In many of our states, including our own, the definite sentence still remains as a part of the criminal code, the prisoner being discharged at the end of his sentence, less good time allowed.
Many of our states, however, are adopting the indeterminate sentence with provisions that the prisoner may be released on parole. There is a great difference in the attitude of the public towards the individual released and known by society as a discharged convict and the individual released on parole.
How fortunate the person who under the indeterminate sentence has served one-third or one-half of his allotted time and by his advancement in industrial training and education and obedience to the rules of the institutions when he leaves on parole, with the management back of him stating to his employer that it believes in him and advises giving him a trial. The employer of labor will not only give such a person a position when he comes so recommended, but will take a friendly interest in the probationer and assist him to regain his lost position in society.
The recommendation handed by the prison management to a man the day he is discharged from the institution under the old law of fixed sentences bears for the critical eye the inscription of dishonor, doubt, discouragement.
The recommendation of the management given to a man released under a parole system bears the words of confidence, faithfulness and obedience to the laws and regulations of the institution. It is only natural that the person vouched for in this manner will receive consideration at the hands of the public while the person who has only the reputation of being a discharged convict and who has paid the penalty must move on.
The life of men when they come to the Home of the association at 334 St. Paul street, is made as simple and as homelike as possible. They rise at 5:30; hours for meals are:—breakfast 6, dinner 12, supper 5:30. At 10:15 the lights are out and the doors are closed. Everybody is supposed to be in at this hour.
Each guest of the Home must make his own bed and assist in cleaning up the Home before breakfast.
At 7:30 each man not employed must be ready for the position secured for him by the employment secretary.
Smoking is allowed in the reading room of the Home; no cigarette smoking, however, is allowed. No profane or obscene conversation is tolerated. No person is allowed in the Home with the odor of intoxicants on his breath or who is in an intoxicated condition. No loafing is permitted in the Home.
We have a library, with books and periodicals, where the men may read after supper and on Sundays.