be the defense in common
pleas court of persons unable to employ counsel. Under the present
system the judges of the common pleas court appoint counsel for
impecunious defendants in criminal cases. The ground that better talent
will be thus. The appointment of special public defenders is urged on
the ground that better talent will be thus secured, and the interests
of accused persons better safeguarded.
A plan for the appointment of such public defenders for impecunious
persons tried in the police courts was recently rejected in Cleveland.
The ground taken was that the so-called prosecutor is theoretically
charged not with prosecuting the accused, but with bringing out all
the facts in his case, both those favorable and unfavorable. The
“prosecutor” was, therefore, held to be both prosecutor and defender.
A “Going Concern.”—According to the Detroit (Mich.) Journal,
the city of Detroit has derived $399,000 profit from the House of
Correction in the last twelve years. The newspaper account reads as
follows:
| |
Net Book |
Paid City |
| Year |
Profits |
in Cash |
| 1900 |
$ 42,759 |
$ 60,000 |
| 1901 |
36,478 |
48,000 |
| 1902 |
26,179 |
26,000 |
| 1903 |
32,016 |
22,000 |
| 1904 |
25,533 |
28,000 |
| 1905 |
27,587 |
25,000 |
| 1906 |
42,905 |
25,000 |
| 1907 |
39,182 |
35,000 |
| 1908 |
32,663 |
35,000 |
| 1909 |
38,577 |
30,000 |
| 1910 |
24,355 |
40,000 |
| 1911 |
|
25,000 |
| |
———— |
———— |
| Totals |
$ 368,234 |
$ 399,000 |
In 12 years the Detroit House of Correction has turned $399,000 into
the coffers of the city treasurer. This amount represents the profits
from the industrial work which the prisoners turn out.
Brooms, chairs and other articles are manufactured in the workhouse,
most of the work being done by prisoners who are sentenced to serve
from ten days to six months in the “works” for minor offences.
This splendid showing of profits is due largely to the excellent
business management of the house of correction.
It will be noticed that the book profits shown are often larger than
the amounts turned into the city treasurer, but this is due to the fact
that minor items of maintenance are charged against the book profits
from one end of the year to the other. The fiscal year at the house of
correction ends on Dec. 1, therefore the net book profits shown in the
table above must be checked against the amounts paid to the city the
year following.
“The reason that the house of correction profits are not so large in
the years following 1900 is due to the fact that beginning with 1901 we
started a system of paying part of the earnings to the prisoners.” said
Supt. John L. McDonnell.
“This week we turn over $20,000 to the city from the fiscal year ending
Dec. 31, 1910. Last July, the poor commission needing funds, we were
asked to turn over $5,000 from the probable profits of 1910. We did so,
and that sum added to the $20,000 to be paid over this week constitutes
the $25,000 profit to the city for 1910.”
An important addition to the newspaper statement is the fact that the
products of the House of Correction are disposed of in the open market
by the Superintendent.
The Problem of the Home for Discharged Prisoners.—The following
statement is from the New Britain (Conn.) Record of February 21st:
34 West 28th Street, New York City.
February 20th, 1911.
To the Editor of “The Daily Record,”
New Britain, Conn.
Dear Sir—In the column entitled “Town Talk,” in the New Britain
Record, published February 17th, there is an editorial which
contrasts my opinion on the treatment of the one-time prisoner with
that of Warden Garvin, of the Connecticut state prison. I should be
glad if you will permit me the opportunity of answering this criticism
in your columns. Warden Garvin is a friend of mine and has welcomed me
several times to his prison. I have much respect for him as a prison
warden and I know that he most thoroughly endorses my work. Of course
it is quite possible for the best of friends to agree to differ, but I
am inclined to think that the statement from Warden Garvin, which was
admittedly made several years ago, might possibly be altered now that
he knows more upon this question.
It must be remembered that the prison warden speaks from within the
walls and that even the most capable and most experienced of them have
not been out into the world with these men, watching their careers or
fighting their battles. If I were but a beginner in this work with a
couple of years’ experience, I might feel nervous in crossing swords in
an argument with so well known a prison man, but it must be remembered
that I have had sixteen years’ experience and that in that time I
have undertaken the future of many thousands of men. I speak not from
theory, but from practical fact.
