[Under this heading will appear each month numerous paragraphs of
general interest, relating to the prison field and the treatment of
the delinquent.]
_Legislation in Maryland._--Prison reform legislation, as a result of
the year’s investigation of Maryland State prison and the subsequent
discussion of prison conditions in that State, eventuated through a
report on February 19th by the Penal Commission to the Governor of
Maryland. The report advocated a considerable amount of progressive
penal legislation, mainly as follows: One bill provides for an unpaid
advisory board of parole, in order that all the essential features
of the indeterminate sentence principle may be worked out. Further
bills provide for the suspension of sentences, for indeterminate
sentences, and for the release of prisoners on parole. A state board
of control is established for the management of the State Penitentiary
and the Maryland House of Correction, and provision is made for the
establishment of a State prison for women. The operation of a penal
farm is recommended in connection with the State Penitentiary or
the House of Correction. A hospital for tuberculosis prisoners is
recommended.
_The Lash in Delaware._--The “Umpire,” which is the prison paper of the
Eastern Penitentiary of Pennsylvania, reprinted from the _Delinquent_
the article by Governor Miller, of Delaware, defending the whipping
post, and published the following editorial as a rejoinder:
“Governor Miller’s argument in defense of the whipping-post would
be simply unanswerable if it were applied to any other state in the
Union, but Delaware.
“Delaware is an agricultural state wholly, with only one city
worthy of the name, and that, Wilmington, which by its close
proximity to Philadelphia, is really a suburb of the latter. There
are no large number of factories, business houses, or thickly
settled residential sections of the wealthy classes offering
temptation to the professional burglar of other cities. A few banks
are there, but bank robbery has been classed among the lost arts
for some years, and rarely attempted anywhere.
“Within the past six months, Wilmington has been termed by the
daily press, as a “veritable hot-bed of crime.” Highway robberies,
burglaries, and assaults have been so common that citizens formed
patrols for mutual protection of themselves and property. The
authorities were not only compelled to largely increase its police
department, but to enlist the services of a former superintendent
of the Philadelphia Police to reorganize it.
“If, as the Governor claims, professional thieves from other cities
give his state a wide berth, the inference is that these recent
crimes were committed by natives. This being so, why doesn’t fear
of the lash act as a deterrent to those who are so fully acquainted
with its frequent use?
“The probabilities are that the professional burglar from other
cities does not know of the existence of such a penalty, and if
he did, it would not enter into his calculations one iota. No man
perpetrates a crime with a view to being caught, therefore he
rarely weighs the consequences. The professional thief endeavors to
provide against detection, not punishment.
“The Delaware whipping post is a relic of the first settlers of
the state, and used at that time as a measure of economy instead
of jails which were to come later with the increase of crime. The
law has been on the statute books for so many years, it has become
a matter of state pride to perpetuate it as something reverential,
descending from their forefathers. It was not effective 250 years
ago, else they would not have built jails. It is no more effective
now.”
_Why Prisoners’ Families Aren’t Supported by Prisoners’
Earnings._--Editorially the Boston Herald says:
“When the new prison commissioner advocates the dedication of the
earnings of the prisoner to the support of his family, or, if he
has no family, that they should be held for his benefit when he is
released, he is proposing to load upon the State a charge which it
ought not to bear. The State is entitled to the proceeds of the
labor of its prisoners. With the handicaps which have been imposed
upon prison labor by legislation such labor is not and cannot be
self-supporting. The goods that prisoners make are excluded from the
general market. Power machines are forbidden, for the most part, except
in wood workings. Take the State farm, where the conditions are such
that, if anywhere, the institution could be made self-supporting. With
all possible use made of prison labor the average cost for the care of
inmates above the proceeds of this work is in the neighborhood of $2.50
per week. Of course the able-bodied short-term men come nearer than
that to self-support. But that is the average outlay for maintenance,
allowing nothing for interest on the plant. The State has been put
to the cost of ferreting out the criminal, arresting, trying, and
convicting him. The State must provide for his safe-keeping, clothe
him, feed him, shelter him with proper warmth. Under restrictions
surrounding prison labor he will not nearly meet the expense to which
he has subjected the State. If his family need support while he is
imprisoned, let the municipality provide that. With all the work he can
do, the criminal is a burden to the Commonwealth. The State is entitled
to all he can do towards self-support.”
_Parole In Kentucky._--According to the Louisville Herald, since the
State Prison South was converted into a State reformatory sixteen years
ago, 4,670 prisoners have been paroled, of whom 2,666 have received
final discharges. During the parole period the sentences of 295
expired. Six hundred violated their paroles and were returned to the
institution. Five hundred and eighty-nine are parole violators and are
at large: 433 are still reporting, and seventy-eight have died while at
large.
