Discretionary Power of the Court.
According to this Act, the Court “may, in its discretion, sentence” a convicted offender to the county jail, to the Industrial Farm, or to any penal institution legally entitled to receive convicts. We repose much confidence in the judiciary of this State. But we trust that they will agree to send all convicts, sentenced from forty days to two years, or to whatever time they think it advisable to send them to the State Prisons, to these Industrial Farms. They may exercise an option below twenty days, depending on the proximity of said farm. Allegheny County sends hundreds of prisoners, sentenced for ten days and less, about ten miles away to the Industrial Farm. Philadelphia transports likewise a large number of short termers about fifteen miles to the House of Correction on its farm of several hundred acres. The State of Indiana makes its obligatory to send all convicted of misdemeanors, who are sentenced to sixty days or more, to the State Industrial Farm. The option of the Court may be exercised when the sentence is less than sixty days.
In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania there is no team work with reference to the place where convicts may be incarcerated. Some counties, especially the smaller ones, have an understanding that all prisoners sentenced to one year or more should be dispatched to the penitentiary. In other counties a person may serve a sentence of twenty years in the county prison. How would this schedule work?
| Ten days or less | County Jail |
| Ten to twenty days, | Either County Jail or the Industrial Farm |
| Twenty days to two years | The Industrial Farm |
| Two to three years, | Either the Industrial Farm or the Penitentiary |
| Three years and over | The State Penitentiary |
Of course it is understood that lads and lasses may be sent to Glen Mills, Sleighton Farm or Morganza; and that older boys may be sentenced to the Reformatory at Huntingdon.
Possible Objections.
Some county officials may point with pride to their prison, perhaps rather recently constructed, with admirable sanitary features, and affording some opportunity for employment. What is to become of such plants? We know of no county prison in the State whose facilities would be equivalent to the advantages afforded by the farm. Some prison will be needed at every county seat as a place of detention. Portions of the real estate may sometimes be sold for a handsome sum, or used for some other public purpose. We know of very few county prisons for whose construction we entertain much respect. Most of these jails need entire renovation. Some of the newer type resemble cages for animals—a type of building we condemn.
The latest ward constructed in the Philadelphia County Prison at Holmesburg embodies some of the best features of modern prison construction. We should regret to have this disused. The latest cell-block at the Allegheny County Workhouse is a model of its kind. And the new dining room at this institution is admirable from every point of view. Our private suggestion is that the Trustees of the Second District, in which five counties are comprised including Allegheny, shall arrange to take over this Penal Farm, or the Allegheny County Workhouse, and constitute it as the Industrial Farm for this District. The buildings and the land are already there, and an efficient institution conducted now on the lines enumerated in the Act establishing these Industrial Farms. The other counties of the District have been for some time sending their convicts to this workhouse, paying Allegheny County a per diem rate for each prisoner sent from their respective counties.
We wish we could devise a satisfactory scheme for the consolidation of the counties of the First District in which Philadelphia County is located.
Do we dare to suggest the pooling of the interests of the House of Correction and the County Prison at Holmesburg so that the two prisons may be combined under the same management, thus making the Correctional Farm available for both institutions? Can more land be secured, or reclaimed from the marshes of the Delaware?