CONCERNING OUR LIST OF SOCIETIES.
In the issue of January, 1911, The Review published a list of societies engaged in prisoners’ aid work, with a request that corrections and additions be sent to the editors. This request is repeated at this time. Instead of the Kansas and Missouri divisions of the Society for the Friendless, the following should have appeared:
The Massachusetts House of Representatives recently refused by an overwhelming vote, to substitute for an adverse committee report two bills relating to capital punishment—one giving the jury the right to say whether the penalty for murder in the first degree should be life imprisonment or death, and the other providing that the punishment should be life imprisonment.
Opposes Walking Chained Prisoners Through Streets.—Dr. Elizabeth Cassidy, of Denver, Colorado, is urging the board of county commissioners to provide means for transporting prisoners from the courthouse to the county jail, other than walking them along the streets chained together.
“That system is a relic of barbarism,” declares Dr. Cassidy. “Persons sentenced for vagrancy and other minor offenses should not be chained together like criminals and be subjected to public gaze.”
The recommendation of the Ohio legislative committee, as reported in the last issue of The Review, that a joint reformatory and prison for women, under a management separate from that of the penitentiary, be built without delay, has obtained the approval of Gov. Harmon. In a recent message to the legislature he urged that appropriations be made for such an institution.
Kansas-Missouri Division.—Rev. Edward A. Fredenhagen, General Superintendent; Mrs. Edward A. Fredenhagen, General Matron; Rev. J. O. Stutsman, General Superintendent’s Assistant. District Superintendents, Rev. George S. Ricker, Wichita; Rev. Jonathan Staley, Salina; Rev. Benj. Porter White, Topeka; Rev. James B. Bollman, Kansas City; Rev. Taylor Bernard, St. Louis.
The officers of the National Society for the Friendless follow: President, Judge T. F. Garver, Topeka; Vice-President, Ex-Mayor Henry M. Beardsley, Kansas City; Secretary and National Superintendent, Rev. Edward A. Fredenhagen, Kansas City; Treasurer, Cashier James T. Bradley, Kansas City; National Matron, Mrs. Edward A. Fredenhagen, Kansas City.
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.]
Prisoners Idle; Insanity Growing.—Hundreds of prisoners idle, discipline ruined, disease spreading and insanity increasing, are the results affecting the Ohio penitentiary brought about by a law passed in 1906, publicly declare prison officials in that state. The startling situation was graphically described recently by the Cleveland (O.) Plain Dealer, in part as follows:
“Penitentiary officials are facing a critical situation, resulting from the constantly increasing number of prisoners they are compelled to confine in the idle house. More discouraging than the existing conditions is the prospect that, in six months at the outside, practically all the prisoners will be idle. Conditions cannot improve; they will become graver and graver unless relief is given during the present session of the legislature.
“In the meantime, on an average 300 men spend twelve hours each day on the benches in the idle house. This number is augmented on days when the weather does not permit working the prisoners about the yard. In one month, when the last contract expires, another hundred will join these ranks. In six months at the most, when all the contracts will have been cleaned up, all save the men employed in the administration of the big prison, which means about 1,000, will be idling. All the contracts but one have expired; yet most of the men employed in most of the old shops are still at work. This comes about only through sufferance; the companies holding contracts are being allowed to work up the raw material they had on hand at the expiration of their contracts. This keeps a few men going, but at best is only putting further away the problem that must be faced.
“Since Dec. 1, more prisoners have become insane than during any average eight months before the condition arose. In a little over one month, eight men have been taken to the prison asylum. When all were working, there was seldom more than an average of one a month who became insane, and usually it averaged less. This prison officials attribute directly to increased idleness. Moreover, discipline is more or less ruined. The men, sitting day after day, with nothing to do but to stare at the ceiling and turn over in their minds their misfortunes, are gradually becoming more and more morose, sullen and ugly. Not a day passes but that prisoners approach the guards and beg to be set at work. Guards, their hands tied by the legislature, are powerless to help. Nothing awaits the prisoner but a refusal.
“The air in the room is necessarily foul from the exhalations of these 400 men. Blazing coal stoves at frequent intervals keep the room at a temperature which, to one going in from the outside, is nothing short of sickening. The benches themselves are rather narrow, with twelve or fourteen-inch backs, which, from all appearances, would become very hard and uncomfortable in little or no time. The floor is sprinkled with lime at intervals, but after the men have marched in in the morning presents a dirty gray appearance—that of a thick coat of dirt covered over with whitewash, mud from innumerable pairs of boots tracked into it. Wooden boxes, filled with shavings, do duty as cuspidors. The men, fortunately, are allowed the consolation of a chew, and to chew one must, in plain English, spit. Yet the possibilities of acquiring disease are fearful to contemplate.
