[Detroit Journal, March 2nd, 1914.]
The prisons of the future will be vastly smaller than the larger ones
of the present time. Not alone because of the fact that better results
can be achieved by the penologist who is at the head of the institution
where fewer men are confined, but also because of the added reason
that various other institutions will be in vogue to care for many
unfortunates (not criminals) who are now sent to our penitentiaries.
The feeble-minded class in our prisons in the United States is said to
number between 25,000 and 35,000 individuals, or about one-fourth of
the prison population. These will be cared for in other institutions
than prisons, confinement in which is a greater crime upon the part
of society towards these poor unfortunates than were the offenses
for commission of which these feebleminded individuals were sent to
prison. According to the general statistics, the farm for epileptics in
Michigan should care for about 200 persons now confined in the prisons
of this state.
The wider extension of the system of probation will save thousands
of men from a prison experience, thereby protecting the taxpayer and
reclaiming the individual himself, the latter occurring in between
75 and 85 per cent. of the cases. This saving to taxpayers is most
evident to-day, for were the two recorders of Wayne county to bring
to court and sentence those who now enjoy a probationary relation to
their courts, there would not be empty cells enough in our State penal
institutions to receive them. It is much better to build up homes than
to erect more prisons.
Undoubtedly the physician, the surgeon, the alienist and the
psychologist will serve as greater factors to relieve our crime problem
than in the past. It is well known that a nervous condition occasioned
by affections of the eyes, nose and ears has played a large part in
the delinquency of boys and girls, of young men and young women. The
splendid results achieved in Chicago and in Rahway, N. J., as well
as in other localities, have already warranted a great deal more of
investigation and effort along the same lines.
The prison of the future will be located miles away from the city, upon
a tract of sufficient acreage to insure outdoor employment for a large
number of men during the larger portion of the year. Work under such
conditions will not only be more lucrative for the State, but, better
still, the means of building up physically and mentally, as well as
morally, these wards of the commonwealth.
The warden of our prison at Jackson already is planning to divide
some of the acreage into small tracts to be “gardened” by “trusties”;
a record being kept of the cost of care and seeding of these little
farms, as well as the value of the products thereof, thus encouraging
a healthy rivalry among those responsible for these sections of the
prison farm. How much this will accrue to the benefit of the men will
be best understood by those who have worked among paroled or discharged
prisoners.
The prevailing style of prison architecture will be superseded by
one which will admit of the greatest possible amount of sunlight and
circulating air in the cells. Most cellhouses are constructed with the
corridors running along the outer walls of the building, while the
cells are arranged in the center, end to end, a thick wall separating
them. In the effort to reduce the possibility of escapes, the health of
the inmates has not always been properly considered.
The United States can well afford to turn backward for improvement in
cell construction. In Richmond, Va., to-day stands a building erected
from plans drawn by Thomas Jefferson in the year 1797. This cellhouse,
still in use, and esteemed by the inmates as better than the steel
cell-block of very recent construction, is erected in the form of
a horseshoe. There are three stories of cells, and each cell has a
window opening upon the prison yard, while the doors of the cell swing
out toward a large court within the circle of the horseshoe, and a
covered veranda traverses the entire length of the cellhouse. The cots
are not near the floor, but about on a line with the lower sash of
the cell-window, some four or five feet from the floor, insuring to
bedding, cell and inmate the greatest possible modicum of sunshine and
air.
In the prison of the future each man will be paid a certain sum for the
performance of his work, whether his task be remunerative or what is
termed state work. From this wage he will pay for his food, clothing
and such other necessities or luxuries as he may obtain from the
inmates’ co-operative store. He will thus be accorded greater latitude
in the selection of the aforesaid raiment and food. Hence even by these
humble means, the prisoner’s power of initiative will be somewhat
retained against the day when he shall again fare forth to take his
place among the world’s free men.
In this prison of the coming day discipline will be largely maintained,
not by fear of force, but rather by the self-interest and personal
pride of the men confined. Punishment will more and more take the form
of deprivation of privileges, which latter will be greatly increased
because the better spirit and attitude of the men will be such as to
warrant the greatest possible privileges.
Wardens, under-officials and guards will be recruited from individuals
who have a positive social vision, and who will look upon their
position not as a “job,” but as an opportunity for service to humanity.
Already the day has dawned when men are being placed at the head of
these institutions, not because they are politicians with a “pull,”
but rather because they are capable business men and broad-minded
humanitarians with a heart. Men are to arise who will feel as much
“called” to labor among the prison “shut-ins” as do now those who are
set aside to serve as ministers of charity or uplift workers.
These changes, and even greater ones, will be strongly manifest in the
prison of the future, for the day will yet dawn when bastilles will be
no more in demand among the sons of men.