[Under this heading will appear each month numerous paragraphs of
general interest, relating to the prison field and the treatment of the
delinquent.]
_Going to School at Charlestown, Mass._--The Hartford, Conn., Times,
tells of a summer school for illiterate prisoners which was started
this season by Benjamin F. Bridges, warden of the state prison at
Charlestown, Mass. A school has existed in the state prison for many
years, but it was Warden Bridges who placed it upon a practical basis,
such as has made it a power for good.
In the correspondence school, as in the other, the teachers are all
prisoners. As soon as a man is sent to the prison and has become
accustomed to his surroundings he is interviewed by one of the teachers
to ascertain if he wishes to study and improve his mind while in
prison. If he does, he is given an application blank, and he fills out
the list of studies he wishes to pursue.
If there is doubt as to his ability to enter some classes he has a
private examination by the teacher in elementary subjects. If he shows
ability to enter the correspondence school he receives material and
lesson blanks, and works out his exercises in his own cell in his spare
time, sending his answers to the school office. There his work is
carefully inspected, and if it is satisfactory new work is sent to him.
The prisoners entered in this correspondence school never assemble in
classes, but all their work is done in their own cells, lights being
allowed until nine o’clock for such study. While the prisoner-teachers
rarely, if ever, see their pupils after they have joined the
correspondence school, the hold the teachers obtain upon the respect
and interest of the solitary students is truly wonderful.
A teachers’ association was formed recently in the prison, and these
men meet at intervals with the prison chaplain to map out lessons and
arrange other details of the work. There is almost no limit to the
amount of advanced work that may be undertaken.
As the work of the school in the prison progressed it became evident
that it kept the men employed and gave them less opportunity to grow
morose and desperate. It was found that they were more contented and
cheerful, and with education, in many cases, came a pronounced change
in character, a reformation that was not assumed in any way, but a
natural result of the change from ignorance to intelligence and a
knowledge of their own ability to make a way in the world if given
an opportunity. The deportment of the prisoners improved wonderfully
and has been first class since the school work was started by General
Bridges, many years ago.
This spring General Bridges took steps to establish a day summer school
for the illiterate prisoners. There are usually about eight hundred odd
prisoners in the institution, and from the entire lot about forty were
selected as being thoroughly illiterate and have been placed in this
newly started class.
In the forty prisoners in the class are represented no less than twelve
different nationalities. A mere glance at the men constituting the
class is sufficient to indicate that ignorance has been the cause for
most of the class finding themselves in prison.
This class in the prison school were allowed to assemble in one room
in the institution, and they had desks like ordinary school children.
Now every one of the forty prisoners can read, write and cipher in a
very creditable manner. It is a new experience to them to be able to
read, and their interest in newspapers and stories from simple books
impresses one who sees it for the first time.
Some of the men in this illiterate class could not speak English when
they entered it, and now they fairly love the warden for having made
it possible for them to communicate with their relatives and former
friends, although such communications have all to pass inspection
before they leave prison.
The ages of the men in this school class run from twenty to forty-five.
Some of them will be eligible for parole in a few years and they are
looking forward to the fact that they will be able to write out their
own applications for such parole.
* * * * *
_Police Condemn Crime Pictures._--In reply to requests sent to police
heads by the State Charities Aid and Prison Reform Association of
New Jersey for information concerning moving picture shows and their
influence on the young, these replies have been received:
“I am heartily in favor of legislation which would prevent the
exhibition of pictures showing any action which in real life would be a
crime.”--Chief of Police Corbitt of Newark.
“I think they are the cause of 20 per cent. of our crime, especially of
petty larceny. These shows cannot locate in our town.”--Nutley.
“In my opinion, moving picture shows are bad for women and children.
I know where children steal to get money for shows; also where women
neglect their families to go.”--Weehawken.
“Children are inclined to steal in order to go there; also neglect
their studies.”--Passaic.
“I had a case drawn to my attention of a five-year-old boy who attended
a cheap picture show where there was shown a picture with a hold-up in
it. This boy’s mother was ill. The child got an old revolver, walked
into his mother’s room and told her to throw up her hands. When he was
asked where he had learned that he answered he saw it in the show.
I believe if the revolver had been loaded some one would have been
killed.”--Hackensack.
* * * * *
_Big Brothers in Atlanta and Macon._--Atlanta’s probation system for
adults, which embraces drunkards, vagrants, wife beaters, deserters
of families and the like, is to be materially enlarged in scope and
made more efficient through the development of a volunteer probation
force of 100 business and professional men who are willing to give a
few hours of their leisure time each week in an effort to save the men
and youths who come under the supervision of the probation officer.
This volunteer force will work in conjunction with Officer Coogler and
the Prison Association of Georgia, which has headquarters at 404 Gould
building.
In Macon, Lewis J. Bernhardt, agent of the Georgia prison association,
has secured 100 names of Macon people who will aid in the perfection
of an organization in that city to cope with conditions in the city and
county prisons and convict camps and to aid in securing a better penal
system for Georgia.
