“The enactment of a law permitting the superintendent of prisons to market the product of the penitentiaries will be of great assistance. Staple industries could then be established and industries supplementary to those in the state prisons could be installed in the penitentiaries.
“The proposition of paying prisoners or their families a portion of the earnings is involved in the development of the industries in the penitentiaries. At present the idleness and the heavy cost of maintenance will not permit such payments, but if the earnings of prisoners were materially increased a substantial percentage might be given.”
Mr. Hall on Prison Reform.—Albert H. Hall, who has the gift of “speakin’ out in meetin’” to some purpose, outlined at the recent annual conference of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology what Minnesota has recently done, and recommended a law which has been enacted this year in his own state. He stated the provisions of that law, giving the reasons for each. All sentences, except for treason or murder in any of the degrees, shall be indeterminate: they shall be without limit of time. A board of parole is established, with the prison warden as a member ex-officio, to observe the prisoners, study them minutely, inquire into their history and watch their tendencies and their motives, and learn all about them. With this knowledge about them, the board establishes a record of marks, giving credit for merits and charge for derelictions, and on the basis of such register the board may release the prisoner on parole when it deems it expedient. The prisoners are to be provided with the rules and regulations, enabling them to score themselves, if they like, and giving them the right of a hearing before the board if they think the official score does not give them full credit.
In order that all shall be treated absolutely alike, petitions from outside persons for the release of any prisoner will not be received or acted upon. The initiative is to rest with the board, and it may modify its conditions of parole during the period the prisoner remains under its observation. The prison warden is made a member of the board because of his intimate knowledge of the prisoners.
Another feature of the proposition is that the prisoner loses his citizenship when he is sentenced, and its restoration rests with the governor, to whom the board of parole is to certify when it grants an absolute release, stating the reasons for the release.
Addressing himself to the merits of the general proposition, Mr. Hall declared that the deterrent of crime is not the punishment, but the fear of conviction. What any person respects more than anything else is his honor, and he shrinks from being branded as a criminal. The system proposed puts him on his own honor and gives him hope and ambition.
Changes at Atlanta.—Widespread newspaper attention has been given to proposed changes at the Federal prison at Atlanta. Hereafter the emphasis will be placed upon reformation instead of on punishment. The convicts will no longer be regarded as dangerous and unmanageable animals, to be subjected only to hard labor, coarse diet and various degrees of punishment, but they will be treated as men: men facing a future filled with the opportunity of reformation, and the influences of prison life will be directed towards the development of their manhood and the creation of new hope in their bosoms.
In the prosecution of this new plan a prison library will be inaugurated, a school established, concerts given by a band to be formed among the inmates and games permitted in the leisure hours. Good behaviour will be rewarded by increased opportunities for instruction and amusement; bad conduct will be punished by curtailment of privilege.