“Papers and magazines, with a liberal sprinkling of missionary tracts, are furnished. Most are necessarily out of date, and all are grimy with much handling. Those facing the windows read with certain injury to their eyes; those in the center of the room have not light enough to read at all, while the few at the rear of the room, who have light from the rear, can read with comfort. But at least half of these idlers are foreigners and cannot read at all; these can think. Such are the physical surroundings in this room, intended to house two-score and at present containing 300 to 400, with several hundred more to be added in the next few months.
“These men it is who each day beg to be put to work. They feel that to be put to work. They feel that the hardest drudgery, indoors or out, would be far preferable to such an existence.
“The cause? A simple one, say those at the head of the big prison, notably Warden T. H. B. Jones and Capt. C. W. Naas, who had charge of the contracts. They tell it in three words. The Wertz law. In 1906 the legislature passed this act, which just now is working such havoc with the penal institution. The law abolishes contract labor, at the demand of labor organizations that competition with prison made goods was unfair to labor. It provides that convicts must be employed in remodeling the institution and in making only such goods as are used in state institutions. The legislature neglected to provide money for installing machinery necessary for so doing and also neglected to compel state institutions to use the prison made product.”
Unusual Prison Supervision Proposed in Texas.—By a bill now pending before the legislature of Texas it is proposed to place at the head of the penal system of the state an officer with the title of “Supervisor of Prisons,” who shall have had some scientific training in the subjects of criminology and prison sanitation. His salary is to be $2,400 a year and his term of service to be two years. The office is to be an appointive one, made on the recommendation of the prison commission. Two assistant supervisors may also be appointed, at salaries of $1,500 each.
It shall be the duty of the supervisor to visit at least once each year every county jail, city jail, reformatory, juvenile training school, county and city convict farm and alms house in the state. His business shall be to enforce the humane and economic management of such institutions and to aid in securing erection of sanitary buildings for the accommodation of the prisoners. He shall have power to investigate the management of all such institutions and the conduct and efficiency of persons charged with their management. Reports shall be made of such investigations to the governor and to the local authorities, together with orders relative to improvements which in his judgment shall be required. And it shall be the duty of said courts of county commissioners, city commissioners or boards of aldermen to obey such order, and provide for the payment of the expenses incurred necessary to a compliance with said order out of the funds of the county or city or by issuing county or city warrants for this expense.
The power of summoning witnesses, administering oaths and taking testimony is conferred upon the supervisor and his deputies to enable the conducting of such investigations as are provided for in the bill. It is intended also that the evidence of prisoners or ex-prisoners shall be taken when necessary to ascertain the facts about the management or condition of penal institutions.
When the interests of the inmates of any institution demand it the supervisor may order their removal to other quarters, the expenses of the transfer to be borne by the city or county. And fines for the refusal by city or county officers to obey such orders are provided for.
Special provisions are made for the assistance and rehabilitation of paroled prisoners, data in reference to whom shall be kept on file in the supervisor’s office. Local probation officers, serving without pay, shall assist in this work.
The Jails of Illinois.—The Chicago Tribune, commenting on the recent report of the Illinois board of state charities that “conditions in most Illinois jails are no better now than in 1870, when they were abominable,” says that no one will venture to question the accuracy of the report.
“These and other shameful violations of law,” continues the Tribune, “have been unnoticed and unchecked by successive grand juries and judges. And what is sadder yet, there has been no popular protest anywhere against the jail horrors and abominations set out in the report of the state charities commission. Even in countries where the odious jail conditions are well understood there is no public opinion which condemns them. Must we conclude that local self government as far as jails are concerned is a failure, and that some humane and intelligent central authority should take the matter in hand and enforce obedience to the laws?”
That uncivilized portions of humanity still seem to exist when jails are under consideration is evidenced by a Kansas newspaper editorial on the Illinois report, part of which we print.
“From the state charities commission of Illinois comes the latest wail about jails which are not up to Waldorf-Astoria standards. In fact, it is claimed that the jails are as bad as they were thirty years ago, when they were not suitable to the whims of any high-class jail bird, who was accustomed to all the comforts of home and modern conveniences.
