=[Under this heading will appear each month numerous paragraphs of
general interest, relating to the prison field and the treatment of the
delinquent.]=
_What Can Be Done With the Drunkard?_—In many states the approach of the
legislative season has brought forth bills providing for a more rational
treatment of the drunkard. A commission appointed by Governor Warner of
Michigan to make a study of minor criminal offenses will recommend to
the legislature at the 1911 session the establishment of an inebriates’
farm where the drunkard, habitual or occasional, may work off the habit
under the influence of helpful and healthful surroundings. The
commission, all of whose members are lawyers, have found that petty
crime is increasing in Michigan at the rate of ten per cent a year,
while the population is increasing at the rate of but four per cent. The
report emphasizes that the present Michigan methods of dealing with
petty offenders are not reformatory.
In Lewiston and Auburn, Maine, citizens are establishing a refuge for
discharged prisoners who have served terms for vagrancy or intoxication.
The Auburn Reform League hopes thus to find “a place where these men can
be helped to a fresh start.”
In Massachusetts, Warren F. Spalding, the secretary of the Massachusetts
Prison Association, discussing the treatment of drunkenness before the
commission which has been investigating the increase of prisoners and
paupers in the Bay State, said recently: “Massachusetts’ system of
dealing with the question is not good. It is sending thousands of
persons to the houses of correction each year and then releasing them
after short periods without having helped them.” “A drunk,” he said,
“needs air, sunshine and outdoor work. He should not be in a cell 16 out
of the 24 hours. These cells are not free from germs. What does
Massachusetts do with her drunks? After sending each one to the House of
Correction for a number of times, he is sent to the state farm at
Bridgewater, where he receives the outdoor treatment he needed in the
first place. Massachusetts should establish from one to six institutions
where drunks and criminals through drunkenness can be given outdoor
treatment.”
It is reported that a bill is to be introduced into the Indiana
legislature providing for the sending of convicted drunkards to the
county infirmary which is reported to be able to work the men on the
farm at a cost only one-fourth of that entailed by keeping them at the
jail.
A member of the State Commission in Lunacy of New York recently stated
that 28 per cent of insanity in the state hospitals of New York is
directly traceable to inebriety or the use of alcohol.
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_Winter and the Vagrant._—New York City has been registering at its
half-million dollar new free lodging house a record-breaking attendance
this winter of the out-of-works. On January 15th the department of
public charities lodged 982 homeless persons at the city lodging house
and an overflow of 286 were lodged on a covered dock owned by the
department. “In my fifteen years of experience,” said the superintendent
of the lodging house, “I have never seen so many men come here with
clean shirts and collars, and with neat clothes. They are men who have
been working on the railroads and on the aqueduct and are now laid off
for the winter.” The city lodging house has no work-test and the
magistrates have largely discontinued their former tendency to commit
frequent repeaters at the lodging house to the city workhouse. In the
first sixteen days of 1910 the city cared for 5,841 persons at the
lodging house; for the first sixteen days of 1911 the attendance was
13,197, an astounding increase of approximately 8,000 or more than 125
per cent.
Meanwhile cities all over the land are complaining of the swarms of
tramps and vagrants making claims, almost with the assurance of vested
rights, upon the hospitality of the towns or the individual citizens.
Minneapolis has recently attracted attention through its new city
lodging house, where free food, free bath and nightshirt are a part of
the regulations, as well as the fumigation of the guest’s clothing
during the night. The conditions under which homeless men were formerly
lodged by the police in Minneapolis were so wretched that the new
municipal lodging house has received a welcome from press and public.
One year’s work of the wayfarer’s lodge of the federation of charities
in Toledo, O., is worth notice. During 1910, 3,896 men were taken care
of, 8,465 beds being given. On an average the men stopped at the lodge
two and one-half nights, 18,773 meals being given in 1910. Paid
employment was found for 962 men, most of the positions being at manual
labor. Seventy-three per cent of the men were American born. Over
seventy per cent were in the best period of life, between twenty and
forty years of age. Nearly fifty per cent of the men were common
laborers. All the men were examined by medical students of Toledo
University, and if in need of care were referred to a dispensary or
other sources. About one man in five was found to need medical
attention. Over forty per cent of the men were reported as having, or as
having had, venereal disease.