Out of each hundred paroled, twenty-six have violated their agreement;
fifty-seven have received their final discharge; two died; the terms of
six expired while on parole.
The paroled men have earned $1,315,642.76, and it cost $1,143,078.64 to
maintain them, a difference in favor of the State of $172,564.26.
_The Kansas State Prison Makes Money._--According to the Leavenworth,
Kansas, Post, the State prison at Lansing saved the State about one
half million dollars during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1913. This,
according to those who should know, is a very conservative estimate. It
represents about one-half of the appropriation asked for by the warden
to be used in constructing the new penitentiary. The twine and brick
plants and the coal mine are the different departments where the most
of the saving was made.
The twine plant supplied the farmers of Kansas with three million
dollars worth of twine last year at nine and one-half cents a pound.
This represents a net profit of $32,000, which went into the State
treasury. If the farmers had been forced to buy from outside dealers
at eleven cents a pound it would have cost them $45,000 more. This
$45,000 and the $32,000 profit, represents a total of $77,000 saved the
citizens of Kansas in twine.
The prison burns its own brick and lime and supplies brick to
the different institutions over the state. The prison brickyard
manufactured, for the use of State institutions in 1912, 1,623,447
brick of different grades. The prison received credit on the brick
account for $12,098. This was an average of about $2 a thousand less
than the same quality of brick sold for on the market. If these
different institutions had been forced to buy on the open market, the
cost to the State would have been about $15,344. This does not take
into consideration the brick used in the construction of the new twine
plant and other small buildings in the prison yard.
The coal mine is the big money maker for the State. Last year the
different institutions received 31,000 tons of coal from the prison,
for which the prison was credited with $77,500--$2.50 per ton. It is
said if the State had been forced to buy this coal on the open market,
together with the twenty thousand tons it takes annually to run the
prison, it would have cost the State at least $155,000. Some estimates
have placed the amount as high as one-quarter million dollars. If
the prison had new quarters it is said that the annual maintenance
appropriation could be safely cut from $105,000 to $50,000, as the
saving in fuel alone would run into the thousands of dollars.
The construction of the new twine plant is another instance of economy
where the Kansas citizens profited. With prison brick, lime and labor,
this plant, consisting of two buildings, will have cost the State, when
completed, $60,000 less than a similar plant constructed by a sister
State. The two plants are identical in size except the Kansas plant
contains two more machines than its neighbor’s.
_State Use in Ohio._--Printing of all the blank forms used by the
counties of Ohio is a venture upon which the State soon may embark
as one of the features of the “state use” plan of employing the
convicts in the Ohio Penitentiary. Under the law the State Board of
Administration sells all products made in the institutions to counties
and other political subdivisions who are compelled to make purchases
from the State. The blank supply business has been a lucrative one for
the dealers.
_The Governors on Road Work by Prisoners._--Twenty-five governors have
placed themselves on record as favoring the working of convicts in the
construction and repair of highways, according to a compilation of the
discussions of prison labor in their last messages to the legislature,
recently issued by the national committee on prison labor.
Convict road work is advocated by the governors both because of the
healthful nature of such work and owing to the fact that convicts who
have been employed in this way can more readily find employment when
released; while many of the governors also point out the benefit to the
public from better roads secured at a minimum cost.
Governor Dunn, of Illinois states that humanitarian reasons underlie
the employment in open air work or the sort wherein and whereby the
convicts are restored to society with their manhood quickened instead
of deadened or destroyed.
Governor Oddie, of Nevada, who was instrumental in securing the passage
of the legislation which provides for convict road work in that State
is enthusiastic as to the success of the plan.
“There is no question,” he maintains, “but that the passage of this law
has had a wholesome effect on our prison system, and has been the means
of giving a new start in life to a large proportion of the discharged
and paroled men. About forty per cent. of the total number of our
convicts have been performing good service under the honor system at
the road camp.”
Governor Hanna, of North Dakota, Governor Cox, of Ohio, and Governor
West, of Oregon, hold that out-door work should be a privilege to be
earned by good conduct; Governor Mann, of Virginia, testifies to the
efficiency of the convicts when employed on the roads and cites figures
to prove the economy of such work, maintaining, however, that the
present cost can be greatly reduced by placing the men on their honor
and lessening the number of idle guards; while Governor McDonald, of
New Mexico, and Governor Carey, of Wyoming, refer to the few attempts
at escape that have been made by convicts practically unguarded.
