“The disposition of the cases was as follows:
| Discharged | 2,648 |
| Fined $1 to $10 | 3,913 |
| Committed to the Workhouse | 1,071 |
| Placed on probation | 156 |
| Placed under Good Behavior Bond | 71 |
| Committed to N. Y. State Reformatory at Bedford | 6 |
| Committed to N. Y. Magdalen Benevolent Society | 9 |
| Committed to Protestant Episcopal House of Mercy | 3 |
| Committed to Roman Catholic House of the Good Shepherd | 12 |
| Committed to Immigration Authorities | 7 |
| Total | 7,896 |
“Of the total number, 84 per cent were almost at once returned to the streets by being discharged, fined, or placed under a good behavior bond. Fourteen per cent of the remaining 16 per cent were committed to the workhouse, and in only two per cent of the cases was some helpful measure tried—probation or a reformatory.
“The association has during 1910 developed a plan for preventive work to aid more of those girls who are in danger and to seek to understand better the conditions in the different districts tending to bring the girls into trouble. Many of this class have already been referred to the association, and it has been possible to help them by putting them in touch with helpful influences in the neighborhood, or by securing their removal from the district. For the purpose of the preventive and after-care work, the city has been divided into six districts. Some of the work in these districts is being done by volunteer workers who are not able to devote sufficient time in view of the extent and character of the work.”
NOTES FROM COLORADO
From a total of eighty persons aided in 1904 to total of 517 aided in 1910 has been the growth of the work of the Colorado Prison Association.[1] That more care is being exercised in the aid given is indicated by the facts that during 1905-6 the average expenditure per person was $24, during 1907-8 it was $18, and during 1909-10 it was $12.
In the biennial report of the president of the association, Mr. E. R. Harper, says:
“The working of convicts on the public roads has attracted the attention of the world, and fully demonstrated that it is feasible and highly beneficial to so handle the men. It would have been difficult some few years ago to believe that penitentiary convicts could be placed in camps, in the wild and rugged sections of our state, in the mountains, the most ideal situation for safe ‘get-aways,’ without a guard or gun in camp, and yet not have wholesale escapes. But penitentiary prisoners, upwards of 300 in number, have been so handled during the past three or four years, under just such conditions, with the most gratifying results—a long step, indeed, in the right direction. And this condition was brought about partly through the work and influence of this association.
“However, to make such progress in these matters as ought to be, additional
assistance is essential, mainly in the way of new laws. The most needful just now are: A law giving the trial judge the right to parole first offenders; an amendment to the present law regarding the feeding of jail prisoners, doing away with the possibility, if not the probability, of exorbitant and unnecessary expenses to the counties; a law providing for working jail prisoners on the highways, and for the work allowing them some little compensation to go toward the support of dependent ones. Measures to cover these essential matters have been introduced in the present legislature, and we earnestly hope for their enactment into law.