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_A Court to “Patch Up” Quarrels._—The domestic relations court of
Buffalo supervised through its probation officer in 1910 the
distribution of $40,587 in non-support cases. This was the first court
of this nature to be established. Recently New York and Boston have
followed suit. Probation did not prove successful in every case, but the
percentage of success “warrants enthusiasm,” according to the probation
officer of the court. Three out of every four persons are reported
benefited by the court.
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_A Prison Twine Plant in Wisconsin._—On January 13th a bill was
introduced into the Wisconsin senate providing for an appropriation of
$400,000 as a fund to be used in operating a binder twine plant at the
state prison at Waupun, $200,000 to be available May 1st, 1911, and the
remainder May 1st, 1912.
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A bill will be introduced, it is reported, into the Ohio legislature
providing for the sterilization of criminals and insane.
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_Points in Prison Reform._—The Chicago Record-Herald of January 17th,
says editorially: A Harvard professor advocates systematic
experimentation on prisoners in state institutions with the different
chemical poisons used in food preservatives. Such doings, he thinks,
would be mild and humane as compared with those which are constantly
being tried on the non-criminal public by the manufacturers of food
products.
The professor probably has in mind the experiments conducted by Dr.
Wiley on government employees at Washington. But submission to such
treatment was voluntary, and the work was under competent supervision.
That such favorable auspices could be guaranteed in an average prison is
open to doubt.
One finds a spirit more human than that of the Harvard professor in the
warden of the state prison at Walla Walla, Wash. The latter declares
that the striped suit and the lock step are undesirable relics of an
outlived past. He has put his charges into plain gray clothes, with no
distinguishing mark beyond the prison number, and has abolished the lock
step altogether. If those two antiquated features represented affronts
to the dignity of human nature, the compulsory consumption of poison
might reasonably be held to represent still another. Its introduction
might lay the base of a new error and abuse, which itself would have to
be abolished in turn.
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_Life Prisoners Studied._—A thorough study of the subject of life
prisoners has been made by Warden Henry Town, of Waupun, Wis. It is
interesting to note the kindly feeling held generally by prison
officials toward the “lifer.” Experience proves that the average
character of life prisoners is higher than the short-term men, and fewer
return again to crime, when given their liberty. This fact has increased
the sentiment favorable to paroling life prisoners after they have
served a reasonable period. The great majority of officials have
expressed themselves as favorable to laws of this kind, and several
states have already adopted them with satisfactory results.
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_A Jail Catechism._—The following recommendations, made by Commissioner
Frank Wade, of the New York Commission on Prisons, after an inspection
of the Orleans County jail, may have a general applicability to the
jails of the county:
“That more beds and mattresses be placed in the lockup; that tramps and
loafers, not under arrest, be not allowed to mingle with the prisoners
detained for trial; that a jail yard be provided at the county jail, and
that work be provided for time prisoners; that all the beds in the jail
be equipped with new mattresses; that the walls of the corridors and
cells be repainted and that the corridors and cells be kept clean; that
the bed clothing be regularly washed and kept clean, in which event
sheets and pillow cases should be washed; that a steel ceiling be placed
over the wooden joists in the kitchen; that there be light in every cell
and that there be a new lock on every floor which cannot be reached or
tampered with by the prisoners.”
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_A Court On Prison Architecture._—In the course of a decision denying an
injunction brought to hold up the contract for a new state prison,
Justice Betts of the New York Supreme Court, recently uttered the
following dictum dealing with the psychological aspects of prison
architecture:
“It appears that a substantial change in plans was made, increasing the
cost of the new prison from $2,000,000 to $2,200,000. This was solely in
an attempt to beautify and adorn the exterior of the building. The
commission, with the sanction of the legislature, is to spend $200,000
in seeking the unattainable. A prison known to be such is hideous and
ugly. It can be viewed by two classes of people only, those who are
inmates and those who are out. The inmates are not proud of their
environments, however ornate, and no amount of embellishment can make it
attractive to outsiders.”
