[Under this heading will appear each month numerous paragraphs of
general interest, relating to the prison field and the treatment of the
delinquent.]
_New Cell House at Iowa Penitentiary._--The new cell house, built by
convict labor at the Fort Madison penitentiary, will be completed in
May. The structure has been six years under construction, and its value
is said to be more than $200,000. It probably will be sixty days before
the board will have everything completed so that the new prison house
can be used. The structure is of stone and concrete, and the cells are
considerably larger than the rooms in the old cell house. There will
be room in each cell for a single iron bed, a rocking chair, hot and
cold water and toilet conveniences. The rooms formerly provided for
prisoners held but a cot.
The board of control has not yet decided what it will do with the
old cell house when the new one is occupied. It is probable that
prison labor will be used in the remodeling of the walls so that one
fair-sized cell may be made out of two cells.
There are 590 prisoners now in the Fort Madison penitentiary. The new
cell house will provide for 400 of them. The remainder will have to
remain in the old structure.
The board has received samples of hollow building blocks manufactured
at the State clay works at the hospital for inebriates at Knoxville.
This is the first of the output of the new industry and, according to
experts, the tile is as perfectly made as that of other institutions.
It is the intention to have the hollow building blocks needed in the
new building at Oakdale sanitarium made at Knoxville.
The State institution at Knoxville is also ready to turn out tile and
brick. Orders have been sent to all State institutions to order from
Knoxville whatever material of this kind is needed.
* * * * *
_Training For Prison Warden._--Warden Clancy, of Sing Sing Prison,
recently resigned. Eugene Smith, president of the Prison Association of
New York, has written an open letter to the New York city papers, as
follows:
“The resignation of Mr. Clancy is an event that has, for several
reasons, unusual significance. Mr. Clancy has stated with great
candor the reasons that induced him to resign. The principal reason,
as alleged by him in an interview, was his lack of experience and
consequent ignorance of the work to be done. He says, ‘The warden
should be selected from among the keepers or others who have had a
large amount of experience. There is nothing more ridiculous than the
selection of a man like myself who has no such experience.’
“These statements, so frankly made, do honor to Mr. Clancy and they
convey a valuable message to the public. A warm heart and a large
brain alone do not qualify a man to fill the wardenship of a prison.
The administration of a prison must be governed, in this modern age,
upon the principles established by the science of penology. The
proper treatment of prisoners requires an acquaintance with those
methods and agencies which have been proved by scientific experiments
to be most effectual in reforming and rehabilitating the prisoners.
“No warden can administer a prison with success unless he has a
scientific knowledge of what has been developed and accomplished
through the studies and experience of the great leaders in prison
reform and such scientific knowledge can only be acquired and
practically applied by personal experience in dealing with prisoners.
There are to-day, in the prisons of this State, men who have had long
experience, as guards or in other subordinate posts, who possess
both the scientific knowledge and executive ability qualifying them
to fill with success the office of warden of Sing Sing Prison. It is
earnestly hoped that the candidates for the vacancy may be selected
from some such competent source.
“But besides scientific knowledge, ability, and experience, there is
another condition, or sine qua non, absolutely essential to success in
administering Sing Sing or any other prison. As a warden should be
selected without the slightest regard to his political affiliations,
he should also have a free hand in discharging his duties unhampered
by political influence.
“Politics constitute the greatest obstacle encountered by every
movement for prison reform. So long as the appointment of prison
officials and their retention in office are dependent on political
favor or influence, it is hopeless to look for improvement in prison
systems or any measures of reform. The infusion of politics into our
prison can never be prevented except by the force of a united public
opinion, a consensus strong enough to condemn and drive out of public
service every person who participates in the appointment or removal
of any prison officer for merely political ends in order to confer
favors or promote expedience.”
* * * * *
_Progress in New York City’s Department of Correction._--Commissioner
of Correction Katharine Bement Davis, and her deputy, Burdette G.
Lewis, have already planned important improvements in administration.
The upper floor of the Tombs is to be transformed into a hospital
with nearly ninety beds; a visiting building, with screens between
visitors’ seats and prisoners’ seats, will be built; food brought in
from the outside is to be prohibited, and improvement in the catering
service in the Tombs is arranged for; classification of prisoners in
the various institutions is being developed; the punishment cells
in the Penitentiary are to be abandoned in favor of a separate
punishment building with “reflection cells,” a detention house for
women prisoners is to be built; the Department has moved from an
antique building on Twentieth street into adequate quarters in the
new Municipal building; stripes are to be abolished in the Island
institutions; several “crews” of youngsters have been sent out to the
tract of six hundred acres in Orange county to be used for the new
City Reformatory for Misdemeanants; the clothing of women prisoners
at the workhouse and Penitentiary is to be considerably bettered;
and so forth. The fundamental plans for the re-organization of the
Department’s institutions are being carefully worked out.
* * * * *
_The Power of Suggestion._--Some of the complacent ones who maintain
that you must leave to youngsters of either sex their own governing,
and hold them pretty completely responsible for crime committed by them
might pause for a moment to read the following--except that no such
complacent ones read The Delinquent. This is from the monthly journal
called the Training School, published at Vineland, New Jersey:
Mamie S---- was a middle-grade imbecile girl about eighteen years
old, testing about six by the Binet. She was strong and active, a
cheerful and willing worker, subject to occasional fits of temper,
but usually quite easily controlled. Her work in the laundry was
helping Miss B. to feed the big steam mangle.
One day the superintendent was escorting a party of visitors and
explained to them the use of the shield over the reed rolls of the
mangle, saying that if it were out of place there would be great
danger of the workers’ fingers being caught between the rolls and a
serious accident occurring before the machinery could be stopped.
Mamie heard his remark and the visitors had no sooner left the
laundry than she turned to Miss B. and said: “Say, Miss B., if I put
my fingers in there, would it draw in my arm and crush it?” Miss B.
answered, “Of course it would, you silly girl.” Mamie declared, “I am
going to try it,” and at once lifted the shield and would have put
her fingers between the rolls had not Miss B. grappled with her.
Mamie struggled desperately and would have overpowered Miss B. but
she called for help and it took three of the employees to drag Mamie
away to safety. It is needless to say that Mamie’s work in the
laundry ceased with that incident.