Governor Hunt, of Arizona, is in favor of paying the convicts at least
25 cents a day for their services as the cost will be small compared to
the actual benefit derived by the construction of splendid highways,
while the benefit accruing to society will return the investment a
thousand fold.
The consideration given to convict road work by the governors is
an indication of the importance attached to the matter by the
police throughout the country. The governors present many different
view-points, but a careful study of their statements shows that road
work when conducted on a basis fair to the convict and the State, will
go far towards solving the convict labor problem and the problem of
good roads.
_Transportation Again?_--The question of exiling habitual or
professional criminals is being agitated in England. In a recent report
of the British prison commissioners it is noted that the number of
persons having previous convictions has in late years risen from 78 to
87 per cent., says The Buffalo Express. The latest available figures
show that in England only 118 of the 916 sentenced to penal servitude
had not been previously convicted and that the greater number of old
offenders had from six to twenty convictions against them. It is
estimated that at the present time there are in London alone 20,000
habitual criminals. “The only way of dealing with these habitual
criminals,” says an English authority, “is to expel them from the
community against which they wage incessant war. A third conviction
should cause the prisoner to be deported to some island and reduced to
a state of industrial serfdom, in which he could earn his living.”
To adopt this suggestion means a return to the old system of convict
colonies. An obstacle to the segregation plan under present conditions
is the scarcity of lands available for such purposes. Suitable island
territory is at a premium. Continental land, except in isolated cases,
is not desirable for the location of convict colonies because of the
opportunities for escape. The alternative is the establishment of
prison farms--a system experimented with more or less during recent
years.
_Ohio Penitentiary Breaks Silence._--One of the most sweeping changes
made in prison rules by Warden Thomas since he was placed in charge of
the penitentiary came on February 24, when he announced that convicts
would be permitted to talk to each other while working.
Almost since the time the prison was first built it had been one of the
stringent rules of the institution that prisoners could not talk with
each other while at work. This rule always was adhered to strictly. The
theory was that to let prisoners talk in the shops and factories was
to invite attempted escapes and plots leading to infractions of prison
discipline.
_A Good Idea._--From the Elizabeth, New Jersey, News, comes this
information: “What New Jersey Is Doing for the Young Man Who Breaks
Its Laws,” is the title of an instructive address being delivered
throughout the State by the Rev. Frank Moore, of this city,
superintendent of the New Jersey Reformatory. In his address Mr. Moore
plainly shows the efforts of the State at its institutions to uplift
manhood and instill higher ideals of living.
Superintendent Moore selects the county courthouse as the place to
deliver his lecture, and has already spoken at seven county seats,
including Toms River, Ocean county; Woodbury, Gloucester county;
Freehold, Monmouth county; Mount Holly, Burlington county; Belvidere,
Warren county, and Newton, Sussex county. At the two latter places,
the audiences were so great that there was not room enough in the
courthouses to accommodate them. At Mount Holly the largest gathering
in years was the result.
Usually the county judge presides, and the lecture is heard by
prosecutors, officials, ministers, school teachers, etc., who are
naturally interested in the work from their vocations. Excellent
reports have been made concerning the value of the lecture.
_Prison Publicity._--The Montreal Star says that the farther the
inquiry into the Kingston Penitentiary goes, the more it is evident
that what the discipline of any prison needs is the wholesome and
curative application of publicity. Punishments ought not to be
inflicted upon convicts without the fact being made public. Any
mischiefs which may arise will be possible only because the authorities
of a prison have the power to punish prisoners behind their grim walls
in entire secrecy.
“It is not necessary to charge that the authorities or even the guards
are worse than the ordinary run of mortals, to see how the human nature
in them may be exasperated by the criminal classes under their charge
into taking action which they would not take if the steadying eye of
the whole community were on them. It must be remembered that prisons
are not young ladies’ boarding schools. We do not send the brightest
and best of our youth to them. In fact, the deliberate purpose of our
system of justice is to send them our worst. Undoubtedly, at times, we
do send there some of our best--men whom a chance step from the beaten
path has tripped into disaster--but our whole machinery of justice
is at fault if the rule is not to select our criminals for our prison
population.
“This being so, the guards and the prison authorities generally have a
difficult and trying task constantly before them. It would be little
wonder if they grew pessimistic and cynical touching the motives and
the prospects and even the possibilities of their ‘guests.’ They are
constantly in contact with men who ought to be far below the average
in all these things. It would be a miracle if they kept their faith in
human nature, and their attitude toward the human derelicts who thwart
and defy them, at even the average pitch. Under such conditions, with
the prison shut in on itself, like a little world islanded from the
rest of the country, what can we expect but that prison opinion will
come to justify harsh measures and cruel punishments?
