Without doubt this is a better showing by far than can be had in any ordinary prison. Auburn contains a different class of criminals than is found at Elmira. So, also, for the older prisons of Europe, there are more recidivistes, or habitual criminals in these prisons. In the West there appears to be fewer of the habitual class and more of the accidental class in proportion than are found in older countries of denser population. Yet much of a helpful nature could be had by a more careful study of individual characteristics of criminals than is at present carried on. This means more time, more help and more expense, but in the long run it would amply pay.
An excellent phase of the Kansas system is the shortening of terms on account of good behavior within the prison walls. It is provided by statute that three days per month for the first year shall be deducted from the term of sentence of such prisoners as have no marks against them for disobeying the rules of the prison. If the record has been good at the close of the first year, six days per month shall be deducted during the second and eight days per month during the third if good conduct continues. These privileges apply to years or parts of a year.[11]
Another timely measure permits prisoners to participate in their own earnings. Five per cent. of each day’s labor at the rate of seventy-five cents per day, are entered to the credit of each prisoner.[12] If, on account of good behavior, a sentence is commuted at the end of the first year, the prisoner may have the privilege of sending these earnings to his family. There certainly is no reason why the prisoner within the walls should not support a family, if he has one, rather than allow it to be thrown upon the public. At least part of his earnings should be sent home and part saved for him to the end of his term. A certain per cent. of the earnings may be used by the prisoner in providing himself with a few comforts. (The floor in the cell shown in fig. 5 has a carpet provided in this way.) This, among other rules, suggests that the condition and conduct of the prisoner, as well as the crime, should determine the length of the sentence. If crime can be reckoned as moral insanity, as many specialists hold, then a sentence for a fixed time is similar to sending a sick man to a hospital for treatment, stating that he must remain exactly two years and three months to be cured, when in fact it may take longer or he may be cured before the end of a year. Certain it is that no criminal should be returned to the ranks of society until a reform has been thoroughly commenced. And when it can be ascertained that he will not commit crime again, it is idle to confine him longer. New York and Ohio have taken advanced steps in this direction and have instituted what is known as the indeterminate sentence for all criminals, whether in reformatories or penitentiaries.[13]
When the solitary cellular system is in vogue, the prisoners are limited to certain occupations within the cell, but when the associated system is practiced, all kinds of industry involving machinery may be carried on. This has given rise to what is known as the contract system, a method of employing prisoners, which should not be confounded with the unfortunate and nearly antiquated lease system. The statutes of Kansas[14] permit the contracting of prisoners to responsible parties, but still the state maintains its disciplinary control over the prisoners. The directors are obligated to advertise for bids in the leading papers in each congressional district. Contracts shall not exceed a term of ten years, and awards are made to the highest responsible bidder. Forty-five cents per day for able-bodied men is the minimum point below which bids are not accepted. There is a great controversy respecting the defects of the contract system, but it is not as bad as it at first appears when laborers are employed otherwise with great difficulty. Doubtless the better way is absolute management of all industries, as in case of the coal mines, by the prison superintendent.
The management of the mines is intrusted to a skillful engineer, Mr. Oscar F. Lamm. The writer has investigated the conditions under which men work, and has been to the face of the mines where they were at work, and can testify that the stories circulated about hard usage in the mines are wholly unfounded, except by persons who consider all labor, particularly mining, hard usage. The air below is pure—men are sent down every morning to test the air before prisoners are allowed to go down—and the mining is comparatively easy. There is very little difficulty in it, and the prisoners are not so bad off in these mines as are the miners in private mines elsewhere in Kansas. It may be a dreary life to lead for a person who has not been accustomed to work underneath the ground, but the average miner would pronounce the life in the mines endured by the prisoners as one of comparative ease and very few hardships. In all the experience of the mines, only one individual has been seriously hurt, and that when he disobeyed orders directly.
There have been many objections to the contract system urged by persons who are outside of the prison and its management. Whatever objections there may be to the contract system in itself, those usually observed are of no force. It is said that the goods made by prisoners come into close competition with goods made by union men outside of the prison and therefore the union men urge the repeal of the law granting the privilege of contracting prisoners for work. There can be no reason in this from the following principles: First, because every citizen of Kansas is interested in the right management of the prison as a means of protecting him and his family. In order to have this protection it is necessary that laborers be given employment for the sake of proper management. As there are less than a thousand of these prisoners all told, many of them are employed about the buildings and grounds and many employed in furnishing coal and other goods to state institutions, the competition does not figure at all in the great labor market. Again, while the prison mines have been putting forth abundance of coal in supplying state institutions and the market elsewhere, other coal mines in and around Leavenworth have been unable to fill the orders in supplying the demand upon them. Superintendents have tried again and again during the past two years to obtain sufficient miners to take out enough coal to supply the market, but they have failed. So far as the mines are concerned, the hue and cry about competitive labor amounts to nothing. Again, the contract system is carried on in this way: The prisoners are always under the charge of the warden and prison authorities. Contracts are let to the highest bidder for a certain number of laborers. This labor must be done on the prison grounds and under the general oversight of the prison authorities. If a prisoner is not doing well at a certain occupation, he is transferred to some other occupation. He has much the same treatment everywhere. Care is taken to adapt the prisoner to the labor that best suits his condition. When these goods are finished they pass out on the market in competition with other goods of the state and neighboring states. This, as has been stated, cannot be avoided unless the solitary system is adopted and with it an exclusion of machinery. The minimum price for contract laborers is forty-five cents per day, and as a matter of business, as those contracts are let to the highest bidder and as labor is plentiful outside of the prison, there can be very little difference in the effect of this contracting for prison labor and the injury of union labor outside as respects the cheapness with which goods can be thrown upon the market. However, it seems to me that it would be better to have all prisoners and all manufacturing under the direction of the prison, and that raw material should be purchased to supply the machinery placed there for the purpose of manufacturing the goods and then the goods should be furnished to state institutions where they need them and the surplus be thrown upon the market at the usual price. This would keep all the prisoners employed and would also give them instructions by way of learning and drill in completing the finished product, which is an education in itself. Then wherein it is necessary and possible, part of the time should be employed in obtaining a fair theoretical as well as industrial education. In this way the management of the prisoners in their graded condition would be more directly under the control of the warden and, instead of being treated as a gang at work in the shop and elsewhere, an individual consideration of every prisoner would be reached in discipline, manual labor and intelligent training.
It is not the purpose of penal institutions to humble or degrade humanity. There is no object in it and moreover it has a tendency to breed crime. Men who are sufficiently evil and reckless to commit flagrant crimes are not benefited by a punishment that degrades them or tends to rob them of the appearance of manhood. For this reason the striped suits worn by prisoners should be abandoned and suits which will classify persons within the walls, be adopted. If it be said that it is more difficult to apprehend those who escape if the traditional striped clothes are abandoned, let it be said this is of no importance; if the Bertillon or French system of registry be adopted, as represented in the following tables, there will be little chance of escape.
BERTILLON OR FRENCH SYSTEM OF
PRISON MEASUREMENT AND REGISTRY.
