Part 2

Frederick J. Pooley, one of the Secretaries of the Society and Agent at the County Prison, is more untiring than ever in his efforts for the betterment of those incarcerated in Moyamensing, at Tenth and Reed Streets, and in the New County Jail (Convict Department), at Holmesburg. He visits both institutions during five days in the week, seeks to aid men temporally and morally, is instrumental in having cases brought to speedy trial, and in some cases even looks after the destitute families of prisoners. At Moyamensing, women members of the Acting Committee also visit in the Women’s Department.

During the year 1906 there were received at the County Prison, Tenth and Reed Streets:

White males 17,085 “ females 2,180 Black males 3,106 “ females 1,005 Total committed, 1906 23,376 “ discharged, 1906 23,452

After trial many were sent to Holmesburg.

THE ASSOCIATED COMMITTEE OF WOMEN ON POLICE MATRONS

The Associated Committee of Women on Police Matrons in Station Houses meets monthly with three representatives from each of a number of the charitable associations of Philadelphia. On this Committee, the Pennsylvania Prison Society is represented by Mrs. P. W. Lawrence, Dr. Emily J. Ingram and Mary S. Wetherell. The following is the report of the Committee for the past year:

The Committee on Police Matrons held ten regular and one special meeting during the year ending December 31, 1906.

The membership of this Committee is now twenty-one women who represent seven societies, namely, the Pennsylvania Prison Society, Women’s Christian Temperance Union, Civic Club, New Century Club, Young Women’s Christian Association, Christian League, and Mothers’ Club. The usual attendance is from eight to twelve members. Reports are received from all the Matrons at each meeting. There are twenty-two. The fourteenth district (Germantown) was supplied with a Matron in March, 1906. The effort is made that each Matron shall receive at least one visit a month. The meeting of the Conference of Charities in Philadelphia in May last brought us unusual interest in the work of Police Matrons elsewhere, and we formed a permanent committee to secure knowledge of it in other cities, and comparison of methods with them. At several meetings of this year, four Matrons at a time were invited to meet with the Committee, and offer suggestions and state experiences requiring help and study. The Needle Work Guild coöperates with the Committee for supplying clothing to the Matrons for their use with needy women and children under their care. Mrs. Fletcher, our Senior Matron, completed her twentieth year of service, and was given a reception by the Committee, at which the Directors and other officials were present. In this time she has had 9,000 women and 2,900 children under her care. The Director of Public Safety, Robert McKenty, has been especially interested in an effort to give personal help to erring women and girls, and extends every facility for our communication with such, by directing the Lieutenants to coöperate with our efforts to redeem them from disgrace and despair. The numbers given in our reports are, of course, from twenty-two districts only. There are fourteen others without Matrons, where many women and children are received. We have been assured that a Matron will be appointed in West Philadelphia very soon, and there is also a prospect of more effective systematic work in coöperation and supervision of this branch of police administration.

STATISTICS

(Except as to totals and conditions when received, statistics cannot be made absolutely accurate, especially as to “Nationality and Disposal.”)

_Women under care from January, 1906, to January, 1907_ 9,295 Arrested 7,475 Lost or seeking shelter 379 Mothers 2,898 Intoxicated 3,679 White 6,502 Colored 2,288

_Disposals._

Discharged with and without fines 2,074 Sent to Reformatories 672 House of Correction 923 County Prison 2,255 Americans 5,320 Foreigners 2,934

_Children under care from January, 1906, to January, 1907_ 6,839 Arrested 3,417 Lost or ran away 2,846 White 5,497 Colored 651 Brought with parents 468

_Disposals._

Sent home 4,695 S. P. C. C. and Aid Society 387 Charities and Reformatories 449 House of Detention and Juvenile Court 572

Respectfully submitted, MRS. P. W. LAWRENCE.

CHESTER COUNTY PRISON

William Scattergood, President of the Board of Inspectors, makes weekly visits to this prison, and reports it in good condition. It is considered a model prison. Deborah C. Leeds, a member of the Acting Committee, has also visited it during the year.

COUNTY PRISON AT MEDIA

Deborah C. Leeds has visited this prison several times during the year, and reports it a well conducted institution.

ALLEGHENY COUNTY

Mrs. E. W. Gormley, Superintendent of the Prison and Jail Department of the W. C. T. U., is also a member of the Acting Committee of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, and as such an official visitor to the penitentiaries, county jails and reformatories of the Commonwealth. We are highly favored in having a member who is doing efficient work in the western part of the State.

