COMMISSIONER RANDALL’S REPORT
[When the man that people like to speak of as “Frank” Randall went to Massachusetts from Minnesota as chairman of the Massachusetts Prison Commission it was expected that he would be “frank.” Here is a summary, from the Boston Herald of parts of Mr. Randall’s first annual message.]
In an interview given the first of the year by Frank L. Randall, the new chairman of the Massachusetts Prison Commission, he made several suggestions for the improvement of the penal system of Massachusetts.
In his six months’ service he has been taking stock of the situation. While he has found many things that warrant the pride the State has in her penal institutions, he has found also not a few serious problems of which the general public know little or nothing. He pays high tribute to the sheriffs and others engaged in the penological work of the State. But he discusses a large number of suggestions as to the supervision of the prison industries of the commonwealth, the indeterminate sentence, the trying out of applicants for employment as guards and in other capacities, the pardoning influence of the wardens and superintendents, and especially as to the very large number of persons on parole, of whom the State has lost track altogether.
“Did you know,” he asks, “that in this State there are 1,056 persons from the State reformatory, 217 from the State prison and more than 200 from the woman’s prison who ought to be making regular monthly reports to the proper authorities but of whom the State knows little or nothing?
“This is a very serious situation. According to the records all these persons were paroled. The terms of the parole in each and every case was a regular report every month, that the prison officials, representative of the power and supervision of the State, might know exactly the situation of each convicted person who has been liberated upon obligation to keep the State informed of his movements.
“Some of these persons have never rendered a single report. Others have reported for a time, and then ceased to trouble themselves about the matter. In very many cases their whereabouts is unknown.
“Now the sentences of these persons have not expired. They are still nominally in the charge of the State, which has granted them their liberty upon conditions. There ought not to be a single such case. In no instance should the State be ignorant of the whereabouts of a prisoner unless he is a fugitive from justice. These persons may not be classed as fugitives, and their sentences have not expired, yet the State has no trace of them.
“This situation certainly shows a flaw in our system and a serious one.
“I am strongly of the opinion that the prison industries of the State ought to be differently managed.