“This new order of September 17 deals mainly with the first class.
“All soldiers of the first class are separated from those of the second
class, and are given a chance to make good and to ultimately return to
their regiments and fulfil their term of enlistment. The time they have
spent in confinement is not taken out of their period of enlistment.
Most of these men are sent to the new detention barracks at Fort
Leavenworth, Ks., while the remaining few go to the barracks at the
Presidio, just outside of San Francisco. No men go to these barracks
unless they have a term of three months or more to serve, as men with
short sentences are placed in the post guard house.
“Upon a soldier’s arrival at one of these detention barracks he is
eligible for one of the companies or battalions, which are organized,
equipped and drilled as infantry under the command of officers and
non-commissioned officers specially selected and detailed from the
active list. A serious attempt is made to do away with all the
atmosphere of a prison. The men are not known by numbers, but by their
own names; and the heretofore prison garb is replaced by a uniform,
differing slightly from that of the Service. There is also school for
the more illiterate men, and courses in shorthand and typewriting are
open to all wishing to take up these subjects. Thus, these men will
learn things which will be to their advantage later in civil life. No
menial work whatever will be performed by the prisoners, except their
own police duty. Under this system the men will not feel all the while
that they are prisoners as they formerly did, but as soldiers doing
soldiers’ work and receiving soldiers’ training. And when these men
return to the colors they will not return as men who have worn stripes
and numbers, but as men who have been subjected to a special and
rigid regime of military instruction and training, for the purpose of
bestowing upon them new ideals of conduct, and to make them capable of
performing efficient service upon rejoining the army.
“And as for the men of Class II.--those convicted of acts of moral
turpitude--they are sent to Federal penitentiaries, where they will
serve the sentence given them by a military court martial. When their
time is up they will be dishonorably discharged, thus forfeiting their
right of citizenship.
“Also, this new system will have much to do in the saving of material,
money and character. It will save many from becoming social outcasts,
who only spread germs of antagonism against the army and all organized
government. The shorter terms of confinement, during which the men
receive schooling of more than one kind, cannot but help in making
soldiers and not in destroying them.”
* * * * *
_Alphonse Bertillon Dead._--Alphonse Bertillon, who died recently
at Paris, was the creator of the famous Bertillon system for the
identification of criminals. He was director of the anthropometric
department of the Paris police. The system was introduced into France
in 1883, and was eventually adopted by police departments in all parts
of the world, including the United States. However, in later years it
is being gradually supplanted by the finger-print system.
M. Bertillon’s system was based on his discoveries that certain
physical features and dimensions of certain bones or bony structures
in the body practically remain the same during adult life. He took the
measures of the head length, head breadth, the length of the middle
finger, the left foot and the length of the forearm from the elbow
to the end of the little finger. These various measurements were
subdivided into three classes, “small,” “medium” and “large.” As the
system developed, M. Bertillon added the height of a person, the color
of the eyes and length of the little finger. All this information was
entered on classified cards.
By means of the system police departments have been able to
keep records of crooks who have been arrested and convicted.
This information has been of great value in the prosecution of
criminals, identified as previous offenders by means of the records,
notwithstanding their professions of innocence. Identification bureaus
in the largest cities exchange Bertillon measurements one with
another, and thus increase the efficiency of the system and add to the
embarrassment of the criminally inclined.
* * * * *
_Parole in Michigan._--During the fiscal year ending December 31, 1913,
the State pardon board paroled 647 prisoners, having investigated a
total of 1,424 cases. The average length of parole was 10.8 months,
the average number on parole during the year was 619 and the number of
prisoners violating their paroles was 199, the percentage of violation
being 15.9 per cent.
Forty-three meetings were held by the board, four being at Marquette,
12 at Jackson, 12 at Detroit and three at Lansing.
The paroled prisoners earned a total of $287,796.65, while the total
expenses of the board were $4,370.30.
There is some opposition to the present system of a pardon board, the
members of which receive $7 per day and expenses when acting. No member
is paid for more than 200 days of any one year, however.
