[Under this heading will appear each month numerous paragraphs of general interest, relating to the prison field and the treatment of the delinquent.]
New Cell House at Iowa Penitentiary.—The new cell house, built by convict labor at the Fort Madison penitentiary, will be completed in May. The structure has been six years under construction, and its value is said to be more than $200,000. It probably will be sixty days before the board will have everything completed so that the new prison house can be used. The structure is of stone and concrete, and the cells are considerably larger than the rooms in the old cell house. There will be room ineach cell for a single iron bed, a rocking chair, hot and cold water and toilet conveniences. The rooms formerly provided for prisoners held but a cot.
The board of control has not yet decided what it will do with the old cell house when the new one is occupied. It is probable that prison labor will be used in the remodeling of the walls so that one fair-sized cell may be made out of two cells.
There are 590 prisoners now in the Fort Madison penitentiary. The new cell house will provide for 400 of them. The remainder will have to remain in the old structure.
The board has received samples of hollow building blocks manufactured at the State clay works at the hospital for inebriates at Knoxville. This is the first of the output of the new industry and, according to experts, the tile is as perfectly made as that of other institutions. It is the intention to have the hollow building blocks needed in the new building at Oakdale sanitarium made at Knoxville.
The State institution at Knoxville is also ready to turn out tile and brick. Orders have been sent to all State institutions to order from Knoxville whatever material of this kind is needed.
Training For Prison Warden.—Warden Clancy, of Sing Sing Prison, recently resigned. Eugene Smith, president of the Prison Association of New York, has written an open letter to the New York city papers, as follows:
“The resignation of Mr. Clancy is an event that has, for several reasons, unusual significance. Mr. Clancy has stated with great candor the reasons that induced him to resign. The principal reason, as alleged by him in an interview, was his lack of experience and consequent ignorance of the work to be done. He says, ‘The warden should be selected from among the keepers or others who have had a large amount of experience. There is nothing more ridiculous than the selection of a man like myself who has no such experience.’“These statements, so frankly made, do honor to Mr. Clancy and they convey a valuable message to the public. A warm heart and a large brain alone do not qualify a man to fill the wardenship of a prison. The administration of a prison must be governed, in this modern age, upon the principles established by the science of penology. The proper treatment of prisoners requires an acquaintance with those methods and agencies which have been proved by scientific experiments to be most effectual in reforming and rehabilitating the prisoners.“No warden can administer a prison with success unless he has a scientific knowledge of what has been developed and accomplished through the studies and experience of the great leaders in prison reform and such scientific knowledge can only be acquired and practically applied by personal experience in dealing with prisoners. There are to-day, in the prisons of this State, men who have had long experience, as guards or in other subordinate posts, who possess both the scientific knowledge and executive ability qualifying them to fill with success the office of warden of Sing Sing Prison. It is earnestly hoped that the candidates for the vacancy may be selected from some such competent source.“But besides scientific knowledge, ability, and experience, there is another condition, or sine qua non, absolutely essential to success in administering Sing Sing or any other prison. As a warden should be selected without the slightest regard to his political affiliations, he should also have a free hand in discharging his duties unhampered by political influence.“Politics constitute the greatest obstacle encountered by every movement for prison reform. So long as the appointment of prison officials and their retention in office are dependent on political favor or influence, it is hopeless to look for improvement in prison systems or any measures of reform. The infusion of politics into our prison can never be prevented except by the force of a united public opinion, a consensus strong enough to condemn and drive out of public service every person who participates in the appointment or removal of any prison officer for merely political ends in order to confer favors or promote expedience.”
“The resignation of Mr. Clancy is an event that has, for several reasons, unusual significance. Mr. Clancy has stated with great candor the reasons that induced him to resign. The principal reason, as alleged by him in an interview, was his lack of experience and consequent ignorance of the work to be done. He says, ‘The warden should be selected from among the keepers or others who have had a large amount of experience. There is nothing more ridiculous than the selection of a man like myself who has no such experience.’
“These statements, so frankly made, do honor to Mr. Clancy and they convey a valuable message to the public. A warm heart and a large brain alone do not qualify a man to fill the wardenship of a prison. The administration of a prison must be governed, in this modern age, upon the principles established by the science of penology. The proper treatment of prisoners requires an acquaintance with those methods and agencies which have been proved by scientific experiments to be most effectual in reforming and rehabilitating the prisoners.
“No warden can administer a prison with success unless he has a scientific knowledge of what has been developed and accomplished through the studies and experience of the great leaders in prison reform and such scientific knowledge can only be acquired and practically applied by personal experience in dealing with prisoners. There are to-day, in the prisons of this State, men who have had long experience, as guards or in other subordinate posts, who possess both the scientific knowledge and executive ability qualifying them to fill with success the office of warden of Sing Sing Prison. It is earnestly hoped that the candidates for the vacancy may be selected from some such competent source.
