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NEW SERIES No. 46
PUBLISHED ANNUALLY
BY THE
PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY
INSTITUTED MAY 8TH, 1787.
THE JOURNAL
OF
PRISON DISCIPLINE
AND
PHILANTHROPY
JANUARY, 1907
OFFICE: STATE HOUSE ROW
S. W. CORNER FIFTH AND CHESTNUT STREETS
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
CONSTITUTION OF THE PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY.
When we consider that the obligations of benevolence, which are founded
on the precepts and example of the Author of Christianity, are not
canceled by the follies or crimes of our fellow-creatures, and when
we reflect upon the miseries which penury, hunger, cold, unnecessary
severity, unwholesome apartments, and guilt (the usual attendants of
prisons) involve with them, it becomes us to extend our compassions
to that part of mankind who are the subjects of those miseries.
By the aid of humanity their undue and illegal sufferings may be
prevented; the link which should bind the whole family of mankind
together under all circumstances, be preserved unbroken; and such
degree and modes of punishment may be discovered and suggested as may,
instead of continuing habits of vice, become the means of restoring
our fellow-creatures to virtue and happiness. From a conviction of
the truth and obligations of these principles, the subscribers have
associated themselves under the title of “THE PENNSYLVANIA PRISON
SOCIETY.”
For effecting these purposes they have adopted the following
Constitution:
ARTICLE I.
The officers of the Society shall consist of a President, two
Vice-Presidents, two Secretaries, a Treasurer (who may be an undoubted
first-class Trust and Safe Deposit Company regularly chartered by the
State or National Authorities), and two Counselors.
The Committee on Membership in the “Acting Committee” shall be the
nominating committee of the Society, whose duty it shall be after
careful consideration to nominate members of the Society most suitable
in their judgment for the above named offices. The officers and the
Acting Committee shall be chosen by ballot, at the Annual Meeting of
the Society, which shall be on the fourth Thursday in the First month
(January) of each year and they shall continue in office until their
successors are elected. A majority of the whole number of votes cast
shall be necessary to the choice of any nominee for office.
In case an election for any cause shall not be held at the time above
mentioned, it shall be the duty of the President to call a Special
Meeting of the Society, within thirty days for the purpose of holding
such election, of which at least three days’ notice shall be given.
ARTICLE II.
The President shall preside in all meetings, and subscribe all public
acts of the Society. He may call special meetings whenever he may
deem it expedient, and shall do so when requested in writing by five
members. In his absence one of the Vice-Presidents may act in his place.
ARTICLE III.
The Secretaries shall keep fair records of the proceedings of the
Society, and shall conduct its correspondence.
ARTICLE IV.
The Treasurer shall pay all orders of the Society or of the Acting
Committee, signed by the presiding officer and the Secretary, and shall
present a statement of the receipts and expenditures at each stated
meeting of the Society, and an annual report at the annual meeting in
the First month (January).
All capital moneys, investments, securities and property belonging to
the Society may be placed in the care and custody of such trust company
as the Society may by resolution direct, for safe keeping and for the
collection of the income and principal thereof.
All investments and re-investments of capital money shall be made by
direction of at least three members of the Finance Committee of the
Society.
All bequests and life subscriptions which may be received shall be
safely invested, the income only thereupon to be applied to the current
expenses of the Society.
[CONTINUED ON THIRD PAGE OF COVER.]
[Illustration: JOSHUA L. BAILY.
President Pennsylvania Prison Society, 1907.
See page 15.]
NEW SERIES No. 46.
THE JOURNAL
OF
PRISON DISCIPLINE
AND
PHILANTHROPY
PUBLISHED ANNUALLY
UNDER THE DIRECTION OF “THE PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY”
INSTITUTED MAY 8th, 1787
JANUARY, 1907
OFFICE: STATE HOUSE ROW
S. W. CORNER FIFTH AND CHESTNUT STREETS
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
The
PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY
(FORMERLY CALLED THE PHILADELPHIA SOCIETY FOR ALLEVIATING THE
MISERIES OF PUBLIC PRISONS.)
Place of Meeting, State House Row, Philadelphia.
S. W. Cor. Fifth and Chestnut Sts.
The 120th Annual Meeting of “THE PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY”
was held on the afternoon of the First month (January), 24th, 1907,
with SAMUEL BIDDLE as Chairman, and GEO. S. WETHERELL
as Secretary. The Minutes of the 119th Annual meeting were read and
approved, after which the Treasurer presented his report.
Memorials on the death of the President, GEO. W. HALL, and
the First Vice-President, the REV. JAMES ROBERTS, D. D., were
submitted and ordered spread on the Minutes.
The officers and the members of the Acting Committee for 1907 were
elected (See next page).
Article IV of the Constitution as amended was adopted.
The Editorial Committee was directed to print 7,500 copies of the
JOURNAL, and to make such alterations and additions as might
be necessary.
JOHN J. LYTLE, _Gen. Secretary_.
Editorial Committee for 1907: REV. R. HEBER BARNES,
Chairman; REV. J. F. OHL, DEBORAH C. LEEDS,
JOSEPH C. NOBLIT, DR. WILLIAM C. STORKES.
Persons receiving the Journal are invited to correspond with, and
send any publications on Prison and Prison Discipline, and articles
for the Journal to the Chairman of the Editorial Board, 600 North
Thirty-second Street, Philadelphia, Pa., or S. W. Cor. Fifth and
Chestnut Streets.
The National Prison Congress of the U. S. for the past eight years
designated the fourth Sunday in October annually as Prison Sunday.
