Project Gutenberg's The Delinquent (Vol. IV, No. 4), April, 1914, by Various

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Title: The Delinquent (Vol. IV, No. 4), April, 1914

Author: Various

Release Date: November 11, 2018 [EBook #58267]

Language: English

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Transcriber’s Notes:

Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).

Additional Transcriber’s Notes are at the end.

       *       *       *       *       *

VOLUME IV, No. 4. APRIL, 1914




THE DELINQUENT


  (FORMERLY THE REVIEW)

  A MONTHLY PERIODICAL, PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL PRISONERS’ AID
  ASSOCIATION AT 135 EAST 15th STREET, NEW YORK CITY.

  THIS COPY TEN CENTS. ONE DOLLAR A YEAR

  T. F. Garver, President.
  Wm. M. R. French, Vice-President.
  O. F. Lewis, Secretary, Treasurer and Editor The Delinquent.
  Edward Fielding, Chairman Ex. Committee.
  F. Emory Lyon, Member Ex. Committee.
  W. G. McLaren, Member Ex. Committee.
  A. H. Votaw, Member Ex. Committee.
  E. A. Fredenhagen, Member Ex. Committee.
  Joseph P. Byers, Member Ex. Committee.
  R. B. McCord, Member Ex. Committee.

  Entered as second-class mail matter at New York.




WHAT IS A CRIMINAL?


BY A MAN IN PRISON

[The American Magazine recently offered prizes for the best replies.
Here is one of the winning answers.]

What is a criminal? To-night I pace the narrow confines of my
steel-barred cell and ask myself for the hundredth time--What is a
criminal? Is he, as Lombroso claims, a moral degenerate? Is he the
mental imbecile that metaphysicians in learned verbiage assert? Is
he the hardened, desperate malefactor, the sinking, murderous beast
that penologists would have us believe? Is he the victim of adverse
circumstances, unsavory environment, and changing social conditions? Or
does he wage war on organized society for adventure’s sake? Why is he a
criminal?

Garbed in the vestment of dishonor and disgrace, I myself am what
the world terms a criminal. Should I not know the meaning of the
appellation far better than the casual observer? For many years my
life has been the life of an habitue of the underworld. Criminals, so
called, have been my associates and my friends. I have known them in
the moments of their success, I have known them in the hours of their
failure. Failure that spells oblivion, the oblivion of cold gray walls
and heart-breaking, monotonous, man-killing routine. I have seen how
recklessly they can live, and I have also seen how gamely they can die.
I have known them intimately, and well, and never have I been able to
discover any difference between them and their more fortunate brethren.
They entertain in their hearts the same ideas, the same hopes, and the
same ambitions as do average men.

Those who commit crime as a matter of choice are few indeed. Many
follow it as a means of livelihood because it is the only vocation open
to them; and they must be men of stamina, courage, and brains, if they
would survive. Those who match their wits against the vast resources
of the Powers Who Rule must be clever rogues indeed. They are, in
short, just such men as those who attain success in other walks of
life--no different. The same ability to think and plan, the same nerve
and determination, the same unswerving loyalty, the same persistent
application that diverted into legitimate channels would have won for
them recognition in any sphere of endeavor. These are the men who have
chosen crime as a vocation, because their talent and training equipped
them for that career, just as you may have chosen the law or the field
of high finance for similar reasons. And these men in some degree
succeed as law breakers, but even they must pay the cost of their
success. And the toll is not light, my friend.

There are others, men who were born a hundred years too late. Men who
live as their kind has always lived--by the strength of their own right
arms. To them might is right, and they know no other code. They, too,
are criminals, are they not? These are the men who have never learned
to turn the other cheek. These are the men who strike back. Society
tramples them under its feet, and they arise from the dust with grim
murder in their hearts. They cannot forget; they cannot forgive; and so
they fight to the bitter end with the blind courage of their breed.

Some, the very machinery of the courts has converted into criminals.
I see them every day in the chrysalis stage. They commit some minor
infraction of the law, some petty offense, and for that they go to
jail. In jail they receive scant consideration and little courtesy from
either their fellow prisoners or from the police. They are neither fish
nor fowl. They note the fact that the “good thief” is respected and
feared by one, and extended the hand of good fellowship by the other.
Straightway they determine to become criminals--and some few succeed.
Many more fill our prisons.

Others are accidentally criminals. Under the influence of liquor,
drugs, sudden passion, and sometimes actual hunger, they commit crimes.
They are not really criminals, however; they are “accidents.” Sometimes
serious accidents no doubt, but still accidents. Surely you would not
call them criminals!

You ask what is a criminal? In the last analysis the question is
unanswerable. You could as readily ask, “What is a man?” and the
definition would be as undefinable as this. What is a criminal? Out of
the depths of my experience I would say that a criminal is a thousand
changing moods, a thousand inherited tendencies, a thousand mistakes,
a thousand injustices, wedded into a thousand different personalities;
and from the furnace of the melting pot you could perhaps find the
answer. What is a criminal?--A MAN IN PRISON.




THE PRINCIPE PRISON IN CUBA.


[From the Galveston News we take the following interesting account of
General Castillo’s main prison.]

Cuba boasts that Principe Prison, its national penitentiary, is one of
the model prisons of the world. Officials of foreign governments who
have made lifelong studies of prison conditions have declared it to
be as near a model prison as one can be made. It is ten years old and
within that time only one prisoner has ever escaped, and he, after a
few days’ liberty, voluntarily gave himself up and asked to be returned
to his section. Within it have been confined desperate criminals of
world-wide reputation, but they have never succeeded in getting by
prison vigilance.

Principe Prison, or Castillo de Principe, Castle or Fort of the Prince,
is one of the historic points of Havana, and its history is closely
interwoven with that of the city. It was built in 1774 and completed
in 1794, and was then considered one of the strongest fortresses on
the Western Hemisphere. There is a legend that it was built chiefly by
French and Spanish engineers, who upon its completion were put to death
lest they might divulge some of the secret tunnels and defenses.

It is situated on Principe Hill, about two miles west of the national
palace, and overlooks the entire city. It has five bastions and is
surrounded by a moat fifty feet wide, twenty feet deep and loopholed
for rifle fire upon both sides. There is an ancient drawbridge at the
main entrance, but it has been out of use many years. The scarp walls
are about forty feet above the moat and are crowned with medieval
sentry boxes and lookout stations. There are many secret passages
leading from Principe to various other fortifications, but these were
hermetically sealed during the provisional administration of General
Leonard Wood. The principal one extends to Morro and Cabanas castles
across the bay, a distance of two and one-half miles. The governor of
the prison is General Demetrio del Castillo, and Lieutenant Colonel
Tomas Garzon is assistant.

Cuba is thoroughly modern in her treatment of prisoners. The terrible
“third degree” is an unknown quantity. There is no whipping post nor
“chamber of horrors” at Principe. Solitary confinement in a well
ventilated cell, equipped with toilet and shower bath and a wall berth
is the usual punishment. The prisoners are not only taught industrial
trades, but are given the elementary branches of schooling. Even some
study music, painting and sculpturing. The government employs twenty
instructors, most of them being graduates, to teach the 400 “pupils.”
There is a prison library, an orchestra and a brass band. The band
is the pride of the prisoners and is composed of forty musicians and
taught by a professional teacher. Several “lifers” are members, who
took up the study of music after they were sentenced, and are now what
might be considered tip-top musicians.

Of the 1,380 prisoners, 36 are politicians who took part in the
Estonez negro uprising in 1912. There are twenty-six “lifers” sent up
for assassination and highway robbery. The majority are robbers and
thieves, with a scattering of murderers. The race percentages are:
White 64, black 37 and mulatto 17 per cent.

The prison guard consists of eighty-two men and a small clerical force
in charge of the office. The prisoners are not put in stripes, but
instead wear a cool uniform of white duck, which is changed twice
a week. When working they wear a brand of overalls made from palm
thatches.

The big court yard, which covers more than an acre, has a flower
garden, neatly trimmed and laid off in beautiful squares and walks and
dotted with shrubbery and royal palms. The proceeds from the sale of
flowers go to a prison fund. Prisoners who can not do manual labor
make hammocks and other grass products. These they are allowed to sell
and the proceeds go to their families. If single, a fund is kept by the
warden against their release. Six hours is a day’s work.

During the evening the band gives a concert in the court yard, and all
prisoners are allowed to attend, notwithstanding the facts that the
music can be heard perfectly from the casemates.

Workmen in the shops are allowed 25 cents plata per day, while those
outside receive 35 cents. This is also either sent to their families or
kept in the release fund. They receive no pay for government work.

The men in the clothing and shoe shops are worked on contract goods
which are sold to Havana mercantile establishments, and they also
make clothing for the prisoners. Shoes run in price from $1.10 to $5
per pair. Were it not for the heavy import on leather these prices
could be nearly cut in half. The higher grade of shoes sell in the
retail market for $6 and $7. Clothing is made from 50c. to $15 a
suit. Beautiful white duck and linen and other tropical garments are
turned out that look about as well as suits made by many first-class
tailoring establishments. There has been some trouble with the labor
unions, who complain against competing with “convict labor,” but these
complaints have never assumed serious proportions. Ordinarily the
casemates are used for workrooms, but the shoe and clothing factories
are ramparts “hollowed” out and remodeled. An effort has been made to
work the Principe prisoners in road building, but for some reason or
other Congress has never allowed it. General Castillo built a sample
road near the prison and invited members of congress to test it, but
they continue to refuse to allow the government to be saved thousands
of dollars annually by employing the convicts upon the public roads.
Another feature that meant an annual saving of thousands was a proposed
printing establishment, where the government printing could be done.
This scheme progressed finely for awhile, and floor space was made by
changing several casemates into a large hall and machinery ordered, but
at the last moment the newspapers and printing establishments began to
hammer the proposition and the government abandoned it.

“But how would you get prisoners competent to do the work?” was asked
Colonel Garzon.

“Well,” he replied, “we would be compelled to hire experts at first
and keep an eye for printers in other prisons, and also inform the
police to be extra vigilant. It wouldn’t be long before we would have a
competent force.”

The sanitary conditions of Principe are perfect or as nearly perfect as
a medical staff of fifteen physicians can make them. The floors, walls
and roofs of the entire prison are of Cuban stone and are “sluiced”
twice a day. The “dormitories” are large, airy casemates and both ends
are covered by steel bars which make a window fifteen feet square. A
continuous sea breeze blows through them. The berths or bunks extend in
one tier on each side of the casemate and are made to fold up against
the wall. The “bed clothes” consist of two duck sheets and a blanket
for cool weather, which are changed twice a week. A row of shower baths
completes the furniture and the inmates are required to take at least
two baths a day.

There are three hospitals--the tuberculosis, contagious diseases and
the “public” ward. They are upon the roof of the south bastion and face
the sea. Their sanitation, according to the physicians, can not be
improved upon. The “lungers” sleep practically out of doors, or rather
with just enough overhead to protect them from the heavy tropical dews.
So healthy and sanitary is the prison that very few cases of sickness
occur. The majority of the inmates of the hospitals are those sick,
principally with consumption, when they arrive.

There has never been an insurrection or mutiny in Principe. In fact,
scores of prisoners when released at the end of their terms have asked
Colonel Garzon to save their “cup and pan,” and invariably they return
to use them. They really fare better “inside” than “outside.” The
average Cuban of the criminal type has but few necessities of life, and
these of the barest.

“How do you manage to keep the prisoners so orderly and apparently
well satisfied?” was asked General Castillo.

“We try to make them contented,” he replied. “We have a band that gives
concerts in the court yard. We let them study, work them, feed them
well, keep them sanitary, study each one personally and let them know
they must obey the regulations. Each man knows he will get fair and
impartial treatment. If one gets into trouble (and fist fighting is
the only trouble we have), we simply put him in solitary confinement.
There is nothing that hurts a Cuban prisoner as badly as to keep him
from talking and away from his associates, and besides, those in
solitary confinement are not allowed tobacco. We never prevent them
from talking with one another, and besides, each man gets two months
off of each year for good behavior. We hope to put the prison upon a
self-supporting basis during the present administration.”

In 1905, Juan Jose Garcia, serving a ten-year sentence for highway
robbery and holding a rich farmer for ransom, escaped. He, with a
squad of prisoners, was working outside the walls, and during a severe
rainstorm, he made a successful dash for liberty. He had four years
to serve. His escape was reported to the warden and the usual reward
offered for his arrest.

Some days later General Castillo was going into Havana by automobile,
when a man stepped into the road in front of the machine and held up
his hand for it to stop. “What do you want?” inquired the general. “I
am Juan Jose Garcia. I ran away from the prison last week, but want to
return. I have been dogged and chased by the officers and am worn out
and starving.”

“It serves you right,” said General Castillo. “You have been a very,
very bad prisoner, and moreover, I can’t keep such men as you in my
prison. You ruin discipline and break the rules.”

“But,” Garcia pleaded, “if you will just give me one more trial I’ll
promise never to run away again.”

“I am very busy to-day, but go up to the prison and if Colonel Garzon
will take you back I suppose it will be all right.”

That occurrence is one of General Castillo’s pet anecdotes and he tells
it with much enthusiasm and never fails to impress one that it is
the only case on record in Cuba that an escaped convict begged to be
readmitted to jail.

“General Castillo,” “gobernador del presido de la republica de Cuba,”
is a noted soldier of the Cuban war of independence, and one of the
island’s foremost men of affairs. He was educated in the United States
and later graduated with high honors from the Royal French School of
Engineers and he is what might be termed thoroughly “Americanized”
from a modern business point of view. He has made a special study of
foreign prisoners and is perhaps as thoroughly conversant with prison
conditions as any official in the world.

