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NEW SERIES No. 50
THE JOURNAL
OF
PRISON DISCIPLINE
AND
PHILANTHROPY
[Illustration]
PUBLISHED ANNUALLY
BY THE
PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY
INSTITUTED MAY 8, 1787
[Illustration]
NOVEMBER, 1911
[Illustration]
OFFICE: STATE HOUSE ROW
S. W. CORNER FIFTH AND CHESTNUT STREETS
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
OFFICIAL VISITORS.
No person who is not an official visitor of the prison, or who has not
a written permission, according to such rules as the Inspectors may
adopt as aforesaid, shall be allowed to visit the same; the official
visitors are: the Governor, the Speaker and members of the Senate; the
Speaker and members of the House of Representatives; the Secretary of
the Commonwealth; the Judges of the Supreme Court; the Attorney-General
and his Deputies; the President and Associate Judges of all the courts
in the State; the Mayor and Recorders of the cities of Philadelphia,
Lancaster, and Pittsburg; Commissioners and Sheriffs of the several
Counties; and the “Acting Committee of the Philadelphia Society for
Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons.” (Note: Now named “The
Pennsylvania Prison Society.”)--_Section 7, Act of April 23, 1829._
The above was supplemented by the following Act, approved March 20,
1903:
AN ACT.
To make active or visiting committees of societies incorporated for
the purpose of visiting and instructing prisoners official visitors
of penal and reformatory institutions.
SECTION I. Be it enacted, etc., That the active or visiting committee
of any society heretofore incorporated and now existing in the
Commonwealth for the purpose of visiting and instructing prisoners,
or persons confined in any penal or reformatory institution, and
alleviating their miseries, shall be and are hereby made official
visitors of any jail, penitentiary, or other penal or reformatory
institution in this Commonwealth, maintained at the public expense,
with the same powers, privileges, and functions as are vested in the
official visitors of prisons and penitentiaries, as now prescribed by
law: Provided, That no active or visiting committee of any such society
shall be entitled to visit such jails or penal institutions, under this
act, unless notice of the names of the members of such committee, and
the terms of their appointment, is given by such society, in writing,
under its corporate seal, to the warden, superintendent or other
officer in charge of such jail, or other officer in charge of any such
jail or other penal institution.
Approved--The 20th day of March, A. D. 1903.
SAML. W. PENNYPACKER.
The foregoing is a true and correct copy of the Act of the General
Assembly No. 48.
FRANK M. FULLER,
_Secretary of the Commonwealth_.
[Illustration: THE PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY OFFICE, S. W. COR. 5TH
AND CHESTNUT STS.]
NEW SERIES No. 50
THE JOURNAL
OF
PRISON DISCIPLINE
AND
PHILANTHROPY
PUBLISHED ANNUALLY
UNDER THE DIRECTION OF “THE PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY”
INSTITUTED MAY 8TH, 1787
NOVEMBER, 1911
OFFICE: STATE HOUSE ROW
S. W. CORNER FIFTH AND CHESTNUT STREETS
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
SPECIAL NOTICES.
All correspondence with reference to the work of the Society, or to the
JOURNAL OF PRISON DISCIPLINE AND PHILANTHROPY, should be addressed to
THE PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY, 500 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, Pa.
The National Prison Congress of the United States for the past ten
years has designated the fourth Sunday in October, annually, as Prison
Sunday. To aid the movement for reformation, some speakers may be
supplied from this Society. Apply to chairman of the Committee on
Prison Sunday.
FREDERICK J. POOLEY is the General Agent of the Society. His address is
500 Chestnut St., Philadelphia.
Contributions for the work of the Society may be sent to JOHN WAY,
Treasurer, 409 Chestnut St., Philadelphia.
FORM OF BEQUEST OF PERSONAL PROPERTY.
I give and bequeath to “THE PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY” the sum of
.... Dollars.
FORM OF DEVISE OF REAL ESTATE.
I give and devise to “THE PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY” all that certain
piece or parcel of land. (Here describe the property.)
OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY FOR 1911
PRESIDENT
JOSHUA L. BAILY, 30 S. Fifteenth Street, Philadelphia.
VICE-PRESIDENTS
REV. HERMAN L. DUHRING, D. D., 225 S. Third Street, Philadelphia.
REV. F. H SENFT, 560 N. Twentieth Street, Philadelphia.
TREASURER
JOHN WAY, 409 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia.
HONORARY SECRETARY
[1]JOHN J. LYTLE, Moorestown, N. J.
SECRETARY
ALBERT H. VOTAW, 500 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia.
HONORARY COUNSELOR
HON. WILLIAM N. ASHMAN, 44th and Spruce Streets, Philadelphia.
COUNSELORS
HENRY S. CATTELL, ESQ., 1218 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia.
OWEN J. ROBERTS, ESQ., West End Trust Building, Philadelphia.
GENERAL AGENT
FREDERICK J. POOLEY, 500 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia.
THE ACTING COMMITTEE
FOR ONE YEAR
Rev. Floyd W. Tomkins, D.D.,
Rev. J. F. Ohl,
Harry Kennedy,
Layyah Barakat,
William E. Tatum,
Mary S. Wetherell,
George S. Wetherell,
Henry C. Cassel,
Albert Oetinger,
Rev. Philip Lamerdin,
Mrs. E. W. Gormly,
A. Jackson Wright,
Frank H. Longshore,
Charles H. LeFevre,
Rev. M. Reed Minnich.
FOR TWO YEARS
[1]John J. Lytle,
P. H. Spellissy,
Fred J. Pooley,
William Scattergood,
Mrs. P. W. Lawrence,
William Koelle,
Rev. R. Heber Barnes,
Dr. William C. Stokes,
Deborah C. Leeds,
Mrs. Horace Fassitt,
Joseph C. Noblit.
Miss C. V. Hodges,
Rebecca P. Latimer,
Joseph Rhoads.
FOR THREE YEARS
Charles P. Hastings,
Isaac P. Miller,
Elias H. White,
John Smallzell,
John A. Duncan,
Samuel B. Garrigues,
Charles McDole,
Harrison Walton,
Mrs. Mary S. Grigg,
Robert B. Adams,
William Morris,
Emma L. Thompson.
Annie McFedries,
[1]Robert P. Nicholson,
Rev. Thomas Latimer.
[1] Deceased 1911.
COMMITTEES FOR 1911
_Visiting Committee for the Eastern State Penitentiary_:
[2]John J. Lytle, Frank H. Longshore, William Morris,
P. H. Spellissy, A. Jackson Wright, Robert B. Adams,
Dr. William C. Stokes, Charles H. LeFevre, Rev. M. Reed Minnich,
Rev. F. H. Senft, Charles P. Hastings, [2] Robert P. Nicholson,
William Koelle, John Smallzell, Deborah C. Leeds,
Joseph C. Noblit, Charles McDole, Mrs. Horace Fassitt,
Rev. Philip Lamerdin, Samuel B. Garrigues, Miss Rebecca P. Latimer,
Harry Kennedy, Harrison Walton, Layyah Barakat,
Rev. J. F. Ohl, Albert H. Votaw, Mary S. Wetherell,
William E. Tatum, Rev. Thomas Latimer, Mrs. Mary S. Grigg,
George S. Wetherell, J. A. Duncan, Emma L. Thompson.
Henry C. Cassel, Isaac P. Miller,
_Visiting Committee for the Philadelphia County Prison_:
Joseph C. Noblit, Albert H. Votaw, Miss C. V. Hodges,
John A. Duncan, Mrs. P. W. Lawrence, Miss Rebecca P. Latimer.
Isaac P. Miller, Deborah C. Leeds,
William Morris, Mrs. Horace Fassitt,
_For the Holmesburg Prison_:
Frederick J. Pooley, Rev. Philip Lamerdin, William Morris.
_For the Philadelphia House of Correction_:
William Koelle, William Morris, Deborah C. Leeds.
Layyah Barakat,
_For the Chester and Delaware County Prison_:
William Scattergood, John Way, Mrs. Deborah C. Leeds.
Joseph Rhoads,
_For the Bucks County Prison_:
(One vacancy.)
Albert Oetinger.
_Committee on Western Penitentiary and Allegheny County Prison_:
Miss Annie McFedries, Mrs. E. W. Gormly.
_Committee on Discharged Prisoners_:
Joseph C. Noblit, George S. Wetherell, Miss C. V. Hodges.
Dr. William C. Stokes, Mrs. Horace Fassitt,
_Committee on Police Matrons_:
Mrs. Mary S. Grigg, Miss C. V. Hodges, Miss Rebecca P. Latimer.
_Committee on Prison Sunday_:
Rev. H. L. Duhring, D.D., Rev. R. Heber Barnes, Rev. Philip Lamerdin.
Rev. J. F. Ohl, Rev. F. H. Senft,
_Editorial Committee_:
Rev. R. Heber Barnes, Rev. J. F. Ohl, Dr. William C. Stokes.
Albert H. Votaw, The President (ex officio)
_Committee on Legislation_:
Rev. J. F. Ohl, Elias H. White, [2]Robert P. Nicholson.
Rev. R. Heber Barnes, Joseph C. Noblit,
_Membership Committee_:
Dr. William C. Stokes, Elias H. White, Henry C. Cassel.
George S. Wetherell, Isaac P. Miller,
_Finance Committee_:
George S. Wetherell, Isaac P. Miller, Joseph Rhoads.
Joseph C. Noblit, A. Jackson Wright,
_Auditors_:
Charles P. Hastings, John A. Duncan, [2]Robert P. Nicholson.
[2] Deceased 1911.
JOURNAL OF PRISON DISCIPLINE AND PHILANTHROPY
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FOURTH YEAR
1787. OF 1911.
THE PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY
The 124th Annual Meeting of “THE PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY” was held
January 27, 1911, at the office of the Society at the S. W. Corner of
Fifth and Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia.
The meeting was called to order by the President, JOSHUA L. BAILY.
The Minutes of the 123d Annual Meeting were read and approved.
Twenty-six members of the Society were present.
Reports were read from the Acting Committee and from the General Agent,
FRED. J. POOLEY, which were approved and directed to be printed in the
forthcoming JOURNAL.
The Treasurer, JOHN WAY, produced a detailed statement of the receipts
and disbursements for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1910. (See
page 15.)
The following Amendment to the Constitution was proposed, and directed
to be laid before the next meeting of the Society, _viz._:
“The number of Members of the Acting Committee may be increased to not
exceeding sixty, provided the additional members shall be residents of
Pennsylvania outside of Philadelphia.
“These Members may be elected from time to time at any meeting of
the Acting Committee, according to the provisions of the By-Laws for
filling vacancies, but the terms for which they are elected shall
be for the unexpired portion of the current fiscal year only. These
additional Members will be eligible for reëlection at the next Annual
Meeting, and their respective terms of service shall then be assigned
so as to be coördinate with the terms of service of the other Members
of the Committee.”
JOHN J. LYTLE, on behalf of the Nominating Committee, appointed at
the last Annual Meeting, presented in writing the nominations for the
officers of the Society and for the members of the Acting Committee
whose terms expire at this time. The President appointed as Tellers,
JOSEPH C. NOBLIT, A. JACKSON WRIGHT and WILLIAM E. TATUM. The election
having been duly conducted, the Tellers announced that a unanimous vote
of the Society was cast for the ballot as presented by the Nominating
Committee. (See page 3.)
The Nominating Committee proposed that HON. WILLIAM N. ASHMAN be
elected Honorary Counselor. On motion the recommendation of the
Committee was adopted with expression of appreciation of the long and
faithful services of JUDGE ASHMAN for the Society.
The President appointed the following committee to nominate to the
next Annual Meeting the names of officers, and members of the Acting
Committee to fill the place of those whose terms then expire, _viz._:
GEORGE S. WETHERELL, JOSEPH C. NOBLIT, MRS. HORACE FASSITT, MRS. MARY
S. GRIGG and PAUL D. I. MAIER.
The President (Joshua L. Baily) expressed his appreciation of the honor
done him by his reëlection for a fifth term. He said it was sixty years
ago this month that he was elected a member of the Prison Society. Soon
thereafter he was placed on the Acting Committee and for ten or twelve
years he was a regular visitor at the Eastern Penitentiary. He also
visited a number of our county jails and most of the penitentiaries
of the Atlantic States and some of those in the West. But not being
satisfied with the results, he gave up prison visiting and took up what
he then believed to be more hopeful service.
“Now, after the lapse of many years,” he said, “I find myself again
among you with a new vision as to the obligations and possibilities of
the work in which we are engaged.” In the few recent years, he said,
that he had had opportunity for observation, he had not found the
evidence that the prisons of this state (perhaps with a few exceptions)
are in any better condition as to equipment and administration and
facilities for the improvement of the inmates than they were fifty
years ago.
“In all other lines of humanitarian and benevolent endeavor there has
been a wonderful augmentation of the efforts put forth, and the means
provided, and with corresponding beneficent results, but the work of
prison reform has not kept pace with what is so observable in other
fields of service.
“People generally are not much interested in the inmates of our
prisons. They think that those who have committed crimes should be
punished, and so they should; but it is not Christian to think that
their criminality places them outside the pale of human sympathy and
help. Even some of the greatest offenders may by kindness and good
influences be restored to society, as some have, and become exemplary
and useful citizens.
“I may not enlarge upon this subject at this time, but I want to say to
you that I know of no line of benevolent activity that has a greater
claim upon our intelligent and hearty service.”
A. Jackson Wright expressed his concurrence in the views of the
President, especially as to this great opportunity which our work
offers for service in the cause of humanity.
ALBERT H. VOTAW, _Secretary_.
An Act of 1911 relating to Visitors to Prisons.
No letters, notes, monies, or contraband goods of any kind shall be
brought into or taken out of any Prison, except after inspection and
with the permission of the Warden.
The Warden or Superintendent of the Prison is hereby authorized to
search or to have searched any person coming to the Prison as a
visitor, or in any other capacity, who is suspected of having any
weapon or other implement which may be used to injure any convict or
person, or in assisting any convict to escape from imprisonment, or
any spirituous liquor, drug, medicine, poison, opium, morphine, or any
other kind or character of narcotics, upon his person.
Any person violating any of the provisions of this Act shall be deemed
guilty of a felony, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a
fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, or imprisonment in the State
Prison not exceeding five years, or by both such fine and imprisonment,
in the discretion of the Court.
Approved the eleventh day of May, A. D. 1911.
JOHN K. TENER,
_Governor_.
REPORT OF THE ACTING COMMITTEE
FOR THE YEAR 1910 TO THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE PENNSYLVANIA PRISON
SOCIETY.
During the year 1910 the monthly meetings of the Acting Committee have
been regularly held with the usual exception of two meetings of the
summer months.
It has been a year of much interest and importance to students of
penology and especially to the active workers who have charge of our
prisons and reformatories.
PROBATION FOR ADULTS.
In the State of Pennsylvania the law providing for probation or
suspended sentences for adult offenders under the care of probation
officers, to whom reports must be made, has been in effect for almost
eighteen months. Very general approval is expressed regarding the
operation of this law. It is believed to be a very efficient means of
restoring those who have lapsed from the right path to better methods
of life and to a deeper realization of their duties to society. They
have not become inoculated with the prison virus. The law applies to
certain classes of crimes and to first offenders. It is understood that
much of the efficiency of such a law depends on the character and vigor
of the probation officer, who should be most earnest in presenting
before such offenders higher ideals of civic virtue.
THE INDETERMINATE SENTENCE. PAROLE.
Since the last annual report of this Committee, in the State of
Pennsylvania a system of parole for criminals sentenced to the
Eastern and to the Western Penitentiaries in accordance with
legislative enactment, went into effect. The act provides that the
court in pronouncing sentence shall state the minimum and maximum
limits thereof, with the understanding that the minimum time of
such imprisonment shall be the minimum now or hereafter prescribed
by statute for the punishment of such offense, and that the maximum
shall be the maximum now or hereafter prescribed as the penalty. Hence
it does not follow, as has been supposed by many, that the minimum
sentence is in every case one fourth of the maximum sentence, though
there is a provision that when there is no minimum time prescribed
by law, then the court shall impose a minimum sentence, which is not
to exceed one fourth of the maximum time for the crime in question.