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A state training school for boys under 18 has just been opened at
Monroe, Alabama. It has been in preparation for several years.
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_Federal Prisoners Paroled Without Publicity._—In accordance with the
decision of the attorney general of the United States and the chairman
of the federal board, prisoners who have won their paroles from federal
prisons will hereafter be released without publicity. Thus they can go
back into society unburdened with the disadvantage of readvertised
notoriety. Commenting editorially on this change, the Cincinnati (Ohio)
_Enquirer_ says:
“This is in keeping with modern progress in the treatment of criminals.
When a man is tried and sentenced for a crime, full publicity is given
to that fact, and when he arrives at the penitentiary that fact also is
announced to the public. After that man has served the term to which he
was sentenced, or when he has served a part of it and is released on
parole, he has paid his obligation to society for his violation of law.
He has a right to demand that he be permitted to re-enter the world
unhandicapped by the renewed publication of the disgrace of his
imprisonment. * * * * The attention of the Ohio prison managers is
called to this progressive action on the part of the federal government.
Its helpfulness would be just as important in state as in national
criminal affairs.”
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_Organized Labor Opposes_ “THIRD DEGREE.”—A dispatch from New Haven,
Conn., states that organized labor in the various states is called upon
to exert its influence for legislation forbidding the police “third
degree” to get confessions from prisoners in a letter sent out from the
National Headquarters of the American Federation of Labor at Washington.
The letter, which is signed by Samuel Gompers, describes the practice as
having no warrant for its existence “except the brute power of barbarism
and the tradition derived therefrom,” and declares that “its practice on
the part of the police is usurpation that must be stopped.”
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Former Lieutenant-Governor E. H. Harper has been elected president of
the Colorado Prison Association, which plans to draft a number of bills
for the legislative session.
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_Penal Farm for Indiana._—A bill providing for the establishment of a
state penal farm will be introduced into the Indiana legislature.
The bill provides that the location of the farm and the purchase of the
land for it shall be made by the board of trustees of the state prison,
with the approval of the governor. The location shall be determined by
the advantages offered in providing work for the inmates. The labor for
erecting the buildings shall be furnished by prisoners transferred from
the state prison and reformatory. The farm shall be in charge of a board
of four trustees appointed by the governor.
All male delinquents, who are above the age of commitments to the
Indiana Boys’ School, who have been convicted of the violation of any
state law or city ordinance, the punishment for which now consists of
confinement in a county jail or workhouse, may be sent to the farm.
Where the imprisonment shall not be more than thirty days it is left to
the discretion of the trial court as to whether the prisoner shall be
sent to the county jail or to the penal farm.
Upon the recommendation of the boards of trustees of the Indiana state
prison and the state reformatory the governor may order transferred from
these institutions to the farms such prisoners as in the opinion of the
board would be benefited thereby. The prisoners at the proposed
institutions shall be employed at work in or about the building and
farm. For the purpose of equipping the farm appropriations shall be made
by the legislature. It is estimated the appropriation will require $200
a year for each prisoner.
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_A Women’s Prison for Ohio?_—Members of the Ohio joint legislative
committee appointed to recommend what the state should do about building
a women’s prison, have decided to recommend that a joint reformatory and
prison for women be built under a management separate from the
penitentiary. The board of managers of the penitentiary will be asked to
abandon the project of erecting the woman’s prison near the institution
for men.
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_Probation in Connecticut._—The Connecticut Prison Association shows
that the number of cases placed on probation during the year ended
September 30, 1910, was as follows: Men, 1,613; women, 126; boys, 809;
girls, 49. Those who observed their terms of probation and were released
were: Men, 1,077; women, 117; boys, 677; girls, 43. Those who violated
the conditions and were rearrested were: Men, 214; women, 12; boys, 52;
girls, 7; while 92 men, 7 women, 17 boys and 4 girls escaped from the
jurisdiction of the court. There were remaining on probation at the
close of the fiscal year 858 men, 59 women, 325 boys and 26 girls, while
the cases of 326 men, 18 women, 90 boys and 50 girls were investigated
and settled out of court.
The amount of probationers’ wages collected and expended for their
families was $26,919.75. The amount of fines and costs collected from
them amounted to $10,791.44.
