[Under this heading will appear each month numerous paragraphs of
general interest, relating to the prison field and the treatment of the
delinquent.]
_Prisoners Idle; Insanity Growing._—Hundreds of prisoners idle,
discipline ruined, disease spreading and insanity increasing, are the
results affecting the Ohio penitentiary brought about by a law passed
in 1906, publicly declare prison officials in that state. The startling
situation was graphically described recently by the Cleveland (O.)
_Plain Dealer_, in part as follows:
“Penitentiary officials are facing a critical situation, resulting
from the constantly increasing number of prisoners they are compelled
to confine in the idle house. More discouraging than the existing
conditions is the prospect that, in six months at the outside,
practically all the prisoners will be idle. Conditions cannot improve;
they will become graver and graver unless relief is given during the
present session of the legislature.
“In the meantime, on an average 300 men spend twelve hours each day on
the benches in the idle house. This number is augmented on days when
the weather does not permit working the prisoners about the yard. In
one month, when the last contract expires, another hundred will join
these ranks. In six months at the most, when all the contracts will
have been cleaned up, all save the men employed in the administration
of the big prison, which means about 1,000, will be idling. All the
contracts but one have expired; yet most of the men employed in most
of the old shops are still at work. This comes about only through
sufferance; the companies holding contracts are being allowed to
work up the raw material they had on hand at the expiration of their
contracts. This keeps a few men going, but at best is only putting
further away the problem that must be faced.
“Since Dec. 1, more prisoners have become insane than during any
average eight months before the condition arose. In a little over one
month, eight men have been taken to the prison asylum. When all were
working, there was seldom more than an average of one a month who
became insane, and usually it averaged less. This prison officials
attribute directly to increased idleness. Moreover, discipline is more
or less ruined. The men, sitting day after day, with nothing to do but
to stare at the ceiling and turn over in their minds their misfortunes,
are gradually becoming more and more morose, sullen and ugly. Not a
day passes but that prisoners approach the guards and beg to be set at
work. Guards, their hands tied by the legislature, are powerless to
help. Nothing awaits the prisoner but a refusal.
“The air in the room is necessarily foul from the exhalations of these
400 men. Blazing coal stoves at frequent intervals keep the room at
a temperature which, to one going in from the outside, is nothing
short of sickening. The benches themselves are rather narrow, with
twelve or fourteen-inch backs, which, from all appearances, would
become very hard and uncomfortable in little or no time. The floor is
sprinkled with lime at intervals, but after the men have marched in
in the morning presents a dirty gray appearance—that of a thick coat
of dirt covered over with whitewash, mud from innumerable pairs of
boots tracked into it. Wooden boxes, filled with shavings, do duty as
cuspidors. The men, fortunately, are allowed the consolation of a chew,
and to chew one must, in plain English, spit. Yet the possibilities of
acquiring disease are fearful to contemplate.
“Papers and magazines, with a liberal sprinkling of missionary tracts,
are furnished. Most are necessarily out of date, and all are grimy
with much handling. Those facing the windows read with certain injury
to their eyes; those in the center of the room have not light enough
to read at all, while the few at the rear of the room, who have light
from the rear, can read with comfort. But at least half of these idlers
are foreigners and cannot read at all; these can think. Such are the
physical surroundings in this room, intended to house two-score and at
present containing 300 to 400, with several hundred more to be added in
the next few months.
“These men it is who each day beg to be put to work. They feel that
the hardest drudgery, indoors or out, would be far preferable to such
an existence.
“The cause? A simple one, say those at the head of the big prison,
notably Warden T. H. B. Jones and Capt. C. W. Naas, who had charge of
the contracts. They tell it in three words. The Wertz law. In 1906
the legislature passed this act, which just now is working such havoc
with the penal institution. The law abolishes contract labor, at the
demand of labor organizations that competition with prison made goods
was unfair to labor. It provides that convicts must be employed in
remodeling the institution and in making only such goods as are used
in state institutions. The legislature neglected to provide money for
installing machinery necessary for so doing and also neglected to
compel state institutions to use the prison made product.”
* * * * *
_Unusual Prison Supervision Proposed in Texas._—By a bill now pending
before the legislature of Texas it is proposed to place at the
head of the penal system of the state an officer with the title of
“Supervisor of Prisons,” who shall have had some scientific training
in the subjects of criminology and prison sanitation. His salary is
to be $2,400 a year and his term of service to be two years. The
office is to be an appointive one, made on the recommendation of the
prison commission. Two assistant supervisors may also be appointed, at
salaries of $1,500 each.