Neither is a prisoner entitled to release at the expiration of his
minimum sentence, unless it shall have appeared to the officers of the
prison and to the inspectors that the applicant for parole has given
evidence of being ready to become useful to the community. The new law
has not been in force for a period sufficiently long to enable us to
decide absolutely as to its merits, yet, if we are to have confidence
in reports from other States which have tested such a law, we hope
that a fair trying out of its provisions will demonstrate its benefit
both to the convict and to society. The man or woman on parole by the
necessity of the conditions involved therewith must give satisfaction
until the maximum time for which he was sentenced has expired, by
which time we believe many of them will have formed a habit of living
decently and orderly. Ex-Governor Hanly, of Indiana, acknowledges that
when he took office he felt great antagonism toward a law providing
for parole before the expiration of the conventional sentence, but
after closely observing the practical working of such system of parole
during his term of four years, he became an enthusiastic advocate of
the principle of the indeterminate sentence. State after State, nation
after nation, have been for some years applying this principle in some
form or other, and now many intelligent jurists and administrators of
prison discipline have recognized that this element of the new penology
has come to stay. This method of reforming criminals, moreover,
was approved, after spirited discussion, by the late International
Prison Congress, held at Washington, D. C., October 2-8, 1910. This
Congress was not composed of mere theorists. Men of national and
international renown as wardens and superintendents of great prisons
and reformatories took part in the discussions and acquiesced in the
conclusions. Warden Benham, of the New York State Penitentiary at
Auburn, regards the indeterminate sentence as a leading influence in
the process of reforming the lives of those who have fallen. By some
jurists in this and other States, fears have been expressed with regard
to the practical service and to the execution of such a system of
curtailed punishment. It is quite possible that experience may show
that in this State some modification of the existing law may at some
time be adopted, but great care should be exercised lest the reforming
possibilities of the act should be weakened. It is to be hoped that
a full opportunity may be given to observe the effects of this law,
the essential principles of which are the same as have been found
successful in other States.
The reports from those who have been paroled within the last year in
this State are so far very encouraging.
Parole Officer John Egan of the Western Penitentiary reports on the
first day of the current year that there were twenty-three under
his charge on parole, and that the reports from them were with one
exception satisfactory. There were ten then confined in the Western
Penitentiary who were proper subjects for parole provided sponsors and
employment could be obtained for them.
Full statistics from the Eastern Penitentiary have not been obtained.
About thirty had been paroled by the end of last year from whom
satisfactory reports had been received. About the same number were
awaiting decisions from the Board of Pardons.
WORK OF GENERAL AGENT.
We desire to commend to the special attention of the Society and to the
public, the efficient work of our General Agent, Fred. J. Pooley.
He has been constantly engaged in giving counsel to the prisoners, and
particular attention to them at the time of their release. A large
number of cases have been investigated, and where there have appeared
to be mitigating circumstances, or where some relative or judicious
friend has agreed to stand as sponsor, a remission or suspension of
the sentence has been obtained from the court. We have heard of no
instance in which such favor has been abused. In one month of the last
year over one hundred arrested and accused persons were discharged
without receiving the stigma of a convicted felon. In the latter part
of the autumn the privilege of an interview at the Central Station
with the prisoners who have been committed to the County Prison after
a hearing before the magistrates, was accorded to our General Agent by
the Director of Public Safety. In order that he may thus occupy this
very promising field for service, the Secretary has assumed a portion
of the duties at the Eastern Penitentiary which had formerly been under
the care of the agent. A full report of the work of the agent will be
presented at the Annual Meeting, and will be printed in the JOURNAL.
COMMITTEE ON EASTERN PENITENTIARY.
Reports of the various members of this Committee show that besides a
considerable number of visits that have not been reported, 6,130 visits
to prisoners have been made during the past year. Some of our members
have participated in the gospel services at the Penitentiary. We are
firmly of the opinion that this work of visitation, which has been
carried on by this Society for nearly a century and a quarter has been
very helpful, although from the nature of the circumstances accurate
statistics cannot be presented. The officials of the Penitentiary
manifestly sympathize with the objects of these visits. Cleanliness
and good order characterize the various departments of this large
prison, to which ends a general overhauling of the plumbing with
other improvements have been made conducive. A new three-story block,
containing one hundred and twenty cells is in process of construction,
and it is quite gratifying to report that nearly all the work of
construction is being done by the prisoners. This affords employment
for from one hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty prisoners.
While some other prisoners have employment in weaving, knitting
stockings, chair seating and in helping in the kitchen and laundry,
still many of them spend a large portion of their time in enforced
idleness. This is a condition which is conducive to most serious evils,
since it is liable to affect their entire career after they have left
the prison walls. Is the State justified in forcing these unfortunate
human beings to remain idle year after year? Should we not rather use
every means in our power to prepare them for useful citizenship?
Reports of the agent show that 333 prisoners have been supplied at the
time of their discharge with suits either entirely or in part. We are
increasing our efforts to find positions for such as need employment.
The warden, Robert J. McKenty, is untiring in efforts to promote the
welfare of those under his charge. To him and to the other officials
the members of the Committee are under obligation for the facilities
afforded in making their visits.
PRISONS AT MOYAMENSING AND HOLMESBURG.
Our General Agent is unremitting in his endeavors to assist those
confined in the prisons of the City of Philadelphia. The ladies of
the Committee to visit the women prisoners at Moyamensing have been
faithful in looking after their interests. Situations have been found
for many, and not a few have been restored to their families. In all,
6,707 visits have been made to the inmates of the County Prisons.
We take pleasure in reporting that striped clothing as a distinctive
prison garb was relinquished, except as a punishment for misbehavior,
at the Holmesburg Prison on the first day of July, 1910. Gradually both
in this country and England this ancient custom is being dropped. This
is a further indication of the growing belief that the convict, after
all, is a human being, and does not need the degradation of stripes in
order to be distinguished from the rest of humanity.
COUNTY JAILS.
The Western Penitentiary and the Allegheny County Prison have been
regularly visited by one of our committees, and there has also been
regular visitation of some of the county jails. The evidence afforded
that this service has been acceptable and useful has been encouraging
to us, and arrangements are being made for its extension to other parts
of the state.
There is need of continual agitation to educate the public with
regard to the necessity of some change in the administration of many
of the smaller county jails of the State. They furnish little or no
employment, herd a miscellaneous lot of lawbreakers in entire idleness,
often keep the young and the old, the suspected, who may be innocent,
and the hardened criminals in the same apartments, and thus become
hotbeds for the dissemination of vice and lawlessness. We have already
in these reports spoken of the usefulness of establishing district
workhouses where employment can be furnished and where habits of
industry may be engendered. The labor of the prisoners should so far
contribute to the maintenance of the jails as to relieve the counties
from the chief part of this burden. Sooner or later, we believe,
all our States will adopt some such plan, and why should not the
legislators of this great commonwealth give some earnest attention to
the improvement of the county jails? Already we have in this State
an institution which in many respects could be taken as a model for
an industrial penal establishment. We refer to the Allegheny County
Workhouse at Hoboken, Pennsylvania. Without infringing on the present
laws of the State respecting prison labor, they give employment to
all the prisoners. Located on a large farm, they supply their tables
with vegetables from their own gardens and often have a surplus for the
market. When new buildings are constructed, most of the work is done by
the convicts. They have those who have been sentenced to terms of from
twenty days to some years, and without difficulty they find work for
all of them.
The legislature of Massachusetts has been considering a measure
contemplating the establishment of such a system of district
workhouses. It is quite possible that the State of Indiana may enact a
measure of this kind within the next two years. Let Pennsylvania move
forward in this work.
VISITS OF THE PRESIDENT.
The President of the Society has made visits to the Eastern
Penitentiary, and to some of the County Jails of Pennsylvania. He has
also visited the Maryland Penitentiary and the city jail of Baltimore;
and has made two visits to the United States jail at Washington, D. C.
In the Washington jail and at the Maryland Penitentiary, he addressed
the assembled convicts at their respective Sabbath afternoon chapel
services.
THE PRISON CONGRESSES.
An event of great interest to all students of penology and of
far-reaching influence in prison administration all over the world, was
the quinquennial meeting of the International Prison Congress, which
this year held its sessions in Washington, D. C. This occasion brought
together jurists, superintendents of prisons and reformatories, eminent
lawyers and philanthropic workers from thirty-four different countries
of the world. Ninety delegates were enrolled from foreign countries.
Not only were the conclusions of this Congress of importance, but the
social intermingling of so many earnest men and women in a common
cause had an equal value. The American Prison Congress also held its
sessions in Washington, D. C., for two days prior to the opening of
the International meeting. It was a notable gathering, and while
its proceedings were weighty and not to be overlooked, yet it was
somewhat overshadowed by the great interest felt in the International
assemblage, as the latter was attended by so many who had already
beyond the seas distinguished themselves as students of penological
problems, and as practical administrators of prisons.
The Acting Committee deemed the conclusions of the International
Prison Congress and the proceedings of the American Prison Congress of
such immediate interest and importance as to justify the issue of a
supplement to our Journal, which should contain these conclusions and
proceedings. In this supplement were included an article by President
Baily on the Eastern Penitentiary and the account of the Pennsylvania
Prison Society which was prepared by the Secretary for publication in
one of the bulletins issued by the International Congress during its
sessions. Three thousand copies were printed and distributed.
OBITUARIES.
The deaths of John H. Dillingham and David Sulzberger, both occurring
near the same time in early spring, removed two valuable members from
your Committee. Appropriate notices of the life and faithful labors of
each of these have been prepared and read in our meetings, and it is
proposed to publish them in the forthcoming number of our Journal.
Our prayers and sympathy go out to all who have the oversight of
those offenders, whom society, for its own protection and for the
reformation of the sinner, declares must be debarred from freedom.
Upon these officials devolves the duty not only of restraining the
criminals within physical bounds, but--what is their chief mission--of
implanting in their charges incentives for a change in their attitude
in society. They should endeavor to inspire them with some sense of
self-confidence and self-respect, so that they may be prepared to face
the world with new aims and a spirit of hopefulness. The Pennsylvania
Prison Society has from its inception desired to work in harmony with
the administrators, and we trust has been comparatively free from
the errors of a misdirected zeal. In another year this Society shall
have rounded out a century and a quarter of existence. While we may
contemplate with a good degree of satisfaction the achievements of past
years, we are aware that in some lines progress has been slow, but we
trust under Divine guidance to go on with the work with greater zeal
and consecration.
On behalf of the Acting Committee,
ALBERT H. VOTAW, _Secretary_.
January 27, 1911.
TREASURER’S REPORT
JOHN WAY, _Treasurer_,
IN ACCOUNT WITH
THE PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY
GENERAL FUND
RECEIPTS FOR THE YEAR 1910
To Balance on hand, December 31, 1909 $697 50
“ Members’ Dues 278 75
“ Collections by Secretary 3,253 00
“ Income from Invested Funds 1,911 52
“ Income from I. V. Williamson “Charities” 561 00
“ Interest on Deposits 20 31
“ Life Membership 50 00
“ Proceeds Sale of Bond 1,032 50
“ Legacy, Estate of Marianna Gillingham 805 54
---------
Total Receipts $8,610 12
PAYMENTS, 1910
For Clothing Discharged Prisoners, Eastern Penitentiary $2,324 45
“ Appropriations for Prisoners Discharged from Philadelphia
County Prison 835 00
“ Salaries 2,650 00
“ Expenses on Account of “Journal,” 1910 437 20
“ Expenses Delegates to Prison Congress 56 72
“ Sundry Printing and Postage 249 29
“ Office Expenses, Incidentals 148 52
“ Rent, Janitor Service 184 00
“ Capital Moneys Paid to Fiscal Agent for Investment 855 54
“ Balance, December 31, 1910 869 40
---------
Total $8,610 12
BARTON FUND
Balance on hand December 31, 1909 $193 48
Income from Investments (net) 94 66
Loan to Discharged Prisoner, Returned 10 25
---------
Total $298 39
PAYMENTS
Tools to Discharged Prisoners $36 74
Amount Transferred to Principal Account 375 10
---------
$411 84
Less Overdraft December 31, 1910 113 45
---------
Balance $298 39
HOME OF INDUSTRY FUND
Balance, December 31, 1909 $107 80
Income from Investments (net) 24 50
Income from Caroline S. Williams Legacy 150 85
Income from H. S. Benson Legacy 196 00
---------
Total $479 15
SUMMARY OF BALANCES
General Fund $869 40
Home of Industry Fund 479 15
---------
$1,348 55
Less Overdraft (Barton Fund) 113 45
---------
Total Cash on hand December 31, 1910 $1,235 10
We, the undersigned, members of the Auditing Committee, have examined
the accounts of John Way, Treasurer, have compared the payments with
the vouchers, and believe the same to be correct, there being a balance
to the credit of our deposit account under date of December 31, 1910,
of $1,235.10.
We have also examined the securities in the possession of our agents,
The Provident Life and Trust Company of Philadelphia, and have found
them to agree with an accompanying schedule.
JOHN SMALLZELL,
JOHN A. DUNCAN,
_Auditors_.
GENERAL AGENT’S REPORT.
Another year has passed and it becomes my duty to present to you a
report of the work of the General Agent. During the past year I have
visited over 6,000 men and women in the prisons in Philadelphia, and
talked to them of the past and the future. I feel that much good has
been accomplished and that while it is impossible to measure the
amount of good accomplished by any fixed rule, yet there is evidence
in all directions that the seed sown in the Master’s name is bearing
fruit abundantly. All over this broad land of ours, in every prison
may be found the lost son or daughter; it gives the world but little
concern so long as it is some one else’s son or daughter who occupies
a prison cell. Go through the prisons of our State and nine times
out of every ten the prisoners will tell you they never would have
thought of getting into prison; in a moment of temptation they fell
and the world turns from them when the walls of the prison separates
them from the outer world. My experience has taught me that if we were
more sympathetic, more interested in fallen humanity, there would be
less of crime. One Sabbath afternoon I visited a prison in western
Pennsylvania. I arrived at the prison just about the time for service.
As I was a member of the Pennsylvania Prison Society I was requested
to say a few words to the men and women. My remarks were brief, and I
closed with, “Your mother or wife, or sister is praying for you to-day,
and when you leave your prison cell, go home to your mother, your wife,
or to your sister; go back to your church, and God will bless and
help you to be a better man or woman.” One prisoner went to his cell
weeping. I followed him to his cell and said to him, “Brother, why do
you weep?” and he answered, “When you said ‘mother’ it touched a tender
spot, and when I leave here I will go right home to her and will be a
better man.”
Scattered over the ocean there are many pieces of wreckage floating in
different directions, first carried by one current and then by another;
they are simply drifting. They have no purpose; they are afraid to
trust themselves. I believe it to be our duty to bring to these men and
women in prison the strongest force we know, the power of love. Faith
is a great power; so is hope; but charity, or love, is the greatest.
Geologists tell us that the silent influences of the atmosphere are
far more powerful than the noisy forces of nature. Quiet sunshine is
mightier than the thunder, and gentle rain influences the earth more
than an earthquake. Guided by this gentleness and faith, I have tried
to be the instrument in God’s hands of leading some poor souls to
the path which leads to happiness and peace. It will probably be of
interest to know something of the work of the General Agent at the
Eastern State Penitentiary.
From January 1 to December 1, 1910: 493 prisoners were discharged:
to these were given 298 suits of clothing, 382 hats, 301 shirts, 425
suspenders and neckties and 321 suits of underclothes.
In addition tools, etc., have been provided for several of these
prisoners.
On December 1, 1910, Secretary Albert H. Votaw took charge of the work
of the Pennsylvania Prison Society at the Eastern State Penitentiary in
consequence of your General Agent having other duties at the Central
Police Station, City Hall. I desire to thank the Inspectors, Warden,
Chaplain and all the officials connected with the Eastern Penitentiary
for assistance rendered me in the performance of my official duties.
Since October 1, 1898, I have made regular visits to Moyamensing
Prison and the Philadelphia County Prison at Holmesburg. During
1910 more than 600 discharged prisoners were assisted with railroad
tickets, board, lodging, room rent, tools, etc., and more than 700
letters written to relatives and friends at a distance, thus getting
them quickly in touch with folks at home, and in many cases resulting
in acquittal at court when a prisoner’s good record was shown. The
Inspectors, Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent, Prison Agent
and Matron, and all connected with the prison have rendered me every
possible assistance, which I more than appreciate. The commitments to
Moyamensing Prison during 1910 were as follows:
White Males White Females Black Males Black Females Total
13,518 1,138 2,547 706 17,909
Total Committed 1909, 17,685
From October 1, 1909, to September 30, 1910, 914 prisoners were sent to
the County Prison at Holmesburg and 867 prisoners were discharged.
A glance at the above figures will show what a wonderful field of work
there is for the Prison Agent and General Agent of the Pennsylvania
Prison Society.
For the past two years I have felt very strongly the importance of
visiting the prisoners at the Central Station, City Hall. The reason
for this desire was brought about through a young man who was held in
Moyamensing Prison on suspicion of larceny for a further hearing. I had
a talk with him and he told me he left Louisville, Ky., seventeen years
since, and had not written home in that time, and now he felt ashamed
to write. After a long talk with him, he consented to let me write.
When the letter came from the mother telling of her joy at the news of
her long-lost son, whom she had long thought dead, I at once went to
the prison and found the man had that morning been discharged--_the
letter came too late_. Had I met the man when he was first arrested,
that letter would have arrived before the second hearing, and upon his
discharge he would have gone home.
