Part 4

Grateful recognition is also made of “the valuable services of the visitors of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, the American Society for Visiting Catholic Prisoners, the Protestant Episcopal City Mission and the Prisoners’ Guild of the King’s Daughters, contributing to the comfort, encouragement and upbuilding of the prisoners,” and especial mention is made of the services of the Pennsylvania Prison Society in providing clothing for those prisoners in need at the time of their discharge.

The cost of maintenance for the year 1910 is reported as $99,296.70, and the following is presented as “Account With Convicts for 1910”:

DR. CR.

Balance to credit of convicts January 1, 1910 $11,644 96 Sent in by relatives and friends 20,798 33 Brought in by convicts on reception 1,013 81 Earned by over work 13,084 88 Allowance 426 00 Profit and loss 1 39 Paid to convicts on discharge $5,939 61 Sundry goods, shoes, etc. 3,564 09 Paid relatives and friends 19,249 22 Paid for tobacco, tooth brushes, soap, etc. 6,554 32 Balance due convicts January 1, 1911 11,662 13 ---------- ---------- $46,969 37 $46,969 37

REVIEW OF THE BIENNIAL REPORT OF THE INSPECTORS OF THE STATE PENITENTIARY FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA FOR THE YEARS 1910-1911.

This report is contained in a pamphlet of one hundred and sixteen pages, of which about twenty pages are devoted to a historical account of the institution.

It appears that the first buildings were completed November 22, 1827, and on the supposition that very soon after prisoners were received at the institution, its penal history covers more than eighty-three years.

The statistics show that on January 1, 1910, the number of convicts was 1,261.

Received during the year 1910 297 Discharged during the year 1910 502 Population December 31, 1910 1,056 Showing a decrease of 205

Of the 1,056 prisoners there at the beginning of 1911, there were:

White Males 845 White Females 20 Colored Males 185 Colored Females 6

Those who were discharged may be classified:

Pardoned by the Governor 5 Expiration of Sentence 10 Commutation of Sentence 448 Transferred to Insane Asylum 8 Order of President (United States Prisoner) 1 Paroled 26 Died 4 ---- 502

The parole officer, John M. Egan, states that “the parole system ... has already been productive of good results, and promises development that will compare favorably with the most successful reformative work of other States.... The good deportment of our indeterminately sentenced inmates, their sincere efforts to map out for themselves a future foreign to their previous lives of crime and the faithful manner in which all, save two, of the convicts who have been granted conditional freedom are complying with the provisions of their parole, is gratifying.”

Of the 297 received during the year:

Those who are serving sentence for the first time 221 Those known to have been previously imprisoned 76

Under thirty years of age 152 Over thirty years of age 145 ---- 297

Number apprenticed to some trade, including the unapprenticed who had worked at least four years at a trade 74 Number unapprenticed 223 ---- 297

Natives of United States 202 Foreign Born 95 ---- 297

Social Relations: Single 159 Married 114 Widowed 23 Divorced 1 ---- 297

Nature of Crimes: Against Person 172 Against Property 125 ---- 297

The gratuities to prisoners discharged in 1910 amounted to $3,195.00. This sum presumably was given in cash and clothing.

The bill for provisions amounted to $63,361.00.

Tobacco for the prisoners cost the State $2,471.00.

The various industries in operation at the penitentiary show substantial gains:

During the year the sales of mats and matting amounted to $114,475.00.

The profit from this industry was $29,696.00.

The profit in the hosiery department was $5,191.00.

The profit in the shoe department was $1,665.00.

The earnings by labor, piece price, in the broom department, $4,069.00.

It appears that the officials make effort to find work for the large majority of the convicts.

The number of days of labor reported by those in fair health is 275,051.

The number of days of idleness seems large, 85,074, but indicates that the convicts are at work a little over three fourths of the time.

They now have a regular optical department equipped with modern appliances, and in 1910 386 prisoners were fitted with glasses. The physician reports that in many instances those who were thus supplied showed both physical and mental improvement, to say nothing of the satisfaction of having deficiencies of eyesight remedied.

The chaplain reports that the number of bound volumes in the library is 11,882. During the year the number of books issued to the prisoners was 73,070.

