At the rehearsals, the 350 inmates have gathered in the large hall, and watched the performance of the 50 to 60 women on the platform. The study and work has benefited every inmate, and especially inspired all who took part.
The work is an indication of the broad scheme of Mrs. Jessie D. Hodder and her staff in renewing the lives of the women in her charge.
New Prison Training Effective—So says the Buffalo Inquirer: Of the 1,639 convicts in the Ohio State prison at Columbus, 1,331 are first termers. Of the 784 discharged and the 743 received in the last year only fourteen were second termers.
“Such figures indicate that the Ohio prison management is doing something to lessen the number of repeaters. Apparently the training the prisoners receive is doing something to work up the ability and will to lead to the life that saves them from being sent back again.
“It is related that the 500 Ohio prisoners who were allowed to work in the open last year on their promise not to run away only twenty-four escaped. That is to say, ninety-five per cent. showed the stamina to stay on the prison job and five per cent. yielded to the temptation to make a break for liberty. The ninety-five per cent. capable of staying in prison when they might have escaped should be capable of keeping out of prison after their release. Every statistical table showing a diminished proportion of ‘repeaters’ is evidence that the new training is really accomplishing in the way of abolishing the ‘comebacks.’”
The Situation in New Jersey—The Plainfield (N.J.) Courier outlines it as follows:
It is claimed that politics interferes with the harmonious solution of the new labor system in the State Prison, replacing the prison labor contract system. The interruption has created an annoyance, because all the present labor contracts at the State Prison expire on July 1, and a serious condition will be presented for the majority of the 1,400 convicts will be thrown into lives of idleness. State Prison Keeper Thomas B. Madden regards the prospect as menacing. On July 1 all the prison contractors will cease their work and will remove their machinery from the prison shops where so long the prisoners were kept busy manufacturing shoes, clothing, brooms, brushes, caps, handkerchiefs, overalls, etc., will be closed until the new prison labor methods can be put into operation. It will take at least six months to get the new system fully installed.
No definite plans exist for an immediate resumption of labor in the prison, although the act abolished the prison labor contract system and substituting the “State use” method under which the convicts manufactures articles for use in all the State institutions, was passed in 1911, three years ago. The new Commission is composed of Cook Conklin, of Bergen county, president; Commissioner of Charities and Corrections Joseph P. Byers, of Trenton, secretary; Joseph M. Dear, of Jersey City, representing the Board of State Prison Inspectors; Freeman Woodbridge, of Middlesex county, representing the Board of Managers of the Rahway Reformatory; Richard H. More, of Bridgeton, and Henry Isleib of Paterson.