It shall be the duty of the supervisor to visit at least once each
year every county jail, city jail, reformatory, juvenile training
school, county and city convict farm and alms house in the state. His
business shall be to enforce the humane and economic management of such
institutions and to aid in securing erection of sanitary buildings for
the accommodation of the prisoners. He shall have power to investigate
the management of all such institutions and the conduct and efficiency
of persons charged with their management. Reports shall be made of
such investigations to the governor and to the local authorities,
together with orders relative to improvements which in his judgment
shall be required. And it shall be the duty of said courts of county
commissioners, city commissioners or boards of aldermen to obey such
order, and provide for the payment of the expenses incurred necessary
to a compliance with said order out of the funds of the county or city
or by issuing county or city warrants for this expense.
The power of summoning witnesses, administering oaths and taking
testimony is conferred upon the supervisor and his deputies to enable
the conducting of such investigations as are provided for in the bill.
It is intended also that the evidence of prisoners or ex-prisoners
shall be taken when necessary to ascertain the facts about the
management or condition of penal institutions.
When the interests of the inmates of any institution demand it the
supervisor may order their removal to other quarters, the expenses
of the transfer to be borne by the city or county. And fines for the
refusal by city or county officers to obey such orders are provided for.
Special provisions are made for the assistance and rehabilitation of
paroled prisoners, data in reference to whom shall be kept on file in
the supervisor’s office. Local probation officers, serving without pay,
shall assist in this work.
* * * * *
_The Jails of Illinois._—The Chicago _Tribune_, commenting on the
recent report of the Illinois board of state charities that “conditions
in most Illinois jails are no better now than in 1870, when they were
abominable,” says that no one will venture to question the accuracy of
the report.
“These and other shameful violations of law,” continues the _Tribune_,
“have been unnoticed and unchecked by successive grand juries and
judges. And what is sadder yet, there has been no popular protest
anywhere against the jail horrors and abominations set out in the
report of the state charities commission. Even in countries where the
odious jail conditions are well understood there is no public opinion
which condemns them. Must we conclude that local self government as
far as jails are concerned is a failure, and that some humane and
intelligent central authority should take the matter in hand and
enforce obedience to the laws?”
That uncivilized portions of humanity still seem to exist when jails
are under consideration is evidenced by a Kansas newspaper editorial on
the Illinois report, part of which we print.
“From the state charities commission of Illinois comes the latest wail
about jails which are not up to Waldorf-Astoria standards. In fact, it
is claimed that the jails are as bad as they were thirty years ago,
when they were not suitable to the whims of any high-class jail bird,
who was accustomed to all the comforts of home and modern conveniences.
“In view of the fact that a number of more or less prominent citizens
of the state seem to be threatened with a sojourn in the prisons of
that state, the plea for better plumbing and lace curtains is in
order. But, as a general proposition, these wails for the downtrodden
prisoners are overworked a good deal. While it is nice to talk about
Reform, and not punishment, being the object of prison sentences, the
facts are that it is hard to obtain the one result without the other.
“If all the suggestions of the prison reformers would be followed out
explicitly, and to their logical conclusion, the jails would soon
become such gilded palaces of sin that most of us would put up there
from choice, and it would be difficult for the hotel keepers to make a
living, or the waiters to get rich. And, when the jails finally were
accepted as the highest standard of luxury, the kicking against them by
the downtrodden prisoners who broke into a feed store in order to get a
comfortable home for the winter, would continue.”
We beg to dissent from the Kansas authority, and still maintain that
reform _as well as_ punishment is the purpose of imprisonment, and that
torture and filth and vice are not conducive to the progress of society.
The St. Louis (Missouri) _Star_, commenting on the Illinois report,
says:
“If such a board made so little impress upon the actualities of prison
management in Illinois in forty years, it is discouraging indeed.
“It is no wonder that such papers as _The Star_ fail to impress upon
the people of Missouri the need for a different penal system in this
state and an entirely different character of prisons.
“For years we have been preaching the doctrine of the reformatory
principle in prison management, of proper industry, of sanitary
prisons, of segregation of prisoners into classes, of plenty of outdoor
work for prisoners, of instruction in trades, of reformatory influences
tending to keep men out of the penitentiary after they have been
released, and of proper local jails and places of detention.
“Yet the same dark ages this commission asserts to rule in Illinois
hold sway in Missouri, with little promise of abdication. Governor
Hadley has recommended one reform, the establishment of an intermediate
prison for first offenders, which should by all means be done, though
this is but one of the many reforms necessary to take us even within
sight of the outer confines of the dark ages.
“Yet, discouraging as is the progress made, sociologists and
penologists will not cease their campaign of education on this subject
of prison reform and the treatment of criminals as individuals and not
as a class. The light will be seen in time.”
* * * * *
“_Men With a Past._”—Under this title an editorial in the New York
_World_ continues:
“A Brooklyn lawyer, suspended from practice, who disappeared seven
years ago and was thought to have committed suicide, reappears as the
leader of the minority in the Michigan Senate. The Chief of Police at
Danville, Va., is recognized after many years as an escaped convict
under sentence in Georgia.