To aid the movement for reformation, some speakers may be supplied
from this Society. Apply to the chairman of that Committee.
👉 JOHN J. LYTLE, S. W. Cor. Fifth and Chestnut Streets,
Philadelphia, is the General Secretary of the Society, giving
especial attention to the Eastern Penitentiary.
👉 FREDERICK J. POOLEY is Agent for the County Prison,
appointed by the Prison Society. Address mail to 500 Chestnut
Street, Office of Pennsylvania Prison Society.
OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY FOR 1907.
PRESIDENT
JOSHUA L. BAILY
VICE-PRESIDENTS
REV. HERMAN L. DUHRING, D. D. REV. F. H. SENFT
TREASURER
JOHN WAY
SECRETARIES
JOHN J. LYTLE FREDERICK J. POOLEY
COUNSELORS
HON. WM. N. ASHMAN HENRY S. CATTELL
MEMBERS OF THE ACTING COMMITTEE
P. H. Spelissy, Miss C. V. Hodges, A. J. Wright,
John H. Dillingham, Rebecca P. Latimer, Charles H. LeFevre,
Dr. Emily J. Ingram, Rev. Floyd W. Tomkins, Mrs. E. M. Stillwell,
William Scattergood, Samuel L. Whitson, Solomon G. Engle,
Mrs. P. W. Lawrence, Harry Kennedy, Richard H. Lytle,
Mary S. Whelen, Layyah Barakat, Charles P. Hastings,
Isaac Slack, Rev. J. F. Ohl, Rev. C. Rowland Hill,
William Koelle, William E. Tatum Isaac P. Miller
Rev. R. Heber Barnes, Mary S. Wetherell, Elias H. White,
Dr. William C. Stokes, George S. Wetherell, John Smallzell,
William T. W. Jester, Henry C. Cassel, Jacob Hoffman,
Mrs. Horace Fassett, Albert Oetinger, John D. Hampton,
William F. Overman, Rev. Philip Lamerdin, Charles McDole,
Deborah C. Leeds, David Sulzberger, Jonas G. Clemmer,
J. Albert Koons, Mrs. E. W. Gormley, Susanna W. Lippincott,
George R. Meloney, Frank H. Longshore, John A. Duncan.
Joseph C. Noblit, Rev. H. E. Meyer,
_Visiting Committee for the Eastern State Penitentiary_:
John J. Lytle, Harry Kennedy, Rev. Solomon G. Engle,
P. H. Spellissy, Layyah Barakat, Charles P. Hastings,
John H. Dillingham, Rev. J. F. Ohl, Rev. F. H. Senft,
Isaac Slack, William E. Tatum, Rev. C. Rowland Hill,
Rev. R. Heber Barnes, Mary S. Wetherell, Isaac P. Miller,
Dr. William C. Stokes, George S. Wetherell, Elias H. White,
William T. W. Jester, Albert Oetinger, John Smallzell,
Deborah C. Leeds, Henry C. Cassel, Jacob Hoffman,
Mrs. Horace Fassett, Rev. Philip Lamerdin, John D. Hampton,
George R. Meloney, David Sulzberger, Susanna W. Lippincott,
Joseph C. Noblit, Frank H. Longshore, Charles McDole,
Rebecca P. Latimer, Rev. H. E. Meyer, Jonas G. Clemmer.
Samuel L. Whitson, Charles H. LeFevre,
_Visiting Committee for the Philadelphia County Prison_:
F. J. Pooley, Mrs. E. M. Stillwell, George S. Wetherell,
Deborah C. Leeds, William T. W. Jester, Layyah Barakat,
Miss C. V. Hodges Mrs. P. W. Lawrence, John A. Duncan,
David Sulzberger, Mrs. Horace Fassett, Susanna W. Lippincott.
Rev. H. E. Meyer, Mary S. Wetherell,
_For the Holmesburg Prison_:
F. A. Pooley, Isaac Slack, David Sulzberger.
Layyah Barakat,
_For the Chester County Prison_:
William Scattergood, Deborah C. Leeds,
_For the Delaware County Prison_:
Deborah C. Leeds.
_For the Western Penitentiary and Allegheny County Prison_:
Mrs. E. W. Gormley.
_For the Counties of the State at Large_:
Mrs. E. W. Gormley, Deborah C. Leeds, Frederick J. Pooley,
Layyah Barakat.
_For the House of Correction_:
F. J. Pooley, Layyah Barakat, Isaac Slack.
Deborah C. Leeds, David Sulzberger,
STANDING COMMITTEES FOR 1907.
_On Library_:
Rev. J. F. Ohl, Rev. R. Heber Barnes, F. J. Pooley.
_On Accounts_:
Charles P. Hastings, Albert Oetinger, John Smallzell.
_Editorial Committee_:
Rev. R. Heber Barnes, Deborah C. Leeds, Dr. William C. Stokes.
Rev. J. F. Ohl, Joseph C. Noblit,
_On Membership in the Acting Committee_:
Dr. William C. Stokes, Albert Oetinger, Charles P. Hastings.
George S. Wetherell, Elias H. White,
_On Finance_:
George S. Wetherell, David Sulzberger, William Scattergood,
A. J. Wright.
_On Employment of Discharged Prisoners_:
Isaac Slack, John D. Hampton, Mrs. Horace Fassett,
Albert Oetinger, Rev. H. L. Duhring, D. D., John A. Duncan,
William Koelle, Frederick J. Pooley, Mrs. P. W. Lawrence.
