Part 3

One finds a spirit more human than that of the Harvard professor in the warden of the state prison at Walla Walla, Wash. The latter declares that the striped suit and the lock step are undesirable relics of an outlived past. He has put his charges into plain gray clothes, with no distinguishing mark beyond the prison number, and has abolished the lock step altogether. If those two antiquated features represented affronts to the dignity of human nature, the compulsory consumption of poison might reasonably be held to represent still another. Its introduction might lay the base of a new error and abuse, which itself would have to be abolished in turn.

_Life Prisoners Studied._—A thorough study of the subject of life prisoners has been made by Warden Henry Town, of Waupun, Wis. It is interesting to note the kindly feeling held generally by prison officials toward the “lifer.” Experience proves that the average character of life prisoners is higher than the short-term men, and fewer return again to crime, when given their liberty. This fact has increased the sentiment favorable to paroling life prisoners after they have served a reasonable period. The great majority of officials have expressed themselves as favorable to laws of this kind, and several states have already adopted them with satisfactory results.

_A Jail Catechism._—The following recommendations, made by Commissioner Frank Wade, of the New York Commission on Prisons, after an inspection of the Orleans County jail, may have a general applicability to the jails of the county:

“That more beds and mattresses be placed in the lockup; that tramps and loafers, not under arrest, be not allowed to mingle with the prisoners detained for trial; that a jail yard be provided at the county jail, and that work be provided for time prisoners; that all the beds in the jail be equipped with new mattresses; that the walls of the corridors and cells be repainted and that the corridors and cells be kept clean; that the bed clothing be regularly washed and kept clean, in which event sheets and pillow cases should be washed; that a steel ceiling be placed over the wooden joists in the kitchen; that there be light in every cell and that there be a new lock on every floor which cannot be reached or tampered with by the prisoners.”

_A Court On Prison Architecture._—In the course of a decision denying an injunction brought to hold up the contract for a new state prison, Justice Betts of the New York Supreme Court, recently uttered the following dictum dealing with the psychological aspects of prison architecture:

“It appears that a substantial change in plans was made, increasing the cost of the new prison from $2,000,000 to $2,200,000. This was solely in an attempt to beautify and adorn the exterior of the building. The commission, with the sanction of the legislature, is to spend $200,000 in seeking the unattainable. A prison known to be such is hideous and ugly. It can be viewed by two classes of people only, those who are inmates and those who are out. The inmates are not proud of their environments, however ornate, and no amount of embellishment can make it attractive to outsiders.”

A state training school for boys under 18 has just been opened at Monroe, Alabama. It has been in preparation for several years.

_Federal Prisoners Paroled Without Publicity._—In accordance with the decision of the attorney general of the United States and the chairman of the federal board, prisoners who have won their paroles from federal prisons will hereafter be released without publicity. Thus they can go back into society unburdened with the disadvantage of readvertised notoriety. Commenting editorially on this change, the Cincinnati (Ohio) _Enquirer_ says:

“This is in keeping with modern progress in the treatment of criminals. When a man is tried and sentenced for a crime, full publicity is given to that fact, and when he arrives at the penitentiary that fact also is announced to the public. After that man has served the term to which he was sentenced, or when he has served a part of it and is released on parole, he has paid his obligation to society for his violation of law. He has a right to demand that he be permitted to re-enter the world unhandicapped by the renewed publication of the disgrace of his imprisonment. * * * * The attention of the Ohio prison managers is called to this progressive action on the part of the federal government. Its helpfulness would be just as important in state as in national criminal affairs.”

_Organized Labor Opposes_ “THIRD DEGREE.”—A dispatch from New Haven, Conn., states that organized labor in the various states is called upon to exert its influence for legislation forbidding the police “third degree” to get confessions from prisoners in a letter sent out from the National Headquarters of the American Federation of Labor at Washington.

The letter, which is signed by Samuel Gompers, describes the practice as having no warrant for its existence “except the brute power of barbarism and the tradition derived therefrom,” and declares that “its practice on the part of the police is usurpation that must be stopped.”

Former Lieutenant-Governor E. H. Harper has been elected president of the Colorado Prison Association, which plans to draft a number of bills for the legislative session.

_Penal Farm for Indiana._—A bill providing for the establishment of a state penal farm will be introduced into the Indiana legislature.