It is with much pleasure I am able to state that on November 16, 1910,
Director Clay granted me permission to visit the cell room at City Hall
and directed the Superintendent of Police to issue me a permit, which
reads as follows:
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY,
BUREAU OF POLICE.
PHILADELPHIA, November 16, 1910.
Permission is hereby granted Frederick J. Pooley, General Agent
Pennsylvania Prison Society, the courtesy and privilege of visiting
prisoners in Central Station committed to County Prison.
(Signed) JOHN B. TAYLOR,
_Superintendent of Police_.
Since receiving permission I have made daily visits to the Central
Station and have written 126 letters to different parts of the country.
One letter brought a young man’s father from Johnstown, Pa., and
another from Richmond, Va., and when the cases came to court they were
discharged. At the request of the Detective Department three women who
were found on the street without a home were placed in care of Mrs. H.
Fassitt, and Mrs. Fassitt had them sent to the Door of Blessing, and
afterwards had one woman sent to her home in West Virginia and another
to her home in Maryland, and the other to a hospital for treatment. In
some cases the magistrates have requested me to look into the case, and
upon my report they were discharged and sent home. I look for wonderful
results from this field of work. Only the other day a man came to me
and said, “We had not heard from sister for five months and had it not
been for your talk with her at the City Hall we do not know when she
would have decided to come home.” I think the words of our President,
Joshua L. Baily, to the Magistrate when he visited the City Hall
recently explains the new work of the Pennsylvania Prison Society when
he said. “Our new work here is to try to keep men and women from going
to prison.” The Magistrates and officials of the City Hall are doing
all they can to help to make the work of your General Agent a success.
If any little love of ours
Can make one life the sweeter;
If any little care of ours
Can make one step the fleeter;
If any little help may ease
The burden of another;
God give us love and care and strength
To help along each other.
In the spirit of these words I enter upon my new work. The Motto
Calendars, so kindly given us each year for distribution at the
Eastern State Penitentiary, Holmesburg and Moyamensing, with message of
inspiration, are much appreciated.
The thanks of the members of the Pennsylvania Prison Society are due
to the following for sending magazines and religious papers for the
prisoners: Rev. R. H. Barnes, Louis C. Galenbeck, the late Miss Mary S.
Whelen, Attorney-at-Law William A. Davis, Mrs. Charles Chauncey, Miss
A. M. Johnson, Robert P. Nicholson, Estelle A. King, C. Langenstein,
Anna M. Tarr, Miss M. Louisa Baker, C. deB. L. Bright, Mrs. R. T.
Taylor and Friends’ Institute. Thanks are also due John J. Lytle for
several hundred copies of _Sabbath Reading_ which have been sent weekly
to Eastern Penitentiary, Moyamensing and County Prison, Holmesburg. In
addition I have recently received, through the kindness of Dr. Beverley
Robinson, of New York City, $25.00 from Mrs. Charles Chauncey, and from
Mrs. A. Sydney Biddle the same amount to help along the work, and from
Mr. Emlen Hutchinson, Chairman of the Board of Inspectors Philadelphia
County Prison, $60.00 with which to send home runaway boys. These
amounts have been handed to our Treasurer for use when necessary.
I feel the work that the Pennsylvania Prison Society is doing is
becoming more appreciated as the years roll on. With much faith in the
future of our Society,
Yours very sincerely,
FREDERICK J. POOLEY,
_General Agent_.
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY BUREAU OF POLICE DETECTIVE SERVICE
PHILADELPHIA, October 26, 1911.
JOSHUA L. BAILY, ESQ., President of the Pennsylvania Prison Society,
500 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia.
DEAR SIR:--Your General Agent, Mr. Frederick J. Pooley, commenced work
(as you know) at the Central Police Station last November, and we have
found his work very helpful to this department and hope the good work
your Society is doing through Mr. Pooley may be continued for many
years to come.
WM. H. GRIFFING, _Clerk_.
Yours very truly,
ALFRED I. SOUDER,
_Captain of Detectives_.
I most cheerfully endorse the above letter and can vouch for the good
work Mr. Pooley does in connection with this Court.
DAVID S. SCOTT,
_Magistrate Police Court, City Hall_.
PENAL LEGISLATION IN PENNSYLVANIA.
After the hopeful beginning in improved penal legislation made by
the Legislature of Pennsylvania two years ago in the enactment of
a probation, indeterminate sentence and parole law, the work done
and left undone by the recent session is, to say the least, most
discouraging. Not only did a number of admirable bills receive no
consideration whatever, but the law referred to above, which the
Committee on Criminal Law Reform in its report at the last Prison
Congress (Washington, 1910) pronounced “admirable,” was so amended
as virtually to eliminate from it the vital principle underlying the
indeterminate sentence and parole.
The act of 1909 was based on a very careful study of the writings of
the most advanced penologists, and of the statutes of those progressive
states that have introduced the indeterminate sentence and parole
with the largest measure of success. Its viewpoint was that of those
who seek the reformation of the wrongdoer, and not of those who still
have in their minds the old idea of retributive justice only; it made
a break with the old codes, aimed to deal with the man and not with
his crime, and had regard to his future rather than to his past; and
possibly this radical departure from the traditional mode of thought
and procedure, and the introduction of something evidently so new to
many legal minds in Pennsylvania, though no longer so in some other
States, was responsible for the hostility which the law encountered
here and there.
Section 6 of said law reads as follows:
“Whenever any person, convicted in any court of this Commonwealth of
any crime, shall be sentenced to imprisonment in either the Eastern
or Western Penitentiary, the court, instead of pronouncing upon such
convict a definite or fixed term of imprisonment, shall pronounce
upon such convict a sentence of imprisonment for an indefinite term;
stating in such sentence the minimum and maximum limits thereof;
fixing as the minimum time of such imprisonment, the term now or
hereafter prescribed as the minimum imprisonment for the punishment
of such offense; but if there be no minimum time so prescribed, the
court shall determine the same, but it shall not exceed one fourth
of the maximum time, and the maximum limit shall be the maximum time
now or hereafter prescribed as a penalty for such offense: Provided,
however, That when a person shall have twice before been convicted,
sentenced and imprisoned in a penitentiary for a term of not less
than one year, for any crime committed in this State, or elsewhere
within the limits of the United States, the court shall sentence
said person to a maximum of thirty years: And provided further, That
no person sentenced for an indeterminate term shall be entitled
to any benefits under the act, entitled ‘An act providing for the
commutation of sentences for good behavior of convicts in prisons,
penitentiaries, workhouses, and county jails in this State, and
regulations governing the same,’ approved the eleventh day of May,
Anno Domini one thousand nine hundred and one.”
This section has been amended to read:
“Whenever any person, convicted in any court of this Commonwealth of
any crime, shall be sentenced to imprisonment in any penitentiary
of the State, the court, instead of pronouncing upon such convict a
definite or fixed term of imprisonment, shall pronounce upon such
convict a sentence of imprisonment for an indefinite term; stating in
such sentence the minimum and maximum limits thereof; and the maximum
limit shall never exceed the maximum time now or hereafter prescribed
as a penalty for such offense: Provided, That no person sentenced
for an indeterminate term shall be entitled to any benefits under
the act, entitled ‘An act providing for the commutation of sentences
for good behavior of convicts in prisons, penitentiaries, workhouses
and county jails in this State, and regulations governing the same,’
approved the eleventh day of May, Anno Domini one thousand nine
hundred and one.”
It will be seen that this amendment puts it into the power of the
_court_ to fix _any_ minimum below the maximum, instead of a minimum
not exceeding one fourth of the maximum; that it permits the court to
name a lower maximum than the one now prescribed by law for any given
offense; and that it strikes out the thirty-year clause altogether.
The practical effect of the former change is to destroy in great
measure the value and efficacy of the indeterminate sentence as a
remedial and reformatory measure. In other words, the amendment
restores the vicious _inequality of sentences_, which is always so apt
to breed a feeling of injustice and resentment in the one convicted,
and which therefore greatly unfits him as a subject for reformatory
treatment. It proceeds upon the long-accepted but false assumption that
the court can in every case determine the exact degree of culpability
and then adjust the punishment accurately to the crime. This is not
only absurd, but it is impossible. A Solomon with all his wisdom could
not have done this! As the law now stands, we shall again find, as is
indeed already the case, that the same court or adjoining courts may,
even under practically identical conditions, impose greatly varying
sentences, instead of putting all upon whom sentence is passed on an
equality and giving all, under identical conditions, an equal chance,
as the law originally contemplated. Thus since the amended law went
into effect sentences like these have been pronounced: Minimum 5
years, maximum 7; minimum 8 years, maximum 10; minimum 6 months,
maximum 1 year; minimum 6 years, maximum 7; minimum 7 years, maximum
15. In two cases of burglary the one man received a minimum of 5
years, and a maximum of 10, but the other a minimum of only 2 years
and a maximum of 5; while in another case an old crook, who had been
convicted for the sixth time, and whose new crimes should have brought
him a maximum sentence of 16 years, received a minimum of 3 months
and a maximum of 1 year. Since the law first went into effect several
courts have also imposed flat sentences, without a minimum. This is
clearly in conflict with the law, which is mandatory. It does seem as
if courts that try and sentence lawbreakers should be the first to have
a reverent regard for law!
Again, under the amended law the _court_ virtually determines when
a prisoner shall be eligible to parole. This is, however, utterly
subversive of the theory upon which the indeterminate sentence is
based, namely, that _parole is to be granted when a prisoner is
believed to be fit to be restored to society as a law-abiding citizen_.
The time when this may be done no court under the sun can fix, but only
those who have the prisoner in charge and under observation, and even
they may make mistakes. In the argument on the amended bill before
the Senate Committee, it was said by those who opposed the original
law, that it conferred judicial functions on the Penitentiary Boards,
and that there was not a State in the Union whose statutes prescribed
both the maximum and the minimum. But it was shown that under the laws
relating to the Huntingdon Reformatory the courts in imposing sentence
do not fix the duration thereof, but that the Board of Managers is
authorized to terminate the sentence at its discretion, provided the
detention shall not exceed the maximum of the term assigned by law for
the offense of which the prisoner was convicted; also, that in many
States, such as Massachusetts, Connecticut, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Michigan, Minnesota and others, the minimum as well as the maximum
sentence to the state prison is fixed by law. It seems strange, indeed,
that those who opposed the law of 1909 should have forgotten the law
as regards Huntingdon; and that they should have been totally ignorant
of the laws of other States on a subject that is to-day receiving the
serious attention of many of the most thoughtful minds the world over!
On the benefits of a just and equal indeterminate sentence, Dr.
Frederick Howard Wines, one of the best informed and most eminent
penologists in the United States, expresses himself as follows:
“There is not, and in the nature of things there cannot be, any
aid to a truly reformatory discipline like that afforded by the
indeterminate sentence. Every prison official can testify to the
dissatisfaction and unrest caused by the palpable inequality of
sentences; an inequality which neither the legislature nor the courts
can avoid or correct. The only equal sentence is the indeterminate
sentence, with an identical maximum for all who violate a given
section of the code, coupled with identical conditions by which to
reduce it to the minimum _prescribed by law_. Its imposition removes
all ground for complaint on this score. It also puts an end to the
fallacious hope of an unconditional pardon. The prisoner is given to
understand that the date of his release on parole depends entirely
upon himself. The authorities desire his release and will help him
to earn it; they are not his enemies, but his friends. This disarms
him of his hostility to them. He is in a favorable state of mind
to receive treatment, and is disposed to yield obedience to them,
if they keep their promise to him. This leads to coöperation in
the effort made for his restoration, without which a cure cannot
be effected. The hope of an early release sustains him under the
depressing influence of prison life and stimulates him to exert
himself to avoid losing whatever he has gained by diligence and good
conduct. He is aided to form habits of industry and obedience, which
tend to become fixed. He is trained and transformed.
“Under the indeterminate sentence the prison itself undergoes a
gradual process of transformation. The moment that reformation rather
than punishment becomes the watchword of the administration, a new
spirit takes possession of it. The governor chooses better and abler
men to govern it--men imbued with reformatory ideas and qualified to
exert a reformatory influence; men of higher education, purer moral
character, broader culture, loftier aims in life, greater devotion to
their work. These wardens of the new school grow stronger with the
passing years; their habit of opposition to everything that is low or
crooked or mean or vile lifts them to higher and still higher levels.
Failure to show reformatory results means failure in their chosen
profession. They have a new responsibility, and they rise to meet
it. They are open to every suggestion that can be of service to them
in the accomplishment of their difficult task, a task from which an
angel might shrink, and in which an angel might rejoice.”
The thirty-year clause of the act of 1909 was designed to protect
society against the professional criminal. It is another absurdity
of our criminal procedure that we release such periodically to renew
their depredations on society. A dangerously insane person we put away
until he is cured; and if he is never cured he is never released. We
guard society against the contagion of certain virulent diseases. But
when the habitual criminal has every now and then squared himself with
the State by serving a term in the penitentiary, we again give him
his freedom, though he may have hatched out another plot even before
he leaves his place of confinement. Some other States have grown
wiser. New York and Indiana sentence the habitual criminal for life on
a third or fourth conviction; Connecticut to thirty years on a third
conviction; but in Pennsylvania a thirty-year sentence, with a minimum
not exceeding seven years and a half, seems to have been considered too
drastic. Better let society suffer than the criminal!
In amending the law of 1909, which, under its intelligent
administration for two years was yielding most happy results,
Pennsylvania has clearly been compelled to take a backward step.
There was no public demand for a change; those charged with the
administration of the law did not desire a change, but opposed it; and
there is ample ground for the belief that the change was inspired by
reasons of a purely private and personal character.
Nor is the last Legislature to be commended for what it failed to do.
In his report of November 10, 1909, Mr. Bromley Wharton, General Agent
and Secretary of the Board of Public Charities, called attention to the
needs of the county jails in these words: “This is a matter which has
received serious attention at the hands of your Board. The prevailing
system of government of the county jails is, in many respects,
unsatisfactory. In most of the counties the jails are in charge of
the sheriff, who, as a rule, knows little or nothing of hygiene or
sanitation. Few jails have yards for exercise, or workshops, which
results in the prisoners loafing in the corridors, smoking and playing
cards. The filthy and unsanitary condition of some of the jails causes
the long-term prisoners to welcome their transfer to the penitentiary.”
At the subsequent session of the Legislature a bill, approved by the
Board, was introduced designed to remedy the unsatisfactory and often
disgraceful conditions existing in the prisons of various counties, and
placing the control and management of all the county prisons and jails
and the inmates thereof in Boards of Prison Inspectors to be named by
the courts, one inspector to be a physician, and another, if desired,
a woman. This carefully drawn bill, which, if it had become a law,
would have inaugurated a most salutary reform where it is most needed
in our penal system, passed the House, but was killed in the Senate. It
was re-introduced in the last Legislature, but never even came out of
committee.
A joint resolution, likewise approved by the Board of Charities,
providing for the appointment of a commission to consider and report
upon the advisability of establishing a state system of workhouses for
misdemeanants, so that county jails and prisons could be used solely
for the imprisonment of persons awaiting trial or otherwise detained,
and for convicts sentenced to brief terms, met a similar fate. So also
an act authorizing the pensioning of deserving superannuated employés
of penal, reformatory and charitable institutions of the State.
Another bill, strongly approved by the Board, but which after its
introduction never again saw the light of day, provided for the
establishing of a State Reformatory for Women between the ages of
fourteen and twenty-one. That such an institution is most urgently
needed is only too well known to charity workers throughout the State.
It is almost incredible that such a wealthy and otherwise progressive
State like Pennsylvania should be considered too poor to make at least
a beginning of an institution of this kind. Were the people of this
Commonwealth familiar with the work done and the results achieved by
such an institution as the Massachusetts Reformatory Prison for Women,
they would compel their legislators to take action. Great movements in
behalf of the social welfare can after all be carried through only when
there is an intelligent, widespread and persistent public sentiment
behind them.
The one progressive penal act for which the last Legislature deserves
credit is the bill “providing for the selection and purchase, or
the appropriation from State forest reserves, of a tract of land
and the erection thereon of buildings for the Western Penitentiary;
making an appropriation therefor; authorizing the removal thereto of
the inmates of the said penitentiary, and directing the sale of the
site now occupied by the said penitentiary, and the buildings and
materials thereon.” This is in line with the recommendation of the
Board of Charities, which, in its preliminary report for the years
1911-12, called renewed attention to the very unsatisfactory conditions
surrounding the Western Penitentiary, and strongly urged its removal
to some large tract of land in a rural section, so that labor, not in
conflict with existing laws, might be provided for the inmates. In
pursuing this course Pennsylvania will only be doing what some other
States have already done or are about doing; and it is to be hoped
that in due time similar provision will be made for the eastern part
of the State. Might it not be well to keep in mind, however, the need
of a central state prison for the confinement of habitual criminals,
so that the two penitentiaries now in existence could be used only for
first-termers? This would make the reformatory process contemplated by
the indeterminate sentence infinitely easier.