* * * * *
_Radical Experiments in Oregon._--According to the Newark Evening
News, Governor West of Oregon has inaugurated an “honor system” with
astonishing results. Chains and stripes have been abolished. Convicts
are put at work outside the prison walls, without guard on roads, farms
and buildings, on their word that they “will not throw the governor
down.” They are given a chance to fit themselves for useful callings,
are assured of parole, with work at good wages, when they deserve it.
There have been but three attempts at escape since the system was
inaugurated six months ago. The new system is carefully worked out. The
state prison aid society works with the state parole board and governor
to find remunerative employment for paroled men. Men that have proven
reliable and efficient on prison work are recommended for parole; a job
is secured them. If they get a better one they can take it. But they
must work! And every man of the fifty paroled in the last three months
has made good.
When Governor West inaugurated his guardless, outside policy he sent
for a fifteen-year convict. “Put him on the street car, give him car
fare; don’t send a guard, and tell him to come to my office,” the
governor ’phoned the astonished warden. The man came, and went into
executive conference with the governor. The plan was outlined, the
honor system worked out, and the man went back to the prison on the
next car and spread the news through the 450 men behind the walls. Once
the governor sent half a dozen long-term men to town to see the sights
for half a day and report back to the warden by sundown. They had a
good time and reported back to the minute, sober and contented.
When the convicts were first sent out to work alone on the roads the
farmers protested loudly. But the men soon proved that they were human,
were living up to their honor pledge and were making better roads for
the farmers than the farmers could make for themselves. The farmers of
Marion county, where the prison is, are now the heartiest supporters of
the new policy.
Is it safe to let convicts out without a guard? From January to July
this year, with 150 men working outside, without guard, but three have
escaped, and all three were “weak in the head,” and should have been in
the asylum. During the same period two years ago, some ten men escaped,
though under heavy guard all the time. During the latter part of 1909
an attempt was made to work prisoners outside under heavy guard. In a
few months eighteen escaped, and on October 6, 1909, six overpowered
their guards, took their guns away from them and fled to the hills.
Four were recaptured, wounded. Two were killed. Then the cry went up
that prisoners couldn’t be worked outside the penitentiary because it
would take more guards than there were prisoners.
Governor West solved this problem by doing away with the guards. All
there is to the new prison policy of Governor West’s is this: “Give the
men a chance. If they don’t take it you have done your part.” But they
do take it.
* * * * *
_Convicts May Raise Trees._--It is not illegal for convicts to be
employed in reforestation as planned by the conservation commission,
according to Attorney General Carmody of New York State, nor is it
illegal to sell trees raised by convict labor for the reforestation of
private lands.
* * * * *
_A Candidate’s Proclamation._--E. C. O’Rear, a gubernatorial candidate
in Kentucky, has stated his convictions on prison labor thus:
“If elected Governor I will recommend the submission to the people of
an amendment to the constitution allowing convict labor to be used in
building and repairing the public highways and for no other purpose,
outside the walls. It is best for the prisoners themselves to be
so employed and until such an amendment to the constitution can be
secured, my contention is that they should be employed, whatever they
do, at the same wage that is paid the same character of labor outside
the prison walls; and that the profit of their labor be applied by the
State to the maintenance of the families of the convicts instead of
going to and enriching the contractors.”
Judge O’Rear also agrees with the following plank in the Republican
platform:
“We demand the enactment of a law providing for bi-partisan control of
penal and charitable institutions, and for the abolition of contract
convict labor; and we denounce the board of prison commissioners in
hiring out the children under their charge at the reform school for the
benefit of whose morals and education that institution was originally
established.”
* * * * *
_Plans for a New Sing Sing._--That there is no need for the proposed
new Harlem prison in Wingdale and that the present Sing Sing prison,
New York, should be improved and retained is the opinion of Joseph F.
Scott, superintendent of State Prisons. Plans tentatively mapped out
will save the State at least $2,000,000. By expending $1,000,000 for
improvements in Sing Sing, including the construction of a new cell
block to accommodate 1,500 prisoners, and employing convict labor on
the proposed improvements. Mr. Scott believes the institution can be
used to as good advantage as the proposed new Harlem prison. Sing Sing
is more accessible to New York city and at least $40,000 to $50,000
would be saved annually in the cost of the transportation of prisoners
and freight, it is said.
“Outside of the cell block at Sing Sing the present prison plant is all
right,” Mr. Scott is reported to have said, “and with a new cell block
at Sing Sing and the 600 cell-capacity at the Great Meadows prison
completed to its contemplated 1,200-cell capacity, the State would have
a capacity of 1,200 cells each at Auburn, Dannemora, Great Meadows and
Sing Sing, or for 4,800 convicts, and the present prison population
is 4,500. So far the State has expended $400,000 at Bear Mountain
and Wingdale in the attempt to get a new prison, and to complete the
Wingdale project would cost $3,000,000 more.