“But besides scientific knowledge, ability, and experience, there is another condition, or sine qua non, absolutely essential to success in administering Sing Sing or any other prison. As a warden should be selected without the slightest regard to his political affiliations, he should also have a free hand in discharging his duties unhampered by political influence.
“Politics constitute the greatest obstacle encountered by every movement for prison reform. So long as the appointment of prison officials and their retention in office are dependent on political favor or influence, it is hopeless to look for improvement in prison systems or any measures of reform. The infusion of politics into our prison can never be prevented except by the force of a united public opinion, a consensus strong enough to condemn and drive out of public service every person who participates in the appointment or removal of any prison officer for merely political ends in order to confer favors or promote expedience.”
Progress in New York City’s Department of Correction.—Commissioner of Correction Katharine Bement Davis, and her deputy, Burdette G. Lewis, have already planned important improvements in administration. The upper floor of the Tombs is to be transformed into a hospital with nearly ninety beds; a visiting building, with screens between visitors’ seats and prisoners’ seats, will be built; food brought in from the outside is to be prohibited, and improvement in the catering service in the Tombs is arranged for; classification of prisoners in the various institutions is being developed; the punishment cells in the Penitentiary are to be abandoned in favor of a separate punishment buildingwith “reflection cells,” a detention house for women prisoners is to be built; the Department has moved from an antique building on Twentieth street into adequate quarters in the new Municipal building; stripes are to be abolished in the Island institutions; several “crews” of youngsters have been sent out to the tract of six hundred acres in Orange county to be used for the new City Reformatory for Misdemeanants; the clothing of women prisoners at the workhouse and Penitentiary is to be considerably bettered; and so forth. The fundamental plans for the re-organization of the Department’s institutions are being carefully worked out.
The Power of Suggestion.—Some of the complacent ones who maintain that you must leave to youngsters of either sex their own governing, and hold them pretty completely responsible for crime committed by them might pause for a moment to read the following—except that no such complacent ones read The Delinquent. This is from the monthly journal called the Training School, published at Vineland, New Jersey:
Mamie S—— was a middle-grade imbecile girl about eighteen years old, testing about six by the Binet. She was strong and active, a cheerful and willing worker, subject to occasional fits of temper, but usually quite easily controlled. Her work in the laundry was helping Miss B. to feed the big steam mangle.One day the superintendent was escorting a party of visitors and explained to them the use of the shield over the reed rolls of the mangle, saying that if it were out of place there would be great danger of the workers’ fingers being caught between the rolls and a serious accident occurring before the machinery could be stopped. Mamie heard his remark and the visitors had no sooner left the laundry than she turned to Miss B. and said: “Say, Miss B., if I put my fingers in there, would it draw in my arm and crush it?” Miss B. answered, “Of course it would, you silly girl.” Mamie declared, “I am going to try it,” and at once lifted the shield and would have put her fingers between the rolls had not Miss B. grappled with her.Mamie struggled desperately and would have overpowered Miss B. but she called for help and it took three of the employees to drag Mamie away to safety. It is needless to say that Mamie’s work in the laundry ceased with that incident.
Mamie S—— was a middle-grade imbecile girl about eighteen years old, testing about six by the Binet. She was strong and active, a cheerful and willing worker, subject to occasional fits of temper, but usually quite easily controlled. Her work in the laundry was helping Miss B. to feed the big steam mangle.
One day the superintendent was escorting a party of visitors and explained to them the use of the shield over the reed rolls of the mangle, saying that if it were out of place there would be great danger of the workers’ fingers being caught between the rolls and a serious accident occurring before the machinery could be stopped. Mamie heard his remark and the visitors had no sooner left the laundry than she turned to Miss B. and said: “Say, Miss B., if I put my fingers in there, would it draw in my arm and crush it?” Miss B. answered, “Of course it would, you silly girl.” Mamie declared, “I am going to try it,” and at once lifted the shield and would have put her fingers between the rolls had not Miss B. grappled with her.
Mamie struggled desperately and would have overpowered Miss B. but she called for help and it took three of the employees to drag Mamie away to safety. It is needless to say that Mamie’s work in the laundry ceased with that incident.
Farewell, and Don’t Come Back!—The editors of prison newspapers sometimes “gets theirs” in very pleasant fashion. Here is one of the most recent events of the kind, quoted from the Mirror, published at the Minnesota State Prison:
“‘Chip’, the editor of Our View Point, the Walla Walla, Washington, prison paper, has been paroled after serving several months conscientiously and well as the guiding spirit of that publication. Prior to his departure for the outside world, the inmates subscribed a dime apiece and presented him with a watch as a testimonial of their appreciation. The presentation speech was made by the warden in the presence of the inmates in the chapel, the Sunday prior to his departure.”
Hayward.—Here is a story to make a man “feel good”.