Now, it is stated that there are those whose opinions differ with mine
in that they think homes for the discharged prisoner unadvisable. I
presume their theory is that when the prisoner comes from prison he
should not be associated with other one-time prisoners. But what is the
alternative? If these men come from prison with the pittance allowed by
the prison, where are they to go? Five dollars does not last long. To
eke it out as far as they can, they go to board in the poorest lodging
house of the city. That brings them down into the saloon neighborhood
and throws them at once into the most undesirable classes. They are
once more in the element where they will meet thieves, drunkards and
outcasts; not like my Hope Hall boys, anxious to reform, but with those
still living crooked lives. They virtually go back to associate with
the old companions, but old companions who have not started on the
right way. This argument would, I suppose, be met with the statement
that that is not the idea of those who advise against homes, but that
their idea is that a man leaving state prison should go straight to a
position, go to board in a respectable place, and at once better his
condition. This would be admirable if it could be carried out, but
I have found that people are slow to throw open their doors to the
one-time prisoner. When we have taken men to our homes, have tested
them, can speak from personal acquaintance of their capacity and their
sincerity, our friends are much more ready to trust them and give them
a position than if we said: “There’s a man in the prison cell today.
We do not know anything about him, but we would like you to put him in
your factory tomorrow.”
Again Warden Garvin speaks for Connecticut. He has a very different
population to deal with in your small state prison from the great
population crowded in many of our all too unsanitary prisons of New
York, New Jersey, etc. I have had scores of men come to me from state
prison whose long prison terms had absolutely incapacitated them for
work. Shattered nervously and physically, they have crept out into the
world afraid to face the unfriendly crowd. I have taken men from prison
who were blind with blindness that had come to them within those dread
shadows. I have taken men discharged from the prison hospital so weak
that months of nursing has been necessary to put them into condition
for work. I have taken men who have been twenty, thirty, and even
forty-eight years within the walls.
After all, facts speak louder than theories, and we have the facts
to show. It will be a great joy to me if some of your readers feel
interested enough in this work to help me by offering positions for
my boys. Hope Hall is not a permanent residence but merely a stepping
stone to the place in life where men can lose their identity and take
up their places as humble units in the great busy working world.
Hoping that I have not imposed upon your space and patience, believe me,
Very truly yours for our country’s
prisoners,
MAUD B. BOOTH.
“Millionaire Tramp” Discards His Overalls.—His old slouch hat,
coarse brogans, bandanna handkerchief, and blue-jean overalls have been
laid aside, and the “millionaire tramp,” or “man without a dime,” as he
has become known to the newspapers of the country, has finished a two
years’ traveling study of the life of the homeless and penniless men
in fifty cities in the United States. The “millionaire tramp” is Edwin
A. Brown, and is a cousin of W. C. Brown, president of the New York
Central lines, with whom he was once in the ranch business in Colorado.
Mr. Brown will put into book form the result of his country-wide
investigation, in the hope that municipalities will awaken to the
“crying needs of shelter homes for the friendless and penniless.” The
things he has seen during the last two years have convinced him that
all of the cities which he visited, and scores of others, should have
municipal lodging houses, like the one in New York City. He would have
such institutions furnish clean beds, adequate ventilation, satisfying
meals, shower baths, and medical inspection, so that the sick could be
separated from the well. The municipal lodging house in New York City
furnishes these things and is capable of sheltering a thousand men and
fifty women.
A bitterly cold night, a thinly clad boy, a request for the price of
a bed—it was this that prompted Mr. Brown to his two years’ life as
a student hobo. He found that in his own city the prison was being
used for a lodging house. In the course of his travels he “found
men sleeping in brick ovens, under platforms, in freight cars and
roundhouses and many of them carried the banner—that is, they walked
the street all night.
“The hospitals were overcrowded for the reason that there was no
municipal lodging house. The same condition exists in Chicago today.
Charitable hospitals are overcrowded with men because they have been
made sick on account of exposure and the lack of nourishing food. The
best way to keep a man from getting sick—I mean the poor unfortunate
without a home—is to house and feed him properly. New York has solved
this problem with its beautiful municipal emergency home, six stories
in height and a model in every respect.”
Both Mr. Brown and his wife will soon go to Europe to investigate
conditions of the homeless there.
Advocates Drastic Treatment of Criminal Immigrants.—Drastic measures
to suppress crime among the foreign population of New York City, and to
prevent the further immigration into this country of foreign criminals,
are advocated by Judge Lewis L. Fawcett, of the County Court, Brooklyn,
who recently sentenced two Italian kidnappers to long terms in prison,
and who has in the last four years received at least thirty threatening
letters from the friends of accused persons.
The government, said Judge Fawcett in a recent newspaper interview,
should demand that every foreigner who lands here produce a certificate
of good character from the chief of police of the district from which
he comes. Immigrants without such certificate should immediately be
deported. If the newcomer has served time for some trivial offense,
the fact should be stated on the certificate, and the period of
residence in this country required before the immigrant can take
out naturalization papers should be lengthened in proportion to
the seriousness of this previous offense. When a foreign criminal
is convicted here and sentenced, said Judge Fawcett, the judge who
administers his punishment should have by law the right to deport him,
at his own discretion, when he has served his term.
