An Act amending the present law in regard to the Indeterminate Sentence, so that its provisions may more nearly harmonize with its title, was approved by both Houses of the Assembly, but was vetoed by the Governor.

While we are deeply gratified to report progress, we shall continue our efforts to secure from the next Assembly favorable action in regard to the measures which failed to become statutory in 1917. Public sentiment is a plant of slow growth. Possibly our propositions may have been defective in some particulars. With some slight modification or embellishment, we believe all the measures we have endorsed will soon have place among the statutes of the Commonwealth.

A synopsis of these measures with some explanation and comment will be found elsewhere in the Journal of which this report forms a part.

We desire to acknowledge the valuable services of the Prison Reform League in preparing bills and in conducting hearings before the Committee of the Assembly.

DISCHARGED PRISONERS.

The majority of the prisoners who are released from the State Penal Institutions are dismissed on parole. They are under supervision by the Parole Officers from a few months to some years. Most of these paroled persons have some definite place of employment in view. It may be supposed that the operation of the law of parole has to a considerable extent relieved this Society from former obligations in behalf of the released prisoner. Admitting the value of this work of Parole, we still have a mission for the discharged prisoners.

  1. Quite a number are discharged on their own recognizance. We often assist these in securing employment and provide them with room and board until they have landed a job.
  2. Many of them who secure employment in large establishments must wait a fortnight or more before they receive wages. We endeavor to care for them till the welcome pay day has arrived. They are often destitute and also their families, so that they find this assistance very acceptable in time of deepest need.
  3. In many employments, the workmen are required to furnish their own tools. Here we have a constant service.
  4. Quite frequently they leave the prison with no funds to pay their transportation to their homes or to their places of employment. We care for these necessities.
  5. There is a service for those who are discharged at the expiration of their sentence. If they desire aid, we are pleased when they come directly to us from the prison, instead of waiting till they are entirely destitute after spending their gate money. It has been our purpose to ascertain in advance what they may need and to be ready to offer a temporary home and satisfactory employment.
  6. Sometimes those who secure employment need for some time the service of a physician. They are directed to a hospital, and meanwhile they must have subsistence.
  7. We are not able to escape some sense of responsibility on behalf of the human derelicts who come to us with their piteous story, whether true or false. They are feeble in mind, in health, in will. They may have “wasted their substance in riotous living.” We do not wish to believe they are wholly irreclaimable, entirely past any hope of redemption. It is little we do, or can do, for them. One of them died the other day at the Philadelphia Hospital. Off and on for years he had tried our patience. He would run well for a brief season, then a tremendous fall from grace. Without a murmur or an apology, he meekly endured the ebullition of our righteous wrath, and left us professing good intentions fortified by the medicine of our wholesome counsel. He said we were the only friends he had in the days of his downfall. When in funds his friends showed their appreciation of his generosity by aiding him in the distribution of his pitifully small earnings. Did he recall in those last days of asthmatic suffering our solemn warnings, our endeavors to point the true way to happiness? While we do not know, we however are unable to regret our poor efforts to restore him to some sense of responsibility.

There is great need of a farm with some simple industry attached to which these unfortunates may be consigned in order to earn their own maintenance.

VISITATION.

The Committees under appointment to visit the Eastern Penitentiary and the County Prison of Philadelphia have presented reports at each of our meetings. The summary of these reports reveals much faithful labor on behalf of those who are behind the bars.