Part 2

When we consider that it is the only agency in the state whose mission is that of giving aid to hundreds of discharged prisoners each year and the only organized body equipped for the work of systematically caring for offenders who are placed on probation by the courts, we believe it important that information should be carefully compiled by the Association upon the actual work that it is doing and upon the larger subject of the treatment of the criminal.

Morrison has well said, “The supreme if not the only object of a properly constituted penal system is to prevent the offender who has been once convicted from repeating the offense,”—so the importance of our work; but just as important are the methods used in our penal systems in aiding rehabilitation of the prisoner.

Our prison and reformatory managements should stand in the same relation to the violator of the law as does the management of our insane hospitals to the inmates entrusted to their keeping.

The purpose of both is the protection of society; the aim of both should be such treatment as will if possible rehabilitate the unfortunate so that he may regain his position in society.

In the prisons and reformatories the inmates should be taught the habits of industry and obedience to law and order, under humane and strict discipline.

There should be a complete separation of the first offender and the individual subject to reformation, from the weak-minded, physically deformed, and old and confirmed criminals; a reformatory for boys and first offenders, a separate prison for women and an industrial school for girls, with a parole system in each of the institutions.

In many of our states, including our own, the definite sentence still remains as a part of the criminal code, the prisoner being discharged at the end of his sentence, less good time allowed.

Many of our states, however, are adopting the indeterminate sentence with provisions that the prisoner may be released on parole. There is a great difference in the attitude of the public towards the individual released and known by society as a discharged convict and the individual released on parole.

How fortunate the person who under the indeterminate sentence has served one-third or one-half of his allotted time and by his advancement in industrial training and education and obedience to the rules of the institutions when he leaves on parole, with the management back of him stating to his employer that it believes in him and advises giving him a trial. The employer of labor will not only give such a person a position when he comes so recommended, but will take a friendly interest in the probationer and assist him to regain his lost position in society.

The recommendation handed by the prison management to a man the day he is discharged from the institution under the old law of fixed sentences bears for the critical eye the inscription of dishonor, doubt, discouragement.

The recommendation of the management given to a man released under a parole system bears the words of confidence, faithfulness and obedience to the laws and regulations of the institution. It is only natural that the person vouched for in this manner will receive consideration at the hands of the public while the person who has only the reputation of being a discharged convict and who has paid the penalty must move on.

The life of men when they come to the Home of the association at 334 St. Paul street, is made as simple and as homelike as possible. They rise at 5:30; hours for meals are:—breakfast 6, dinner 12, supper 5:30. At 10:15 the lights are out and the doors are closed. Everybody is supposed to be in at this hour.

Each guest of the Home must make his own bed and assist in cleaning up the Home before breakfast.

At 7:30 each man not employed must be ready for the position secured for him by the employment secretary.

Smoking is allowed in the reading room of the Home; no cigarette smoking, however, is allowed. No profane or obscene conversation is tolerated. No person is allowed in the Home with the odor of intoxicants on his breath or who is in an intoxicated condition. No loafing is permitted in the Home.

We have a library, with books and periodicals, where the men may read after supper and on Sundays.

All men who are temporarily making this their Home are urged to attend religious services on Sunday at such place of worship as they may choose. All of the men are invited to attend the weekly religious services held at the Home, but they are not compelled to do this.

The food given the men is plain but substantial and wholesome, well prepared, and there is no limit as to the amount for each man.

The religious and literary meetings held on Tuesday and Friday evenings of each week in the assembly room of the Home have done much for the uplift and rehabilitation of the unfortunate men who have come to us. These meetings have grown in favor until the attendance at times has been seventy-five; our total attendance for the year reached two thousand five hundred and eighty; the number who asked for prayer at these meetings was four hundred and sixty-two.

In finding employment for those who come to us the adaptability of the men or women for some particular trade, clerkship or housework, is always taken into consideration, as we feel that it is much better to have people working in their special line of work than to be attempting something with which they are not acquainted. We also try as far as possible to see that the environment where we place them to work is of the best.

We have been greatly assisted in placing these men by the co-operation of the employers of labor in the city, for which we are very grateful. Without the help and good-will of those who employ labor it would be almost impossible for us to secure positions for them.

We have placed many of our men in positions of responsibility and trust, and their employers speak of them in the highest terms.

Maryland was one of the first states of the Union to adopt a system of probation for first offenders, and its juvenile court has accomplished splendid results. The operation of the system for adult probation is yet to be worked out along correct lines.