* * * * *
_Farewell, and Don’t Come Back!_--The editors of prison newspapers
sometimes “gets theirs” in very pleasant fashion. Here is one of the
most recent events of the kind, quoted from the Mirror, published at
the Minnesota State Prison:
“‘Chip’, the editor of Our View Point, the Walla Walla, Washington,
prison paper, has been paroled after serving several months
conscientiously and well as the guiding spirit of that publication.
Prior to his departure for the outside world, the inmates subscribed
a dime apiece and presented him with a watch as a testimonial of
their appreciation. The presentation speech was made by the warden in
the presence of the inmates in the chapel, the Sunday prior to his
departure.”
* * * * *
_Hayward._--Here is a story to make a man “feel good”.
Harry S. Hayward, after seven years’ influential work with the
newspaper called the Cumberland, Md., News, disappeared recently
because politicians and evil interests he had opposed learned that he
had served in prison, and threatened to reveal his past. Hayward had
made very many friends. The proprietor of the newspaper received a
letter from Hayward, in which he reviewed the trials he had endured
in trying to live down the past, and in which he declared that he was
determined to lose himself in some distant part of the country, and
continue the struggle to live a decent life.
The proprietor, W. W. Brown, immediately tried to reach Hayward, but in
vain. He inserted then the following advertisement in papers all over
the country:
H. S. Hayward:--Have known two years. We are with you to the end. Come
back soon.
W. W. Brown.
Many prominent citizens joined in the effort to find Hayward. The
Governor of Maryland pardoned him and restored him to citizenship. And,
finally Hayward came back, in triumph.
* * * * *
_The Latest Thing in Joy Rides._--Edward Smith, a lifer, and James
McGee, sentenced for seventeen years, escaped from the Joilet
Penitentiary recently, in Warden Allen’s automobile. After riding
around Chicago all night they decided to return to the prison. Guards
had been hunting the men in three States.
Smith was the Warden’s chauffeur and drove in and out of the prison
without attracting attention.
“We could have got away without much chance of being captured,” he
said, “but we got to thinking that our escape might interfere with the
good treatment given the other honor prisoners.
“Warden Allen treated us mighty well and we thought it best not to
violate the confidence he placed in us. We certainly had a fine time
while we were away. We rode all over Chicago and saw all the sights.”
* * * * *
_Advice in the Shadow of the Gallows._--Several years ago there was
executed at Trenton State Prison, New Jersey, a very intelligent man,
who had committed a fearful murder. A day before his execution he was
asked to leave some word for the young men of this country. Here is
what he wrote, in a firm hand, without tremor:
“I can add but little to what others have said. I would suggest early
religious training. It should begin with the lisping of the child
and be continuous and never end until death. The child should be
given to know the dangers of environment that is not religious. His
associations should be only those that reverence God. The parental
responsibility comes in here. The child looks for examples. As the
example set before it by its parents or associates are good or evil,
so it will in most cases grow.
“If the boy be disciplined in religion with environments good,
associations good, and with love as his teacher till he is come of
age, to the age of reason, the point of the early training will be
invariably a moral religious life. Not all of these came into my
early life but of those that did my one regret is that I did not use
them to my advantage, for the wages of sin is death, and the gift of
God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.”
* * * * *
_Progress at Bellefonte._--According to the Pennsylvania Prison
Society (the 127th annual meeting of which was recently held), “about
75 prisoners from the old Western Penitentiary at Pittsburgh are at
Bellefonte, busily engaged in taking care of the farm and in various
preliminary operations. (Pennsylvania is to build a farm industrial
prison on 5,000 acres). They have been employed in the repairing of
the old buildings on the estate, in quarrying stone for roads, and for
other construction. There have been erected a number of new buildings,
among them a machine shop, blacksmith shop, power house, large dining
room and a dormitory. The work done on all the buildings was almost
entirely by the prisoners themselves, superintended by an experienced
outside foreman. It would be difficult to get together on the outside
an equal number of men who worked as zealously or faithfully. There
have been but three attempted escapes since the men arrived in the
summer of 1912. The prisoners are allowed to go to all parts of the
large farm in gangs of from three to twenty, under the care of one
guard or trusty. The population is transitory, as almost weekly some
are paroled, while new ones take their places.”
* * * * *
_An Honor Colony Hoped For._--The New Jersey Reformatory is a
congregate institution run by trustees and officers that believe in
individualization and classification. So, in the current annual report
the Board of Managers urges the establishment of an honor colony. “This
should be at some distance from the Institution, and should be utilized
for those inmates who are near parole, and who have demonstrated that
they are learning the lessons they have been sent to the institution to
learn.... It has been for some years the custom to permit inmates to
return to their homes when a death occurs in the family, unaccompanied
by anyone from the institution, relying solely upon the promise of an
inmate to return at a given time. In no instance has an inmate broken
the promise or failed to show an appreciation of the trust reposed in
him.”
* * * * *
_The Limits of Reformatory Treatment._--Superintendent Frank Moore, of
the New Jersey State Reformatory, writes in his annual report:
“The Reformatory can take that which has worth, even though it may
be bent, twisted and corroded with sin, and making it plastic, it
may form it over again, reform it; but that which is useless, which
is only dross, it can do little with. The Reformatory can reform,
but it cannot re-create. We may as well be candid about it. The
idea has been created in the public mind that every reformatory is a
miracle-working machine; that no matter what is run into it, it will
return all material, no matter how good or bad, back into the world,
made over into first-class men. The word HOPE in big letters has been
written over the doorway of our reformatory institutions, and so it
ought to be. There is no charitable or correctional institution of
which society expects so much, and there is no kind of institution
that has a greater desire to meet that expectation, but honesty and
fairness demand that it shall be stated that the quality of human
material given to it is of such a character as to, of necessity,
greatly limit its results.”
* * * * *
_Other Items From the Reformatory._--During the year 456 inmates of the
New Jersey State Reformatory worked outside of the enclosure. There
have been only two escapes, one from those working inside the wall, who
was returned by the police, and one from the details working outside,
who was captured and returned to the institution by other inmates.
The physical condition of the inmates now present in the institution is
as follows:
Those who have increased in weight, 67 per cent.
No change in weight, 19 per cent.
Loss of weight, 14 per cent.
The reduction in the number losing weight is explained as follows:
A larger number of the inmates have been assigned to the outdoor work,
gardening and farming, than ever before.
The amount of food served in the dining room has been increased, and
its quality much improved.
Many low places in the grounds where mosquitoes breeded and from which
malaria emanated have been filled.
During the year more inmates have been paroled, and with better results
than ever before in the history of the Reformatory.