Another bill of extremely doubtful utility passed by the last
Legislature, authorizes the judges of the courts of quarter sessions
and the courts of oyer and terminer, after due inquiry, to release on
parole any convict confined in the county jail or workhouse of their
respective districts, and place him or her in charge of and under the
supervision of a designated probation officer. County jails as now
conducted are not reformatory institutions.
It will be seen from this survey that Pennsylvania is not making rapid
progress in improved penal legislation; nor is it likely that we can
hope for better things until some future Legislature will see fit to
empower the Board of Charities or a specially appointed commission of
expert penologists to devise a carefully articulated and homogeneous
system of penal and reformatory institutions for the State. Such
a system should provide for a radical change in the construction,
management and internal administration of the county prisons; it should
include a state system of workhouses, a woman’s reformatory, a central
penitentiary for recidivists, and a favorably located institution for
criminals suffering from tuberculosis or dementia, where they could
receive skillful treatment; it should make a strict separation between
habitual criminals and first offenders, between young delinquents and
those of mature years; and it should everywhere introduce approved
reformatory methods, and make it possible to give those in confinement
ample indoor and outdoor employment. It might, of course, be objected
that a system so carefully planned and wrought out would be too
expensive; but let it never be forgotten that in the end it is far
better for the State, and indeed cheaper, to make _men_ than to arrest,
try and support criminals, and suffer the results of their depredations.
_Philadelphia._
J. F. OHL,
_Chairman of the Committee on Legislation,
Pennsylvania Prison Society_.
SYNOPSIS OF THE EIGHTY-FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE INSPECTORS OF THE
STATE PENITENTIARY FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA FOR THE
YEAR 1910.
It is a pamphlet of eighty pages, bearing on the reverse of the
title-page this inscription: “Printed and Bound at the Eastern State
Penitentiary, Philadelphia, 1911.”
There were in the Penitentiary on the first of January, 1910, as
follows, _viz._:
White Males, 1,157; White Females, 21; Total White 1,178
Colored Males, 332; Colored Females, 17; Total Colored 349
-----
1,527
Received during the year:
White Males, 310; White Females, 4; Total White 314
Colored Males, 89; Colored Females, 6; Total Colored 95
-----
409
Remaining at the close of the year as follows:
White Males, 1,073; White Females, 18; Total White 1,091
Colored Males, 301; Colored Females, 15; Total Colored 316
-----
1,407
The number at same date last year 1,527
Showing a decrease of 120
The discharges were:
By Commutation Law 471
By Parole 23
By Order of Court 14
By Order of Huntingdon Reformatory 3
By Pardon 6
Died (1 Suicide) 11
Expiration of term (only) 1
-----
529
The number who served out their terms in 1909 was 7.[3]
[3] It would seem that by the actions of the commutation and parole
laws it will become very unusual for a prisoner to serve out his term.
The inspectors state that “the influence of commutation and parole
which are now in action is having a restraining effect on both the
thoughtless and vicious,” but they further say, “the administration of
the Parole Law has been too limited in its time and extent for us to do
more than make mention of our efforts to intelligently apply it.”
Some other interesting statistics are as follows, _viz._:
Number claiming this as their first imprisonment 223
Known to have been previously imprisoned 186
----
409
Number under 30 years of age 257
Number over 30 years of age 152
----
409
Number having trades 67
Number without trades 342
----
409
Number idle at time of arrest 149
Natives of United States 324
Natives of foreign countries 85
----
409
Conjugal relations:
Single 230
Married 152
Widowed 27
----
409
Number having children 111
Number of children 296
Crimes against person 124
Crimes against property 251
Crimes against person and property 34
----
409
Twenty-four pages of the Report are devoted to “Criminal Histories”
of sixty-four prisoners received during 1910 who had previously
served one or more terms in this penitentiary (a considerable number
of them in other penitentiaries or prisons), and who are reported
as “illustrations of persistency in courses of crime, indicating
the growth of a permanent class, calling for the most serious
consideration.”
There is also a record of forty-three prisoners received in 1910 who
have relatives in this penitentiary or in other prisons.
The inspectors refer with satisfaction to the new building of concrete
construction containing one hundred and twenty cells “now rapidly
nearing completion,” and say “the plumbing, steam fitting and
electrical work needed is under the care of experts, and furnishing the
opportunity of training many of our inmates for future positions of
usefulness and trust.”
Report is made that the library now contains 12,057 bound volumes, 852
of them in foreign languages, and that 66,887 books were taken out by
the prisoners in the course of the year. A bookbinding and printing
room affords employment to several prisoners; 1,419 books were bound
and 743,248 pages of matter were printed for the various purposes of
the penitentiary.
A school has been maintained for those classed as “illiterates,”
and instruction in reading, writing and arithmetic given to 346
prisoners. The inspectors acknowledge the honor done them “by the
visits of distinguished representatives of the prison systems and state
departments of the nations of Europe, Asia and South America, with
others of Canada and our own country, who were in attendance at the
recent International Prison Congress in Washington.”
Grateful recognition is also made of “the valuable services of the
visitors of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, the American Society for
Visiting Catholic Prisoners, the Protestant Episcopal City Mission
and the Prisoners’ Guild of the King’s Daughters, contributing to the
comfort, encouragement and upbuilding of the prisoners,” and especial
mention is made of the services of the Pennsylvania Prison Society in
providing clothing for those prisoners in need at the time of their
discharge.
The cost of maintenance for the year 1910 is reported as $99,296.70,
and the following is presented as “Account With Convicts for 1910”:
DR. CR.
Balance to credit of convicts January 1, 1910 $11,644 96
Sent in by relatives and friends 20,798 33
Brought in by convicts on reception 1,013 81
Earned by over work 13,084 88
Allowance 426 00
Profit and loss 1 39
Paid to convicts on discharge $5,939 61
Sundry goods, shoes, etc. 3,564 09
Paid relatives and friends 19,249 22
Paid for tobacco, tooth brushes, soap, etc. 6,554 32
Balance due convicts January 1, 1911 11,662 13
---------- ----------
$46,969 37 $46,969 37
REVIEW OF THE BIENNIAL REPORT OF THE INSPECTORS OF THE STATE
PENITENTIARY FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA FOR THE YEARS
1910-1911.
This report is contained in a pamphlet of one hundred and sixteen
pages, of which about twenty pages are devoted to a historical account
of the institution.
It appears that the first buildings were completed November 22, 1827,
and on the supposition that very soon after prisoners were received at
the institution, its penal history covers more than eighty-three years.
The statistics show that on January 1, 1910, the number of convicts was
1,261.
Received during the year 1910 297
Discharged during the year 1910 502
Population December 31, 1910 1,056
Showing a decrease of 205
Of the 1,056 prisoners there at the beginning of 1911, there were:
White Males 845
White Females 20
Colored Males 185
Colored Females 6
Those who were discharged may be classified:
Pardoned by the Governor 5
Expiration of Sentence 10
Commutation of Sentence 448
Transferred to Insane Asylum 8
Order of President (United States Prisoner) 1
Paroled 26
Died 4
----
502
The parole officer, John M. Egan, states that “the parole system ...
has already been productive of good results, and promises development
that will compare favorably with the most successful reformative
work of other States.... The good deportment of our indeterminately
sentenced inmates, their sincere efforts to map out for themselves
a future foreign to their previous lives of crime and the faithful
manner in which all, save two, of the convicts who have been granted
conditional freedom are complying with the provisions of their parole,
is gratifying.”
Of the 297 received during the year:
Those who are serving sentence for the first time 221
Those known to have been previously imprisoned 76
Under thirty years of age 152
Over thirty years of age 145
----
297
Number apprenticed to some trade, including the unapprenticed who
had worked at least four years at a trade 74
Number unapprenticed 223
----
297
Natives of United States 202
Foreign Born 95
----
297
Social Relations:
Single 159
Married 114
Widowed 23
Divorced 1
----
297
Nature of Crimes:
Against Person 172
Against Property 125
----
297
The gratuities to prisoners discharged in 1910 amounted to $3,195.00.
This sum presumably was given in cash and clothing.
The bill for provisions amounted to $63,361.00.
Tobacco for the prisoners cost the State $2,471.00.
The various industries in operation at the penitentiary show
substantial gains:
During the year the sales of mats and matting amounted to $114,475.00.
The profit from this industry was $29,696.00.
The profit in the hosiery department was $5,191.00.
The profit in the shoe department was $1,665.00.
The earnings by labor, piece price, in the broom department, $4,069.00.
It appears that the officials make effort to find work for the large
majority of the convicts.
The number of days of labor reported by those in fair health is 275,051.
The number of days of idleness seems large, 85,074, but indicates that
the convicts are at work a little over three fourths of the time.
They now have a regular optical department equipped with modern
appliances, and in 1910 386 prisoners were fitted with glasses. The
physician reports that in many instances those who were thus supplied
showed both physical and mental improvement, to say nothing of the
satisfaction of having deficiencies of eyesight remedied.
The chaplain reports that the number of bound volumes in the library is
11,882. During the year the number of books issued to the prisoners was
73,070.
The report contains resolutions of the Board of Inspectors _in
memoriam_ of John Linn Milligan, whose mission since 1863 had been in
looking after the spiritual interests of the inmates of the Western
Penitentiary. The following paragraph from one of his recent reports
illustrates the spirit of the man and of his work: “Since my official
relation with this prison began, 11,624 convicted men have passed
within these gates. Many of these have gone out to struggle into the
cold and suspicious world, friendless and alone, to struggle against
the handicap that conviction and punishment of crime bring. Doubtless
many have died, bruised under the burdens they have had to bear.
Doubtless many more than the public believes have been absorbed into
the ranks of industrial honesty of life and purpose. A small per cent.
were instinctive and professional criminals, and nothing but the
sovereign grace and mercy of the good Lord, who said to the poor sinner
in the face of the murderous crowd, ‘Neither do I condemn thee; go, sin
no more,’ could cure the crime habit for them.
“When I look back along the line of the regiment of convicted
criminals, whom I have tried to strengthen with a new and manly
purpose, the busy efforts do not seem long, nor has my knowledge and
familiarity with their character hardened my heart nor diminished my
desire to uplift them. Nor has the backward glance lessened my hope in
true reformative efforts, patient, firm and kind, and I believe more
sincerely in the deep necessity of Divine love and power for their
spiritual reclamation.”
Warden Francies earnestly recommends that immediate steps be taken to
remove the prison to a more healthful location on some large tract of
land on which buildings may be erected largely by convict labor, and
where the inmates may in the future be employed in producing their own
sustenance thus saving a large part of the expense of the maintenance
of the prison.
FORTY-FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE MANAGERS OF THE ALLEGHENY COUNTY
WORKHOUSE, 1910.
This is one of the two or three penal institutions of the State
of Pennsylvania to which a farm is attached. The Allegheny County
Workhouse has, during the last year, added 175 acres to its holdings of
real estate, at a cost of over $288.00 per acre, and the total acreage
now belonging to the institution is about 280 acres. The total number
of prisoners at the close of last year was 863, an increase of 70 over
the number at the close of the year 1909. The daily average of inmates
was 824. During the year 1910 there were received at the workhouse
3,836 male prisoners and 606 female prisoners. The entire number was
4,442, of whom 3,606 were from Allegheny County, and 836 were sent from
other counties. For the maintenance of prisoners outside of Allegheny
County, the institution received $23,396.
Of the 4,442 committed, there were committed for the first time 2,301.
One hundred and five had been committed seven times. One hundred and
fifteen had been committed twenty times or oftener. Twelve prisoners
were serving sentences for the fiftieth time or more. It is not a place
for juvenile offenders. Of the whole number, 227 only were under twenty
years of age. The greater part of them are between twenty and forty
years of age. Only 630 could neither read nor write, of which number
438 were foreign born. Austria furnished the largest proportion of
illiterates.
HABITS OF LIFE.
Four hundred and eighteen of these prisoners professed to be total
abstainers from intoxicants, and 540 are classified as intemperate;
3,484 are occasionally intemperate or are moderate drinkers.
Thirty-seven hundred and forty-seven prisoners weighed at the time they
were discharged 14,796 pounds more than when they commenced to serve
sentence, or an average of three and ninth-tenth pounds increase for
each individual. Six hundred and twenty-five women prisoners showed an
increase of one and four-fifth pounds per individual.
Superintendent Leslie reports that the new wing is almost completed. It
will contain 478 reinforced concrete cells, in four floors of about 120
cells each. At the back of the cells is a five-foot utility corridor,
in which all plumbing, waste pipes and foul-air ducts are placed. Five
feet in front of the rows of the cells is a steel proof cage, extending
the full length of the rows. Between these cages and the outside wall
is a corridor which is lighted by large tool proof, obscure wire-glass
windows. The building is equipped with the best sanitary appliances.
The entire cost will be about $210,000.00, which includes dynamos,
engines and power plant of sufficient capacity for another building of
similar size. The larger part of the work was done by the prisoners.
During this last year the total days’ work performed by the inmates on
the new building was 18,821.
But work on the new building is not by any means the sole industrial
employment. The total number of days’ work of inmates is reported
as 171,952. The industries comprise broom and brush making, carpet
weaving, farming operations, wall building and domestic employments.
The revenue from brooms is estimated at $16,935.00; brushes, $2,062.00,
carpets, $4,610.00; boarding prisoners, $31,620.00; farm products,
$2,677.00.
The farm products of which the greater part was consumed on the
premises include 5,865 bushels potatoes, 1,550 bushels wheat, 424
bushels sweet corn, 1,058 bushels green beans, 1,313 bushels tomatoes,
30,025 heads cabbage, 8,000 heads celery, 1,252 pounds butter, 3,039
gallons milk, 200 chickens, 496 dozen eggs. The total number of days’
employment outside the walls was 28,857, and yet but one prisoner made
his escape.
Chaplain Imbrie reports that there is a Sabbath service in the prison
chapel, at which attendance is voluntary. “But few absent themselves
from this service.” They have a choir of their own, with an efficient
musical director. During the winter there are frequent entertainments
held in the chapel, consisting of lectures, elocution and music. They
have a judiciously selected library of 6,000 volumes, and the number
of books taken out during the year was 18,167.
They have a total enrollment in the night school of 185, with an
average attendance of about 176. This school is maintained largely for
the benefit of the illiterates and of those whose education has been
extremely limited. The difficulties of presenting statistics of those
who are permanently reformed is well illustrated by the following
extract from the chaplain’s report: “As the year closes I find myself
looking back and counting the meetings and partings with more than
four thousand souls, who have come and gone during the past twelve
months.... I have known each one for a few weeks or months, then they
have gone like the ships that pass in the night.... A few have written
kind letters to me after having reached their homes, a few have sent
messages, ... some I have met on the streets of the city, and a few
have been returned as prisoners to this institution, but the greater
number have been absorbed in the great mass of humanity, and I have
no further trace of them. The promises made at parting may be broken,
the influence of the few weeks spent here may soon be effaced by the
environments of the world, the seed sown in the gospel messages may
never mature, but yet the effort has been made, and the increase is
with the Father.”
CORRESPONDENCE.
MT. LEBANON PRISON, SYRIA.
... This prison is located in Bate-id-deen, where the governor-general
and all the government officials reside. There I had an interesting
call on the governor of Mt. Lebanon, Yusuf Pasha Kusa.
I found him a very fine, polished gentleman, promising that he will
help to put a check on the drinking habit of his country, and he gave
me the privilege of visiting the prison and meeting all the prisoners.
It was a great opportunity after the iron bars were opened and the
kind-hearted warden let me in. The prisoners gathered around me in
great curiosity, as they had never seen a woman in the court before.
There were two hundred and seventy-five (275) men prisoners. There
were Arabs, Druzes, Christians of all sects. The prison is a round
building with dark rooms around and an open court in the center--four
or five in every room. They are required to furnish their own beds,
clothing and food, except they receive a portion of bread (about one
and one half pounds) each day. They gathered around me and were very
eager to hear what I had to say. For an hour and three quarters they
listened very attentively, and at last they showed their appreciation
by promising to live better lives. At the close of my speech one of the
prisoners asked the privilege of speaking, which was granted. He said:
“We want our friend to know that not every one of us is a criminal,
some of us are here through lack of justice. If we were in a Christian
country, under Christian and just laws, many of us would not be here.”
The poor prisoners who had no friends to supply them with any food have
been living on bread and water, and I was allowed the privilege of
providing half of a sheep. They were very grateful for it.
This will show you how prisoners live in a non-Christian country.
Then I thanked the Lord for the Pennsylvania Prison Society, that is
bettering the lives of the prisoners.