Harry S. Hayward, after seven years’ influential work with the newspaper called the Cumberland, Md., News, disappeared recently because politicians and evil interests he had opposed learned that he had served in prison, and threatened to reveal his past. Hayward had made very many friends. The proprietor of the newspaper received a letter from Hayward, in which he reviewed the trials he had endured in trying to live down the past, and in which he declared that he was determined to lose himself in some distant part of the country, and continue the struggle to live a decent life.
The proprietor, W. W. Brown, immediately tried to reach Hayward, but in vain. He inserted then the following advertisement in papers all over the country:
H. S. Hayward:—Have known two years. We are with you to the end. Come back soon.
H. S. Hayward:—Have known two years. We are with you to the end. Come back soon.
W. W. Brown.
Many prominent citizens joined in the effort to find Hayward. The Governor of Maryland pardoned him and restored him to citizenship. And, finally Hayward came back, in triumph.
The Latest Thing in Joy Rides.—Edward Smith, a lifer, and James McGee, sentenced for seventeen years, escaped from the Joilet Penitentiary recently, in Warden Allen’s automobile. After riding around Chicago all night they decided to return tothe prison. Guards had been hunting the men in three States.
Smith was the Warden’s chauffeur and drove in and out of the prison without attracting attention.
“We could have got away without much chance of being captured,” he said, “but we got to thinking that our escape might interfere with the good treatment given the other honor prisoners.
“Warden Allen treated us mighty well and we thought it best not to violate the confidence he placed in us. We certainly had a fine time while we were away. We rode all over Chicago and saw all the sights.”
Advice in the Shadow of the Gallows.—Several years ago there was executed at Trenton State Prison, New Jersey, a very intelligent man, who had committed a fearful murder. A day before his execution he was asked to leave some word for the young men of this country. Here is what he wrote, in a firm hand, without tremor:
“I can add but little to what others have said. I would suggest early religious training. It should begin with the lisping of the child and be continuous and never end until death. The child should be given to know the dangers of environment that is not religious. His associations should be only those that reverence God. The parental responsibility comes in here. The child looks for examples. As the example set before it by its parents or associates are good or evil, so it will in most cases grow.“If the boy be disciplined in religion with environments good, associations good, and with love as his teacher till he is come of age, to the age of reason, the point of the early training will be invariably a moral religious life. Not all of these came into my early life but of those that did my one regret is that I did not use them to my advantage, for the wages of sin is death, and the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.”
“I can add but little to what others have said. I would suggest early religious training. It should begin with the lisping of the child and be continuous and never end until death. The child should be given to know the dangers of environment that is not religious. His associations should be only those that reverence God. The parental responsibility comes in here. The child looks for examples. As the example set before it by its parents or associates are good or evil, so it will in most cases grow.
“If the boy be disciplined in religion with environments good, associations good, and with love as his teacher till he is come of age, to the age of reason, the point of the early training will be invariably a moral religious life. Not all of these came into my early life but of those that did my one regret is that I did not use them to my advantage, for the wages of sin is death, and the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.”
Progress at Bellefonte.—According to the Pennsylvania Prison Society (the 127th annual meeting of which was recently held), “about 75 prisoners from the old Western Penitentiary at Pittsburgh are at Bellefonte, busily engaged in taking care of the farm and in various preliminary operations. (Pennsylvania is to build a farm industrial prison on 5,000 acres). They have been employed in the repairing of the old buildings on the estate, in quarrying stone for roads, and for other construction. There have been erected a number of new buildings, among them a machine shop, blacksmith shop, power house, large dining room and a dormitory. The work done on all the buildings was almost entirely by the prisoners themselves, superintended by an experienced outside foreman. It would be difficult to get together on the outside an equal number of men who worked as zealously or faithfully. There have been but three attempted escapes since the men arrived in the summer of 1912. The prisoners are allowed to go to all parts of the large farm in gangs of from three to twenty, under the care of one guard or trusty. The population is transitory, as almost weekly some are paroled, while new ones take their places.”
An Honor Colony Hoped For.—The New Jersey Reformatory is a congregate institution run by trustees and officers that believe in individualization and classification. So, in the current annual report the Board of Managers urges the establishment of an honor colony. “This should be at some distance from the Institution, and should be utilized for those inmates who are near parole, and who have demonstrated that they are learning the lessons they have been sent to the institution to learn.... It has been for some years the custom to permit inmates to return to their homes when a death occurs in the family, unaccompanied by anyone from the institution, relying solely upon the promise of an inmate to return at a given time. In no instance has an inmate broken the promise or failed to show an appreciation of the trust reposed in him.”
The Limits of Reformatory Treatment.—Superintendent Frank Moore, of the New Jersey State Reformatory, writes in his annual report:
“The Reformatory can take that which has worth, even though it may be bent, twisted and corroded with sin, and making it plastic, it may form it over again, reform it; but that which is useless, which is only dross, it can do little with. The Reformatory can reform, but it cannot re-create. We may as well becandid about it. The idea has been created in the public mind that every reformatory is a miracle-working machine; that no matter what is run into it, it will return all material, no matter how good or bad, back into the world, made over into first-class men. The word HOPE in big letters has been written over the doorway of our reformatory institutions, and so it ought to be. There is no charitable or correctional institution of which society expects so much, and there is no kind of institution that has a greater desire to meet that expectation, but honesty and fairness demand that it shall be stated that the quality of human material given to it is of such a character as to, of necessity, greatly limit its results.”