Number placed on parole 413
Returned for crime 8
Returned, or not returned, being declared
delinquent because of committing
new crime or breaking
other conditions of parole 84
Percentage failing to keep parole 20
* * * * *
_Contracts in Iowa._--The Fort Madison Farming Tool company will make
a fight to retain its business of manufacturing tools at the Fort
Madison penitentiary. It will ask that its contract to employ 150
prisoners be continued for at least a year from the expiration of the
present contract on November 1, 1914.
The board has announced, however, that it will not renew the contract
for any certain period of time, if any extension is granted. It may
be advisable, it is said, to continue the present arrangement to keep
the men employed from November 1 until such time next year as the
legislature can provide some industry at the prison which will take the
place of the tool contract.
The State of Iowa has registered a protest against the convict labor
system. As fast as the contracts at the penitentiary expire the state
must make some new arrangement. At Fort Madison one contract expires
this year. The chair contract, employing a maximum of 179 men, does not
run out until 1916. This then will free this prison of contracts and
the buildings now housing the machinery of private companies will be
used by the state in the manufacture of some product which will most
benefit the state.
The Fort Madison Tool Company pays the state $50,000 for the use of 150
men, or $333.33 a year per man, based on the maximum permitted under
the agreement. The board of control has stated that this sum is not
sufficient, and that if the company is to get a temporary extension of
contract it must offer a higher rate.
* * * * *
_Education For Prisoners._--Education by correspondence for prisoners
in the Kansas Penitentiary would be possible if a plan outlined by
the Chancellor of the University of Kansas should be adopted by
the Board of Administration. He would have the privilege of the
extension division of the University, including vocational training
by correspondence, offered to the inmates of the Penitentiary at the
expense of the State.
In this connection it is worth while noting that more than 90 per cent.
of 269 men committed to the Wisconsin State Penitentiary for murder in
recent years were sent to work before they were 15 years of age, says
the Bethlehem, Pa., Times. Of these 269 convicts, of whom a special
study has been made, about one-third have never been to school, half
reached the fourth grade and but 3.2 per cent. finished high school.
* * * * *
_Utilizing Prison Labor._--The Cleveland, O., Plaindealer, says that:
Ohio expects to save more than a million in the construction of the
new state prison in Madison county through the employment of convict
labor. When Andrew L. Harris was governor it was estimated that to
build the kind of a penitentiary the state needed would cost at
least $2,600,000. The prison commission now declares a much finer
institution than was then planned will be built for not to exceed
$1,300,000.
Prison labor constitutes the difference. Men in custody of the state
will be utilized to make brick from material on the site, to cut and
dress timber now growing on the tract for use in the buildings, and
for the actual labor of erection.
At the Mansfield reformatory more prison labor will be utilized
further to reduce the cost of the development in Madison county.
Furniture and fixtures for the new prison offices and library will be
manufactured there and shipped.
* * * * *
_Parole Test Case in Virginia._--The recent session of the General
Assembly of Virginia passed the Allen bill providing that the
Penitentiary Board might in its discretion parole a prisoner after
he had served three years of his sentence; but exempting from its
provisions those convicted of murder in the first degree or of criminal
assault. Governor Stuart described this bill as misleading in its
title. It should have been, he said, “An act to increase the powers
of the board of directors of the penitentiary at the expense of the
constitutional powers and prerogatives of the executive.”
The Governor referred it to Attorney-General Pollard, who, held not
only the bill was unconstitutional, but that the parole act of 1904,
which it sought to amend, was likewise unconstitutional. On this advice
the Governor vetoed it.
In view of the opinion holding the parole law of 1904 unconstitutional,
the question arose as to the future conduct of the prison directors. In
a statement issued at the time Governor Stuart expressed the view that
it was certainly not contemplated in the Constitution that the prison
board should sit as a sort of superior court, to review and reverse in
criminal cases not only the verdicts of trial juries and the judgments
of Circuit Courts, but the deliberate opinions of the Supreme Court of
Appeals as well. The Attorney-General upheld the view that any action
releasing a prisoner before he had served the specific term for which
he was sentenced by due process of law was to upset and reverse the
trial court. This power, it was held, was vested by the Constitution
exclusively in the Governor, who may grant absolute pardons or may
grant pardons with conditions attached, which are in effect paroles.
Prior to the act of 1904, under the statute of 1896 and subsequent
acts, there was a parole system, under which the prison board from time
to time made recommendations to the Governor of those convicts who
were, in their judgment, suitable for conditional pardons or paroles,
thus acting in an advisory capacity. The act of 1904, which is the one
now in question, eliminated this report to the Governor and made it
possible for the prison board, in its own discretion, at any time to
release any convict after he had served one-half of the term for which
he had been sentenced.
Under this act the prison board has been from time to time paroling
convicts at its own discretion, acting entirely independent of and
without connection with the actions of the Governor in granting pardons
or conditional pardons, which are in effect paroles.
It has been agreed to make a test case to determine the status of the
parole law of 1904, which Attorney-General Pollard has held to be
unconstitutional.
* * * * *
_In Kentucky._--The Louisville Post says editorially that:
“In no department of the State government has there been progress
made in the last two years comparable to that shown in the
administration of the Kentucky penitentiaries, and Governor McCreary
deserves liberal commendation for the wisdom he manifested in
selecting the members of the board--Messrs. O’Sullivan, Conley
and Lawrence--and the firmness he has shown in supporting his
appointees. This is the one bright spot in our State government and
the improvement made will be valuable in the future outside of the
progress in prison administration by the standard it holds up for
other departments of the State.”
Prison Commissioner O’Sullivan has thus summarized the recent
developments:
“The most important act passed by the last General Assembly affecting
the prisons was the bill providing for State aid in the building of
county roads. While it makes no reference to the penal institutions,
the opportunity it presents is providential. On January 1, 1915, the
contracts on the labor of at least 900 prisoners will expire. In the
face of the adverse legislation in Congress, it is probable that the
prison contractors will not again bid for this labor, even if the
Prison Commissioners were inclined to make new contracts.
“The law permitting the Prison Commission to lease farms adjacent
to the prisons at Frankfort and Eddyville is of inestimable value.
These farms can not only be made self-sustaining, but the tubercular
prisoners can be transferred there and given the chance for life which
is sometimes denied them in the narrow confines of a prison cell.
“The indeterminate sentence law does away with the automatic parole of
prisoners and gives the jury the power to fix a minimum and maximum
sentence proportionate to the crime committed.