Henry C. Cassel,
_Auditing Committee_:
Joseph C. Noblit, John H. Dillingham.
_On Police Matrons in Station Houses_:
Mrs. P. W. Lawrence, Dr. Emily J. Ingram, Mary S. Wetherell.
_On Prison Sunday_:
Rev. R. Heber Barnes, Rev. J. F. Ohl, Rev. F. H. Senft.
Rev. H. L. Duhring, D. D., Rev. Philip Lamerdin,
_On Legislation_:
Rev. J. F. Ohl, Joseph Noblit, William Scattergood.
Rev. H. C. Meyer, Rev. R. Heber Barnes,
[Illustration: THE PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY.
Exterior of Office, S. W. Cor. Fifth and Chestnut Streets.]
JOURNAL OF PRISON DISCIPLINE
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTIETH YEAR
1787 OF 1907
THE PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY
ANNUAL REPORT OF JOHN J. LYTLE, GENERAL SECRETARY
In submitting this, my Seventeenth Annual Report, it is with renewed
feelings of devout thankfulness to my Heavenly Father that He has
spared my life through another year, and given me the health and
strength to perform a service so near and dear to my heart.
In one respect the work of the Pennsylvania Prison Society is unique.
Besides the General Secretary, whose labors are confined chiefly to the
Eastern Penitentiary, and the Agent for the County Prison, the Society
has an “Acting Committee” of fifty members, who by two legislative
enactments have the rights of official visitors. The first of these
acts became operative in 1829. This was supplemented by the act
approved March 20, 1903, which is as follows:
AN ACT
To make active or visiting committees, of societies incorporated
for the purpose of visiting and instructing prisoners, official
visitors of penal and reformatory institutions.
SECTION I. Be it enacted, etc., That the active or visiting
committee of any society heretofore incorporated and now existing
in this Commonwealth for the purpose of visiting and instructing
prisoners, or persons confined in any penal or reformatory institution,
and alleviating their miseries, shall be and are hereby made official
visitors of any jail, penitentiary, or other penal or reformatory
institution in this Commonwealth, maintained at the public expense,
with the same powers, privileges, and functions as are vested in the
official visitors of prisons and penitentiaries, as now prescribed by
law: Provided, That no active or visiting committee of any such society
shall be entitled to visit such jails or penal institutions, under this
act, unless notice of the names of the members of such committee, and
the terms of their appointment, is given by such society, in writing,
under its corporate seal, to the warden, superintendent or other
officer in charge of such jail, or other officer in charge of any such
jail or other penal institution.
Approved--The 20th day of March, A. D. 1903.
SAML. W. PENNYPACKER.
The foregoing is a true and correct copy of the Act of the General
Assembly No. 48.
FRANK M. FULLER,
_Secretary of the Commonwealth_.
THE EASTERN PENITENTIARY
Under the rights thus conferred those members of the Acting Committee
of the Pennsylvania Prison Society assigned to the Eastern Penitentiary
visit prisoners in their cells. It is found that this personal work of
Christian men and women is productive of good results. In the privacy
of the cell hearts and lives are laid open, impressions are made,
resolutions are formed, and changes are brought about that under a
less personal and individual system of treatment would be well-nigh
impossible. The corridor for female prisoners is in charge of a matron,
and is regularly visited by women members of the Acting Committee.
During the past year I made over three hundred visits to the
Penitentiary; and have had more than three thousand personal interviews
with men. Those who need it receive a complete outfit of new clothing
on their discharge. But looking after the physical well-being of a
man when he leaves I regard as the least important of my duties. I
ascertain what his past has been, what his prospects are for the
future, and in what way he can be aided in carrying out the good
resolutions he may have formed. Thus with good advice and helpful
service the man is again given an opportunity to rehabilitate himself.
Besides caring for those just discharged, the General Secretary and
the Agent of the County Prison also extend aid to men who have been
released for some time, but who have failed to secure employment. This
is done at the relief station maintained near the Penitentiary, which
is open every morning. Here men who are found to be really deserving
are supplied with meal tickets, lodging-room rent, and goods to sell.
The total amount expended during the past year from the Fund for
Discharged Prisoners was $3,795.56. Tools were given to men to the
amount of $69.16.
As heretofore, Divine services were held in the different corridors
each First Day morning under the direction of the Moral Instructor, the
Rev. Joseph Welsh. The speakers were supplied by the Local Preachers’
Association of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Protestant Episcopal
City Mission, and the Lutheran City Mission.
The Sunday Song Services at 4 P. M. by choirs from different
churches, arranged for by the Rev. H. L. Duhring, D. D., Superintendent
of the Protestant Episcopal City Mission, were continued during the
year.
I am greatly indebted to all the officers and overseers of the
Penitentiary for their uniform courtesy and their valuable assistance
in the prosecution of my work. Charles C. Church has proved himself
to be an able and efficient warden, to whose administrative ability
and genial manner the discipline and good order of the institution are
chiefly due.
From the Annual Report of the Penitentiary I gather the following
statistics:
POPULATION
White Colored Total
Males Females Males Females
Remaining from 1905 859 13 257 13 1,142
Committed during 1906 303 8 111 9 431
----- -- --- -- -----
Total population 1,162 21 368 22 1,573
Discharged during 1906 336 6 96 5 443
----- -- --- -- -----
Remaining at the close of 1906 826 15 272 17 1,130
THE DISCHARGES WERE AS FOLLOWS:
By Commutation Law 406
“ Order of Court 7
“ Department of Justice 8
“ Order of Huntingdon Reformatory 4
“ Pardon 3
“ Suicide 1
Died 14
----
Total 443
Average daily population, 1906 1,144
Largest number in confinement during year 1,175
Smallest number in confinement during year 1,103
TABLES RELATING TO THE 431 CONVICTS RECEIVED DURING 1906.
