We acknowledge the receipt of the Seventy-second Annual Report of our sister association in New York. It is a ponderous pamphlet of 648 pages full of information concerning Prison Progress in 1916. This Association was incorporated in 1846.
Our members will be interested in knowing that their Executive Committee, like our Acting Committee, has power to examine, and inspect all prisons of the State. Not only do they have the power but it is also enjoined upon them as a duty to make such visits and to report annually to the State Legislature the condition of the prisons and any circumstances “in regard to them as may enable the Legislature to perfect their government and discipline.” The charter also provides that the State shall print 500 copies of this annual report. Many additional copies are purchased by the Association for general distribution.
Their working staff contains twenty officers who are engaged in parole and probation duties, in the work of inspection and research, in securing employment and in affording relief.
The last 300 pages of this document are devoted to reports of the inspection of the various prisons of the State. The officers do not shrink from sharp criticism of undesirable features, and yet their criticism is of a constructive type. Recommendations are made, and the progress made since the last inspection is duly credited.
We have also received the Report of the New York State Commission of Prisons, a bound volume of 592 pages. 328 pages are devoted to description, recommendations and criticisms connected with the prisons of the State from the large State Prisons to the small village lock-ups. This appears to us a duplication of the work of the Prison Association. Why should there be two organizations doing the same work?
The report of the Prison Association contains much valuable information with regard to legislation both recent and proposed, and to the success of the reformatory measures recently introduced into their penal system. Those who desire copies of the report may write to this Association at 135 E. 15th St., New York City.
NEW JERSEY PRISON INQUIRY COMMISSION.
This Commission was appointed according to the provisions of a bill of the legislature of the State passed in January, 1917. By January 1, 1918, the Commission had prepared an elaborate report of 822 pages giving a history and description of the prisons and penal methods of the State, and also presenting their recommendations.
The historical record in general indicates a series of failures rather than of successes in penal administration. The so-called “Pennsylvania system,” the “Auburn Plan,” the method of contract labor, the State-Use plan, the Parole work, the efforts at Reformation, the partisan Boards, all have their share of more or less condemnation.
The student of penology, however, will discover in this record encouraging tendencies which may ultimately bring about a higher type of treatment of those who go astray.