“The passage of a law limiting the age of children sent to the House of
Reform, near Lexington, and making the county pay part of the cost when
the child is not guilty of a penal offense, will prevent the scandalous
practice prevalent all over the State of consigning innocent, dependent
children to this institution. Some of the officials seem to be in a
conspiracy with the parents to get rid of their unfortunate offspring
and make the State support them. The Prison Commissioners have returned
to their homes 125 children under thirteen years of age who were sent
to the House of Reform on flimsy charges. Two boys, six years old, were
among the number. They were charged with ‘housebreaking.’ Dozens of
cases just as flagrant could be cited.
“The Board has under way plans that will broaden and better this
institution, which is one of the most important in the State, as it
deals with the child after he has made his first mis-step.
“Before the recent parole of 450 prisoners under the Court of Appeals
decision there were 1,450 convicts at the Frankfort Reformatory and
780 at Eddyville. The number of children at the House of Reform will
average 700.
“The contractors at Frankfort and Eddyville paid into the State
treasury last year $352,000. The cost of conducting these institutions,
salaries, supplies etc., was $340,454. The cost of maintaining the
House of Reform was $123,386.
“In eighteen months from August 1, 1912, to January 1, 1914, the
prisoners have been paid in earnings the sum of $86,000. A great
portion of this amount is sent home to their families.
“In the two prisons there are 556 men confined for murder, 115 for
manslaughter, and 153 for malicious shooting and wounding. Of this
number 340 are life prisoners.
“There are 1,250 negroes to 900 whites. There are 1,300 single men and
950 married men.
“There are 419 men serving second terms, 104 serving third terms,
twenty-seven serving fourth terms, and one prisoner serving his seventh
term.
“Since the adoption of the parole system 2,200 men have been paroled,
which number includes the 450 men liberated under the Court of Appeals
decision. Less than 5 per cent. of these men have violated their
paroles and been returned to prison.
“In the past twenty-one months the present Prison Board has only
paroled one life prisoner sentenced for murder. He had served fifteen
years for killing a man who invaded his home and insulted his daughter,
and had he been a white man he would never have been convicted.
“The night schools are very successful. Next to the abolition of the
lash they have had a most humanizing effect on the prisoners.”
* * * * *
_Cleveland’s City Farm._--Dr. Harris R. Cooley reported recently in Des
Moines, Ia., regarding recent results in Cleveland:
“We have three different departments on the farm,” he said. “We have
100 consumptives on one section, 700 people in the alms house located
in another section, and 700 prisoners working on the ‘correction farm.’
These men are convicted of different petty crimes and sent to the farm
to work out their sentence.”
According to Mr. Cooley, the farm’s profits from products raised last
year were $22,167.04.
“It takes a little nerve to start a farm of the kind,” he said, “as it
is necessary for a time to keep up two places. While the farm is being
started it will be necessary to have some prisoners in jail and some on
the farm, until enough buildings are completed to accommodate all the
prisoners. However it is a great system when once in working order and
would be a great thing for Des Moines.
“We also have a 450 acre farm for the juvenile prisoners,” he
continued, “and this too, is proving a great success. It is located
twenty-three miles from the city and the large farm is ten miles from
Cleveland. All boys under sixteen years are sent to the juvenile farm.
“Our large farm,” said Mr. Cooley, “cost us $330,000 ten years ago. We
have recently been offered $1,000,000 for it, but of course refused to
consider the offer. We have hundreds of heads of fine cattle, hogs and
horses and raise everything in the way of farm products. The profits
possible on a farm of this kind are not to be realized by people who
have had no experience with the system.
“We also do away with the problem of labor. We have the men on hand
with nothing to do with them but let them work. We do not compete with
labor, either. The men enjoy the work and nine times out of ten leave
the farm better morally and physically than they came to it. Such
is not the case with the man who spends a week or six weeks in the
stagnant atmosphere of a city jail.”
* * * * *
_422 Convicts to be “Turned Loose.”_--The New York World, of April 5th,
prints a special dispatch from Louisville, Kentucky.
“Kentucky is facing the problem of caring for 422 convicts, to be
liberated at approximately the same time and for whom no provision has
been made. The prospect is viewed with varying sensations in different
parts of the State. In cities and towns there is alarm, but on the
farms and plantations, where help is scarce, no fears are felt, and in
fact the liberated criminals will be made welcome for the labor they
can perform.
“This condition is brought about by the new indeterminate sentence law
which is now operative in Kentucky and which does away with the old law
by which the jury trying a case fixed the term of years for which a
person should be confined, in the same verdict declaring him guilty. As
it is now, the jury merely passes upon a prisoner’s guilt or innocence,
and if he is found guilty his prison term is automatically fixed by the
law covering the offense with which he is charged. These sentences, of
course, range from a specified minimum number of years to a maximum.
And it has been the rule heretofore for the Prison Board with whom the
power of parole rests, to allow the prisoners their freedom largely
upon the character of their crime and their conduct while in prison.
“But in the John De Moss case (recently decided by the Court of
Appeals), it is held that if a prisoner has completed his minimum
sentence and shows a clear record in the prison he must be issued a
parole then. Another feature is that he must be able to show that
he has some legitimate occupation waiting for him when he is set at
liberty again. This parole, of course, does not free the prisoner
absolutely. A string is held on him, and should he ever transgress
again he may be brought back and made to complete his original sentence.
“Naturally, the convicts are delighted. Of the 422 convicts to get
their liberty 232 will go from the penitentiary at Frankfort and 190
from the Eddyville prison.
“One of the requirements with which a prisoner must conform before he
can be paroled even under the new order is that he must have a job
awaiting him. This has caused the 422 prisoners who are to be released
to cast about for a landing place. Among them are individuals of all
classes, some very expert in certain lines, but the most of them are
ordinary laborers, this being especially true of the negroes, who
are in the majority. Right here is where the release of the prisoners
promises to be a good thing for the State at large. For several years
the question of farm labor has grown to be more and more a matter of
serious nature. The negroes prefer to live in the towns or to work
on the public works, where they can be together in crowds. Often the
farmers are sorely tried in their efforts to get labor at rush seasons
and are forced to pay exorbitant prices.
“But the ordinary laborers among the convicts find the farms their best
chance for getting the coveted job. The farmers are willing to take the
risk, if risk it is, and they are offering to give employment to the
prisoners. In one county the seventeen negroes that are due to return
have all been thus guaranteed work. Other counties are doing the same
thing and probably the majority of this class of the convicts will find
a home and freedom on the farms.