“The Reformatory can take that which has worth, even though it may be bent, twisted and corroded with sin, and making it plastic, it may form it over again, reform it; but that which is useless, which is only dross, it can do little with. The Reformatory can reform, but it cannot re-create. We may as well becandid about it. The idea has been created in the public mind that every reformatory is a miracle-working machine; that no matter what is run into it, it will return all material, no matter how good or bad, back into the world, made over into first-class men. The word HOPE in big letters has been written over the doorway of our reformatory institutions, and so it ought to be. There is no charitable or correctional institution of which society expects so much, and there is no kind of institution that has a greater desire to meet that expectation, but honesty and fairness demand that it shall be stated that the quality of human material given to it is of such a character as to, of necessity, greatly limit its results.”
Other Items From the Reformatory.—During the year 456 inmates of the New Jersey State Reformatory worked outside of the enclosure. There have been only two escapes, one from those working inside the wall, who was returned by the police, and one from the details working outside, who was captured and returned to the institution by other inmates.
The physical condition of the inmates now present in the institution is as follows:
Those who have increased in weight, 67 per cent.
No change in weight, 19 per cent.
Loss of weight, 14 per cent.
The reduction in the number losing weight is explained as follows:
A larger number of the inmates have been assigned to the outdoor work, gardening and farming, than ever before.
The amount of food served in the dining room has been increased, and its quality much improved.
Many low places in the grounds where mosquitoes breeded and from which malaria emanated have been filled.
During the year more inmates have been paroled, and with better results than ever before in the history of the Reformatory.
Number placed on parole413Returned for crime8Returned, or not returned, being declared delinquent because of committing new crime or breaking other conditions of parole84Percentage failing to keep parole20
Contracts in Iowa.—The Fort Madison Farming Tool company will make a fight to retain its business of manufacturing tools at the Fort Madison penitentiary. It will ask that its contract to employ 150 prisoners be continued for at least a year from the expiration of the present contract on November 1, 1914.
The board has announced, however, that it will not renew the contract for any certain period of time, if any extension is granted. It may be advisable, it is said, to continue the present arrangement to keep the men employed from November 1 until such time next year as the legislature can provide some industry at the prison which will take the place of the tool contract.
The State of Iowa has registered a protest against the convict labor system. As fast as the contracts at the penitentiary expire the state must make some new arrangement. At Fort Madison one contract expires this year. The chair contract, employing a maximum of 179 men, does not run out until 1916. This then will free this prison of contracts and the buildings now housing the machinery of private companies will be used by the state in the manufacture of some product which will most benefit the state.
The Fort Madison Tool Company pays the state $50,000 for the use of 150 men, or $333.33 a year per man, based on the maximum permitted under the agreement. The board of control has stated that this sum is not sufficient, and that if the company is to get a temporary extension of contract it must offer a higher rate.
Education For Prisoners.—Education by correspondence for prisoners in the Kansas Penitentiary would be possible if a plan outlined by the Chancellor of the University of Kansas should be adopted by the Board of Administration. He would have the privilege of the extension division of the University, including vocational training by correspondence, offered to the inmates of the Penitentiary at the expense of the State.
In this connection it is worth while noting that more than 90 per cent. of 269 men committed to the Wisconsin State Penitentiary for murder in recent years were sent to work before they were 15 years of age, says the Bethlehem, Pa., Times. Of these269 convicts, of whom a special study has been made, about one-third have never been to school, half reached the fourth grade and but 3.2 per cent. finished high school.
Utilizing Prison Labor.—The Cleveland, O., Plaindealer, says that:
Ohio expects to save more than a million in the construction of the new state prison in Madison county through the employment of convict labor. When Andrew L. Harris was governor it was estimated that to build the kind of a penitentiary the state needed would cost at least $2,600,000. The prison commission now declares a much finer institution than was then planned will be built for not to exceed $1,300,000.Prison labor constitutes the difference. Men in custody of the state will be utilized to make brick from material on the site, to cut and dress timber now growing on the tract for use in the buildings, and for the actual labor of erection.At the Mansfield reformatory more prison labor will be utilized further to reduce the cost of the development in Madison county. Furniture and fixtures for the new prison offices and library will be manufactured there and shipped.
Ohio expects to save more than a million in the construction of the new state prison in Madison county through the employment of convict labor. When Andrew L. Harris was governor it was estimated that to build the kind of a penitentiary the state needed would cost at least $2,600,000. The prison commission now declares a much finer institution than was then planned will be built for not to exceed $1,300,000.
