Kate Barnard, of Oklahoma, introduced a resolution providing for the appointment of a committee to study conditions of convict labor. It is gratifying to report that it was finally decided that the committee on organization at the next Annual Meeting in 1912 shall include among the Standing Committees a Committee on Prison Labor, whose duty shall be to study the aspects of prison labor and to report definite recommendations as to the most practical measures to be adopted by the various states.
The new committee to investigate the subject of prison labor will be composed of F. H. Mills, New York, Chairman; Albert Garvin, Chesshire, Conn.; Samuel Gompers, Washington, D. C.; Kate Barnard, Oklahoma City, Okla.; Dr. J. T. Gilmour, Toronto, Can.; Joseph P. Byers, Secretary.
DISCHARGED PRISONERS.
Miss Eva Booth, Chairman of the Committee on Discharged Prisoners, was unable to attend the convention, but the report of the committee was read.
This was a paper by Miss Booth, reviewing the problem of the discharged prisoner, urging that he must be understood as an individual in order that he might be helped to get a new footing in the world, and emphasizing the necessity of prison visitation to enable the workers to know the prisoner when he is liberated.
The parole system was commended and reference was made to the plan recently advocated by General Booth in England to have paroled prisoners make their reports to the Salvation Army and other charitable institutions instead of to the police departments.
Governor Folk’s plan of having the family of the prisoner taken care of from the earnings of the convict’s labor was commended.
FIRST OFFENDERS.
Eugene Smith, President of the Prison Association of New York State, read a report on “Statistics of Crime.” His report was embellished with illustrations showing that no statistics of crime could be complete in giving an accurate account of the amount of crime actually committed for obvious reasons. The first crime of a trusted employé willing to make restitution may be covered up, the disgrace to members of the family, insanity, business reasons and other considerations tend to cover up the criminal acts of many first offenders.
He favored the idea of treating the first offender so that his criminal tendencies may be corrected if this is possible under the supervision of a properly constituted Board of Supervisors. He called attention to the cost of a man who was convicted and sent to prison for killing his employer in a fit of rage. His case was studied by prison physicians who believed the man was living between the borders of sanity and insanity. An operation was eventually decided on and a needle was removed from the brain. The man recovered his normal condition of mind and was discharged from prison.