He arose to the rank of general, commanding a division during the war
of independence and took part as such in the Santiago campaign. After
the surrender he was selected by General Brook as the civil governor of
Santiago. He was appointed to his present position by Governor Magoon.
His son, Demetrio, Jr., is a graduate of the United States Military
Academy.

Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Garzon is also a veteran in the war of
independence and commanded a regiment of regular troops. He keeps in
close touch with prison affairs and makes a personal study of each
convict. He goes through the prison at all hours unarmed, and some two
years ago disarmed a coterie of prisoners who were planning trouble by
walking into the casemate where they were confined and ordering them
to turn over their crude weapons. That was the first and only time
anything that savored of an insurrection has ever occurred.




THE PRISON OF THE FUTURE.


BY WILLIAM H. VENN, DETROIT, MICH.

[Detroit Journal, March 2nd, 1914.]

The prisons of the future will be vastly smaller than the larger ones
of the present time. Not alone because of the fact that better results
can be achieved by the penologist who is at the head of the institution
where fewer men are confined, but also because of the added reason
that various other institutions will be in vogue to care for many
unfortunates (not criminals) who are now sent to our penitentiaries.

The feeble-minded class in our prisons in the United States is said to
number between 25,000 and 35,000 individuals, or about one-fourth of
the prison population. These will be cared for in other institutions
than prisons, confinement in which is a greater crime upon the part
of society towards these poor unfortunates than were the offenses
for commission of which these feebleminded individuals were sent to
prison. According to the general statistics, the farm for epileptics in
Michigan should care for about 200 persons now confined in the prisons
of this state.

The wider extension of the system of probation will save thousands
of men from a prison experience, thereby protecting the taxpayer and
reclaiming the individual himself, the latter occurring in between
75 and 85 per cent. of the cases. This saving to taxpayers is most
evident to-day, for were the two recorders of Wayne county to bring
to court and sentence those who now enjoy a probationary relation to
their courts, there would not be empty cells enough in our State penal
institutions to receive them. It is much better to build up homes than
to erect more prisons.

Undoubtedly the physician, the surgeon, the alienist and the
psychologist will serve as greater factors to relieve our crime problem
than in the past. It is well known that a nervous condition occasioned
by affections of the eyes, nose and ears has played a large part in
the delinquency of boys and girls, of young men and young women. The
splendid results achieved in Chicago and in Rahway, N. J., as well
as in other localities, have already warranted a great deal more of
investigation and effort along the same lines.

The prison of the future will be located miles away from the city, upon
a tract of sufficient acreage to insure outdoor employment for a large
number of men during the larger portion of the year. Work under such
conditions will not only be more lucrative for the State, but, better
still, the means of building up physically and mentally, as well as
morally, these wards of the commonwealth.

The warden of our prison at Jackson already is planning to divide
some of the acreage into small tracts to be “gardened” by “trusties”;
a record being kept of the cost of care and seeding of these little
farms, as well as the value of the products thereof, thus encouraging
a healthy rivalry among those responsible for these sections of the
prison farm. How much this will accrue to the benefit of the men will
be best understood by those who have worked among paroled or discharged
prisoners.

The prevailing style of prison architecture will be superseded by
one which will admit of the greatest possible amount of sunlight and
circulating air in the cells. Most cellhouses are constructed with the
corridors running along the outer walls of the building, while the
cells are arranged in the center, end to end, a thick wall separating
them. In the effort to reduce the possibility of escapes, the health of
the inmates has not always been properly considered.

The United States can well afford to turn backward for improvement in
cell construction. In Richmond, Va., to-day stands a building erected
from plans drawn by Thomas Jefferson in the year 1797. This cellhouse,
still in use, and esteemed by the inmates as better than the steel
cell-block of very recent construction, is erected in the form of
a horseshoe. There are three stories of cells, and each cell has a
window opening upon the prison yard, while the doors of the cell swing
out toward a large court within the circle of the horseshoe, and a
covered veranda traverses the entire length of the cellhouse. The cots
are not near the floor, but about on a line with the lower sash of
the cell-window, some four or five feet from the floor, insuring to
bedding, cell and inmate the greatest possible modicum of sunshine and
air.

In the prison of the future each man will be paid a certain sum for the
performance of his work, whether his task be remunerative or what is
termed state work. From this wage he will pay for his food, clothing
and such other necessities or luxuries as he may obtain from the
inmates’ co-operative store. He will thus be accorded greater latitude
in the selection of the aforesaid raiment and food. Hence even by these
humble means, the prisoner’s power of initiative will be somewhat
retained against the day when he shall again fare forth to take his
place among the world’s free men.

In this prison of the coming day discipline will be largely maintained,
not by fear of force, but rather by the self-interest and personal
pride of the men confined. Punishment will more and more take the form
of deprivation of privileges, which latter will be greatly increased
because the better spirit and attitude of the men will be such as to
warrant the greatest possible privileges.

Wardens, under-officials and guards will be recruited from individuals
who have a positive social vision, and who will look upon their
position not as a “job,” but as an opportunity for service to humanity.
Already the day has dawned when men are being placed at the head of
these institutions, not because they are politicians with a “pull,”
but rather because they are capable business men and broad-minded
humanitarians with a heart. Men are to arise who will feel as much
“called” to labor among the prison “shut-ins” as do now those who are
set aside to serve as ministers of charity or uplift workers.

These changes, and even greater ones, will be strongly manifest in the
prison of the future, for the day will yet dawn when bastilles will be
no more in demand among the sons of men.




PASS A LAW!


  Are your neighbors very bad?
                Pass a Law!
  Do they smoke? Do they chew?
  Are they always bothering you?
  Don’t they do as you would do?
                Pass a Law!

  Are your wages awful low?
                Pass a Law!
  Are your prices much too high?
  Do the wife and babies cry
  ’Cause the turkeys all roost high?
                Pass a Law!

  When M. D. finds new diseases,
                Pass a Law!
  Got the mumps or enfermisis?
  Measles, croup or “expertesis?”
  Lest we all fly to pieces
                Pass a Law!

  Are the lights a-burning red?
                Pass a Law!
  Paint ’em green, or paint ’em white!
  Close up all them places tight!
  My! Our town is such a sight!
                Pass a Law!

  No matter what the trouble,
                Pass a Law!
  Goodness sakes! But ain’t it awful?
  My what are we going to do?
  Almost anything ain’t lawful,
  And the judges human, too!
                Pass a Law!

  _W. L. Wells._

  (From The Index, Wash. State Ref.)




BOOK REVIEWS.


BY PHILIP KLEIN

Assistant Secretary Prison Association of New York.

_The Walled City._--Edward Huntington Williams, M. D., New York, 1913,
Frank & Wagnalls Company. Pp. 263. Price $1.00.

The general public looks upon a convict with a certain amount of fear.
The word criminal is awe-inspiring. But the idea of the insane criminal
is more than that; it is replete with the vague terror of the weird
and unknown. People have in recent years come to consider the criminal
with a little better understanding; but the “insane criminal” has
retained its full quota of terror. Perhaps there was good reason for
that. The older ways of handling both the insane and the criminal were
very well calculated to bring forth the worst there was in them. But
no one could probably read the “Walled City,” without experiencing a
complete change of attitude towards the inmates of institutions for
the criminal insane. They are primarily men, these unfortunates with
hopes and plans, with differences in personality, education, tastes,
relations, in all things that make for the differences among man and
man in the normal outside life. And yet, there is a “kink” in every
man; an innocent kink generally, yet a “kink” to be reckoned with. It
makes things interesting, yet delicate and difficult to handle. “Every
man in his kink” we might paraphrase Ben Jonson.

One gets from the book a feeling almost of old association. It is all
told in a pleasant, almost anecdotal form. The reader feels himself
introduced to citizen after citizen of the walled city and passes
through the book as if in a series of personal conversations with its
inmates. The author’s sympathy and understanding for his words speaks
from every line. And yet when we close the book, we are surprised at
how much we have learned. We have been given scientific, correct,
technical information without knowing it; the book had done what it was
evidently meant to do.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Hell in Nebraska._--Walter Wilson, Lincoln, Nebraska, 1913. The
Bankers Publishing Company. Pp. 372. Price $1.00.

If individuality in a man means the possession of decided and highly
developed qualities, both good and evil, and if books also may be
said to have individualities on the same basis, then the present book
has a valid claim to the distinction of possessing a goodly amount of
individuality. From the title,--and from the illustrations on both
covers,--one would be justified in expecting a horrible revelation of
fiendish cruelties practiced in the Nebraska Penitentiary. But it is
simply another indication of the “yellow journal” style that pervades
the whole book. In fact, were it not for the thorough knowledge of
conditions, evidenced throughout, one might very easily take the
volume for a reporter’s paraphrase of a few selected annual reports
of the penitentiary. It is full of inside personal information, of
interest to nobody but the friends, relatives and enemies of the
persons concerned. But there is a good deal of real good common sense
and practical penology, that comes from a sympathetic yet rational
observation, and from continued activity in the field. If the language
is too strong at spots, and the emotions unrestricted, it may well be
excused as being the result of righteous indignation, coupled with a
sense for journalism and strong feeling for friend and foe--and also an
invincible belief in one’s own righteousness. Incidentally, however,
the book gives really valuable information of the conditions in the
Nebraska Penitentiary.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Measures of Social Defence Against the Recidivist._--This was one of
the three questions discussed by the International Union of Criminal
Law at its congress in Copenhagen in August, 1913. A masterly report
on the subject was submitted by Prof. Nabokoff, and after a spirited
discussion by many of the leading authorities of Europe on criminal
law, the following resolutions were adopted by the congress:

1. That system of procedure which combines the requirements of an
objective scale of proof of recidivism with subjective judgment of the
particular case in question and thereupon adjudges the said criminal
a habitual recidivist, dangerous to the social order, should be
recognized as the most rational.

2. The exclusion of the political criminal seeming inevitableness,
they made the acsures of social security, applicable to habitual
recidivists, are directed is a just and necessary proviso.

3. The minimum term to be pronounced against such recidivist at the
time of his trial shall be at least as great as the term to which he
would be sentenced if he were not adjudged a habitual recidivist; but
it may be greater by not more than two years.

A special commission shall, at the expiration of such minimum, decide
whether such prisoner shall be liberated or further detained. In
the latter case the prisoner shall have the right to have his case
reconsidered at intervals of two years. (It is understood that the
judge sentences such recidivist to an indefinite period of which he
fixes the minimum, but not the maximum).

4. The Congress is not agreed as to whether the period of preventive
detention pronounced against the recidivist shall follow the period of
punishment or take its place.

       *       *       *       *       *

_The IKV, Anniversary Number._--To celebrate the twenty-fifth
anniversary of the establishment of the “Internationale
Kriminalistische Vereinigung,” a special number was issued in
January of this year. It contains, in addition to the history of its
establishment, a symposium as to the effect that its activities
have had on the development of the problem of delinquency in its
various phases, and in the various countries. The contribution for the
United States is written by Prof. Charles R. Henderson of the Chicago
University. Most characteristic of the spirit of the IKV is perhaps the
paragraph in the introduction to the anniversary number, that reads as
follows: “This volume should be a milestone in this sense also, that
it shall define the program of the future activities of the Union. In
addition to such legal questions as the regulation of international
extradition, restitution instead of punishment, and the diminution of
the concept of the punishment by imprisonment as the ultima ratio in
the struggle against crime, the Union shall pay more attention to the
sociological aspect of crime.”

       *       *       *       *       *

_The Four Gunmen._--Under this title Winthrop D. Lane writes in the
Survey of April 4th about the social history of the four unfortunate
young fellows who were executed at Sing Sing on April 13th. Mr. Lane
found on careful investigation that all four came from “decent”
families; that their career of crime started apparently from street
life and its temptations; that each of the four had a previous
correctional institution record; that they each started their
lawbreaking career early; that the early years of each seem to have
been normal and straightforward, giving no hint of the direction later
conduct was to take. “One by one, through disease, going to school, or
going to work, they came into contact with the abnormal street life
of a crowded and heterogeneous community. Their youth demanded play
and excitement, and they sought these where they were easiest to find.
Gradually, but with seeming inevitableness, they made the acquaintance
of older boys and men who had mastered the trick of turning an easy
dollar.... Their own entrances into crime were gradual, beginning in
all but one case with petty attempts while they were still in their
teens to get spending money easily.... Whatever help there may be in
probation and suspended sentence was not extended to them.”




EVENTS IN BRIEF.


[Under this heading will appear each month numerous paragraphs of
general interest, relating to the prison field and the treatment of the
delinquent.]

_New Cell House at Iowa Penitentiary._--The new cell house, built by
convict labor at the Fort Madison penitentiary, will be completed in
May. The structure has been six years under construction, and its value
is said to be more than $200,000. It probably will be sixty days before
the board will have everything completed so that the new prison house
can be used. The structure is of stone and concrete, and the cells are
considerably larger than the rooms in the old cell house. There will
be room in each cell for a single iron bed, a rocking chair, hot and
cold water and toilet conveniences. The rooms formerly provided for
prisoners held but a cot.

The board of control has not yet decided what it will do with the
old cell house when the new one is occupied. It is probable that
prison labor will be used in the remodeling of the walls so that one
fair-sized cell may be made out of two cells.

There are 590 prisoners now in the Fort Madison penitentiary. The new
cell house will provide for 400 of them. The remainder will have to
remain in the old structure.

