The journal of prison discipline and philanthropy (New series, No. 57), March, 1918

by Pennsylvania Prison Society

REPORT OF ACTING COMMITTEE FOR THE YEAR 1917

All the stated meetings of the Acting Committee for the year 1917 have been regularly held with an average attendance of about 16 members. We are gratified to report this apparent increase of interest, indicated by a larger attendance than for several years past. We are entirely aware that several of our very efficient members have business engagements which make frequent attendance impossible. It must also be remembered that some of our members reside at a distance from the city. The presence of 10 members have constituted a quorum, and no meeting has been held without the number required for the legal transaction of business.

LEGISLATION.

The General Assembly of 1917 was notable for activity and interest in reformatory legislation. The Acting Committee favored and urged the passage of several measures, some of which have become law in this Commonwealth.

An Act providing that any person held for costs or fines may, at the discretion of the Court, be released, on agreeing to pay the said charges by instalments, was passed by the Assembly and received the sanction of the Governor.

An Act providing for the establishment of six industrial farms, to which persons sentenced for the shorter sentences in the county jails may be sent, amended by the substitution of nine instead of six, was passed and received executive sanction.

An Act, urged by the Prison Reform League, and which received our hearty sanction, providing for the appointment of a commission of five persons to investigate prison systems in this commonwealth and elsewhere, and to recommend such revision of the existing prison system as may be deemed wise, for adoption by the next General Assembly, was passed and approved by the Governor.

An Act, proposed by the State Board of Charities, providing that prisoners may be released from county prisons to work on farms belonging to the State or county was passed and received the approval of the Governor. This Act shall remain in force during the continuance of the present war. Already several counties have taken advantage of this Act to the satisfaction of all parties concerned.

An Act, designed to render the present law more effective with regard to the employment of prisoners in the manufacture of articles for State use, we regret to report, perished in the Committee room.

An Act to abolish Capital Punishment passed in the Senate but failed of passage in the House.

An Act amending the present law in regard to the Indeterminate Sentence, so that its provisions may more nearly harmonize with its title, was approved by both Houses of the Assembly, but was vetoed by the Governor.

While we are deeply gratified to report progress, we shall continue our efforts to secure from the next Assembly favorable action in regard to the measures which failed to become statutory in 1917. Public sentiment is a plant of slow growth. Possibly our propositions may have been defective in some particulars. With some slight modification or embellishment, we believe all the measures we have endorsed will soon have place among the statutes of the Commonwealth.

A synopsis of these measures with some explanation and comment will be found elsewhere in the Journal of which this report forms a part.

We desire to acknowledge the valuable services of the Prison Reform League in preparing bills and in conducting hearings before the Committee of the Assembly.

DISCHARGED PRISONERS.

The majority of the prisoners who are released from the State Penal Institutions are dismissed on parole. They are under supervision by the Parole Officers from a few months to some years. Most of these paroled persons have some definite place of employment in view. It may be supposed that the operation of the law of parole has to a considerable extent relieved this Society from former obligations in behalf of the released prisoner. Admitting the value of this work of Parole, we still have a mission for the discharged prisoners.

1. Quite a number are discharged on their own recognizance. We often assist these in securing employment and provide them with room and board until they have landed a job.
2. Many of them who secure employment in large establishments must wait a fortnight or more before they receive wages. We endeavor to care for them till the welcome pay day has arrived. They are often destitute and also their families, so that they find this assistance very acceptable in time of deepest need.
3. In many employments, the workmen are required to furnish their own tools. Here we have a constant service.
4. Quite frequently they leave the prison with no funds to pay their transportation to their homes or to their places of employment. We care for these necessities.
5. There is a service for those who are discharged at the expiration of their sentence. If they desire aid, we are pleased when they come directly to us from the prison, instead of waiting till they are entirely destitute after spending their gate money. It has been our purpose to ascertain in advance what they may need and to be ready to offer a temporary home and satisfactory employment.
6. Sometimes those who secure employment need for some time the service of a physician. They are directed to a hospital, and meanwhile they must have subsistence.
7. We are not able to escape some sense of responsibility on behalf of the human derelicts who come to us with their piteous story, whether true or false. They are feeble in mind, in health, in will. They may have “wasted their substance in riotous living.” We do not wish to believe they are wholly irreclaimable, entirely past any hope of redemption. It is little we do, or can do, for them. One of them died the other day at the Philadelphia Hospital. Off and on for years he had tried our patience. He would run well for a brief season, then a tremendous fall from grace. Without a murmur or an apology, he meekly endured the ebullition of our righteous wrath, and left us professing good intentions fortified by the medicine of our wholesome counsel. He said we were the only friends he had in the days of his downfall. When in funds his friends showed their appreciation of his generosity by aiding him in the distribution of his pitifully small earnings. Did he recall in those last days of asthmatic suffering our solemn warnings, our endeavors to point the true way to happiness? While we do not know, we however are unable to regret our poor efforts to restore him to some sense of responsibility.