The Prisoners’ Aid Association hopes that probation of adult prisoners by the courts will be more extensively used. Much good is now being accomplished along this line by the courts recognizing the services of the association in acting as parole agent for the adult offender. We are now frequently asked by the courts to make a careful study of a case on hand before the prisoner is sentenced.

When a man has been paroled we endeavor to find him suitable employment, better his home conditions, if possible, and wield a helpful and friendly influence over him, having him make to us monthly reports regularly until such time as the courts deem advisable to give him his final discharge.

Prisoners convicted of embezzlement or larceny are often paroled on condition that they pay back the amount of the theft in instalments.

We hope that the parole system will be extended throughout the state, and believe that when its benefits are more fully understood the system will become general.

The Association provides religious services for the inmates of the House of Correction and Baltimore City Jail, representatives of all denominations assisting in making these meetings interesting and instructive. It is estimated that not less than 12,000 unfortunate men and women pass through these two institutions each year.

The proper observation of religious services and the doing of personal work in the institutions of the state bring to those of the respective faiths a power for good which nothing else can bring. Such work systematically carried forward is the greatest factor in our penal system for the reformation and uplift of this class of our neglected and unfortunate citizens.

Resume of Year’s Work.—Number placed on probation, 265; number terms expired, 151; leaving a balance on probation April 30, 1910, 114; estimated wages earned by men on parole, $36,395; number of women on parole April 30, 1910, 7; number of night lodgings given at the Home, 5,631; number of meals furnished, 17,532.

Applications for assistance received at the Home for the year as follows:

From the Baltimore City Jail, 186; from Maryland House of Correction, 133; from Maryland Penitentiary, 22; from probationers, 15; from miscellaneous, 21; total 377.

Work of the Employment Department.—Families visited, 32; temporary employment found, 221; firms interviewed, 74; men interviewed in Baltimore City Jail, 927; men interviewed in Maryland Penitentiary, 10; paroles interviewed, 45; visits made for investigations, 41; total, 1,353.

Receipts from all sources, $9,260.28; Expenditures (see Treasurer’s report), $8,647.04; balance on hand and in bank May 1, 1910, $613.24.

SOME INTERESTING THINGS IN VIRGINIA.

As compared with 864 whippings administered to prisoners in the Virginia penitentiary during the first eight months of 1909, only 133 were administered during the corresponding period in 1910, according to the second annual report of the Board of Charities and Corrections of that state. The report states that this more humane administration has resulted in greatly improving the discipline of the institution.

It is one of the duties of the board to visit paroled prisoners, though lack of money has hindered this phase of the work. Recommendations looking to an improvement in the present parole system will be made to the next General Assembly. During the year ended September 30, 1910, the parole work of the board was as follows:

No. paroled prisoners reported to Board 270 No. investigated 161 Dead 4 Satisfactory 90 Unsatisfactory 46 Returned to the Penitentiary 3 Ran away from employers 13 Failed to report to employers 5

The Board favors the establishment of a home for inebriates, for whom no state provision is made at present. Seventy-five inebriates and drug fiends are cared for yearly in hospitals for the white insane, at a cost of $9,000 per annum.

The Board finds a need of larger co-operation between the persons in charge of institutions for delinquent and dependent children, of which there are 49 in the state. Studies of the causes of juvenile destitution and of the amount of juvenile defectiveness have been undertaken by the Board. An investigation of 31,640 school children in the state revealed that 17,830, or 56 per cent. of those examined, were more or less defective, either physically or mentally.

WORK OF A MUNICIPAL PAROLE BOARD

The board of pardons and paroles of Kansas City, Mo., has issued the following summary of its work during the period from January 1, 1909, to April 13, 1910:

Total persons sent to work house, 3,202; white men paroled, 770; white women paroled, 47; colored men paroled, 267; colored women paroled, 25. Total number paroled, 1,109. Number re-arrested and returned to work house for violation, 114; amount paid through this office for the support of families, $2,975.67.

The board of pardons and paroles, which was created by an ordinance of the city of Kansas City, began its duties about January 1, 1907. It consists of three members, unpaid, who are appointed by the mayor. It has a paid secretary. It is the duty of the board to recommend that paroles be granted to misdemeanants convicted in the municipal court and sent to the work house, whenever, in their judgment, such parole seems wise. The mayor must grant the parole. Paroles may be revoked, however, at the discretion of the secretary of the board.