The board has received samples of hollow building blocks manufactured
at the State clay works at the hospital for inebriates at Knoxville.
This is the first of the output of the new industry and, according to
experts, the tile is as perfectly made as that of other institutions.
It is the intention to have the hollow building blocks needed in the
new building at Oakdale sanitarium made at Knoxville.

The State institution at Knoxville is also ready to turn out tile and
brick. Orders have been sent to all State institutions to order from
Knoxville whatever material of this kind is needed.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Training For Prison Warden._--Warden Clancy, of Sing Sing Prison,
recently resigned. Eugene Smith, president of the Prison Association of
New York, has written an open letter to the New York city papers, as
follows:

  “The resignation of Mr. Clancy is an event that has, for several
  reasons, unusual significance. Mr. Clancy has stated with great
  candor the reasons that induced him to resign. The principal reason,
  as alleged by him in an interview, was his lack of experience and
  consequent ignorance of the work to be done. He says, ‘The warden
  should be selected from among the keepers or others who have had a
  large amount of experience. There is nothing more ridiculous than the
  selection of a man like myself who has no such experience.’

  “These statements, so frankly made, do honor to Mr. Clancy and they
  convey a valuable message to the public. A warm heart and a large
  brain alone do not qualify a man to fill the wardenship of a prison.
  The administration of a prison must be governed, in this modern age,
  upon the principles established by the science of penology. The
  proper treatment of prisoners requires an acquaintance with those
  methods and agencies which have been proved by scientific experiments
  to be most effectual in reforming and rehabilitating the prisoners.

  “No warden can administer a prison with success unless he has a
  scientific knowledge of what has been developed and accomplished
  through the studies and experience of the great leaders in prison
  reform and such scientific knowledge can only be acquired and
  practically applied by personal experience in dealing with prisoners.
  There are to-day, in the prisons of this State, men who have had long
  experience, as guards or in other subordinate posts, who possess
  both the scientific knowledge and executive ability qualifying them
  to fill with success the office of warden of Sing Sing Prison. It is
  earnestly hoped that the candidates for the vacancy may be selected
  from some such competent source.

  “But besides scientific knowledge, ability, and experience, there is
  another condition, or sine qua non, absolutely essential to success in
  administering Sing Sing or any other prison. As a warden should be
  selected without the slightest regard to his political affiliations,
  he should also have a free hand in discharging his duties unhampered
  by political influence.

  “Politics constitute the greatest obstacle encountered by every
  movement for prison reform. So long as the appointment of prison
  officials and their retention in office are dependent on political
  favor or influence, it is hopeless to look for improvement in prison
  systems or any measures of reform. The infusion of politics into our
  prison can never be prevented except by the force of a united public
  opinion, a consensus strong enough to condemn and drive out of public
  service every person who participates in the appointment or removal
  of any prison officer for merely political ends in order to confer
  favors or promote expedience.”

       *       *       *       *       *

_Progress in New York City’s Department of Correction._--Commissioner
of Correction Katharine Bement Davis, and her deputy, Burdette G.
Lewis, have already planned important improvements in administration.
The upper floor of the Tombs is to be transformed into a hospital
with nearly ninety beds; a visiting building, with screens between
visitors’ seats and prisoners’ seats, will be built; food brought in
from the outside is to be prohibited, and improvement in the catering
service in the Tombs is arranged for; classification of prisoners in
the various institutions is being developed; the punishment cells
in the Penitentiary are to be abandoned in favor of a separate
punishment building with “reflection cells,” a detention house for
women prisoners is to be built; the Department has moved from an
antique building on Twentieth street into adequate quarters in the
new Municipal building; stripes are to be abolished in the Island
institutions; several “crews” of youngsters have been sent out to the
tract of six hundred acres in Orange county to be used for the new
City Reformatory for Misdemeanants; the clothing of women prisoners
at the workhouse and Penitentiary is to be considerably bettered;
and so forth. The fundamental plans for the re-organization of the
Department’s institutions are being carefully worked out.

       *       *       *       *       *

_The Power of Suggestion._--Some of the complacent ones who maintain
that you must leave to youngsters of either sex their own governing,
and hold them pretty completely responsible for crime committed by them
might pause for a moment to read the following--except that no such
complacent ones read The Delinquent. This is from the monthly journal
called the Training School, published at Vineland, New Jersey:

  Mamie S---- was a middle-grade imbecile girl about eighteen years
  old, testing about six by the Binet. She was strong and active, a
  cheerful and willing worker, subject to occasional fits of temper,
  but usually quite easily controlled. Her work in the laundry was
  helping Miss B. to feed the big steam mangle.

  One day the superintendent was escorting a party of visitors and
  explained to them the use of the shield over the reed rolls of the
  mangle, saying that if it were out of place there would be great
  danger of the workers’ fingers being caught between the rolls and a
  serious accident occurring before the machinery could be stopped.
  Mamie heard his remark and the visitors had no sooner left the
  laundry than she turned to Miss B. and said: “Say, Miss B., if I put
  my fingers in there, would it draw in my arm and crush it?” Miss B.
  answered, “Of course it would, you silly girl.” Mamie declared, “I am
  going to try it,” and at once lifted the shield and would have put
  her fingers between the rolls had not Miss B. grappled with her.

  Mamie struggled desperately and would have overpowered Miss B. but
  she called for help and it took three of the employees to drag Mamie
  away to safety. It is needless to say that Mamie’s work in the
  laundry ceased with that incident.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Farewell, and Don’t Come Back!_--The editors of prison newspapers
sometimes “gets theirs” in very pleasant fashion. Here is one of the
most recent events of the kind, quoted from the Mirror, published at
the Minnesota State Prison:

“‘Chip’, the editor of Our View Point, the Walla Walla, Washington,
prison paper, has been paroled after serving several months
conscientiously and well as the guiding spirit of that publication.
Prior to his departure for the outside world, the inmates subscribed
a dime apiece and presented him with a watch as a testimonial of
their appreciation. The presentation speech was made by the warden in
the presence of the inmates in the chapel, the Sunday prior to his
departure.”

       *       *       *       *       *

_Hayward._--Here is a story to make a man “feel good”.

Harry S. Hayward, after seven years’ influential work with the
newspaper called the Cumberland, Md., News, disappeared recently
because politicians and evil interests he had opposed learned that he
had served in prison, and threatened to reveal his past. Hayward had
made very many friends. The proprietor of the newspaper received a
letter from Hayward, in which he reviewed the trials he had endured
in trying to live down the past, and in which he declared that he was
determined to lose himself in some distant part of the country, and
continue the struggle to live a decent life.

The proprietor, W. W. Brown, immediately tried to reach Hayward, but in
vain. He inserted then the following advertisement in papers all over
the country:

H. S. Hayward:--Have known two years. We are with you to the end. Come
back soon.

W. W. Brown.

Many prominent citizens joined in the effort to find Hayward. The
Governor of Maryland pardoned him and restored him to citizenship. And,
finally Hayward came back, in triumph.

       *       *       *       *       *

_The Latest Thing in Joy Rides._--Edward Smith, a lifer, and James
McGee, sentenced for seventeen years, escaped from the Joilet
Penitentiary recently, in Warden Allen’s automobile. After riding
around Chicago all night they decided to return to the prison. Guards
had been hunting the men in three States.

Smith was the Warden’s chauffeur and drove in and out of the prison
without attracting attention.

“We could have got away without much chance of being captured,” he
said, “but we got to thinking that our escape might interfere with the
good treatment given the other honor prisoners.

“Warden Allen treated us mighty well and we thought it best not to
violate the confidence he placed in us. We certainly had a fine time
while we were away. We rode all over Chicago and saw all the sights.”

       *       *       *       *       *

_Advice in the Shadow of the Gallows._--Several years ago there was
executed at Trenton State Prison, New Jersey, a very intelligent man,
who had committed a fearful murder. A day before his execution he was
asked to leave some word for the young men of this country. Here is
what he wrote, in a firm hand, without tremor:

  “I can add but little to what others have said. I would suggest early
  religious training. It should begin with the lisping of the child
  and be continuous and never end until death. The child should be
  given to know the dangers of environment that is not religious. His
  associations should be only those that reverence God. The parental
  responsibility comes in here. The child looks for examples. As the
  example set before it by its parents or associates are good or evil,
  so it will in most cases grow.

  “If the boy be disciplined in religion with environments good,
  associations good, and with love as his teacher till he is come of
  age, to the age of reason, the point of the early training will be
  invariably a moral religious life. Not all of these came into my
  early life but of those that did my one regret is that I did not use
  them to my advantage, for the wages of sin is death, and the gift of
  God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.”

       *       *       *       *       *

_Progress at Bellefonte._--According to the Pennsylvania Prison
Society (the 127th annual meeting of which was recently held), “about
75 prisoners from the old Western Penitentiary at Pittsburgh are at
Bellefonte, busily engaged in taking care of the farm and in various
preliminary operations. (Pennsylvania is to build a farm industrial
prison on 5,000 acres). They have been employed in the repairing of
the old buildings on the estate, in quarrying stone for roads, and for
other construction. There have been erected a number of new buildings,
among them a machine shop, blacksmith shop, power house, large dining
room and a dormitory. The work done on all the buildings was almost
entirely by the prisoners themselves, superintended by an experienced
outside foreman. It would be difficult to get together on the outside
an equal number of men who worked as zealously or faithfully. There
have been but three attempted escapes since the men arrived in the
summer of 1912. The prisoners are allowed to go to all parts of the
large farm in gangs of from three to twenty, under the care of one
guard or trusty. The population is transitory, as almost weekly some
are paroled, while new ones take their places.”

       *       *       *       *       *

_An Honor Colony Hoped For._--The New Jersey Reformatory is a
congregate institution run by trustees and officers that believe in
individualization and classification. So, in the current annual report
the Board of Managers urges the establishment of an honor colony. “This
should be at some distance from the Institution, and should be utilized
for those inmates who are near parole, and who have demonstrated that
they are learning the lessons they have been sent to the institution to
learn.... It has been for some years the custom to permit inmates to
return to their homes when a death occurs in the family, unaccompanied
by anyone from the institution, relying solely upon the promise of an
inmate to return at a given time. In no instance has an inmate broken
the promise or failed to show an appreciation of the trust reposed in
him.”

       *       *       *       *       *

_The Limits of Reformatory Treatment._--Superintendent Frank Moore, of
the New Jersey State Reformatory, writes in his annual report:

  “The Reformatory can take that which has worth, even though it may
  be bent, twisted and corroded with sin, and making it plastic, it
  may form it over again, reform it; but that which is useless, which
  is only dross, it can do little with. The Reformatory can reform,
  but it cannot re-create. We may as well be candid about it. The
  idea has been created in the public mind that every reformatory is a
  miracle-working machine; that no matter what is run into it, it will
  return all material, no matter how good or bad, back into the world,
  made over into first-class men. The word HOPE in big letters has been
  written over the doorway of our reformatory institutions, and so it
  ought to be. There is no charitable or correctional institution of
  which society expects so much, and there is no kind of institution
  that has a greater desire to meet that expectation, but honesty and
  fairness demand that it shall be stated that the quality of human
  material given to it is of such a character as to, of necessity,
  greatly limit its results.”

       *       *       *       *       *

_Other Items From the Reformatory._--During the year 456 inmates of the
New Jersey State Reformatory worked outside of the enclosure. There
have been only two escapes, one from those working inside the wall, who
was returned by the police, and one from the details working outside,
who was captured and returned to the institution by other inmates.

The physical condition of the inmates now present in the institution is
as follows:

Those who have increased in weight, 67 per cent.

No change in weight, 19 per cent.

Loss of weight, 14 per cent.

The reduction in the number losing weight is explained as follows:

A larger number of the inmates have been assigned to the outdoor work,
gardening and farming, than ever before.

The amount of food served in the dining room has been increased, and
its quality much improved.

Many low places in the grounds where mosquitoes breeded and from which
malaria emanated have been filled.

During the year more inmates have been paroled, and with better results
than ever before in the history of the Reformatory.

  Number placed on parole                    413
  Returned for crime                           8
  Returned, or not returned, being declared
    delinquent because of committing
    new crime or breaking
    other conditions of parole                84
  Percentage failing to keep parole           20

       *       *       *       *       *

_Contracts in Iowa._--The Fort Madison Farming Tool company will make
a fight to retain its business of manufacturing tools at the Fort
Madison penitentiary. It will ask that its contract to employ 150
prisoners be continued for at least a year from the expiration of the
present contract on November 1, 1914.

The board has announced, however, that it will not renew the contract
for any certain period of time, if any extension is granted. It may
be advisable, it is said, to continue the present arrangement to keep
the men employed from November 1 until such time next year as the
legislature can provide some industry at the prison which will take the
place of the tool contract.

The State of Iowa has registered a protest against the convict labor
system. As fast as the contracts at the penitentiary expire the state
must make some new arrangement. At Fort Madison one contract expires
this year. The chair contract, employing a maximum of 179 men, does not
run out until 1916. This then will free this prison of contracts and
the buildings now housing the machinery of private companies will be
used by the state in the manufacture of some product which will most
benefit the state.

The Fort Madison Tool Company pays the state $50,000 for the use of 150
men, or $333.33 a year per man, based on the maximum permitted under
the agreement. The board of control has stated that this sum is not
sufficient, and that if the company is to get a temporary extension of
contract it must offer a higher rate.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Education For Prisoners._--Education by correspondence for prisoners
in the Kansas Penitentiary would be possible if a plan outlined by
the Chancellor of the University of Kansas should be adopted by
the Board of Administration. He would have the privilege of the
extension division of the University, including vocational training
by correspondence, offered to the inmates of the Penitentiary at the
expense of the State.