“There are many features about the Wingdale site which make it too
costly and unsuitable for a prison. Transportation of convicts and
supplies would cost $50,000 a year more than at Sing Sing, and it would
cost $250,000 more than anticipated for a water supply and sewerage and
grading. A portion of the Wingdale site is swampy, also.”
* * * * *
_New York Lockups._--There are now in the state of New York, according
to the Commission on Prisons of New York, about 500 police stations and
town and village lockups. During the past two years practically every
one of them has been visited by an inspector from this department. The
commission has been endeavoring to remedy some of the recognized evils
quite prevalent in their management, and to insist upon more adequate
provision for housing police prisoners and for more sanitary conditions
in these local jails.
It has been insisting that there should be a more complete segregation
of women from men than that now provided in some cases. Another evil
which has received attention and criticism has been the common practice
of commingling police prisoners with tramps or lodgers and the failure
to segregate boys and adults.
Prisoners held in these lockups have been arrested simply on suspicion
and have not had any hearing, and are entitled to decent and humane
treatment. With many of them are common drunks, others are of a more
reputable class and should not be locked up in crowded unsanitary
quarters with tramps and hoboes of the worst kind. The commission has
been insisting that these evils be minimized, and that if localities
desire to have a lodging place for tramps it should be entirely
separate from the quarters where prisoners are confined who are charged
with offenses but who will be later allowed opportunity for defense
before a court.
Through the persistent efforts of the commission great improvements
have been made in these respects in very many of the towns, villages
and smaller cities of the state, and the commission believes in its
duty to prosecute this work still further until the evils heretofore
arising from the improper housing and unwise coming of these various
classes of people shall be eliminated.
* * * * *
_Detroit Aids Dependent Families of Prisoners._--In the Review for
March, 1911, we described the financial success of the Detroit House of
Correction. From the annual report of the board of poor commissioners
of Detroit we learn that between July 1, 1910, and June 30, 1911, 88
families, comprising 360 dependent persons, were supported by the wages
that the husband and father earned while confined in the house of
correction. The sum expended for the dependent families was $3,355.
There have been many families who would have gone in absolute want
rather than appeal to the city for aid, but under this ordinance they
were given the right to requisition a portion of the wages which the
head of the household was earning while imprisoned, and they have
not felt that they were receiving gifts of charity. Tables prepared
with the report show that of the 88 families assisted from the house
of correction fund, 39 were Americans, 19 Polish, 10 Austrians, 10
Canadians, and five Germans, while English, Irish, Scotch, Russians and
Negroes had but one family each. Seventy-nine of the offenders were
sentenced from the police court and nine from the recorder’s court on
charges ranging from bigamy and forgery to failure to send children to
school.
The report also embodies the suggestion that some system of adequate
and permanent relief is needed by means of which provision can be made
for widows and their children. Three hundred and forty-five widows with
young children, or 24 per cent. of the total number of cases, aided by
the poor commissioners, were assisted during the year. Commenting upon
this fact, the report says:
“When we think that the average income of these families is not more
than $4 or $5 a week, it is impossible to believe that these children
are properly fed, housed and clothed. Can we wonder that so many of
the children in these families go astray and find their way into the
juvenile court detention homes and reformatories?”
Reporting to the American prison association at Omaha, William H. Venn,
parole officer for Michigan, outlined the compensation plan operated
in the Detroit House of Correction, which he said had met with general
commendation.
“On July 6, 1911, the Detroit House of Correction passed its fiftieth
milestone. During the last thirty-two years over $1,000,000 in
profits have been turned over to the city of Detroit, the families
of prisoners, and to the prisoners themselves. Since 1880 the city
of Detroit has annually received sums ranging from $9,016.83 to
$52,711.64. The original expenditure by the city of $189,841.36 has
been turned back into the treasury of the municipality, the institution
has paid its own way, and in the fifty years has shown a fine balance
of $1,254,178.15. In addition to this showing, since July, 1901, the
prisoners have been receiving financial benefits ranging from $5,958.14
to $9,670.38 annually.
“In addition to amounts paid to prisoners, some of which is sent by
the men to their families, provision is made for the families of those
who are imprisoned on the charge of abandonment. This is accomplished
under a statute which provides that $1.50 per week for the wife and an
additional 50 cents for each child under fifteen years of age be paid
them out of the funds of the institution.”
* * * * *
By oversight there was omitted from the article in the September
REVIEW, by Mr. Whitin on Prison Labor Legislation in 1911, a footnote
stating that the article had been prepared for the Labor Legislation
Review, Vol. 1, No. 3.
* * * * *
Transcriber’s Notes:
The one footnote has been moved to the end of its article and relabeled.
Illustrations have been moved to paragraph breaks near where they are
mentioned.
Punctuation has been made consistent.
Variations in spelling and hyphenation were retained as they appear in
the original publication, except that obvious typographical errors have
been corrected.