Prison labor constitutes the difference. Men in custody of the state will be utilized to make brick from material on the site, to cut and dress timber now growing on the tract for use in the buildings, and for the actual labor of erection.
At the Mansfield reformatory more prison labor will be utilized further to reduce the cost of the development in Madison county. Furniture and fixtures for the new prison offices and library will be manufactured there and shipped.
Parole Test Case in Virginia.—The recent session of the General Assembly of Virginia passed the Allen bill providing that the Penitentiary Board might in its discretion parole a prisoner after he had served three years of his sentence; but exempting from its provisions those convicted of murder in the first degree or of criminal assault. Governor Stuart described this bill as misleading in its title. It should have been, he said, “An act to increase the powers of the board of directors of the penitentiary at the expense of the constitutional powers and prerogatives of the executive.”
The Governor referred it to Attorney-General Pollard, who, held not only the bill was unconstitutional, but that the parole act of 1904, which it sought to amend, was likewise unconstitutional. On this advice the Governor vetoed it.
In view of the opinion holding the parole law of 1904 unconstitutional, the question arose as to the future conduct of the prison directors. In a statement issued at the time Governor Stuart expressed the view that it was certainly not contemplated in the Constitution that the prison board should sit as a sort of superior court, to review and reverse in criminal cases not only the verdicts of trial juries and the judgments of Circuit Courts, but the deliberate opinions of the Supreme Court of Appeals as well. The Attorney-General upheld the view that any action releasing a prisoner before he had served the specific term for which he was sentenced by due process of law was to upset and reverse the trial court. This power, it was held, was vested by the Constitution exclusively in the Governor, who may grant absolute pardons or may grant pardons with conditions attached, which are in effect paroles.
Prior to the act of 1904, under the statute of 1896 and subsequent acts, there was a parole system, under which the prison board from time to time made recommendations to the Governor of those convicts who were, in their judgment, suitable for conditional pardons or paroles, thus acting in an advisory capacity. The act of 1904, which is the one now in question, eliminated this report to the Governor and made it possible for the prison board, in its own discretion, at any time to release any convict after he had served one-half of the term for which he had been sentenced.
Under this act the prison board has been from time to time paroling convicts at its own discretion, acting entirely independent of and without connection with the actions of the Governor in granting pardons or conditional pardons, which are in effect paroles.
It has been agreed to make a test case to determine the status of the parole law of 1904, which Attorney-General Pollard has held to be unconstitutional.
In Kentucky.—The Louisville Post says editorially that:
“In no department of the State government has there been progress made in the last two years comparable to that shown in the administration of the Kentucky penitentiaries, and Governor McCreary deserves liberal commendation for the wisdom he manifested in selecting the members of the board—Messrs. O’Sullivan, Conley and Lawrence—and the firmness he has shown in supporting his appointees. This is the one bright spot in our State government and the improvement made will be valuable in the future outsideof the progress in prison administration by the standard it holds up for other departments of the State.”
“In no department of the State government has there been progress made in the last two years comparable to that shown in the administration of the Kentucky penitentiaries, and Governor McCreary deserves liberal commendation for the wisdom he manifested in selecting the members of the board—Messrs. O’Sullivan, Conley and Lawrence—and the firmness he has shown in supporting his appointees. This is the one bright spot in our State government and the improvement made will be valuable in the future outsideof the progress in prison administration by the standard it holds up for other departments of the State.”
Prison Commissioner O’Sullivan has thus summarized the recent developments:
“The most important act passed by the last General Assembly affecting the prisons was the bill providing for State aid in the building of county roads. While it makes no reference to the penal institutions, the opportunity it presents is providential. On January 1, 1915, the contracts on the labor of at least 900 prisoners will expire. In the face of the adverse legislation in Congress, it is probable that the prison contractors will not again bid for this labor, even if the Prison Commissioners were inclined to make new contracts.
“The law permitting the Prison Commission to lease farms adjacent to the prisons at Frankfort and Eddyville is of inestimable value. These farms can not only be made self-sustaining, but the tubercular prisoners can be transferred there and given the chance for life which is sometimes denied them in the narrow confines of a prison cell.
“The indeterminate sentence law does away with the automatic parole of prisoners and gives the jury the power to fix a minimum and maximum sentence proportionate to the crime committed.
“The passage of a law limiting the age of children sent to the House of Reform, near Lexington, and making the county pay part of the cost when the child is not guilty of a penal offense, will prevent the scandalous practice prevalent all over the State of consigning innocent, dependent children to this institution. Some of the officials seem to be in a conspiracy with the parents to get rid of their unfortunate offspring and make the State support them. The Prison Commissioners have returned to their homes 125 children under thirteen years of age who were sent to the House of Reform on flimsy charges. Two boys, six years old, were among the number. They were charged with ‘housebreaking.’ Dozens of cases just as flagrant could be cited.
“The Board has under way plans that will broaden and better this institution, which is one of the most important in the State, as it deals with the child after he has made his first mis-step.
