By Albert H. Votaw, Secretary, The Pennsylvania Prison Society
In the year 1909, the legislature enacted our first law providing for the indeterminate sentence and for the parole of prisoners at the expiration of their minimum sentence. The minimum sentence was not to exceed one fourth of the maximum, and the privilege of parole was to be granted according to the decision of the board of inspectors who were constituted the board of parole.
In the year 1911, the legislature amended this act because of the objections of several judges in the State who were not ready to endorse the 1909 law. The length of sentence is now at the option of the court. The judges are to impose both a maximum and a minimum sentence with no restriction except the maximum is not to exceed the maximum time now imposed by law for any offence. A sentence may read “Maximum, 25 years; minimum, 24 years”; or “Maximum, 25 years; minimum, one year.”
In 1913 the privilege of parole was extended to all confined in the penitentiaries of the State, who were sentenced prior to July, 1911, provided they had served one third of the sentence imposed. Under the operation of this act, several hundred prisoners in the State prisons were entitled to parole provided they could comply with the conditions of the board of parole. These conditions, as a rule, include good behavior while in prison, suitable employment and a sponsor.
Some editors in the State have rather severely criticised what they have termed a general jail delivery. A few of those released have violated the terms of their parole and have been returned to the penitentiary. These instances are widely published, thus creating in the minds of some who are not thoroughly cognizant of all the facts in the case that a lot of desperadoes are being turned loose in the community.
Close observation of the statistics seem to show that about eighty-five to ninety of the paroled men make good. Of those who return the number who have again committed crime is a very small percentage. A man who is out on parole is liable to be returned for intemperance, idleness or failure to report. If we may estimate the number who have returned as fifteen per cent. of the entire number released on parole, a comparatively small number of this percentage are brought back on account of actual crimes committed. It is too early to decide with reference to the four or five hundred recently paroled. But a comparison with our general experience during the last three years would indicate that not more than two or three out of a hundred will be brought back on account of crime.
Probably the community is not in as much danger from the paroled men as from those who are regularly dismissed after serving their full time. It must not be forgotten that many hundreds ofprisoners every year are released from the penitentiaries and from the county jails who have served the full sentence imposed by the court. Whatever their state of mind or of morals, their time is up and they go forth without any restraints such as assist the paroled prisoner to lead a life of rectitude. The prison authorities are often quite well convinced that a prisoner is far from “healed,” but there is no recourse. The authorities of a hospital would receive just condemnation if they allowed a patient to be discharged who was uncured of his typhoid fever or of his small pox, but the officers of a penitentiary often turn loose a scoundrel to prey upon the community simply because the time of confinement deemed right by the lawmakers and by the court has expired.
The men who make application for the privilege of parole are carefully studied. That some mistakes have been made is readily admitted. With larger experience these errors may largely be eliminated. The work is a growth and the efficient officers who are giving careful study to the practical workings of the matter are confident of higher results than they have hitherto attained.
A purely economic side of the question was somewhat discussed in a recent report of the Pennsylvania Prison Society. The annual saving at that time by allowing the paroled prisoners to earn their own living instead of being maintained in institutions supported by the State was estimated last year at about $50,000. The cost of the parole management for the same time did not exceed $8,000.
There may come a time when the sentence imposed by the court will be wholly indeterminate. The judge may impose a sentence of one year, with the additional restriction that he is not to be discharged until penological experts shall have pronounced him ready for citizenship.