“During the recent political campaign a candidate for governor in a
western state was identified as one who in youth had participated in a
crime of violence on the Texas border. The governor-elect of a southern
state proves in infancy to have been a foundling.
“It is pleasing to note that in every one of these cases identity was
admitted and that the honorable record of after-life was generally
accepted as atoning for early misdeeds or obscure origin. Exposure,
therefore, while painful in some instances, has not operated to
discourage those who in many other places are seeking honestly and
industriously to overcome the disadvantages of a bad start.
“Experiences such as these give heart to optimists, furnish
prison-reformers with ever-increasing zeal and prove the genuineness
of a democracy which does not dwell unduly upon the past of anybody or
anything.”
* * * * *
_Tramps, Stop Tramping!_—The following article is making the rounds of
the local newspapers in Pennsylvania, evidently “accelerated” by the
tramp nuisance:
“The damage done by tramps to the railroad property every year is
estimated at $25,000,000. The damage to private property which the
tramps reach by railroad is probably far greater. If it were not for
‘ride stealing’—this is the assertion of men who have spent years
studying the vagrancy problem—the ‘hobo’ could be practically put
out of business. Free transportation is an absolute necessity of the
profession.
“The ‘hobo’ may seem highly amusing to the readers of comic papers;
and he is a valuable source of income to joke-smiths and the artists
who draw fantastic pictures of the ‘Weary Willie’ begging a piece of
pie. But he is no joke to railroad men. For he is continually breaking
into cars, assaulting employes, or tampering with equipment in a way to
endanger the lives of passengers.
“The Lehigh Valley has been one of the most active among railroads
attempting to end the abuse, but the leniency of local magistrates has
operated in the tramps’ favor. To put a tramp in jail is expensive
for a small community; the authorities usually content themselves by
telling the offenders to ‘move on.’ Thus he is merely dumped upon some
other community. The practice works as an endless chain—each town
passing on its tramps and in turn receiving the tramps that have been
passed on by other towns.
“Some charity organizations have interested themselves in the problem,
and seek to co-operate with the railroads in bringing trespassers to
justice. Compulsory labor of some kind it is thought would be the most
powerful deterrent, but that remedy meets the opposition of the labor
unions; they say it would be putting ‘convict labor’ into competition
with honest workingmen. A helpful move would be for the state to
relieve local governments from the expense of punishing offenders, as
the cost of keeping a tramp supplies the most powerful motive for the
magistrate to let him go.”
In this connection, the annual report of the New York State Board of
Charities is significant. It renews its recommendation, made to the
legislature of 1910, for the establishment of a farm colony for tramps
and vagrants. It points out that these classes are now kept practically
in idleness in the penitentiaries, jails and workhouses at an annual
cost of $2,000,000, whereas, following the example of a number of the
countries in Europe, they could be humanely maintained and cared for in
farm colonies, which could be made self-supporting through their labor.
* * * * *
_Public Defenders Wanted in Cleveland._—The Legal Aid Society of
Cleveland, Ohio, is reviving a plan for the appointment of assistants
to the county prosecutor, whose work shall be the defense in common
pleas court of persons unable to employ counsel. Under the present
system the judges of the common pleas court appoint counsel for
impecunious defendants in criminal cases. The ground that better talent
will be thus. The appointment of special public defenders is urged on
the ground that better talent will be thus secured, and the interests
of accused persons better safeguarded.
A plan for the appointment of such public defenders for impecunious
persons tried in the police courts was recently rejected in Cleveland.
The ground taken was that the so-called prosecutor is theoretically
charged not with prosecuting the accused, but with bringing out all
the facts in his case, both those favorable and unfavorable. The
“prosecutor” was, therefore, held to be both prosecutor and defender.
_A “Going Concern.”_—According to the Detroit (Mich.) _Journal_,
the city of Detroit has derived $399,000 profit from the House of
Correction in the last twelve years. The newspaper account reads as
follows:
Net Book Paid City
Year Profits in Cash
1900 $ 42,759 $ 60,000
1901 36,478 48,000
1902 26,179 26,000
1903 32,016 22,000
1904 25,533 28,000
1905 27,587 25,000
1906 42,905 25,000
1907 39,182 35,000
1908 32,663 35,000
1909 38,577 30,000
1910 24,355 40,000
1911 25,000
—————— ——————
Totals $ 368,234 $ 399,000
In 12 years the Detroit House of Correction has turned $399,000 into
the coffers of the city treasurer. This amount represents the profits
from the industrial work which the prisoners turn out.