In this connection it is worth while noting that more than 90 per cent.
of 269 men committed to the Wisconsin State Penitentiary for murder in
recent years were sent to work before they were 15 years of age, says
the Bethlehem, Pa., Times. Of these 269 convicts, of whom a special
study has been made, about one-third have never been to school, half
reached the fourth grade and but 3.2 per cent. finished high school.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Utilizing Prison Labor._--The Cleveland, O., Plaindealer, says that:

  Ohio expects to save more than a million in the construction of the
  new state prison in Madison county through the employment of convict
  labor. When Andrew L. Harris was governor it was estimated that to
  build the kind of a penitentiary the state needed would cost at
  least $2,600,000. The prison commission now declares a much finer
  institution than was then planned will be built for not to exceed
  $1,300,000.

  Prison labor constitutes the difference. Men in custody of the state
  will be utilized to make brick from material on the site, to cut and
  dress timber now growing on the tract for use in the buildings, and
  for the actual labor of erection.

  At the Mansfield reformatory more prison labor will be utilized
  further to reduce the cost of the development in Madison county.
  Furniture and fixtures for the new prison offices and library will be
  manufactured there and shipped.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Parole Test Case in Virginia._--The recent session of the General
Assembly of Virginia passed the Allen bill providing that the
Penitentiary Board might in its discretion parole a prisoner after
he had served three years of his sentence; but exempting from its
provisions those convicted of murder in the first degree or of criminal
assault. Governor Stuart described this bill as misleading in its
title. It should have been, he said, “An act to increase the powers
of the board of directors of the penitentiary at the expense of the
constitutional powers and prerogatives of the executive.”

The Governor referred it to Attorney-General Pollard, who, held not
only the bill was unconstitutional, but that the parole act of 1904,
which it sought to amend, was likewise unconstitutional. On this advice
the Governor vetoed it.

In view of the opinion holding the parole law of 1904 unconstitutional,
the question arose as to the future conduct of the prison directors. In
a statement issued at the time Governor Stuart expressed the view that
it was certainly not contemplated in the Constitution that the prison
board should sit as a sort of superior court, to review and reverse in
criminal cases not only the verdicts of trial juries and the judgments
of Circuit Courts, but the deliberate opinions of the Supreme Court of
Appeals as well. The Attorney-General upheld the view that any action
releasing a prisoner before he had served the specific term for which
he was sentenced by due process of law was to upset and reverse the
trial court. This power, it was held, was vested by the Constitution
exclusively in the Governor, who may grant absolute pardons or may
grant pardons with conditions attached, which are in effect paroles.

Prior to the act of 1904, under the statute of 1896 and subsequent
acts, there was a parole system, under which the prison board from time
to time made recommendations to the Governor of those convicts who
were, in their judgment, suitable for conditional pardons or paroles,
thus acting in an advisory capacity. The act of 1904, which is the one
now in question, eliminated this report to the Governor and made it
possible for the prison board, in its own discretion, at any time to
release any convict after he had served one-half of the term for which
he had been sentenced.

Under this act the prison board has been from time to time paroling
convicts at its own discretion, acting entirely independent of and
without connection with the actions of the Governor in granting pardons
or conditional pardons, which are in effect paroles.

It has been agreed to make a test case to determine the status of the
parole law of 1904, which Attorney-General Pollard has held to be
unconstitutional.

       *       *       *       *       *

_In Kentucky._--The Louisville Post says editorially that:

  “In no department of the State government has there been progress
  made in the last two years comparable to that shown in the
  administration of the Kentucky penitentiaries, and Governor McCreary
  deserves liberal commendation for the wisdom he manifested in
  selecting the members of the board--Messrs. O’Sullivan, Conley
  and Lawrence--and the firmness he has shown in supporting his
  appointees. This is the one bright spot in our State government and
  the improvement made will be valuable in the future outside of the
  progress in prison administration by the standard it holds up for
  other departments of the State.”

Prison Commissioner O’Sullivan has thus summarized the recent
developments:

“The most important act passed by the last General Assembly affecting
the prisons was the bill providing for State aid in the building of
county roads. While it makes no reference to the penal institutions,
the opportunity it presents is providential. On January 1, 1915, the
contracts on the labor of at least 900 prisoners will expire. In the
face of the adverse legislation in Congress, it is probable that the
prison contractors will not again bid for this labor, even if the
Prison Commissioners were inclined to make new contracts.

“The law permitting the Prison Commission to lease farms adjacent
to the prisons at Frankfort and Eddyville is of inestimable value.
These farms can not only be made self-sustaining, but the tubercular
prisoners can be transferred there and given the chance for life which
is sometimes denied them in the narrow confines of a prison cell.

“The indeterminate sentence law does away with the automatic parole of
prisoners and gives the jury the power to fix a minimum and maximum
sentence proportionate to the crime committed.

“The passage of a law limiting the age of children sent to the House of
Reform, near Lexington, and making the county pay part of the cost when
the child is not guilty of a penal offense, will prevent the scandalous
practice prevalent all over the State of consigning innocent, dependent
children to this institution. Some of the officials seem to be in a
conspiracy with the parents to get rid of their unfortunate offspring
and make the State support them. The Prison Commissioners have returned
to their homes 125 children under thirteen years of age who were sent
to the House of Reform on flimsy charges. Two boys, six years old, were
among the number. They were charged with ‘housebreaking.’ Dozens of
cases just as flagrant could be cited.

“The Board has under way plans that will broaden and better this
institution, which is one of the most important in the State, as it
deals with the child after he has made his first mis-step.

“Before the recent parole of 450 prisoners under the Court of Appeals
decision there were 1,450 convicts at the Frankfort Reformatory and
780 at Eddyville. The number of children at the House of Reform will
average 700.

“The contractors at Frankfort and Eddyville paid into the State
treasury last year $352,000. The cost of conducting these institutions,
salaries, supplies etc., was $340,454. The cost of maintaining the
House of Reform was $123,386.

“In eighteen months from August 1, 1912, to January 1, 1914, the
prisoners have been paid in earnings the sum of $86,000. A great
portion of this amount is sent home to their families.

“In the two prisons there are 556 men confined for murder, 115 for
manslaughter, and 153 for malicious shooting and wounding. Of this
number 340 are life prisoners.

“There are 1,250 negroes to 900 whites. There are 1,300 single men and
950 married men.

“There are 419 men serving second terms, 104 serving third terms,
twenty-seven serving fourth terms, and one prisoner serving his seventh
term.

“Since the adoption of the parole system 2,200 men have been paroled,
which number includes the 450 men liberated under the Court of Appeals
decision. Less than 5 per cent. of these men have violated their
paroles and been returned to prison.

“In the past twenty-one months the present Prison Board has only
paroled one life prisoner sentenced for murder. He had served fifteen
years for killing a man who invaded his home and insulted his daughter,
and had he been a white man he would never have been convicted.

“The night schools are very successful. Next to the abolition of the
lash they have had a most humanizing effect on the prisoners.”

       *       *       *       *       *

_Cleveland’s City Farm._--Dr. Harris R. Cooley reported recently in Des
Moines, Ia., regarding recent results in Cleveland:

“We have three different departments on the farm,” he said. “We have
100 consumptives on one section, 700 people in the alms house located
in another section, and 700 prisoners working on the ‘correction farm.’
These men are convicted of different petty crimes and sent to the farm
to work out their sentence.”

According to Mr. Cooley, the farm’s profits from products raised last
year were $22,167.04.

“It takes a little nerve to start a farm of the kind,” he said, “as it
is necessary for a time to keep up two places. While the farm is being
started it will be necessary to have some prisoners in jail and some on
the farm, until enough buildings are completed to accommodate all the
prisoners. However it is a great system when once in working order and
would be a great thing for Des Moines.

“We also have a 450 acre farm for the juvenile prisoners,” he
continued, “and this too, is proving a great success. It is located
twenty-three miles from the city and the large farm is ten miles from
Cleveland. All boys under sixteen years are sent to the juvenile farm.

“Our large farm,” said Mr. Cooley, “cost us $330,000 ten years ago. We
have recently been offered $1,000,000 for it, but of course refused to
consider the offer. We have hundreds of heads of fine cattle, hogs and
horses and raise everything in the way of farm products. The profits
possible on a farm of this kind are not to be realized by people who
have had no experience with the system.

“We also do away with the problem of labor. We have the men on hand
with nothing to do with them but let them work. We do not compete with
labor, either. The men enjoy the work and nine times out of ten leave
the farm better morally and physically than they came to it. Such
is not the case with the man who spends a week or six weeks in the
stagnant atmosphere of a city jail.”

       *       *       *       *       *

_422 Convicts to be “Turned Loose.”_--The New York World, of April 5th,
prints a special dispatch from Louisville, Kentucky.

“Kentucky is facing the problem of caring for 422 convicts, to be
liberated at approximately the same time and for whom no provision has
been made. The prospect is viewed with varying sensations in different
parts of the State. In cities and towns there is alarm, but on the
farms and plantations, where help is scarce, no fears are felt, and in
fact the liberated criminals will be made welcome for the labor they
can perform.

“This condition is brought about by the new indeterminate sentence law
which is now operative in Kentucky and which does away with the old law
by which the jury trying a case fixed the term of years for which a
person should be confined, in the same verdict declaring him guilty. As
it is now, the jury merely passes upon a prisoner’s guilt or innocence,
and if he is found guilty his prison term is automatically fixed by the
law covering the offense with which he is charged. These sentences, of
course, range from a specified minimum number of years to a maximum.
And it has been the rule heretofore for the Prison Board with whom the
power of parole rests, to allow the prisoners their freedom largely
upon the character of their crime and their conduct while in prison.

“But in the John De Moss case (recently decided by the Court of
Appeals), it is held that if a prisoner has completed his minimum
sentence and shows a clear record in the prison he must be issued a
parole then. Another feature is that he must be able to show that
he has some legitimate occupation waiting for him when he is set at
liberty again. This parole, of course, does not free the prisoner
absolutely. A string is held on him, and should he ever transgress
again he may be brought back and made to complete his original sentence.

“Naturally, the convicts are delighted. Of the 422 convicts to get
their liberty 232 will go from the penitentiary at Frankfort and 190
from the Eddyville prison.

“One of the requirements with which a prisoner must conform before he
can be paroled even under the new order is that he must have a job
awaiting him. This has caused the 422 prisoners who are to be released
to cast about for a landing place. Among them are individuals of all
classes, some very expert in certain lines, but the most of them are
ordinary laborers, this being especially true of the negroes, who
are in the majority. Right here is where the release of the prisoners
promises to be a good thing for the State at large. For several years
the question of farm labor has grown to be more and more a matter of
serious nature. The negroes prefer to live in the towns or to work
on the public works, where they can be together in crowds. Often the
farmers are sorely tried in their efforts to get labor at rush seasons
and are forced to pay exorbitant prices.

“But the ordinary laborers among the convicts find the farms their best
chance for getting the coveted job. The farmers are willing to take the
risk, if risk it is, and they are offering to give employment to the
prisoners. In one county the seventeen negroes that are due to return
have all been thus guaranteed work. Other counties are doing the same
thing and probably the majority of this class of the convicts will find
a home and freedom on the farms.

“Much consolation is found in the fact that a radical change in the
methods of handling and treating the convicts will result. They will be
better citizens when their terms are out.

“One of the results of the new law will be the changing of the
Frankfort prison into a reformatory, where the female and younger
prisoners will be confined, and the Eddyville prison into the
penitentiary, where men only will be confined, and these only for major
offenses.

“The prisoners are now allowed more liberties; they are permitted to
enjoy the prison libraries, attend night school, organized in the
various cell houses, attend religious services, to have the freedom of
the grounds at stated times, and when the weather permits to play ball
and take other healthful outdoor exercises, to receive mail, and are
given better and cleaner cells and better food.

“So, after all, the situation does not appear alarming, but on the
other hand it is believed by those in touch with conditions that the
released prisoners will come out into the world again with a full
appreciation of the joys and privileges of liberty, and few of them
will again wilfully disobey the laws and be returned to bondage once
more.”

       *       *       *       *       *

_Modern Detention Prison For Women in New York City._--After years
of effort on the part of civic organizations, borough officials and
individuals, the city is at last to have a Home of Detention and Court
for Women. It is to be a fourteen-storied structure and is to occupy a
100×100 foot plot on the north side of West Thirtieth street, between
Sixth and Seventh avenues. The working drawings are now being prepared
by the architects, Griffin & Wynkoop of No. 30 Church street, and
construction will begin in the near future.

The need of such a building has from time to time been emphasized
by the numerous abuses attendant upon the imprisonment of women.
Heretofore both men and women have been confined in the same building,
and because the police stations and the City Prison were of an obsolete
design, there was no way of segregating the first offenders from the
hardened criminals, a condition which sociologists have long deplored.

The plans for the new building provide for this segregation. Provision
is made for three general classes of prisoners, these to be again
subdivided into other groups. No longer will first offenders be herded
into dark, unsanitary cells along with the habitual offenders. The
building is so arranged that each room will be flooded with sunlight at
some time of the day; moreover, each cell will have its own individual
window and will be provided with running water, basin and sanitary
conveniences.

The Magistrates’ Court with its entrances and subdivisions is placed
in the first four stories. The Detention Home and District Prison with
their subdivisions are placed in the fifth to fourteenth stories.

It was found that by placing the small rooms of the Home of Detention
and Prison around the court, recessed from the street, most of the
dangers of communication between prisoners and the outside could be
obviated, and the possibility of introducing drugs and weapons into the
building overcome.

