IN THE PRISONERS’ AID FIELD
THE MARYLAND PRISONERS’ AID ASSOCIATION.
(Although the following article is an account of a single association, it contains material of such general interest that it seemed desirable to print it in full. The article appeared in the forty-first annual report of the Prisoners’ Aid Association of Maryland, for the year ended April 30, 1910.—The Editor)
The objects of the Prisoners’ Aid Association of Maryland are the uplift and rehabilitation of the criminal.
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.