PAROLE IN CALIFORNIA
(Our good friend, Col. Griffith, of Los Angeles, sends to us the following account of splendid results achieved in California.)
“One of the most excellent progressive movements of the period is that which looks to a reform in the prison system and strives to convert criminals into good citizens, useful to themselves, their families and society. Governor Johnson has been a leader of the movement in California, procuring the enactment of legislation greatly improving conditions in the penitentiaries of the state. When the new system shall have been operative for a reasonable period, men who have ‘done their time’ will re-enter the world possessed of training that will enable them to maintain themselves in honesty. Many a discharged criminal relapses into crime because society has so ordered his punishment as to make reform practically so difficult as to be almost impossible.
“Eleven per cent. of California’s convicts are under parole. Last month but five of the 363 violated in any way the terms on which parole was granted, and every one was at work. During the month they earned $15,600.55, expended $11,721.08 and saved $3879.47. That is an excellent record, but its excellence will be greatly increased under the new industrial methods to be established for the benefit of the convicts in confinement. They will be taught how to maintain themselves, and as those teachings become effective and hope, courage and confidence are revived among men who would be outcast derelicts were they released now, the percentage released on parole will rise and the number of the redeemed increase.”