The prisoners are to be delivered through a driveway court into
the room for arrested persons, taken to their individual temporary
detention rooms on the first and second floors, from which an officer
conducts them to the complaint room, or in a continuous line of
circulation through the prisoners’ waiting room, the court room,
the finger print room, and after sentence, to the room for detained
persons, from which they are taken by guards of the Detention Home and
Prison and after examination put among that group of prisoners which
their degree of crime permits or requires.

The public will enter the building through a public vestibule, pass up
a large stairway and enter the court room or complaint room through
a public lobby on the second floor. The court room is 25 feet high,
of ample size, and has abundant light and cross ventilation from the
street into an interior light court, which opens at its top into the
recessed light court of the Detention Home above.

The entrance to the probation and administrative portions of the
Magistrates’ Court is through a special vestibule controlled by the
janitor of the building at the southwest corner. Women on probation of
the court can report to their probation officer in the second floor
without coming in contact with the crowd frequenting the courtrooms
and public vestibule. Probation officers are to be located on the
floor immediately below the courtroom and will have ready access to
the courtroom when their attendance there is required. Reporters are
to be given a special room and provided with tables and seats in the
court. The judge, the clerk of the court, the assistant clerks and
the district attorney are allotted rooms on the fourth floor, which
is accessible to all of the lower floors of the building by a special
elevator and stairs.

On the fifth floor of the building are placed the administrative
offices of the home and prison, the apartments of the superintendent
and assistant superintendent and separate facilities for visitors
coming to see the home and prison. The visitors cannot at any time pass
to the prisoners either weapons or drugs. Double wire screens will at
all times separate the prisoners from the visitors.

From the sixth to the fourteenth floor there will be twenty-four rooms
on each floor, these being for housing the inmates of the home and
prison. Each group of twelve rooms will have a dining and living
room, a service pantry, a bathroom and a storage closet for linen and
clothing. An open air exercise loggia will connect the two twelve-room
groups.

The prison and home rooms will be slightly different, in that the
prison rooms will have steel grilled fronts opening onto the corridor,
whereas the rooms of the detention home will have regular fireproof
doors fitted with a small grilled panel, for the convenience of matrons
in overseeing their charges. Each of the small rooms will be provided
with a wash basin, a water closet and a bed.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Criminals in War._--Criminals generally turn out to be cowards on the
battlefield, according to observations in the cases of 225 men with
jail or prison sentences in their record made during the campaign of
Italy in Tripoli by Dr. Consiglio, chief of staff surgeons with the
Italian army.

Dr. Consiglio says:

“The abnormal man is unfit for methodically disciplined effort in
times of peace; in war, where the demands of discipline and the strain
of systematic preparations increases, he displays invariably sooner
or later a reaction against his surroundings, which manifests itself
chiefly in morbid lack of discipline, disobedience, insubordination or
even desertion. The moral strain and the violent manifestations of war
induce in such men physical disturbances, excitative crises, hysteric
and epileptic attacks and acute insanity. They lack the possibility of
methodic action, the iron will to respond to the multiple demands of
the instant and to the continued physical and intellectual strain.”

       *       *       *       *       *

_Probation in New York State._--The increasing use of the probation
idea throughout the State is shown by reports of the State Probation
Commission. More than 9,000 persons are now on probation in the State,
including over 2,000 children. Approximately one-half of these are
located in New York City; the remainder are scattered in nearly every
city and in many of the rural communities of the State. The appointment
of county probation officers to have charge of the probation work
in all the courts of the counties is rapidly increasing in favor.
Twenty-three counties now have such officers.

The use of volunteers to assist the regularly appointed officers is
still practiced in many courts. Forty-nine new volunteer officers have
been commissioned during the last two months.

Probation officers were shown to have more than justified their work
from a financial point of view alone. During the past year more than
$77,000 was collected by probation officers throughout the State from
husbands charged with non-support, and the same turned over directly to
their wives and children. Ten thousand dollars was also collected for
fines on the installment plan. This amount went direct to the various
cities and counties employing the officers.

The Commission meets every two months in various cities of the State.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Parole and Other Matters in Rhode Island._--Prisoners who have served
part of their sentences at the Rhode Island penal institutions will be
admitted to parole if the recommendation of the State Board of Control
and Supply, made in its annual report to the General Assembly is
carried out.

This recommendation, which the Board seeks to have made into law, would
allow a prisoner to remain at liberty as long as he lives up to the
terms of his parole. It is pointed out that other States have such laws
on their statute books, and that Rhode Island, if it is to live up to
modern methods in handling prisoners, must fall into line.

Another recommendation contained in the report, is that one board
should be given full control over the management of the various
institutions, while the sociological work, such as welfare, admission
and probation of inmates, should come under another board.

One of the most important items is that connected with the operation
of the new shirt contract, the returns from which show a substantial
increase over the revenue obtained by the State from the old agreement.

According to the report, the change from the contract with the Sterling
Manufacturing Company has been a most beneficial one.

Under that agreement the State received 30 cents per dozen for shirts,
whereas under the new contract with the Crescent Garment Company, the
State receives 50 cents per dozen for the same garments.

The result of this during the past year has been an increase in the
total revenue derived by the State from $24,185.04, the amount received
under a year’s contract with the old company, to $42,930.56, the total
received during the year 1913 under the new contract.

The additional revenue to the State from this contract alone, over the
year 1912, it is figured, will be sufficient to pay all salaries of the
members of the Board of Control and Supply, as well as the clerical
staff of the office.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Chicago to Study Criminals._--Enthusiastic press notices come from
Chicago about the proposed criminal laboratory.

The judges of the Municipal court have unanimously voted to establish
a psychopathic laboratory for criminal study, thus, it is asserted,
placing that court far in advance of any judicial body in this country.

All prisoners who go before a judge of the Municipal court and show
indications of being weak mentally or who are believed to have physical
defects will be sent to the new laboratory for expert examination in
the hope that some way may be found to correct criminal tendencies and
restore the victims to normal condition.

If possible, arrangements will be made to send a certain class of
prisoners into the country, where they may breathe pure air and come
in direct contact with the best there is in nature. Dr. William J.
Hickson of Vineland, N. J., who has spent years in psychopathic work,
including six months as an assistant in the department of neurology and
psychiatry at the Royal Charity hospital, Berlin, has been selected
by the judges to take charge of the Chicago laboratory at a salary of
$5,000 annually. Miss Mary R. Campbell of Milwaukee was selected as an
associate to Dr. Hickson after a committee of judges had made a year’s
search for the best experts to be had in this country.

There is an appropriation of $8,500 by the city council available for
the work.

In arguing for a psychopathic laboratory Chief Justice Harry Olson and
other jurists interested in scientific treatment of criminals have
said that under present conditions there was no alternative for the
judges except to sentence those found guilty of transgressing the law.
Time and again, it is asserted, they have been compelled to deal with
prisoners who were not considered actually insane though having mental
defects. There was no expert advice available and, in a way, they dealt
blindly with the cases. Now it is declared it will be possible to give
every such suspect--murder, pickpocket or otherwise--a scientific
examination.

  “It is not a theory and it is not an experiment”, said Chief Justice
  Olson. “It is a practical department. This work is very successful in
  Germany. Every day almost, subnormal boys and feeble minded tramps
  appear in the municipal court. All that the boys need is a chance to
  breathe some real air and get out among the pigs, horses and cows,
  where they can do chores.

  “Many of those boys can be transformed into material for respectable
  citizens. They need assistance, and we start wrong by sending them
  to jail and cutting off most of the chances they ever had. The new
  laboratory will save persons who have something actually the matter
  with them. They will not be packed off to Joilet when there is a
  belief that their criminal tendency is caused by epilepsy or other
  defect.”

Coroner Hoffman several months ago established a psychopathic
laboratory in connection with his office. Its mission is to ascertain
causes of mysterious deaths. The Juvenile court also has a psychopathic
laboratory.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Five Escaping Convicts Killed._--On April 4th, a carefully planned
prison delivery was frustrated at the State penitentiary in Folsom,
when five convicts were shot down. Four were killed instantly and one
mortally wounded by prison guards who had been stationed at vantage
points where they could rake the entire corridor of the incorrigible
ward with rifle fire at the least sign of a disturbance.

Only a dozen prisoners were connected with the plot out of the thousand
or more convicts in the prison. Previous warning received by the prison
officials that a break was to be attempted prevented what might have
been a general prison delivery. The most desperate convicts in the
State are confined in the Folsom prison.

Folsom, or Repressa, as it is known officially, is a prison without
surrounding walls, the convicts being employed largely in the stone
quarry and prison farm during the day, returning to the prison
buildings at night, but always under guard.

The fact that the prison is without walls has impressed the convicts
that it would be comparatively easy to escape at night and several
fatal attempts have been made.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Flogging Convicts._--According to the Chronicle of Charlotte, N. C.:

“The North Carolina supreme court has handed down a decision written by
Chief Justice Walter Clark saying that corporal punishment by flogging
is not reasonable and cannot be sustained. It is true that this
decision refers to whipping convicts by guards, but it is only a little
stretch to make the application cover all cases except where used by
parents as a corrective method for children, and it is not too big
an undertaking to even reach that form. The court now takes judicial
notice when the parent becomes too severe with the child.

“Some months ago a Wake county convict was whipped by a guard, and
the matter was carried into the courts. The defendant was adjudged
guilty in superior court and a fine of $10 was imposed. In this case
the defendant raised the point that flogging was necessary for the
maintenance of discipline among the convicts. It was shown further
that it has been the custom in all camps to use whipping to subdue the
unruly. The case was carried to the supreme court by the defendant, but
that body affirmed the decision of the lower court.

“Continuing, Judge Clark gives it as the opinion of the court that
while the constitution of the State does not directly prohibit corporal
punishment in prison discipline, its spirit is against the longer
use of floggings for that purpose. The opinion cites the powers of
the world which have abolished prison whipping, and says even Mexico
by legislative enactment more than a decade ago did away with such
punishment for prisoners. In conclusion, Judge Clark says, ‘we have,
however, been discussing the legal rights of the prisoners and we find
no authority for its longer continuance.’

“It is true that there is a general opinion among many, especially
those who have to deal with convicts, that flogging is the only
effective way to secure and maintain discipline, and they contend that
unless proper methods are used with a certain class of prisoners a
condition will soon arise in the camps which will cause a great deal
of trouble. With a squad of vicious and unruly prisoners who have a
resourceful leader knowing that the courts will protect them from that
only dread of convict-flogging--the ingenuity of the officers will be
taxed to secure proper results.

“On the other hand the decision will prevent the undue use of the whip
by guards, a few of whom are only too anxious for an opportunity to
administer corporal punishment to those who are helpless. While cases
of the abuse of this power by the guards are very rare, heretofore the
opportunity has always been present for the man who was vicious enough
to use it.

“What will be the result of the decision upon the convict discipline of
the future, time alone can tell.”

       *       *       *       *       *

_Brick Plant at Elmira._--Bricks for use in constructing highways in
New York State will be made at the Elmira State Reformatory as soon as
buildings and apparatus are erected, Governor Glynn having signed the
Murtaugh bill, appropriating $75,000 for this purpose. The plan is the
first step in the Governor’s recommendation to the Legislature that
convicts be employed in manufacturing road material.

Governor Glynn pointed out the greatest item in the construction of
brick roads is the cost of vitrified brick. “If the State can secure
this brick cheaply,” the Governor said, “the road problem would be
solved. In a brick road costing twenty-five thousand dollars a mile,
the brick itself costs twelve thousand dollars. Those who are qualified
to speak inform me that by securing the vitrified brick for New York’s
roads in this manner brick roads can be constructed at a cost of
$15,000 a mile.

“On this basis the total cost of a mile of brick road for twenty years
would be $16,000, including $15,000 for building and twenty years of
maintenance at $50 a year. The total cost of macadam road for the same
period is $36,000.

“An idea of the importance of the economy I propose may be gained from
the fact that the total saving in the 7,300 miles of road yet to be
constructed would amount to $146,000,000 in the twenty years after
their completion, or more than the total cost of constructing our
entire systems of highways, and I am gratified that the first decisive
step toward this end has been taken in the enactment of the Murtaugh
law.”

       *       *       *       *       *

_Apropos of Brick Makers._--More than 150,000 concrete bricks were made
by workhouse prisoners at Minneapolis during the month the new plant
has been in operation. Superintendent Frank McDonald says his theory of
winter labor and the utilization of the short term prisoner for skilled
labor has been justified. The plant is employing 60 men and will
continue to operate until May 1 when the clay brick industry will open.
Whether it will be operated during the summer is not certain.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Parole in Wisconsin._--Society’s benefit as the result of the adoption
of the parole system for prisoners of the State penitentiary at Waupun
is demonstrated in a report that has just been compiled by the state
board of control which shows that less than 10 per cent. of prisoners
paroled violated it. The percentage of violation among the “lifers” is
even smaller.

The Wisconsin parole law has been in operation over six years. It
became effective in August, 1907. Up to February 28 this year, 938
applications have been considered for parole at the State prison at
Waupun. Of this number 480 were granted; 445 were denied; 8 were
continued and 5 were withdrawn.

Of the 480 granted, 345 have received their final discharge, 27
were not discharged on account of not having proper employment, 46
defaulted, 10 applications did not meet with executive approval, 5 died
while on parole, 2 were pardoned while on parole and 45 are now making
monthly reports.

Of the 45 who defaulted 37 have been returned to prison, 7 are at
large and two are in prison in other states and will be returned to
Wisconsin penitentiary to serve out their terms as soon as they have
completed their other sentences.

