It requires the payment of the proceeds of the man’s labor where it most sorely is needed, to his deserted wife and children. Under the present law, the convicted deserter is supported in jail, while his family often become paupers.
It specifically allows any person to make the complaint and makes both husband and wife compellable witnesses in all relevant matters. Members of the family are reluctant to complain in the most flagrant cases of neglect and desertion, or else withdraw their complaint before conviction and then the desertion is repeated. If convicted upon complaint of members of his own family, the man is very apt “to take it out on them” when released.
It applies to the non-support of illegitimate as well as legitimate children.
A STATE PRISONER ON PRISON REFORM
From a state convict at Montgomery, Alabama, comes a criticism of that state’s treatment of the criminal, and a series of recommendations for improving that treatment, which read like an extract from a report of a state board of charities. The author of the article is Albert Driscoll, who is serving a four years’
sentence for safe-blowing. The article was addressed to the members of the legislature and was printed in a Montgomery newspaper. Driscoll recommends the indeterminate sentence, a prisoners’ aid society, and suppression of the names of those placed on parole. Parts of his article follow:
“There have been several sporadic attempts to have an improved parole system inaugurated in this state, but somehow or other they have never materialized in any legislation. If there is an individual or an association in Alabama today who has the moral welfare of the two thousand odd convicts really at heart and wishes to benefit them, now is the time for them to get busy during the present session of the legislature.
“The crying need of some legislation on this subject is self-apparent. This State as represented by its prison system is not abreast of the spirit of the day. The old punitive method of dealing with crime as against the reformative system is still in operation. No attention is paid to the old axiom of an ounce of prevention being better than a pound of cure, as regards those unfortunates who by environment, hereditary tendencies or pure cussedness for the criminal class. It is a large and constantly growing class and from a moral as well as a economic viewpoint it demands attention.
“The old idea of the State revenging itself on the malefactor still obtains and beyond securing as much revenue as possible from the convict during his incarceration, no attention is paid to his moral betterment except for the weekly sermon conducted by the prison chaplains. The man in stripes is regarded as a commercial asset solely. Several commutations from the capital penalty to life imprisonment have been secured in years past by being based on the argument that a life convict would be worth so many more thousand dollars than a dead one. Ye shades of Shylock! Has this rich State no other source of revenue than its convicts?
“When the pound of flesh has been exacted, he is abruptly turned loose to his own devices without a cent nor any equipment to help him to earn an honest livelihood. In every casual glance he will