[At the recent meeting of the American Prison Association, Frank L.
Randall, Superintendent of the Minnesota State reformatory at St.
Cloud, read as chairman the report of the committee on reformatory work
and parole, from which we print the following extracts.]
To the chief executive officers of penal and correctional institutions
in the United States and Canada was submitted the following question:
“To what extent do you recognize mental inadequacy and constitutional
inferiority among the persons in your charge?”
The estimates are various. Among prisons for adults they range from
3 persons out of 240 in Wyoming, to 10 per cent. in Nebraska and
Philadelphia, 20 per cent. in Rhode Island, 25 per cent. in Vermont, 30
per cent. in Indiana, 30 per cent. to 40 per cent. in Wisconsin, fully
50 per cent. in Kansas, 60 per cent. in West Virginia, 50 per cent. to
75 per cent. in Minnesota, and a still higher percentage of prisoners
lacking in energy, mentally or physically, in one Michigan prison.
Major McClaughry, and Warden Wood of Virginia, wrote that they could
not answer the question.
From state reformatories came estimates covering a range from 25 per
cent. to 40 per cent. only in Iowa, Washington, Kansas, and New York
(Elmira). The writer, regretting his inability to report more exactly,
because the work in his institution has not been completed, feels
safe in concurring in the general approximations cited by reformatory
superintendents.
From the New York reformatory for women at Bedford Hills we have the
following: “Realizing that a large percentage are subnormal, July 1,
1911, we employed a trained psychologist who will make it a year’s
study.” From juvenile institutions the returns are neither more
hopeful, nor more satisfying, and many institutions of that class seem
to have no special facilities for caring for weaklings, and depend upon
a relaxation of the discipline in their behalf. A study of 200 in the
boys industrial school in Kansas disclosed that 174 were mentally dull,
markedly defective, or two or more years behind their proper place in
school. In the industrial school of New Hampshire about 75 per cent.
are reported to be four to five years below their normal grade in
school.
Other letters say “probably 25 per cent., at least;” “one-third;”
“50 per cent.;” “to a very large extent;” and so forth. The Idaho
industrial training school reports: “A very small per cent.; I think
not above five per cent.;” and the Georgia state reformatory reports
that “the discipline has to be based on the fact that 75 per cent. of
inmates are mental defectives and 99 per cent. are moral defectives.”
The girls industrial home of Ohio says: “Fully nine-tenths are
subnormal mentally, and a large per cent. physically weak or crippled.”
From the Iowa industrial school for girls comes the following: “There
is a certain inferiority, either mental or constitutional inadequacy,
in each and every one. In the majority of cases it is a weakness; that
is, they are easily influenced, therefore easily led astray.”
It seems fair and right to allow for a difference among the writers
as to the full import of the question to which they have responded,
but that may not entirely account for the considerable differences in
estimates. Possibly varying court proceedings, and the use of the power
of probation by some of the courts or other exemptions from detention,
may, in some places, have culled out most of the normal children.
Your committee rather inclines to think however that longer and more
extensive experience, in many cases, tends to fix in the mind the
necessary recognition of a grave amount of mental inadequacy and
constitutional inferiority, calling for custodial care, among all
classes of delinquents, including juveniles, no less than adults.
While the incompetents remain with the normal persons in labor, in
school, and in recreation, the progress of the bright is certain to
be retarded by the association, while the outlook for the dull is not
improved. This mingling and attempted classification of unequal units
seems to be the rule almost everywhere, with consequent lowering of
efficiency and tone, to the basis of the inferior.
So far as returns have been received from prisons, reformatories and
juvenile institutions for correction, the average terms of office of
the executive heads during the last twenty years have been about as
follows: In prisons about four and one-third years. In reformatories
for adults about eight and one-third years, and in institutions
for juveniles about six and one-quarter years. These averages are
considerably higher than they would otherwise be, by reason of the
fact that in some states it is not usual to make a disturbance without
cause, and somewhat lower than they would otherwise be, because in
some states each change in the personality of the governor, as well as
each change in party politics, has almost uniformly resulted in the
dismissal or enforced resignation of the wardens and superintendents
of the class of institutions under consideration, quite regardless of
their capacity and fidelity, and sometimes apparently without a serious
inquiry as to the peculiar fitness of the new appointee.
Some of the delegates to this Prison Congress may hardly appreciate
the fact that there are institutions in some states where neither
institution heads nor subordinates attend caucuses, discuss politics,
contribute to campaign funds or take any part in election matters,
except to vote: and where the political preferences of the members of
the staff are unknown to each other, or to their chief. The elections
bring to the institutions no unusual excitement or personal anxiety.
The establishment of truant schools in the cities has demonstrated that
the best and most capable teachers and managers are necessary to their
successful conduct and discipline, and for the same reasons a prison or
reformatory should be manned by the best obtainable talent.
Your committee have made diligent inquiry but have not learned of any
jurisdiction in which the compensation and status of subordinates in
penal and correctional institutions is such as to ordinarily attract
young men and women of the kind and character needed for the work;
and neither do we find that such subordinates are any where required
to have technical training or prior experience, before assuming their
responsible positions as exemplars, directors and officials to those
whose careers have been, at least to some extent, oblique.
With their small pay, and perhaps small chance for promotion, and often
with an uncertain tenure, their hours of duty long, and their work
somewhat monotonous, and depressing to those not peculiarly fitted to
it, they not infrequently have uncomfortable quarters, and but little
opportunity to develop their social side.
It is not to be wondered at that many of the young people who should
follow institution work turn their attention in some more pleasing and
promising direction, and that the service generally fails to measure up
to its possibilities.
Subordinates are found, to be sure, who fill every requirement, and
who could not be improved upon on any basis of wages, but that merely
indicates what might be done, if the appointing power might only offer
inducements for likely young people to come to the institution, and
make them glad to remain.
The State attempts to secure first class work for second class
compensation, and while it may often succeed in individual instances,
the policy is not to be approved.
In conclusion we wish to recapitulate to the extent of indicating in
brief the points deemed by us to be the most important for improvement
in reformatory work, as follows:
1. The recognition of mental incompetency and constitutional
inferiority among delinquents.
2. The segregation of persons of marked inferior equipment and
capacity, and their detention in custodial asylums, and other places
suited to their care and treatment.
(This for the purpose of humanely and favorably disposing of, and
caring for, helpless recidivists, dements, chronic invalids, epileptics
and others.)
3. The furnishing to the public of reliable and important information
regarding the character of the inmates of institutions, and the work
carried on.
4. The need of men and women of higher ideals and higher culture in
places of confinement, necessitating preliminary training, higher
wages, improved accommodations, suitable hours, fair tenure of office,
and opportunity for promotion.
5. The elimination of political consideration from the conduct of the
institutions, and from the appointment of all persons of high or less
high degree in connection therewith.
6. The closest scrutiny into the physical and mental condition capacity
of each person detained, and into his past history and environment.
7. The establishment of a system under which no delinquent shall
be released, unless in the judgment of the board, after searching
inquiry, there is good reason to believe that he can and will maintain
himself without relapsing into crime, and will be of some service to
society; and under which no delinquent will be further held when such a
condition is believed to have been reached.
8. The extension of state agency and other supervisory means for
observing and aiding the delinquent on parole, and for selecting
suitable location and employment for him, and caring for his surplus
earnings.