“What is clearly needed is to correct this drift toward cynicism and
possibly brutality by keeping it always in touch with the sane and
unruffled point of view of the general community. This can only be done
by publicity. Nor would a demand for publicity be unfair to the prison
authorities. Their prisoner is sentenced to a fixed punishment for a
definite crime. If he commits another crime, he should be sentenced to
another punishment for that; but he should have his second trial and
sentence as fully safeguarded by public opinion as his first. Refusal
to obey prison regulations would be such a second crime; and his public
trial for it would not only make it certain that the evidence was
convincing and the punishment humane, but would bring the regulations
themselves under public review.
“The whole prison system is bad enough--necessary as it is because of
the criminality of certain people--without keeping it in darkness.”
_State Use in New York._--The Prison Commission of New York bewails the
reluctance of municipalities to obey the law relative to the purchase
of prison-made goods.
Seven municipalities have made no purchases of this sort since the
enactment of the law in 1896. One city has bought nothing but a
straight jacket in eighteen years. Towns and villages have been even
worse offenders.
Rochester’s last order for supplies came in May, 1911; the authorities
there contended that the city charter nullified the provisions of the
Prison law with regard to the obligatory purchase of supplies from the
State. In August last the Commission appealed to the Attorney-General,
who rendered an opinion that local statutes did not supersede the
provisions of the Prison law. When the matter came up once before, with
regard to the liability of officers making purchases elsewhere than
from the State Commission of Prisons, the Attorney-General held:
It is the duty of officers of political divisions of the State
to make requisition on the State Commission of Prisons for such
articles used in the municipalities as are manufactured in the
State prisons. If such articles are bought elsewhere, without the
certificate of the State Commission of Prisons showing inability
to furnish the goods required, the officers making such purchases
or auditing claims therefore are criminally and civilly liable for
their acts.
The Prison Commission has issued the following:
The Constitution makes it the duty of the Legislature to provide
employment for the convicts, and declares that the products of
prison labor shall be sold only to the State or its political
divisions. To compete as little as possible with free labor the
prison industries have been diversified under assignments by the
State Commission of Prisons.
_Probable Abolition of Contract Labor at Chicago Bridewell._--The
practise of hiring to private companies at a wage of a few cents a
day the prisoners in the Bridewell, the penal institution of Chicago
and Cook county, will be abolished in May if the recommendations of
Superintendent John Whitman are acted upon favorably by the city
council, says the Christian Science Monitor of Boston.
Instead of the present system of using the labor of the prisoners, a
system is being worked out by which they will be put to work on public
improvements, receive a fair remuneration for their labor, a portion
to be applied to paying their fines and a cash return assured for the
support of their families. By this method the prisoners will not be
relieved from paying the penalty for the crimes for which they have
been convicted in many instances of a minor character, but neither
will their families be deprived of their supporting labor during their
imprisonment.
The board of inspectors has voted to discontinue the contract system
within three months. Mayor Harrison is in accord with the movement.
Representatives of the Chicago Federation of Labor and various trade
unions have been working for it for a long time.
A report of the efficiency division of the civil service shortly, will
recommend that the city use the convict labor, and will criticise the
present system as wasteful and disgraceful. It is expected that a
recommendation will be made for the employment of an administrative
officer to act as a business manager, in charge of the operating part
of the house of correction.
_Vermont’s State Prison Warden Resigns._--Following closely on our
recent account of Warden Lovell’s “honor system” in the Vermont State
Prison, comes the following from the Boston Post, under date of
February 24th:
“The nine years of novel ‘elastic’ treatment of prisoners carried on by
Wilson S. Lovell, superintendent of the State prison, came to an end
to-day when Lovell resigned. It was believed the resignation was due to
a fire of criticism from Governor Allen M. Fletcher and members of the
penal board.
“Some of the administration have openly criticised the Lovell rule as
“too soft,” and declare that “a more impersonal and severe ruler of the
prison is required.”
“The Lovell system aroused nation-wide interest among humanitarians
and social workers. One of its startling features, which is said to
have shocked the more staid citizens of this State, was to let chosen
prisoners go to work about the country without any restraint of any
kind.
“Another was a plan for paying men for overtime work in the prison
factories, so that convicts were often able to pick up a comfortable
little sum for themselves.”
_Prisoners’ Wages Reduced in Ohio._--Owing to an overstock of labor in
the Penitentiary and the Mansfield Reformatory, the State board of
administration has been compelled to cut the wage scale two cents on
the hour. Hereafter, prisoners in the two institutions will receive a
maximum of three cents an hour instead of five cents. The minimum of
one cent an hour remains unchanged, says the Columbus Journal.