Chicago Wants a Hospital for Inebriates.—A hospital or reformatory
for inebriates is likely to be established in Chicago soon. The scheme
contemplates the turning over of the old John Worthy School, adjoining
the house of correction, to the police authorities, and the sending of
the boys who are there to St. Charles or another suitable institution
downstate.
“The thing both Inspector Clancy and I have in mind,” said Chief of
Police Steward, “is a sort of a poor man’s sanitarium. At the present
time Chicago, the second largest city in the country, has not a single
institution to which it can send its destitute ’drunks’ for treatment.
The hospitals won’t receive them and the jails are not the proper place
for them. We want a place where habitual drunkards can be detained and
kept under the care of nurses and physicians. They will be serving a
sentence, but all the time they are incarcerated they will be receiving
treatment which will send them out into the streets again physically
fit to fight their temptations.”
Sing Sing (N. Y.) Prison Called a Death Trap.—The State Commission
of Prisons says a long sentence to Sing Sing is often a sentence to
slow death because of the prevalence of tuberculosis. Many prisoners
are discharged incapacitated to earn a living and frequently on leaving
Sing Sing spread tuberculosis. The cell capacity there is 1,200, but
the average number of prisoners during the year was 1,850. About 500
are housed in one of the chapels and in the loft of the work shops.
“The cells are deficient in ventilation and light and in them the
prisoners have to spend fourteen out of the twenty-four hours. The
drainage is necessarily insufficient and the entire structure is worn
out. The determination to abandon it is fully justified.”
Progress of Probation in New York State.—Forty new salaried
positions of probation officer were created or filled in New York
State during 1910. This is the largest increase in the number of paid
probation officers ever made in that state in a single year. It brought
the number of paid positions in existence on December 31, 1910, up to
105. Most of the newly established officers were in New York city,
and were the result of legislation secured by the Page Commission.
Three of these positions were chief probation officerships, one in
each of the two boards of city magistrates, and one in the court of
special sessions, which includes the children’s courts. The number
of children’s courts in greater New York was increased by the Page
Commission law from two to four, and the new law required that each of
these courts should have the services of paid probation officers. This
is an innovation in New York City, since the work among children in
these courts has previously been carried on by volunteers and private
societies. Another improvement effected by the Page Commission was the
removal of all policemen serving as probation officers in the lower
courts. Twenty-eight such officers were removed on August 30th, and
the law provides that hereafter no members of the police force can be
used in probation work. This is a fitting climax to the long series of
adverse criticisms which have been made by numerous bodies, including
two state probation commissions, of the use of policemen for probation
duties.
Several states now have laws forbidding police officers from serving
as probation officers. Massachusetts has a law to the effect that
active members of the police force can not act as probation officers,
and a bill recently introduced in the Legislature of that state at the
instance of the state probation commission seeks to make sheriffs,
clerks of the court, bail commissioners and other similar officials
ineligible for probation work.
Judge Wants Better Probation Officers and More Work for
Them.—Approval by the Commission on Probation of all probation
officers appointed by the courts, and the extension of the probation
system to obviate imprisonment for non-payment of fine, were two
changes urged recently in an address by Judge Charles A. DeCourcy,
of Lawrence, Mass. “The keystone of the probation system,” said
Judge DeCourcy, “is the personality of the probation officers. As
the Departmental Committee under the English probation law recently
expressed it, ‘the probation officer must be a picked man or woman
endowed not only with intelligence and zeal, but in a high degree with
sympathy and tact and firmness.’ When a properly qualified and earnest
probation officer is attached to every court in Massachusetts, the
probation problem will be solved.
“Unfortunately, we have yet some probation officers who fail to
come up to the standard, men who never interest themselves in their
probationers outside of the courtroom, or take any concern as to their
idleness, their companionship or habits, and do nothing to secure the
confidence of the probationer or to aid him in restoring himself to
manhood and good citizenship. The evils of continuing improper officers
are so great that in my opinion it should be rendered impossible by
requiring the approval by the Commission on Probation of all probation
officers appointed by the court.
“Probation ought to be extended also, to obviate the imprisonment for
non-payment of fines, giving the person fined an opportunity to earn
and pay the fine while remaining at home and supporting his family.
“Another element new to Massachusetts will require consideration,
namely, the proposed payment to the prisoners as a means of aiding in
the support of their families during imprisonment and providing them
with some means to start in life when they return to freedom. I should
like to see an able commission appointed to consider and report on this
whole broad question of prisons, so that in this, as in other respects,
Massachusetts might lead the way with plans for an ideal system which
the future will develop.”