* * * * *
_The Jacksonville Correctional Farm._--Police Justice Stein, of
Detroit, has recently brought this description of the Jacksonville
(Fla.) city prison farm:
“The farm consists of 640 acres, a mile square, and lies about seven
miles outside the city of Jacksonville,” he said. “The property was
purchased by the city two years ago. Several hundred acres were then
covered with timber. Much of it was high and dry and clear of timber,
while the remainder of the land was submerged. The land was purchased
at a low price. Since the city bought it the water has been drained
off into the St. Johns’ river, and this portion of the farm is now as
fertile as any land in Florida.
“An ordinary wire fence, about five feet high, is the only enclosure
about the farm. There are four buildings on the land, all of wood. One
is for the women who are sent to the farm, and one for the attendants,
consisting of a warden, a cook, a physician and several guards and
helpers. The other two are used by the prisoners. The buildings for the
prisoners are equipped with shower baths.
“The prisoners are taught to work on the farm. They raise all the
vegetables used on the farm, and the sole cost to the city of operating
the farm is for meat and clothes which averages about seven cents a
day for each prisoner. The prisoners do not wear striped clothes, but
overalls and ordinary jumpers. Neither is a ball and chain fastened to
them when they go to work. During the last two years but one prisoner
has escaped or tried to escape, and he came back of his own volition
two days later.
“The average number of men on the farm runs from 75 to 100, while the
number of women averages about three to five. Both whites and negroes
are sent to the farm. Besides the farm work carried on, the men work on
roads, ditches, at cutting timber, and in planting new trees. The men
are divided into squads.
“No prisoner is sentenced to the farm for more than ninety days.
“By a peculiar architectural arrangement one man can guard all the
buildings. Each building has but one door. These doors all face a
common center, about 25 yards away. The walks from the doors to the
center are bordered by a high wire fence. At the center is the gate,
which admits the prisoners to the farm. Here the guard sits with his
rifle, and he can cover the buildings easily.
“The increased value of the land since it was purchased by the city,
due to the draining of the swamp, its high degree of fertility and the
good roads on it, have more than offset the purchase price, and the
money expended by the city to keep the prisoners in meat and clothes.
“I think the day is not far distant when Detroit will consider the
advisability of establishing a prison farm.
“Most of the prisoners at the Jacksonville farm are drunks and petty
offenders, and the steady work in the open air away from other workmen
and congestion of one kind and another, has a salutary effect on their
mental processes, which is highly beneficial. The average number of
prisoners who come back to the farm for further offenses is relatively
small, according to Justice Anderson. I think it is a step in the right
direction.
“In Jacksonville persons who carry concealed weapons are sentenced by
the police judge and not by the judges of the recorder’s court, as is
the case in Detroit. A police justice also has the power of pardoning
any person he sentences to the prison farm. Justice Anderson told me he
would not be police justice if he did not have the pardoning power.”
* * * * *
_Politics and Prison._--“Until politicians keep their hands off State
prisons there is no hope for reforming notorious abuses in the system,”
says Henry Solomon, President of the New York State Commission of
Prisons. Mr. Solomon recently finished an exhaustive examination of
Sing Sing Prison.
“We see no use in mincing words on this subject,” said Mr. Solomon. “We
know it is not an easy thing to find the right man to run a prison, but
we believe he can be found some where in this country, if it is really
desired to find him.
“The present Warden at Sing Sing has so far as we know no particular
experience in prison matters. He has however, made many improvements in
the short time he has been there. We are perfectly willing to suspend
judgment until he has had a further chance to prove what he can do.
We must add, however, that there is much room for improvement and
particularly in the industries.”
Mr. Solomon said that the suggestions of Thomas Mott Osborne, arising
from his personal experience in Auburn Prison, had afforded valuable
hints.