Respectfully,
LAYYAH A. BARAKAT.
January 19, 1911.
A KIND WORD FROM BULGARIA.
SOFIA, BULGARIA, May 2, 1910.
I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of the copy of the JOURNAL
OF PRISON DISCIPLINE AND PHILANTHROPY (January, 1910), published by
the Pennsylvania Prison Society. I have read it with great interest
and much benefit, especially the paper of Rev. J. F. Ohl on “The
Administration and Needs of a Modern State Prison”; the excellent
address of Mr. Frederick Howard Wines on “The Indeterminate Sentence,
the Parole and the New Criminology”; and the articles by the Secretary
on “County Prisons” and “Pentonville Prison, London, England.” I
appreciated the memorial of Rev. Samuel J. Barrows, whom I knew for
many years.
With the highest respect,
DR. D. MINKOFF.
HUMANE OFFICIALS.
A few days ago I went to your city to secure the release from Central
Police Station of a young lady about twenty-one years of age, who
had been in Philadelphia but a few months. She had been accused by
her employer of stealing. Whether so or not, the judge, Hon. David
S. Scott, and the officials did not seem to believe it. That very
efficient officer of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, Mr. Fred J.
Pooley, telegraphed her brother in this county to send some one to
Philadelphia to look after her interests. I went and found that
Judge Scott had the right idea of treating uncertain cases of first
offenders. He told me that he always gives the prisoner the benefit of
doubt, and so metes out justice that supposed offenders might have a
chance to reform, if guilty, and not be made hard-hearted criminals. In
this case he turned the young lady over to me, and I took her to her
home, where a heartbroken father and mother awaited her.
I want to congratulate your city upon having such just and humane
officials as Judge Scott, Reserve Officer Runner, Matron Cooper--the
right woman in the right place--and Mr. Pooley is moving in the right
direction in helping to save accused criminals. His is a great work,
and no better man could be found for the position.
WILLIAM G. KERBIN, _Attorney-at-Law_.
Snow Hill, Md., Sept. 22.
--_From The Philadelphia Record._
A STRIKING CONTRAST.
Westmoreland County is one of the prosperous and wealthy counties of
Pennsylvania. An evidence of its ability to spend money for public
improvements is its splendid courthouse. This cost a million and
a half. It is a magnificent structure, rich in its art work and
furnishings, and spotlessly clean. Few county officers in the United
States are more comfortable and luxuriously housed.
Within a block or two of this fine pile stands another county building.
It is the jail. What a contrast! Here, too, human beings are found,
not, however, for a few hours of the day, but by day and by night,
for weeks and months and years. But was there no thought for their
physical well-being when this jail was built? Is there none now for
their bodily and spiritual health? Not only is this jail an example
of an altogether faulty type of prison construction, but as at present
conducted it is unclean, and therefore unsanitary; it is shamefully
overcrowded; young and old, first offenders and hardened criminals, are
allowed to congregate indiscriminately in the corridors; no attempt at
classification or reformation is apparent, and thus the history of many
another county jail is repeated in the midst of a community that by
reason of its Christian character, intelligence, and wealth ought to be
among the first in penal reform.
It is still true that many county jails are a blot--a very dark blot
on our civilization. When will reform begin where it ought to begin,
namely, at the bottom of our penal system?
AN OFFICIAL VISITOR.
COUNTRY LIFE FOR CONVICTS.
For some years this subject has claimed much attention, and latterly on
account of the successful issue of experiments in this direction, the
reforming possibilities of such methods have been prominently brought
into notice. Hence we have felt justified in devoting considerable
space in this number to this topic. It is appropriate that the citizens
of Pennsylvania particularly should have their attention called to the
out-door life for misdemeanants, since the Managers of the Western
Penitentiary have decided and have been permitted to remove that
institution to some large tract of ground within the State.
The two following articles are from “The Review,” published by the
National Prisoners’ Aid Association, 135 E. 15th St., New York City.
THE FARM TREATMENT OF MISDEMEANANTS.
JAMES F. JACKSON.
Superintendent of Charities and Correction, Cleveland, Ohio.
The old type institution for misdemeanants failed to accomplish
satisfactory results, mental, moral and physical. It seemed incapable
of developing industry; it was unhygienic, without classification
and with no adequate facilities for developing a man’s will or
increasing his capacity to do right. There was no individualism. The
old workhouse was typical of the most intensified institutionalism,
and institutionalism for an adult is an assured failure. Neither
the arrangements of the building nor the manner of life nor the
administration were conducive to the rehabilitation of the man. The
old type of workhouse was constructed to avenge the wrong and not to
correct the wrong-doer.
When the failure of that plan was fully recognized, people cast about
for a remedy. They saw the success and satisfaction attending the
location of charitable institutions in the country, and the idea of
similar locations for various types of prisons occurred to them. And
the cry against prison-made goods gave impetus to the movement.
The prison did seem to be the last place to make real the fact that “a
man’s a man for a’ that.” But when the plowshare and the pruning hook
began to supplant the stripes and the dungeon, people were certain that
at last the dignity of manhood would be realized and that life and
immortality were come to light.
St. Paul and Minneapolis were among the first to adopt the farm policy.
Various other corrective institutions were established upon farms in
foreign countries and in this country, especially within the past
twenty years. One of the best institutions for misdemeanants thus
established was located at Witzwyl, Switzerland, in 1891. But I wish
to-day to speak with particular reference to Cleveland’s situation, its
old workhouse and its new correction farm.
The Cleveland workhouse was constructed over forty years ago on the old
lines for 500 prisoners, two miles from the center of the city. In 1904
and 1905, about 750 acres were purchased by the city nine miles from
its center. Upon this land building was commenced several years later.
Thus far there is built only the “service building” which at present
fulfills all purposes. Ultimately it is to be used for store-rooms
and shops. There are also to be built dormitories for trusties and
semi-trusties, cell-blocks for the least tractable, kitchens, dining
rooms, a chapel, women’s industrial building, school building and a
greenhouse, all within a high wall inclosing eleven acres. The present
intention is that the buildings and wall shall be constructed by the
labor of inmates. Unfortunately there are no funds in sight to proceed
with this construction.
All commitments are made to the original workhouse in the city. There
the women remain, but about two fifths of the men are transferred to
the correction farm. On a recent day the 102 men at the correction
farm were assigned to work as follows: On construction of the sewage
disposal plant, 24; in the stone quarry, 7; on the farm, 10; in the
garden, 7; driving teams (working the farm and hauling material to
the filter bed), 12; care of horses and stock, 10; to work on the
adjoining infirmary farm, 10; firemen, 2; carpenter, 1; barber, 1; and
in the preparation and serving of the meals and care of the buildings
and grounds, 18. Some of these last eighteen are unable to do heavy
work, but all have fresh air and sunshine daily. At other times men
do concreting, making artificial stone, fertilize and drain the land,
which is not fertile, make roads on the farm and later they will
construct the wall and buildings, plant trees and perform every sort of
labor that will develop the land, and cause it to be highly productive
and attractive in appearance. I also hope that later they will make and
repair the needed wagons, tools and all the smaller farm implements; in
fact, they now do some of that work, especially the repairing.
An apple orchard and much small fruit have just been planted under the
direction of the state agricultural department. Last year by attention
to pruning, spraying and smudge fires on cold nights, ours was one of
the few orchards bearing fruit in all that region. Bee culture will be
introduced and scientific forestration is to be developed. We are about
to construct a dairy barn entirely by prison labor that will be a model
of simplicity, sanitary construction and efficiency for the neighboring
country.
We propose that the farm shall gradually become a model in all
respects. In fact, this year we will produce certified milk for
the city and the contagious disease hospitals. We plan, as soon as
possible, that the correction farm shall produce the meat, milk,
vegetables and fruit, both fresh and canned, for the entire workhouse
and the public hospitals, while the adjoining infirmary farm will
render similar service for its own use and that of the growing
tuberculosis sanatorium.
From the standpoint of the prisoner, the farm policy is to give to each
man the largest degree of liberty consistent with the well-being of
others. The ultimate purpose is to employ as many without the walls as
possibly can be trusted, and to employ out-of-doors within the walls
all the remainder except those whose conduct imperatively demands
closest supervision.
For years there will be work for all workers, no “idle-house” in any
sort of weather or trade conditions. Every working day from twelve
to twenty men are sent to work on the adjoining infirmary farm. Such
transfer was one of the purposes of placing the infirmary on a great
contiguous tract of land. But the plan works to the detriment of the
correction farm, which for years, and perhaps always, can use to
advantage the labor of all men committed to its care. No key is turned
on these men during the day. The night guard and the locked door are
more to remove temptation than to prevent escape. You realize this
when you know that all these men, instead of sleeping in stuffy cells,
sleep in large dormitories, giving them every facility for overpowering
the night watch and making their escape. Prisoners arrive a typical
bridewell company, drunken, dirty, diseased and discouraged. They go
away bronzed, with regular habits of living, accustomed to work, with a
new determination and a new grip. Of course, some fail and return, but
we do not assume to insure immunity against all the wiles of the world,
the flesh and the devil.
Americans seem in constant search for a cure-all. There is a great
demand for some hobby for the alert philanthropist to ride. In their
order institutionalism, organized charity, juvenile courts, medical
charities and country life have had their turn in the spotlight. Each
is efficient, but all together are not sufficient. It is urged that if
a convict be sent out under the blue sky to breathe God’s pure air,
behold green fields and hear the birds sing from the swaying boughs, he
will become as one of the best citizens, especially if he digs in the
dirt. But unfortunately the country does not afford the alchemy which
converts men into angels. This is amply attested by the record of most
diabolical crimes committed by country-bred men who would not know
an elevator from a subway. The farm prison is no panacea, but it is
tremendously worth while.
The men do not wear stripes in either prison. Consideration is combined
with firmness in all our dealings, for it is the purpose that every
requirement shall appeal to the fair-minded prisoner to be in his
interest and for his benefit.
From the experience of the Cleveland correction farm several rather
obvious deductions may be made; we are dealing with men, free moral
agents, and a good physical environment does not guarantee their reform
any more than does instruction in good rules for living.
We have learned that men are sent to the house of correction for a
purpose. These men have faults to be corrected. These defects in the
human mind are to be corrected, and no ordinary workhouse sentence will
effect a cure of such defects as are hereditary or fully acquired.
There is some concealed materialism abroad under the guise of
environment, but the rankest exponent of environment should not expect
to cure twenty years of bad surroundings accompanied by indifferent
or bad actions even by a ninety-day period on a farm. And ninety days
is in excess of the average period of confinement, although Cleveland
“golden-rule policies” do not burden us with five-, ten- or fifteen-day
men.
Our first appeal is to their sense of honor. Their appreciation of the
confidence reposed in them often proves a potent influence for good.
The transfer to the farm is such an expression of confidence. But it
is given with discretion. Hardened criminals are not sent on distant
missions unattended. In fact, they are rarely transferred to the farm.
As a part of their teaching the misdemeanants need discipline. It is
necessary to keep the men on the farm for some time if they are to
receive the needed development, especially the men who are sent for
intoxication. Discipline is essential to instruction whether in the day
school, the home or any other form of education. Many of these men are
committed because of their lack of self-control and time is required
for its development. We have learned that the men need to be taught the
habit of industry and how to do some particular thing well. This is for
their good while they are on the farm, and it is essential after they
return to their homes. We have learned that not all men can be trusted,
and we believe it has a bad influence on a man to attempt to get away,
so we make him feel the bad result when he is caught. And the police
are faithful to help catch deserters. Personality is a big factor; one
man will accomplish far more with and for prisoners than another.
The farm does build up the body of the anæmic; it gives a good physical
development. Moreover, the habit of industry can very much better be
taught where results are being achieved on the farm than where work
is being done at little or no profit in a factory. And efficiency is
better developed on the farm. The farm has a direct physical value and
an indirect mental and moral value. It clears a man’s mind and allows
him to think straight. It affords a foundation for developing the
spiritual structure, though of itself it will only slightly develop
one mentally or morally. The man is now physically well, having had
lessons in life. Here is the opportunity to further develop his will
in order that he may do right. Looking to that end, we have introduced
the regular presentation of the gospel in an orderly way. We intend
to teach by example, but we need an official who shall be recognized
by the prisoners as their friend, one who shall know them and make it
his exclusive business to help them establish the desire to do right
and aid them to be able to fulfill that desire. This seems one of the
unsolved problems in Cleveland and in nearly all such institutions.
We have the parole system in operation, though there is not help enough
for its most efficient execution. There is the Brotherhood Club for the
men who have no home to which to go, established at the suggestion of a
former prisoner. There a man may stay until he appears strong enough to
live a normal life. The club is intended to be self-sustaining.
In my opinion the country is the place for the misdemeanant, for the
very obvious reason that it affords plenty of light, pure air, a
variety of good food and wide opportunity for productive occupation
for the prisoners. There work is purposeful, not a time-killer. They
work, eat, sleep, have recreation and religious teaching, all under
approximately normal conditions. Every man is treated with kindness and
consideration; discipline is not on parade. In short, the prisoner is
treated like a man and to the extent that if there is manhood in him
it will come out. The purpose is to develop honor and faithfulness,
to accustom every man to useful occupation and to teach him to be
effective. The officers are not armed, they are not even called guards.
In fact, they act as teachers, foremen or farmers, as the occasion
requires.
There is so much work to do in developing, enriching and cultivating
the land, in erecting buildings, in making roads, that every feasible
labor-saving machine is used. This of itself speaks to the man the
appreciation of his work as a man and not a substitute for a machine.
The hope is that the farming and the making of its equipment, and
incidentally the care of the prisoners and their quarters, will
profitably occupy practically all the available labor in such manner
as to make a man not only fit but anxious to work. It is hoped that
a large majority will be improved and many rehabilitated in an
environment which favors giving every man all the chance he will use
to reform. Moreover, it will thereby be apparent that the government
is not only strong, but so merciful and so genuine in its fatherly
desire to help each man that in turn he will cease to be “agin” the
government; that he will turn from being a consumer to become a
producer of taxes, turn from being his own and other’s enemy to become
a friend to men.
PRISONERS AFIELD.
WARDEN J. T. GILMOUR, CENTRAL PRISON, ONTARIO, CANADA.
[Stenographic report of Dr. Gilmour’s address at the annual meeting
of the New Jersey State Charities Aid and Prison Reform Association,
April 1, 1911.]
When we speak of criminals we are very apt to picture in our mind’s eye
the great criminals, those who commit atrocious crimes. But that class
forms but a very small percentage of every prison population, and the
methods of dealing with this class are much more clear and definite
than dealing with the much larger class that are not quite so dangerous
to society. When we speak of criminals we are apt to think of them _en
masse_ as a congregation of a few hundred or a few thousand men walled
within a prison. Carlyle dissipates this view when he says: “Masses?
Yea, masses, every unit of whom has his own heart and sorrows--stands
there covered with his own skin; and if you prick him he will bleed.”
In dealing with delinquency there are two basic facts: that the great
majority of criminals are made in their youth and that the great
majority of youthful criminals are handicapped in life’s race either by
physical, mental or moral defects. That prince of sociologists, Victor
Hugo, evidently appreciated these conditions when he gave us that
beautiful injunction to study evil lovingly, and then, later on, he
gave the key when he said: “There are no bad weeds. They are only bad
cultivators.”
Two or three weeks ago a young man came into the corridor of our
prison one day and asked, “Warden, will you take me out to the farm,”
(A prison farm, of which I hope to speak a little later.) I said,
“No, Smith, I cannot take you out.” Over in our country when we wish
to conceal a man’s identity we always call him Smith, and if we are
particularly careful we call him John Smith. This man was a repeater;
he was doing his fifth term; the four previous terms he had been
a very difficult man to get along with, but this time he had done
very well. We could take no exception to either his conduct or his
industry. He said to me, “Have I not done well this time?” I said “You
certainly have.” “Well, then,” he said, “won’t you give me a chance?”
Of course, he had me there; I couldn’t refuse him. I said, “Yes, I’ll
give you a chance.” I took him up to the farm on a Monday; he worked
well on Tuesday and on Wednesday; and on Wednesday night he skipped.
The following Friday we got him again, in a town one hundred and fifty
miles from home, and I pitied the poor fellow when he came back, he
looked so dejected and so crestfallen; but I blamed myself entirely.
I had imposed a burden of self-denial and a responsibility of conduct
upon that man that he was not able to bear. He was one of that class,
typical of a considerable percentage of our prison populations, that
is on the borderland between sanity and insanity; and all the prison
officials who are here to-night will recall scores of that class who
form a part of their prison population.