The bill provides that the location of the farm and the purchase of the land for it shall be made by the board of trustees of the state prison, with the approval of the governor. The location shall be determined by the advantages offered in providing work for the inmates. The labor for erecting the buildings shall be furnished by prisoners transferred from the state prison and reformatory. The farm shall be in charge of a board of four trustees appointed by the governor.

All male delinquents, who are above the age of commitments to the Indiana Boys’ School, who have been convicted of the violation of any state law or city ordinance, the punishment for which now consists of confinement in a county jail or workhouse, may be sent to the farm. Where the imprisonment shall not be more than thirty days it is left to the discretion of the trial court as to whether the prisoner shall be sent to the county jail or to the penal farm.

Upon the recommendation of the boards of trustees of the Indiana state prison and the state reformatory the governor may order transferred from these institutions to the farms such prisoners as in the opinion of the board would be benefited thereby. The prisoners at the proposed institutions shall be employed at work in or about the building and farm. For the purpose of equipping the farm appropriations shall be made by the legislature. It is estimated the appropriation will require $200 a year for each prisoner.

_A Women’s Prison for Ohio?_—Members of the Ohio joint legislative committee appointed to recommend what the state should do about building a women’s prison, have decided to recommend that a joint reformatory and prison for women be built under a management separate from the penitentiary. The board of managers of the penitentiary will be asked to abandon the project of erecting the woman’s prison near the institution for men.

_Probation in Connecticut._—The Connecticut Prison Association shows that the number of cases placed on probation during the year ended September 30, 1910, was as follows: Men, 1,613; women, 126; boys, 809; girls, 49. Those who observed their terms of probation and were released were: Men, 1,077; women, 117; boys, 677; girls, 43. Those who violated the conditions and were rearrested were: Men, 214; women, 12; boys, 52; girls, 7; while 92 men, 7 women, 17 boys and 4 girls escaped from the jurisdiction of the court. There were remaining on probation at the close of the fiscal year 858 men, 59 women, 325 boys and 26 girls, while the cases of 326 men, 18 women, 90 boys and 50 girls were investigated and settled out of court.

The amount of probationers’ wages collected and expended for their families was $26,919.75. The amount of fines and costs collected from them amounted to $10,791.44.

President Thorpe of the Massachusetts Prison Association, in support of his recommendation of state control of all penal institutions, which he suggested had been smiled upon taxation, and a governor or two, said that criminals violate the welfare of the state, not of the county, and that about the only opposition to his project comes from county commissioners. He called it wasteful for counties to build new prisons, where they house both serious and petty criminals, and suggested that the state should erect one in the country for classified lighter offenders.

Following the wide publication of an article from the pen of Sir Evelyn Ruggles-Brise, K. C. B., dealing with prison conditions in this country, a statement condemning American prisons and prison systems was attributed to him. In a recent letter to Amos W. Butler, Secretary of the Indiana State Board of Charities, Mr. Ruggles-Brise, who attended the International Prison Congress at Washington, and who is chairman of the prison commission of England, stated that his criticism referred only to the jail system in this country.

_Three Reforms Urged in Maine._—Several reforms are being strenuously urged upon the Maine legislature by the prison association of that state. A farm for inebriates in Cumberland county, a reformatory for women, and a system of juvenile courts are those propositions attracting the most attention from the press and the public. Civic clubs, men’s clubs and church organizations are being drawn into the effort to get the necessary bills passed by the legislature. The proposed farm for inebriates will provide physical and mental training for the inmates, and the bill authorizing it fixes minimum and maximum sentences of three months and one year respectively. The bill providing for a women’s reformatory asks for an appropriation of $30,000 for an institution on the cottage plan, to which commitment will be on the indeterminate sentence plan. The proposed juvenile court bill was spoken of as follows by Judge Ben B. Lindsey, of Denver, Colorado:

“This bill is the best measure yet proposed to protect and correct helpless, neglected or offending children.”

In connection with what promises to be a state-wide investigation of several departments in New York which come under the control of the governor, it is interesting to note that Governor Dix declares his intention to make a personal inspection of the prisons, and a thorough study of their affairs. Cornelius V. Collins, Superintendent of Prisons, has stated publicly that he will welcome any investigation of affairs in the Prison Department.