* * * * *
_Some Reasons For Massachusetts Pardons._--The Governor and Council
in Massachusetts granted 69 pardons in 1913. One man, sentenced to 18
months for polygamy, had had papers served on him back in 1902 for
divorce, had been introduced to a man represented to be his divorced
wife’s second husband and, supposing himself to be a single man, had
married a Lawrence woman in 1911. Another, an 18-year-old sailor-boy,
sentenced for assault and battery, had had no counsel at his trial.
Another sentenced for second-degree murder, was at most, according to
this statement, guilty only of manslaughter for striking a fatal blow
at a huge negro in fear of repetition of revolting treatment. He had
pleaded guilty to the greater charge on advice of counsel.
Among a long list of cases, somewhat similar in the showing made, is
a curious one of a man released on condition that he go to the Long
Island hospital and submit to an operation for the transfusion of blood
to his mother, who it was believed could be cured in this way and would
otherwise die.
Such a report lends strength to the plan Prison Commissioner Randall
is urging before the legislature for an indeterminate sentence system,
says the Worcester Post. It is a question on which much can be said pro
and con, though the most advanced penologists are pretty well agreed as
to its advantages when wisely administered. Indiana and Minnesota have
found that it works with even unexpected success. Mr. Randall, in the
recent hearing on his bill, urged that it
“Would relieve the courts from fixing the maximum and minimum of those
committed to state prison, which was right, for the court’s duty is
simply to find whether a man is guilty and it does not study his
personality to any extent. The question of when a prisoner shall be
released should be left to the parole board rather than to the court.”
As a practical consideration, also, it would relieve the Governor and
council from work which now absorbs much of their time and energy. A
competent parole board would specialize in the study of convicts and
their needs and thus add to knowledge that is needed in our modern life
and the duty to make it better by every means within our reach.
* * * * *
_The Virginia Penitentiary._--According to the annual report of the
State penitentiary board to the governor, the big prison not only
made expenses last year, but earned a net profit of $20,412.31. Its
operating expenses were $115,098.88 and its receipts $135,511.10. Of
the total earnings $130,573 came from the hiring of the men on the
contract system in the penitentiary shops. Defending itself from the
charge of overworking the prisoners for the benefit of the contract
holders, the board calls attention to the fact that the 800 prisoners
released during the year ending September 31, were paid the sum of
$10,575.85, which represents their earnings during imprisonment.
The board emphasizes the fact that the prisoners do not work more than
an average of nine hours a day. The amount of the prisoners’ fund on
hand on October 1, was $16,22.44, notwithstanding that $10,575.85 had
been paid to discharged prisoners and $14,902.79 spent by the prisoners
during the year on delicacies.
There were in the penitentiary on October 1, 1913, 728 prisoners, 300
at the State farm and 1,057 in the twenty-nine road camps, making a
total of 2,118. On the same day of 1912, there were in the penitentiary
1,158 prisoners confined, 286 at the State farm and 691 in nineteen
road camps, a total of 2,131. The daily average of prisoners confined
in the penitentiary for the fiscal year ending September 31, 1913, was
1,012, as against 1,213 for the preceding year.
A total of 785 new prisoners were received during the year. By
expiration of term, 487 prisoners were discharged, two were granted
absolute pardons, fifty-six were granted conditional pardons, 169 were
paroled, 31 died, 54 escaped from the road camps and nine were sent to
insane asylums.
Of the 728 prisoners not fitted for work in the road camps, 139 are
white men, 499 colored men, five white women and eighty-five colored
women. Of the 785 prisoners received during the year 362 could read
and write and 423 were illiterate; 373 were abstainers, 278 moderate
drinkers and 134 intemperate; 277 were married, 489 single and two
divorced.--(Roanoke News).
* * * * *
_A Holiday at Auburn._--An unusual event took place in Auburn prison,
when 1,400 convicts, observing Lincoln’s birthday, marched from cells
to chapel and mess hall in charge of convict captains, elected by the
inmates several weeks before, as their representatives in the mutual
welfare league. The convict officers relieved the regular officers of
their usual duties and maintained splendid discipline.
The holiday entertainment was furnished entirely by convict talent and
included an oration on Lincoln by an inmate.