As I say, I had made a mistake with this boy; but it only goes to show
that penologists are not infallible, not even the youngest of them. If
we were to stop to speculate upon the place that this element occupies
in the divine scheme, we might tread upon very dangerous ground. It
is enough for us to know that the God that made them is the God that
will judge them; and herein lies our consolation. I had a man come into
prison a few weeks ago to do two years, and yesterday afternoon, just
an hour before I left home for coming down here, his wife came into my
office leading a beautiful child five years of age by the hand. She
came, as so many poor women come, to see if it were not possible to get
some relief from her almost intolerable position. As the cruel truth
dawned upon her that it was impossible for me to exercise clemency in
regard to her husband, the woman turned to me and she said with much
emphasis, “If they would only send me and my child to prison, how much
better it would have been.”
And the woman expressed a great verity. This little episode I relate
to show you that society has two obligations: one to the man shut up
within the prison, and perhaps an even greater obligation to the poor
woman and children dependent upon the man shut up within the prison.
It is necessary to lock up a certain class of men that society may be
protected, and that these men may be improved; but when we do that
are we going to put their families in a position in which they will be
impelled into either vice or crime? I think it is Milton who asks the
pertinent question:
“What boots it, by one gate to make defense
And at another to let in the foe?”
In dealing with the wives and children, as well as with the prison
inmates over in our place, we find an immense help from the Salvation
Army. We have a prisoner’s aid association and they work harmoniously
together; but the Army has one or two advantages in this work that
no other organization possesses. In the first place, they are not
sentimentalists. They detail one man to give his time to it. He is
as free to go into our prison as I am, and I think he spends as much
time there as I do. He is there at night, on Sundays, on holidays, at
noon hours, and he is going from cell to cell--he becomes thoroughly
acquainted with every inmate. That gives that man an immense advantage
in dealing with those men when their terms expire. The prison worker
that expects to meet the discharged prisoner at the prison gate the
morning he comes out, is much more apt to be worked by the prisoner
than he is to work the prisoner. In three cases out of five he is
clay in the hands of a designing man. One of our governors some
years ago said that Canada was a land of magnificent distances. The
same remark applies to your republic; but we get prisoners thirteen
hundred miles from our prison. The Army, learning the condition of
the families dependent on the man within the prison, writes to the
corps, the Salvation Army corps in the town or the city where the
man came from, and they are able by their very extensive and highly
perfected organization, to make a study of each family, in addition to
having arrangements made there for the employment of that man when his
term has expired. We try, just as far as possible, to get all of our
ex-prisoners out of the city. We do not wish them to colonize; we try
to get them back to their homes where they came from, for unless a man
is willing to go back and face society and live it down, the chances
are that he will be driven into what is wrong sometimes through fear.
A year ago now we started our farm. It is fifty miles out of the city;
it contains 530 acres. I commenced by taking up a little detachment of
14 men, and I rapidly increased that until I had 180 men, housed in
temporary quarters on this farm. The average term of the man on the
farm was about five or six months, though I had several men there who
had to do from one to two years. So far we have taken out to this farm
500 men, and out of that 500, 4 have escaped successfully and 3 or 4
have attempted to escape--unsuccessfully. The other day a minister in
our city was calling and I gave him these statistics, and he looked
very sad; he said it was a pity. I said it was; “but,” I said, “can you
take 500 of your church membership and have 495 of them make good?” And
he changed the subject.
I had a grand jury visit me the other day; it is a custom over in our
country for the grand juries to come over a few times a year and tell
us how to run the place (they sometimes stay an hour), and the foreman,
before he went away, said to me, “Warden, I suppose you select the men
whom you take out to the farm.” I said, “No, sir, I don’t.” He said,
“How do you manage?” I said, “I select a very few whom I _don’t_ take;”
for I can take 90 per cent. About three weeks ago I was going into
the farm one day, it was a cold, snowy, blowing, blustering day; the
thermometer was about zero. When I came near to our building it was
quarter to twelve o’clock, and I saw men coming from this direction
and that direction, and from every direction pass alone; no officers
with them at all, and it impressed me, perhaps, much more than it would
another one not engaged in this work, for I asked myself the question,
“How is it? These are the very men that I have had in Toronto behind
bolts and bars, watched over by guns and guards, and here they are out
here as free as this air that blows, and they are all coming in to sit
down with each other at dinner.” I have asked our men on the farm--many
of them different types, at different places, at different times--and I
have asked them all the same question. “What do you find the greatest
difference as between the prison in the city and the prison out here
on the farm?” And without a single exception, in one form or another,
those men have invariably given me the same reply. We give good
board at the prison, but it was not that; it was not this liberty,
comparative liberty. They have said to me: “Warden, to get away from
that cell! To get away from that cell!”
I asked a boy two weeks ago, a young man, and he said, “Warden, to
get away from that cell; for,” he said, “to sit there on Sunday,
every evening and on holidays and have that cell gate staring you
in the face, it is hell;” and he didn’t say it to be irreverent or
disrespectful, but it was his pent-up emotions. I believe there is
something debasing--debasing to a man’s personal manhood--about life in
a cell that no one can describe. Our men plow, they harrow, they sow
the grain, they reap it; there is no guard with them at all. Of course,
these are men who are near the end of their terms, perhaps men who
have three months or less to do; but every prison contains enough of
that class to enable them to carry on this class of work, agricultural
work, to a financial advantage. If we had to pay guard to be with these
various men we couldn’t do it, but we don’t. There is an indefinable
something in God’s out-of-doors that has a beneficial effect upon
humanity. I cannot tell you what it is. “The wind bloweth where it
listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but thou canst not tell
whence it cometh nor whither it goeth. So is every man that is born of
the spirit.”
A few months ago a professor from the University of Kansas wrote a
little poem of two or three verses, and one of the verses reads like
this:
“A breeze on the far horizon,
The infinite tender sky--
The ripe, rich tint of the corn fields
And the wild geese sailing high;
And all over upland and lowland
The charm of the goldenrod:
Some of us call it autumn
And others call it God.”
Do you catch the spirit of those beautiful lines? They tell (what
I should like to tell were I able) of the way God speaks to our
delinquents out on the farm through the hazy atmosphere and the golden
sunsets; they tell of the way God speaks to those poor fellows through
the growing and the ripening grains, and of the message that God sends
to them through the birds that sing and soar over their heads. It
suggests that beautiful thought of Browning’s:
“This world, as God has made it,
Always glitters. And knowing this is love,
And love is duty.”
We are aiming at something definite in the construction of our new
prison. We are going to try to give that large class of boys and young
men that come to prison for the first time, one more opportunity
of going through life without being immured in a prison cell. In
the construction of our buildings our domicile accommodations will
be largely of the dormitory type--small dormitories, accommodating
fourteen beds, with a large, semicircular bay window on one side which
will serve as a sitting room, attached to which dormitory will be a
completely equipped bedroom and dressing room. The corridor, which
runs along the side where the officers will patrol, is divided from
these rooms that I speak of by a glass partition, so that our men are
thoroughly under observation every hour of the day and night, and
there will be no opportunities whatever for some of those things that
penologists so much dread. In addition to that, we have a number of
single rooms and a number of cells, but in a prison which is destined
to accommodate 600, we are only putting in 40 cells. The men who behave
and who demonstrate that they can appreciate that dormitory life and
maintain the condition of it, we hope to give ultimately a single room,
and the men who fail to appreciate this dormitory life and don’t behave
as we wish them to, will then be demoted into a cell; but we are going
to try, as I say, to get those boys through life, if possible, without
the cell. Will we succeed? I don’t know. I don’t know. We have our
critics, but this world will never be saved by the critics; it will
be saved by the dreamers. The history of humanity is the history of
indomitable hope. Emerson says that “Every thing is free to the man
that can grasp it;” that “He who despairs is wrong.”
In dealing with delinquents, it is the personal touch that tells. Human
nature craves for sympathy. Kingsley was once asked what the secret
of his joyous, buoyant life was, and his ready reply was, “I had a
friend.” Our Saviour was no exception to this rule, for as our Saviour
approached Gethsemane, he yearned for a friend whom he could rely upon
to wait and watch while he endured, and expressed it in that pathetic
request to the drowsy Peter and his sleepy comrades. When we see a very
simple duty staring us in the face in dealing with this class, we are
too prone to say: “Lord, here am I. Send him.” It is an easy matter
for a man of means to write his check, or give his cash, but it is an
entirely different thing to carry that gift to some poor fellow who is
down and out and sweeten it with the fragrance of personal kindness.
“Not what we give, but what we share;
The gift without the giver is bare.”
We have church service at our place every Sunday afternoon and
Wednesday afternoon. One day our preacher failed to materialize; the
men were in the chapel and I did not wish to have them return to
the cells without saying something to them; as I could not preach,
I thought I would do the next best thing, and I would read another
fellow’s sermon, only I gave the other fellow credit for it. I was
reading a book just then that interested me very much, and I went down
to the office and got it and I read the first chapter, and when I
finished I asked if I should read more, and they said, “Yes, Warden.”
I read a second and a third chapter; I read as long as my voice would
hold out; and as I had finished a man down in the audience said, “Won’t
you be kind enough to tell me the name of that book and the author?”
I was very glad to have them ask the question; I told him. The next
morning when I was going through the prison industries, the officers
kept asking me what book I read the previous day. I said, “Why do you
ask?” They said, “The men are all talking about it.” I sent down town
and got fifteen copies and sent them around among the cells, with
instructions that no one man could keep it for more than a week. When
we collected the books at the end of the first week I found that a
great many men had taken paper and copied out portions of it. This was
practically a non-reading population. They had refused a lot of good
books we had put in our library which I had thought were fine, much to
my disappointment. Perhaps you would like to know the kind of book they
so much enjoyed, and, with your permission, I will just read you the
first page of the first chapter.
“Man has two Creators: his God and himself. The first creator furnishes
him the raw material of his life and the laws of conformity with which
he can make that life what he will. His second creator, himself,
has marvelous powers he rarely realizes. It is what a man makes of
himself that counts. If a man fails in life he usually says, I am as
God made me. When he succeeds in life he proudly proclaims himself a
self-made man. Man is placed into this world, not as a finality, but
as a possibility. Man’s greatest enemy is himself. Man in his weakness
is the creature of circumstances; man in his strength is the creator
of circumstances. Whether he be victim or victor depends largely on
himself. Man is never truly great, merely for what he is, but ever for
what he may become.”
Now that is pretty good meat. And that afternoon I was the one who
learned the great lesson, for I learned that if we approach this
subject in the right way we can waken, even in dormant minds, a
desire for good literature. And my little experience of the afternoon
revolutionized my method of dealing with the boys in this respect.
Dr. Jordan, of Boston, is the author of that book, and it is called
“Self-Control.” Briefly and hurriedly I have just tried to sketch
some of the phases in dealing with delinquency. Who are they for whom
we should do these things? What claim have they upon us? What is our
relationship to them? Did you ever hear the story of the Scotch girl,
the one who was carrying a crippled boy over a street crossing in
Edinburgh? A gentleman, seeing her burden, hastened up to assist and
sympathize with her, and the girl looked up smiling and replied: “Ah,
sir, I dinna mind it. He is my brither!”
FARMING FOR EX-CRIMINALS.
According to Salvation Army officials of England, there is something
about farming which alters the criminal mind. Just what it is they do
not profess to know, but they do know from experience that tilling
the soil makes a better man of the ex-convict. Land-owners in the
suburbs of London have become interested and have sold the Army numbers
of small tracts. These tracts, in turn, are rented on easy terms to
released prisoners with an arrangement by which the latter are further
enabled to buy them outright. Thus far nine hundred men who have worn
the stripes have been bettered in this way. So successful, in fact,
has the scheme proved that the people of London are actually beginning
to see in these farmers a means of supplying a deficient vegetable
market--for London, like American cities, is suffering to an extent
from the high cost of living.
There is room aplenty in America for farm colonies of ex-convicts.
Considering the results obtained in England, the scheme would seem
worthy of experiment on a scale sufficient to prove its merit or
demerit.
THE OMAHA MEETING OF THE AMERICAN PRISON ASSOCIATION.
REPORT OF THE DELEGATE.
OMAHA, NEB., October 20, 1911.
If the delegates to the American Prison Association are to form a
judgment of the people of Omaha from the cordial reception they have
met in this large western city, the conclusion may easily be reached
that these people are most generous, hospitable and appreciative.
The first meeting of the Association was held in the Auditorium
connected with the Hotel Rome. The number of delegates which had
registered on the first day of the meeting was about 300. The
Auditorium will seat several hundred and was almost filled by the
delegates and citizens of Omaha, who appeared to be deeply interested
in the proceedings.
Before us on a platform banked up with roses and carnations and draped
above with the American Flag, sat the President, T. B. Patton, of
Pennsylvania, and other officers of the Association; Governor Aldrich
of the State of Nebraska, Mayor Dahlman of Omaha, and other eminent
citizens.
Judge Lee Estelle, Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements, presided
over this meeting. I understand that he came from a hospital, really
a very sick man, to discharge a duty which he had previously agreed
to perform. After a few brief words in which he referred to the badge
adopted for the members on this occasion, which consists of a small
gilt key with the usual ribbon attachment, he assured us that this key
indicated an entrance into all the homes of Omaha and informed us that
all the doors were not only open but really off their hinges for us. He
introduced Governor Aldrich who then made the main welcoming speech.
He dwelt upon the material advantages of the State of Nebraska,
presenting many statistics to indicate the vastness of the resources of
this large state. Many of his contrasts were quite humorous. In figures
he mentioned the value of the manufactured products of the State for
1910 and compared the amount with the value of the oil produced in the
same year in the entire United States, showing a difference in favor of
the State of Nebraska on these two accounts of more than $37,000,000.
He also showed that the value of beef produced in the State exceeded by
$2,000,000 the value of tobacco products in the United States for 1910.
He told us that four thousand students were in attendance at their
University, ninety per cent. of whom came from the State of Nebraska.
Mayor Dahlman followed with a kindly speech.
President Patton then delivered his annual address. If I may select
any key note of his remarks, it would be to the effect that all of our
prison officials should be selected, not only for the ability to govern
and restrain, but more especially for the ability to influence and to
build up the characters of those who are under them.
“The enactment of such wise legislation as is best calculated to
properly protect society and to provide, under humane discipline and
restraint, an adequate punishment for the offender; the securing of
the proper and regular employment of the prisoner in prison under
wise state law; the obtaining of a rightful portion of the prisoner’s
earnings for the use of his dependent family; the systematic
investigation of their real needs and the furnishing of prompt relief
to the worthy and possible effort for their rehabilitation or removal
to more favorable surroundings; the invoking of the probation law
where such will be conducive to the best results; the comprehensive
study of the prison population as far as possible to secure proper
statistics on which to base accurate results; the well organized
effort now at work in a number of our larger centers of population,
in the study and betterment of the slum districts and the more
general effort in many localities in the interest of the betterment
of the environment of the children and youth, are all encouraging
signs of the far-reaching interest at work for the uplift and saving
of humanity, and to this end we say, Godspeed to the organizations
which in carrying forward their work, have gone back to the childhood
days, and which, striving to break the bondage, not only of heredity
and environment, are, through sympathy, love and interest thus
securing a foothold in districts, communities and individual homes as
well, and in which their organized effort is bearing a fruitage most
encouraging, indeed and bids fair in due course of time to prove a
strong bulwark in the reduction of crime, as well as of the criminal
class.”
He referred with feeling to the deaths of Gen. Brinkerhoff and John J.
Lytle, referring to the latter as an Apostle of Peace and Good Cheer.
He then introduced Dr. Charles Richmond Henderson, of Chicago, who
spoke with his usual energy and earnestness. He would do away with
municipal and county jails, except as they may be necessary as places
of temporary detention. They are run on such a small scale, he said,
that the men in charge cannot have the training nor facilities that
should be present in the reformation of criminals. He would have the
criminals turned over to the state for punishment and reformation as
soon as they are convicted by the county or municipal courts. Dr.
Henderson emphasized the desirability of classifying wrongdoers and
declared that the stamp of criminality should not be placed upon men
who are not in spirit criminals. He pleaded especially for more humane
treatment of habitual drunkards. “Can you cure a drunkard by giving him
ten days in jail, in an atmosphere of degradation and crime, when the
habit is to him a thing of generations?”
He commended the system recently adopted in the District of Columbia
under which inebriates are sent to an institution in the country, where
they are allowed to work in the open air under wholesome environment
and are not branded as of the criminal class. “Sooner or later the
student of criminology must come to a realization of the importance
of the study of the child.” Heredity was mentioned as a factor in the
problem, and the subject of early environment should receive careful
study.
He congratulated the Association for their good work in advocating the
adoption of laws providing for the Indeterminate Sentence. This does
not mean that a man must always be discharged before the time of his
maximum sentence, it may also mean the creation of tribunals to decide
whether a man is ready to be let loose upon society regardless of the
time of his sentence. In other words, our prisons and reformatories
should be conducted as hospitals and as institutions for those whose
minds are diseased, from which patients are discharged upon recovery of
their malady.
THE BIG MEETING.