“In view of the fact that a number of more or less prominent citizens of the state seem to be threatened with a sojourn in the prisons of that state, the plea for better plumbing and lace curtains is in order. But, as a general proposition, these wails for the downtrodden prisoners are overworked a good deal. While it is nice to talk about Reform, and not punishment, being the object of prison sentences, the facts are that it is hard to obtain the one result without the other.
“If all the suggestions of the prison reformers would be followed out explicitly, and to their logical conclusion, the jails would soon become such gilded palaces of sin that most of us would put up there from choice, and it would be difficult for the hotel keepers to make a living, or the waiters to get rich. And, when the jails finally were accepted as the highest standard of luxury, the kicking against them by the downtrodden prisoners who broke into a feed store in order to get a comfortable home for the winter, would continue.”
We beg to dissent from the Kansas authority, and still maintain that reform as well as punishment is the purpose of imprisonment, and that torture and filth and vice are not conducive to the progress of society.
The St. Louis (Missouri) Star, commenting on the Illinois report, says:
“If such a board made so little impress upon the actualities of prison management in Illinois in forty years, it is discouraging indeed.
“It is no wonder that such papers as The Star fail to impress upon the people of Missouri the need for a different penal system in this state and an entirely different character of prisons.
“For years we have been preaching the doctrine of the reformatory principle in prison management, of proper industry, of sanitary prisons, of segregation of prisoners into classes, of plenty of outdoor work for prisoners, of instruction in trades, of reformatory influences tending to keep men out of the penitentiary after they have been released, and of proper local jails and places of detention.
“Yet the same dark ages this commission asserts to rule in Illinois hold sway in Missouri, with little promise of abdication. Governor Hadley has recommended one reform, the establishment of an intermediate prison for first offenders, which should by all means be done, though this is but one of the many reforms necessary to take us even within sight of the outer confines of the dark ages.
“Yet, discouraging as is the progress made, sociologists and penologists will not cease their campaign of education on this subject of prison reform and the treatment of criminals as individuals and not as a class. The light will be seen in time.”
“Men With a Past.”—Under this title an editorial in the New York World continues:
“A Brooklyn lawyer, suspended from practice, who disappeared seven years ago and was thought to have committed suicide, reappears as the leader of the minority in the Michigan Senate. The Chief of Police at Danville, Va., is recognized after many years as an escaped convict under sentence in Georgia.
“During the recent political campaign a candidate for governor in a western state was identified as one who in youth had participated in a crime of violence on the Texas border. The governor-elect of a southern state proves in infancy to have been a foundling.
“It is pleasing to note that in every one of these cases identity was admitted and that the honorable record of after-life was generally accepted as atoning for early misdeeds or obscure origin. Exposure, therefore, while painful in some instances, has not operated to discourage those who in many other places are seeking honestly and industriously to overcome the disadvantages of a bad start.
“Experiences such as these give heart to optimists, furnish prison-reformers with ever-increasing zeal and prove the genuineness of a democracy which does not dwell unduly upon the past of anybody or anything.”
Tramps, Stop Tramping!—The following article is making the rounds of the local newspapers in Pennsylvania, evidently “accelerated” by the tramp nuisance:
“The damage done by tramps to the railroad property every year is estimated at $25,000,000. The damage to private property which the tramps reach by railroad is probably far greater. If it were not for ‘ride stealing’—this is the assertion of men who have spent years studying the vagrancy problem—the ‘hobo’ could be practically put out of business. Free transportation is an absolute necessity of the profession.
“The ‘hobo’ may seem highly amusing to the readers of comic papers; and he is a valuable source of income to joke-smiths and the artists who draw fantastic pictures of the ‘Weary Willie’ begging a piece of pie. But he is no joke to railroad men. For he is continually breaking into cars, assaulting employes, or tampering with equipment in a way to endanger the lives of passengers.
“The Lehigh Valley has been one of the most active among railroads attempting to end the abuse, but the leniency of local magistrates has operated in the tramps’ favor. To put a tramp in jail is expensive for a small community; the authorities usually content themselves by telling the offenders to ‘move on.’ Thus he is merely dumped upon some other community. The practice works as an endless chain—each town passing on its tramps and in turn receiving the tramps that have been passed on by other towns.
“Some charity organizations have interested themselves in the problem, and seek to co-operate with the railroads in bringing trespassers to justice. Compulsory labor of some kind it is thought would be the most powerful deterrent, but that remedy meets the opposition of the labor unions; they say it would be putting ‘convict labor’ into competition with honest workingmen. A helpful move would be for the state to relieve local governments from the expense of punishing offenders, as the cost of keeping a tramp supplies the most powerful motive for the magistrate to let him go.”
