* * * * *
_“Millionaire Tramp” Discards His Overalls._—His old slouch hat, coarse
brogans, bandanna handkerchief, and blue-jean overalls have been laid
aside, and the “millionaire tramp,” or “man without a dime,” as he
has become known to the newspapers of the country, has finished a two
years’ traveling study of the life of the homeless and penniless men
in fifty cities in the United States. The “millionaire tramp” is Edwin
A. Brown, and is a cousin of W. C. Brown, president of the New York
Central lines, with whom he was once in the ranch business in Colorado.
Mr. Brown will put into book form the result of his country-wide
investigation, in the hope that municipalities will awaken to the
“crying needs of shelter homes for the friendless and penniless.” The
things he has seen during the last two years have convinced him that
all of the cities which he visited, and scores of others, should have
municipal lodging houses, like the one in New York City. He would have
such institutions furnish clean beds, adequate ventilation, satisfying
meals, shower baths, and medical inspection, so that the sick could be
separated from the well. The municipal lodging house in New York City
furnishes these things and is capable of sheltering a thousand men and
fifty women.
A bitterly cold night, a thinly clad boy, a request for the price of
a bed—it was this that prompted Mr. Brown to his two years’ life as
a student hobo. He found that in his own city the prison was being
used for a lodging house. In the course of his travels he “found
men sleeping in brick ovens, under platforms, in freight cars and
roundhouses and many of them carried the banner—that is, they walked
the street all night.
“The hospitals were overcrowded for the reason that there was no
municipal lodging house. The same condition exists in Chicago today.
Charitable hospitals are overcrowded with men because they have been
made sick on account of exposure and the lack of nourishing food. The
best way to keep a man from getting sick—I mean the poor unfortunate
without a home—is to house and feed him properly. New York has solved
this problem with its beautiful municipal emergency home, six stories
in height and a model in every respect.”
Both Mr. Brown and his wife will soon go to Europe to investigate
conditions of the homeless there.
* * * * *
_Advocates Drastic Treatment of Criminal Immigrants._—Drastic measures
to suppress crime among the foreign population of New York City, and to
prevent the further immigration into this country of foreign criminals,
are advocated by Judge Lewis L. Fawcett, of the County Court, Brooklyn,
who recently sentenced two Italian kidnappers to long terms in prison,
and who has in the last four years received at least thirty threatening
letters from the friends of accused persons.
The government, said Judge Fawcett in a recent newspaper interview,
should demand that every foreigner who lands here produce a certificate
of good character from the chief of police of the district from which
he comes. Immigrants without such certificate should immediately be
deported. If the newcomer has served time for some trivial offense,
the fact should be stated on the certificate, and the period of
residence in this country required before the immigrant can take
out naturalization papers should be lengthened in proportion to
the seriousness of this previous offense. When a foreign criminal
is convicted here and sentenced, said Judge Fawcett, the judge who
administers his punishment should have by law the right to deport him,
at his own discretion, when he has served his term.
* * * * *
_Chicago Wants a Hospital for Inebriates._—A hospital or reformatory
for inebriates is likely to be established in Chicago soon. The scheme
contemplates the turning over of the old John Worthy School, adjoining
the house of correction, to the police authorities, and the sending of
the boys who are there to St. Charles or another suitable institution
downstate.
“The thing both Inspector Clancy and I have in mind,” said Chief of
Police Steward, “is a sort of a poor man’s sanitarium. At the present
time Chicago, the second largest city in the country, has not a single
institution to which it can send its destitute ’drunks’ for treatment.
The hospitals won’t receive them and the jails are not the proper place
for them. We want a place where habitual drunkards can be detained and
kept under the care of nurses and physicians. They will be serving a
sentence, but all the time they are incarcerated they will be receiving
treatment which will send them out into the streets again physically
fit to fight their temptations.”
* * * * *
_Sing Sing (N. Y.) Prison Called a Death Trap._—The State Commission
of Prisons says a long sentence to Sing Sing is often a sentence to
slow death because of the prevalence of tuberculosis. Many prisoners
are discharged incapacitated to earn a living and frequently on leaving
Sing Sing spread tuberculosis. The cell capacity there is 1,200, but
the average number of prisoners during the year was 1,850. About 500
are housed in one of the chapels and in the loft of the work shops.
“The cells are deficient in ventilation and light and in them the
prisoners have to spend fourteen out of the twenty-four hours. The
drainage is necessarily insufficient and the entire structure is worn
out. The determination to abandon it is fully justified.”
* * * * *
_Progress of Probation in New York State._—Forty new salaried positions
of probation officer were created or filled in New York State during
1910. This is the largest increase in the number of paid probation
officers ever made in that state in a single year. It brought the
number of paid positions in existence on December 31, 1910, up to
105. Most of the newly established officers were in New York city,
and were the result of legislation secured by the Page Commission.