(1) SCHOOL
No. of Convicts.
Attended public school 348
“ private school 8
“ public and private school 6
Never went to school 69
---
Total 431
(2) EDUCATION
Read and write 312
“ “ “ imperfectly 56
Illiterate 63
---
Total 431
(3) TRADES
Number having trades 159
“ “ no trades 272
---
Total 431
Number idle at time of arrest 116
(4) AGE OF CONVICTS
Age White Colored Total
From 15 to 20 years 31 14 45
“ 21 “ 25 “ 74 34 108
“ 26 “ 30 “ 61 36 97
“ 31 “ 35 “ 53 14 67
“ 36 “ 40 “ 31 7 38
“ 41 “ 45 “ 26 6 32
“ 46 “ 50 “ 15 3 18
“ 51 “ 55 “ 11 2 13
“ 56 “ 60 “ 5 1 6
“ 61 “ 65 “ 2 1 3
“ 66 “ 70 “ 2 1 3
Above 70 years 1 1
--- --- ---
Total 311 120 431
(5) CONVICTIONS
First Conviction 268
Second “ 1st time here 63
“ “ 2d “ “ 31
Third “ 1st “ “ 16
“ “ 2d “ “ 11
“ “ 3d “ “ 8
Fourth “ 1st “ “ 8
“ “ 2d “ “ 4
“ “ 3d “ “ 1
“ “ 4th “ “ 1
Fifth “ 1st “ “ 2
“ “ 2d “ “ 2
“ “ 3d “ “ 1
“ “ 4th “ “ 2
“ “ 5th “ “ 1
Sixth “ 2d “ “ 3
“ “ 3d “ “ 2
Seventh “ 2d “ “ 2
“ “ 6th “ “ 2
Eighth “ 5th “ “ 1
Eleventh “ 3d “ “ 1
Fifteenth “ 7th “ “ 1
---
Total 431
PARENTAL RELATIONS AT 16 YEARS
Parents living 295
Mother “ 65
Father “ 38
Parents dead 33
---
Total 431
CONJUGAL RELATIONS
Single 254
Married 152
Widowed 25
---
Total 431
NUMBER HAVING CHILDREN
Number having children 112
Number of children 301
NATIVITY
Born in the United States 346
Foreign born 85
---
Total 431
Of the foreign born, naturalized 31
Of the foreign born, Not naturalized 54
--
Total 85
RECEPTIONS CLASSIFIED AS TO DISTRICTS
Received from Manufacturing Districts 161
“ “ Mining Districts 70
“ “ Agricultural Districts 200
---
Total 431
The following figures were gathered by the Moral Instructor, the Rev.
Joseph Welsh, in his interviews with the prisoners admitted during the
year:
Total number received during the year 431
Number who attended Sunday School 286
“ “ “ Church 232
“ “ were members of Church 157
“ “ “ abstainers from use of liquor 63
“ “ “ moderate users of liquor 159
“ “ “ intemperate users of liquor 170
“ “ “ users of tobacco 356
“ “ gambled with cards 29
“ “ “ on horse races 11
“ “ visited immoral women 158
“ “ kept mistresses 2
THE PHILADELPHIA COUNTY PRISON
This Prison still keeps up its record as a well managed institution.
Unfortunately, the Convict Department at Holmesburg is somewhat
overcrowded, and it is to be regretted that funds have not yet been
provided by the City Councils for additional corridors, so that each
man could be separately confined as the law provides. It is admitted by
the advocates both of the separate and of the congregate system, that
those awaiting trial should be strictly separated. To place a first,
and especially a young offender, with a hardened criminal, simply means
the production of another criminal, and places the State itself in the
position of committing a wrong against one of its own citizens.
Frederick J. Pooley, one of the Secretaries of the Society and Agent
at the County Prison, is more untiring than ever in his efforts for
the betterment of those incarcerated in Moyamensing, at Tenth and
Reed Streets, and in the New County Jail (Convict Department), at
Holmesburg. He visits both institutions during five days in the week,
seeks to aid men temporally and morally, is instrumental in having
cases brought to speedy trial, and in some cases even looks after the
destitute families of prisoners. At Moyamensing, women members of the
Acting Committee also visit in the Women’s Department.
During the year 1906 there were received at the County Prison, Tenth
and Reed Streets:
White males 17,085
“ females 2,180
Black males 3,106
“ females 1,005
Total committed, 1906 23,376
“ discharged, 1906 23,452
After trial many were sent to Holmesburg.
THE ASSOCIATED COMMITTEE OF WOMEN ON POLICE MATRONS
The Associated Committee of Women on Police Matrons in Station Houses
meets monthly with three representatives from each of a number of
the charitable associations of Philadelphia. On this Committee, the
Pennsylvania Prison Society is represented by Mrs. P. W. Lawrence, Dr.
Emily J. Ingram and Mary S. Wetherell. The following is the report of
the Committee for the past year:
The Committee on Police Matrons held ten regular and one special
meeting during the year ending December 31, 1906.