Some Side-Lights on New Jersey Prisoners.—Next to the United States,
Italy is the birthplace of more prisoners at present confined in the
New Jersey State Prison, at Trenton, than any other country. Out of
1,393 prisoners remaining in the institution on October 31, 1910, 910
were born in the United States, 205 in Italy, 56 in Germany, 39 in
Hungary, 36 in Russia, Poland, 30 in Russia, and 29 in Austria. Nearly
half of the total were, when received by the institution, between the
ages of twenty and thirty years. Six hundred and twenty-five were of
this age, 366 were between thirty and forty, and 167 were between forty
and fifty. One hundred and twenty-six were between fifteen and twenty.
Two hundred and six can neither read nor write.
During the year ended October 31, 1910, 516 persons were received
by the institution, and 110 were paroled. During the five years of
the operation of the parole law, 1,266 prisoners have been paroled.
Seventy-two of these have been again convicted and committed to this
prison, 71 have had their paroles revoked, and 24 have been returned
for violation of parole.
Stereoptican lectures on historical and civic subjects have been
given on legal holidays. The report of the prison board states that
although 300 men have been gathered together in a darkened room on such
occasions, there has not been a single instance of misconduct during
the lectures.
Study of Tuberculosis in Prisons.—A partial investigation is being
made by the Central Howard Association of Chicago in regard to the
prevalence of tuberculosis in prisons. In an inquiry sent out the
question was asked: “How many inmates are affected, in any degree,
with tuberculosis?” Seventy-four replies gave a total of 834 cases. One
institution gave sixty as the number affected with tuberculosis, while
the same report stated that an additional 300 had “symptoms” of the
disease. The next highest number given by one institution was 49. Few
admitted to more than ten or twelve, and some stated that no cases were
known. It is believed that many cases of tuberculosis exist which are
not detected by the average prison physician, and also that each state
is reluctant to admit the full proportion of inmates afflicted. In most
cases, probably, the reports gave only the number in the hospital.
Even though many prisoners may have had incipient tuberculosis
before entering prison (wherefore the institution should not be held
responsible) it would be of much public interest to know just how many
are affected in “any degree.” Will somebody suggest a method by which
the actual facts may be secured?
F. E. L.
San Quentin May be Made a Reformatory.—Last month THE
REVIEW stated that the California legislature was considering
a bill providing for the establishment of a reformatory for first
offenders. Now comes news of another bill which seeks to convert San
Quentin prison into such a reformatory, thereby making Folsom the only
penitentiary in the state. The bill, it is reported, seeks the reform
of young criminals by setting aside San Quentin as a reformatory to
which will be sent after July 4 next all female prisoners and all
males, except those convicted of murder or treason, who at the time of
commitment are between the ages of 16 and 30 years and who have never
before been convicted of a felony.
Provision is made, however, that any person convicted of a heinous
crime, robbery or burglary, may be committed either to San Quentin
or Folsom. The board of prison directors may also transfer from the
reformatory to Folsom prison all who seem hopeless of being reformed,
and when Folsom is overcrowded to the extent of having more prisoners
than cells, the board may transfer likely prisoners to the reformatory
until the latter institution is not overcrowded. It is set forth that
all life termers over 55 years of age in San Quentin shall not be
moved. Provision is also made for putting the indeterminate sentence
system into effect.
National Probation Officers’ Association.—The national probation
officers’ association will meet in Boston from June 5th to 14th
inclusive, which will be immediately before and during the sessions
of the national conference of charities and correction in that city.
Judge Harvey H. Baker of the Boston juvenile court is president of the
association, and the secretary is Roger N. Baldwin, Security Building,
St. Louis, Mo.
A Radical Step Proposed in Pennsylvania.—A bill has been prepared
by Representative Alfred Marvins, of Pine County, Pennsylvania, which
provides for the transference to one vast farm of 2,000 acres of all
the criminal, insane and epileptic inmates cared for by the various
institutions of the state. Once there these classes will be segregated.
It is planned that the criminal inmates shall work the farm and make it
self-supporting.
Want Branch to Extend Work of Reformation.—A bill has been presented
to the Massachusetts legislature empowering the state to utilize an
empty jail in Fall River, surrounded by 12 acres of land, as a branch
of the Concord reformatory. The project is favored by the local county
commissioners as well as by Warren F. Spalding, secretary of the
Massachusetts Prison Association. Concord reformatory is reported to
have a miscellaneous population, including a considerable percentage
who do not respond readily to reformatory treatment, thus tending to
impair the work with the better prisoners. A need is strongly felt of
some method of classifying the inmates. The utilization of the Fall
River jail will also make it possible to give reformatory treatment to
a greater number than now receive it.
