Part 2

From the first the society has advocated separate confinement and individual treatment, but has not stood for absolutely solitary imprisonment. There is no objection to work being done in groups, provided the prisoners are under direct supervision of the proper officials. Visits from the officers, from ministers, from all properly concerned persons, have been encouraged. Visitations by members of the Prison Society began under peculiar difficulties, as it is on record that the keeper, with loaded cannon, for the purpose of maintaining order, allowed the prisoners to assemble to hear the preaching of the gospel, but the beneficial effect of the visits were soon officially recognized, and have been maintained with great regularity to the present day, the Acting Committee in 1909 having reported 10,951 visits to prisoners. In the year 1829, when the Eastern Penitentiary, whose plan and management at that time represented the most advanced ideas in prison construction and discipline was built, the members of the Acting Committee of the Society were, by enactment of the State Legislature, constituted “Official Visitors” of prisons.

In 1794 the society succeeded in securing the abolition of the exaction of fees by the jailers as a condition of release, and a competent salary was authorized to be paid to the prison officials. About the same time it was decreed that capital punishment should be inflicted only for the crime of murder. Barbarous methods of punishment, such as the pillory, branding with hot irons, the whipping post, were soon dispensed with as reformatory measures.

In 1844 the society issued the first number of “The Journal of Prison Discipline and Philanthropy.” At first this periodical was published quarterly, but for many years it has been an annual. In the columns of this Journal every phase of prison reform, every measure affecting the management of prisons, every act of penal legislation for nearly seventy years, has received attention.

For about fifty years a special agent has been employed who devotes his time to sympathetic care of prisoners from the time they arrive until they have received their discharge. Legal aid is found for those whose cases seem to require it, and where there are mitigating circumstances the charges are often withdrawn and so the accused is restored where often his services are needed. Attention is given to their physical needs at the time of their discharge and effort is made to provide them with employment.

The Commutation Act, whereby the sentence of prisoners could be relatively shortened for good behavior, was first passed in 1861, for the passage of which act the members of the society had worked for years. In recent years some members of the society have made a thorough study of methods of dealing with criminals in the various states of the Union, and in connection with other interested parties have been instrumental in securing the passage of a law in 1909, which provides for probation for adult offenders, and also for parole for certain classes of offenders. These provisions had for many years applied to juvenile criminals, but before 1909 had no reference to the sentence on adults. The State of Pennsylvania has been quite cautious in adopting some principles of what may be called “The New Penology,” and it is too early at the present time to make any report on the effect in Pennsylvania of this recent legislation. The society is giving close and sympathetic attention to the practical enforcement of these regulations with the hope that the beneficial effects, reported elsewhere, may here be observed, and that the errors of this system, which have been noted rather conspicuously in the press, may be reduced to a minimum in our State.—_From an article by Albert H. Votaw, secretary of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, in supplement to No. 49 of The Journal of Prison Discipline and Philanthropy._

The following report has been made by Frederick J. Pooley, general agent of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, concerning the recent activities of the general agent: At the close of the year, December 31, 1908, there were 1,480 prisoners confined within the walls of the Eastern Penitentiary. At the close of the year, December 31, 1909, there were 1,527, an increase of 47. Of this number 30 are life prisoners. There are 38 female prisoners. During the year 1909 there were 520 prisoners discharged. Of this number 405 were furnished with suits or parts of clothing and with tools, lodging, etc., by the Pennsylvania Prison Society through their general agent, and in addition to this part of the work many were taken to the early morning trains and conducted safely out of the city and beyond the reach of evil companions who often wait for the discharged prisoners at the prison gate for the purpose of leading them back to a life of crime. In addition to the work at the Eastern Penitentiary the general agent has a large field of work at Moyamensing and Holmesburg.

I believe the lesson of temperance that has been taught to the younger generation is commencing to bear fruit, and I look for fewer commitments for drunkenness in the future than in the past. More than 500 discharged prisoners from the County Prison were assisted with railroad tickets, board, lodging, room rent, tools, etc.

=NEW YORK PRISON ASSOCIATION IN 1910=

The New York Tribune on January 23rd stated: The Prison Association of New York during 1910 found work for 362 released prisoners. At the annual meeting held last Thursday O. F. Lewis, general secretary, reported that 1,237 former prisoners had been in charge of the parole bureau during the year, and that the men and women on probation to the association from the Court of General Sessions would bring the total number of persons helped to 1,700.

Managers of the prisons and reformatories know the Prison Association will take at any time as many men on parole as may be assigned to the association. These men must report once a month, and they are also visited by the parole staff at their work and at their homes.