In this connection, the annual report of the New York State Board of Charities is significant. It renews its recommendation, made to the legislature of 1910, for the establishment of a farm colony for tramps and vagrants. It points out that these classes are now kept practically in idleness in the penitentiaries, jails and workhouses at an annual cost of $2,000,000, whereas, following the example of a number of the countries in Europe, they could be humanely maintained and cared for in farm colonies, which could be made self-supporting through their labor.
Public Defenders Wanted in Cleveland.—The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, Ohio, is reviving a plan for the appointment of assistants to the county prosecutor, whose work shall be the defense in common pleas court of persons unable to employ counsel. Under the present system the judges of the common pleas court appoint counsel for impecunious defendants in criminal cases. The ground that better talent will be thus. The appointment of special public defenders is urged on the ground that better talent will be thus secured, and the interests of accused persons better safeguarded.
A plan for the appointment of such public defenders for impecunious persons tried in the police courts was recently rejected in Cleveland. The ground taken was that the so-called prosecutor is theoretically charged not with prosecuting the accused, but with bringing out all the facts in his case, both those favorable and unfavorable. The “prosecutor” was, therefore, held to be both prosecutor and defender.
A “Going Concern.”—According to the Detroit (Mich.) Journal, the city of Detroit has derived $399,000 profit from the House of Correction in the last twelve years. The newspaper account reads as follows:
| Net Book | Paid City | |
| Year | Profits | in Cash |
| 1900 | $ 42,759 | $ 60,000 |
| 1901 | 36,478 | 48,000 |
| 1902 | 26,179 | 26,000 |
| 1903 | 32,016 | 22,000 |
| 1904 | 25,533 | 28,000 |
| 1905 | 27,587 | 25,000 |
| 1906 | 42,905 | 25,000 |
| 1907 | 39,182 | 35,000 |
| 1908 | 32,663 | 35,000 |
| 1909 | 38,577 | 30,000 |
| 1910 | 24,355 | 40,000 |
| 1911 | 25,000 | |
| ———— | ———— | |
| Totals | $ 368,234 | $ 399,000 |
In 12 years the Detroit House of Correction has turned $399,000 into the coffers of the city treasurer. This amount represents the profits from the industrial work which the prisoners turn out.
Brooms, chairs and other articles are manufactured in the workhouse, most of the work being done by prisoners who are sentenced to serve from ten days to six months in the “works” for minor offences.
This splendid showing of profits is due largely to the excellent business management of the house of correction.
It will be noticed that the book profits shown are often larger than the amounts turned into the city treasurer, but this is due to the fact that minor items of maintenance are charged against the book profits from one end of the year to the other. The fiscal year at the house of correction ends on Dec. 1, therefore the net book profits shown in the table above must be checked against the amounts paid to the city the year following.
“The reason that the house of correction profits are not so large in the years following 1900 is due to the fact that beginning with 1901 we started a system of paying part of the earnings to the prisoners.” said Supt. John L. McDonnell.
“This week we turn over $20,000 to the city from the fiscal year ending Dec. 31, 1910. Last July, the poor commission needing funds, we were asked to turn over $5,000 from the probable profits of 1910. We did so, and that sum added to the $20,000 to be paid over this week constitutes the $25,000 profit to the city for 1910.”
An important addition to the newspaper statement is the fact that the products of the House of Correction are disposed of in the open market by the Superintendent.
The Problem of the Home for Discharged Prisoners.—The following statement is from the New Britain (Conn.) Record of February 21st:
34 West 28th Street, New York City.
February 20th, 1911.
To the Editor of “The Daily Record,”
New Britain, Conn.
Dear Sir—In the column entitled “Town Talk,” in the New Britain Record, published February 17th, there is an editorial which contrasts my opinion on the treatment of the one-time prisoner with that of Warden Garvin, of the Connecticut state prison. I should be glad if you will permit me the opportunity of answering this criticism in your columns. Warden Garvin is a friend of mine and has welcomed me several times to his prison. I have much respect for him as a prison warden and I know that he most thoroughly endorses my work. Of course it is quite possible for the best of friends to agree to differ, but I am inclined to think that the statement from Warden Garvin, which was admittedly made several years ago, might possibly be altered now that he knows more upon this question.
It must be remembered that the prison warden speaks from within the walls and that even the most capable and most experienced of them have not been out into the world with these men, watching their careers or fighting their battles. If I were but a beginner in this work with a couple of years’ experience, I might feel nervous in crossing swords in an argument with so well known a prison man, but it must be remembered that I have had sixteen years’ experience and that in that time I have undertaken the future of many thousands of men. I speak not from theory, but from practical fact.
