PROGRESS IN CONNECTICUT
The retiring president of the Connecticut Prison Association recently wrote:
The past nine years have been years of progress. Five important steps have been taken, which bear directly upon the treatment of the criminal. Not one of these originated in Connecticut. We are not roadmakers. We slowly adopt courses which have been to some extent tried and proved efficient by others.
In 1901 was passed the indeterminate sentence law. Our late secretary was an indefatigable worker for its passage. Coupled with the parole law, the operation of the indeterminate sentence law promises much. It marks a great innovation. Naturally it must work its way slowly and must demonstrate its true worth to the community by years of experimentation.
In 1901 was also passed a law calculated to protect the public from the incorrigible, and deter such from continuance in crime. I refer to the law which requires that the judge, in the case of a third-term offender, shall make the maximum term of imprisonment thirty years. It is a severe law. But no one need suffer from it. An incurable criminal should not be allowed to imperil the interests of the public. If this law were enacted and enforced throughout the land, the majority of professional criminals and degenerates would soon be under constant surveillance.
The probation law, passed in 1903, has rapidly come into favor. Its operation has told its own story wherever it has had any chance at all. It has proved especially advantageous in the management of delinquent children.
In 1909 a law was passed, having for its end the prevention of the line of criminals, which the laws of heredity might seem to guarantee. The method employed is sterilization. There is much to be said for and against this measure. There is much skepticism regarding it. Time will demonstrate the wisdom or wickedness of such a law.
In 1909 decisive steps were taken for the establishment of a reformatory. This move is of state-wide interest. We cannot see how we have delayed so long. It is in the interest of young men. We hope much from this institution. Since success depends largely upon the spirit and ability of those in charge,—God give us men.
I have mentioned the chief measures enacted for the improvement of penological conditions. There are many signs of promise that have not yet found expression in legislation. Deep interest is taken in the physical, mental and moral development of children. And a few are coming to study the cold, hard facts, in the limelight of political economy, as to the fruits, in insanity and crime, of the traffic in intoxicants. Some day the good sense of the people will assert itself, and the refuge of lies will be swept away, and the real situation will be faced.
Our present jail system is being weighed in the balances and found wanting. Many believe that state management of jails would be more economical, and conducive to better results than are now obtained. A state farm for the inebriate, with nourishing food, fresh air, sunshine and moral influences, and hard work for a good long term, would, it is believe, be a merciful solution of the distressing rounder problem.
The Connecticut Prison Association was first organized as “The Prisoners’ Friends Corporation,” Tuesday, March
9, 1875, at a general meeting held in the lecture room of the Center Church, Hartford.
Its first president was Judge Heman H. Barbour of Hartford, and at his death Rev. Dr. Joseph Cummings, president of Wesleyan College, was chosen president.
December 8, 1876, a reorganization was affected under the name of “The Connecticut Prison Association.”
Hon. Francis Wayland, dean of the Yale Law College, was then elected president, and continued in that office until the time of his death, January 9, 1904, more than twenty-seven years.
Rev. H. M. Thompson, D.D., of Hartford, served the association as president from November 9, 1904, until October 27, 1910.
Mr. John C. Taylor was secretary of the association from March 9, 1875, until his death, October 4, 1909, more than thirty-four years.
The objects of the Connecticut Prison Association as expressed in the constitution are:
1. To benefit society by the reformation of criminals.
2. To assist prisoners in the work of self-reform.
3. To promote reformatory systems of prison management.
4. To aid discharged convicts in living honorably.
5. To co-operate in the prevention and repression of crime.
Since its organization the association has extended a friendly hand to hundreds of discharged convicts, has had a part in advocating progressive laws and in forming an intelligent public opinion on the problems of criminology.