Under the Wisconsin law “lifers” are eligible for parole after they
have served a certain number of years and have been on “good behavior.”
In the time the law has been in effect, the applications of 34 “lifers”
have been considered. Fourteen have been granted and twenty refused.
Of the fourteen granted, 10 are now making monthly reports, two have
died and one returned to the prison voluntarily claiming that he was
not fitted for the world and that “prison is a more desirable place
for me.” One violated a rule of the board of control, was returned to
prison, but when it was discovered that others were probably more to
blame for the technical violation than the prisoner, he was paroled. He
is now making regular reports.

For the past calendar year 227 applications for parole from the prison
were considered, of which 114 were granted, 108 denied, 2 withdrawn and
two were continued. Of the 114 granted during the past year 66 have
received their final discharge, 33 are now making monthly reports, 13
have defaulted, and 2 were not discharged on account of not having
proper employment.

Of the 13 who defaulted, 11 were returned to prison and two are at
large. In the six years out of the 480 paroles granted there were only
46 who defaulted. This is less than ten per cent.

“The men who are on parole draw from $20 to $35 a month and some of
them more,” said President Smith.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Honor Camp in Georgia._--On motion of Commissioner Winn the first
honor convict camp to be established in Georgia was recently authorized
by the Fulton County board of commissioners, recently. A force of negro
convicts, who have long been trusties, will be put to work grading.
Some of these trusties will take the place of drivers, who are now
employed by the county at a cost of $4,000 per year.

Two other resolutions tending toward convict reform were adopted. One
provides that the convicts shall not be worked more than ten hours a
day at any time during the year, and fixes longer dinner hours than
have heretofore been allowed. Another provides that the convicts shall
not be forced to walk a longer distance than three-quarters of a mile
to their work.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Up to Father._--We copy the following story from the annual report of
the Pennsylvania Prison Society.

James A. Leonard, President of the American Prison Association, relates
the following story:

  “A man came into my office one day, greatly excited,” said Mr.
  Leonard. “He appeared to be a hard-headed business man--a live wire.
  I asked him what I could do for him.

  “‘I don’t know whether you can do anything’, he replied. ‘My boy is
  in the hands of the sheriff over there. My boy has been sentenced to
  the reformatory. But I guess you can’t do anything for him, because
  he’s a born criminal.’

  “‘If he’s a born criminal, he’ll be the first one I ever saw’, I
  replied.

  “Then this man went on and told me what he had done for his boy. He
  had bought him a pony and cart when he was little, and later he had
  bought him a gun and a boat, and so on, and so on, and before he
  got through I marveled that the boy had not been sentenced to the
  reformatory much sooner.

  “‘You have bought all these things for your boy’, I said, ‘but have
  you ever been a father to him?’ The man looked surprised. ‘I mean,
  have you ever been a companion to him? Have you ever interested
  yourself into the things he was interested in?’ He had not done so
  because he was a busy business man.

  “One year later when that boy was paroled he shook hands with me and
  said: ‘Mr. Leonard, there is one thing above all others that I want
  to thank you for, and that is for getting me acquainted with my dad.’

  “I wasn’t worried much about that boy after that because he had
  reached the stage where he called his father ‘my dad.’”

       *       *       *       *       *

_Prison Earnings in New York._--The convict population of the State
of New York at present is 4,604, an increase of 88 over a year ago.
The highest number confined at any one time during the year was 4,838.
The total cost of maintenance during the year was $814,583. Sing Sing
earned $73,371.50, a decrease of $3,513 over the previous year; Auburn
earned $29,167.45, decrease of $39,954; Clinton earned $36,963.72,
decrease of $7,811.

       *       *       *       *       *

_The Views of Boston’s District Attorney._

To the Editor of the Boston Post:

Sir--The morning Post states that in a speech last night I said that in
10 years there would be no prisons. This is far from what I said and I
would ask you to make due correction.

With the fullest hope and confidence in human nature I must confess
that I have not as yet reached the point where I could express the
belief that Utopia would be realized within the next decade. What I did
say was that within that time courts would no longer pronounce definite
sentence upon those found guilty of crime, but that the sentence or
length of time during which a guilty man should be deprived of his
liberty for the safety of the community would be determined by some
competent board of men appointed for that purpose, with all the power
and dignity of a court, who, after the fullest investigation, would
determine where the person should be sent and for what length of time,
subject to modification thereafter.

I said that the distinction between felony and misdemeanor would
be abolished and the State Prison and House of Correction would be
abolished under those names and that all institutions would be known as
Houses of Reformation only, the added sting and stigma of felony and
State Prison being removed.

I do feel that the prison of the future will differ from the prison
of to-day as much as ours does from the dungeons of yesterday, even
as the thought of punishment of a guilty man is disappearing from the
theory of advanced thinkers in criminology and in its place reformation
and development of the convicted man is becoming the principal
consideration.

  Yours truly,
  J. C. Pelletier, District Attorney.

Boston, December 18, 1913.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Not Stripes, But Uniforms._--The fourth State Legislature of Oklahoma
provides modestly colored jeans--gray jeans for the regulars, brown
jeans for trusties in the State Penitentiary. The “ring-tailed” stripes
are still found in the store rooms of the penitentiary, but they are
used only as a means of punishment, to be worn only by prisoners who
have escaped and been returned after capture. Suits of novelty goods,
various colors, but neat, though cheap, business cuts, are provided
when prisoners have served their terms.

       *       *       *       *       *

_“Dope” in Magazines._--A prisoner recently released from Stillwater
Prison, Minnesota, has been arrested by post office inspectors in New
York.

  According to the inspectors, Chessman has been sending sulphate of
  morphine to prisoners in the Stillwater Prison for several weeks,
  inclosed in magazines. Single copies of a current periodical often
  contained as much as 30 grains of the “dope”, it is alleged, and the
  inmates professed an amazing fondness for reading.

  The warden became suspicious when magazines not ordinarily read by
  criminals began to pour in by every mail, and directed that some of
  the packages be opened. It was found that the pages were literally
  covered with “dope”, which had been carefully distributed between the
  leaves. One of the magazines was forwarded to the government chemist
  for analysis and it was discovered that 28 grains of sulphate of
  morphine had been secreted in the package.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Prisoners’ Wages in Iowa._--Under date of February 6th the Des Moines
Register states that the method of paying prisoners for their work
within the State Prison walls has been tried long enough to prove
the venture successful. The corps of salary-earning convicts are
those employed on the new cell house, including electricians, wirers,
plumbers, plasterers, steam fitters, mechanics and iron workers. Just
now the working force is somewhat reduced, though the weekly payroll
amounts to $69.

An effort is on foot to secure a wage allowance for the men employed
upon the construction of a new reservoir, to be followed by
compensation to prisoners for all work on strictly prison industries.
As an ultimate possibility in this direction is the plan to put all
prisoners upon a salary, charging them for their care and living, with
opportunity given for earnings.

At the same time, throughout the city of Fort Madison is being
circulated a petition to Governor Clarke to halt the employment of
prisoners to do laboring work about the city. Such work as papering,
plastering, painting and carpet cleaning is specifically mentioned. The
petition has nearly a thousand signers.

       *       *       *       *       *

_At Duluth, Minnesota._--Although the joint city and county work farm
had been in operation little over a month by February 9th, prisoners
sent there have already cleared the underbrush from nearly 20 acres. It
is expected by spring over 200 acres will be cleared. During the summer
the men will prepare the land already cleared so that it may be plowed
in the spring of 1915.

According to Superintendent Fred Ward of the farm, all men now at the
institution are apparently satisfied with conditions and appear willing
to work. A few have been encountered, he says, who at first refused to
do their share.

In all 52 men have been sent to the farm from municipal and district
courts. Four men have been discharged, leaving 48, the limit, now in
the toils.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Ending an Old Abuse._--The Boston Transcript thus characterizes the
effort of the War Department of our country to modernize its treatment
of military prisoners. “The bill for the revision of the Articles of
War, which was passed by the Senate recently without dissent, and
almost without debate, is intended to be the legislative expression
of Secretary Garrison’s advanced ideas on military penology. It will
be remembered that in September last Secretary Garrison issued an
order applying the principle of endeavoring to make the military
prisoner better instead of worse for his imprisonment. This is a
familiar purpose in civil penology, but an innovation in the military
code. Secretary Garrison could proceed but tentatively in putting
his reform--for reform it is--into operation, but now, if the House
concurs, he will have the authority of unquestionable law with him in
substituting detention barracks for military prisons.

“The scope of Secretary Garrison’s new departure becomes apparent when
it is said that heretofore criminal and military offences have been
regarded almost from the same point of view, and the offenders have
been treated along the same lines of punishment. Men were sent to the
army prisons, where they were worked hard and were made to feel their
disgrace whenever possible, only to be finally dishonorably discharged,
which included the forfeiting of all the rights of citizenship.
Naturally, this kind of treatment was not exactly fair to all the
prisoners, for many of the offenders had made serious mistakes through
an ignorance of military matters, or through the yielding to some
outside influence, such as deserting to visit a sick relative. Such men
as these were not really bad, but nevertheless they were made to serve
time with the ultimate disgrace of dishonorable dismissal hanging over
them along with men who were convicted of acts of moral turpitude.

“The military prisoners now are practically divided into two classes, a
classification that the proposed law will maintain:

  1. Soldiers convicted of offences against the discipline of the army;
  that is, purely military offenders; and

  2. Those convicted of statutory and common law offences.

“This new order of September 17 deals mainly with the first class.

“All soldiers of the first class are separated from those of the second
class, and are given a chance to make good and to ultimately return to
their regiments and fulfil their term of enlistment. The time they have
spent in confinement is not taken out of their period of enlistment.
Most of these men are sent to the new detention barracks at Fort
Leavenworth, Ks., while the remaining few go to the barracks at the
Presidio, just outside of San Francisco. No men go to these barracks
unless they have a term of three months or more to serve, as men with
short sentences are placed in the post guard house.

“Upon a soldier’s arrival at one of these detention barracks he is
eligible for one of the companies or battalions, which are organized,
equipped and drilled as infantry under the command of officers and
non-commissioned officers specially selected and detailed from the
active list. A serious attempt is made to do away with all the
atmosphere of a prison. The men are not known by numbers, but by their
own names; and the heretofore prison garb is replaced by a uniform,
differing slightly from that of the Service. There is also school for
the more illiterate men, and courses in shorthand and typewriting are
open to all wishing to take up these subjects. Thus, these men will
learn things which will be to their advantage later in civil life. No
menial work whatever will be performed by the prisoners, except their
own police duty. Under this system the men will not feel all the while
that they are prisoners as they formerly did, but as soldiers doing
soldiers’ work and receiving soldiers’ training. And when these men
return to the colors they will not return as men who have worn stripes
and numbers, but as men who have been subjected to a special and
rigid regime of military instruction and training, for the purpose of
bestowing upon them new ideals of conduct, and to make them capable of
performing efficient service upon rejoining the army.

“And as for the men of Class II.--those convicted of acts of moral
turpitude--they are sent to Federal penitentiaries, where they will
serve the sentence given them by a military court martial. When their
time is up they will be dishonorably discharged, thus forfeiting their
right of citizenship.

“Also, this new system will have much to do in the saving of material,
money and character. It will save many from becoming social outcasts,
who only spread germs of antagonism against the army and all organized
government. The shorter terms of confinement, during which the men
receive schooling of more than one kind, cannot but help in making
soldiers and not in destroying them.”

       *       *       *       *       *

_Alphonse Bertillon Dead._--Alphonse Bertillon, who died recently
at Paris, was the creator of the famous Bertillon system for the
identification of criminals. He was director of the anthropometric
department of the Paris police. The system was introduced into France
in 1883, and was eventually adopted by police departments in all parts
of the world, including the United States. However, in later years it
is being gradually supplanted by the finger-print system.

M. Bertillon’s system was based on his discoveries that certain
physical features and dimensions of certain bones or bony structures
in the body practically remain the same during adult life. He took the
measures of the head length, head breadth, the length of the middle
finger, the left foot and the length of the forearm from the elbow
to the end of the little finger. These various measurements were
subdivided into three classes, “small,” “medium” and “large.” As the
system developed, M. Bertillon added the height of a person, the color
of the eyes and length of the little finger. All this information was
entered on classified cards.

By means of the system police departments have been able to
keep records of crooks who have been arrested and convicted.
This information has been of great value in the prosecution of
criminals, identified as previous offenders by means of the records,
notwithstanding their professions of innocence. Identification bureaus
in the largest cities exchange Bertillon measurements one with
another, and thus increase the efficiency of the system and add to the
embarrassment of the criminally inclined.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Parole in Michigan._--During the fiscal year ending December 31, 1913,
the State pardon board paroled 647 prisoners, having investigated a
total of 1,424 cases. The average length of parole was 10.8 months,
the average number on parole during the year was 619 and the number of
prisoners violating their paroles was 199, the percentage of violation
being 15.9 per cent.

Forty-three meetings were held by the board, four being at Marquette,
12 at Jackson, 12 at Detroit and three at Lansing.

The paroled prisoners earned a total of $287,796.65, while the total
expenses of the board were $4,370.30.

There is some opposition to the present system of a pardon board, the
members of which receive $7 per day and expenses when acting. No member
is paid for more than 200 days of any one year, however.

