[At the recent meeting of the American Prison Association, Frank L. Randall, Superintendent of the Minnesota State reformatory at St. Cloud, read as chairman the report of the committee on reformatory work and parole, from which we print the following extracts.]
To the chief executive officers of penal and correctional institutions in the United States and Canada was submitted the following question: “To what extent do you recognize mental inadequacy and constitutional inferiority among the persons in your charge?”
The estimates are various. Among prisons for adults they range from 3 persons out of 240 in Wyoming, to 10 per cent. in Nebraska and Philadelphia, 20 per cent. in Rhode Island, 25 per cent. in Vermont, 30 per cent. in Indiana, 30 per cent. to 40 per cent. in Wisconsin, fully 50 per cent. in Kansas, 60 per cent. in West Virginia, 50 per cent. to 75 per cent. in Minnesota, and a still higher percentage of prisoners lacking in energy, mentally or physically, in one Michigan prison. Major McClaughry, and Warden Wood of Virginia, wrote that they could not answer the question.
From state reformatories came estimates covering a range from 25 per cent. to 40 per cent. only in Iowa, Washington, Kansas, and New York (Elmira). The writer, regretting his inability to report more exactly, because the work in his institution has not been completed, feels safe in concurring in the general approximations cited by reformatory superintendents.
From the New York reformatory for women at Bedford Hills we have the following: “Realizing that a large percentage are subnormal, July 1, 1911, we employed a trained psychologist who will make it a year’s study.” From juvenile institutions the returns are neither more hopeful, nor more satisfying, and many institutions of that class seem to have no special facilities for caring for weaklings, and depend upon a relaxation of the discipline in their behalf. A study of 200 in the boys industrial school in Kansas disclosed that 174 were mentally dull, markedly defective, or two or more years behind their proper place in school. In the industrial school of New Hampshire about 75 per cent. are reported to be four to five years below their normal grade in school.
Other letters say “probably 25 per cent., at least;” “one-third;” “50 per cent.;” “to a very large extent;” and so forth. The Idaho industrial training school reports: “A very small per cent.; I think not above five per cent.;” and the Georgia state reformatory reports that “the discipline has to be based on the fact that 75 per cent. of inmates are mental defectives and 99 per cent. are moral defectives.” The girls industrial home of Ohio says: “Fully nine-tenths are subnormal mentally, and a large per cent. physically weak or crippled.” From theIowa industrial school for girls comes the following: “There is a certain inferiority, either mental or constitutional inadequacy, in each and every one. In the majority of cases it is a weakness; that is, they are easily influenced, therefore easily led astray.”
It seems fair and right to allow for a difference among the writers as to the full import of the question to which they have responded, but that may not entirely account for the considerable differences in estimates. Possibly varying court proceedings, and the use of the power of probation by some of the courts or other exemptions from detention, may, in some places, have culled out most of the normal children.
Your committee rather inclines to think however that longer and more extensive experience, in many cases, tends to fix in the mind the necessary recognition of a grave amount of mental inadequacy and constitutional inferiority, calling for custodial care, among all classes of delinquents, including juveniles, no less than adults.
While the incompetents remain with the normal persons in labor, in school, and in recreation, the progress of the bright is certain to be retarded by the association, while the outlook for the dull is not improved. This mingling and attempted classification of unequal units seems to be the rule almost everywhere, with consequent lowering of efficiency and tone, to the basis of the inferior.
So far as returns have been received from prisons, reformatories and juvenile institutions for correction, the average terms of office of the executive heads during the last twenty years have been about as follows: In prisons about four and one-third years. In reformatories for adults about eight and one-third years, and in institutions for juveniles about six and one-quarter years. These averages are considerably higher than they would otherwise be, by reason of the fact that in some states it is not usual to make a disturbance without cause, and somewhat lower than they would otherwise be, because in some states each change in the personality of the governor, as well as each change in party politics, has almost uniformly resulted in the dismissal or enforced resignation of the wardens and superintendents of the class of institutions under consideration, quite regardless of their capacity and fidelity, and sometimes apparently without a serious inquiry as to the peculiar fitness of the new appointee.
