“How great is the extent of this evil may be gathered from the commissioners’ statement that of the prisoners received from the ordinary courts during last year no less than 121,126 or 80.6 per cent. of the total number committed were sentenced to terms of one month or under. These amazing figures are certainly sufficient proof that there is need of some statutory alteration of the existing laws to prevent the continuance of the useless and mischievous practice; and it is satisfactory to learn from the commissioners that there is a prospect of legislative action on the matter in the near future.”
EVENTS IN BRIEF
[Under this heading will appear each month numerous paragraphs of general interest, relating to the prison field and the treatment of the delinquent.]
A Correction.—The Delinquent is convinced that after all there is a “printer’s devil” in every office. For in the January Delinquent there appeared directly following our notice of Miss Davis’s well-deserved appointment to the commissionership of correction in New York, a little joke, running about eight lines in length and serving the printer simply as “filler” on the last page. Unfortunately the dash that should have separated the two items was omitted. However, we know that Miss Davis will forgive us, and, after all, we have had to find fault very seldom with our printer, who from the beginning has given us a very low rate and good service.
For a National Prison Commission.—Rev. Samuel G. Smith, of St. Paul, president of the American Prison Association, has announced the members of the committee authorized by the Association at its last annual session in Indianapolis to wait upon President Wilson and Attorney-General McReynolds in an effort to have the Federal Government establish a national prison commission.
The members of the commission are Professor Charles R. Henderson, of the University of Chicago, and United States Commissioner on the International Prison Commission; Frank L. Randall, chairman, Massachusetts Prison Commission; Henry Wolfer, warden of the State Prison at Stillwater, Minn.; W. H. Moyer, warden of the Federal prison at Atlanta, and Joseph P. Byers, secretary of the Association and Commissioner of Charities and Corrections of New Jersey.
The Association in adopting the resolution for the naming of the committee thought that a national prison commission would be of great service to the Federal and all the State governments. It is part of the scheme to establish a school for the training of prison officials.