“Much consolation is found in the fact that a radical change in the
methods of handling and treating the convicts will result. They will be
better citizens when their terms are out.
“One of the results of the new law will be the changing of the
Frankfort prison into a reformatory, where the female and younger
prisoners will be confined, and the Eddyville prison into the
penitentiary, where men only will be confined, and these only for major
offenses.
“The prisoners are now allowed more liberties; they are permitted to
enjoy the prison libraries, attend night school, organized in the
various cell houses, attend religious services, to have the freedom of
the grounds at stated times, and when the weather permits to play ball
and take other healthful outdoor exercises, to receive mail, and are
given better and cleaner cells and better food.
“So, after all, the situation does not appear alarming, but on the
other hand it is believed by those in touch with conditions that the
released prisoners will come out into the world again with a full
appreciation of the joys and privileges of liberty, and few of them
will again wilfully disobey the laws and be returned to bondage once
more.”
* * * * *
_Modern Detention Prison For Women in New York City._--After years
of effort on the part of civic organizations, borough officials and
individuals, the city is at last to have a Home of Detention and Court
for Women. It is to be a fourteen-storied structure and is to occupy a
100×100 foot plot on the north side of West Thirtieth street, between
Sixth and Seventh avenues. The working drawings are now being prepared
by the architects, Griffin & Wynkoop of No. 30 Church street, and
construction will begin in the near future.
The need of such a building has from time to time been emphasized
by the numerous abuses attendant upon the imprisonment of women.
Heretofore both men and women have been confined in the same building,
and because the police stations and the City Prison were of an obsolete
design, there was no way of segregating the first offenders from the
hardened criminals, a condition which sociologists have long deplored.
The plans for the new building provide for this segregation. Provision
is made for three general classes of prisoners, these to be again
subdivided into other groups. No longer will first offenders be herded
into dark, unsanitary cells along with the habitual offenders. The
building is so arranged that each room will be flooded with sunlight at
some time of the day; moreover, each cell will have its own individual
window and will be provided with running water, basin and sanitary
conveniences.
The Magistrates’ Court with its entrances and subdivisions is placed
in the first four stories. The Detention Home and District Prison with
their subdivisions are placed in the fifth to fourteenth stories.
It was found that by placing the small rooms of the Home of Detention
and Prison around the court, recessed from the street, most of the
dangers of communication between prisoners and the outside could be
obviated, and the possibility of introducing drugs and weapons into the
building overcome.
The prisoners are to be delivered through a driveway court into
the room for arrested persons, taken to their individual temporary
detention rooms on the first and second floors, from which an officer
conducts them to the complaint room, or in a continuous line of
circulation through the prisoners’ waiting room, the court room,
the finger print room, and after sentence, to the room for detained
persons, from which they are taken by guards of the Detention Home and
Prison and after examination put among that group of prisoners which
their degree of crime permits or requires.
The public will enter the building through a public vestibule, pass up
a large stairway and enter the court room or complaint room through
a public lobby on the second floor. The court room is 25 feet high,
of ample size, and has abundant light and cross ventilation from the
street into an interior light court, which opens at its top into the
recessed light court of the Detention Home above.
The entrance to the probation and administrative portions of the
Magistrates’ Court is through a special vestibule controlled by the
janitor of the building at the southwest corner. Women on probation of
the court can report to their probation officer in the second floor
without coming in contact with the crowd frequenting the courtrooms
and public vestibule. Probation officers are to be located on the
floor immediately below the courtroom and will have ready access to
the courtroom when their attendance there is required. Reporters are
to be given a special room and provided with tables and seats in the
court. The judge, the clerk of the court, the assistant clerks and
the district attorney are allotted rooms on the fourth floor, which
is accessible to all of the lower floors of the building by a special
elevator and stairs.
On the fifth floor of the building are placed the administrative
offices of the home and prison, the apartments of the superintendent
and assistant superintendent and separate facilities for visitors
coming to see the home and prison. The visitors cannot at any time pass
to the prisoners either weapons or drugs. Double wire screens will at
all times separate the prisoners from the visitors.
From the sixth to the fourteenth floor there will be twenty-four rooms
on each floor, these being for housing the inmates of the home and
prison. Each group of twelve rooms will have a dining and living
room, a service pantry, a bathroom and a storage closet for linen and
clothing. An open air exercise loggia will connect the two twelve-room
groups.
The prison and home rooms will be slightly different, in that the
prison rooms will have steel grilled fronts opening onto the corridor,
whereas the rooms of the detention home will have regular fireproof
doors fitted with a small grilled panel, for the convenience of matrons
in overseeing their charges. Each of the small rooms will be provided
with a wash basin, a water closet and a bed.
* * * * *
_Criminals in War._--Criminals generally turn out to be cowards on the
battlefield, according to observations in the cases of 225 men with
jail or prison sentences in their record made during the campaign of
Italy in Tripoli by Dr. Consiglio, chief of staff surgeons with the
Italian army.
Dr. Consiglio says:
“The abnormal man is unfit for methodically disciplined effort in
times of peace; in war, where the demands of discipline and the strain
of systematic preparations increases, he displays invariably sooner
or later a reaction against his surroundings, which manifests itself
chiefly in morbid lack of discipline, disobedience, insubordination or
even desertion. The moral strain and the violent manifestations of war
induce in such men physical disturbances, excitative crises, hysteric
and epileptic attacks and acute insanity. They lack the possibility of
methodic action, the iron will to respond to the multiple demands of
the instant and to the continued physical and intellectual strain.”
* * * * *
_Probation in New York State._--The increasing use of the probation
idea throughout the State is shown by reports of the State Probation
Commission. More than 9,000 persons are now on probation in the State,
including over 2,000 children. Approximately one-half of these are
located in New York City; the remainder are scattered in nearly every
city and in many of the rural communities of the State. The appointment
of county probation officers to have charge of the probation work
in all the courts of the counties is rapidly increasing in favor.
Twenty-three counties now have such officers.
The use of volunteers to assist the regularly appointed officers is
still practiced in many courts. Forty-nine new volunteer officers have
been commissioned during the last two months.
Probation officers were shown to have more than justified their work
from a financial point of view alone. During the past year more than
$77,000 was collected by probation officers throughout the State from
husbands charged with non-support, and the same turned over directly to
their wives and children. Ten thousand dollars was also collected for
fines on the installment plan. This amount went direct to the various
cities and counties employing the officers.