Brooms, chairs and other articles are manufactured in the workhouse,
most of the work being done by prisoners who are sentenced to serve
from ten days to six months in the “works” for minor offences.
This splendid showing of profits is due largely to the excellent
business management of the house of correction.
It will be noticed that the book profits shown are often larger than
the amounts turned into the city treasurer, but this is due to the fact
that minor items of maintenance are charged against the book profits
from one end of the year to the other. The fiscal year at the house of
correction ends on Dec. 1, therefore the net book profits shown in the
table above must be checked against the amounts paid to the city the
year following.
“The reason that the house of correction profits are not so large in
the years following 1900 is due to the fact that beginning with 1901 we
started a system of paying part of the earnings to the prisoners.” said
Supt. John L. McDonnell.
“This week we turn over $20,000 to the city from the fiscal year ending
Dec. 31, 1910. Last July, the poor commission needing funds, we were
asked to turn over $5,000 from the probable profits of 1910. We did so,
and that sum added to the $20,000 to be paid over this week constitutes
the $25,000 profit to the city for 1910.”
An important addition to the newspaper statement is the fact that the
products of the House of Correction are disposed of in the open market
by the Superintendent.
* * * * *
_The Problem of the Home for Discharged Prisoners._—The following
statement is from the New Britain (Conn.) _Record_ of February 21st:
34 West 28th Street, New York City.
February 20th, 1911.
To the Editor of “_The Daily Record_,”
New Britain, Conn.
Dear Sir—In the column entitled “Town Talk,” in the New Britain
_Record_, published February 17th, there is an editorial which
contrasts my opinion on the treatment of the one-time prisoner with
that of Warden Garvin, of the Connecticut state prison. I should be
glad if you will permit me the opportunity of answering this criticism
in your columns. Warden Garvin is a friend of mine and has welcomed me
several times to his prison. I have much respect for him as a prison
warden and I know that he most thoroughly endorses my work. Of course
it is quite possible for the best of friends to agree to differ, but I
am inclined to think that the statement from Warden Garvin, which was
admittedly made several years ago, might possibly be altered now that
he knows more upon this question.
It must be remembered that the prison warden speaks from within the
walls and that even the most capable and most experienced of them have
not been out into the world with these men, watching their careers or
fighting their battles. If I were but a beginner in this work with a
couple of years’ experience, I might feel nervous in crossing swords in
an argument with so well known a prison man, but it must be remembered
that I have had sixteen years’ experience and that in that time I
have undertaken the future of many thousands of men. I speak not from
theory, but from practical fact.
Now, it is stated that there are those whose opinions differ with mine
in that they think homes for the discharged prisoner unadvisable. I
presume their theory is that when the prisoner comes from prison he
should not be associated with other one-time prisoners. But what is the
alternative? If these men come from prison with the pittance allowed by
the prison, where are they to go? Five dollars does not last long. To
eke it out as far as they can, they go to board in the poorest lodging
house of the city. That brings them down into the saloon neighborhood
and throws them at once into the most undesirable classes. They are
once more in the element where they will meet thieves, drunkards and
outcasts; not like my Hope Hall boys, anxious to reform, but with those
still living crooked lives. They virtually go back to associate with
the old companions, but old companions who have not started on the
right way. This argument would, I suppose, be met with the statement
that that is not the idea of those who advise against homes, but that
their idea is that a man leaving state prison should go straight to a
position, go to board in a respectable place, and at once better his
condition. This would be admirable if it could be carried out, but
I have found that people are slow to throw open their doors to the
one-time prisoner. When we have taken men to our homes, have tested
them, can speak from personal acquaintance of their capacity and their
sincerity, our friends are much more ready to trust them and give them
a position than if we said: “There’s a man in the prison cell today.
We do not know anything about him, but we would like you to put him in
your factory tomorrow.”
Again Warden Garvin speaks for Connecticut. He has a very different
population to deal with in your small state prison from the great
population crowded in many of our all too unsanitary prisons of New
York, New Jersey, etc. I have had scores of men come to me from state
prison whose long prison terms had absolutely incapacitated them for
work. Shattered nervously and physically, they have crept out into the
world afraid to face the unfriendly crowd. I have taken men from prison
who were blind with blindness that had come to them within those dread
shadows. I have taken men discharged from the prison hospital so weak
that months of nursing has been necessary to put them into condition
for work. I have taken men who have been twenty, thirty, and even
forty-eight years within the walls.
After all, facts speak louder than theories, and we have the facts
to show. It will be a great joy to me if some of your readers feel
interested enough in this work to help me by offering positions for
my boys. Hope Hall is not a permanent residence but merely a stepping
stone to the place in life where men can lose their identity and take
up their places as humble units in the great busy working world.
Hoping that I have not imposed upon your space and patience, believe me,
Very truly yours for our country’s
prisoners,