Under a law passed by the legislature last spring, prisoners were
compensated at the rate of from one to five cents an hour, according
to their character and good behavior. From September 16, last, until
February 15, this year, there was paid to Penitentiary prisoners on
this scale, $33,000. The amount paid to prisoners in the Mansfield
Reformatory was $24,000.
At this rate, the estimated annual cost of prisoners’ compensation to
the State would be about $140,000. The general assembly last month
appropriated only $75,000 for this compensation; hence the revision of
the scale downward. Where the maximum earning power of prisoners under
the old scale was forty cents a day, or $2.20 a week on a basis of five
and one-half work days each week, the new maximum will be 21 cents a
day or $1.17 a week. No strike, however, is predicted because of the
cut, but much complaining is looked for.
Prison officials have detected many schemes of prisoners to beat the
State’s philanthropy. The law requires that 90 per cent. of their
earnings shall go to their dependents. The remaining 10 per cent. is
held in a fund against the prisoner’s release to tide him over the
period he is looking for work until settled. A scheme of the older
prisoners to obtain all their money was to represent that some relative
in the country was in urgent need of support. The money would be sent
to the “friend,” but soon returned to the prisoner.
_Parole Law Recommended For Rhode Island._--The Board of Control
and Supply of Rhode Island, which has charge of the State penal
institutions, recommended in its annual report to the Legislature that
a parole law be put into effect in this State. Under the proposed plan,
prisoners who have served a portion of their sentence may regain their
freedom and retain it as long as they live up to the terms of their
parole.
_Convicts Build Arizona Bridge._--“Cross-continental automobile
tourists who will take the southwestern route to the Panama-Pacific
Exposition at San Francisco in 1915, will cross the Salt river in going
from Phoenix to Tempe over a substantial concrete bridge 1,508 feet
long instead of having to ford either a wide raging torrent or a deep
long, sandy, dried-up riverbed, according to season of the year,” says
Dr. Charles G. Percival, in his new book, “The Trail of the Bull Dog,”
which deals with the writer’s two years’ automobile trip of 50,000
miles. “The interesting part of this bridge lies in the fact that it
was built of concrete in twenty-seven months entirely by convicts’
labor. The bridge is eighteen feet wide between curbs and 240 tons of
steel rod and wire are contained in its construction. The bridge is
floored with reinforced concrete and a two-inch bitulithic dressing.
Eleven piers, each 125 feet in length, support the bridge, which is
excellently lighted by electricity at both approaches, and throughout
its entire length from power generated at the Roosevelt dam seventy
miles away.”
_In Iowa._--Prisoners at the Fort Madison penitentiary get increased
pay and shorter hours through an agreement made by the State board
of control for the cancellation of one prison contract and the
transference of the contract of the Fort Madison Chair company to the
Fort Madison Tool company. This takes 175 men out of the contract labor
system.
By the terms of the arrangement, the board may terminate the remaining
contract on or after March 1, 1916, by giving ninety days’ notice. The
old contract could not be cancelled before October 15, 1917. The State
gains more than a year by the new deal.
The State will receive 60 cents a day for each man employed by the tool
company under the new agreement. In addition the company will pay each
man 10 cents a day for himself. The working day will be cut from ten to
nine hours.
_Auburn Inmates Celebrate Under Their Own Captains._--Fourteen hundred
convicts in Auburn prison, observing Lincoln’s Birthday, marched from
cells to chapel and mess hall solely in charge of convict captains
elected by the inmates several weeks ago as their representatives in
the Mutual Welfare League. The convict officers relieved the regular
officers and maintained splendid discipline.
The holiday entertainment was furnished entirely by convict talent and
included an address on Lincoln by an inmate. Addresses were also made
by Thomas Mott Osborne, chairman, and Professor E. Stagg Whitin, of New
York, and Professor Henry T. Mosher, of Rochester, members of the State
Commission for Prison Reform.
_Tynan’s Way._--Writing to the New York Sun, Warden Tynan of the
Colorado State Penitentiary says:
“The position of penitentiary warden is the last in the world for a
policeman. The policeman’s education is all wrong. He thinks only of
hunting out the evil in his victim, of making a record in convictions.
A policeman warden would keep the black hole full, he would wear out
the cat-o’-nine tails, he would revive the iniquitous stool pigeon and
spy system; he would produce the typical, modern penitentiary which
sends out unbettered and unstrengthened man and which menaces the
society which it is supposed to protect.
