From a state convict at Montgomery, Alabama, comes a criticism of that
state’s treatment of the criminal, and a series of recommendations for
improving that treatment, which read like an extract from a report of
a state board of charities. The author of the article is Albert
Driscoll, who is serving a four years’ sentence for safe-blowing. The
article was addressed to the members of the legislature and was
printed in a Montgomery newspaper. Driscoll recommends the
indeterminate sentence, a prisoners’ aid society, and suppression of
the names of those placed on parole. Parts of his article follow:
“There have been several sporadic attempts to have an improved
parole system inaugurated in this state, but somehow or other
they have never materialized in any legislation. If there is an
individual or an association in Alabama today who has the moral
welfare of the two thousand odd convicts really at heart and
wishes to benefit them, now is the time for them to get busy
during the present session of the legislature.
“The crying need of some legislation on this subject is
self-apparent. This State as represented by its prison system is
not abreast of the spirit of the day. The old punitive method of
dealing with crime as against the reformative system is still in
operation. No attention is paid to the old axiom of an ounce of
prevention being better than a pound of cure, as regards those
unfortunates who by environment, hereditary tendencies or pure
cussedness for the criminal class. It is a large and constantly
growing class and from a moral as well as a economic viewpoint it
demands attention.
“The old idea of the State revenging itself on the malefactor
still obtains and beyond securing as much revenue as possible
from the convict during his incarceration, no attention is paid
to his moral betterment except for the weekly sermon conducted by
the prison chaplains. The man in stripes is regarded as a
commercial asset solely. Several commutations from the capital
penalty to life imprisonment have been secured in years past by
being based on the argument that a life convict would be worth so
many more thousand dollars than a dead one. Ye shades of Shylock!
Has this rich State no other source of revenue than its convicts?
“When the pound of flesh has been exacted, he is abruptly turned
loose to his own devices without a cent nor any equipment to help
him to earn an honest livelihood. In every casual glance he will
read suspicion and in his search for friends and sympathy he will
be more than apt to search out other discharged convicts in
former congenial haunts and from that it is but a short step to a
life of habitual crime.
“Would it not be better to sentence every offender under an
indeterminate sentence law, so that when the experts who have him
in charge are convinced that he is thoroughly reformed, that on
their recommendation and with the pardon board’s approval, he
could be paroled and turned over to a prisoners’ aid society?
This society should be a branch of the state convict department
and it should retain control of paroled prisoners and sustain
them until they could be placed at work. The great desideratum
should be secrecy and the names of the paroled men should never
be made public nor anyone made acquainted with their prison
record except the direct head of any firm that might give them
employment. Convicts are human and sensitive and they should be
given a fair chance with a clean slate and not be handicapped at
the start with a lot of notoriety. Give a man a bad name and he
will very likely be forced to live up to it, except he has a
strong character, and the class we are considering is not noted
for strength of character, or they would be in other ranks of
life. To the contrary, those who have slipped and fallen are
entitled to special assistance and every manly man should feel in
his heart a desire to help the under dog and to give him a chance
to regain his manhood and self-respect.
“I do not ask you to receive a paroled convict as your personal
friend, nor to put him up at your club, but I do ask you to aid
the enactment of such legislation as will give him a fair chance
in life. It will cost you nothing although the fees of the
sheriffs and jailers may be reduced. We need an indeterminate
sentence law, a parole system based on merit, a trade school for
youthful offenders, and a state aid and employment bureau for
paroled convicts. The whole convict department should be taken
out of politics and higher salaries would attract a better class
of men as officers.
“Corporal punishment is a relic of the middle ages and in
substituting a better and more humane system of maintaining
discipline the morale of the wardens will be elevated. The
writer, who has served seven years as a state convict, knows by
personal experience and observation that this method of
punishment is degratory to the administrator as well as to the
recipient.
“My heartfelt desire and my object in writing this article is the
hope that it may inspire somebody to befriend the prisoners. We
can’t maintain a lobby at the capitol. The idea of a delegation
in stripes soliciting votes is ludicrous. I do hope, however,
that some broad-minded member of the legislature will advocate
our cause.”