All prisoners eligible for parole must obtain an offer of employment, so their purpose in writing to the association is obvious.

The general secretary pointed out that during the year seventy-six men had been paroled from the state prisons to the association. It was necessary to return to state prison only four men, and the others were all doing well.

Ten thousand calls a year were made at the office of the Prison Association, most of them from men who had “done time.” The association’s staff made over 3,600 visits in 1910 in behalf of men on parole and on probation, and gave nearly 3,500 meals and 1,968 lodgings. The association spent $3,200 in cash relief, including lodgings and meals. Many friends of the association gave clothing, magazines and books, and 344 garments were received by needy prisoners during the year.

Smith Ely contributed $27,500 to the endowment fund, and an equivalent amount was raised by the association last year, but the income will not be available for six months, and an appeal was made for financial help because of greatly increased activity.

The work for dependent families of prisoners was placed in charge of a special committee, with the exclusive service of one visitor. The problem of mental defectiveness among prisoners received much attention from the association, and a special committee on defective delinquents was appointed at the last meeting, which comprised twenty-five specialists in study and care of delinquents. A closely affiliated body of forty business and professional men, calling themselves the Barrows League, was organized to assist the Prison Association through work for the welfare of persons released from prisons or reformatory institutions.

A comprehensive study of the lives of seven hundred present and former inmates of Elmira Reformatory was conducted by the association during 1910, through the financial support of the Sage Foundation. It was expected that this study would be published this year.

=THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY FOR AIDING DISCHARGED CONVICTS=

In 1846 the Boston Society for Aiding Discharged Convicts was organized for the purpose which its name indicates. At that time there were 276 prisoners confined in the state prison, while on Jan. 1, 1911, there were 876 serving sentences there.

In 1867 the organization was incorporated, and the name changed to the Massachusetts Society for Aiding Discharged Convicts. Upon the formation of the society the state agent for discharged convicts was employed for its work, which was to be carried on along the same lines as that contemplated by the state.

The advantages to the society from its co-operation with the state in this work are many. Perhaps the greatest is the fact that by this arrangement the records of all the commitments and discharges to and from all the prisons of the commonwealth, which are in the office of the prison commissioners, are open to the inspection of the agent at all times. Here the story of an applicant for aid can be verified or disproved immediately. In addition to the criminal records are many others, going more fully into the personal history and home conditions of those who have been in prison; all of this information is useful and necessary in dealing with the ex-prisoner. The saving in administration expenses, rent, and other items, leaves more funds available for the prime object of the society, i.e., help to the prisoner.

During the year ending Nov. 30, 1910, this society has helped four hundred and sixty-three men, most of whom had served terms in the jails, houses of correction, and on the state farm. The assistance rendered has been generally in the form of transportation, meals and lodgings, room rent, clothing, tools, taking property from pawn shops, medicines, spectacles, etc. There has been expended during the year about $1,700.

Notwithstanding the increase of population in Massachusetts there were 213 fewer prisoners on Oct. 1, 1910 than on the same date in 1909.

=THE MINNESOTA DIVISION OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE FRIENDLESS=

The Minnesota Division of the Society for the Friendless is a division of the National Society of the same name. It has been doing active work in the state of Minnesota since January 1st, 1909, when Rev. James Parsons came to the state as superintendent, under appointment of the national society. The work was carried forward for the first fifteen months under the direction of the national society. On April 8th, 1910, the Minnesota Division was formally organized.

Its special motto is “education for the prevention of crime, and help for the prisoner.” It aims to arouse a more enlightened and humane sentiment toward the treatment of discharged prisoners, awaken a new interest in the improvement of laws, and show the forces that are at work to make criminals. Along relief lines it aims to do everything possible for the men while in prison, to find employment for them when they are discharged or paroled, and in cases where employment cannot be secured for them at once to furnish them with a temporary lodging place. It also gives such aftercare as each case seems to need.

During the year 1910 one hundred and six jail visits were made, over 600 prisoners were interviewed, 45 persons were helped to work, and 75 were assisted in other ways. The machinery of the organization has been gotten into such working order that the society is in a position to handle a larger work. During the next year the organization hopes to aid in securing the passages of a number of beneficial laws, among them being one providing for an up-to-date indeterminate sentence.

During 1910 the following work has been done, among other activities of the society: Church addresses, 106; persons reached in churches, 16,155; school addresses, 56; persons reached in school audiences, 8,780; miscellaneous addresses, 19; persons in these gatherings, 4,445; miles traveled, 22,673; calls made for various purposes, 1,491; letters written, 599: jail visits, 106; prisoners interviewed, 600; discharged prisoners helped to work, 45; assisted in other ways, 600.