“Before the recent parole of 450 prisoners under the Court of Appeals decision there were 1,450 convicts at the Frankfort Reformatory and 780 at Eddyville. The number of children at the House of Reform will average 700.
“The contractors at Frankfort and Eddyville paid into the State treasury last year $352,000. The cost of conducting these institutions, salaries, supplies etc., was $340,454. The cost of maintaining the House of Reform was $123,386.
“In eighteen months from August 1, 1912, to January 1, 1914, the prisoners have been paid in earnings the sum of $86,000. A great portion of this amount is sent home to their families.
“In the two prisons there are 556 men confined for murder, 115 for manslaughter, and 153 for malicious shooting and wounding. Of this number 340 are life prisoners.
“There are 1,250 negroes to 900 whites. There are 1,300 single men and 950 married men.
“There are 419 men serving second terms, 104 serving third terms, twenty-seven serving fourth terms, and one prisoner serving his seventh term.
“Since the adoption of the parole system 2,200 men have been paroled, which number includes the 450 men liberated under the Court of Appeals decision. Less than 5 per cent. of these men have violated their paroles and been returned to prison.
“In the past twenty-one months the present Prison Board has only paroled one life prisoner sentenced for murder. He had served fifteen years for killing a man who invaded his home and insulted his daughter, and had he been a white man he would never have been convicted.
“The night schools are very successful. Next to the abolition of the lash they have had a most humanizing effect on the prisoners.”
Cleveland’s City Farm.—Dr. Harris R. Cooley reported recently in Des Moines, Ia., regarding recent results in Cleveland:
“We have three different departments on the farm,” he said. “We have 100 consumptiveson one section, 700 people in the alms house located in another section, and 700 prisoners working on the ‘correction farm.’ These men are convicted of different petty crimes and sent to the farm to work out their sentence.”
According to Mr. Cooley, the farm’s profits from products raised last year were $22,167.04.
“It takes a little nerve to start a farm of the kind,” he said, “as it is necessary for a time to keep up two places. While the farm is being started it will be necessary to have some prisoners in jail and some on the farm, until enough buildings are completed to accommodate all the prisoners. However it is a great system when once in working order and would be a great thing for Des Moines.
“We also have a 450 acre farm for the juvenile prisoners,” he continued, “and this too, is proving a great success. It is located twenty-three miles from the city and the large farm is ten miles from Cleveland. All boys under sixteen years are sent to the juvenile farm.
“Our large farm,” said Mr. Cooley, “cost us $330,000 ten years ago. We have recently been offered $1,000,000 for it, but of course refused to consider the offer. We have hundreds of heads of fine cattle, hogs and horses and raise everything in the way of farm products. The profits possible on a farm of this kind are not to be realized by people who have had no experience with the system.
“We also do away with the problem of labor. We have the men on hand with nothing to do with them but let them work. We do not compete with labor, either. The men enjoy the work and nine times out of ten leave the farm better morally and physically than they came to it. Such is not the case with the man who spends a week or six weeks in the stagnant atmosphere of a city jail.”
422 Convicts to be “Turned Loose.”—The New York World, of April 5th, prints a special dispatch from Louisville, Kentucky.
“Kentucky is facing the problem of caring for 422 convicts, to be liberated at approximately the same time and for whom no provision has been made. The prospect is viewed with varying sensations in different parts of the State. In cities and towns there is alarm, but on the farms and plantations, where help is scarce, no fears are felt, and in fact the liberated criminals will be made welcome for the labor they can perform.
“This condition is brought about by the new indeterminate sentence law which is now operative in Kentucky and which does away with the old law by which the jury trying a case fixed the term of years for which a person should be confined, in the same verdict declaring him guilty. As it is now, the jury merely passes upon a prisoner’s guilt or innocence, and if he is found guilty his prison term is automatically fixed by the law covering the offense with which he is charged. These sentences, of course, range from a specified minimum number of years to a maximum. And it has been the rule heretofore for the Prison Board with whom the power of parole rests, to allow the prisoners their freedom largely upon the character of their crime and their conduct while in prison.
“But in the John De Moss case (recently decided by the Court of Appeals), it is held that if a prisoner has completed his minimum sentence and shows a clear record in the prison he must be issued a parole then. Another feature is that he must be able to show that he has some legitimate occupation waiting for him when he is set at liberty again. This parole, of course, does not free the prisoner absolutely. A string is held on him, and should he ever transgress again he may be brought back and made to complete his original sentence.
“Naturally, the convicts are delighted. Of the 422 convicts to get their liberty 232 will go from the penitentiary at Frankfort and 190 from the Eddyville prison.