The Commission meets every two months in various cities of the State.
* * * * *
_Parole and Other Matters in Rhode Island._--Prisoners who have served
part of their sentences at the Rhode Island penal institutions will be
admitted to parole if the recommendation of the State Board of Control
and Supply, made in its annual report to the General Assembly is
carried out.
This recommendation, which the Board seeks to have made into law, would
allow a prisoner to remain at liberty as long as he lives up to the
terms of his parole. It is pointed out that other States have such laws
on their statute books, and that Rhode Island, if it is to live up to
modern methods in handling prisoners, must fall into line.
Another recommendation contained in the report, is that one board
should be given full control over the management of the various
institutions, while the sociological work, such as welfare, admission
and probation of inmates, should come under another board.
One of the most important items is that connected with the operation
of the new shirt contract, the returns from which show a substantial
increase over the revenue obtained by the State from the old agreement.
According to the report, the change from the contract with the Sterling
Manufacturing Company has been a most beneficial one.
Under that agreement the State received 30 cents per dozen for shirts,
whereas under the new contract with the Crescent Garment Company, the
State receives 50 cents per dozen for the same garments.
The result of this during the past year has been an increase in the
total revenue derived by the State from $24,185.04, the amount received
under a year’s contract with the old company, to $42,930.56, the total
received during the year 1913 under the new contract.
The additional revenue to the State from this contract alone, over the
year 1912, it is figured, will be sufficient to pay all salaries of the
members of the Board of Control and Supply, as well as the clerical
staff of the office.
* * * * *
_Chicago to Study Criminals._--Enthusiastic press notices come from
Chicago about the proposed criminal laboratory.
The judges of the Municipal court have unanimously voted to establish
a psychopathic laboratory for criminal study, thus, it is asserted,
placing that court far in advance of any judicial body in this country.
All prisoners who go before a judge of the Municipal court and show
indications of being weak mentally or who are believed to have physical
defects will be sent to the new laboratory for expert examination in
the hope that some way may be found to correct criminal tendencies and
restore the victims to normal condition.
If possible, arrangements will be made to send a certain class of
prisoners into the country, where they may breathe pure air and come
in direct contact with the best there is in nature. Dr. William J.
Hickson of Vineland, N. J., who has spent years in psychopathic work,
including six months as an assistant in the department of neurology and
psychiatry at the Royal Charity hospital, Berlin, has been selected
by the judges to take charge of the Chicago laboratory at a salary of
$5,000 annually. Miss Mary R. Campbell of Milwaukee was selected as an
associate to Dr. Hickson after a committee of judges had made a year’s
search for the best experts to be had in this country.
There is an appropriation of $8,500 by the city council available for
the work.
In arguing for a psychopathic laboratory Chief Justice Harry Olson and
other jurists interested in scientific treatment of criminals have
said that under present conditions there was no alternative for the
judges except to sentence those found guilty of transgressing the law.
Time and again, it is asserted, they have been compelled to deal with
prisoners who were not considered actually insane though having mental
defects. There was no expert advice available and, in a way, they dealt
blindly with the cases. Now it is declared it will be possible to give
every such suspect--murder, pickpocket or otherwise--a scientific
examination.
“It is not a theory and it is not an experiment”, said Chief Justice
Olson. “It is a practical department. This work is very successful in
Germany. Every day almost, subnormal boys and feeble minded tramps
appear in the municipal court. All that the boys need is a chance to
breathe some real air and get out among the pigs, horses and cows,
where they can do chores.
“Many of those boys can be transformed into material for respectable
citizens. They need assistance, and we start wrong by sending them
to jail and cutting off most of the chances they ever had. The new
laboratory will save persons who have something actually the matter
with them. They will not be packed off to Joilet when there is a
belief that their criminal tendency is caused by epilepsy or other
defect.”
Coroner Hoffman several months ago established a psychopathic
laboratory in connection with his office. Its mission is to ascertain
causes of mysterious deaths. The Juvenile court also has a psychopathic
laboratory.
* * * * *
_Five Escaping Convicts Killed._--On April 4th, a carefully planned
prison delivery was frustrated at the State penitentiary in Folsom,
when five convicts were shot down. Four were killed instantly and one
mortally wounded by prison guards who had been stationed at vantage
points where they could rake the entire corridor of the incorrigible
ward with rifle fire at the least sign of a disturbance.
Only a dozen prisoners were connected with the plot out of the thousand
or more convicts in the prison. Previous warning received by the prison
officials that a break was to be attempted prevented what might have
been a general prison delivery. The most desperate convicts in the
State are confined in the Folsom prison.
Folsom, or Repressa, as it is known officially, is a prison without
surrounding walls, the convicts being employed largely in the stone
quarry and prison farm during the day, returning to the prison
buildings at night, but always under guard.
The fact that the prison is without walls has impressed the convicts
that it would be comparatively easy to escape at night and several
fatal attempts have been made.
* * * * *
_Flogging Convicts._--According to the Chronicle of Charlotte, N. C.:
“The North Carolina supreme court has handed down a decision written by
Chief Justice Walter Clark saying that corporal punishment by flogging
is not reasonable and cannot be sustained. It is true that this
decision refers to whipping convicts by guards, but it is only a little
stretch to make the application cover all cases except where used by
parents as a corrective method for children, and it is not too big
an undertaking to even reach that form. The court now takes judicial
notice when the parent becomes too severe with the child.
“Some months ago a Wake county convict was whipped by a guard, and
the matter was carried into the courts. The defendant was adjudged
guilty in superior court and a fine of $10 was imposed. In this case
the defendant raised the point that flogging was necessary for the
maintenance of discipline among the convicts. It was shown further
that it has been the custom in all camps to use whipping to subdue the
unruly. The case was carried to the supreme court by the defendant, but
that body affirmed the decision of the lower court.
“Continuing, Judge Clark gives it as the opinion of the court that
while the constitution of the State does not directly prohibit corporal
punishment in prison discipline, its spirit is against the longer
use of floggings for that purpose. The opinion cites the powers of
the world which have abolished prison whipping, and says even Mexico
by legislative enactment more than a decade ago did away with such
punishment for prisoners. In conclusion, Judge Clark says, ‘we have,
however, been discussing the legal rights of the prisoners and we find
no authority for its longer continuance.’