The membership of this Committee is now twenty-one women who represent
seven societies, namely, the Pennsylvania Prison Society, Women’s
Christian Temperance Union, Civic Club, New Century Club, Young Women’s
Christian Association, Christian League, and Mothers’ Club. The usual
attendance is from eight to twelve members. Reports are received from
all the Matrons at each meeting. There are twenty-two. The fourteenth
district (Germantown) was supplied with a Matron in March, 1906. The
effort is made that each Matron shall receive at least one visit a
month. The meeting of the Conference of Charities in Philadelphia in
May last brought us unusual interest in the work of Police Matrons
elsewhere, and we formed a permanent committee to secure knowledge of
it in other cities, and comparison of methods with them. At several
meetings of this year, four Matrons at a time were invited to meet with
the Committee, and offer suggestions and state experiences requiring
help and study. The Needle Work Guild coöperates with the Committee
for supplying clothing to the Matrons for their use with needy women
and children under their care. Mrs. Fletcher, our Senior Matron,
completed her twentieth year of service, and was given a reception by
the Committee, at which the Directors and other officials were present.
In this time she has had 9,000 women and 2,900 children under her care.
The Director of Public Safety, Robert McKenty, has been especially
interested in an effort to give personal help to erring women and
girls, and extends every facility for our communication with such,
by directing the Lieutenants to coöperate with our efforts to redeem
them from disgrace and despair. The numbers given in our reports are,
of course, from twenty-two districts only. There are fourteen others
without Matrons, where many women and children are received. We have
been assured that a Matron will be appointed in West Philadelphia very
soon, and there is also a prospect of more effective systematic work in
coöperation and supervision of this branch of police administration.
STATISTICS
(Except as to totals and conditions when received, statistics cannot be
made absolutely accurate, especially as to “Nationality and Disposal.”)
_Women under care from January, 1906, to January, 1907_ 9,295
Arrested 7,475
Lost or seeking shelter 379
Mothers 2,898
Intoxicated 3,679
White 6,502
Colored 2,288
_Disposals._
Discharged with and without fines 2,074
Sent to Reformatories 672
House of Correction 923
County Prison 2,255
Americans 5,320
Foreigners 2,934
_Children under care from January, 1906, to January, 1907_ 6,839
Arrested 3,417
Lost or ran away 2,846
White 5,497
Colored 651
Brought with parents 468
_Disposals._
Sent home 4,695
S. P. C. C. and Aid Society 387
Charities and Reformatories 449
House of Detention and Juvenile Court 572
Respectfully submitted,
MRS. P. W. LAWRENCE.
CHESTER COUNTY PRISON
William Scattergood, President of the Board of Inspectors, makes
weekly visits to this prison, and reports it in good condition. It is
considered a model prison. Deborah C. Leeds, a member of the Acting
Committee, has also visited it during the year.
COUNTY PRISON AT MEDIA
Deborah C. Leeds has visited this prison several times during the year,
and reports it a well conducted institution.
ALLEGHENY COUNTY
Mrs. E. W. Gormley, Superintendent of the Prison and Jail Department
of the W. C. T. U., is also a member of the Acting Committee of the
Pennsylvania Prison Society, and as such an official visitor to the
penitentiaries, county jails and reformatories of the Commonwealth. We
are highly favored in having a member who is doing efficient work in
the western part of the State.
DOOR OF BLESSING
This institution for discharged female prisoners was established and
is under the supervision of Mrs. Horace Fassett, who is an official
visitor at the Eastern Penitentiary and the County Prison. She writes:
“The Door of Blessing goes steadily on in its good work under its noble
matron, Gertrude Brown. Since January, 1906, fifty women and four
babies were sent there from our County Prison, the House of Correction,
and the Eastern Penitentiary. All of these were placed in situations
in the country, mostly on farms. Some have returned to go to better
positions, some have remained, and very few have gone back to their old
life. The Door of Blessing is a home for these dear children in every
sense of the word--a haven of rest and peace. All love it and look
forward to their afternoons out, that they may go there and have supper
with the matron and tell her of their joys and sorrows, to which she
listens with loving sympathy. Six women were sent to their homes, their
families being willing to receive them after a short stay at the Door
of Blessing.”
HOME OF INDUSTRY
This institution extends help to men discharged from the Eastern
Penitentiary and the County Prison. It provides board and shelter for
these, gives them employment in broom-making, for which they receive
compensation, and seeks to bring all who enter it under the saving
power of the Gospel. The efficient Superintendent is Frank H. Starr,
who makes every effort to place men in situations when they leave the
Home.
GALILEE MISSION
This is under the care of the Protestant Episcopal Church. A large
number of men from the Penitentiary and County Prison have been sent
there for meals and lodgings, sometimes only for a few days, and at
other times for a week or two until they could obtain work.
HOPE HALL, NEW YORK. UNDER THE CARE OF MRS. BALLINGTON BOOTH
During the year a number of men have been sent to this place from the
Eastern Penitentiary. Mrs. Booth always receives such with a warm
welcome, and often obtains good situations for them.
PRISON SUNDAY
In the early part of October, 1906, the Committee on Prison Sunday sent
out a circular letter, urging the observance of October 21st as Prison
Sunday, to thirty-three hundred ministers of the Methodist Episcopal,
the Presbyterian, the Baptist, the Lutheran, the Protestant Episcopal,
and the Reformed Churches in Pennsylvania, and to six hundred daily and
weekly newspapers.
FROM THE MINUTES
MEMORIALS OF DECEASED MEMBERS
GEORGE W. HALL
George W. Hall, former member of the State Legislature and of City
Councils, a well-known financier, and President of the Pennsylvania
Prison Society, passed away on December 14, 1906, in the 77th year
of his age. He was a member of the Franklin Institute, a director
of the School of Design for Women, a director of the Home for
Feeble Minded Children at Elwyn, a member of the St. Andrew’s
Society, a trustee of the Second Presbyterian Church, and an
inspector of the Philadelphia County Prison.