“One of the requirements with which a prisoner must conform before he can be paroled even under the new order is that he must have a job awaiting him. This has caused the 422 prisoners who are to be released to cast about for a landing place. Among them are individuals of all classes, some very expert in certain lines, but the most of them are ordinary laborers, this being especially true of the negroes, whoare in the majority. Right here is where the release of the prisoners promises to be a good thing for the State at large. For several years the question of farm labor has grown to be more and more a matter of serious nature. The negroes prefer to live in the towns or to work on the public works, where they can be together in crowds. Often the farmers are sorely tried in their efforts to get labor at rush seasons and are forced to pay exorbitant prices.
“But the ordinary laborers among the convicts find the farms their best chance for getting the coveted job. The farmers are willing to take the risk, if risk it is, and they are offering to give employment to the prisoners. In one county the seventeen negroes that are due to return have all been thus guaranteed work. Other counties are doing the same thing and probably the majority of this class of the convicts will find a home and freedom on the farms.
“Much consolation is found in the fact that a radical change in the methods of handling and treating the convicts will result. They will be better citizens when their terms are out.
“One of the results of the new law will be the changing of the Frankfort prison into a reformatory, where the female and younger prisoners will be confined, and the Eddyville prison into the penitentiary, where men only will be confined, and these only for major offenses.
“The prisoners are now allowed more liberties; they are permitted to enjoy the prison libraries, attend night school, organized in the various cell houses, attend religious services, to have the freedom of the grounds at stated times, and when the weather permits to play ball and take other healthful outdoor exercises, to receive mail, and are given better and cleaner cells and better food.
“So, after all, the situation does not appear alarming, but on the other hand it is believed by those in touch with conditions that the released prisoners will come out into the world again with a full appreciation of the joys and privileges of liberty, and few of them will again wilfully disobey the laws and be returned to bondage once more.”
Modern Detention Prison For Women in New York City.—After years of effort on the part of civic organizations, borough officials and individuals, the city is at last to have a Home of Detention and Court for Women. It is to be a fourteen-storied structure and is to occupy a 100×100 foot plot on the north side of West Thirtieth street, between Sixth and Seventh avenues. The working drawings are now being prepared by the architects, Griffin & Wynkoop of No. 30 Church street, and construction will begin in the near future.
The need of such a building has from time to time been emphasized by the numerous abuses attendant upon the imprisonment of women. Heretofore both men and women have been confined in the same building, and because the police stations and the City Prison were of an obsolete design, there was no way of segregating the first offenders from the hardened criminals, a condition which sociologists have long deplored.
The plans for the new building provide for this segregation. Provision is made for three general classes of prisoners, these to be again subdivided into other groups. No longer will first offenders be herded into dark, unsanitary cells along with the habitual offenders. The building is so arranged that each room will be flooded with sunlight at some time of the day; moreover, each cell will have its own individual window and will be provided with running water, basin and sanitary conveniences.
The Magistrates’ Court with its entrances and subdivisions is placed in the first four stories. The Detention Home and District Prison with their subdivisions are placed in the fifth to fourteenth stories.
It was found that by placing the small rooms of the Home of Detention and Prison around the court, recessed from the street, most of the dangers of communication between prisoners and the outside could be obviated, and the possibility of introducing drugs and weapons into the building overcome.
The prisoners are to be delivered through a driveway court into the room for arrested persons, taken to their individual temporary detention rooms on the first and second floors, from which an officerconducts them to the complaint room, or in a continuous line of circulation through the prisoners’ waiting room, the court room, the finger print room, and after sentence, to the room for detained persons, from which they are taken by guards of the Detention Home and Prison and after examination put among that group of prisoners which their degree of crime permits or requires.
The public will enter the building through a public vestibule, pass up a large stairway and enter the court room or complaint room through a public lobby on the second floor. The court room is 25 feet high, of ample size, and has abundant light and cross ventilation from the street into an interior light court, which opens at its top into the recessed light court of the Detention Home above.
The entrance to the probation and administrative portions of the Magistrates’ Court is through a special vestibule controlled by the janitor of the building at the southwest corner. Women on probation of the court can report to their probation officer in the second floor without coming in contact with the crowd frequenting the courtrooms and public vestibule. Probation officers are to be located on the floor immediately below the courtroom and will have ready access to the courtroom when their attendance there is required. Reporters are to be given a special room and provided with tables and seats in the court. The judge, the clerk of the court, the assistant clerks and the district attorney are allotted rooms on the fourth floor, which is accessible to all of the lower floors of the building by a special elevator and stairs.
On the fifth floor of the building are placed the administrative offices of the home and prison, the apartments of the superintendent and assistant superintendent and separate facilities for visitors coming to see the home and prison. The visitors cannot at any time pass to the prisoners either weapons or drugs. Double wire screens will at all times separate the prisoners from the visitors.
From the sixth to the fourteenth floor there will be twenty-four rooms on each floor, these being for housing the inmates of the home and prison. Each group of twelve rooms will have a dining and living room, a service pantry, a bathroom and a storage closet for linen and clothing. An open air exercise loggia will connect the two twelve-room groups.
