  [Under this heading will appear each month numerous paragraphs of general interest, relating to the prison field and the treatment of the delinquent.] A Correction.—The Delinquent is convinced that after all there is a “printer’s devil” in every office. For in the January Delinquent there appeared directly following our notice of Miss Davis’s well-deserved appointment to the commissionership of correction in New York, a little joke, running about eight lines in length and serving the printer simply as “filler” on the last page. Unfortunately the dash that should have separated the two items was omitted. However, we know that Miss Davis will forgive us, and, after all, we have had to find fault very seldom with our printer, who from the beginning has given us a very low rate and good service. For a National Prison Commission.—Rev. Samuel G. Smith, of St. Paul, president of the American Prison Association, has announced the members of the committee authorized by the Association at its last annual session in Indianapolis to wait upon President Wilson and Attorney-General McReynolds in an effort to have the Federal Government establish a national prison commission. The members of the commission are Professor Charles R. Henderson, of the University of Chicago, and United States Commissioner on the International Prison Commission; Frank L. Randall, chairman, Massachusetts Prison Commission; Henry Wolfer, warden of the State Prison at Stillwater, Minn.; W. H. Moyer, warden of the Federal prison at Atlanta, and Joseph P. Byers, secretary of the Association and Commissioner of Charities and Corrections of New Jersey. The Association in adopting the resolution for the naming of the committee thought that a national prison commission would be of great service to the Federal and all the State governments. It is part of the scheme to establish a school for the training of prison officials. Payments to Prisoners.—Dependents of prisoners now serving in the Ohio penitentiary received in January the first payments of money earned by the inmates of the State prison. Under the prison pay system, only those who are employed each day and whose deportment record is good receive any compensation for their labors. Men occupied at trades are paid the highest. The prison pay system was installed at the penitentiary in the latter part of September, and under its ruling no prisoner can earn more than $2.20 each week. The highest amount sent out Thursday by the penitentiary chief clerk amounted to $30. This sum went to a woman whose husband is serving a long sentence. A total of $774.72 was mailed out from the prison Thursday, and Friday an additional $867.15 was sent out. In Oregon four wives whose husbands are serving time on the rockpile, following convictions of non-support of their families, collected $126.25 from the county for their husband’s work during December. The law provides that the county shall allow the wife $1 and each child up to three 25 cents a day for the convict’s labors. During December two wives received an allowance of $1 a day each, and two received the maximum allowance of $1.75 a day. Three of those serving the county for non-support and whose families were reimbursed by the county are in for six months and the fourth is serving a year. The Booher-Hughes Bill in Congress.—“The development of convict road work in practically every State of the union will be the natural outcome of the passage of the Booher-Hughes bill, now pending before Congress,” says L. H. Speare, president of the Massachusetts Automobile State Association. “The bill, which will limit interstate commerce in convict-made goods by subjecting such goods to the laws of the State into which they come, will strike a fatal blow at the contract system. Under this pernicious system great quantities of prison-made goods are annually thrown on the open market, and because of the cheapness of their manufacture are sold at prices far below those at which similar goods manufactured under fair conditions can be sold. A cutting of the selling-price of goods manufactured in free factories and a consequent lowering of the wage paid free workingmen is the consequence. “Against this unfair competition organized labor has waged unceasing warfare, striving to overcome it by limiting the output of the prisons. Laws requiring the branding of convict-made goods and also a license for their sale have been written on the statute books of New York and a dozen other States. These laws, when tested by the courts, have invariably been held unconstitutional on the ground that they interfered with interstate commerce. The Booher-Hughes bill has therefore been introduced into Congress and is supported by the American Federation of Labor and the national committee on prison labor. This bill is modelled after the Wilson liquor law, which restricts interstate commerce in spirituous liquors, and it is hoped in the event of its passage that the State branding and licensing laws will be possible of enforcement. “New York City has long been the dumping ground for convict-made goods, and once it is possible to enforce the New York branding laws the profits to be derived from prison contracts will be reduced to a minimum. So great is the contractor’s fear of the effect of such legislation as the Booher-Hughes bill that many contracts contain the proviso that on its passage they shall immediately become null and void. “The destruction of the contract system would necessitate the building up of other systems for the employment of convicts. In the constructive programme which will be worked out in each of the States, road work, endorsed as it is by the national committee on prison labor and other agencies for prison reform, would play a large part. The passage of the Booher-Hughes convict labor bill is therefore of definite importance to all interested in the movement for placing convicts on the public roads.” Federal Prison Superintendent Appointed.