Three of these positions were chief probation officerships, one in
each of the two boards of city magistrates, and one in the court of
special sessions, which includes the children’s courts. The number
of children’s courts in greater New York was increased by the Page
Commission law from two to four, and the new law required that each of
these courts should have the services of paid probation officers. This
is an innovation in New York City, since the work among children in
these courts has previously been carried on by volunteers and private
societies. Another improvement effected by the Page Commission was the
removal of all policemen serving as probation officers in the lower
courts. Twenty-eight such officers were removed on August 30th, and
the law provides that hereafter no members of the police force can be
used in probation work. This is a fitting climax to the long series of
adverse criticisms which have been made by numerous bodies, including
two state probation commissions, of the use of policemen for probation
duties.
Several states now have laws forbidding police officers from serving
as probation officers. Massachusetts has a law to the effect that
active members of the police force can not act as probation officers,
and a bill recently introduced in the Legislature of that state at the
instance of the state probation commission seeks to make sheriffs,
clerks of the court, bail commissioners and other similar officials
ineligible for probation work.
* * * * *
_Judge Wants Better Probation Officers and More Work for
Them._—Approval by the Commission on Probation of all probation
officers appointed by the courts, and the extension of the probation
system to obviate imprisonment for non-payment of fine, were two
changes urged recently in an address by Judge Charles A. DeCourcy,
of Lawrence, Mass. “The keystone of the probation system,” said
Judge DeCourcy, “is the personality of the probation officers. As
the Departmental Committee under the English probation law recently
expressed it, ‘the probation officer must be a picked man or woman
endowed not only with intelligence and zeal, but in a high degree with
sympathy and tact and firmness.’ When a properly qualified and earnest
probation officer is attached to every court in Massachusetts, the
probation problem will be solved.
“Unfortunately, we have yet some probation officers who fail to
come up to the standard, men who never interest themselves in their
probationers outside of the courtroom, or take any concern as to their
idleness, their companionship or habits, and do nothing to secure the
confidence of the probationer or to aid him in restoring himself to
manhood and good citizenship. The evils of continuing improper officers
are so great that in my opinion it should be rendered impossible by
requiring the approval by the Commission on Probation of all probation
officers appointed by the court.
“Probation ought to be extended also, to obviate the imprisonment for
non-payment of fines, giving the person fined an opportunity to earn
and pay the fine while remaining at home and supporting his family.
“Another element new to Massachusetts will require consideration,
namely, the proposed payment to the prisoners as a means of aiding in
the support of their families during imprisonment and providing them
with some means to start in life when they return to freedom. I should
like to see an able commission appointed to consider and report on this
whole broad question of prisons, so that in this, as in other respects,
Massachusetts might lead the way with plans for an ideal system which
the future will develop.”
* * * * *
_Some Side-Lights on New Jersey Prisoners._—Next to the United States,
Italy is the birthplace of more prisoners at present confined in the
New Jersey State Prison, at Trenton, than any other country. Out of
1,393 prisoners remaining in the institution on October 31, 1910, 910
were born in the United States, 205 in Italy, 56 in Germany, 39 in
Hungary, 36 in Russia, Poland, 30 in Russia, and 29 in Austria. Nearly
half of the total were, when received by the institution, between the
ages of twenty and thirty years. Six hundred and twenty-five were of
this age, 366 were between thirty and forty, and 167 were between forty
and fifty. One hundred and twenty-six were between fifteen and twenty.
Two hundred and six can neither read nor write.
During the year ended October 31, 1910, 516 persons were received
by the institution, and 110 were paroled. During the five years of
the operation of the parole law, 1,266 prisoners have been paroled.
Seventy-two of these have been again convicted and committed to this
prison, 71 have had their paroles revoked, and 24 have been returned
for violation of parole.
Stereoptican lectures on historical and civic subjects have been
given on legal holidays. The report of the prison board states that
although 300 men have been gathered together in a darkened room on such
occasions, there has not been a single instance of misconduct during
the lectures.
* * * * *
_Study of Tuberculosis in Prisons._—A partial investigation is being
made by the Central Howard Association of Chicago in regard to the
prevalence of tuberculosis in prisons. In an inquiry sent out the
question was asked: “How many inmates are affected, _in any degree_,
with tuberculosis?” Seventy-four replies gave a total of 834 cases. One
institution gave sixty as the number affected with tuberculosis, while
the same report stated that an additional 300 had “symptoms” of the
disease. The next highest number given by one institution was 49. Few
admitted to more than ten or twelve, and some stated that no cases were
known. It is believed that many cases of tuberculosis exist which are
not detected by the average prison physician, and also that each state
is reluctant to admit the full proportion of inmates afflicted. In most
cases, probably, the reports gave only the number in the hospital.
Even though many prisoners may have had incipient tuberculosis
before entering prison (wherefore the institution should not be held
responsible) it would be of much public interest to know just how many
are affected in “any degree.” Will somebody suggest a method by which
the actual facts may be secured?