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President Thorpe of the Massachusetts Prison Association, in support of
his recommendation of state control of all penal institutions, which he
suggested had been smiled upon taxation, and a governor or two, said
that criminals violate the welfare of the state, not of the county, and
that about the only opposition to his project comes from county
commissioners. He called it wasteful for counties to build new prisons,
where they house both serious and petty criminals, and suggested that
the state should erect one in the country for classified lighter
offenders.
Following the wide publication of an article from the pen of Sir Evelyn
Ruggles-Brise, K. C. B., dealing with prison conditions in this country,
a statement condemning American prisons and prison systems was
attributed to him. In a recent letter to Amos W. Butler, Secretary of
the Indiana State Board of Charities, Mr. Ruggles-Brise, who attended
the International Prison Congress at Washington, and who is chairman of
the prison commission of England, stated that his criticism referred
only to the jail system in this country.
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_Three Reforms Urged in Maine._—Several reforms are being strenuously
urged upon the Maine legislature by the prison association of that
state. A farm for inebriates in Cumberland county, a reformatory for
women, and a system of juvenile courts are those propositions attracting
the most attention from the press and the public. Civic clubs, men’s
clubs and church organizations are being drawn into the effort to get
the necessary bills passed by the legislature. The proposed farm for
inebriates will provide physical and mental training for the inmates,
and the bill authorizing it fixes minimum and maximum sentences of three
months and one year respectively. The bill providing for a women’s
reformatory asks for an appropriation of $30,000 for an institution on
the cottage plan, to which commitment will be on the indeterminate
sentence plan. The proposed juvenile court bill was spoken of as follows
by Judge Ben B. Lindsey, of Denver, Colorado:
“This bill is the best measure yet proposed to protect and correct
helpless, neglected or offending children.”
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In connection with what promises to be a state-wide investigation of
several departments in New York which come under the control of the
governor, it is interesting to note that Governor Dix declares his
intention to make a personal inspection of the prisons, and a thorough
study of their affairs. Cornelius V. Collins, Superintendent of Prisons,
has stated publicly that he will welcome any investigation of affairs in
the Prison Department.
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A bill to abolish the different prison boards and establish a new board
to control all state prisons and perform the functions of the present
advisory board in the matter of pardons, is in preparation by Rep.
Robert Y. Ogg, of Detroit, Michigan. Both parties declared for such a
bill in their state platforms.
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A stop has been put in South Boston, Mass., to the practice of sending
juvenile offenders from the detention station to the courthouse in the
same vans with adult prisoners.
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A bill to compel the sending of prisoners under 18 years of age to the
state reformatory, and to permit the sending of first offenders, except
those guilty of serious crimes, to the same place, and to prevent the
sending of prisoners over 30 years of age to the reformatory, is being
urged upon the legislature in Colorado. It is argued that some of the
judges think the reformatory merely a branch of the penitentiary.
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On the ground that imprisonment in the city jail for petty crimes brings
punishment on the family of the culprit no less than on the culprit
himself, Mayor Pratt, of Spokane, Wash., is urging the establishment of
a work farm where petty criminals can be given employment that will
contribute to the support of their families. Mayor Pratt is also said to
favor an institution where the destitute can find employment.
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A bill for the establishment of a reformatory for first offenders, now
before the legislature of California, is said to have the backing of
many organizations interested in prison reform. The bill provides for an
institution to which prisoners convicted of felony for the first time
may be sent for confinement, instruction and discipline, with the object
of fitting them for self-support on release. The sentence of such
prisoners is to be indeterminate.
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A plan for sharing profits with the prisoners of the Rhode Island state
prison at Howard, R. I., has been proposed by Warden James F. McCusker,
and is now in the hands of a committee charged with reporting upon it.
It provides that in each department of the prison those who have worked
steadily for the preceding six months shall share in a monthly
distribution of the earnings of that department over and above a stated
minimum amount.
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It is expected that legislature of Tennessee will make an appropriation
at this session for a reformatory where boys convicted of crime may be
kept separate from hardened criminals. The state has already purchased a
farm five miles from Nashville on which to erect such an institution.
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