The interest of the citizens of Omaha was displayed in their attendance
at the mass meeting held on Sabbath afternoon in the Auditorium of
the city. This building has accommodations for several thousand, and
was nearly filled. This meeting was addressed by Professor Henderson,
Warden Gilmour of Toronto, Canada, Bishop Tihen of the Roman Catholic
Diocese of Lincoln, Neb., and Maud Ballington Booth. It is not my
intention in this communication to present to you even a synopsis of
what was said on this great occasion, but such meetings arouse interest
in our cause to many whom our published reports never reach.
Professor Henderson condemned the changes of officials in our prisons
on account of political conditions. He condemned the construction
of iron cells for prisoners, saying that it was absurd that in the
construction of prisons some dealer in structural iron should impose
upon the officials a building more suitable for the caging of animals
in a zoölogical garden.
Warden Gilmour of Toronto, Canada, emphasized the importance of fresh
air and sunshine as a reformatory agency. “If we can take our prisoners
from the jails and the workhouses and build them up physically, which
we must do first if we would build them up morally, we have made the
first great step toward reform.” He has a farm of 840 acres, to which
he has sent from 800 to 900 prisoners. Of them, he has failed in the
reform of 3 out of each 100, and has succeeded in 97 out of every
100. The great majority of our jail population does not consist of
criminals, he said, but of men who have been the victims of their
environment. With the proper environment, such as fresh air and
sunshine, wholesome work, kind treatment, trust reposed in them, and
the sympathy and help of men and women interested in their welfare,
they become useful members of society.
“The first man created, so divine history tells us, proved a
delinquent, and God’s sentence upon him was to go forth and _till the
soil_; can man to-day impose a better sentence upon our delinquents?”
Bishop Tihen dwelt upon the importance of investigating the causes of
crime. “If you go down into the slums, and find that the chief cause
of crime is the unfit habitations, do not condemn the habitations and
stop there; find out the owner of them who profits from the dollars
received for their rent, and denounce him. If you find the poor orphan
girl working in the big department store at wages at which you know she
cannot live upon, do not wait until you find her a few months later
when she has become a fallen woman through the necessity to which
hunger has driven her, and then try to reform her; go at once to the
proprietor and demand that she receive living wages.”
Maud Ballington Booth electrified the great audience with accounts of
what had been accomplished by the Gospel of Love and Hope. She told
briefly of her work of taking men from prisons and giving them a chance
on the farms and in the homes of our people. She finds positions for
them when they can be recommended, and during the last fifteen years
she recalled that many thousands have been saved by such treatment from
going back to lives of crime. “It’s hope that they need, and there’s
hope for all of them; if there’s hope for the millionaire, there’s hope
for the burglar; if there’s hope for the politician, there’s hope for
the man behind prison walls.”
ANNUAL SERMON.
The annual sermon was preached by Frank L. Loveland, of Topeka, Kansas.
His address was eminently practical. He thought that prevention was
better than rescue. The work of the “Good Samaritan” was good, but it
were far better to extirpate the robbers. In these days the robbers
are not the wild Bedouins of the desert, but society which tolerates
conditions which bring forth a crop of criminals.
PRISON DISCIPLINE.
The report of the standing committee on Prison Discipline was presented
by Warden Scott of the New Hampshire Prison, and was heard with great
interest.
“Rules and regulations degrading in their character have long since
been found to be more a menace to our system of prison discipline than
otherwise. We have seen the downcast eye, the striped suit, short hair
cut, lockstep, the dark cell and various forms of methods of corporal
punishment replaced by more humane, more sensible regulations, and
venture the assertion that in no prison in the country where this has
been done will one fail to find the standard of discipline improved.
“When a man has been sentenced by the court to prison at hard labor,
and during his confinement is of good behavior, he has the right to
expect that no further punishment will be inflicted upon him than that
prescribed by the court.
“The knowledge that special privileges are not granted to any prisoner
that cannot be earned by every other is an effective aid to discipline.
So, also, is cleanliness of person, clothing, bedding and cell
essential to good conduct. Plenty of well-cooked and well-balanced
food should be provided, a well-stocked library, a school for the
illiterate, a new voice in chaplain occasionally at divine service,
lectures on interesting subjects by prominent men, entertainments on
holidays, all these are good for the prisoner and good for the prison.”
The plan of grading prisoners, in operation in many prisons, has
undoubtedly brought about a more perfect system of discipline and
should be adopted in all prisons and reformatories, large and small. It
stimulates pride in most prisoners.
Productive labor in prisons not only greatly aids discipline and
reformation, conserves the health of the prisoner and fits him to be
self-supporting when discharged, but secures to the state relief from
the cost of maintenance of the prisoners.
The warden or superintendent should be clothed with authority to
appoint or remove the subordinate officers without hindrance or
dictation.
Warden James of Oregon told of the results obtained through generous
treatment of prisoners. “I find that the more privileges we can extend
consistent with good discipline, the easier it is to obtain good
discipline. Since we inaugurated amusements such as moving-pictures,
Saturday baseball and other forms of exercise, reports of infractions
of rules have been reduced fifty per cent.” Warden Lewis of Michigan
said that he allowed outside teams to play against the prison team. He
thought the morale of the institution was improved by such innovation.
Warden Sanders, of Iowa, thought that men would universally improve
if we show that we have confidence in them. Some time ago his friends
were very solicitous for his safety when he took a gang of eight
convicts out to cut corn. Each convict was supplied with a keen bladed
corn-knife and the cornfield was some miles from the prison. He went
with them without arms and though his friends feared they would never
see him alive, he accompanied them with no thought of danger. Some of
them were serving life sentences, but they all returned in the evening,
not having shown the slightest indication of escaping or offering
violence.
FAMILIES OF PRISONERS.
Judge DeLacy of the District of Columbia sent a communication with
regard to the dependent families of prisoners. He informed the
Association that such families are cared for in two ways: one by direct
appropriation from the public funds and the other by a collection of
the earnings of the prisoners. In 1907 there was paid for this purpose
from the funds, $200.00; and from prisoners’ earnings, $6,050.00. In
1911 the public appropriation had reached $3,000.00; and the amount
dispensed from prisoners’ earnings, $38,684.00.
The eloquent earnestness of Maud Ballington Booth met with sympathetic
attention.
“Every man who works in prison should, after his own board and clothing
have been paid for, work for the support of his family or for those
depending upon him. Some officials seem not to know that a convict may
have a family, yet there is always this heart-saddened, home-broken
circle of gloom, the mothers, wives and children of convicts, about
every penal institution. Wherewith are they to be fed and clothed?
What recognition does the state give to them from whom it has taken
their only source of support? I know of one case where the state gets
$500,000 a year from its convict labor. The larger the number of
convicts, the greater the revenue. But what of the army of helpless
and hopeless wives and children who are being deprived of the support
of these laborers who are their husbands and fathers? The helping hand
extended to the family has a reflex action on the man in prison. He
realizes that his efforts are helping those who have been, and are
still, dependent on his services.”
A SELF-SUPPORTING PRISON.
Parole Officer Venn of Michigan presented some facts of very great
interest as determined from their experience in the Detroit House of
Correction. The plant, costing originally $190,000, had paid for itself
and $1,000,000 had been turned over to the city, to the prisoners
themselves and to their families in the past thirty-two years. “In
Michigan the contract system is doomed, its expiring gasp having been
determined by legislative enactment. This system is held in disrepute,
especially among the ranks of free-toilers whether organized or not.
When the prisoner or his family, or the state, receives the profit from
prison labor, and not some contracting firm, which pays to the state
the paltry sum of from thirty-five cents to seventy-five cents per diem
for the toil of its wards, the mouth of the objector is silenced.”
Mr. Venn said that very often the paroled man needed some financial
assistance, sometimes to purchase tools, or for some very proper
object, and that he had loaned to such men within the last two years
the sum of $860, of which sum $630 had been refunded. He regarded most
of the balance as an absolutely safe investment. The money which comes
back can be used for others in need, and the prisoner is not treated as
a pauper.
FEDERAL PAROLE.
The Attorney-General, Geo. W. Wickersham, delivered an able address on
the “Federal Parole,” now in operation at the various federal prisons
of the country.
“Punishment in some form is still necessary to prevent crime. This is
especially the case,” he added, “in a community and at a time when
divers economic forces are struggling with each other for the mastery
in the state, and where laws are enacted through the influence of
one class or classes to control the action of another class who are
unwilling to accept them as rules of action, because unconvinced of the
wisdom or justice of the legislative policy which they embody. Yet a
consideration of the nature of social organization will demonstrate the
absolute necessity of all classes of society conforming to requirements
prescribed by the duly constituted authorities--however wise or unwise
those regulations may appear to those whose conduct is sought to be
controlled by them. But within its constitutional scope the acts of the
legislature stand until repealed as the mandate of organized society,
and the continued effectiveness of organized society requires that
obedience to such laws be compelled.”
The attorney-general lengthily discussed the broad question of
punishment for crime and the administration of the federal parole law.
Modern penal legislation, he said, is based on a recognition of the
expediency of endeavoring to reform the criminal, and so great a stress
has been laid on that feature in dealing with criminals, that “we
sometimes forget that in order that punishment may act as a deterrent
upon others it must appear as a badge of disgrace, and not simply the
bestowal of benevolence.”
Mr. Wickersham favored the extension of the parole law to include life
prisoners. He regarded as an incongruity that prisoners sentenced to
long terms for vicious crimes should be eligible for parole, when the
man convicted of second degree murder must remain in prison for life.
“If the lawmaking power,” continued Mr. Wickersham, “considers
reformation, conditional liberation and reinstatement to a normal
position in society possible in these cases, ‘it is difficult to
say on what principle the same possibility and hope of reformation,
liberation and forgiveness should not be extended to one guilty of
murder under circumstances not punishable by death. While there is
life there should be hope. It may be far off, delayed, a dim, distant
possibility, but it would seem that that hope should be held out as a
possible attainment to the meanest wretch who is allowed to live. The
justice of man should aim at the perfection of divine justice, and
though finite wisdom not knowing the hearts of men, may not always deal
justly with offenders, yet it should not “shut the gates of mercy”
against the meanest of God’s creatures.’”
Since the parole law was placed in operation last autumn, the
attorney-general said, but one prisoner had violated his parole.
The 200 prisoners who were paroled from the time the law was put
into effect in the autumn of 1910 to June 30, earned nearly $22,000,
whereas, if they had remained in prison, the attorney-general pointed
out, they would have been a charge on the government.
Mr. Wickersham expressed the belief that the parole boards should be
enlarged by adding two unofficial persons selected from among prominent
citizens of the locality in which the prison is situated.
The Federal Parole Law, approved 1910, provides that any prisoner
confined in any United States prison or penitentiary, for a definite
term of over one year, whose record of conduct shows that he has
observed the rules of such institution, and who has served _one third_
of the time for which he was sentenced, may be released on parole as
hereinafter provided.... Nothing in the law is to be so construed as to
impair the power of the President to grant a pardon or to commutation
in any case, or in any way impair or revoke such good-time allowance as
is or may hereafter be provided by Congress.
PREVENTION.
Governor Vessey of South Dakota took “Prevention” for his theme,
dealing with the topics of child labor, contact with hardened
criminals, lack of practical education in the schools, and bad
environment at home, principally brought about by the curse of
alcoholic drink.
“Child labor,” he said, “is a traffic in human souls, backed, supported
and sustained by an unjust greed for gold, and though financially it
may be profitable to the employer, it is nevertheless a shameful sale
of humanity for money, and that such a cruel condition, with all its
concomitant evils, should be tolerated in this progressive age and in
this fair land, exceeds my understanding.
“But we are awaking from our dream of false commercialism and the
institution of child labor must pass.”
PRISON REFORM LEAGUE OF CALIFORNIA.
Griffith J. Griffith, Secretary of the Prison Reform League of Los
Angeles, California, read an interesting paper on “What the Prison
Reform League Wants to Do and See Done.”
“Perhaps the question as to what we of the Prison Reform League have
in view will be answered best by stating at the outset what we are
not seeking. We are not attempting to boost any party ‘ism,’ creed
or private interest. We are not endeavoring to inoculate the public
with any new philosophy. On the contrary, we conceive ourselves to
be severely practical people, who have noted a series of appalling
facts and wish to know how they agree with certain principles by which
society professes to be guided. We mark the startling difference
between theory and fact; we try to bring that difference to the notice
of those whom we can reach. All thinking men and women acknowledge,
as it appears to us, that punishment can be justified only by the
necessity of protecting society and diminishing as far as possible the
tendency toward barbarism.
“We submit that every judge who passes what is called an ‘exemplary’
sentence in the hope of checking crime; every warden or jailer who
excuses brutality toward prisoners with the plea that they have been
sent to jail for punishment; every police officer who conceives it
to be his role to terrify malefactors by the display or exercise of
force, is making the same false argument as that by which the upholders
of things as they are seek to justify capital punishment. All these
classes, paid by society to protect it against crime, are in our view
victims of an utterly erroneous philosophy and intensify the very evil
they are hired to cure.
“We say that it never pays society to wrong the individual. We say the
state wrongs him inexpressibly when it professes to seek his reform and
debases him; that murder cannot be abolished or diminished in volume
by the state turning murderer; that when the state compels a man to
toil for it without remuneration it is itself a thief, and that such
is not the way to discourage theft; that if the poor, isolated, and
therefore helpless, individual has duties toward the all-powerful
state, infinitely greater are the duties of that almost omnipotent
organization toward the individual. We say that side of the question
has been overlooked, and we call attention to it in the very sharpest
terms at our command.”
CAUSES OF CRIME.
Under this general heading, Dr. William Healy, Director of the Juvenile
Psychopathic Institute of Chicago, read a paper on “The Problem of
the Causation of Criminality,” and Dr. William Martin Richards, of
New York, gave an address on “Physical Defects as a Factor in the
Making of Criminals.” No synopsis of these papers can do them justice.
They represent the latest investigations along these lines, and when
published should be read by all who are interested in the betterment
of humanity. Dr. Healy recited numerous specific instances of abnormal
children whose lives were directly aimed at defiance of law, because of
physical or mental defects or because of trivial circumstances, most of
whom could be more or less readily reformed when handled in a rational
manner.
Dr. Richards dwelt on such defects as bad eyesight, nasal
imperfections, “flat foot,” and various spinal troubles, all of which
were responsible for criminal tendencies. He told of some cases where
the restoration of correct vision had resulted in changing lives,
criminally inclined, into right habits.
Frederick Howard Wines, the only charter member of the Association
present, said that in all the sessions he had ever attended he had not
heard two such illuminating addresses.
COMMITTEE ON PRISON LABOR.
Kate Barnard, of Oklahoma, introduced a resolution providing for the
appointment of a committee to study conditions of convict labor. It is
gratifying to report that it was finally decided that the committee
on organization at the next Annual Meeting in 1912 shall include
among the Standing Committees a Committee on Prison Labor, whose duty
shall be to study the aspects of prison labor and to report definite
recommendations as to the most practical measures to be adopted by the
various states.
The new committee to investigate the subject of prison labor will be
composed of F. H. Mills, New York, Chairman; Albert Garvin, Chesshire,
Conn.; Samuel Gompers, Washington, D. C.; Kate Barnard, Oklahoma City,
Okla.; Dr. J. T. Gilmour, Toronto, Can.; Joseph P. Byers, Secretary.
DISCHARGED PRISONERS.
Miss Eva Booth, Chairman of the Committee on Discharged Prisoners, was
unable to attend the convention, but the report of the committee was
read.
This was a paper by Miss Booth, reviewing the problem of the discharged
prisoner, urging that he must be understood as an individual in
order that he might be helped to get a new footing in the world, and
emphasizing the necessity of prison visitation to enable the workers to
know the prisoner when he is liberated.
The parole system was commended and reference was made to the plan
recently advocated by General Booth in England to have paroled
prisoners make their reports to the Salvation Army and other charitable
institutions instead of to the police departments.
Governor Folk’s plan of having the family of the prisoner taken care of
from the earnings of the convict’s labor was commended.
FIRST OFFENDERS.
Eugene Smith, President of the Prison Association of New York State,
read a report on “Statistics of Crime.” His report was embellished with
illustrations showing that no statistics of crime could be complete in
giving an accurate account of the amount of crime actually committed
for obvious reasons. The first crime of a trusted employé willing to
make restitution may be covered up, the disgrace to members of the
family, insanity, business reasons and other considerations tend to
cover up the criminal acts of many first offenders.
He favored the idea of treating the first offender so that his criminal
tendencies may be corrected if this is possible under the supervision
of a properly constituted Board of Supervisors. He called attention to
the cost of a man who was convicted and sent to prison for killing his
employer in a fit of rage. His case was studied by prison physicians
who believed the man was living between the borders of sanity and
insanity. An operation was eventually decided on and a needle was
removed from the brain. The man recovered his normal condition of mind
and was discharged from prison.
