The 131st Annual Meeting of THE PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY was held at the office of the Society in the Forrest Building, 119 South Fourth Street, Philadelphia, on the afternoon of January 11, 1918, President Edw. M. Wistar in the Chair.
Twenty-two members were present.
The minutes of the 130th Meeting were read and approved.
The Report of the Acting Committee for the year 1917 was read by the Secretary. It was approved and directed to be printed in the Journal. (See pages 6-12.)
The Treasurer, John Way, presented a detailed statement of the receipts and payments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1917, accompanied by a schedule of the securities held for the Society by the fiscal agent, The Provident Life and Trust Company. The report has been duly audited and was accepted. (See page 13.)
On behalf of the Committee on Nominations, the Secretary presented a list of nominations for the Officers of the Society, and for members of the Acting Committee to succeed those whose terms expire on February 1. The election being duly held, the persons nominated were elected to the offices designated in the report of the Committee. (See page 3.)
The Secretary informed the meeting that a number of county prisons were profiting by an Act, introduced to the attention of the Assembly by the State Board of Charities and which was promptly passed, making it possible for prisoners confined in the county jails to be released to work on land owned by the county. Eight counties report that some of their inmates have been working on farms and that the results have been very satisfactory. Fifteen counties have the subject under consideration with a view of trying the experiment next season. The law was approved in July, 1917, hence there was little time to organize for the growing season of last year. Independently of this law, the Court in a few counties had granted special parole to some selected prisoners so that they might be employed on farms either on land owned by the county or on land belonging to parties who assumed the responsibility of caring for the paroled prisoners.
Regret was expressed that a bill designed to amend the law providing for the Indeterminate Sentence, so that its provisions would correspond more nearly to its title, failed to secure executive sanction.
To nominate the Officers at the next Annual Meeting, the President appointed Rev. J. F. Ohl, Austin C. Leeds, Marriott C. Morris, Mrs. Mary S. Grigg and Mrs. Eliza M. Cope.
Albert H. Votaw,
Secretary.