The report contains resolutions of the Board of Inspectors _in memoriam_ of John Linn Milligan, whose mission since 1863 had been in looking after the spiritual interests of the inmates of the Western Penitentiary. The following paragraph from one of his recent reports illustrates the spirit of the man and of his work: “Since my official relation with this prison began, 11,624 convicted men have passed within these gates. Many of these have gone out to struggle into the cold and suspicious world, friendless and alone, to struggle against the handicap that conviction and punishment of crime bring. Doubtless many have died, bruised under the burdens they have had to bear. Doubtless many more than the public believes have been absorbed into the ranks of industrial honesty of life and purpose. A small per cent. were instinctive and professional criminals, and nothing but the sovereign grace and mercy of the good Lord, who said to the poor sinner in the face of the murderous crowd, ‘Neither do I condemn thee; go, sin no more,’ could cure the crime habit for them.

“When I look back along the line of the regiment of convicted criminals, whom I have tried to strengthen with a new and manly purpose, the busy efforts do not seem long, nor has my knowledge and familiarity with their character hardened my heart nor diminished my desire to uplift them. Nor has the backward glance lessened my hope in true reformative efforts, patient, firm and kind, and I believe more sincerely in the deep necessity of Divine love and power for their spiritual reclamation.”

Warden Francies earnestly recommends that immediate steps be taken to remove the prison to a more healthful location on some large tract of land on which buildings may be erected largely by convict labor, and where the inmates may in the future be employed in producing their own sustenance thus saving a large part of the expense of the maintenance of the prison.

FORTY-FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE MANAGERS OF THE ALLEGHENY COUNTY WORKHOUSE, 1910.

This is one of the two or three penal institutions of the State of Pennsylvania to which a farm is attached. The Allegheny County Workhouse has, during the last year, added 175 acres to its holdings of real estate, at a cost of over $288.00 per acre, and the total acreage now belonging to the institution is about 280 acres. The total number of prisoners at the close of last year was 863, an increase of 70 over the number at the close of the year 1909. The daily average of inmates was 824. During the year 1910 there were received at the workhouse 3,836 male prisoners and 606 female prisoners. The entire number was 4,442, of whom 3,606 were from Allegheny County, and 836 were sent from other counties. For the maintenance of prisoners outside of Allegheny County, the institution received $23,396.

Of the 4,442 committed, there were committed for the first time 2,301. One hundred and five had been committed seven times. One hundred and fifteen had been committed twenty times or oftener. Twelve prisoners were serving sentences for the fiftieth time or more. It is not a place for juvenile offenders. Of the whole number, 227 only were under twenty years of age. The greater part of them are between twenty and forty years of age. Only 630 could neither read nor write, of which number 438 were foreign born. Austria furnished the largest proportion of illiterates.

HABITS OF LIFE.

Four hundred and eighteen of these prisoners professed to be total abstainers from intoxicants, and 540 are classified as intemperate; 3,484 are occasionally intemperate or are moderate drinkers.

Thirty-seven hundred and forty-seven prisoners weighed at the time they were discharged 14,796 pounds more than when they commenced to serve sentence, or an average of three and ninth-tenth pounds increase for each individual. Six hundred and twenty-five women prisoners showed an increase of one and four-fifth pounds per individual.

Superintendent Leslie reports that the new wing is almost completed. It will contain 478 reinforced concrete cells, in four floors of about 120 cells each. At the back of the cells is a five-foot utility corridor, in which all plumbing, waste pipes and foul-air ducts are placed. Five feet in front of the rows of the cells is a steel proof cage, extending the full length of the rows. Between these cages and the outside wall is a corridor which is lighted by large tool proof, obscure wire-glass windows. The building is equipped with the best sanitary appliances. The entire cost will be about $210,000.00, which includes dynamos, engines and power plant of sufficient capacity for another building of similar size. The larger part of the work was done by the prisoners. During this last year the total days’ work performed by the inmates on the new building was 18,821.

But work on the new building is not by any means the sole industrial employment. The total number of days’ work of inmates is reported as 171,952. The industries comprise broom and brush making, carpet weaving, farming operations, wall building and domestic employments.

The revenue from brooms is estimated at $16,935.00; brushes, $2,062.00, carpets, $4,610.00; boarding prisoners, $31,620.00; farm products, $2,677.00.

The farm products of which the greater part was consumed on the premises include 5,865 bushels potatoes, 1,550 bushels wheat, 424 bushels sweet corn, 1,058 bushels green beans, 1,313 bushels tomatoes, 30,025 heads cabbage, 8,000 heads celery, 1,252 pounds butter, 3,039 gallons milk, 200 chickens, 496 dozen eggs. The total number of days’ employment outside the walls was 28,857, and yet but one prisoner made his escape.