There is great need of a farm with some simple industry attached to which these unfortunates may be consigned in order to earn their own maintenance.

VISITATION.

The Committees under appointment to visit the Eastern Penitentiary and the County Prison of Philadelphia have presented reports at each of our meetings. The summary of these reports reveals much faithful labor on behalf of those who are behind the bars.

Number reported visits to the Eastern Penitentiary			462
Number reported interviews with the inmates			7882
Number reported interviews with inmates of the County Prison			5110

These figures indicate activity, interest, sympathy, encouragement, and yet they are inconclusive. That some hearts have been touched, that some men and women have been reclaimed, we do not doubt. The seed has been sown, and often it seems like casting seed upon the waters. The men are here today and they are gone tomorrow. Many of the interviews are brief and are confined to a word of cheer or the ordinary greetings of the day; at other times way opens to point to a better way of life. Every year the efforts of some of the bearers of good tidings result in accessions to the Church.

Members of our Committee have also visited the prisons in Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Doylestown, West Chester, Bellefonte, Media, Allentown and York. Some of these prisons receive regular visits and the reported results are gratifying.

Several Members of the Committee hold religious services at our prisons.

POLICE MATRONS.

Over thirty years ago, our Acting Committee began to urge that matrons should be employed at the Police Stations in order to care for the women and children who might be arrested or who might ask for assistance. A few matrons were at first appointed in some of the districts where there seemed to be especial need of such help, but at this time nearly every Station House in the city has secured the services of such an official.

Our Committee on Police Matrons constitute our delegation to the Associated Committee of Women on Police Matrons, an organization which meets in the offices of the Society on the second Wednesday of each month. The members of this Association make regular visits to the Matrons, and co-operate with them in their work. They endeavor to secure improved accommodations in the Stations and also to supply the immediate needs of the unfortunate ones who are brought to these Stations either for shelter or for trial. The following associations each send three delegates to compose this body.

The Women’s Christian Temperance Union.
The Young Women’s Christian Association.
The Mother’s Club.
The Philomusean Club.
St. Paul’s Aid Society.
Married Women’s Sodality of Gesu Church.
Hathaway Shakespeare Club.
The Pennsylvania Prison Society.

MEETING OF WARDENS.

At the meeting of the Acting Committee, held September 20, 1917, the Secretary was authorized to issue invitations in co-operation with The Prison Reform League to the wardens and prison officials of the Eastern and Central counties of the Commonwealth to hold a conference on the Glen Mills Farms on the fourth and fifth of October. The consent of Supt. Nibecker, of the Boys’ Department, and of Martha P. Falconer, Superintendent of the Girls’ Department, had been previously obtained. The co-operation of these two officials contributed largely to the success of this meeting, which was the first of the kind held in the State. It was attended by forty persons, a number which exceeded our expectations. It was concluded to form a permanent organization to meet annually and to discuss and formulate methods of penal administration. A full account will be found in the Annual Journal. (See pages 26-37.)

EMPLOYMENT OF PRISONERS.

Your Acting Committee is favorable to every sane effort to provide employment for prisoners. We have long contended that idleness was the most conspicuous fault in the prisons of this Commonwealth.