It seems proper that there should be a minute of record of one who
for years has been an active member, besides being a life member
of the Society. He spent much time in looking after the welfare of
the prisoners at the County Prison, Tenth and Reed Streets, and at
Holmesburg, where he will be greatly missed.
May this minute be recorded and a copy sent to the surviving
members of his family.
REV. JAMES ROBERTS, D. D.
Rev. James Roberts, D. D., was born at Montrose, Scotland, December
25, 1839.
He came to this country with his parents at an early age, and was
graduated from the Princeton Theological Seminary in 1868. His
first charge was at Coatesville, Pa., where he remained until 1885,
when he took charge of the Church at Darby, Pa. After remaining
there ten years he accepted a call to Lambertville, N. J. On
leaving this charge he became Superintendent of the Mercer Home for
Aged and Retired Ministers, which position he filled until called
suddenly from earth on September 27, 1906. His genial, affectionate
ways widened the circle of his friends, who were found among
all classes. It is with sincere sorrow that our Society records
the departure of another of its most honored members and Second
Vice-President.
Resolved, That this minute be entered on our records and a copy
thereof with our sympathies be sent to the bereaved family.
[Illustration: THE PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY.]
I close my report with the earnest wish that the Pennsylvania Prison
Society may constantly widen its scope of operations and grow in
efficiency and usefulness as it grows in years.
The work I have performed during not only the last, but for many
years, has been very dear to my heart, and I have felt that I have
had an especial call to the service. Conscious, however, of my need
continually of Divine guidance in all that I have done in His name, I
have earnestly sought for that wisdom which will enable me to do all
for Him.
With sincere desire that I may be a humble instrument in His hands in
winning souls unto Christ, this report is respectfully submitted.
JOHN J. LYTLE,
_General Secretary_.
* * * * *
Joshua L. Baily was elected President of The Pennsylvania Prison
Society at the annual meeting, January, 1907. His membership in the
Society dates from 1851 and he is the oldest member now living. For a
number of years he was a member of the Acting Committee and a regular
visitor of the Eastern Penitentiary. His great interest in prison
discipline induced him, some years ago, to visit voluntarily all the
penitentiaries in the Atlantic States, as well as some of those in the
States of the Central West, and he visited also many of the County
Prisons in Pennsylvania and other States. His interest in correctional
institutions was further shown by ten years’ service on the Board of
Managers of the House of Refuge.
Mr. Baily has been no less actively interested in charitable
institutions, having been for more than fifty years a manager of The
Philadelphia Society for the Employment and Instruction of the Poor, of
which he is now President. He was one of the founders, and for eighteen
years the President of The Philadelphia Society for Organizing Charity.
He is also a member and manager of a number of other benevolent
societies, so that by reason of long experience, in both correctional
and charitable service, Mr. Baily comes to the Presidency of the Prison
Society well equipped for the duties devolving upon him. Although still
engaged in mercantile business, Mr. Baily gives a large portion of his
time, as well as his means, to benevolent purposes, and devotes thereto
a degree of vigor, both mental and physical, quite unusual in one of
his advanced years.
THE NATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS
ALBANY, NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER, 15-20, 1906.
The National Prison Association met in its annual Congress, in the
Senate Chamber of the State Capitol, at Albany, N. Y., on the evening
of September 15, 1906. The meeting was called to order by the Chairman
of the Local Committee, Mr. James F. McElroy, and prayer was offered by
the Rev. W. F. Wittaker, D. D., pastor of the First Presbyterian Church.
The Hon. Julius E. Mayer, Attorney-General, represented the Governor in
the address of welcome in behalf of the State, and the Mayor of Albany,
the Hon. Charles H. Gans, spoke for the city. The Rev. Dr. Frederick
Howard Wines made the response, in which he dwelt in reminiscent vein
on some of his experiences since the first meeting of the Association,
and spoke especially of the leading men who were connected with it
during its early history. Dr. Wines advocated three reforms: 1, the
abolition of the “sweating” or “third-degree” system, which he called
an outrage on the rights of prisoners; 2, the reorganization of the
jury system, so that juries could no longer be selected by the “Gang”
for the express purpose of defeating justice; and 3, the dismissing of
small misdemeanants on their own recognizance, instead of crowding the
jails with these.
Dr. Wines then introduced the President of the Association, the Hon.
Cornelius V. Collins, Superintendent of Prisons of New York State.
PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS
Mr. Collins, after alluding briefly to the purposes and work of
the Association, rehearsed the part his own State had taken in the
development of plans for the scientific treatment of criminals. Having
traced the successive steps in prison reform, in which he showed that
New York State had taken the lead, he said:
“Public sentiment has always called for the education and training of
the young. How much more important and of what inestimable value is the
saving of the adult. Situated as we are here, at the gateway of the
republic, we admit at Ellis Island more than a million new people each
year. Vital statistics in New York City gave 59,000 births last year,
only 11,000 of which were of American parentage. Austria, Russia and
Italy each sent us 200,000 immigrants last year. What is more natural
than that many of them, wholly unacquainted with our country, our
language and our laws, should in their first effort at living in the
land of liberty run counter to our laws and find their way to prison.
