In Lewiston and Auburn, Maine, citizens are establishing a refuge for discharged prisoners who have served terms for vagrancy or intoxication. The Auburn Reform League hopes thus to find “a place where these men can be helped to a fresh start.”
In Massachusetts, Warren F. Spalding, the secretary of the Massachusetts Prison Association, discussing the treatment of drunkenness before the commission which has been investigating the increase of prisoners and paupers in the Bay State, said recently: “Massachusetts’ system of dealing with the question is not good. It is sending thousands of persons to the houses of correction each year and then releasing them after short periods without having helped them.” “A drunk,” he said, “needs air, sunshine and outdoor work. He should not be in a cell 16 out of the 24 hours. These cells are not free from germs. What does Massachusetts do with her drunks? After sending each one to the House of Correction for a number of times, he is sent to the state farm at Bridgewater, where he receives the outdoor treatment he needed in the first place. Massachusetts should establish from one to six institutions where drunks and criminals through drunkenness can be given outdoor treatment.”
It is reported that a bill is to be introduced into the Indiana legislature providing for the sending of convicted drunkards to the county infirmary which is reported to be able to work the men on the farm at a cost only one-fourth of that entailed by keeping them at the jail.
A member of the State Commission in Lunacy of New York recently stated that 28 per cent of insanity in the state hospitals of New York is directly traceable to inebriety or the use of alcohol.
Winter and the Vagrant.—New York City has been registering at its half-million dollar new free lodging house a record-breaking attendance this winter of the out-of-works. On January 15th the department of public charities lodged 982 homeless persons at the city lodging house and an overflow of 286 were lodged on a covered dock owned by the department. “In my fifteen years of experience,” said the superintendent of the lodging house, “I have never seen so many men come here with clean shirts and collars, and with neat clothes. They are men who have been working on the railroads and on the aqueduct and are now laid off for the winter.” The city lodging house has no work-test and the magistrates have largely discontinued their former tendency to commit frequent repeaters at the lodging house to the city workhouse. In the first sixteen days of 1910 the city cared for 5,841 persons at the lodging house; for the first sixteen days of 1911 the attendance was 13,197, an astounding increase of approximately 8,000 or more than 125 per cent.
Meanwhile cities all over the land are complaining of the swarms of tramps and vagrants making claims, almost with the assurance of vested rights, upon the hospitality of the towns or the individual citizens. Minneapolis has recently attracted attention through its new city lodging house, where free food, free bath and nightshirt are a part of the regulations, as well as the fumigation of the guest’s clothing during the night. The conditions under which homeless men were formerly lodged by the police in Minneapolis were so wretched that the new municipal lodging house has received a welcome from press and public.
One year’s work of the wayfarer’s lodge of the federation of charities in Toledo, O., is worth notice. During 1910, 3,896 men were taken care of, 8,465 beds being given. On an average the men stopped at the lodge two and one-half nights, 18,773 meals being given in 1910. Paid employment was found for 962 men, most of the positions being at manual labor. Seventy-three per cent of the men were American born. Over seventy per cent were in the best period of life, between twenty and forty years of age. Nearly fifty per cent of the men were common laborers. All the men were examined by medical students of Toledo University, and if in need of care were referred to a dispensary or other sources. About one man in five was found to need medical attention. Over forty per cent of the men were reported as having, or as having had, venereal disease.
A Court to “Patch Up” Quarrels.—The domestic relations court of Buffalo supervised through its probation officer in 1910 the distribution of $40,587 in non-support cases. This was the first court of this nature to be established. Recently New York and Boston have followed suit. Probation did not prove successful in every case, but the percentage of success “warrants enthusiasm,” according to the probation officer of the court. Three out of every four persons are reported benefited by the court.