year, but not before. When they are eligible, as laid down by law, they
are presented by the superintendent and chaplain jointly to the Board of
Managers for consideration. The Board of Managers has organized with a
committee of six to meet from one to two days before the meeting and go
over carefully the examination of the papers in each individual case.
They make their findings separately and then bring them up and compare
notes and get together. They then present their report added to that of
the full board and the papers are gone over. Each boy is brought in and
given a chance to make a personal plea. I believe that every boy has a
right to make whatever impression he can on the board before they pass
on his parole. After parole has been granted he cannot be released until
there is a place of employment for him. We have regularly engaged,
well-trained field workers who are also employment agents. If a boy
cannot get employment we find it for him. They go out on parole for not
less than a year, sometimes more. Occasionally we have a boy who asks
for longer time for peculiar reasons, but usually not. He makes monthly
reports to the superintendent, and our field officers visit him once a
month until the expiration of the year. The field officer makes a report
to the Board of Managers; then he is discharged and the governor issues
a certificate to that effect.”
EVENING SESSION
At the evening session Mrs. Maud Ballington Booth delivered one of her
characteristic and inspiring addresses, after which the congress
adjourned, to meet at Seattle in the fall of 1909.
* * * * *
Among the resolutions adopted were the following:
That the committee appointed to arrange for the International
Prison Congress be given authority to add to its membership as it
seems desirable, and
THAT WHEREAS, the Congress of the United States had extended
through its President an invitation to the International Prison
Congress, which was first organized under the initiative of this
government in 1870, to hold its Eighth Congress at our national
capital in 1910, and said invitation has been accepted;
_Resolved_, that we respectfully ask Congress to make a suitable
appropriation for the preparatory work of the International
Association and for the entertainment of the Congress, as asked
for in the estimates of the State Department, and we pledge the
cordial coöperation of the American Association in making the
Washington session memorable.
That the Congress of the American Prison Association indorse the
plan advocated by the National Child Labor Committee and other
organizations for the protection of children, for the
establishment of a children’s bureau under one of the departments
of the national government, for the investigation and publication
of facts relating to child labor, including those relating to the
correction and reformation of juvenile delinquents.
The following resolution was referred to the Board of Directors for
action at the next congress:
In recognition of the high moral character of many life men in our
penitentiaries, it is resolved that a committee be appointed who
shall make suitable investigations and report next year upon the
advisability of extending to this class of prisoners the benefits
of parole.
The following are the Presidents for the year 1909: American Prison
Association, Dr. J. T. Gilmour, Toronto; Wardens’ Association, E. F.
Morgan, Richmond; Chaplains’ Association, the Rev. Aloys M. Fish,
Trenton, N. J.; Physicians’ Association, Dr. Daniel Phelan, Kingston,
Canada.
Reported for THE JOURNAL,
J. F. OHL, _Official Delegate_.
JUDGE LINDSAY AND HIS COURT
I first met Judge Ben B. Lindsay in his home city of Denver, Colo., in
1906. A remark he then made impressed itself strongly on my mind,
namely, that he owed his position as judge of the juvenile court to the
women. In Pennsylvania such support could be only moral. In Colorado it
was in this particular case both moral and political, inasmuch as in
said State women have the right of suffrage. It is to the everlasting
credit of the women of Denver that in a struggle involving a great moral
issue they should have stood by the man who has made it his life work to
save children from criminal careers, and whose defeat had been planned
by hostile elements.
I again had the pleasure of meeting Judge Lindsay in the fall of 1908,
on the occasion of a visit to his court. With my personal card, I sent
in my membership card in the Acting Committee of The Pennsylvania Prison
Society, and was promptly shown into the courtroom and given a seat near
the judge. He wore no ermine, not even the judicial silk gown; nor was
he seated behind the usual high desk of a judge. As I entered he was
standing beside an ordinary table, and later sometimes rested against
it. The boys and girls brought before him handed him the reports of
their recent conduct. His manner toward all was the kindest, and his
language was so plain and simple that none could fail to understand. He
would receive a report card from the hand of a small boy, read it, and
then comment on it. If the report was good, he would commend the boy and
encourage him to persevere in his course; if not good, he would express
his sorrow. “Now, Johnnie, what’s the trouble? It makes me feel real bad
to have such a report from you. Now don’t you think you can do better if
I give you another chance? I think you can. Just make an effort and I
am sure your next report will be better. If not, we will have to try
some other plan.”
Presently the hearings began. Several groups of boys, who had in various
ways given the street railway company considerable trouble, were brought
before the judge. Standing between two of the young culprits, and
perhaps laying a hand on the shoulder of each, he would first listen to
the charges preferred by the officers, and then gather from the boys
themselves all the information he could regarding their school
attendance, occupation, family life and surroundings. With this to guide
him he would begin to talk to the boys in the most affectionate and
fatherly manner, and endeavor to make them realize what might have been
the consequences of their misdeeds to others, and how they would bring
to themselves still greater trouble if they persisted in their present
course of conduct. To those who showed a disposition to respond to this
kind and tactful treatment every encouragement was extended, but
perverse ones were given clearly to understand that they could expect no
leniency from the court so long as they refused to mend their ways.