Now, it is stated that there are those whose opinions differ with mine in that they think homes for the discharged prisoner unadvisable. I presume their theory is that when the prisoner comes from prison he should not be associated with other one-time prisoners. But what is the alternative? If these men come from prison with the pittance allowed by the prison, where are they to go? Five dollars does not last long. To eke it out as far as they can, they go to board in the poorest lodging house of the city. That brings them down into the saloon neighborhood and throws them at once into the most undesirable classes. They are once more in the element where they will meet thieves, drunkards and outcasts; not like my Hope Hall boys, anxious to reform, but with those still living crooked lives. They virtually go back to associate with the old companions, but old companions who have not started on the right way. This argument would, I suppose, be met with the statement that that is not the idea of those who advise against homes, but that their idea is that a man leaving state prison should go straight to a position, go to board in a respectable place, and at once better his condition. This would be admirable if it could be carried out, but I have found that people are slow to throw open their doors to the one-time prisoner. When we have taken men to our homes, have tested them, can speak from personal acquaintance of their capacity and their sincerity, our friends are much more ready to trust them and give them a position than if we said: “There’s a man in the prison cell today. We do not know anything about him, but we would like you to put him in your factory tomorrow.”
Again Warden Garvin speaks for Connecticut. He has a very different population to deal with in your small state prison from the great population crowded in many of our all too unsanitary prisons of New York, New Jersey, etc. I have had scores of men come to me from state prison whose long prison terms had absolutely incapacitated them for work. Shattered nervously and physically, they have crept out into the world afraid to face the unfriendly crowd. I have taken men from prison who were blind with blindness that had come to them within those dread shadows. I have taken men discharged from the prison hospital so weak that months of nursing has been necessary to put them into condition for work. I have taken men who have been twenty, thirty, and even forty-eight years within the walls.
After all, facts speak louder than theories, and we have the facts to show. It will be a great joy to me if some of your readers feel interested enough in this work to help me by offering positions for my boys. Hope Hall is not a permanent residence but merely a stepping stone to the place in life where men can lose their identity and take up their places as humble units in the great busy working world.
Hoping that I have not imposed upon your space and patience, believe me,
Very truly yours for our country’s
prisoners,
MAUD B. BOOTH.
“Millionaire Tramp” Discards His Overalls.—His old slouch hat, coarse brogans, bandanna handkerchief, and blue-jean overalls have been laid aside, and the “millionaire tramp,” or “man without a dime,” as he has become known to the newspapers of the country, has finished a two years’ traveling study of the life of the homeless and penniless men in fifty cities in the United States. The “millionaire tramp” is Edwin A. Brown, and is a cousin of W. C. Brown, president of the New York Central lines, with whom he was once in the ranch business in Colorado.
Mr. Brown will put into book form the result of his country-wide investigation, in the hope that municipalities will awaken to the “crying needs of shelter homes for the friendless and penniless.” The things he has seen during the last two years have convinced him that all of the cities which he visited, and scores of others, should have municipal lodging houses, like the one in New York City. He would have such institutions furnish clean beds, adequate ventilation, satisfying meals, shower baths, and medical inspection, so that the sick could be separated from the well. The municipal lodging house in New York City furnishes these things and is capable of sheltering a thousand men and fifty women.
A bitterly cold night, a thinly clad boy, a request for the price of a bed—it was this that prompted Mr. Brown to his two years’ life as a student hobo. He found that in his own city the prison was being used for a lodging house. In the course of his travels he “found men sleeping in brick ovens, under platforms, in freight cars and roundhouses and many of them carried the banner—that is, they walked the street all night.
“The hospitals were overcrowded for the reason that there was no municipal lodging house. The same condition exists in Chicago today. Charitable hospitals are overcrowded with men because they have been made sick on account of exposure and the lack of nourishing food. The best way to keep a man from getting sick—I mean the poor unfortunate without a home—is to house and feed him properly. New York has solved this problem with its beautiful municipal emergency home, six stories in height and a model in every respect.”
Both Mr. Brown and his wife will soon go to Europe to investigate conditions of the homeless there.
Advocates Drastic Treatment of Criminal Immigrants.—Drastic measures to suppress crime among the foreign population of New York City, and to prevent the further immigration into this country of foreign criminals, are advocated by Judge Lewis L. Fawcett, of the County Court, Brooklyn, who recently sentenced two Italian kidnappers to long terms in prison, and who has in the last four years received at least thirty threatening letters from the friends of accused persons.