Some of the delegates to this Prison Congress may hardly appreciate the fact that there are institutions in some states where neither institution heads nor subordinates attend caucuses, discuss politics, contribute to campaign funds or take any part in election matters, except to vote: and where the political preferences of the members of the staff are unknown to each other, or to their chief. The elections bring to the institutions no unusual excitement or personal anxiety.
The establishment of truant schools in the cities has demonstrated that the best and most capable teachers and managers are necessary to their successful conduct and discipline, and for the same reasons a prison or reformatory should be manned by the best obtainable talent.
Your committee have made diligent inquiry but have not learned of any jurisdiction in which the compensation and status of subordinates in penal and correctional institutions is such as to ordinarily attract young men and women of the kind and character needed for the work; and neither do we find that such subordinates are any where required to have technical training or prior experience, before assuming their responsible positions as exemplars, directors and officials to those whose careers have been, at least to some extent, oblique.
With their small pay, and perhaps small chance for promotion, and often with an uncertain tenure, their hours of duty long, and their work somewhat monotonous, and depressing to those not peculiarly fitted to it, they not infrequently have uncomfortable quarters, and but little opportunity to develop their social side.
It is not to be wondered at that many of the young people who should follow institution work turn their attention in some more pleasing and promising direction, and that the service generally fails to measure up to its possibilities.
Subordinates are found, to be sure, who fill every requirement, and who could not be improved upon on any basis of wages, but that merely indicates what might be done, if the appointing power might only offer inducements for likely young people to come to the institution, and make them glad to remain.
The State attempts to secure first class work for second class compensation, and while it may often succeed in individual instances, the policy is not to be approved.
In conclusion we wish to recapitulate to the extent of indicating in brief the points deemed by us to be the most important for improvement in reformatory work, as follows:
1. The recognition of mental incompetency and constitutional inferiority among delinquents.
2. The segregation of persons of marked inferior equipment and capacity, and their detention in custodial asylums, and other places suited to their care and treatment.
(This for the purpose of humanely and favorably disposing of, and caring for, helpless recidivists, dements, chronic invalids, epileptics and others.)
3. The furnishing to the public of reliable and important information regarding the character of the inmates of institutions, and the work carried on.
4. The need of men and women of higher ideals and higher culture in places of confinement, necessitating preliminary training, higher wages, improved accommodations, suitable hours, fair tenure of office, and opportunity for promotion.
5. The elimination of political consideration from the conduct of the institutions, and from the appointment of all persons of high or less high degree in connection therewith.
6. The closest scrutiny into the physical and mental condition capacity of each person detained, and into his past history and environment.
7. The establishment of a system under which no delinquent shall be released, unless in the judgment of the board, after searching inquiry, there is good reason to believe that he can and will maintain himself without relapsing into crime, and will be of some service to society; and under which no delinquent will be further held when such a condition is believed to have been reached.
8. The extension of state agency and other supervisory means for observing and aiding the delinquent on parole, and for selecting suitable location and employment for him, and caring for his surplus earnings.
[The American Prison Association held its annual meeting at Omaha, Nebraska, from October, 14th to 19th. The Review publishes this month some echoes of the convention. In November further attention will be devoted to the meeting.]
Morons in New Jersey Reformatory.—Dr. Frank Moore, superintendent of the Rahway Reformatory gave an address before the annual convention of the American prison association at Omaha, on “Mending the Immoral Moron.” He said, in part:
“In our New Jersey reformatory we have during the last two years made a careful study of this problem. Each inmate that has been received has been tested concerning his mentality, with the result that 46 per cent. were found to be deficients and to have minds that in knowledge or ability were only equal to the minds of children from 5 to 13 years old. Fully 33 per cent. or one-third of our population, we concluded was of the Moron class.
