=THE MARYLAND PRISONERS’ AID ASSOCIATION.=
(Although the following article is an account of a single association,
it contains material of such general interest that it seemed desirable
to print it in full. The article appeared in the forty-first annual
report of the Prisoners’ Aid Association of Maryland, for the year
ended April 30, 1910.—THE EDITOR)
The objects of the Prisoners’ Aid Association of Maryland are the
uplift and rehabilitation of the criminal.
When we consider that it is the only agency in the state whose mission
is that of giving aid to hundreds of discharged prisoners each year and
the only organized body equipped for the work of systematically caring
for offenders who are placed on probation by the courts, we believe
it important that information should be carefully compiled by the
Association upon the actual work that it is doing and upon the larger
subject of the treatment of the criminal.
Morrison has well said, “The supreme if not the only object of a
properly constituted penal system is to prevent the offender who has
been once convicted from repeating the offense,”—so the importance
of our work; but just as important are the methods used in our penal
systems in aiding rehabilitation of the prisoner.
Our prison and reformatory managements should stand in the same
relation to the violator of the law as does the management of our
insane hospitals to the inmates entrusted to their keeping.
The purpose of both is the protection of society; the aim of both
should be such treatment as will if possible rehabilitate the
unfortunate so that he may regain his position in society.
In the prisons and reformatories the inmates should be taught the
habits of industry and obedience to law and order, under humane and
strict discipline.
There should be a complete separation of the first offender and the
individual subject to reformation, from the weak-minded, physically
deformed, and old and confirmed criminals; a reformatory for boys and
first offenders, a separate prison for women and an industrial school
for girls, with a parole system in each of the institutions.
In many of our states, including our own, the definite sentence still
remains as a part of the criminal code, the prisoner being discharged
at the end of his sentence, less good time allowed.
Many of our states, however, are adopting the indeterminate sentence
with provisions that the prisoner may be released on parole. There
is a great difference in the attitude of the public towards the
individual released and known by society as a discharged convict and
the individual released on parole.
How fortunate the person who under the indeterminate sentence
has served one-third or one-half of his allotted time and by his
advancement in industrial training and education and obedience to the
rules of the institutions when he leaves on parole, with the management
back of him stating to his employer that it believes in him and advises
giving him a trial. The employer of labor will not only give such
a person a position when he comes so recommended, but will take a
friendly interest in the probationer and assist him to regain his lost
position in society.
The recommendation handed by the prison management to a man the day he
is discharged from the institution under the old law of fixed sentences
bears for the critical eye the inscription of dishonor, doubt,
discouragement.
The recommendation of the management given to a man released under a
parole system bears the words of confidence, faithfulness and obedience
to the laws and regulations of the institution. It is only natural that
the person vouched for in this manner will receive consideration at the
hands of the public while the person who has only the reputation of
being a discharged convict and who has paid the penalty must move on.
The life of men when they come to the Home of the association at 334
St. Paul street, is made as simple and as homelike as possible. They
rise at 5:30; hours for meals are:—breakfast 6, dinner 12, supper 5:30.
At 10:15 the lights are out and the doors are closed. Everybody is
supposed to be in at this hour.
Each guest of the Home must make his own bed and assist in cleaning up
the Home before breakfast.
At 7:30 each man not employed must be ready for the position secured
for him by the employment secretary.
Smoking is allowed in the reading room of the Home; no cigarette
smoking, however, is allowed. No profane or obscene conversation
is tolerated. No person is allowed in the Home with the odor of
intoxicants on his breath or who is in an intoxicated condition. No
loafing is permitted in the Home.
We have a library, with books and periodicals, where the men may read
after supper and on Sundays.
All men who are temporarily making this their Home are urged to attend
religious services on Sunday at such place of worship as they may
choose. All of the men are invited to attend the weekly religious
services held at the Home, but they are not compelled to do this.
The food given the men is plain but substantial and wholesome, well
prepared, and there is no limit as to the amount for each man.
The religious and literary meetings held on Tuesday and Friday evenings
of each week in the assembly room of the Home have done much for the
uplift and rehabilitation of the unfortunate men who have come to
us. These meetings have grown in favor until the attendance at times
has been seventy-five; our total attendance for the year reached two
thousand five hundred and eighty; the number who asked for prayer at
these meetings was four hundred and sixty-two.
In finding employment for those who come to us the adaptability of the
men or women for some particular trade, clerkship or housework, is
always taken into consideration, as we feel that it is much better to
have people working in their special line of work than to be attempting
something with which they are not acquainted. We also try as far as
possible to see that the environment where we place them to work is of
the best.
We have been greatly assisted in placing these men by the co-operation
of the employers of labor in the city, for which we are very grateful.
Without the help and good-will of those who employ labor it would be
almost impossible for us to secure positions for them.
We have placed many of our men in positions of responsibility and
trust, and their employers speak of them in the highest terms.
Maryland was one of the first states of the Union to adopt a system of
probation for first offenders, and its juvenile court has accomplished
splendid results. The operation of the system for adult probation is
yet to be worked out along correct lines.
The Prisoners’ Aid Association hopes that probation of adult prisoners
by the courts will be more extensively used. Much good is now being
accomplished along this line by the courts recognizing the services of
the association in acting as parole agent for the adult offender. We
are now frequently asked by the courts to make a careful study of a
case on hand before the prisoner is sentenced.
When a man has been paroled we endeavor to find him suitable
employment, better his home conditions, if possible, and wield a
helpful and friendly influence over him, having him make to us monthly
reports regularly until such time as the courts deem advisable to give
him his final discharge.
Prisoners convicted of embezzlement or larceny are often paroled on
condition that they pay back the amount of the theft in instalments.
We hope that the parole system will be extended throughout the state,
and believe that when its benefits are more fully understood the system
will become general.
The Association provides religious services for the inmates of the
House of Correction and Baltimore City Jail, representatives of all
denominations assisting in making these meetings interesting and
instructive. It is estimated that not less than 12,000 unfortunate men
and women pass through these two institutions each year.
The proper observation of religious services and the doing of personal
work in the institutions of the state bring to those of the respective
faiths a power for good which nothing else can bring. Such work
systematically carried forward is the greatest factor in our penal
system for the reformation and uplift of this class of our neglected
and unfortunate citizens.
Resume of Year’s Work.—Number placed on probation, 265; number terms
expired, 151; leaving a balance on probation April 30, 1910, 114;
estimated wages earned by men on parole, $36,395; number of women on
parole April 30, 1910, 7; number of night lodgings given at the Home,
5,631; number of meals furnished, 17,532.
Applications for assistance received at the Home for the year as
follows:
From the Baltimore City Jail, 186; from Maryland House of Correction,
133; from Maryland Penitentiary, 22; from probationers, 15; from
miscellaneous, 21; total 377.
Work of the Employment Department.—Families visited, 32; temporary
employment found, 221; firms interviewed, 74; men interviewed in
Baltimore City Jail, 927; men interviewed in Maryland Penitentiary, 10;
paroles interviewed, 45; visits made for investigations, 41; total,
1,353.
Receipts from all sources, $9,260.28; Expenditures (see Treasurer’s
report), $8,647.04; balance on hand and in bank May 1, 1910, $613.24.