The government, said Judge Fawcett in a recent newspaper interview, should demand that every foreigner who lands here produce a certificate of good character from the chief of police of the district from which he comes. Immigrants without such certificate should immediately be deported. If the newcomer has served time for some trivial offense, the fact should be stated on the certificate, and the period of residence in this country required before the immigrant can take out naturalization papers should be lengthened in proportion to the seriousness of this previous offense. When a foreign criminal is convicted here and sentenced, said Judge Fawcett, the judge who administers his punishment should have by law the right to deport him, at his own discretion, when he has served his term.
Chicago Wants a Hospital for Inebriates.—A hospital or reformatory for inebriates is likely to be established in Chicago soon. The scheme contemplates the turning over of the old John Worthy School, adjoining the house of correction, to the police authorities, and the sending of the boys who are there to St. Charles or another suitable institution downstate.
“The thing both Inspector Clancy and I have in mind,” said Chief of Police Steward, “is a sort of a poor man’s sanitarium. At the present time Chicago, the second largest city in the country, has not a single institution to which it can send its destitute ’drunks’ for treatment. The hospitals won’t receive them and the jails are not the proper place for them. We want a place where habitual drunkards can be detained and kept under the care of nurses and physicians. They will be serving a sentence, but all the time they are incarcerated they will be receiving treatment which will send them out into the streets again physically fit to fight their temptations.”
Sing Sing (N. Y.) Prison Called a Death Trap.—The State Commission of Prisons says a long sentence to Sing Sing is often a sentence to slow death because of the prevalence of tuberculosis. Many prisoners are discharged incapacitated to earn a living and frequently on leaving Sing Sing spread tuberculosis. The cell capacity there is 1,200, but the average number of prisoners during the year was 1,850. About 500 are housed in one of the chapels and in the loft of the work shops.
“The cells are deficient in ventilation and light and in them the prisoners have to spend fourteen out of the twenty-four hours. The drainage is necessarily insufficient and the entire structure is worn out. The determination to abandon it is fully justified.”
Progress of Probation in New York State.—Forty new salaried positions of probation officer were created or filled in New York State during 1910. This is the largest increase in the number of paid probation officers ever made in that state in a single year. It brought the number of paid positions in existence on December 31, 1910, up to 105. Most of the newly established officers were in New York city, and were the result of legislation secured by the Page Commission. Three of these positions were chief probation officerships, one in each of the two boards of city magistrates, and one in the court of special sessions, which includes the children’s courts. The number of children’s courts in greater New York was increased by the Page Commission law from two to four, and the new law required that each of these courts should have the services of paid probation officers. This is an innovation in New York City, since the work among children in these courts has previously been carried on by volunteers and private societies. Another improvement effected by the Page Commission was the removal of all policemen serving as probation officers in the lower courts. Twenty-eight such officers were removed on August 30th, and the law provides that hereafter no members of the police force can be used in probation work. This is a fitting climax to the long series of adverse criticisms which have been made by numerous bodies, including two state probation commissions, of the use of policemen for probation duties.
Several states now have laws forbidding police officers from serving as probation officers. Massachusetts has a law to the effect that active members of the police force can not act as probation officers, and a bill recently introduced in the Legislature of that state at the instance of the state probation commission seeks to make sheriffs, clerks of the court, bail commissioners and other similar officials ineligible for probation work.
Judge Wants Better Probation Officers and More Work for Them.—Approval by the Commission on Probation of all probation officers appointed by the courts, and the extension of the probation system to obviate imprisonment for non-payment of fine, were two changes urged recently in an address by Judge Charles A. DeCourcy, of Lawrence, Mass. “The keystone of the probation system,” said Judge DeCourcy, “is the personality of the probation officers. As the Departmental Committee under the English probation law recently expressed it, ‘the probation officer must be a picked man or woman endowed not only with intelligence and zeal, but in a high degree with sympathy and tact and firmness.’ When a properly qualified and earnest probation officer is attached to every court in Massachusetts, the probation problem will be solved.
“Unfortunately, we have yet some probation officers who fail to come up to the standard, men who never interest themselves in their probationers outside of the courtroom, or take any concern as to their idleness, their companionship or habits, and do nothing to secure the confidence of the probationer or to aid him in restoring himself to manhood and good citizenship. The evils of continuing improper officers are so great that in my opinion it should be rendered impossible by requiring the approval by the Commission on Probation of all probation officers appointed by the court.