=NEW JERSEY STATE CHARITIES AID AND PRISON REFORM ASSOCIATION=

The current number of the New Jersey Review of Charities and Correction brings interesting information regarding the re-organization of the association and the appointment of Joseph P. Byers, formerly superintendent of the House of Refuge at Randall’s Island, New York City, as general secretary. The program of the present year includes the organization of county branches in all counties of New Jersey, there being at present but seven county committees: the visitation of all the institutions of the state by the general secretary; the regular publication of the New Jersey Review; the development of the standing committees, and the extension of the membership and influence of the association. Hugh F. Fox, writing in the Review, says: “Mr. Byers has made his mark in all of his undertakings in the past, and his practical experience and wide knowledge qualify him peculiarly for the supervisory and advisory duties which he has now undertaken.”

The annual report of the association’s general secretary calls attention to the county jail problem, the opposition in New Jersey to the present contract system of labor and the possibilities of a profitable introduction of the state use system, the desirability of introducing winter work into the almshouses of the state to discourage the presence of vagrants, and the great need of a woman’s reformatory.

=COLORADO PRISON ASSOCIATION GROWING=

The Colorado State Prison association, says the Denver News, has become during the last year an organization not only to help prisoners who have a criminal record to get work and to reform, but to keep others from gaining a criminal record.

Instead of sending young first offenders to jail this year some Denver judges have tried the plan of releasing them to the Colorado Prison association. In every case the offenders have been grateful, were helped by friends and relatives to get work and are now living useful lives. The idea is new to Colorado.

W. E. Collett, general secretary of the association, states in his report for 1910, that the association helped 534 persons as against 324 the year before.

For the first time Secretary Collett received applications from men of the professions, lawyers, physicians, and from bookkeepers and clerks who have fallen into trouble.

The association procured employment for 355, meals for 344, lodging for 227, clothing for 105, transportation for 70 and tools, loans and medical aid for 45. The total number of lodgings given was 1,226 and the total number of meals, 2,882.

Nine were given courses in a Correspondence school. The cost per prisoner to the association was $9.75.

=GEORGIA’S NEW SECRETARY=

Robert B. McCord has been recently made secretary of the Prison Association of Georgia, with headquarters at 404 Gould building, Atlanta. Concerning the new incumbent, the Atlanta _Georgian_ says:

“Mr. McCord is a native Georgian and has spent years in specializing on the character of work in which he will now be engaged. After a preliminary course at the University of Florida, he attended Yale university, from which he graduated in 1908. After his course at Yale he attended the University of Chicago. Mr. McCord was closely associated with Dr. C. R. Henderson for two years in research work.

“In outlining the work of which he will have charge, Mr. McCord said:

‘The prison associations of the several states are not organized on the same plan, or for doing the same phases of the work in every case. The Prison Association of Georgia is not modeled after any of them, yet in the work outlined it resembles more nearly the Prison Association of New York.

“‘The Prison Association will investigate and attempt to throw light upon the causes that underlie crime of the various kinds in this state. It will collect information from officials and suggestions from men of experience in Georgia, methods employed in other states and countries, and it will publish these in various ways to the people of the state. It will aid in introducing and extending methods of preventing crime and reforming offenders. It will endeavor to organize such influence as will secure the building and equipping of proper institutions for those offenders who can not be dealt with more profitably and wisely by methods of probation and parole. It will direct its efforts to securing the proper equipment and regular inspection of jails and prisons of all kinds. It will in time organize such aid as may enable the discharged prisoner to establish himself again in the confidence of the people instead his possessing that dangerous state of mind which characterizes one who feels himself an outcast of society’.”

EVENTS IN BRIEF

=[Under this heading will appear each month numerous paragraphs of general interest, relating to the prison field and the treatment of the delinquent.]=

_What Can Be Done With the Drunkard?_—In many states the approach of the legislative season has brought forth bills providing for a more rational treatment of the drunkard. A commission appointed by Governor Warner of Michigan to make a study of minor criminal offenses will recommend to the legislature at the 1911 session the establishment of an inebriates’ farm where the drunkard, habitual or occasional, may work off the habit under the influence of helpful and healthful surroundings. The commission, all of whose members are lawyers, have found that petty crime is increasing in Michigan at the rate of ten per cent a year, while the population is increasing at the rate of but four per cent. The report emphasizes that the present Michigan methods of dealing with petty offenders are not reformatory.