* * * * *
_The Development of Road Work._--Thirteen States have passed
laws during the present year allowing the use of convicts in the
construction and repair of highways, according to a compilation by Dr.
E. Stagg Whitin, assistant in social legislation in Columbia university
and chairman of the executive committee of the national committee on
prison labor. They are Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana,
Kansas, Maine, New Jersey, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West
Virginia and Wisconsin. As many other States had previously passed
similar legislation, but few of the forty-eight States have not adopted
the policy of using prisoners to build and maintain public roads.
West Virginia and Iowa are the two States whose laws regarding the
working of convicts on highways stand out most prominently. So anxious
was the governor of the former State to secure an effective law that
he went to New York and with the assistance of representatives of the
national committee on prison labor, of the road department of Columbia
university and of the legislative drafting bureau worked out bills
making compulsory the employment of convicts on the roads. The West
Virginia law authorizes the county courts to make appropriations out of
road funds for convict work; it states that the court shall sentence
any male person over sixteen to road work instead of to the county
jail; persons charged with misdemeanors unable to furnish bail shall
work on the roads and if acquitted when tried shall be paid 50 cents
a day for each day’s work they perform; justices of the peace shall
sentence to work on the roads persons convicted of crime whom otherwise
they would send to the county jail.
Another feature of the West Virginia law is the establishment of a
State road bureau to supervise any plans proposed by a county for using
prison labor in road building. The plan approved, the county shall
apply to the board of control for the number of prisoners required
and shall state the length of time they shall be needed. The board
shall, as far as possible, give equal service to each of the counties
and shall determine which prisoners may be assigned to such work. The
warden is to provide suitable and movable quarters, which shall be
built, where possible, by convict labor. The convicts shall remain
under direct control of the warden, their work, however, being under
the supervision of the road bureau.
In Iowa the board of control of the State institutions with the advice
of the warden of any penal institution, may permit able bodied male
prisoners to work on the roads. The law specifically states such labor
shall not be leased to contractors. A prisoner opposed to such work,
or whose character and disposition make it probable that he would
attempt escape or be unruly, is not to be worked on the highways.
Although the prisoners are under the jurisdiction of the warden while
building or repairing roads, their work is supervised by the State
Highway Commissioner. Prisoners employed on the highways of Iowa
receive such part of their earnings above the cost of their keep as the
board deems equitable, the earnings either being funded or given to
their dependent families. Before Iowa passed her present prison labor
laws, George W. Cosson, attorney general of the State, made a thorough
investigation of the prisons of his own and other States, and strongly
denounced the contract system, under which the prisoners were employed
up to that time. Mr. Cosson drew up the road bill and is of the opinion
it will do much to drive the contract system out of the State.
* * * * *
_The Cost of a “Chair.”_--The State of Tennessee’s new electric chair
at the State prison is now in readiness.
A total of 2,300 volts are to be used in operating the death chair. The
equipment is said to be the most up-to-date in the United States. It
cost the State of Tennessee $1,750.
* * * * *
_Land Reclamation Plans in Massachusetts._--Under the provisions of the
so-called wet lands reclamation act passed by the legislature of last
year, the State boards of agriculture and health are contemplating the
purchase of about 300 acres of swamp land in Walpole, to begin work
which is eventually expected to reclaim between 100,000 and 200,000
acres of land within 30 miles of Boston, and including the towns of
North Billerica, Lincoln, Concord, Bedford and Carlisle.
Most of the land will be available for agricultural purposes; other
portions will furnish manufacturing sites.
Chairman Randall of the prison commission is considering the
advisability of using prison labor on the work, and an effort will
shortly be made to obtain from the legislature provision whereby a
portion of the wages earned by the prison laborers can be given to
their families.
* * * * *
_Convict Farm in Arkansas Condemned._--Here are some of the conditions
alleged by Officer W. M. Rankin of the Arkansas Humane Society to
exist at the Monroe County convict farm. Mr. Rankin made the following
charges:
That when the prisoners were brought in from their work at six o’clock
in the afternoon, they were chained to a long chain which extended the
length of their room and that they were thus kept chained all night.