       *       *       *       *       *

_The Jacksonville Correctional Farm._--Police Justice Stein, of
Detroit, has recently brought this description of the Jacksonville
(Fla.) city prison farm:

“The farm consists of 640 acres, a mile square, and lies about seven
miles outside the city of Jacksonville,” he said. “The property was
purchased by the city two years ago. Several hundred acres were then
covered with timber. Much of it was high and dry and clear of timber,
while the remainder of the land was submerged. The land was purchased
at a low price. Since the city bought it the water has been drained
off into the St. Johns’ river, and this portion of the farm is now as
fertile as any land in Florida.

“An ordinary wire fence, about five feet high, is the only enclosure
about the farm. There are four buildings on the land, all of wood. One
is for the women who are sent to the farm, and one for the attendants,
consisting of a warden, a cook, a physician and several guards and
helpers. The other two are used by the prisoners. The buildings for the
prisoners are equipped with shower baths.

“The prisoners are taught to work on the farm. They raise all the
vegetables used on the farm, and the sole cost to the city of operating
the farm is for meat and clothes which averages about seven cents a
day for each prisoner. The prisoners do not wear striped clothes, but
overalls and ordinary jumpers. Neither is a ball and chain fastened to
them when they go to work. During the last two years but one prisoner
has escaped or tried to escape, and he came back of his own volition
two days later.

“The average number of men on the farm runs from 75 to 100, while the
number of women averages about three to five. Both whites and negroes
are sent to the farm. Besides the farm work carried on, the men work on
roads, ditches, at cutting timber, and in planting new trees. The men
are divided into squads.

“No prisoner is sentenced to the farm for more than ninety days.

“By a peculiar architectural arrangement one man can guard all the
buildings. Each building has but one door. These doors all face a
common center, about 25 yards away. The walks from the doors to the
center are bordered by a high wire fence. At the center is the gate,
which admits the prisoners to the farm. Here the guard sits with his
rifle, and he can cover the buildings easily.

“The increased value of the land since it was purchased by the city,
due to the draining of the swamp, its high degree of fertility and the
good roads on it, have more than offset the purchase price, and the
money expended by the city to keep the prisoners in meat and clothes.

“I think the day is not far distant when Detroit will consider the
advisability of establishing a prison farm.

“Most of the prisoners at the Jacksonville farm are drunks and petty
offenders, and the steady work in the open air away from other workmen
and congestion of one kind and another, has a salutary effect on their
mental processes, which is highly beneficial. The average number of
prisoners who come back to the farm for further offenses is relatively
small, according to Justice Anderson. I think it is a step in the right
direction.

“In Jacksonville persons who carry concealed weapons are sentenced by
the police judge and not by the judges of the recorder’s court, as is
the case in Detroit. A police justice also has the power of pardoning
any person he sentences to the prison farm. Justice Anderson told me he
would not be police justice if he did not have the pardoning power.”

       *       *       *       *       *

_Politics and Prison._--“Until politicians keep their hands off State
prisons there is no hope for reforming notorious abuses in the system,”
says Henry Solomon, President of the New York State Commission of
Prisons. Mr. Solomon recently finished an exhaustive examination of
Sing Sing Prison.

“We see no use in mincing words on this subject,” said Mr. Solomon. “We
know it is not an easy thing to find the right man to run a prison, but
we believe he can be found some where in this country, if it is really
desired to find him.

“The present Warden at Sing Sing has so far as we know no particular
experience in prison matters. He has however, made many improvements in
the short time he has been there. We are perfectly willing to suspend
judgment until he has had a further chance to prove what he can do.
We must add, however, that there is much room for improvement and
particularly in the industries.”

Mr. Solomon said that the suggestions of Thomas Mott Osborne, arising
from his personal experience in Auburn Prison, had afforded valuable
hints.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Some Reasons For Massachusetts Pardons._--The Governor and Council
in Massachusetts granted 69 pardons in 1913. One man, sentenced to 18
months for polygamy, had had papers served on him back in 1902 for
divorce, had been introduced to a man represented to be his divorced
wife’s second husband and, supposing himself to be a single man, had
married a Lawrence woman in 1911. Another, an 18-year-old sailor-boy,
sentenced for assault and battery, had had no counsel at his trial.
Another sentenced for second-degree murder, was at most, according to
this statement, guilty only of manslaughter for striking a fatal blow
at a huge negro in fear of repetition of revolting treatment. He had
pleaded guilty to the greater charge on advice of counsel.

Among a long list of cases, somewhat similar in the showing made, is
a curious one of a man released on condition that he go to the Long
Island hospital and submit to an operation for the transfusion of blood
to his mother, who it was believed could be cured in this way and would
otherwise die.

Such a report lends strength to the plan Prison Commissioner Randall
is urging before the legislature for an indeterminate sentence system,
says the Worcester Post. It is a question on which much can be said pro
and con, though the most advanced penologists are pretty well agreed as
to its advantages when wisely administered. Indiana and Minnesota have
found that it works with even unexpected success. Mr. Randall, in the
recent hearing on his bill, urged that it

“Would relieve the courts from fixing the maximum and minimum of those
committed to state prison, which was right, for the court’s duty is
simply to find whether a man is guilty and it does not study his
personality to any extent. The question of when a prisoner shall be
released should be left to the parole board rather than to the court.”

As a practical consideration, also, it would relieve the Governor and
council from work which now absorbs much of their time and energy. A
competent parole board would specialize in the study of convicts and
their needs and thus add to knowledge that is needed in our modern life
and the duty to make it better by every means within our reach.

       *       *       *       *       *

_The Virginia Penitentiary._--According to the annual report of the
State penitentiary board to the governor, the big prison not only
made expenses last year, but earned a net profit of $20,412.31. Its
operating expenses were $115,098.88 and its receipts $135,511.10. Of
the total earnings $130,573 came from the hiring of the men on the
contract system in the penitentiary shops. Defending itself from the
charge of overworking the prisoners for the benefit of the contract
holders, the board calls attention to the fact that the 800 prisoners
released during the year ending September 31, were paid the sum of
$10,575.85, which represents their earnings during imprisonment.

The board emphasizes the fact that the prisoners do not work more than
an average of nine hours a day. The amount of the prisoners’ fund on
hand on October 1, was $16,22.44, notwithstanding that $10,575.85 had
been paid to discharged prisoners and $14,902.79 spent by the prisoners
during the year on delicacies.

There were in the penitentiary on October 1, 1913, 728 prisoners, 300
at the State farm and 1,057 in the twenty-nine road camps, making a
total of 2,118. On the same day of 1912, there were in the penitentiary
1,158 prisoners confined, 286 at the State farm and 691 in nineteen
road camps, a total of 2,131. The daily average of prisoners confined
in the penitentiary for the fiscal year ending September 31, 1913, was
1,012, as against 1,213 for the preceding year.

A total of 785 new prisoners were received during the year. By
expiration of term, 487 prisoners were discharged, two were granted
absolute pardons, fifty-six were granted conditional pardons, 169 were
paroled, 31 died, 54 escaped from the road camps and nine were sent to
insane asylums.

Of the 728 prisoners not fitted for work in the road camps, 139 are
white men, 499 colored men, five white women and eighty-five colored
women. Of the 785 prisoners received during the year 362 could read
and write and 423 were illiterate; 373 were abstainers, 278 moderate
drinkers and 134 intemperate; 277 were married, 489 single and two
divorced.--(Roanoke News).

       *       *       *       *       *

_A Holiday at Auburn._--An unusual event took place in Auburn prison,
when 1,400 convicts, observing Lincoln’s birthday, marched from cells
to chapel and mess hall in charge of convict captains, elected by the
inmates several weeks before, as their representatives in the mutual
welfare league. The convict officers relieved the regular officers of
their usual duties and maintained splendid discipline.

The holiday entertainment was furnished entirely by convict talent and
included an oration on Lincoln by an inmate.

       *       *       *       *       *

_The Development of Road Work._--Thirteen States have passed
laws during the present year allowing the use of convicts in the
construction and repair of highways, according to a compilation by Dr.
E. Stagg Whitin, assistant in social legislation in Columbia university
and chairman of the executive committee of the national committee on
prison labor. They are Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana,
Kansas, Maine, New Jersey, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West
Virginia and Wisconsin. As many other States had previously passed
similar legislation, but few of the forty-eight States have not adopted
the policy of using prisoners to build and maintain public roads.

West Virginia and Iowa are the two States whose laws regarding the
working of convicts on highways stand out most prominently. So anxious
was the governor of the former State to secure an effective law that
he went to New York and with the assistance of representatives of the
national committee on prison labor, of the road department of Columbia
university and of the legislative drafting bureau worked out bills
making compulsory the employment of convicts on the roads. The West
Virginia law authorizes the county courts to make appropriations out of
road funds for convict work; it states that the court shall sentence
any male person over sixteen to road work instead of to the county
jail; persons charged with misdemeanors unable to furnish bail shall
work on the roads and if acquitted when tried shall be paid 50 cents
a day for each day’s work they perform; justices of the peace shall
sentence to work on the roads persons convicted of crime whom otherwise
they would send to the county jail.

Another feature of the West Virginia law is the establishment of a
State road bureau to supervise any plans proposed by a county for using
prison labor in road building. The plan approved, the county shall
apply to the board of control for the number of prisoners required
and shall state the length of time they shall be needed. The board
shall, as far as possible, give equal service to each of the counties
and shall determine which prisoners may be assigned to such work. The
warden is to provide suitable and movable quarters, which shall be
built, where possible, by convict labor. The convicts shall remain
under direct control of the warden, their work, however, being under
the supervision of the road bureau.

In Iowa the board of control of the State institutions with the advice
of the warden of any penal institution, may permit able bodied male
prisoners to work on the roads. The law specifically states such labor
shall not be leased to contractors. A prisoner opposed to such work,
or whose character and disposition make it probable that he would
attempt escape or be unruly, is not to be worked on the highways.
Although the prisoners are under the jurisdiction of the warden while
building or repairing roads, their work is supervised by the State
Highway Commissioner. Prisoners employed on the highways of Iowa
receive such part of their earnings above the cost of their keep as the
board deems equitable, the earnings either being funded or given to
their dependent families. Before Iowa passed her present prison labor
laws, George W. Cosson, attorney general of the State, made a thorough
investigation of the prisons of his own and other States, and strongly
denounced the contract system, under which the prisoners were employed
up to that time. Mr. Cosson drew up the road bill and is of the opinion
it will do much to drive the contract system out of the State.

       *       *       *       *       *

_The Cost of a “Chair.”_--The State of Tennessee’s new electric chair
at the State prison is now in readiness.

A total of 2,300 volts are to be used in operating the death chair. The
equipment is said to be the most up-to-date in the United States. It
cost the State of Tennessee $1,750.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Land Reclamation Plans in Massachusetts._--Under the provisions of the
so-called wet lands reclamation act passed by the legislature of last
year, the State boards of agriculture and health are contemplating the
purchase of about 300 acres of swamp land in Walpole, to begin work
which is eventually expected to reclaim between 100,000 and 200,000
acres of land within 30 miles of Boston, and including the towns of
North Billerica, Lincoln, Concord, Bedford and Carlisle.

Most of the land will be available for agricultural purposes; other
portions will furnish manufacturing sites.

Chairman Randall of the prison commission is considering the
advisability of using prison labor on the work, and an effort will
shortly be made to obtain from the legislature provision whereby a
portion of the wages earned by the prison laborers can be given to
their families.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Convict Farm in Arkansas Condemned._--Here are some of the conditions
alleged by Officer W. M. Rankin of the Arkansas Humane Society to
exist at the Monroe County convict farm. Mr. Rankin made the following
charges:

That when the prisoners were brought in from their work at six o’clock
in the afternoon, they were chained to a long chain which extended the
length of their room and that they were thus kept chained all night.
They were kept chained thus from six o’clock Saturday night until they
went to work Monday morning, being released only to take baths. Mr.
Rankin states, however, that he was told by the prisoners and by one of
the guards that the chaining was discontinued about a week before he
visited the place.

That he found eight white men confined in a room about twelve feet
square. That he found ten negro prisoners in a room 12 by 14 feet.

That the bed for the white prisoners consisted of some straw mattresses
placed on planks that had been nailed to the wall, four comforts and
no pillows. That the bedding for the ten negro prisoners consisted of
two straw mattresses and a few comforts, all of which were covered with
vermin.

That all clothing given the prisoners was charged to them and that they
were forced to work out the amounts charged except for rubber boots
furnished them.

That the food furnished the prisoners was insufficient; that they were
furnished with neither knives nor forks nor a table and were compelled
to stand or sit on their bunks while eating.

That prisoners were whipped on their naked flesh with a heavy piece of
leather about four and three inches in width.

That sanitary conditions were awful.

Mr. Rankin further charges that he found men working on the farm who
had been convicted in the court of the mayor of Brinkley and also
that he found that many of the negro convicts had been detained for a
considerable period after their terms had expired, according to the
records of the mayor’s court.

Three white men are mentioned as being illegally detained. One was
Claude McKinnon, and Mr. Rankin said that he has in his possession
a certified copy of the docket of the court of Mayor Camerone of
Brinkley, which shows that McKinnon was tried January 13, on a charge
of loitering and discharged, despite which fact, he was found confined
at the county farm.

Another white man, says the report, was W. Van Beek, who was sentenced
from the mayor’s court January 6. The report says that Van Beek was
still on the farm February 1, and that if the mayor’s docket was
correct, he had then worked seven days overtime.