“By removing the continual threat of arms, by eliminating oppressions
and brutalities, by establishing a system of graded rewards for
cheerfulness and industry, the Colorado penitentiary has been given a
wholesome, helpful atmosphere. The men have taken no unfair advantage
of square dealings and fair intent. They have met every advance in
honesty and enthusiasm.
“Half the men who come here are men who never had a
chance--unfortunates grown to manhood without impulse or direction. Out
of their very helplessness they cheated and stole, robbed and killed.
Most manifestly, mere weekly religious services will not free society
from the menace of these men. They must be taught something to do. A
State farm protects the present and guarantees the future.
“The interests of justice and of society would have been better served
had many a convict never known imprisonment. If he were paroled
immediately upon conviction his dependents would not suffer, nor the
taxpayers be forced to bear the burden of greater depravity that always
and inevitably attends penal servitude.”
_Tramps and the Railroads._--Crimes committed against railroads are
increasing, according to the annual report of the police department of
the Baltimore and Ohio system, which shows that 13,129 arrests were
made during 1913, as compared with 10,417 arrests during 1912. There
were 8,449 convictions in 1913, while in 1912 the number of convictions
was 6,515. This increase in crime added materially to the expense of
the railroad for doing business during the year.
The report of G. A. Ogline, superintendent of police, covers all
classes of criminal offenses, from petty larceny and disorderly conduct
to train wrecking, highway robbery and murder. The most frequent
offenders were those who “violated railroad laws,” for which 8,303
arrests of tramps and others unlawfully using the railroad property
were made. Arrests for intoxication and disorder numbered 2,526, with
1,567 arrests for larceny, 176 for burglary and 3 for murder. For
receiving goods stolen from the railroad there were 67 arrests.
Commenting upon the large number of arrests of trespassers--tramps and
other vagrants and loiterers about the railroad--Superintendent Ogline
says: “It is evident that the number of persons unlawfully riding
over the railroads and trespassing upon the property in other ways
is on the increase, but the officials have been badly handicapped in
coping with this evil on account of the lack of co-operation on the
part of authorities. The courts will handle a few offenders, but it is
continually impressed upon the railroads’ police department that the
arrests to trespassers must be held to the minimum because the cities,
towns and counties are unwilling to bear the expense of harboring this
class of offenders in jails and other institutions of detention.”
The head of the police department further states that in numerous
instances where reports were made of obstructions having been placed
on rails, missiles thrown at trains, etc., it was found that “very
small children were often guilty of these offenses,” and the railroad
officers frequently brought the cases to the attention of parents in an
effort to correct the trouble.
Convictions were secured under the Carlin Act, a federal law, for the
robbery of cars on the Baltimore and Ohio lines and heavy penalties
were imposed for such crimes.
_Changes in Military Prisons._--Revision of the articles of war--the
military law of the United States that has stood unchanged since
1906--is proposed in a bill passed without a dissenting vote by the
Senate, in February, designed to make the soldier guilty of purely
military offenses an object of reformatory discipline instead of a
penitentiary convict with the criminal stamp upon him.
Fort Leavenworth, Kas., would cease to be a federal penitentiary under
the terms of the bill, and hereafter would be known as the United
States Military Detention Barracks. The prison would be modeled after
the English army disciplinary institution at Aldershot, and no soldier
or civilian convicted of an offense punishable by penal servitude might
hereafter be confined there.
Military prisoners under suspended sentence quartered in the detention
barracks would be organized into military commands, and their training
kept up where prison conduct warrants in the opinion of the Secretary
of War. Honorable restoration to the army, or permission to re-enlist
without prejudice if the enlistment had expired, would follow good
behavior.
This radical revision of the army’s disciplinary methods is proposed
in a recodification of the articles of war, dropping thirteen sections
from the old code as obsolete and inserting provisions for a policy of
suspended sentence and less drastic treatment of military offenders
generally.
The bill makes no mention of the military prison on Alcatraz Island,
San Francisco. In this connection the committee report says the
Secretary of War is convinced that establishment of the detention
barracks and necessary branches would make the maintenance of a
military prison unnecessary. The elimination of Alcatraz Island from
the bill would make possible the use of the islands as an immigration
station, as desired by the immigration bureau.
The jurisdiction of courts-martial would be broadened considerably
under the proposed new code, extending to capital offenses in time of
peace which are beyond the reach of civil courts. The present code
gives this provision only in time of war. On spies in time of war
only would the death sentence be mandatory under the new code, and a
two-thirds majority of the court-martial imposing such sentence would
be required instead of a bare majority.