They were kept chained thus from six o’clock Saturday night until they
went to work Monday morning, being released only to take baths. Mr.
Rankin states, however, that he was told by the prisoners and by one of
the guards that the chaining was discontinued about a week before he
visited the place.
That he found eight white men confined in a room about twelve feet
square. That he found ten negro prisoners in a room 12 by 14 feet.
That the bed for the white prisoners consisted of some straw mattresses
placed on planks that had been nailed to the wall, four comforts and
no pillows. That the bedding for the ten negro prisoners consisted of
two straw mattresses and a few comforts, all of which were covered with
vermin.
That all clothing given the prisoners was charged to them and that they
were forced to work out the amounts charged except for rubber boots
furnished them.
That the food furnished the prisoners was insufficient; that they were
furnished with neither knives nor forks nor a table and were compelled
to stand or sit on their bunks while eating.
That prisoners were whipped on their naked flesh with a heavy piece of
leather about four and three inches in width.
That sanitary conditions were awful.
Mr. Rankin further charges that he found men working on the farm who
had been convicted in the court of the mayor of Brinkley and also
that he found that many of the negro convicts had been detained for a
considerable period after their terms had expired, according to the
records of the mayor’s court.
Three white men are mentioned as being illegally detained. One was
Claude McKinnon, and Mr. Rankin said that he has in his possession
a certified copy of the docket of the court of Mayor Camerone of
Brinkley, which shows that McKinnon was tried January 13, on a charge
of loitering and discharged, despite which fact, he was found confined
at the county farm.
Another white man, says the report, was W. Van Beek, who was sentenced
from the mayor’s court January 6. The report says that Van Beek was
still on the farm February 1, and that if the mayor’s docket was
correct, he had then worked seven days overtime.
He also says that Frank Lynch, fined $10 and $4.30 costs in the mayor’s
court, December 29, was released from the farm February 1, and that if
the mayor’s docket is correct, he has worked 14 days overtime.
* * * * *
_Transportation Again?_--The Buffalo (N. Y.) Express states that
the question of exiling habitual or professional criminals is being
agitated in England. In a recent report of the British prison
commissioners it is noted that the number of persons having previous
convictions has in late years risen from 78 to 87 per cent. The
latest available figures show that in England only 118 of 916
sentenced to penal servitude had not been previously convicted, and
that the greater number of old offenders had from six to twenty
convictions against them. It is estimated that at the present time
there are in London alone 20,000 habitual criminals. “The only way of
dealing with these habitual criminals”, says an English authority,
“is to expel them from the community against which they wage
incessant war. A third conviction should cause the prisoner to be
deported to some island and reduced to a state of industrial serfdom,
in which he could earn his living.”
To adopt this suggestion means a return to the old system of
convict colonies. An obstacle to the segregation plan under present
conditions is the scarcity of lands available for such purposes.
Suitable island territory is at a premium. Continental land except in
isolated cases is not desirable for the location of convict colonies,
because of the opportunities for escape. The alternative is the
establishment of prison farms--a system experimented with more or
less during recent years. Here, too, the opportunities for escape are
many. The prison farm is most suitable to first termers. But that
still leaves the question of disposition of the professional criminal
unsettled.
* * * * *
_Idleness Reduced at Ohio Penitentiary._--The Columbia Journal says
that “a remarkable change in penitentiary conditions has occurred since
Warden Thomas was put in charge of the institution last summer by
Governor Cox. At that time there were 750 idle men in the institution;
to-day only 200 men are in the idle house. Within the next two weeks
the idle house will be more than conspicuous by the absence of
occupants.”
The new school and the woolen mills nearing completion will result
in the depletion of the ranks of the idle house. This is the final
solution of one of the biggest problems at the penitentiary, which
Governor Cox insisted should be met when he placed Warden Thomas in
charge. The prisoners in the school will attend six-hour sessions.