Probation Manual.—The Massachusetts commission on probation in
December published a probation manual of 61 pages. It states concisely
the probation laws of that state, and gives a list of probation
officers in the state. Each court in Massachusetts has the services of
a paid probation officer.
Probation Commission Wanted in Pennsylvania.—Persons interested in
the extension and development of the probation system in Pennsylvania
are desirous of having a state probation commission similar in
powers and duties to those which have been established in New York
and Massachusetts. A bill has been introduced into the legislature
providing for such a body consisting of five members, two of whom shall
be women.
Statistics of Probation, Defectiveness, etc., in Pennsylvania
Reformatory.—Greater opportunities to secure work and the increased
use by the courts of the probation system, are the reasons given by
the board of managers of the Pennsylvania Industrial Reformatory, at
Huntingdon, Pa., for the decrease in the number of commitments to that
institution during the past two years. This reformatory is designed as
a place of confinement for male first offenders between fifteen and
twenty-five years of age, who have been convicted of a crime punishable
under existing laws in a state prison. During 1907-8 the number of
commitments was 1,046, as compared with 938 for 1909-10.
Interesting figures concerning the operation of the probation system
are contained in the eleventh biennial report of the reformatory.
During 1909-10 there were paroled 639 inmates. Sixty-two of these, or 9
and 7-10 per cent., violated their paroles. Forty-four of these 62 were
returned to the institution, so that only 16, or two and one-half per
cent. of the total number are still at large as delinquents.
Figures covering the last eleven years show that a total of 2,605 were
paroled during that period, of whom 349, or 13 4-10 per cent., violated
their paroles. Three and six-tenths per cent. of these are still at
large.
Persons paroled with the necessary promise of employment by responsible
firms are allowed to go to their places of employment unattended. Of
3,369 inmates so released during the last 14 years, only six have
failed to report to their employers.
The report contains a mass of figures concerning the habits and
characteristics of the 938 persons committed during 1909-10. Classified
as to quality of mind, 17 are found deficient, 226 only fair, and
695 good. Thirty-nine were found to be absolutely without any moral
sense, such as filial affection, sense of shame, etc., two hundred and
eighty-nine were given the benefit of the doubt, 619 were ordinarily
sensitive and 2 were especially sensitive.
During the two years seven inmates were transferred to insane asylums.
In Massachusetts the agent of the state prison commission spent during
1910 the sum of $1,860.56 in aiding discharged prisoners. Aid was given
to 163 men, 129 of whom left state prison last year. For railroad fares
$352.34 was spent, for board and family stores $1,021.20, for clothing
$353.31, for tools $100.21, and for spectacles, medicine, etc., $33.50.
Probation Profitable Here.—A report, prepared by Judge Collins, of
the City Court, Indianapolis, Ind., shows that through the probation
system started by him one year ago, the city was saved $2,663.70. The
commitments to the County Jail and Workhouse numbered 1,619 in 1910, or
50 per cent less than in 1909. Out of the 1,619 commitments during the
year Judge Collins estimates that 95 per cent of the victims would have
served their time out in the Workhouse, making an expense on the city,
besides depriving it of the fines, had it not been for the probation
system. Besides saving this amount for the harboring of prisoners, over
$8,000 was paid into the probation department by prisoners who were
given a chance to settle the amounts in small installments.
Prison Physician Sees Defects in Hospital.—Prison Physician Pray, of
Jackson, Mich., has called to the attention of the State Prison Board
of Control of Michigan the lack of facilities in the prison hospital
for the segregation of contagious diseases, especially tuberculosis.
Mr. Pray declares 50 per cent. of tubercular cases would not end
fatally if they were taken care of in time. It is stated that an effort
will be made by the board to prevent the commitment to prison of
persons in the last stages of consumption.
Transcriber’s Notes.
1. Silently corrected simple spelling, grammar, and typographical
errors.
2. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.
3. Page 1. Footnote moved to the end of the book.
4. Page 3. [has] changed to [had]. [before the valley has[had] been
drained].
5. Page 4. [a correct dagnosis] changed to [a correct diagnosis?].
6. Page 7. [and strict dicipline] changed to [and strict discipline].
7. Page 8. [accomplished splended results] changed to [accomplished
splendid results].
8. Page 10. [special institions] changed to [special institutions].
9. Page 20. [has served him term.] changed to [has served his term.].
10. Page 23. [will be segragated.] changed to [will be segregated.].