Paroled prisoners are asked to make written reports to the board once a week. A man who fails to report is notified by mail, and if he continues delinquent in this respect, his case is handed over to a parole officer. The board employs one investigator and one parole officer.

The board has under its direction a municipal farm of 135 acres, which is used in both the physical and moral rehabilitation of a number of the paroled men.

YEAR’S WORK OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY

During the year ended Nov. 30, 1910, 2,114 male offenders who had served terms of imprisonment varying from eight days to twelve years, in the prisons of Massachusetts, were aided in their efforts to regain in society a place that would provide for their future support, according to a report recently issued by George E. Cornwall, agent for the Massachusetts Society for Aiding Discharged Convicts. One thousand and thirty-one of these men from the Massachusetts reformatory and 457 from the Prison Camp and Hospital at Rutland, were assisted as follows: Railroad fares to homes or places of employment, $1,996.67; board while seeking work, $2,420.24; clothing, $1,284.01; tools, $194.65; miscellaneous purposes, $32.75; total, $5,928.42. One hundred and sixty-three men from the state prison, 129 of whom came out last year, were aided as follows: Railroad fares, $352.34; board and family stores, $1,021.20; clothing, $353.31; tools, $100.21; miscellaneous, $33.50; total, $1,860.56. In addition to these who were aided from the state appropriations, 463 others, released from the jails, houses of correction, state farm, and in two cases United States prisoners, have been helped from the funds of Society for Aiding Discharged Convicts, at an expense to that society of $1,690.12.

Of the 129 men released from the state prison last year, 5 have been returned for other offences. Four of the 5 are known to be intemperate. The report contains the following suggestion:

“Fortunately, but a small percentage of the men released from state prison or the Massachusetts Reformatory use liquor to an extent that interferes with their ability to earn a living. There is, however, a very large number constantly coming out of the jails and houses of correction and from the state farm who by their habits of intemperance are deprived of employment and are ever shifting from place to place. If a permanent home could be established for these unfortunate human derelicts, where they could not obtain liquor, and where they would be obliged to live indefinitely, doing such work as might be provided by intelligent overseers, I believe it would tend much to purify our cities. The money that is expended for their repeated arrests and conviction, under the present plan of dealing with them, would be saved; and this, with what labor they might learn to do, would contribute towards their support. Furthermore, the existence of such a resort might tend to keep away some of the undesirable population who now gather in the cities in constantly increasing numbers.”

DEFECTIVE DELINQUENTS AND THE NEW YORK ASSOCIATION

The New York Times printed recently the following:

The Prison Association of New York is taking up the study of mentally deficient criminals, and has appointed several committees to inquire into what can be done to deal with their cases. An average of nearly four out of ten inmates of Elmira Reformatory are below the ordinary standard of intelligence and are not able to take advantage of the institution, but there is no place to which they can be sent except such establishments as Dannemora State Hospital for the Insane, where association with hardened criminals will destroy all hope of their reformation. The Prison Association believes that special institutions should be established for the delinquents.

At a meeting of the Committee on Defective Delinquents, held last Thursday, a letter from Dr. Frank Christian, senior physician of the Elmira Reformatory, was read, in which it was stated:

Daily contact with our inmates must impress one that a large proportion are far below a normal status. Our examinations show 39 per cent. mentally defective and 70 per cent. below a normal physical standard. We have always made allowance for these defectives and have excused their failures in school and overlooked their shortcomings in deportment. The superintendent of the reformatory has recommended that a law be passed at the present session of the Legislature allowing us to transfer the imbeciles to a custodial asylum. They really have no place in a reformatory, and are a hindrance to its work for the brighter boys.

Dr. Robert E. Lamb, Superintendent of Matteawan State Hospital for the Insane, has also written to the Prison Association stating that certain cases under his care are “practically on the border line between criminal and lunatic, sometimes with intermixing of the two,” and declaring that proper study of this class of criminals would be of service to the commonwealth. Dr. North, Superintendent of the Dannemora State Hospital for the Insane, in advocating a thorough study of the delinquent, especially the adolescent delinquent, from this point of view, has said:

“From time to time we receive patients from the reformatories who are so defective that they could not by any possibility enter the reformatory routine and benefit by it. As they are under sentence, there is no place for them but this institution, but here they meet more hardened criminals, and while we can improve their condition in some ways, their stay in a hospital of this character should not be prolonged. Had they been recognized as defective at the time of trial, as it would seem that they should have been, they could have been more suitably provided for elsewhere.”