“The White City,” said to be the finest example of cell-block
construction in the country, is the name given by prisoners at Ohio
penitentiary to the new cell block which replaced one built in 1874.
“The White City” houses 580 men. It is known officially as cell blocks
“C” and “D.” It has 280 cells, built in five ranges or stories, with 28
cells to a range.
Two prisoners sleep in each cell on steel bunks, which can be raised up
against the wall like the upper berths of a sleeping car. The entire
cell block and all equipment in it are built entirely of steel. It
is fireproof throughout, the only inflammable things in it being the
hair mattresses used by the prisoners. “The White City” is modern and
sanitary, with running water, electric lights and toilet facilities in
each cell.
The prisoners in “the White City” are men of excellent behavior and
“100 per cent.” men. This cell block is about the only part of the
present penitentiary that will be used in the new prison farm. It was
constructed in such a way that it can be moved to the prison farm in
sections.
* * * * *
_Another Item From Colorado._--“We have built between 1,200 and 1,500
miles of State highways under this system at a cost of about $389
per mile for labor,” says Warden Tynan. “These roads are built of
disintegrated granite and are fine boulevards--not ordinary roads. We
are now driving a road through solid granite, 16 feet wide and well
surfaced, which costs us about $1,000 per mile for labor, and that
is the hardest kind of construction. The roads are maintained in
good condition by the use of drags. They cost about $4 each, and are
effective in keeping the road well surfaced, if used after each heavy
rain.
“The State does this work for the counties by furnishing a dollar in
labor for each dollar that the county provides for road work. The money
the State puts up is used to maintain the camps, an expense of 32 cents
per day per man.”
* * * * *
_Cleaning Out a Prison._--Governor Cole L. Blease expects to clear
the South Carolina Penitentiary of about four hundred prisoners
by next August, according to his statement during an inquiry into
the conditions at the State Hospital for the Insane by a special
legislative committee. The governor urged that the prison be converted
into a tuberculosis hospital for negroes.
D. J. Griffith, Superintendent, said there were not enough convicts
left to do even such work as waiting on the table. There were more than
1,300 prisoners in the penitentiary when Gov. Blease assumed office
three years ago, but he has extended Executive clemency in more than a
thousand cases. “In January sixty-four convicts had been the recipients
of clemency and if the Governor continues at his usual rate it will not
be long until the penitentiary will be cleaned out.”--So speaks the New
York Evening Sun of February 5.
* * * * *
_An Ex-Convict Running For Governor._--Al J. Jennings, ex-train robber
and federal prisoner, who won the Democratic nomination for county
attorney of Oklahoma county, Oklahoma, in 1912, has announced his
candidacy for the governorship of the State of Oklahoma.
“My object is to clean up the party in Oklahoma. I intend to fight
double dealing political thieves, with whom no self-respecting outlaw
of former years can associate.
“All I want is to see absolutely honest men at the head of the
government, and after I have announced my candidacy if some man whose
integrity and uprightness are unquestioned becomes a candidate I shall
withdraw and support him with all of my ability.
“Some people do not seem to be able to understand how an outlaw, an
ex-train robber and federal prisoner can become sincerely law-abiding
and a reformer in politics, but the explanation is simple. I made a
mistake and defied the law. I was caught and punished--kept five years
in prison--and then saw how I had been wrong to become an enemy of
society. I decided to reclaim my place in society and set about doing
it. As soon as I became a free man, living in a free community, I began
to appreciate the differences in lawbreaking and the consequences
thereof, and that made me a political reformer.
“I had been a train robber, a crude, open defier of society, and I had
been caught and punished. I saw all about me men who wore the best
clothes and stood high in society robbing the people right and left and
not getting caught or being punished. They were not as primitive as I
had been in the method they chose. They did things in the dark and only
appeared in the open when they had on their Sunday clothes, so to speak.