Surely they do come, and the number is constantly increasing. There
are now 12,000 convicts in the prisons of this State, made up largely
from this cosmopolitan army of ignorance and superstition. This is
the problem we have to solve in New York State, and while it is no
doubt a fact that our State will always have more than others, it is
nevertheless true that every State in the Union will have this class of
prisoners to deal with in increasing numbers as time goes on.”
Superintendent Collins detailed the good that followed the separation
and classification of prison inmates into groups or grades and the
training of the mental faculties through the plan of education in vogue
in New York State prisons. The labor and industrial training provided
in connection with mental training was spoken of and a plea was made
for the indeterminate sentence. In conclusion Superintendent Collins
made a timely argument in favor of a reform in county jails. In this
connection he said:
“We who are familiar with the facts know that many convicts are
received at the prisons who are morally poisoned and contaminated while
awaiting trial in the jails by the intimate association with confirmed
and degraded criminals which is permitted in these institutions.
This is especially true of the younger class of offenders, who come
to the jail having respect for authority and dread of confinement.
At no period of their penal term are they so susceptible to external
influences. If at this period a practical reformatory influence is
exerted upon them, their correction can in most cases be accomplished,
but if they are left in idleness and subject to the evil influences of
degraded companions their respect for law is soon destroyed, and they
become hardened and defiant and accept the theories and ambitions of
the confirmed criminals as their own. Thus the man who enters jail in
such condition that proper treatment would readily turn him from his
criminal course often reaches the prison a most discouraging subject
for its reformatory system.
“For the interest of society, as well as the protection of young
offenders, the jail system should be corrected. The jail buildings are
improved and the prisoners are better fed than they were fifty years
ago; otherwise the system remains practically the same. Its conspicuous
defects still exist. No chain is stronger than its weakest link;
the extensive schemes of penal administration in the several States
have their fatally weak part in their jails. Genuine and effective
organization in the United States for the salvation of criminals and
alleged criminals must take heed of these facts, which are notorious.
“May I now suggest that a committee, to be called, if you please, the
Committee on Plan and Scope, be appointed at this session of the Prison
Congress to consider the following recommendations:
“First. A rational and uniform system of jail administration.
“Second. A uniform system of education for prison officers.
“Third. A uniform system of education for convicts.
“Fourth. So far as possible, a uniform system of prison discipline.
“Fifth. A uniform system of classification.
“Sixth. A uniform system of parole, and a careful consideration of all
other matters that in their judgment would tend to make further reforms
in the treatment of the criminal classes.
“This committee to make a report of their conclusions at the session of
1907.”
The Congress, deeply impressed by Mr. Collins’ recommendations,
subsequently appointed a strong committee to report at the next meeting
on the jail system in the United States.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 16TH
MORNING
The Conference Sermon was preached by the Rt. Rev. William Crosswell
Doane, D. D., LL. D., Bishop of the Diocese of Albany, in the Cathedral
of All Saints, where the delegates attended in a body. The Bishop’s
text was Matt. 25:36, “I was in prison and ye came unto me.” He said
in part: “Almost by an instinctive impulse these words come first to
the mind of the preacher at such a service, and by a striking and happy
coincidence this service falls upon the Sunday when our Book of Common
Prayer appoints for the second morning lesson the chapter which ends
with this intense expression of our Lord, containing, I think, the seed
principle upon which the noble work of this Association was founded
and has been carried on. Last year the preacher took the earthly
ministry of our dear divine Lord as the pattern of this work, ‘Who went
about doing good.’
“I am only supplementing and carrying along the line of his thought
when I ask you to think of the divine Master as giving not the pattern
only, but the principle of your work. There is no contradiction in the
double presentation of our Lord’s personality along this as along so
many other lines. He is so essentially by His incarnation in our human
nature that we bring Him to those to whom we minister in His name and
find Him in those to whom we bring Him. And in either of these sides
the truth is set forth and enforced that the object of all Christian
service, whether it be the work of Christianity in religious teaching,
or the work of Christianity in the administration of civic affairs, is
not the violent denunciation or vindictive infliction of punishment
upon a sinner, but the offer of help and the opportunity of reform.
The Prison Reform Association may well claim that it describes and
expresses in its name the purpose for which in Christian lands prisons
exist. ‘He came not to condemn the world, but to save it.’ ‘The Son of
Man has come to seek and save the lost.’
“Curiously enough, whatever technical differences may lie in the use of
the various words prison and gaol and reformatory, there is one that
stands out as having in its root meaning the very thought of that on
which we are dwelling, because the penitentiary is certainly the place
where men are led and drawn, through real penitence, to seek and find
pardon and peace.
“I am not losing sight of the purpose of imprisonment both to stamp
crime as crime and to protect society from the criminal. I am only
advocating the thought of reform for which this Association stands. If
a man is a murderer condemned to die, then there is the overwhelming
duty and responsibility of bringing him to repentance, that he may die
forgiven. If he is serving a sentence indeterminate or for a fixed
time, then surely the influence and effort of prison discipline must
be not to harden him into sullen hatred of law and of all that the
law stands for, not in a harbored purpose to revenge himself in some
way, when once he is free, upon the society which has condemned him;
but to waken in him such a sense of shame as shall force him back
to the possibility of self-respect, and bring him to that point of
realized wrong by means of which he shall ‘come to himself.’ That is
the Master’s own description of the prodigal son. Far as he had strayed
from his father’s house, he had strayed farther from his real self, the
self of his innocent childhood, the self of his home and surroundings,
the self of his true nature, and it was when the true man wakened in
him that, coming first to himself, he came next to his father’s house.