“The problem presents very great difficulties. The ordinary institution officers declare that prisoners are ‘dopes,’ and sometimes the psychologist agrees with them.
“The methods employed in dealing with this difficult problem must be unusually wise. The first thing that seems important is to know the man. He must be recognized as a defective. A special system must be adopted to him. His is a feeble mind. To place the same load upon him that is put upon others is eitherto cause him to balk or to break down altogether under the strain. He is a child mentally and not the abstract, but concrete or kindergarten mode of instruction must be used. In school he must be separated in some way from the others.
“In his training in work the calibre of his mind needs also to be considered. The trades that need planning and skill are too much for him. To the work of the laborer, the farm, garden and dairy he is best suited, and in them he is really most contented.
“Discipline which is firm yet kind is most successful. The most of immoral morons that we get have been ill-treated. Those who have not understood them have tried to beat sense into their stupid heads, and they are filled with fear and suspicion. They need, therefore, to be reassured.
“Care must be given to correct such physical defects as are often times the cause of mental and moral weakness.
“Of the 46 per cent. who by the test were feeble-minded in our institutions the percentage of physical defects was as follows:
“Defective eyesight, 40 per cent.; flat foot, 35; bad teeth, 32; throat difficulties, 17; nasal obstruction, 47; total number having some physical defects, 88 per cent.
“The work that the true chaplain may do is very great. The best way to mend the immoral moron is through persuasion and influences of religion.
“Our learned friend, Dr. Goddard, of Vineland, N. J., has declared that nine years is the average age when the tendencies of crime begin to develop. At this and even an earlier age it has been arranged by infinite wisdom, it would seem, that religion should begin to make its formative impressions on the mind.
“Concerning the question of parole or discharge, we cannot agree with those who advocate that the moron should be kept in permanent custodial care. Our success with this class on parole has been fully as good as it has been with the normal mind. Of eighty-three paroled during three months, not long ago, the morons have made even a better record than the normals.
“We could point to many other morons who are doing their part well in the world’s work. They have their place in the economy of society; they peculiarly fit certain kinds of employment.”
Judge De Courcy on Unpunished Homicide.—Quoting President Taft as saying that “The administration of criminal law in this country is a disgrace to civilization,” Judge C. A. De Courcy of Lawrence, Mass., justice of the supreme court of Massachusetts, pointed out in a paper read at Omaha in his absence that the United States is conspicuous for the great number of unpunished murderers. The defence of insanity, the limitation of the power of judges and the character of testimony allowed to be introduced in behalf of the defendant were some of the evils which, he said, ought to be rectified. “The number of homicides in this country for 1910 were 8975—an increase of nearly 900 over the number in 1909; yet but one in eighty-six was capitally punished in 1910 as against one in seventy-four during the year preceding,” said Judge De Courcy. “It is said that in 1896 for each million of the population there were 118 homicides in the United States; in Italy less than fifteen; in Canada less than thirteen; in Great Britain less than nine; in Germany less than five.
“In New York City, 119 cases of homicide were investigated by the grand jury during the last year, but only forty-five convictions resulted. Chicago reports 202 homicides were committed in that city during the last year. Only one of the offenders was hanged; fifteen were sent to the penitentiary and the others were set free. In Louisville, with a population of 224,000, during the last year, there were forty-seven cases of homicide and not a single murderer was hanged. In Alabama a conviction for stealing hides was recently set aside because the indictment failed to state whether they were mule, cow, goat or sheep hides. And indictments were dismissed because father was spelled farther (in South Carolina); because the letter ‘i’ was omitted in spelling malice (in Alabama).” Judge De Courcy then suggested some criminal law reforms which included simplified forms of indictments, changein the selections of juries and in the rules governing pleadings.
