IN THE PRISONERS’ AID FIELD
NEW HAMPSHIRE SOCIETY AFTER STATE REFORMATORY
At the session of the New Hampshire Legislature which adjourned on April 15, the New Hampshire Prisoners’ Aid Association co-operated with the State Conference of Charities and Corrections and the State Federation of Women’s Clubs in the advancing of two measures which were deemed of immediate importance to the State.
The first of these was a resolution calling upon the Governor to appoint special commission of three members to investigate and report to the legislature, at its next session, in 1913, on the desirability of a State Workhouse or Reformatory. The resolution, which carries a sufficient appropriation to pay the expenses of the investigation, passed the legislature and received the signature of the Governor. A similar measure presented at three previous sessions met with defeat, owing to the false impression that a central state reformatory would mean additional cost to the taxpayers. This impression was weakened by the arguments before committees that the assembling of all minor offenders in one institution would make it possible to put them at some profitable industry and in the end save money. At present minor offenders are confined in about 20 county jails and houses of correction, in only one of which is there a population sufficient to operate an industry. In nine of the jails idleness is the rule. In the remaining institutions the prisoners are dependent upon work about the buildings and upon the farm, and when this work is slackest the prisons are fullest. It is hoped that the study of the commission will result in recommendations whose execution by the next legislature will in New Hampshire do away with the evils of the locally administered jail and house of correction.
The second item on the program was a bill providing for medical inspection by the state board of health of all penal institutions, and for thorough examination of all prisoners, at the times of committal and discharge, not only with reference to their present physical and mental condition, but also with reference to their personal and family history as to mental capacity and delinquency. This measure was felt to be important, aside from its immediate advantage in institutional administration, in two respects: (1) It would undoubtedly bring about some changes in classifying and treating offenders; and (2) the careful recording of the results of the examinations would probably in the course of years build up a mass of data from which it would be possible to draw inferences as to methods of preventing delinquency. This bill was not put into presentable shape until so late in the session that it failed of favorable consideration. The chief opposition came from those who believed that the cost of careful medical examinations in county institutions would be such as materially to raise the budget for the hospital departments. On the contrary, the warden of the state prison testified that the result of such examinations as have been voluntarily adopted by him has been a lessening in the expenses of the hospital department. The centralization of minor offenders in a state reformatory will facilitate the adoption of this needed reform.
Similarly it will probably be easier to get a system of probation for adult offenders if there is a state reformatory. The Prisoners’ Aid Association pressed a probation bill two years ago and failed. This year the measure was held in abeyance so as to give the more fundamental bill the right of way. A state penal board has for many years been desired by many. This too, would logically follow state control of minor offenders. So the Association feels that the first battle has been won in the wider campaign. The next battle, and the decisive one, if we win it, will be that concerning the actual establishment of the state reformatory.
E. L. P.