At the meeting of the Prison Association’s Committee, Joseph P. Beyers, ex-Superintendent of the House of Refuge, Randall’s Island, argued that every juvenile reformatory should have expert advice available on the mental development of its inmates, and Ernest K. Coulter, clerk of the Children’s Court, and Thomas D. Walsh, Superintendent of the Children’s Society, gave information of the work done for defective children.

WORK OF THE “HOPPER HOME.”

An interesting feature of the work of “The Women’s Prison Association,” New York, is the “Hopper Home,” situated at 110 Second avenue. The first “Home” of the Association was opened in June, 1845, “as a place of shelter for liberated female prisoners.” It was before the day of the sewing machine and ready-made clothing was not thought of in those days. This was the main industry. The association was very poor and at one time had but two cents in the treasury. It was then that Miss Catherine M. Sedgwick, the first director, said: “Well, Mrs. Gibbons, I think even you will be ready to give up now.”

But Mrs. Gibbons answered, “When you are ready to give up, I am ready to take up,” and she went out that afternoon and raised eighteen hundred dollars, with which she stocked workroom and larder. From that time there was no talk of “giving up.”

For many years the main source of income has been the laundry. The treatment of inmates consists of work in the laundry as soon as possible, good food and general hygienic care. When a woman applies for admission, the understanding is that she shall give a month’s labor to the institution. At the end of that time she is generally in good condition and is sent out to service, preferably to the country. Often she remains in her place for many months and sometimes even for years, returning from time to time to make additions to her bankbook, the policy being to encourage such thrift.

That the habit of drink is a disease requiring prolonged treatment is an accepted fact in these days, and it is for this reason that the “Women’s Prison Association” has obtained by act of legislature an appropriation for a state farm for women misdemeanants over thirty years of age. It hopes, by outdoor work, medical attendance and good food to make many of them self-respecting as well as self-supporting members of society.

The average amount earned by eighty-eight women during the year previous to their entrance to the “Home” was $91.37. The average amount the same women are capable of earning per year is $207.36.

Our sixty-sixth Annual Report presents full statistics of our work.

SARAH H. EMERSON.

SOME RESULTS AT BEDFORD (NEW YORK STATE) REFORMATION FOR WOMEN.

What has been accomplished with a thousand girls committed to her institution is shown in the Survey for Feb. 18, 1911, by Katherine B. Davis, superintendent of the New York State Reformatory for women, situated at Bedford. Miss Davis prefaces her article with the following statement: “Now, there is nothing quite so difficult to measure in figures as change in character. We can say how many have kept their parole; how many we know have been re-arrested; of how many we know the whereabouts and believe them to be doing well; but the changes in character, the establishment of higher ideals, the doing of more efficient work as a result of the training received, these things can never be measured.” This inability to measure results is regarded by Miss Davis as the weak point in our reformatory system.

The first of the 1,000 commitments dealt with by Miss Davis was received at Bedford May 11, 1901; the last November 26, 1909. The percentage of foreign born is 29.1, of whites born in the United States 52.7, and of colored born in the United States 18.2. Twenty-two and one-tenth per cent. were committed for misdemeanors, 26.4 per cent. for felonies, and 51.5 per cent. for other offences, such as being a common prostitute, habitual drunkenness, etc.

So much for the nature of the thousand cases. In November, 1910, the disposition which had been made of these cases was as follows:

Paroled 668 Still in institution 111 Escaped 3 Died in institution 12 Transferred 47 Deported 16 Served entire term 80

Discharged by court 63

It will be noted that 668 out of the thousand cases have been paroled. The status of these 668 in November, 1910, was as follows:

On parole 110 Discharged, having done well 393 Violated parole, not found 52 Broke parole and returned 102 Transferred to Auburn Prison while on parole 1 Discharged by court while on parole 2 Died on parole 8

Immorality has been the largest single cause of violation of parole. A comparison of those placed with their families and those placed in positions at the time of their parole shows that the percentage of the former who violate their paroles is twice as great as that of the latter. This is not surprising when it is reflected that if home conditions had been what they should be, the girl might not have come to the reformatory in the first place.

The following table shows the present status of the 393 girls who did well on parole and received their discharges:

Known to be doing well 127 Known to have criminal record 38 Known to have been immoral 53 Known to drink 9 Dead 12 Whereabouts unknown 154

The occupations of those who are doing well are as follows: