If results are ever obtained in the handling of unfortunates it will be
through right treatment. There must be a thorough investigation before
the stain of prison life sentence is passed. In a great percentage of
the cases for minor offences, rather than a workhouse sentence, these
unfortunates require nothing more than a dismissal with a friendly
word of encouragement from the court. Or, if in the judgment of the
courts they need supervision, they should be turned over to a practical
probation officer who will see to it that it is not necessary to commit
them to imprisonment. A prisoner should never be committed to jail
to serve time. The average jails of this country are a disgrace to
civilization and are cesspools for the breeding of diseases and crime.
Many of the cases that come to the police and criminal courts for
minor offences only require supervision, change of surroundings and a
new home. Institutional treatment should be the last remedy. What we
must do, is to abolish the fixed sentence and de-institutionalize our
institutions, and, finally, these people must be made to feel whether
in an institution or out of one they are working for home-making.
Modern penology must not be sentimental; it should be practical. Then
we must have prevention, which is formation, not reformation; for 95
per cent. of our subjects in the penal institutions and reformatories
of the country have never been correctly formed in their mental and
physical make-up.
Modern penology, in order to aid social progress, must sentence its
unkempt, immoral and diseased citizens to an indefinite term of
sunshine, fresh air and honest work, with such system as will make
of them an asset rather than a liability when returned to society.
Modern penology must be able to say that if this cannot be done, then
sterilization or definite isolation on the farm must be provided.
Modern penology, in addition to all this, must impress upon society the
importance of ideal administration for its wayward subjects; that of
humane, educated and trained employees in all departments of our penal
institutions.
We are attempting at the District of Columbia Farm to lay the
foundation and inaugurate a system that will be practical, a
system where the inmates will not suffer by having too much done
for them, a system where the inmates must be made to feel, whether
in an institution or out of it, that there is work for them to do
individually.
We believe that beneficial results cannot be successfully maintained
in the old-time prisons with high walls, locks and bars; we believe
that walls must come down and the locks and bars go to the scrap pile.
We believe that for every bar of restriction removed, more rays of
sunlight and hope will reach the heart of the convicted man.
With these preliminary thoughts, I will now briefly describe the
District of Columbia Farm, which less than four years ago was a
wilderness in the hills of Virginia, 20 miles south of Washington,
D. C. The farm consists of 1150 acres of land, costing the General
Government $18 per acre.
On this land we have constructed some 30 buildings, consisting of
dormitories, dining rooms, lounging halls, hospital, horse and dairy
barns. These are all one-story buildings, and are built of wood, with a
view of giving ample light and ventilation. The plan for the prisoners
is that of the congregate or dormitory system, having no cells, locks
or bars about the institution. Two hundred prisoners are taken care of
during the night in each dormitory, and as we have 600 male prisoners
this requires three buildings. Cots are arranged side by side in these
dormitories on raised platforms. Sufficient bedding, consisting of
mattress, sheets and pillows, blankets and comforts are given to each
prisoner. All the buildings are steam-heated and electric-lighted and
have ample water, both hot and cold, in each of the buildings, with a
modern and up-to-date sewerage system.
During the evening and after the days’ work is done and on Sundays the
men are taken to a large building known as the Rest Hall and Library,
where they are permitted to talk, play checkers, read the daily
newspapers, which are bought for them by the management, and they have
access to a library of over 4,000 volumes. On summer evenings and on
Sundays the inmates are permitted to take the benches out into the yard
where it is possible to enjoy more freedom and have an abundance of
fresh air.
In one of the buildings referred to there is a shower bath and
arrangements where the inmates make their toilets. In this building 125
men can be taken care of at one time. We have no wash basins, but have
a faucet for each man, which makes it more sanitary, and the men are
also furnished with individual towels and soap.
The fact that prisoners are sent to us for short sentences (the time
now being from 15 days to three years, our average sentence being
35 days) makes it very necessary and important that the sanitary
conditions should be closely looked after, as from 10 per cent. to 15
per cent. of the prisoners sent us, when received, have vermin on their
persons. This however is looked after so closely that though we handle
from five to six thousand people a year we are absolutely free from
vermin in all of the 30 buildings.
In working prisoners we give them, from 15 to 20 men, to an officer.
His part is to direct this number in a humane and intelligent manner,
and to have them understand it is our purpose to be helpful. With such
methods we have very little trouble so far as discipline is concerned.
Work on this 1150 acres of land consists of building roads, constructing
buildings, farming, making brick, crushing stone, building
and repairing wagons, painting and whitewashing the buildings, poultry
raising, dairy, etc.
At the present time we are working 70 head of horses; these are all
cared for by the inmates without an officer with them, and neither the
farm or the buildings are enclosed by as much as a fence. We lose very
few prisoners by escaping, less on an average than two per month. Our
results show we get a fair day’s work from each of our able-bodied
inmates.
In handling prisoners for the past sixteen years, starting with the
old-time methods of having a 30 foot wall, cells, locks and bars, with
stripes for clothing (and a prisoner when reported by an officer for
failure to comply with some order was taken into a room, his clothing
removed and lashed with a cat-o-nine tails by the officer who reported
him) convinces me that the open-air method, with as few restrictions
as possible so far as the inmates are concerned, will give us better
results from the standpoint of discipline and reformation.
We handle the women prisoners from the City of Washington with the same
system of buildings as are provided for the men. The female department
is managed by women and the two institutions are some distance apart.
The average population of the female department is about one hundred.
The women do the laundry work and make the clothes for the population
of the two institutions. In addition, a number of them work on the lawn
and in the garden, and do the painting and other sanitary work about
the buildings. The female department, like the male department, has
neither cell, lock or bar; the buildings are one story with neither
wall or fence around them. We have handled three thousand women in the
past three and a half years and have only lost three by escaping.
We have very little sickness, and this we attribute to our method of
work, sanitation, and to the construction of the buildings which give
open-air treatment at all times with plenty of sunshine. Ninety-five
per cent. of our inmates, both male and female, show decided
improvement on their discharge both in their mental and physical
condition.
The time is coming when the District of Columbia Workhouse will be
self-supporting, if not more. When it is, I believe an appropriation
should be provided whereby the dependent families of the inmates,
whether they be sent to us because of non-support or for other
violation of the statutes, should be paid a sum of money sufficient
to provide in a comfortable manner for their support during the
confinement of the offenders. If such a system were inaugurated, the
financial benefit received by the family would only be a secondary
consideration. The greatest benefit would be the lasting impression
made on the individual while at the institution, developing in him
industrial habits and self-confidence, which would help him to become
a self-supporting citizen, capable of caring for his family after he
is released. This certainly would be true in 60 per cent. of the cases
we have, if there could be brought about a change in the penal code of
the District of Columbia through having the inmates committed on an
indeterminate sentence rather than on a fixed sentence such as is now
being given.
[1] Read by W. H. Whittaker, Superintendent of the (Occoquan) District
of Columbia Workhouse, at National Conference of Charities and
Correction, Memphis, May, 1914.