“But besides scientific knowledge, ability, and experience, there is another condition, or sine qua non, absolutely essential to success in administering Sing Sing or any other prison. As a warden should be selected without the slightest regard to his political affiliations, he should also have a free hand in discharging his duties unhampered by political influence.
“Politics constitute the greatest obstacle encountered by every movement for prison reform. So long as the appointment of prison officials and their retention in office are dependent on political favor or influence, it is hopeless to look for improvement in prison systems or any measures of reform. The infusion of politics into our prison can never be prevented except by the force of a united public opinion, a consensus strong enough to condemn and drive out of public service every person who participates in the appointment or removal of any prison officer for merely political ends in order to confer favors or promote expedience.”
Progress in New York City’s Department of Correction.—Commissioner of Correction Katharine Bement Davis, and her deputy, Burdette G. Lewis, have already planned important improvements in administration. The upper floor of the Tombs is to be transformed into a hospital with nearly ninety beds; a visiting building, with screens between visitors’ seats and prisoners’ seats, will be built; food brought in from the outside is to be prohibited, and improvement in the catering service in the Tombs is arranged for; classification of prisoners in the various institutions is being developed; the punishment cells in the Penitentiary are to be abandoned in favor of a separate punishment building with “reflection cells,” a detention house for women prisoners is to be built; the Department has moved from an antique building on Twentieth street into adequate quarters in the new Municipal building; stripes are to be abolished in the Island institutions; several “crews” of youngsters have been sent out to the tract of six hundred acres in Orange county to be used for the new City Reformatory for Misdemeanants; the clothing of women prisoners at the workhouse and Penitentiary is to be considerably bettered; and so forth. The fundamental plans for the re-organization of the Department’s institutions are being carefully worked out.
The Power of Suggestion.—Some of the complacent ones who maintain that you must leave to youngsters of either sex their own governing, and hold them pretty completely responsible for crime committed by them might pause for a moment to read the following—except that no such complacent ones read The Delinquent. This is from the monthly journal called the Training School, published at Vineland, New Jersey:
Mamie S—— was a middle-grade imbecile girl about eighteen years old, testing about six by the Binet. She was strong and active, a cheerful and willing worker, subject to occasional fits of temper, but usually quite easily controlled. Her work in the laundry was helping Miss B. to feed the big steam mangle.
One day the superintendent was escorting a party of visitors and explained to them the use of the shield over the reed rolls of the mangle, saying that if it were out of place there would be great danger of the workers’ fingers being caught between the rolls and a serious accident occurring before the machinery could be stopped. Mamie heard his remark and the visitors had no sooner left the laundry than she turned to Miss B. and said: “Say, Miss B., if I put my fingers in there, would it draw in my arm and crush it?” Miss B. answered, “Of course it would, you silly girl.” Mamie declared, “I am going to try it,” and at once lifted the shield and would have put her fingers between the rolls had not Miss B. grappled with her.
Mamie struggled desperately and would have overpowered Miss B. but she called for help and it took three of the employees to drag Mamie away to safety. It is needless to say that Mamie’s work in the laundry ceased with that incident.