“I favor the adoption of a reformatory parole system,” he said, “by
which first offenders can be given a chance to redeem themselves. I
think that a young man who is convicted for the first time should be
allowed to stay at home and work under the watchful eye of the State
instead of being locked up in a prison where, in all probability, he
will be made a confirmed criminal. There will be no wholesale release
of prisoners if I become governor, but I will exercise the power of
pardon and parole with the view of reclaiming for society every man I
can. As long as there is a chance of making a good citizen of a man we
should try to do so.”
Jennings was a train robber in Oklahoma and the southwest for several
years before his final capture in 1897 and subsequent conviction in a
federal court. He served a few years in the prison at Columbus, O.,
before being pardoned by President McKinley. His citizenship was later
restored by President Roosevelt, and he began the practice of law in
Oklahoma City. In 1912, he ran for the Democratic nomination as county
attorney of Oklahoma county against six other candidates. Before the
primaries five of the candidates withdrew to concentrate the vote
against him, but in spite of this he obtained the nomination. At the
general election he was defeated by a narrow margin by a Republican who
was supported by both the Republicans and Democratic organizations.
* * * * *
_More Road Work._--In June, 1912, the State of Massachusetts decided
to start a camp and employ the inmates in road construction and
reforestation work, and, accordingly, forty model prisoners were
selected from the Worcester House of Correction and sent to the State
reservation at Mt. Wachusett.
These men erected five buildings and cleared the land for a garden
patch on which, by the way, enormous quantities of vegetables were
raised this year, enough in fact to supply the camp and to some
extent, the Worcester institution, for the past winter.
There were many who at first were strongly against the establishment
of a camp on the side of the mountain, being of the opinion that the
reservation would be spoiled for the State, and particularly for the
town of Westminster, but this objection soon wore away. The measure
of success is both in work accomplished and benefit to the prisoners,
physically and mentally.
What first impresses the visitor to the camp is the total absence of
anything suggestive of confinement and of a corrective institution. The
inmates are free to wander within certain limits from the cluster of
buildings and while they are garbed in the customary gray suits worn by
other county prisoners, there is little to suggest the prisoner to the
passerby in their actions and general demeanor.
So far, twenty-two miles of road have been constructed through the
forest, at a small expense to the county, by the prisoners. A stone
crusher and a compression drill are parts of the equipment of the road
building gang, which is under the charge of the master of the camp.
Flanked on three sides by mountain slopes and by a large meadow on
the other, the camp is situated in an ideal spot. Thankful are the
prisoners for the change from indoor confinement, and in token of
appreciation they work as hard if not harder than men on the outside
who enjoy their full liberty.
Supplies are brought from the Worcester jail twice a week by auto
truck which generally takes back a load of potatoes or turnips and an
occasional term-expired prisoner. Only men who are sentenced for short
terms are sent to Westminster and therefore the camps population is
constantly changing.
Mr. Coombs, in charge of the camp, said that only three prisoners had
ever made their escape, which was an extremely simple matter, and that
this trio all returned and pleaded to be taken back into the fold.
There are no locks or bars on the dormitory shed and it is an easy
matter for a man to take “French leave” if he so desires.
Next year it is thought the State will add to the camp property by
purchasing the Bolton farm across the road, and in this way fifty more
prisoners will be accommodated.--Boston Herald.
* * * * *
_Probation Results in Massachusetts._--The Worcester Telegram states
that “the Massachusetts probation commission is approaching the
millionaire class. In 1909 it handled less than $50,000, and in 1913
almost $218,000. That is money collected from people under court
jurisdiction and paid to others for various reasons: For restitution of
property taken unlawfully, $24,250.63; for non-support, which is turned
into support of families of the delinquent, $140,773.96; for court
expenses, $3,335.34; for fines in the case of suspended sentences,
$49,304.09. The increase of such business throughout the State has been
so large in the five years, from half a hundred thousand to nearly a
quarter of a million dollars, that the chances are good it will reach
the million list in the next five years.