“Probation ought to be extended also, to obviate the imprisonment for non-payment of fines, giving the person fined an opportunity to earn and pay the fine while remaining at home and supporting his family.
“Another element new to Massachusetts will require consideration, namely, the proposed payment to the prisoners as a means of aiding in the support of their families during imprisonment and providing them with some means to start in life when they return to freedom. I should like to see an able commission appointed to consider and report on this whole broad question of prisons, so that in this, as in other respects, Massachusetts might lead the way with plans for an ideal system which the future will develop.”
Some Side-Lights on New Jersey Prisoners.—Next to the United States, Italy is the birthplace of more prisoners at present confined in the New Jersey State Prison, at Trenton, than any other country. Out of 1,393 prisoners remaining in the institution on October 31, 1910, 910 were born in the United States, 205 in Italy, 56 in Germany, 39 in Hungary, 36 in Russia, Poland, 30 in Russia, and 29 in Austria. Nearly half of the total were, when received by the institution, between the ages of twenty and thirty years. Six hundred and twenty-five were of this age, 366 were between thirty and forty, and 167 were between forty and fifty. One hundred and twenty-six were between fifteen and twenty. Two hundred and six can neither read nor write.
During the year ended October 31, 1910, 516 persons were received by the institution, and 110 were paroled. During the five years of the operation of the parole law, 1,266 prisoners have been paroled. Seventy-two of these have been again convicted and committed to this prison, 71 have had their paroles revoked, and 24 have been returned for violation of parole.
Stereoptican lectures on historical and civic subjects have been given on legal holidays. The report of the prison board states that although 300 men have been gathered together in a darkened room on such occasions, there has not been a single instance of misconduct during the lectures.
Study of Tuberculosis in Prisons.—A partial investigation is being made by the Central Howard Association of Chicago in regard to the prevalence of tuberculosis in prisons. In an inquiry sent out the question was asked: “How many inmates are affected, in any degree, with tuberculosis?” Seventy-four replies gave a total of 834 cases. One institution gave sixty as the number affected with tuberculosis, while the same report stated that an additional 300 had “symptoms” of the disease. The next highest number given by one institution was 49. Few admitted to more than ten or twelve, and some stated that no cases were known. It is believed that many cases of tuberculosis exist which are not detected by the average prison physician, and also that each state is reluctant to admit the full proportion of inmates afflicted. In most cases, probably, the reports gave only the number in the hospital. Even though many prisoners may have had incipient tuberculosis before entering prison (wherefore the institution should not be held responsible) it would be of much public interest to know just how many are affected in “any degree.” Will somebody suggest a method by which the actual facts may be secured?
F. E. L.
San Quentin May be Made a Reformatory.—Last month THE REVIEW stated that the California legislature was considering a bill providing for the establishment of a reformatory for first offenders. Now comes news of another bill which seeks to convert San Quentin prison into such a reformatory, thereby making Folsom the only penitentiary in the state. The bill, it is reported, seeks the reform of young criminals by setting aside San Quentin as a reformatory to which will be sent after July 4 next all female prisoners and all males, except those convicted of murder or treason, who at the time of commitment are between the ages of 16 and 30 years and who have never before been convicted of a felony.
Provision is made, however, that any person convicted of a heinous crime, robbery or burglary, may be committed either to San Quentin or Folsom. The board of prison directors may also transfer from the reformatory to Folsom prison all who seem hopeless of being reformed, and when Folsom is overcrowded to the extent of having more prisoners than cells, the board may transfer likely prisoners to the reformatory until the latter institution is not overcrowded. It is set forth that all life termers over 55 years of age in San Quentin shall not be moved. Provision is also made for putting the indeterminate sentence system into effect.
National Probation Officers’ Association.—The national probation officers’ association will meet in Boston from June 5th to 14th inclusive, which will be immediately before and during the sessions of the national conference of charities and correction in that city. Judge Harvey H. Baker of the Boston juvenile court is president of the association, and the secretary is Roger N. Baldwin, Security Building, St. Louis, Mo.
A Radical Step Proposed in Pennsylvania.—A bill has been prepared by Representative Alfred Marvins, of Pine County, Pennsylvania, which provides for the transference to one vast farm of 2,000 acres of all the criminal, insane and epileptic inmates cared for by the various institutions of the state. Once there these classes will be segregated. It is planned that the criminal inmates shall work the farm and make it self-supporting.
