Lawrence M. Fagan, probation officer in Allegheny county, through whose hands these funds went, is enthusiastic. “It’s been an excellent thing,” he said, “an arrangement which has solved a problem that has confronted probation officers ever since the first man was sent to prison for non-support. Previously the wives were no better off while a man was in jail than they had been before and often were much worse off. They had nothing at all coming in in most cases. Seldom did they receive more than their earnings which in no case were large.”
These women now can expect help each month. Every man is credited 65 cents a day for every day he works and the money is given his wife. This has amounted to $17.45 a month in some cases, although often it has only been a few dollars, but in every case it has been received with great welcome.
Mr. Fagan explained that men are sent to the workhouse only as a last resort. They are generally given a chance to support their families after being arrested for the first time and then if they fail they are committed to prison. The payments have averaged $400 from this source alone.
The general funds that pass through the hands of the probation officer from husbands who are supporting their families on order of the court, with the probation office as an intermediary, and from the workhouse to wives, reached $55,500 during the past six months. During June alone the total was $10,600.
NOTES.
An autobus has been installed to carry prisoners from New York City to Sing Sing prison. This will do away with the necessity of marching prisoners from the station at Ossining to the prison, a distance of about half mile. The prison is thirty miles from New York.
A hospital for tubercular convicts is to be established at the Maryland State Penitentiary, an appropriation of $35,000 having been made by the legislature. A prison school is also having excellent success.
Prison contracts are to be continued “indefinitely” in the New Jersey State prison, according to the Bayonne, N. J., Review of July 2d, because there are not sufficient funds for the installation of the State-use system. About 1,500 convicts are employed at the prison. Were the contracts permitted to lapse, the prisoners would be idle.