We believe in these times of stress that it is a flagrant fault to waste an ounce of muscular effort. The conservation of all our resources implies that the 400,000 now confined in the prisons of the United States should be compelled not only to earn their own maintenance but to contribute their fair share for the urgent needs of the nation. They may be employed in the preparation of surgical supplies, in canning fruit and vegetables, and in a great variety of manufacturing industries. To this end we give hearty support to a bill now pending in Congress providing that the resources of all our penal institutions be utilized in such a way that the country may derive the maximum benefit from the labor of those behind the bars. Let them “do their bit.” It will help both them and the general public. The executive order of 1904 forbidding the use by the government of prison-made goods or articles should at once be abrogated. Whatever reason may have been advanced at that time for such an order, surely the present emergency demands every available resource should be conserved.

AMERICAN PRISON ASSOCIATION.

The meetings of this Association were held this year November 19-23 at New Orleans. There was a good attendance, most of the States being represented by delegates or otherwise. The Secretary of this Society was present as a delegate from Pennsylvania appointed by the Governor and also as a member of the Commission appointed to investigate methods of prison administration. The meetings were both interesting and profitable, and a summary of the proceedings prepared by the Secretary will be appended to this Report. (See pages 93-102.)

COUNTY PRISONS.

The Secretary has continued his inspection of the county prisons with especial reference to improvements made and needed. Several counties have employed their inmates in farming and with uniformly great success. Details of this work will be given in the special report of the Secretary. The effects of our agitation for better conditions in the county prisons are apparent. It will be recalled that one year ago some attempt was made to grade the larger counties according to their efficiency. In nearly all of them, the markings this year indicate some improvement in efficiency. Our method has been used in the inspection of the county prisons of North Carolina, the average grade being stated to be 56 per cent. An inspector of the New York County jails has informed us that he intended to use a similar plan in estimating the efficiency of the county jails in the Empire State.

DIETETICS.

There is much complaint from almost every penal institution of the Commonwealth in regard to the character of the food and the manner of its preparation and serving. Denunciation of the food is a perennial charge and is common to all public institutions. It is just dawning on the minds of prison boards and officials that it is sound economy to keep the prisoners in health and that nourishing and palatable food conduces to health. The inmates have abundant time both to prepare the food and to serve it in accordance with approved sanitary methods. When it has been shown that such improvement can be made in the quality and wholesomeness of the food without increasing the cost, our prison officials have been willing to give some attention to the matter. The need of a balanced ration to be determined by a food specialist is beginning to be recognized. There is no thought of providing a luxurious menu, or of adding materially to the cost of provisions. Government is easier when the prisoners are satisfied with the diet.

We commend to the serious attention of officials and managers of all our public institutions, whether for the convict, the blind, the insane, the destitute, the subject of the appointment of an expert dietitian who shall supervise the selection and the preparation of the food, believing the results will amply justify the expense involved whether considered from the standpoint of health or economy.

THE GENERAL AGENT.

The General Agent, Fred. J. Pooley, has diligently maintained his mission of mercy at the Central Station. The opportunities for helpful service have been so numerous as to justify his attendance both at the morning and afternoon sessions of the Court of the committing magistrate. In a large number of cases of suspicion or of a trivial character, the Agent has been instrumental in securing the discharge of the prisoners or in placing them at once under the care of the probation officer, thus properly saving them from the evil associations of a term in prison. The magistrates often place the accused person in the charge of our Agent. A home and employment may be found for them, and quite often they are sent to relatives either in this State or elsewhere.

The full report of the Agent will be found in the Journal.

CONCLUSION.

We desire to thank the friends by whose generous contributions our work of restoration and timely assistance has been made possible. So many stranded ones have told us they had no place whatever to go except to our sheltering care.

With the means entrusted to our use, our friends have materially aided in the circulation of information and literature throughout the Commonwealth, which, we have abundant reason to believe, has been greatly instrumental in educating public sentiment and therefore in ameliorating the conditions of our correctional institutions.

For many reasons we are encouraged to continue in this work of reformation in the hope that a sounder method of treating offenders will result in lessening the incentives to commit crime.

On behalf of the Acting Committee,

Edw. M. Wistar, President.
Albert H. Votaw, Secretary.