He also says that Frank Lynch, fined $10 and $4.30 costs in the mayor’s
court, December 29, was released from the farm February 1, and that if
the mayor’s docket is correct, he has worked 14 days overtime.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Transportation Again?_--The Buffalo (N. Y.) Express states that

  the question of exiling habitual or professional criminals is being
  agitated in England. In a recent report of the British prison
  commissioners it is noted that the number of persons having previous
  convictions has in late years risen from 78 to 87 per cent. The
  latest available figures show that in England only 118 of 916
  sentenced to penal servitude had not been previously convicted, and
  that the greater number of old offenders had from six to twenty
  convictions against them. It is estimated that at the present time
  there are in London alone 20,000 habitual criminals. “The only way of
  dealing with these habitual criminals”, says an English authority,
  “is to expel them from the community against which they wage
  incessant war. A third conviction should cause the prisoner to be
  deported to some island and reduced to a state of industrial serfdom,
  in which he could earn his living.”

  To adopt this suggestion means a return to the old system of
  convict colonies. An obstacle to the segregation plan under present
  conditions is the scarcity of lands available for such purposes.
  Suitable island territory is at a premium. Continental land except in
  isolated cases is not desirable for the location of convict colonies,
  because of the opportunities for escape. The alternative is the
  establishment of prison farms--a system experimented with more or
  less during recent years. Here, too, the opportunities for escape are
  many. The prison farm is most suitable to first termers. But that
  still leaves the question of disposition of the professional criminal
  unsettled.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Idleness Reduced at Ohio Penitentiary._--The Columbia Journal says
that “a remarkable change in penitentiary conditions has occurred since
Warden Thomas was put in charge of the institution last summer by
Governor Cox. At that time there were 750 idle men in the institution;
to-day only 200 men are in the idle house. Within the next two weeks
the idle house will be more than conspicuous by the absence of
occupants.”

The new school and the woolen mills nearing completion will result
in the depletion of the ranks of the idle house. This is the final
solution of one of the biggest problems at the penitentiary, which
Governor Cox insisted should be met when he placed Warden Thomas in
charge. The prisoners in the school will attend six-hour sessions.

“The White City,” said to be the finest example of cell-block
construction in the country, is the name given by prisoners at Ohio
penitentiary to the new cell block which replaced one built in 1874.
“The White City” houses 580 men. It is known officially as cell blocks
“C” and “D.” It has 280 cells, built in five ranges or stories, with 28
cells to a range.

Two prisoners sleep in each cell on steel bunks, which can be raised up
against the wall like the upper berths of a sleeping car. The entire
cell block and all equipment in it are built entirely of steel. It
is fireproof throughout, the only inflammable things in it being the
hair mattresses used by the prisoners. “The White City” is modern and
sanitary, with running water, electric lights and toilet facilities in
each cell.

The prisoners in “the White City” are men of excellent behavior and
“100 per cent.” men. This cell block is about the only part of the
present penitentiary that will be used in the new prison farm. It was
constructed in such a way that it can be moved to the prison farm in
sections.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Another Item From Colorado._--“We have built between 1,200 and 1,500
miles of State highways under this system at a cost of about $389
per mile for labor,” says Warden Tynan. “These roads are built of
disintegrated granite and are fine boulevards--not ordinary roads. We
are now driving a road through solid granite, 16 feet wide and well
surfaced, which costs us about $1,000 per mile for labor, and that
is the hardest kind of construction. The roads are maintained in
good condition by the use of drags. They cost about $4 each, and are
effective in keeping the road well surfaced, if used after each heavy
rain.

“The State does this work for the counties by furnishing a dollar in
labor for each dollar that the county provides for road work. The money
the State puts up is used to maintain the camps, an expense of 32 cents
per day per man.”

       *       *       *       *       *

_Cleaning Out a Prison._--Governor Cole L. Blease expects to clear
the South Carolina Penitentiary of about four hundred prisoners
by next August, according to his statement during an inquiry into
the conditions at the State Hospital for the Insane by a special
legislative committee. The governor urged that the prison be converted
into a tuberculosis hospital for negroes.

D. J. Griffith, Superintendent, said there were not enough convicts
left to do even such work as waiting on the table. There were more than
1,300 prisoners in the penitentiary when Gov. Blease assumed office
three years ago, but he has extended Executive clemency in more than a
thousand cases. “In January sixty-four convicts had been the recipients
of clemency and if the Governor continues at his usual rate it will not
be long until the penitentiary will be cleaned out.”--So speaks the New
York Evening Sun of February 5.

       *       *       *       *       *

_An Ex-Convict Running For Governor._--Al J. Jennings, ex-train robber
and federal prisoner, who won the Democratic nomination for county
attorney of Oklahoma county, Oklahoma, in 1912, has announced his
candidacy for the governorship of the State of Oklahoma.

“My object is to clean up the party in Oklahoma. I intend to fight
double dealing political thieves, with whom no self-respecting outlaw
of former years can associate.

“All I want is to see absolutely honest men at the head of the
government, and after I have announced my candidacy if some man whose
integrity and uprightness are unquestioned becomes a candidate I shall
withdraw and support him with all of my ability.

“Some people do not seem to be able to understand how an outlaw, an
ex-train robber and federal prisoner can become sincerely law-abiding
and a reformer in politics, but the explanation is simple. I made a
mistake and defied the law. I was caught and punished--kept five years
in prison--and then saw how I had been wrong to become an enemy of
society. I decided to reclaim my place in society and set about doing
it. As soon as I became a free man, living in a free community, I began
to appreciate the differences in lawbreaking and the consequences
thereof, and that made me a political reformer.

“I had been a train robber, a crude, open defier of society, and I had
been caught and punished. I saw all about me men who wore the best
clothes and stood high in society robbing the people right and left and
not getting caught or being punished. They were not as primitive as I
had been in the method they chose. They did things in the dark and only
appeared in the open when they had on their Sunday clothes, so to speak.

“I favor the adoption of a reformatory parole system,” he said, “by
which first offenders can be given a chance to redeem themselves. I
think that a young man who is convicted for the first time should be
allowed to stay at home and work under the watchful eye of the State
instead of being locked up in a prison where, in all probability, he
will be made a confirmed criminal. There will be no wholesale release
of prisoners if I become governor, but I will exercise the power of
pardon and parole with the view of reclaiming for society every man I
can. As long as there is a chance of making a good citizen of a man we
should try to do so.”

Jennings was a train robber in Oklahoma and the southwest for several
years before his final capture in 1897 and subsequent conviction in a
federal court. He served a few years in the prison at Columbus, O.,
before being pardoned by President McKinley. His citizenship was later
restored by President Roosevelt, and he began the practice of law in
Oklahoma City. In 1912, he ran for the Democratic nomination as county
attorney of Oklahoma county against six other candidates. Before the
primaries five of the candidates withdrew to concentrate the vote
against him, but in spite of this he obtained the nomination. At the
general election he was defeated by a narrow margin by a Republican who
was supported by both the Republicans and Democratic organizations.

       *       *       *       *       *

_More Road Work._--In June, 1912, the State of Massachusetts decided
to start a camp and employ the inmates in road construction and
reforestation work, and, accordingly, forty model prisoners were
selected from the Worcester House of Correction and sent to the State
reservation at Mt. Wachusett.

These men erected five buildings and cleared the land for a garden
patch on which, by the way, enormous quantities of vegetables were
raised this year, enough in fact to supply the camp and to some
extent, the Worcester institution, for the past winter.

There were many who at first were strongly against the establishment
of a camp on the side of the mountain, being of the opinion that the
reservation would be spoiled for the State, and particularly for the
town of Westminster, but this objection soon wore away. The measure
of success is both in work accomplished and benefit to the prisoners,
physically and mentally.

What first impresses the visitor to the camp is the total absence of
anything suggestive of confinement and of a corrective institution. The
inmates are free to wander within certain limits from the cluster of
buildings and while they are garbed in the customary gray suits worn by
other county prisoners, there is little to suggest the prisoner to the
passerby in their actions and general demeanor.

So far, twenty-two miles of road have been constructed through the
forest, at a small expense to the county, by the prisoners. A stone
crusher and a compression drill are parts of the equipment of the road
building gang, which is under the charge of the master of the camp.

Flanked on three sides by mountain slopes and by a large meadow on
the other, the camp is situated in an ideal spot. Thankful are the
prisoners for the change from indoor confinement, and in token of
appreciation they work as hard if not harder than men on the outside
who enjoy their full liberty.

Supplies are brought from the Worcester jail twice a week by auto
truck which generally takes back a load of potatoes or turnips and an
occasional term-expired prisoner. Only men who are sentenced for short
terms are sent to Westminster and therefore the camps population is
constantly changing.

Mr. Coombs, in charge of the camp, said that only three prisoners had
ever made their escape, which was an extremely simple matter, and that
this trio all returned and pleaded to be taken back into the fold.
There are no locks or bars on the dormitory shed and it is an easy
matter for a man to take “French leave” if he so desires.

Next year it is thought the State will add to the camp property by
purchasing the Bolton farm across the road, and in this way fifty more
prisoners will be accommodated.--Boston Herald.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Probation Results in Massachusetts._--The Worcester Telegram states
that “the Massachusetts probation commission is approaching the
millionaire class. In 1909 it handled less than $50,000, and in 1913
almost $218,000. That is money collected from people under court
jurisdiction and paid to others for various reasons: For restitution of
property taken unlawfully, $24,250.63; for non-support, which is turned
into support of families of the delinquent, $140,773.96; for court
expenses, $3,335.34; for fines in the case of suspended sentences,
$49,304.09. The increase of such business throughout the State has been
so large in the five years, from half a hundred thousand to nearly a
quarter of a million dollars, that the chances are good it will reach
the million list in the next five years.

“The probation officials claim they have saved a great many, almost the
entire list falling into their hands, from the kind of shiftless if
not criminal lives they had been leading, and there is no doubt they
have reported correctly. But there is that tremendous increase in the
work and cash results of the Probation Commission and its officers,
and at the same time the jails and prisons remain full and get still
fuller. Then crime must be on the increase in Massachusetts, not only
in occasional lapses of the people, but as a regular condition which
grows with the years. The probation service of the State costs over
$20,000 a year, but the receipts the last year were, for the benefit of
the State, $80,000 more than that. The following from the commission’s
report is worth reading by all the people:

  “While the large sum of money collected by the probation officers
  of the state is not covered permanently into a public treasury, it
  is not less an actual financial benefit. Consisting very largely
  of enforced payments from other wise non-supporting husbands and
  fathers, it goes to the same extent and without diminution to the
  natural dependents. It relieves the state and the municipalities of
  the cost of caring for these neglected persons, and observation shows
  that this saving is substantially equal to the amount collected.
  Meanwhile the probationer who is made to contribute it is usefully
  employed, as he must be to provide for the payments, and the public
  is relieved of the expense of maintaining him in jail.”

“That shows a tremendous saving of money, as well as preventing the
waste of the same money in idling away time and getting into closer
touch with crime. What that means can be still more plainly seen from
the report that in 1909 non-supporting husbands to the number of 617,
contributed $25,218.13, but in 1913, non-supporting husbands to the
number of 1,240 gave up $140,773.96. That shows a gain of 100 per
cent. in the number of cases, but nearly 450 per cent. in the amount
collected. That leads the Commission on Probation to ask for more money
than it is allowed under the law, and a bill goes before the house at
Boston to give the Commission more than the $5,000 it has now. The
Commissioners do not draw salaries, but they have an office, with a
salaried deputy and stenographer. They want a chance to enlarge their
powers and work, because many courts are calling for probation officers
and what business they do must come under the care of the Commission.
But the serious question is as to what the State is coming to while it
enlarges on the plans to make the delinquents pay their way as they do
in the cases cited and still have an increase of crime and dependence
on the public charity for support. The courts do no less, the jails and
prisons no more, and still there is the claim that the people are being
taught to do better.”

       *       *       *       *       *

_Scrapping Metal and Scrapping Men._--Governor Foss of Massachusetts
recently said: “Let me add in all seriousness that the managers of my
own shops and factories make a more efficient and intelligent sorting
and reclamation of scrap metal than the laws have generally made of the
living men and women that have been thrown upon the scrap heap of our
jails and prisons.”

       *       *       *       *       *

Miss Margaret Elliott of Cleveland, Ohio, formerly connected with
the Training School for Girls at Geneva, Ill., has been appointed
superintendent of the Indiana prison. She will succeed Miss Emily E.
Rhoades, who resigned last December.

       *       *       *       *       *

STATEMENT OF THE OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, ETC. of THE DELINQUENT
Published monthly at New York, N. Y., required by the Act of August
24th, 1912.

  NAME OF                         POST OFFICE ADDRESS
  Editor, O. F. Lewis,            135 East 15th St., New York City.
  Managing Editor, O. F Lewis,     “    “    “    “      “     “
  Business Manager, O. F. Lewis,   “    “    “    “      “     “
  Publisher, The National
      Prisoners’ Aid Association,  “    “    “    “      “     “
  Owners,     “     “
          “       “       “        “    “    “    “      “     “

  There are no bondholders, mortgages, or other security holders.

  O. F. LEWIS, Editor and Business Manager.

  Sworn to and subscribed before me this 30th day of September, 1913.

  H. L. McCORMICK, Notary Public No. 6, Kings County.
  My Commission expires March 31, 1914.

       *       *       *       *       *

Transcriber’s Notes:

Punctuation has been made consistent.

Variations in spelling and hyphenation were retained as they appear in
the original publication, except that obvious typographical errors have
been corrected.

p. 8: Item 2 is as presented in the original text.

p. 12: 3 and 8 on the first two lines of the table are not completely
legible in the original text and could be either 3 or 8 in each case.

p. 26: Invalid date of September 31 is in the original text.

p. 26: A digit may be missing in a number in the original text, or a
comma may be misplaced (was $16,22.44, notwithstanding).





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