Chaplain Imbrie reports that there is a Sabbath service in the prison chapel, at which attendance is voluntary. “But few absent themselves from this service.” They have a choir of their own, with an efficient musical director. During the winter there are frequent entertainments held in the chapel, consisting of lectures, elocution and music. They have a judiciously selected library of 6,000 volumes, and the number of books taken out during the year was 18,167.

They have a total enrollment in the night school of 185, with an average attendance of about 176. This school is maintained largely for the benefit of the illiterates and of those whose education has been extremely limited. The difficulties of presenting statistics of those who are permanently reformed is well illustrated by the following extract from the chaplain’s report: “As the year closes I find myself looking back and counting the meetings and partings with more than four thousand souls, who have come and gone during the past twelve months.... I have known each one for a few weeks or months, then they have gone like the ships that pass in the night.... A few have written kind letters to me after having reached their homes, a few have sent messages, ... some I have met on the streets of the city, and a few have been returned as prisoners to this institution, but the greater number have been absorbed in the great mass of humanity, and I have no further trace of them. The promises made at parting may be broken, the influence of the few weeks spent here may soon be effaced by the environments of the world, the seed sown in the gospel messages may never mature, but yet the effort has been made, and the increase is with the Father.”

CORRESPONDENCE.

MT. LEBANON PRISON, SYRIA.

... This prison is located in Bate-id-deen, where the governor-general and all the government officials reside. There I had an interesting call on the governor of Mt. Lebanon, Yusuf Pasha Kusa.

I found him a very fine, polished gentleman, promising that he will help to put a check on the drinking habit of his country, and he gave me the privilege of visiting the prison and meeting all the prisoners. It was a great opportunity after the iron bars were opened and the kind-hearted warden let me in. The prisoners gathered around me in great curiosity, as they had never seen a woman in the court before. There were two hundred and seventy-five (275) men prisoners. There were Arabs, Druzes, Christians of all sects. The prison is a round building with dark rooms around and an open court in the center--four or five in every room. They are required to furnish their own beds, clothing and food, except they receive a portion of bread (about one and one half pounds) each day. They gathered around me and were very eager to hear what I had to say. For an hour and three quarters they listened very attentively, and at last they showed their appreciation by promising to live better lives. At the close of my speech one of the prisoners asked the privilege of speaking, which was granted. He said: “We want our friend to know that not every one of us is a criminal, some of us are here through lack of justice. If we were in a Christian country, under Christian and just laws, many of us would not be here.”

The poor prisoners who had no friends to supply them with any food have been living on bread and water, and I was allowed the privilege of providing half of a sheep. They were very grateful for it.

This will show you how prisoners live in a non-Christian country. Then I thanked the Lord for the Pennsylvania Prison Society, that is bettering the lives of the prisoners.

Respectfully, LAYYAH A. BARAKAT.

January 19, 1911.

A KIND WORD FROM BULGARIA.

SOFIA, BULGARIA, May 2, 1910.

I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of the copy of the JOURNAL OF PRISON DISCIPLINE AND PHILANTHROPY (January, 1910), published by the Pennsylvania Prison Society. I have read it with great interest and much benefit, especially the paper of Rev. J. F. Ohl on “The Administration and Needs of a Modern State Prison”; the excellent address of Mr. Frederick Howard Wines on “The Indeterminate Sentence, the Parole and the New Criminology”; and the articles by the Secretary on “County Prisons” and “Pentonville Prison, London, England.” I appreciated the memorial of Rev. Samuel J. Barrows, whom I knew for many years.

With the highest respect, DR. D. MINKOFF.

HUMANE OFFICIALS.

A few days ago I went to your city to secure the release from Central Police Station of a young lady about twenty-one years of age, who had been in Philadelphia but a few months. She had been accused by her employer of stealing. Whether so or not, the judge, Hon. David S. Scott, and the officials did not seem to believe it. That very efficient officer of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, Mr. Fred J. Pooley, telegraphed her brother in this county to send some one to Philadelphia to look after her interests. I went and found that Judge Scott had the right idea of treating uncertain cases of first offenders. He told me that he always gives the prisoner the benefit of doubt, and so metes out justice that supposed offenders might have a chance to reform, if guilty, and not be made hard-hearted criminals. In this case he turned the young lady over to me, and I took her to her home, where a heartbroken father and mother awaited her.