DOOR OF BLESSING

This institution for discharged female prisoners was established and is under the supervision of Mrs. Horace Fassett, who is an official visitor at the Eastern Penitentiary and the County Prison. She writes: “The Door of Blessing goes steadily on in its good work under its noble matron, Gertrude Brown. Since January, 1906, fifty women and four babies were sent there from our County Prison, the House of Correction, and the Eastern Penitentiary. All of these were placed in situations in the country, mostly on farms. Some have returned to go to better positions, some have remained, and very few have gone back to their old life. The Door of Blessing is a home for these dear children in every sense of the word--a haven of rest and peace. All love it and look forward to their afternoons out, that they may go there and have supper with the matron and tell her of their joys and sorrows, to which she listens with loving sympathy. Six women were sent to their homes, their families being willing to receive them after a short stay at the Door of Blessing.”

HOME OF INDUSTRY

This institution extends help to men discharged from the Eastern Penitentiary and the County Prison. It provides board and shelter for these, gives them employment in broom-making, for which they receive compensation, and seeks to bring all who enter it under the saving power of the Gospel. The efficient Superintendent is Frank H. Starr, who makes every effort to place men in situations when they leave the Home.

GALILEE MISSION

This is under the care of the Protestant Episcopal Church. A large number of men from the Penitentiary and County Prison have been sent there for meals and lodgings, sometimes only for a few days, and at other times for a week or two until they could obtain work.

HOPE HALL, NEW YORK. UNDER THE CARE OF MRS. BALLINGTON BOOTH

During the year a number of men have been sent to this place from the Eastern Penitentiary. Mrs. Booth always receives such with a warm welcome, and often obtains good situations for them.

PRISON SUNDAY

In the early part of October, 1906, the Committee on Prison Sunday sent out a circular letter, urging the observance of October 21st as Prison Sunday, to thirty-three hundred ministers of the Methodist Episcopal, the Presbyterian, the Baptist, the Lutheran, the Protestant Episcopal, and the Reformed Churches in Pennsylvania, and to six hundred daily and weekly newspapers.

FROM THE MINUTES

MEMORIALS OF DECEASED MEMBERS

GEORGE W. HALL

George W. Hall, former member of the State Legislature and of City Councils, a well-known financier, and President of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, passed away on December 14, 1906, in the 77th year of his age. He was a member of the Franklin Institute, a director of the School of Design for Women, a director of the Home for Feeble Minded Children at Elwyn, a member of the St. Andrew’s Society, a trustee of the Second Presbyterian Church, and an inspector of the Philadelphia County Prison.

It seems proper that there should be a minute of record of one who for years has been an active member, besides being a life member of the Society. He spent much time in looking after the welfare of the prisoners at the County Prison, Tenth and Reed Streets, and at Holmesburg, where he will be greatly missed.

May this minute be recorded and a copy sent to the surviving members of his family.

REV. JAMES ROBERTS, D. D.

Rev. James Roberts, D. D., was born at Montrose, Scotland, December 25, 1839.

He came to this country with his parents at an early age, and was graduated from the Princeton Theological Seminary in 1868. His first charge was at Coatesville, Pa., where he remained until 1885, when he took charge of the Church at Darby, Pa. After remaining there ten years he accepted a call to Lambertville, N. J. On leaving this charge he became Superintendent of the Mercer Home for Aged and Retired Ministers, which position he filled until called suddenly from earth on September 27, 1906. His genial, affectionate ways widened the circle of his friends, who were found among all classes. It is with sincere sorrow that our Society records the departure of another of its most honored members and Second Vice-President.

Resolved, That this minute be entered on our records and a copy thereof with our sympathies be sent to the bereaved family.

I close my report with the earnest wish that the Pennsylvania Prison Society may constantly widen its scope of operations and grow in efficiency and usefulness as it grows in years.

The work I have performed during not only the last, but for many years, has been very dear to my heart, and I have felt that I have had an especial call to the service. Conscious, however, of my need continually of Divine guidance in all that I have done in His name, I have earnestly sought for that wisdom which will enable me to do all for Him.

With sincere desire that I may be a humble instrument in His hands in winning souls unto Christ, this report is respectfully submitted.