A bill to abolish the different prison boards and establish a new board to control all state prisons and perform the functions of the present advisory board in the matter of pardons, is in preparation by Rep. Robert Y. Ogg, of Detroit, Michigan. Both parties declared for such a bill in their state platforms.

A stop has been put in South Boston, Mass., to the practice of sending juvenile offenders from the detention station to the courthouse in the same vans with adult prisoners.

A bill to compel the sending of prisoners under 18 years of age to the state reformatory, and to permit the sending of first offenders, except those guilty of serious crimes, to the same place, and to prevent the sending of prisoners over 30 years of age to the reformatory, is being urged upon the legislature in Colorado. It is argued that some of the judges think the reformatory merely a branch of the penitentiary.

On the ground that imprisonment in the city jail for petty crimes brings punishment on the family of the culprit no less than on the culprit himself, Mayor Pratt, of Spokane, Wash., is urging the establishment of a work farm where petty criminals can be given employment that will contribute to the support of their families. Mayor Pratt is also said to favor an institution where the destitute can find employment.

A bill for the establishment of a reformatory for first offenders, now before the legislature of California, is said to have the backing of many organizations interested in prison reform. The bill provides for an institution to which prisoners convicted of felony for the first time may be sent for confinement, instruction and discipline, with the object of fitting them for self-support on release. The sentence of such prisoners is to be indeterminate.

A plan for sharing profits with the prisoners of the Rhode Island state prison at Howard, R. I., has been proposed by Warden James F. McCusker, and is now in the hands of a committee charged with reporting upon it. It provides that in each department of the prison those who have worked steadily for the preceding six months shall share in a monthly distribution of the earnings of that department over and above a stated minimum amount.

It is expected that legislature of Tennessee will make an appropriation at this session for a reformatory where boys convicted of crime may be kept separate from hardened criminals. The state has already purchased a farm five miles from Nashville on which to erect such an institution.

A DIGEST OF EVENTS IN THE PRISON FIELD

=To all who are Interested Prisoners’ Aid Work and the Prison Field:=

Last October, at the meeting of the American Prison Association, representatives of a number of the leading prisoners’ aid societies of the United States voted to organize a National Prisoners’ Aid Association, to promote closer co-operation between the prisoners’ aid societies of this country.

These societies have decided to publish a monthly “Review” of events in the prison field. The first number of the REVIEW appeared about the middle of January. It contained an article by Warren F. Spaulding (Massachusetts) on the International Prison Congress, brief histories of three prisoners’ aid societies, a list of prisoners’ aid societies, several pages of “Events in Brief” containing up-to-date facts in the prison field from all parts of the country, and an advertisement.

The REVIEW will be published once a month, in New York. It is an experiment. Everybody working for it, writers and editors, are giving their services gratuitously.

The REVIEW is an experiment, not a money-maker. The important question is—can it pay for itself? Yes, if five hundred persons, interested in the prison world, will subscribe for the REVIEW at seventy-five cents, or become members of the National Prisoners’ Aid Association, at one dollar, which will include the REVIEW.

Therefore, SUBSCRIBE NOW. This REVIEW is specially for prisoners’ aid workers, prison officials, boards of managers, state boards, probation officers, parole officers, members of the American Prison Association and of the National Conference of Charities and Correction, and all others interested in the treatment of the delinquent.

The officers of the Association are: E. F. Waite, President; F. Emory Lyon, Vice President; O. F. Lewis, Secretary. Executive Committee: E. A. Fredenhagen, Charles Parsons, G. E. Cornwall, A. H. Votaw, Albert Steelman, and the officers ex-officio.

Mr. O. F. Lewis, Sec’y, Date.............................

National Prisoners’ Aid Association,

135 East 15th Street, New York.

Please enter my subscription to the work of the National Prisoners’ Aid Association as follows:

.............Subscription. . . .to “The Review,” at 75c each.

.............Membership, at $............. (including Review.)

(Active, $1.; Associate, $5.; Sustaining, $25.; Life, $100.)

Name .............................................

Street and No. ...................................

City ......................State ..................

● Transcriber’s Notes: ○ Missing or obscured punctuation was corrected. ○ Typographical errors were silently corrected.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Review, Vol. I, No. 2 (1911), by Various