“In this recognition of the criminal’s sin there must be enforced
the discipline of penalty, and of penalty as punishment, but it must
be carefully dealt with, so as in no sense to convey the thought of
retribution or of vindictive retaliation. The strides of progress which
have been made in the last century and a half under the methods of such
real reformers as Howard and Wines (whom, as a boy, I remember very
well), and Elizabeth Fry and Dorothy Dix, have, among other things, set
the stamp of this idea in the fact that capital punishment, which used
to be inflicted for many crimes, is reserved to the one for which it
was divinely ordered, and from which, I trust, it will never be taken
away, namely, the sin of shedding another’s blood. Meanwhile, more and
more, in the selection of wardens, in the appointment of chaplains,
in the abolition of the fearful cruelties of physical torture, in the
decent sanitation of prisons, we have grown more and more to realize
that the condemned criminal is to be treated as a man who needs
protection, systematic discipline, the training of the prison, to
protect him from himself, to put into him the purpose and set before
him the possibility of a better life, rather than to humiliate and
crush him into desperation and despair. It is quite true that no amount
of legislation and no method of enforcing laws can make a man moral,
but it is also true that the law which defines and punishes sin deters
men from the commission of crime, and when the criminal is condemned
and sentenced and his punishment begins, only the power of religion can
reach him to convince him of his sin, to convert him from his habits,
to reach the motives of his life, to change the tendency of his will,
to form in him new habits, to give him the spiritual help by which his
conscience may be enlightened and his character changed.
“And there are certain human, natural, physical reasons for the right
attitude to the convicted criminal which more than warrant us in
assuming it as the groundwork and motive of our dealings with him. It
is told, I think of an English bishop, seeing a criminal drawn in a
tumbril to execution on Ludgate Hill, in London, that he said, ‘There
go I but for grace.’ Somehow I know it is true that now and then
men whose lives have been surrounded from childhood up to the very
moment of their fall with the best influences, suddenly lapse into
great sin. We have instances in the last year which have startled and
staggered communities, men in places of trust who have betrayed it,
and have either been flung down from the position of confidence and
honor or fallen themselves, and found in flight or in suicide the fatal
termination of what has seemed to be a career of honorable service.
I am bound to say a word even for these. I believe the vindictive
personalities which have assailed some of these men are in some cases
absolutely unjust.
“There ought to be, thank God, there is, more and more in the great
movements in our cities, a strong, set effort of prevention, which is
far better than cure. The prisons will be emptier when we have reached
the root and reason of crime. If we can control the use of liquor and
stop at least its excess; if we can stamp out the curse of drunkenness;
if we can more and more arrest the degradation of our slums; if we can
train up a race of children in surroundings of physical healthfulness,
of moral decency and dignity; and still better, if we can instil into
them from earliest childhood the principles and pattern of Jesus
Christ, we shall have begun, at the right end, the restoration and the
reformation of humanity. Meanwhile, until all these movements have
ripened into some result, it becomes us to remember from what sources
and in what surroundings the grown-up criminal has come; to realize
how far we, by our neglect and indifference, have been responsible for
them; and to reach out the helping hand of deep sympathy and pity in
the effort to reclaim, to restore and to reform.
“The great revealed truth of universal redemption is full of grace and
help. Still more, the truth of individual indwelling of the Christ in
us, the hope of glory. It is true that in a way this is a doctrine, a
dogma, as people say who think of a dogma as a tyrannical imposition
upon their intellectual liberty; but it is truer still that, like many
another thing which we call dogma, it is a fact on which depends not
merely our holding right faith in Jesus Christ as the God-man, but on
which also depend the method and the hope and the value of our dealing
with humanity at large or with the individual man. It has in it besides
the very highest human hope possible for you and me, that in the great
day of eternal decision there shall be for us who have recognized
Jesus in those to whom we ministered here the full revelation and
manifestation of His glorious God-head, with the word of ‘well done’
and welcome into ‘the kingdom prepared for us from the foundation of
the world.’”
EVENING
At many churches of the city various phases of the work of the
Association were presented by delegates to the Congress. At the
Cathedral Mr. Thomas M. Osborne, President of the George Junior
Republic, Auburn, N. Y., spoke on “The True Foundations of Prison
Reform”; Mr. George B. Wellington, of Troy, on “The Duty That We Owe
the Convict”; and Prof. Henderson, of Chicago, on “Preventive Work with
Children.” The latter maintained that the proper training of a child to
keep it from becoming a criminal began before it was born. Crime was
not a heritage, but criminal tendencies sometimes were. Judge Lindsay,
the great enthusiast in behalf of children, had said that the Juvenile
court was organized to keep children out of jail, but that now the
problem was to keep children out of the Juvenile court. The problem is
to get back to childhood, back to infancy. Babyhood determined whether
there should be a large or a small criminal class. Place the child from
earliest infancy into such a physical environment and under such mental
and spiritual influences as will produce the habit of right living.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17
MORNING
The meeting was called to order by President Collins and opened
with prayer by the Rev. Thomas D. Anderson. After the appointment
of committees and other routine business, the Wardens’ Association
went into session. In the absence of the President, Mr. N. N. Jones,
Iowa State Prison, Fort Madison, his address was read by Mr. Frank L.
Randall, Minnesota, who had been called to the chair. The paper was a
compact statement of the warden’s relation to current prison reform.
With reference to prison labor it showed how small a portion of the
total product is contributed by prisoners. Regarding the relation of
discipline to reformation, the writer said: “Discipline is the medium
through which all reform becomes effective. The attitude of the warden
toward reform should be sympathetic and receptive.”