JOHN J. LYTLE, _General Secretary_.

* * * * *

Joshua L. Baily was elected President of The Pennsylvania Prison Society at the annual meeting, January, 1907. His membership in the Society dates from 1851 and he is the oldest member now living. For a number of years he was a member of the Acting Committee and a regular visitor of the Eastern Penitentiary. His great interest in prison discipline induced him, some years ago, to visit voluntarily all the penitentiaries in the Atlantic States, as well as some of those in the States of the Central West, and he visited also many of the County Prisons in Pennsylvania and other States. His interest in correctional institutions was further shown by ten years’ service on the Board of Managers of the House of Refuge.

Mr. Baily has been no less actively interested in charitable institutions, having been for more than fifty years a manager of The Philadelphia Society for the Employment and Instruction of the Poor, of which he is now President. He was one of the founders, and for eighteen years the President of The Philadelphia Society for Organizing Charity. He is also a member and manager of a number of other benevolent societies, so that by reason of long experience, in both correctional and charitable service, Mr. Baily comes to the Presidency of the Prison Society well equipped for the duties devolving upon him. Although still engaged in mercantile business, Mr. Baily gives a large portion of his time, as well as his means, to benevolent purposes, and devotes thereto a degree of vigor, both mental and physical, quite unusual in one of his advanced years.

THE NATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS

ALBANY, NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER, 15-20, 1906.

The National Prison Association met in its annual Congress, in the Senate Chamber of the State Capitol, at Albany, N. Y., on the evening of September 15, 1906. The meeting was called to order by the Chairman of the Local Committee, Mr. James F. McElroy, and prayer was offered by the Rev. W. F. Wittaker, D. D., pastor of the First Presbyterian Church.

The Hon. Julius E. Mayer, Attorney-General, represented the Governor in the address of welcome in behalf of the State, and the Mayor of Albany, the Hon. Charles H. Gans, spoke for the city. The Rev. Dr. Frederick Howard Wines made the response, in which he dwelt in reminiscent vein on some of his experiences since the first meeting of the Association, and spoke especially of the leading men who were connected with it during its early history. Dr. Wines advocated three reforms: 1, the abolition of the “sweating” or “third-degree” system, which he called an outrage on the rights of prisoners; 2, the reorganization of the jury system, so that juries could no longer be selected by the “Gang” for the express purpose of defeating justice; and 3, the dismissing of small misdemeanants on their own recognizance, instead of crowding the jails with these.

Dr. Wines then introduced the President of the Association, the Hon. Cornelius V. Collins, Superintendent of Prisons of New York State.

PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS

Mr. Collins, after alluding briefly to the purposes and work of the Association, rehearsed the part his own State had taken in the development of plans for the scientific treatment of criminals. Having traced the successive steps in prison reform, in which he showed that New York State had taken the lead, he said:

“Public sentiment has always called for the education and training of the young. How much more important and of what inestimable value is the saving of the adult. Situated as we are here, at the gateway of the republic, we admit at Ellis Island more than a million new people each year. Vital statistics in New York City gave 59,000 births last year, only 11,000 of which were of American parentage. Austria, Russia and Italy each sent us 200,000 immigrants last year. What is more natural than that many of them, wholly unacquainted with our country, our language and our laws, should in their first effort at living in the land of liberty run counter to our laws and find their way to prison. Surely they do come, and the number is constantly increasing. There are now 12,000 convicts in the prisons of this State, made up largely from this cosmopolitan army of ignorance and superstition. This is the problem we have to solve in New York State, and while it is no doubt a fact that our State will always have more than others, it is nevertheless true that every State in the Union will have this class of prisoners to deal with in increasing numbers as time goes on.”

Superintendent Collins detailed the good that followed the separation and classification of prison inmates into groups or grades and the training of the mental faculties through the plan of education in vogue in New York State prisons. The labor and industrial training provided in connection with mental training was spoken of and a plea was made for the indeterminate sentence. In conclusion Superintendent Collins made a timely argument in favor of a reform in county jails. In this connection he said:

“We who are familiar with the facts know that many convicts are received at the prisons who are morally poisoned and contaminated while awaiting trial in the jails by the intimate association with confirmed and degraded criminals which is permitted in these institutions. This is especially true of the younger class of offenders, who come to the jail having respect for authority and dread of confinement. At no period of their penal term are they so susceptible to external influences. If at this period a practical reformatory influence is exerted upon them, their correction can in most cases be accomplished, but if they are left in idleness and subject to the evil influences of degraded companions their respect for law is soon destroyed, and they become hardened and defiant and accept the theories and ambitions of the confirmed criminals as their own. Thus the man who enters jail in such condition that proper treatment would readily turn him from his criminal course often reaches the prison a most discouraging subject for its reformatory system.