“It is true that there is a general opinion among many, especially
those who have to deal with convicts, that flogging is the only
effective way to secure and maintain discipline, and they contend that
unless proper methods are used with a certain class of prisoners a
condition will soon arise in the camps which will cause a great deal
of trouble. With a squad of vicious and unruly prisoners who have a
resourceful leader knowing that the courts will protect them from that
only dread of convict-flogging--the ingenuity of the officers will be
taxed to secure proper results.
“On the other hand the decision will prevent the undue use of the whip
by guards, a few of whom are only too anxious for an opportunity to
administer corporal punishment to those who are helpless. While cases
of the abuse of this power by the guards are very rare, heretofore the
opportunity has always been present for the man who was vicious enough
to use it.
“What will be the result of the decision upon the convict discipline of
the future, time alone can tell.”
* * * * *
_Brick Plant at Elmira._--Bricks for use in constructing highways in
New York State will be made at the Elmira State Reformatory as soon as
buildings and apparatus are erected, Governor Glynn having signed the
Murtaugh bill, appropriating $75,000 for this purpose. The plan is the
first step in the Governor’s recommendation to the Legislature that
convicts be employed in manufacturing road material.
Governor Glynn pointed out the greatest item in the construction of
brick roads is the cost of vitrified brick. “If the State can secure
this brick cheaply,” the Governor said, “the road problem would be
solved. In a brick road costing twenty-five thousand dollars a mile,
the brick itself costs twelve thousand dollars. Those who are qualified
to speak inform me that by securing the vitrified brick for New York’s
roads in this manner brick roads can be constructed at a cost of
$15,000 a mile.
“On this basis the total cost of a mile of brick road for twenty years
would be $16,000, including $15,000 for building and twenty years of
maintenance at $50 a year. The total cost of macadam road for the same
period is $36,000.
“An idea of the importance of the economy I propose may be gained from
the fact that the total saving in the 7,300 miles of road yet to be
constructed would amount to $146,000,000 in the twenty years after
their completion, or more than the total cost of constructing our
entire systems of highways, and I am gratified that the first decisive
step toward this end has been taken in the enactment of the Murtaugh
law.”
* * * * *
_Apropos of Brick Makers._--More than 150,000 concrete bricks were made
by workhouse prisoners at Minneapolis during the month the new plant
has been in operation. Superintendent Frank McDonald says his theory of
winter labor and the utilization of the short term prisoner for skilled
labor has been justified. The plant is employing 60 men and will
continue to operate until May 1 when the clay brick industry will open.
Whether it will be operated during the summer is not certain.
* * * * *
_Parole in Wisconsin._--Society’s benefit as the result of the adoption
of the parole system for prisoners of the State penitentiary at Waupun
is demonstrated in a report that has just been compiled by the state
board of control which shows that less than 10 per cent. of prisoners
paroled violated it. The percentage of violation among the “lifers” is
even smaller.
The Wisconsin parole law has been in operation over six years. It
became effective in August, 1907. Up to February 28 this year, 938
applications have been considered for parole at the State prison at
Waupun. Of this number 480 were granted; 445 were denied; 8 were
continued and 5 were withdrawn.
Of the 480 granted, 345 have received their final discharge, 27
were not discharged on account of not having proper employment, 46
defaulted, 10 applications did not meet with executive approval, 5 died
while on parole, 2 were pardoned while on parole and 45 are now making
monthly reports.
Of the 45 who defaulted 37 have been returned to prison, 7 are at
large and two are in prison in other states and will be returned to
Wisconsin penitentiary to serve out their terms as soon as they have
completed their other sentences.
Under the Wisconsin law “lifers” are eligible for parole after they
have served a certain number of years and have been on “good behavior.”
In the time the law has been in effect, the applications of 34 “lifers”
have been considered. Fourteen have been granted and twenty refused.
Of the fourteen granted, 10 are now making monthly reports, two have
died and one returned to the prison voluntarily claiming that he was
not fitted for the world and that “prison is a more desirable place
for me.” One violated a rule of the board of control, was returned to
prison, but when it was discovered that others were probably more to
blame for the technical violation than the prisoner, he was paroled. He
is now making regular reports.
For the past calendar year 227 applications for parole from the prison
were considered, of which 114 were granted, 108 denied, 2 withdrawn and
two were continued. Of the 114 granted during the past year 66 have
received their final discharge, 33 are now making monthly reports, 13
have defaulted, and 2 were not discharged on account of not having
proper employment.
Of the 13 who defaulted, 11 were returned to prison and two are at
large. In the six years out of the 480 paroles granted there were only
46 who defaulted. This is less than ten per cent.
“The men who are on parole draw from $20 to $35 a month and some of
them more,” said President Smith.
* * * * *
_Honor Camp in Georgia._--On motion of Commissioner Winn the first
honor convict camp to be established in Georgia was recently authorized
by the Fulton County board of commissioners, recently. A force of negro
convicts, who have long been trusties, will be put to work grading.
Some of these trusties will take the place of drivers, who are now
employed by the county at a cost of $4,000 per year.
Two other resolutions tending toward convict reform were adopted. One
provides that the convicts shall not be worked more than ten hours a
day at any time during the year, and fixes longer dinner hours than
have heretofore been allowed. Another provides that the convicts shall
not be forced to walk a longer distance than three-quarters of a mile
to their work.
* * * * *
_Up to Father._--We copy the following story from the annual report of
the Pennsylvania Prison Society.
James A. Leonard, President of the American Prison Association, relates
the following story:
“A man came into my office one day, greatly excited,” said Mr.
Leonard. “He appeared to be a hard-headed business man--a live wire.
I asked him what I could do for him.
“‘I don’t know whether you can do anything’, he replied. ‘My boy is
in the hands of the sheriff over there. My boy has been sentenced to
the reformatory. But I guess you can’t do anything for him, because
he’s a born criminal.’
“‘If he’s a born criminal, he’ll be the first one I ever saw’, I
replied.
“Then this man went on and told me what he had done for his boy. He
had bought him a pony and cart when he was little, and later he had
bought him a gun and a boat, and so on, and so on, and before he
got through I marveled that the boy had not been sentenced to the
reformatory much sooner.
“‘You have bought all these things for your boy’, I said, ‘but have
you ever been a father to him?’ The man looked surprised. ‘I mean,
have you ever been a companion to him? Have you ever interested
yourself into the things he was interested in?’ He had not done so
because he was a busy business man.
“One year later when that boy was paroled he shook hands with me and
said: ‘Mr. Leonard, there is one thing above all others that I want
to thank you for, and that is for getting me acquainted with my dad.’