“The probation officials claim they have saved a great many, almost the
entire list falling into their hands, from the kind of shiftless if
not criminal lives they had been leading, and there is no doubt they
have reported correctly. But there is that tremendous increase in the
work and cash results of the Probation Commission and its officers,
and at the same time the jails and prisons remain full and get still
fuller. Then crime must be on the increase in Massachusetts, not only
in occasional lapses of the people, but as a regular condition which
grows with the years. The probation service of the State costs over
$20,000 a year, but the receipts the last year were, for the benefit of
the State, $80,000 more than that. The following from the commission’s
report is worth reading by all the people:
“While the large sum of money collected by the probation officers
of the state is not covered permanently into a public treasury, it
is not less an actual financial benefit. Consisting very largely
of enforced payments from other wise non-supporting husbands and
fathers, it goes to the same extent and without diminution to the
natural dependents. It relieves the state and the municipalities of
the cost of caring for these neglected persons, and observation shows
that this saving is substantially equal to the amount collected.
Meanwhile the probationer who is made to contribute it is usefully
employed, as he must be to provide for the payments, and the public
is relieved of the expense of maintaining him in jail.”
“That shows a tremendous saving of money, as well as preventing the
waste of the same money in idling away time and getting into closer
touch with crime. What that means can be still more plainly seen from
the report that in 1909 non-supporting husbands to the number of 617,
contributed $25,218.13, but in 1913, non-supporting husbands to the
number of 1,240 gave up $140,773.96. That shows a gain of 100 per
cent. in the number of cases, but nearly 450 per cent. in the amount
collected. That leads the Commission on Probation to ask for more money
than it is allowed under the law, and a bill goes before the house at
Boston to give the Commission more than the $5,000 it has now. The
Commissioners do not draw salaries, but they have an office, with a
salaried deputy and stenographer. They want a chance to enlarge their
powers and work, because many courts are calling for probation officers
and what business they do must come under the care of the Commission.
But the serious question is as to what the State is coming to while it
enlarges on the plans to make the delinquents pay their way as they do
in the cases cited and still have an increase of crime and dependence
on the public charity for support. The courts do no less, the jails and
prisons no more, and still there is the claim that the people are being
taught to do better.”
* * * * *
_Scrapping Metal and Scrapping Men._--Governor Foss of Massachusetts
recently said: “Let me add in all seriousness that the managers of my
own shops and factories make a more efficient and intelligent sorting
and reclamation of scrap metal than the laws have generally made of the
living men and women that have been thrown upon the scrap heap of our
jails and prisons.”
* * * * *
Miss Margaret Elliott of Cleveland, Ohio, formerly connected with
the Training School for Girls at Geneva, Ill., has been appointed
superintendent of the Indiana prison. She will succeed Miss Emily E.
Rhoades, who resigned last December.
* * * * *
STATEMENT OF THE OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, ETC. of THE DELINQUENT
Published monthly at New York, N. Y., required by the Act of August
24th, 1912.
NAME OF POST OFFICE ADDRESS
Editor, O. F. Lewis, 135 East 15th St., New York City.
Managing Editor, O. F Lewis, “ “ “ “ “ “
Business Manager, O. F. Lewis, “ “ “ “ “ “
Publisher, The National
Prisoners’ Aid Association, “ “ “ “ “ “
Owners, “ “
“ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “
There are no bondholders, mortgages, or other security holders.
O. F. LEWIS, Editor and Business Manager.
Sworn to and subscribed before me this 30th day of September, 1913.
H. L. McCORMICK, Notary Public No. 6, Kings County.
My Commission expires March 31, 1914.
* * * * *
Transcriber’s Notes:
Punctuation has been made consistent.
Variations in spelling and hyphenation were retained as they appear in
the original publication, except that obvious typographical errors have
been corrected.
p. 8: Item 2 is as presented in the original text.
p. 12: 3 and 8 on the first two lines of the table are not completely
legible in the original text and could be either 3 or 8 in each case.
p. 26: Invalid date of September 31 is in the original text.
p. 26: A digit may be missing in a number in the original text, or a
comma may be misplaced (was $16,22.44, notwithstanding).