It seems to be forgotten that the Parole Board exercises judicial functions, and very often refuses parole when the minimum time has expired. Eligibility to parole is far from synonymous with election to parole. The circumstances are closely investigated, and the record of the trial is carefully studied. In the case of any outrageous murder or burglary, the Board of Parole is amply justified in detaining the applicant beyond the time of the minimum sentence. In many cases the Board has very properly refused the application for parole and in a number of instances has decided it best to retain a criminal to the end of his maximum term.
Granted that the Parole Board may occasionally err on the side of mercy, the wrong, sorrow, misery caused by the failure to secure this legislation will far outweigh the possible danger from the very few who might be prematurely returned to the outside world. Today the Commonwealth is supporting in almost complete idleness some hundreds who have demonstrated that they are ready to resume citizenship and to support themselves and families and yet they are compelled to remain as a burden to the community.
We are placing an immense burden upon the Inspectors of our Penitentiaries who in this State constitute the Boards of Parole. They are men with a high sense of civic responsibility, who do a large amount of faithful service without financial remuneration. They will not ask for any release from duties which the State may impose on them, but in justice to them we submit that the time has come for at least consideration of a proposition to appoint a special Board of Parole who shall receive compensation for their services. The work, if properly performed, demands a large amount of care and study.
Employment of Prisoners on the Highways.
Act 314 empowers the State Highway Commissioner to arrange with the managers of prisons to employ the inmates thereof at manual labor for “the construction ... or maintenance of the State Highways....”
The workers are to receive wages from 40 to 60 cents per day, and are to be subjected to no cruel treatment.
The law is an excellent one and should result, since there is great scarcity of laborers, in very great benefit to the Commonwealth, in fact, in the settlement of the good roads problem.
Recently the Rhode Island Legislature has made it possible to employ convict labor on the public highways. Two gangs of thirty-one men each were thus employed last summer, and it is reported that the results are very satisfactory to the road officials.
Missouri has also joined the ranks of States that use convict labor in the construction of highways. “The Old Trail highway, running from Kansas City to St. Louis, is being improved ... over a stretch of swampy land that has been the despair of the Old Trail highway promoters, and the work is being done entirely with convict labor under the direction of State engineers.”