_Frank Sanborn on the State Control of County Jails._--In a letter to
the Boston Transcript, Mr. Sanborn writes as follows:
“The present agitation of the prison reform question in Massachusetts,
and the number of those who support a better system of prison
discipline, are interesting facts to me, who, as secretary of the first
Board of State Charities, appointed fifty years ago last October, was
the first permanent inspector of all our Massachusetts prisons that
had ever filled that post. I devoted much time to it in the first
years of my service of five years; and on the 2nd of March, 1865, my
friend, Gov. Andrew, sent in to the Senate my long special report on
our prisons, with suggestions for their reformation, most of which
were subsequently inserted as laws in our successive revisions of the
statutes. But one suggestion, then first made, has not yet been adopted
and is urgently needed for adoption by the present legislature--the
control and classification of the prisons in our fourteen counties
by the State government. It is not practicable, without a change in
the State constitution, to make this control quite complete, for our
county sheriffs are constitutional officers and have certain legal and
customary rights over the arrests and custody of untried prisoners,
witnesses, etc., which no statute can take away. But all convicts in
the counties--that is, all sentenced persons--should be under a uniform
discipline in their prisons, which the State alone can establish and
enforce.
“Fifty years ago we had no separate prison for women, no State
reformatory for young offenders, no State asylum for insane convicts,
and persons untried because insane; and no State asylum for placing
reformed young offenders in private families. The next year after my
report, a first step was taken towards State control by the creation of
a State Workhouse at Bridgewater. This, which is now called the State
Farm, contains at present more than a third part as many convicts as
were in all the county prisons in 1864-5--only 6,563 in all. Adding
to the Bridgewater prisoners the 800 insane convicts held in custody
there, the total to-day is more than half the number in all the
county prisons in March, 1865. The Women’s Prison at Sherborn, with
its hundreds, the Concord Reformatory and the Shirley branch, with
their 1,000 inmates, and the reformed young offenders now living under
State authority in families and other convicts under State authority
elsewhere, would add for an aggregate more than the 6,563 who were
in the county prisons fifty years ago. To that extent the State has
exercised its right of eminent domain over prisoners.
“But there still remain in the county prisons and the few county
reformatories about 4,000 permanent or average prisoners--most of them
convicts--whose proper classification is impossible, even in the larger
counties, and practically out of the question in the middle-sized
and small counties. And this average population of some twenty-five
establishments represents not less than 30,000 different persons during
the year, whose separation and proper care cannot be provided for in
these twenty-five prisons, etc., some of which are always crowded,
others usually empty or half filled, and all under a varying, partial,
costly and practically useless prison discipline. State control would
give all but a few hundred of the 30,000 comers and goers a safe,
judicious and to a good extent reformatory discipline, now quite
uncertain or impossible as things are.
“Our county systems, of which the outward and visible signs are the
prisons and court houses, expend hundreds of thousands of dollars every
year and are the natural nests and breeding places of county rings,
which waste the taxpayers’ money, manipulate and corrupt our local
politics, and make the administration of criminal law, in several of
the counties sometimes a job, sometimes a farce, and by its delays and
appeals a great revenue for lawyers and officials, pocketing fees and
postponing or perverting justice, in a manner that every one familiar
with county business, as I was while a State official knows, but to a
degree that can only be revealed by investigation in each county, such
as that undertaken in my own County of Middlesex, and threatened by the
mayor and other official persons in Suffolk. Let these investigations
go on; but, in the meantime, follow the recommendation of all
well-informed persons, and give the State commission control of these
nests of crime and vice, our ill-governed prisons.”
_The Booher Bill Passes the House._--On March 4th, by a vote of 302
to 30, the House passed the Booher bill that virtually prohibits the
shipping of convict made goods in interstate commerce. The measure
adopts the principle of the Webb law which provides that liquor
shipped into “dry” territory shall be subject to local and State laws
prohibiting the traffic in alcoholic liquors.
The Booher bill provides that convict made goods “shall upon arrival
and delivery in any State or Territory be subject to the operation and
effect of the laws of such State or Territory.”
Another bill dealing with goods produced by convict labor will soon be
considered in the House. It applies the same provisions to goods made
by convict labor abroad. This measure has already been reported in the
House.
_Gruesome!_--In Virginia, according to the Richmond Journal, the body
of a convict dying in prison is forfeit to the State; no matter if he
has friends or money to receive it and give it decent burial. When a
man dies in prison, whether he was sent for one year or for thirty
years, his body is sent to the medical colleges of the State for
dissection purposes. If he commit some horrible crime, which demands a
death penalty, this is not the case. His family may receive his body
and bury it. But the life convict and the convict who dies in prison
are not given this privilege under the present law.