In the fall of 1908 Judge Lindsay was defeated for renomination by the
powerful influence of certain corporations to which he had given
offense. With these he joined issue as an independent candidate, and
though it required thirty thousand “split” or “scratched” ballots he was
triumphantly elected. The women of Denver had made it their cause, and
before these even the corporations were impotent!
One of the most striking proofs of Judge Lindsay’s profound moral
influence over those coming under his authority is the fact that he has
sent hundreds to the reformatory at Golden altogether unattended. The
number who have been unfaithful to this trust and who failed to deliver
themselves at the institution is so small as to be practically
negligible.
Judge Lindsay is working at that end of human life at which results are
most readily achieved. A vessel that has become misshapen can be
remodeled so long as the clay is still plastic. Like a skillful potter
Judge Lindsay seeks to mold human lives, and the success which has
crowned his efforts has deservedly attracted the attention not only of
his own countrymen, but of those in other lands who are interested in
the child-saving problem.
GEORGE S. WETHERELL,
_Member of the Acting Committee_.
PREAMBLE
TO CONSTITUTION OF THE PHILADELPHIA SOCIETY FOR THE AMELIORATION OF THE
MISERIES OF PUBLIC PRISONS.
Adopted May 15, 1787.
When we consider that the obligations of benevolence, which are founded
on the precept and examples of the Author of Christianity, are not
cancelled by the follies or crimes of our fellow creatures, and when we
reflect upon the miseries which penury, hunger, cold, unnecessary
severity, unwholesome apartments, and guilt (the usual attendants of
prisons) involve with them, it becomes us to extend our compassion to
that part of mankind who are the subjects of those miseries. By the aid
of humanity their undue and illegal sufferings may be prevented; the
link which should bind the whole family of mankind together, under all
circumstances, be preserved unbroken; and such degree and modes of
punishment may be discovered and suggested as may, instead of continuing
habits of vice, become the means of restoring our fellow creatures to
virtue and happiness. From a conviction of the truth and obligations of
these principles, the subscribers have associated themselves under the
title of “The Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of
Public Prisons.”
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.)
AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THE
Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons.
SECTION I.--_Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in General Assembly met_, and it is
_hereby enacted by the authority of the same_, That all and every the
persons who shall at the time of the passing of this Act be members of
the Society called “The Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the
Miseries of Public Prisons,” shall be and they are hereby created and
declared to be one body, politic and corporate, by the name, style and
title of “The Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of
Public Prisons,” and by the same name shall have perpetual succession,
and shall be able to sue and be sued, implead and be impleaded in all
courts of record or elsewhere, and to take and receive, hold and enjoy,
by purchase, grant, devise, or bequest to them and their successors,
lands, tenements, rents, annuities, franchises, hereditaments, goods and
chattels of whatsoever nature, kind, or quality soever, real, personal,
or mixed, or choses in action, and the same from time to time to sell
grant, devise, alien, or dispose of; _provided_ That the clear yearly
value or income of the necessary houses, lands, tenements, rents,
annuities, and other hereditaments, and real estate of the said
corporation, and the interest of money by it lent, shall not exceed the
sum of five thousand dollars; and also to make and have a common seal,
and the same to break, alter, and renew at pleasure; and also to ordain,
establish, and put in execution such by-laws, ordinances, and
regulations as shall appear necessary and convenient for the government
of the said corporation, not being contrary to this Charter or the
Constitution and laws of the United States, or of this Commonwealth, and
generally to do all and singular the matters and things which to them it
shall lawfully appertain to do for the well-being of the said
corporation, and the due management and ordering of the affairs thereof;
and provided further, that the objects of the Society shall be confined
to the alleviation of the miseries of public prisons, the improvement of
prison discipline and relief of discharged prisoners.
SAM’L. ANDERSON, _Speaker of House_.
THOS. RINGLAND, _Speaker of Senate_.
Approved the 6th day of April, Anno Domini Eighteen Hundred and
Thirty-three.
GEORGE WOLF.
LEGAL CHANGE OF NAME.
The Following Confirms the Action Relative to the Change of the Name of
the Prison Society.
Decree:
And now, to wit, this 27th day of January, A. D. 1886, on motion
of A. Sidney Biddle, Esq., the Petition and Application for change
of name filed by “The Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the
Miseries of Public Prisons,” having been presented and considered,
and it appearing that the order of court heretofore made as to
advertisement has been duly complied with and due notice of said
application to the Auditor-General of the State of Pennsylvania
being shown, it is Ordered, Adjudged, and Decreed, that the name
of the said Society shall hereafter be “THE PENNSYLVANIA PRISON
SOCIETY,” to all intents and purposes as if the same had been the
original name of the said Society, and the same name shall be
deemed and taken to be a part of the Charter of the said Society
upon the recording of the said Application with its indorsements
and this Decree in the Office of the Recorder of Deeds of this
County, and upon filing with the Auditor-General a Copy of this
Decree.
[Signed] JOSEPH ALLISON.
Record:
Recorded in the office for the Recording of Deeds in and for the
City and County of Philadelphia, on Charter Book No. 11, page
1064. Witness my hand and seal of Office this 28th day of June, A.
D. 1886.
GEO. G. PIERIE, _Recorder of Deeds_.
[Transcriber’s Note:
Obvious printer errors corrected silently.
Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.]