In Lewiston and Auburn, Maine, citizens are establishing a refuge for discharged prisoners who have served terms for vagrancy or intoxication. The Auburn Reform League hopes thus to find “a place where these men can be helped to a fresh start.”

In Massachusetts, Warren F. Spalding, the secretary of the Massachusetts Prison Association, discussing the treatment of drunkenness before the commission which has been investigating the increase of prisoners and paupers in the Bay State, said recently: “Massachusetts’ system of dealing with the question is not good. It is sending thousands of persons to the houses of correction each year and then releasing them after short periods without having helped them.” “A drunk,” he said, “needs air, sunshine and outdoor work. He should not be in a cell 16 out of the 24 hours. These cells are not free from germs. What does Massachusetts do with her drunks? After sending each one to the House of Correction for a number of times, he is sent to the state farm at Bridgewater, where he receives the outdoor treatment he needed in the first place. Massachusetts should establish from one to six institutions where drunks and criminals through drunkenness can be given outdoor treatment.”

It is reported that a bill is to be introduced into the Indiana legislature providing for the sending of convicted drunkards to the county infirmary which is reported to be able to work the men on the farm at a cost only one-fourth of that entailed by keeping them at the jail.

A member of the State Commission in Lunacy of New York recently stated that 28 per cent of insanity in the state hospitals of New York is directly traceable to inebriety or the use of alcohol.

_Winter and the Vagrant._—New York City has been registering at its half-million dollar new free lodging house a record-breaking attendance this winter of the out-of-works. On January 15th the department of public charities lodged 982 homeless persons at the city lodging house and an overflow of 286 were lodged on a covered dock owned by the department. “In my fifteen years of experience,” said the superintendent of the lodging house, “I have never seen so many men come here with clean shirts and collars, and with neat clothes. They are men who have been working on the railroads and on the aqueduct and are now laid off for the winter.” The city lodging house has no work-test and the magistrates have largely discontinued their former tendency to commit frequent repeaters at the lodging house to the city workhouse. In the first sixteen days of 1910 the city cared for 5,841 persons at the lodging house; for the first sixteen days of 1911 the attendance was 13,197, an astounding increase of approximately 8,000 or more than 125 per cent.

Meanwhile cities all over the land are complaining of the swarms of tramps and vagrants making claims, almost with the assurance of vested rights, upon the hospitality of the towns or the individual citizens. Minneapolis has recently attracted attention through its new city lodging house, where free food, free bath and nightshirt are a part of the regulations, as well as the fumigation of the guest’s clothing during the night. The conditions under which homeless men were formerly lodged by the police in Minneapolis were so wretched that the new municipal lodging house has received a welcome from press and public.

One year’s work of the wayfarer’s lodge of the federation of charities in Toledo, O., is worth notice. During 1910, 3,896 men were taken care of, 8,465 beds being given. On an average the men stopped at the lodge two and one-half nights, 18,773 meals being given in 1910. Paid employment was found for 962 men, most of the positions being at manual labor. Seventy-three per cent of the men were American born. Over seventy per cent were in the best period of life, between twenty and forty years of age. Nearly fifty per cent of the men were common laborers. All the men were examined by medical students of Toledo University, and if in need of care were referred to a dispensary or other sources. About one man in five was found to need medical attention. Over forty per cent of the men were reported as having, or as having had, venereal disease.

_A Court to “Patch Up” Quarrels._—The domestic relations court of Buffalo supervised through its probation officer in 1910 the distribution of $40,587 in non-support cases. This was the first court of this nature to be established. Recently New York and Boston have followed suit. Probation did not prove successful in every case, but the percentage of success “warrants enthusiasm,” according to the probation officer of the court. Three out of every four persons are reported benefited by the court.

_A Prison Twine Plant in Wisconsin._—On January 13th a bill was introduced into the Wisconsin senate providing for an appropriation of $400,000 as a fund to be used in operating a binder twine plant at the state prison at Waupun, $200,000 to be available May 1st, 1911, and the remainder May 1st, 1912.

A bill will be introduced, it is reported, into the Ohio legislature providing for the sterilization of criminals and insane.

_Points in Prison Reform._—The Chicago Record-Herald of January 17th, says editorially: A Harvard professor advocates systematic experimentation on prisoners in state institutions with the different chemical poisons used in food preservatives. Such doings, he thinks, would be mild and humane as compared with those which are constantly being tried on the non-criminal public by the manufacturers of food products.

The professor probably has in mind the experiments conducted by Dr. Wiley on government employees at Washington. But submission to such treatment was voluntary, and the work was under competent supervision. That such favorable auspices could be guaranteed in an average prison is open to doubt.