I want to congratulate your city upon having such just and humane officials as Judge Scott, Reserve Officer Runner, Matron Cooper--the right woman in the right place--and Mr. Pooley is moving in the right direction in helping to save accused criminals. His is a great work, and no better man could be found for the position.

WILLIAM G. KERBIN, _Attorney-at-Law_.

Snow Hill, Md., Sept. 22.

--_From The Philadelphia Record._

A STRIKING CONTRAST.

Westmoreland County is one of the prosperous and wealthy counties of Pennsylvania. An evidence of its ability to spend money for public improvements is its splendid courthouse. This cost a million and a half. It is a magnificent structure, rich in its art work and furnishings, and spotlessly clean. Few county officers in the United States are more comfortable and luxuriously housed.

Within a block or two of this fine pile stands another county building. It is the jail. What a contrast! Here, too, human beings are found, not, however, for a few hours of the day, but by day and by night, for weeks and months and years. But was there no thought for their physical well-being when this jail was built? Is there none now for their bodily and spiritual health? Not only is this jail an example of an altogether faulty type of prison construction, but as at present conducted it is unclean, and therefore unsanitary; it is shamefully overcrowded; young and old, first offenders and hardened criminals, are allowed to congregate indiscriminately in the corridors; no attempt at classification or reformation is apparent, and thus the history of many another county jail is repeated in the midst of a community that by reason of its Christian character, intelligence, and wealth ought to be among the first in penal reform.

It is still true that many county jails are a blot--a very dark blot on our civilization. When will reform begin where it ought to begin, namely, at the bottom of our penal system?

AN OFFICIAL VISITOR.

COUNTRY LIFE FOR CONVICTS.

For some years this subject has claimed much attention, and latterly on account of the successful issue of experiments in this direction, the reforming possibilities of such methods have been prominently brought into notice. Hence we have felt justified in devoting considerable space in this number to this topic. It is appropriate that the citizens of Pennsylvania particularly should have their attention called to the out-door life for misdemeanants, since the Managers of the Western Penitentiary have decided and have been permitted to remove that institution to some large tract of ground within the State.

The two following articles are from “The Review,” published by the National Prisoners’ Aid Association, 135 E. 15th St., New York City.

THE FARM TREATMENT OF MISDEMEANANTS.

JAMES F. JACKSON.

Superintendent of Charities and Correction, Cleveland, Ohio.

The old type institution for misdemeanants failed to accomplish satisfactory results, mental, moral and physical. It seemed incapable of developing industry; it was unhygienic, without classification and with no adequate facilities for developing a man’s will or increasing his capacity to do right. There was no individualism. The old workhouse was typical of the most intensified institutionalism, and institutionalism for an adult is an assured failure. Neither the arrangements of the building nor the manner of life nor the administration were conducive to the rehabilitation of the man. The old type of workhouse was constructed to avenge the wrong and not to correct the wrong-doer.

When the failure of that plan was fully recognized, people cast about for a remedy. They saw the success and satisfaction attending the location of charitable institutions in the country, and the idea of similar locations for various types of prisons occurred to them. And the cry against prison-made goods gave impetus to the movement.

The prison did seem to be the last place to make real the fact that “a man’s a man for a’ that.” But when the plowshare and the pruning hook began to supplant the stripes and the dungeon, people were certain that at last the dignity of manhood would be realized and that life and immortality were come to light.

St. Paul and Minneapolis were among the first to adopt the farm policy. Various other corrective institutions were established upon farms in foreign countries and in this country, especially within the past twenty years. One of the best institutions for misdemeanants thus established was located at Witzwyl, Switzerland, in 1891. But I wish to-day to speak with particular reference to Cleveland’s situation, its old workhouse and its new correction farm.

The Cleveland workhouse was constructed over forty years ago on the old lines for 500 prisoners, two miles from the center of the city. In 1904 and 1905, about 750 acres were purchased by the city nine miles from its center. Upon this land building was commenced several years later. Thus far there is built only the “service building” which at present fulfills all purposes. Ultimately it is to be used for store-rooms and shops. There are also to be built dormitories for trusties and semi-trusties, cell-blocks for the least tractable, kitchens, dining rooms, a chapel, women’s industrial building, school building and a greenhouse, all within a high wall inclosing eleven acres. The present intention is that the buildings and wall shall be constructed by the labor of inmates. Unfortunately there are no funds in sight to proceed with this construction.