ATTENDANCE--CONCLUSION.
The number of members and delegates in attendance was 385, forty-three
states being represented, also Canada, Cuba and the Philippine Islands.
No one could attend these meetings without being impressed that this
Association has already accomplished great service in improving penal
conditions in the United States, and that its influence is rapidly
extending. It is to be hoped that all barbaric methods of discipline
will soon be abolished, and that reformation of the criminal habit will
be the chief object of detention. We still believe in confinement as a
deterrent factor, but the renovation of character is the goal for which
our penal institutions should strive.
It should not be accepted as a criticism on the proceedings of former
meetings of the Association to say that the papers and the discussions
this year reached high water mark.
It was concluded to hold the next annual meeting in Baltimore in the
latter part of November, 1912.
The following officers were elected: President, Frederick C.
Pettigrove, Chairman Massachusetts Prison Commission; Secretary, Joseph
P. Byers, Newark, N. J.; Financial Secretary, H. H. Shirer, Columbus,
Ohio; Treasurer, Frederick H. Mills, New York City.
ALBERT H. VOTAW,
_Delegate_.
NATIONAL PRISONERS’ AID ASSOCIATION.
The representatives of various Prisoners’ Aid Societies held two or
three meetings while at Omaha, and formed a permanent organization, and
the Executive Committee was directed to endeavor to secure recognition
for the association as a constituent part of the American Prison
Association with the privilege of presenting their work and interests
at the Annual Meetings.
The officers of the National Prisoners’ Aid Association are:
_President_: Judge T. F. Garver, Topeka, Kan.
_Vice-President_: William R. French, Chicago, Ill.
_Secretary and Treasurer_: O. F. Lewis, New York.
_Executive Committee_: General E. Fielding, Chicago, Ill.; F. Emory
Lyon, Chicago; E. A. Fredenhagen, Kansas City, Ore.; R. B. McCord,
Atlanta, Ga.; and A. H. Votaw, 500 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, Pa.
IN MEMORIAM.
JOHN H. DILLINGHAM.
John H. Dillingham, whose death occurred in Third Month, 1910, joined
the Prison Society in the Fifth Month of the year 1882. He was elected
a member of the Acting Committee a few months after joining the
Society, which position he held until he was called to another and
higher field of usefulness in the world beyond.
Our brother was always much interested in the humanitarian labors of
the Society, and was a valuable visitor at the Eastern Penitentiary
until, owing to his many other duties, he was obliged to discontinue
that service.
As an evidence of his interest in and desire to help the objects of our
care, it may be stated that a short time before his death he said it
was his intention to resume his visits to them, but the Lord, “whose he
was and whom he served,” willed otherwise, and the service will have
to be performed by others. His genial disposition, loving nature and
conspicuous goodness endeared him to all who knew him.
DAVID SULZBERGER.
David Sulzberger, a member of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, and a
member of the Acting Committee since 1903, was born in the Duchy of
Baden, in 1838, and died in March, 1910, at the home of his sister in
this city.
Reared by pious parents of the Jewish faith, and following the
teachings of Jehovah, as manifested to one who sought earnestly to know
the Divine Will, he devoted much of his life and means to practical
philanthropy. It has been said by a member of his own denomination
that his crowning achievement was his splendid service to the cause
of humanity in visiting the Jewish and other prisoners confined in
the penal institutions located in this city. He brought to them the
consolation of religion whenever they were amenable to its influence,
the moral strength that emanated from a firm yet a kindly nature, the
instruction that would give them a new start in the battle of life.
Scarcely a week passed for many years without his visits to these
prisoners, and at no time was he too busy to give his thought and
attention to anything that would help the prisoners with whom he came
in contact. Sometimes his kindness was abused, but that did not deter
him from the work. He was possessed of the saving grace of a keen
sense of humor that enabled him to take disappointments of that kind
philosophically, as a part of the day’s work, and furthermore he was
not hunting excuses to justify him in stopping. He was simply seeking
to lend a helping hand in a field from which all but the stoutest of
hearts are apt to be repelled.
He was a Hebrew of the patriarchal type, and to him Judaism was not
merely a creed but a system of life, and with scrupulous fidelity he
observed the lofty precepts of that religion which render it a sacred
obligation on the part of its devotees to help struggling humanity by
their presence, by their sympathy, by their means, in all the incidents
of human life from the cradle to the grave.
In an eminent degree he possessed the courage of his convictions,
and never for one moment shrunk from what might be supposed to be a
disagreeable duty, or from lifting up his voice in high places in a
protest against what he considered wrongs which should be remedied.
His counsels will be greatly missed, and his loss seems irreparable,
but we have the assurance that he had fought a good fight, that his
lifework was accomplished, and we are thankful that we have known him
as a friend, and that we have had the example of his strong devotion to
duty.
MARY S. WHELEN.
The passing away, on February 15, of Miss Mary S. Whelen came as a
distinct shock to her many friends and to the class of Philadelphians
interested in the welfare of the Commonwealth and of the Municipality
in one of its most vital issues.
Although the part Miss Whelen played so effectively, owing to her
modesty, is known to but few, it deserves some mention in order that
others, inspired by the same motives, may carry on the work to which
she fearlessly and generously devoted many years. She was intensely
interested in the welfare of prisoners convicted of crime, and as an
active member of the Board of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, visited
our prisons weekly, going into the cells, teaching many ignorant
women to read and write. Her ear was ever open to explanations, and
her kindly intuition made it possible for her to discern the motive
which actuated a crime, and her advice and consolation often brought
repentance and the possibility of better things. When the sentence
expired, a woman having no home or place to which to go, was taken
from prison, personally, by Miss Whelen to a destination where she
might begin a new life; and letters from these once degraded creatures
show in many instances reformation and warm expressions of gratitude.
She was a member of the Committee on Police Matrons, and to this
most beneficent service she gave practical and efficient aid. All
her generous, charitable deeds have been accomplished so quietly and
unostentatiously that it recalls the beautiful admonition, “Let not thy
right had know what thy left hand doeth.”
ROBERT PARKER NICHOLSON.
Robert P. Nicholson, whose death occurred in July, 1911, as the result
of an accident, had been a member of the Society for a few years, but
had served on the Acting Committee for only a few months. His deep
interest in the work gave promise of much service on behalf of our
cause. His genial disposition had endeared him to a host of friends by
whom he is sadly missed.
[Illustration: JOHN J. LYTLE, 1823-1911.]
JOHN J. LYTLE.
“Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn
cometh in in his season.”
Such was the passing of our beloved friend, John J. Lytle, whose
death occurred on the 14th of Eighth Month, 1911, at his residence in
Moorestown, N. J.
He was born at Alexandria, Va., in 1823, and had almost completed his
eighty-eighth year. In his infancy his widowed mother brought her
family to Philadelphia, and for the remainder of his life his residence
was in or near that city. After he attained his majority he was a
merchant for twenty-five years at the corner of Seventh and Spring
Garden Streets.
Early in his business career he became deeply interested in personal
visitations to the inmates of the Eastern Penitentiary. With the
exception of Joshua L. Baily, President of the Society, his membership
in the Pennsylvania Prison Society covered a period longer than that
of any living member, both having been elected members in 1851. For
nearly sixty years he was a member of the Acting Committee, and his
official positions date from the beginning of his membership on the
Acting Committee to the time of his death. Early in 1852 he was
appointed Secretary of the Acting Committee, and in 1860 he was elected
Secretary of the Society. This office he held till 1909, when, on
account of the infirmities of age, he was released from the active
duties of this position and appointed Honorary Secretary. From 1886 to
1908 he gave up almost his entire time and energies to work on behalf
of prisoners. The Eastern Penitentiary was the scene of his greatest
efforts. Almost daily did he visit this large institution, becoming
personally acquainted with the thirteen hundred or more inmates and
ministering untiringly to their physical and spiritual needs. He speaks
of his great privilege and “pleasure to stand by the prisoner’s side,
to grasp his hand, to put new life into his heart, to endeavor to
restore confidence in himself.” While he believed in all changes in
penal methods which are directed to the reformation of the prisoners,
and in industrial and scholastic training, he was firmly convinced
that the only sure basis of reformation was the life-giving, renewing
power of the gospel of Christ. To this end he labored in season and
out of season. He never forgot the spiritual interests of those whom he
befriended. In his report for 1906 he says: “We must talk to the man in
the cell as a man, a friend and brother.... That lives redeemed await
the work of those who enter the prison cell with the message of Christ
is well proven. Many a one has said to me--I believe in sincerity, ‘The
best thing that ever happened to me in my life was my sentence to the
penitentiary. Here I have found my Saviour, whom I knew not before.’”
This theme is dwelt on in all the eighteen reports which he made
after assuming the duties of General Secretary in 1886. To illustrate
his faithfulness in the performance of duty, in a report made in his
eighty-first year, he states that he had made during the year, four
hundred and fifty visits to the Penitentiary (oftener than daily), and
had conversed with the inmates, either in the cells or at the cell
doors, about forty-five hundred times. “It is now fourteen years since
my whole time has been given up to this work, and my interest in it
grows from year to year.... I find there is an open door for me to talk
to them of their spiritual needs....”
He was a delegate, in 1886, to the American Prison Association, and for
twenty years thereafter he was usually in attendance at the sessions of
that body, taking an active part in the proceedings and serving on its
leading committees.
When the State Legislature, in 1895, discontinued the appropriation of
$3,000 per annum for the equipment and support of prisoners discharged
from the Eastern Penitentiary, John J. Lytle solicited private
contributions to continue this aid, and so successful were his efforts
that no prisoner in need in all these years has been dismissed from
that institution without practical help and sympathetic attention.
The task of making these collections and of attending to every minute
detail of their distribution involved unremitting labor, which he
ceased not until bodily infirmity in his eighty-fifth year compelled
him to take a much-needed rest. From the autumn of 1908 till the time
of his death he was mostly confined to his home and vicinity, but was
able to maintain quite a large correspondence and to enjoy the visits
of his friends. His genial, kindly disposition had endeared him to a
large circle of acquaintances, who deeply appreciated the privilege of
his intimacy. His interest in the cause of the prisoners never flagged.
The summons came while sitting at his writing table by the side of his
dear wife, who had been his faithful companion for more than sixty-two
years. A stroke of paralysis, then a few days of unconsciousness and
all was over.
He was a birth-right member of the Society of Friends. In 1849 he was
married to Anna Reeve, and he is survived by the widow, one son and
four daughters.
PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.
Report of American Prison Association, Washington, D. C. 1910
Correction and Prevention. 4 vols. Charles Richmond Henderson
Editor, 1910.
I. Prison Reform--Criminal Law in the United States.
II. Penal and Reformatory Institutions.
III. Preventive Agencies and Methods.
IV. Preventive Treatment of Neglected Children.
Bulletins of the International Prison Commission, Nos. 1 to 16.
(Printed in French) 1910
Report of Board of Inspectors of Convicts of Alabama 1906-10
Blue Book of Arizona 1911
Report of State Board of Charities and Correction of California 1908-10
Report of State Penitentiary of Colorado 1910
Report of Prison Association of Colorado 1909-10
Report of Prison Association of Connecticut 1909-10
Report of Trustees of Reform School for Girls, Washington, D. C. 1910
Report of State Reformatory of Illinois 1910
Report of State Reformatory of Indiana 1909-10
Report of Woman’s Prison of Indiana 1910
Report of Board of Prison Commissioners of Kentucky 1910
Report of State Board of Charity and Correction of Louisiana 1909
Report of Prisoners’ Aid Association of Maryland 1910
Report of Board of Prison Commissioners of Massachusetts 1910
Report of State Board of Charity of Massachusetts 1910
Report of Board of Charities and Correction of Michigan 1909-10
Report of Board of Charities and Correction of Missouri 1909-10
Report of Board of Charities and Correction of New Hampshire 1909-10
Report of State Prison of New Jersey 1910
Reformation--66th Annual Report, New York Prison Association 1910
Report of State Board of Charities of New York 1910
Report of State Reformatory for Women of New York 1910
Report of Board of Charities and Correction of Rhode Island 1910
Proceedings of Conference of Charities and Correction of Virginia 1910
Report of State Board of Charities and Reform of Wyoming 1909-10
Report of Society for Organizing Charity of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Sterilization of Degenerates. Edwin A. Down, M.D. 1910
The Public and the Prisoner--Central Howard Association, Chicago,
Illinois
The Crime Problem. Colonel Vincent Myron Masters 1909
FOREIGN.
Report of Howard Association--Crime and Its Treatment, London,
England 1910
Le Droit De L’Enfant Abandonné, Budapest 1909
HONORARY MEMBERS.
Maud Ballington Booth, New York City.
[4]Gen. R. Brinkerhoff, Mansfield, Ohio.
Z. R. Brockway, Elmira, N. Y.
Judge McKenzie Cleland, Chicago, Ill.
Prof. Charles Richmond Henderson, Chicago, Ill.
Judge Ben. B. Lindsey, Denver, Colo.
Frederick Howard Wines, Springfield, Ill.
LIFE MEMBERS.
[4]Ashmead, Henry B.,
[4]Baily, Joel J.,
[4]Bartol, B. H.,
[4]Benson, E. N.,
Bergdoll, Louis,
[4]Betts, Richard K.,
[4]Bonsall, E. H.,
[4]Brooke, F. M.,
[4]Brown, Alexander,
Brown, T. Wistar,
Brush, C. H.,
Buckley, Daniel,
Carter, John E.,
Cattell, H. S.,
[4]Childs, George W.,
Coles, Miss Mary,
[4]Collins, Alfred M.,
Coxe, Eckley B., Jr.,
[4]Downing, Richard H.,
Dreer, Ferd. J.,
[4]Dreer, Edw. G.,
[4]Douredore, B. L.,
Duhring, H. L., Rev.,
Duncan, John A.,
[4]Elkinton, Joseph S.,
Elwyn, Alfred,
Elwyn, Mrs. Helen M.,
[4]Fotterall, Stephen G.,
Frazer, Dr. John,
Frazier, W. W.,
Goodwin, M. H.,
Grigg, Mary S.,
[4]Hall, George W.,
Harrison, Alfred C.,
Harrison, Chas. C.,
[4]Hockley, Thomas,
Ingram, Wm. S.,
[4]Jeanes, Joshua T.,
Jenks, John S.,
[4]Jones, Mary T.,
Jordan, John, Jr.,
Justice, W. W.,
[4]Kinke, J.,
[4]Knight, Reeve L.,
[4]Laing, Anna T.,
[4]Laing, Henry M.,
Lea, M. Carey,
[4]Learning, J. Fisher,
Leeds, Deborah C,
Lewis, Mrs. Sarah,
[4]Lewis, Howard W.,
Lewis, F. Mortimer,
Longstreth, W. W.,
Love, Alfred H.,
[4]Lytle, John J.,
[4]Maginnis, Edw. I.,
[4]Manderson, James,
Milne, C. J.,
[4]McAlister, Jas. W.,
[4]Nicholson, Robert P.,
[4]Osborne, Hon. F. W.,
Patterson, Robert,
[4]Pennock, George,
[4]Perot, Joseph,
[4]Potter, Thomas,
[4]Powers, Thomas H.,
[4]Price, Thomas W.,
Rhoads, Joseph R.,
[4]Roach, Joseph H.,
[4]Saul, Rev. James,
[4]Santee, Charles,
[4]Seybert, Henry,
[4]Sharpless, Townsend,
[4]Steedman, Rosa,
Stephens, Emily J. I.,
[4]Sulzberger, David,
[4]Thomas, Geo. C,
Thompson, Emma L.,
[4]Tracey, Charles A.,
[4]Townsend, Henry T.,
Walk, Jas. W., M.D.,
[4]Waln, L. Morris,
Warren, E. B.,
[4]Watson, Jas. V.,
Way, John,
[4]Weightman, William,
[4]Weston, Harry,
[4]Whelen, Mary S.,
[4]Williams, Henry J.,
[4]Williamson, I. V.,
[4]Willits, Jeremiah,
[4]Willits, Jeremiah, Jr.,
Wood, Walter.
[4] Deceased.
AN ACT
To define the rights and functions of official visitors of jails,
penitentiaries, and other penal or reformatory institutions, and
providing for their removal.
Section I. Be it enacted, &c., That any person designated by law to
be official visitor of any jail, penitentiary, or other penal or
reformatory institution, in this Commonwealth, maintained at the public
expense, is hereby authorized and empowered to enter and visit any such
jail, penitentiary, or other penal or reformatory institution, on any
and every day, including Sundays, between the hours of nine o’clock,
ante meridian, and five o’clock, post meridian; and not before nine
o’clock, ante meridian, or after five o’clock, post meridian, except
with the special permission of the warden, manager, overseer, or
superintendent in charge of any such jail, penitentiary, or other penal
or reformatory institution.