“I wasn’t worried much about that boy after that because he had
reached the stage where he called his father ‘my dad.’”
* * * * *
_Prison Earnings in New York._--The convict population of the State
of New York at present is 4,604, an increase of 88 over a year ago.
The highest number confined at any one time during the year was 4,838.
The total cost of maintenance during the year was $814,583. Sing Sing
earned $73,371.50, a decrease of $3,513 over the previous year; Auburn
earned $29,167.45, decrease of $39,954; Clinton earned $36,963.72,
decrease of $7,811.
* * * * *
_The Views of Boston’s District Attorney._
To the Editor of the Boston Post:
Sir--The morning Post states that in a speech last night I said that in
10 years there would be no prisons. This is far from what I said and I
would ask you to make due correction.
With the fullest hope and confidence in human nature I must confess
that I have not as yet reached the point where I could express the
belief that Utopia would be realized within the next decade. What I did
say was that within that time courts would no longer pronounce definite
sentence upon those found guilty of crime, but that the sentence or
length of time during which a guilty man should be deprived of his
liberty for the safety of the community would be determined by some
competent board of men appointed for that purpose, with all the power
and dignity of a court, who, after the fullest investigation, would
determine where the person should be sent and for what length of time,
subject to modification thereafter.
I said that the distinction between felony and misdemeanor would
be abolished and the State Prison and House of Correction would be
abolished under those names and that all institutions would be known as
Houses of Reformation only, the added sting and stigma of felony and
State Prison being removed.
I do feel that the prison of the future will differ from the prison
of to-day as much as ours does from the dungeons of yesterday, even
as the thought of punishment of a guilty man is disappearing from the
theory of advanced thinkers in criminology and in its place reformation
and development of the convicted man is becoming the principal
consideration.
Yours truly,
J. C. Pelletier, District Attorney.
Boston, December 18, 1913.
* * * * *
_Not Stripes, But Uniforms._--The fourth State Legislature of Oklahoma
provides modestly colored jeans--gray jeans for the regulars, brown
jeans for trusties in the State Penitentiary. The “ring-tailed” stripes
are still found in the store rooms of the penitentiary, but they are
used only as a means of punishment, to be worn only by prisoners who
have escaped and been returned after capture. Suits of novelty goods,
various colors, but neat, though cheap, business cuts, are provided
when prisoners have served their terms.
* * * * *
_“Dope” in Magazines._--A prisoner recently released from Stillwater
Prison, Minnesota, has been arrested by post office inspectors in New
York.
According to the inspectors, Chessman has been sending sulphate of
morphine to prisoners in the Stillwater Prison for several weeks,
inclosed in magazines. Single copies of a current periodical often
contained as much as 30 grains of the “dope”, it is alleged, and the
inmates professed an amazing fondness for reading.
The warden became suspicious when magazines not ordinarily read by
criminals began to pour in by every mail, and directed that some of
the packages be opened. It was found that the pages were literally
covered with “dope”, which had been carefully distributed between the
leaves. One of the magazines was forwarded to the government chemist
for analysis and it was discovered that 28 grains of sulphate of
morphine had been secreted in the package.
* * * * *
_Prisoners’ Wages in Iowa._--Under date of February 6th the Des Moines
Register states that the method of paying prisoners for their work
within the State Prison walls has been tried long enough to prove
the venture successful. The corps of salary-earning convicts are
those employed on the new cell house, including electricians, wirers,
plumbers, plasterers, steam fitters, mechanics and iron workers. Just
now the working force is somewhat reduced, though the weekly payroll
amounts to $69.
An effort is on foot to secure a wage allowance for the men employed
upon the construction of a new reservoir, to be followed by
compensation to prisoners for all work on strictly prison industries.
As an ultimate possibility in this direction is the plan to put all
prisoners upon a salary, charging them for their care and living, with
opportunity given for earnings.
At the same time, throughout the city of Fort Madison is being
circulated a petition to Governor Clarke to halt the employment of
prisoners to do laboring work about the city. Such work as papering,
plastering, painting and carpet cleaning is specifically mentioned. The
petition has nearly a thousand signers.
* * * * *
_At Duluth, Minnesota._--Although the joint city and county work farm
had been in operation little over a month by February 9th, prisoners
sent there have already cleared the underbrush from nearly 20 acres. It
is expected by spring over 200 acres will be cleared. During the summer
the men will prepare the land already cleared so that it may be plowed
in the spring of 1915.
According to Superintendent Fred Ward of the farm, all men now at the
institution are apparently satisfied with conditions and appear willing
to work. A few have been encountered, he says, who at first refused to
do their share.
In all 52 men have been sent to the farm from municipal and district
courts. Four men have been discharged, leaving 48, the limit, now in
the toils.
* * * * *
_Ending an Old Abuse._--The Boston Transcript thus characterizes the
effort of the War Department of our country to modernize its treatment
of military prisoners. “The bill for the revision of the Articles of
War, which was passed by the Senate recently without dissent, and
almost without debate, is intended to be the legislative expression
of Secretary Garrison’s advanced ideas on military penology. It will
be remembered that in September last Secretary Garrison issued an
order applying the principle of endeavoring to make the military
prisoner better instead of worse for his imprisonment. This is a
familiar purpose in civil penology, but an innovation in the military
code. Secretary Garrison could proceed but tentatively in putting
his reform--for reform it is--into operation, but now, if the House
concurs, he will have the authority of unquestionable law with him in
substituting detention barracks for military prisons.
“The scope of Secretary Garrison’s new departure becomes apparent when
it is said that heretofore criminal and military offences have been
regarded almost from the same point of view, and the offenders have
been treated along the same lines of punishment. Men were sent to the
army prisons, where they were worked hard and were made to feel their
disgrace whenever possible, only to be finally dishonorably discharged,
which included the forfeiting of all the rights of citizenship.
Naturally, this kind of treatment was not exactly fair to all the
prisoners, for many of the offenders had made serious mistakes through
an ignorance of military matters, or through the yielding to some
outside influence, such as deserting to visit a sick relative. Such men
as these were not really bad, but nevertheless they were made to serve
time with the ultimate disgrace of dishonorable dismissal hanging over
them along with men who were convicted of acts of moral turpitude.
“The military prisoners now are practically divided into two classes, a
classification that the proposed law will maintain:
1. Soldiers convicted of offences against the discipline of the army;
that is, purely military offenders; and