Want Branch to Extend Work of Reformation.—A bill has been presented to the Massachusetts legislature empowering the state to utilize an empty jail in Fall River, surrounded by 12 acres of land, as a branch of the Concord reformatory. The project is favored by the local county commissioners as well as by Warren F. Spalding, secretary of the Massachusetts Prison Association. Concord reformatory is reported to have a miscellaneous population, including a considerable percentage who do not respond readily to reformatory treatment, thus tending to impair the work with the better prisoners. A need is strongly felt of some method of classifying the inmates. The utilization of the Fall River jail will also make it possible to give reformatory treatment to a greater number than now receive it.
Probation Manual.—The Massachusetts commission on probation in December published a probation manual of 61 pages. It states concisely the probation laws of that state, and gives a list of probation officers in the state. Each court in Massachusetts has the services of a paid probation officer.
Probation Commission Wanted in Pennsylvania.—Persons interested in the extension and development of the probation system in Pennsylvania are desirous of having a state probation commission similar in powers and duties to those which have been established in New York and Massachusetts. A bill has been introduced into the legislature providing for such a body consisting of five members, two of whom shall be women.
Statistics of Probation, Defectiveness, etc., in Pennsylvania Reformatory.—Greater opportunities to secure work and the increased use by the courts of the probation system, are the reasons given by the board of managers of the Pennsylvania Industrial Reformatory, at Huntingdon, Pa., for the decrease in the number of commitments to that institution during the past two years. This reformatory is designed as a place of confinement for male first offenders between fifteen and twenty-five years of age, who have been convicted of a crime punishable under existing laws in a state prison. During 1907-8 the number of commitments was 1,046, as compared with 938 for 1909-10.
Interesting figures concerning the operation of the probation system are contained in the eleventh biennial report of the reformatory. During 1909-10 there were paroled 639 inmates. Sixty-two of these, or 9 and 7-10 per cent., violated their paroles. Forty-four of these 62 were returned to the institution, so that only 16, or two and one-half per cent. of the total number are still at large as delinquents.
Figures covering the last eleven years show that a total of 2,605 were paroled during that period, of whom 349, or 13 4-10 per cent., violated their paroles. Three and six-tenths per cent. of these are still at large.
Persons paroled with the necessary promise of employment by responsible firms are allowed to go to their places of employment unattended. Of 3,369 inmates so released during the last 14 years, only six have failed to report to their employers.
The report contains a mass of figures concerning the habits and characteristics of the 938 persons committed during 1909-10. Classified as to quality of mind, 17 are found deficient, 226 only fair, and 695 good. Thirty-nine were found to be absolutely without any moral sense, such as filial affection, sense of shame, etc., two hundred and eighty-nine were given the benefit of the doubt, 619 were ordinarily sensitive and 2 were especially sensitive.
During the two years seven inmates were transferred to insane asylums.
In Massachusetts the agent of the state prison commission spent during 1910 the sum of $1,860.56 in aiding discharged prisoners. Aid was given to 163 men, 129 of whom left state prison last year. For railroad fares $352.34 was spent, for board and family stores $1,021.20, for clothing $353.31, for tools $100.21, and for spectacles, medicine, etc., $33.50.
Probation Profitable Here.—A report, prepared by Judge Collins, of the City Court, Indianapolis, Ind., shows that through the probation system started by him one year ago, the city was saved $2,663.70. The commitments to the County Jail and Workhouse numbered 1,619 in 1910, or 50 per cent less than in 1909. Out of the 1,619 commitments during the year Judge Collins estimates that 95 per cent of the victims would have served their time out in the Workhouse, making an expense on the city, besides depriving it of the fines, had it not been for the probation system. Besides saving this amount for the harboring of prisoners, over $8,000 was paid into the probation department by prisoners who were given a chance to settle the amounts in small installments.
Prison Physician Sees Defects in Hospital.—Prison Physician Pray, of Jackson, Mich., has called to the attention of the State Prison Board of Control of Michigan the lack of facilities in the prison hospital for the segregation of contagious diseases, especially tuberculosis. Mr. Pray declares 50 per cent. of tubercular cases would not end fatally if they were taken care of in time. It is stated that an effort will be made by the board to prevent the commitment to prison of persons in the last stages of consumption.
Footnote
[A] First published In the New York World.
Transcriber’s Notes.
1. Silently corrected simple spelling, grammar, and typographical errors.
2. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.
3. Page 1. Footnote moved to the end of the book.
4. Page 3. [has] changed to [had]. [before the valley has[had] been drained].