The Life, Public Services and Select Speeches of Rutherford B. Hayes

by J. Q. Howard

In addition to considerations already presented in favor of a revision of the rates of taxation which local officers and boards are authorized to levy, another controlling reason is not to be omitted. By the recent revaluation of real estate the total basis of taxation for the State at large will probably be increased almost forty per cent, and in many of the cities the increase will be nearly one hundred per cent This renders it imperatively necessary to revise the present rates, so as to prevent the collection and expenditure of sums much greater than the public good demands.

Under prudent and efficient management the earnings of the penitentiary continue to exceed its expenses, and at the same time gratifying progress has been made in improving the condition and treatment of the prisoners. The hateful and degrading uniform of past years is disappearing; increased means of education, secular and religious, are afforded, and the officers of the institution exhibit an earnest desire to employ every instrumentality authorized by existing laws to restore its inmates to society improved in habits, capacity, and character.

While much has been done in our State during the last twenty-five years for the improvement of prison discipline, it is not to be denied that much more yet remains unaccomplished.

Assuming that the time has not arrived to attempt a radical change of our prison discipline, the following practical suggestions, consistent with the present system, are offered for your consideration: A convict is now allowed a deduction from the period of his sentence as a reward for good behavior. The power to extend the period of the sentence as a punishment for bad conduct would also, under proper regulations, exercise a wholesome influence in the discipline of the prison.

The importance of classification among convicts is now universally admitted. For economical or other reasons the establishment of an intermediate prison will perhaps be deemed inexpedient at this time. It is believed, however, that by employing convict labor the additional buildings and improvements required for a satisfactory classification can be erected on the ground adjoining the old prison, recently purchased and now enclosed, at a small expense compared with the cost of a new prison. This plan, it is hoped, will receive your careful consideration.

It is also recommended that the Board of State Charities be empowered to aid discharged convicts to obtain honest employment. An annual appropriation of a small sum for this purpose, in the course of a few years, would probably save a large number, who, without such help, would again return to a criminal course of life.

The most defective part of our present prison system is probably our county jails. It is supposed about 8,000 persons pass through our county jails each year. They are generally persons charged with crimes and awaiting trial. But lunatics and petty offenders in considerable numbers are also confined in these places. The young and the old, the innocent and the guilty, hardened offenders and beginners in crime, are commonly mingled together in the jails, under few restraints, without useful occupation and with abundant leisure and temptation to learn wickedness. The jails have been fitly termed nurseries of crime. Plans of jails, not too expensive, have been furnished by the Board of State Charities, which provide for the absolute separation of the prisoners. It is recommended that the law shall require all jails to be so constructed as to entirely prevent this promiscuous and dangerous intercourse.

Your attention is particularly called to the recommendation of the Board of State Charities that the proper authorities of all of the cities of the State should be required to make full reports annually to the legislature, through the governor, of the statistics of vice and crime and of the work of the police department in such cities; and also to the suggestion that prosecuting attorneys should not be allowed to enter a nolle prosequi in any case of an indictment for a crime punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary or by death, without the written approval of the attorney-general first given upon a written report to him of the facts.

The importance of this is sufficiently shown by the fact that in 1869 the number of cases in which a nolle prosequi was entered exceeded fifteen hundred.

The Girls' Reformatory at White Sulphur Springs contains forty-nine inmates, and it is now demonstrated that the number is likely to increase as rapidly as the welfare of the institution will allow. Whatever doubts may have been reasonably entertained as to the necessity for such an institution prior to its establishment, the report of the directors and superintendent and a thorough investigation of the facts will, it is believed, satisfy you that the institution is a very important one, and ought to be liberally supported.