“For the interest of society, as well as the protection of young offenders, the jail system should be corrected. The jail buildings are improved and the prisoners are better fed than they were fifty years ago; otherwise the system remains practically the same. Its conspicuous defects still exist. No chain is stronger than its weakest link; the extensive schemes of penal administration in the several States have their fatally weak part in their jails. Genuine and effective organization in the United States for the salvation of criminals and alleged criminals must take heed of these facts, which are notorious.

“May I now suggest that a committee, to be called, if you please, the Committee on Plan and Scope, be appointed at this session of the Prison Congress to consider the following recommendations:

“First. A rational and uniform system of jail administration.

“Second. A uniform system of education for prison officers.

“Third. A uniform system of education for convicts.

“Fourth. So far as possible, a uniform system of prison discipline.

“Fifth. A uniform system of classification.

“Sixth. A uniform system of parole, and a careful consideration of all other matters that in their judgment would tend to make further reforms in the treatment of the criminal classes.

“This committee to make a report of their conclusions at the session of 1907.”

The Congress, deeply impressed by Mr. Collins’ recommendations, subsequently appointed a strong committee to report at the next meeting on the jail system in the United States.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 16TH

MORNING

The Conference Sermon was preached by the Rt. Rev. William Crosswell Doane, D. D., LL. D., Bishop of the Diocese of Albany, in the Cathedral of All Saints, where the delegates attended in a body. The Bishop’s text was Matt. 25:36, “I was in prison and ye came unto me.” He said in part: “Almost by an instinctive impulse these words come first to the mind of the preacher at such a service, and by a striking and happy coincidence this service falls upon the Sunday when our Book of Common Prayer appoints for the second morning lesson the chapter which ends with this intense expression of our Lord, containing, I think, the seed principle upon which the noble work of this Association was founded and has been carried on. Last year the preacher took the earthly ministry of our dear divine Lord as the pattern of this work, ‘Who went about doing good.’

“I am only supplementing and carrying along the line of his thought when I ask you to think of the divine Master as giving not the pattern only, but the principle of your work. There is no contradiction in the double presentation of our Lord’s personality along this as along so many other lines. He is so essentially by His incarnation in our human nature that we bring Him to those to whom we minister in His name and find Him in those to whom we bring Him. And in either of these sides the truth is set forth and enforced that the object of all Christian service, whether it be the work of Christianity in religious teaching, or the work of Christianity in the administration of civic affairs, is not the violent denunciation or vindictive infliction of punishment upon a sinner, but the offer of help and the opportunity of reform. The Prison Reform Association may well claim that it describes and expresses in its name the purpose for which in Christian lands prisons exist. ‘He came not to condemn the world, but to save it.’ ‘The Son of Man has come to seek and save the lost.’

“Curiously enough, whatever technical differences may lie in the use of the various words prison and gaol and reformatory, there is one that stands out as having in its root meaning the very thought of that on which we are dwelling, because the penitentiary is certainly the place where men are led and drawn, through real penitence, to seek and find pardon and peace.

“I am not losing sight of the purpose of imprisonment both to stamp crime as crime and to protect society from the criminal. I am only advocating the thought of reform for which this Association stands. If a man is a murderer condemned to die, then there is the overwhelming duty and responsibility of bringing him to repentance, that he may die forgiven. If he is serving a sentence indeterminate or for a fixed time, then surely the influence and effort of prison discipline must be not to harden him into sullen hatred of law and of all that the law stands for, not in a harbored purpose to revenge himself in some way, when once he is free, upon the society which has condemned him; but to waken in him such a sense of shame as shall force him back to the possibility of self-respect, and bring him to that point of realized wrong by means of which he shall ‘come to himself.’ That is the Master’s own description of the prodigal son. Far as he had strayed from his father’s house, he had strayed farther from his real self, the self of his innocent childhood, the self of his home and surroundings, the self of his true nature, and it was when the true man wakened in him that, coming first to himself, he came next to his father’s house.