A bill that has come before the committee seeks to remedy this defect
in the present law. It amends the law now in force so that it requires
only such bodies as are to be disposed of at the expense of the State
to be sent to the colleges. No man who saves the little money which
he may have earned within the prison shops and lays it aside for this
purpose will any longer be refused the right of burial.
This matter has for a long time been a source of much agony of mind
and bitterness among the convicts. A Confederate veteran at the State
Farm fears the dissecting table. If the bill is passed it will bring
happiness to a number of the poor men, who have no other peace to look
forward to than that of a quiet grave.
_National Agitation for State Use System._--Organized labor has called
upon manufacturers and citizens generally throughout the country to
support the National Committee on Prison Labor, in its endeavor to
bring about in the different States a system whereby prisoners shall
be employed directly under State control of roads, farms, or in
manufacturing articles for use in the institutions and departments
under the control of the State. For the past four years this committee
and the labor unions, especially the United Garment Workers of America,
have been fighting the leasing system, whereby the labor of the convict
is sold to the highest bidder, the bid always being from 50 to 75 per
cent. less than is paid to the workers in the same line of industry
outside of our penal institutions.
The effect of this prison competition is illustrated by figures
gathered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of Missouri, which has just
completed an exhaustive investigation into conditions at the Missouri
State prison at Jefferson City.
The clothing factory at that prison reported an output for 1912 of
overalls and other garments valued at over $2,500,000. The convict
working force consisted of 887 men and 44 women, a total of 931, while
for their labor the State received $200,629. The total amount paid out
in wages and salaries for superintendents, etc., was $371,385. From
these figures it will be noted that the cost of labor was so small when
compared to that at a similar factory outside the prison walls as to be
startling.
Free manufacturers are asked to compare their own payroll with that
of the contractors at this prison where for healthy male convicts, 75
cents per day was paid, while for a few cripples and the women the
figure was only 50 cents per day.
The National Committee on Prison Labor and the unions see that this
unfair competition can be overcome by the work for the State, whereby
no prison goods reach the open market, but these two groups need the
support of all interested either for business or humanitarian reasons
to bring about results which shall be effective and lasting.
From a practical business standpoint organized labor has brought this
matter before the people of the country and awaits their action.
_Pardons._--Governor David I. Walsh, of Massachusetts, has said he
intends to refer to the members of the Board of Pardon and Parole, all
petitions for commutation of sentence as well as of pardon, together
with the ordinary cases which, under the statute creating the board,
the Governor may refer to it.
The Governor said he could see no reason why he should discriminate
between the man who is sentenced to the House of Correction and the
man sentenced to State Prison, simply because the latter sentence is
for a felony.
He would reserve the right to veto their recommendations and findings,
he said. All petitions will be referred, the Governor said, except
those where a convict is thought to be in immediate danger of death and
prompt action on the part of the Governor is imperative.
_Farming by Texas Prisoners._--Texas is to try the honor system among
convicts in one of its prisons, says the Little Rock, Ark., Gazette,
and is even going a step further by providing a profit-sharing plan to
encourage prisoners in thrift and industry. Fifty white men have been
selected for the test, and if the new plan proves feasible, it means
that the entire prison system of that State will be revolutionized in
the near future.
The prisoners are to be assigned to road work in a county that is to
pay $15 per month for each man’s services. Half of their earnings will
go to the penitentiary fund and the other half to the prisoners. The
county will maintain the men and, as no guards or overseers will be
employed, it is expected that the living cost of each prisoner will be
less than one dollar per day.
Governor Colquitt has announced that preparations are now being made
for the selection of another crew of 40 prisoners, who will work under
similar conditions at construction work on Texas railroads. All of the
men selected are young and have short sentences to serve. They will
be placed under paroles while away from prison, but the paroles are
revocable for disobedience.
STATEMENT OF THE OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, ETC. of THE DELINQUENT,
Published monthly at New York, N. Y., required by the Act of August
24th, 1912.
NAME OF POST OFFICE ADDRESS
Editor, O. F. Lewis, 135 East 15th St., New York City
Managing Editor, O. F. Lewis, 135 East 15th St., New York City
Business Manager, O. F. Lewis, 135 East 15th St., New York City
Publisher, The National Prisoners’
Aid Association, 135 East 15th St., New York City
Owners, The National Prisoners’
Aid Association, 135 East 15th St., New York City
There are no bondholders, mortgages, or other security holders.
O. F. LEWIS, Editor and Business Manager.
Sworn to and subscribed before me this 30th day of September, 1913.
H. L. McCORMICK, Notary Public No 6, Kings County.
My Commission expires March 31, 1914.
[Transcriber’s Note:
Table of Contents generated by transcriber.
Obvious printer errors corrected silently.