The prison and home rooms will be slightly different, in that the prison rooms will have steel grilled fronts opening onto the corridor, whereas the rooms of the detention home will have regular fireproof doors fitted with a small grilled panel, for the convenience of matrons in overseeing their charges. Each of the small rooms will be provided with a wash basin, a water closet and a bed.
Criminals in War.—Criminals generally turn out to be cowards on the battlefield, according to observations in the cases of 225 men with jail or prison sentences in their record made during the campaign of Italy in Tripoli by Dr. Consiglio, chief of staff surgeons with the Italian army.
Dr. Consiglio says:
“The abnormal man is unfit for methodically disciplined effort in times of peace; in war, where the demands of discipline and the strain of systematic preparations increases, he displays invariably sooner or later a reaction against his surroundings, which manifests itself chiefly in morbid lack of discipline, disobedience, insubordination or even desertion. The moral strain and the violent manifestations of war induce in such men physical disturbances, excitative crises, hysteric and epileptic attacks and acute insanity. They lack the possibility of methodic action, the iron will to respond to the multiple demands of the instant and to the continued physical and intellectual strain.”
Probation in New York State.—The increasing use of the probation idea throughout the State is shown by reports of the State Probation Commission. More than 9,000 persons are now on probation in the State, including over 2,000 children. Approximately one-half of these are located in New York City; the remainder are scattered in nearly every city and in many of the rural communities of the State. The appointment of county probation officers to have charge of the probation work in all the courts of the countiesis rapidly increasing in favor. Twenty-three counties now have such officers.
The use of volunteers to assist the regularly appointed officers is still practiced in many courts. Forty-nine new volunteer officers have been commissioned during the last two months.
Probation officers were shown to have more than justified their work from a financial point of view alone. During the past year more than $77,000 was collected by probation officers throughout the State from husbands charged with non-support, and the same turned over directly to their wives and children. Ten thousand dollars was also collected for fines on the installment plan. This amount went direct to the various cities and counties employing the officers.
The Commission meets every two months in various cities of the State.
Parole and Other Matters in Rhode Island.—Prisoners who have served part of their sentences at the Rhode Island penal institutions will be admitted to parole if the recommendation of the State Board of Control and Supply, made in its annual report to the General Assembly is carried out.
This recommendation, which the Board seeks to have made into law, would allow a prisoner to remain at liberty as long as he lives up to the terms of his parole. It is pointed out that other States have such laws on their statute books, and that Rhode Island, if it is to live up to modern methods in handling prisoners, must fall into line.
Another recommendation contained in the report, is that one board should be given full control over the management of the various institutions, while the sociological work, such as welfare, admission and probation of inmates, should come under another board.
One of the most important items is that connected with the operation of the new shirt contract, the returns from which show a substantial increase over the revenue obtained by the State from the old agreement.
According to the report, the change from the contract with the Sterling Manufacturing Company has been a most beneficial one.
Under that agreement the State received 30 cents per dozen for shirts, whereas under the new contract with the Crescent Garment Company, the State receives 50 cents per dozen for the same garments.
The result of this during the past year has been an increase in the total revenue derived by the State from $24,185.04, the amount received under a year’s contract with the old company, to $42,930.56, the total received during the year 1913 under the new contract.
The additional revenue to the State from this contract alone, over the year 1912, it is figured, will be sufficient to pay all salaries of the members of the Board of Control and Supply, as well as the clerical staff of the office.
Chicago to Study Criminals.—Enthusiastic press notices come from Chicago about the proposed criminal laboratory.
The judges of the Municipal court have unanimously voted to establish a psychopathic laboratory for criminal study, thus, it is asserted, placing that court far in advance of any judicial body in this country.
All prisoners who go before a judge of the Municipal court and show indications of being weak mentally or who are believed to have physical defects will be sent to the new laboratory for expert examination in the hope that some way may be found to correct criminal tendencies and restore the victims to normal condition.
If possible, arrangements will be made to send a certain class of prisoners into the country, where they may breathe pure air and come in direct contact with the best there is in nature. Dr. William J. Hickson of Vineland, N. J., who has spent years in psychopathic work, including six months as an assistant in the department of neurology and psychiatry at the Royal Charity hospital, Berlin, has been selected by the judges to take charge of the Chicago laboratory at a salary of $5,000 annually. Miss Mary R. Campbell of Milwaukee was selected as an associate to Dr. Hickson after a committee of judges had made a year’s search for the best experts to be had in this country.
There is an appropriation of $8,500 by the city council available for the work.
In arguing for a psychopathic laboratory Chief Justice Harry Olson and other juristsinterested in scientific treatment of criminals have said that under present conditions there was no alternative for the judges except to sentence those found guilty of transgressing the law. Time and again, it is asserted, they have been compelled to deal with prisoners who were not considered actually insane though having mental defects. There was no expert advice available and, in a way, they dealt blindly with the cases. Now it is declared it will be possible to give every such suspect—murder, pickpocket or otherwise—a scientific examination.