Wickersham on Prison Reform and Parole.—The attorney general of the United States said at Omaha that in the battles of economic forces for supremacy, the law must be obeyed, even though it seems to favor one class as against another. Punishment in some form, declared the attorney general is still necessary in our land to prevent crime. He discussed at length the broad question of punishment for crime and the administration of the federal parole law. Modern penal legislation, he said, is based on a recognition of the expediency of endeavoring to reform the criminal. Mr. Wickersham favored the extension of the parole law to include life prisoners. He regarded it as an incongruity that prisoners sentenced to long terms for vicious crimes should be eligible for parole when the man convicted of second degree murder must remain in prison for life.
Since the parole law was placed in operation last autumn, only one prisoner had violated his parole. The two hundred prisoners who were paroled from the time the law was put into effect in the autumn of 1910 to June 30, 1911, earned nearly $22,000, whereas, if they had remained in prison, the attorney general pointed out they would have been a charge on the government. Mr. Wickersham expressed the belief that the parole boards should be enlarged by adding two unofficial persons selected from among prominent citizens of the locality in which the prison is situated.
Base Ball in Prison.—At Omaha this question was vigorously discussed, not unfavorably, but as to the day or days when the game should occur.
J. K. Codding, warden of the Kansas penitentiary, told of base ball and other recreations for prisoners in his institution and the discussion which followed the general expression was that base ball, athletic contests, moving picture shows and other recreations render prison discipline easier by affording opportunity to reward those who do well and to deprive of pleasure those who break the rules.
The statement of Chaplain Le Cornu of Walla Walla, Wash., that Sunday afternoon in his institution is devoted to base ball, raised a protest from others, particularly Warden Codding of Kansas and Warden Saunders of Iowa. Mr. Codding said he didn’t let the men play ball on Sunday because he didn’t expect them to advocate Sunday ball when they got out. Mr. Saunders said his men played Saturday afternoon; that he would allow the men to play Sunday if they couldn’t play any other day.
Warden James of Oregon said he not only had base ball games, at which the men were allowed to root until they were hoarse, and weekly moving picture shows, but he intended this fall to put in a gymnasium. Several wardens said the reason that prisoners in many prisons are locked up all day Sunday is that the state is too stingy to hire a few extra guards.
A Colorado woman delegate said the men in the Colorado prison play base ball without guards, and in the rock camps they enjoy themselves at various sports, without guards, all day Sunday.
Mrs. Booth on Prisoners’ Earnings.—“Every man who works in prison should work for the support of his family or those depending upon him, after his board and clothing have been paid for,” declared Mrs. Maud Ballington Booth in a lecture at Omaha. “Some officials and law makers seem not to know that a convict may have a family, yet there is always this heart-saddened, home-broken circle of gloom, the mothers, wives and children of convicts, about every penal institution. Wherewith are they to be fed and clothed? What recognition does the state give to them, from whom it has taken their only source of support? When this wife married the man he promised to support her. Then if the state takes him in hand, why should it not make provision for his carrying out the promise?
“I know of one case where the state gets $500,000 a year for its convict labor. A nice little source of revenue! What of the army of helpless and hopeless wives and children who are being deprived of the support of these laborerswho are their husbands and fathers.
“The helping hand extended to the family frequently has a reflex action on the man in prison. He decides that if there are people outside who think enough of his babies to care for them they are worth his efforts too.”
Shackling Chain Gangs.—At Omaha, during the American Prison Association meeting, some plain talk was printed in one of the newspapers, quoted from the lips of some delegates who saw the Omaha chain gang going through the streets, and who pronounced the shackling system bad and unnecessary. Word comes now from Columbus, S. C., that the convicts on the city chain gang who are not disorderly or those who have not attempted to run away are no longer required to wear the iron shackles about their ankles. When a prisoner is convicted before the recorder and given a sentence on the gang he is told that the shackles will not be put on him if he promises not to give the guards trouble.