—Francis H. Duehay, of Washington, has been appointed superintendent of prisons by the Attorney-General, displacing Robert V. La Dow, who has held that post through several administrations during the past eight or ten years. Mr. La Dow becomes assistant superintendent of prisons. In appointing a new man to this office and displacing Mr. La Dow, Attorney-General McReynolds gave as his reason the desire to have a man of his own selection at the head of prison affairs. He found no fault with the administration of Mr. La Dow, and indicated that his appreciation of his work was shown by the retention of Mr. La Dow’s services The Attorney-General has displayed considerable anxiety to bring about better conditions in the administration of prisons. He has made it known that he is working on a plan for adequate inspection and improvement in the parole system. He considers the care of Federal prisoners as one of the important duties placed in his charge, and has expressed his desire that the best conditions possible shall prevail. The problem of what employment to provide for prisoners is one that is giving the Attorney-General deep concern. With the objection to competition between prison-made goods and the products of free labor in mind, he is weighing the possibilities of providing occupation not subject to such objection. The necessity of finding some employment to fill in the life of the man in prison he appears thoroughly to subscribe to. (Washington Star, Jan. 25.) The Record of “Camp Hope,” Illinois.—In September, 1913, Warden E. M. Allen established a camp at Dixon, Ill., the road workers being State prisoners. Of the sixty-five men who have been at the camp in the last four or five months, Harry West, who is now clerk of the camp and has ten months yet to serve, said: “The boys are all on the square yet and there isn’t a man who hasn’t kept his word of honor with the warden given at Joliet before we started for camp.” The men have worked eight hours every day since they started on road building, except Saturday afternoon, Sundays and holidays. The work accomplished has been highly satisfactory to the local commissioners and the people. Fifteen of the original party of forty-five men have been released by pardon or otherwise. One convict was returned to Joliet because of his failure to make good. Another Step in the Honor System.—Warden Tynan, of Colorado, who has been a prominent user of the honor system, plans now a six-acre baseball and athletic field, built for and by convicts, with accommodations for the general public as well as convicts as spectators, to be opened this spring. “To build up a man mentally and morally,” said Tynan in announcing the innovation, “I know from experience you have to build him up physically.” The ballplayers and athletes who are to be allowed to use the field are those who cannot be trusted to work in the road gangs, at the prison ranches, or to join the fishing parties the warden allows his honor men. Permission to use the field must be earned by good conduct, which will be marked by the presentation of an honor button. The button admits the bearer to the field or to the grandstand. The public will be admitted through one gate and the convict-spectators through another. Provision will be made to prevent breaks for liberty. After the baseball season closes, a football team will use the field, and a basketball season will follow. The “Movies” and Portland Prison.—A London (Eng.) dispatch to the Washington (D. C.) Post on January 16 states that the English Government has, in the opinion of most observers, gone to ridiculous lengths in its opposition to certain moving picture films, showing a thrilling escape from Portland prison. “The film has been banned by the Home Office after the board had passed it. The company producing the film, which is called ‘Five Hundred Pounds Reward,’ has been curtly informed that it must not be shown publicly. The pictures were taken in a private quarry at Portland. “It is a well-known fact that no convict ever has escaped from Portland, but, in spite of this, the Home Office has threatened to confiscate the entire film, which has cost a good deal to produce, unless the greater portion of it is cut out. “It is stated at the office of the British board of film censors that all houses, other than government property, in the neighborhood of Portland prison and quarries are to be cleared away, and the wall surrounding the quarries to be raised twenty feet, the authorities being apparently under the impression that the film was taken with the aid of a telephoto lens.” Shackles in Tennessee.—A Nashville newspaper states that, “as a result of revolting conditions said to have been found on the county roads in a tour of inspection, a majority of the members of the workhouse board has declared that use of shackles on prisoners must be abolished. “According to the statement of one of the members who inspected the camps, the use of shackles on human beings is barbarous, and the suffering and inconvenience caused the prisoners by being forced to wear the irons could only be realized by seeing a prisoner who wore chains which reached from knee to ankle and a cross chain connecting each leg. “Squire Allen, in speaking of the conditions which he found to be caused from the use of shackles, said that several of the prisoners’ legs were almost decayed under the clamps which held the chains. Squire Allen said that especially in the cases of long-term men—those who were sent up for eleven months and twenty-nine days—the wearing of the chains was a horrible thing to think about. He said abolishing the custom of wearing the irons would be a great reform in the modern method of caring for the county prisoners. “The shackles are riveted on the legs of the prisoners the day they are received at the camps, and the irons are never removed for any purpose until the day the prisoner is given his liberty. The prisoner is forced to sleep in the chains, it is said, and it is impossible to remove the shackles without the aid of a skillful blacksmith.” Moyamensing Prison Investigation.—Philadelphia’s old prison is now being investigated. The January grand jury made, among other statements, the following: “No bond of humane feeling existed between the keepers and the prisoners. “The closets in the cells are foul-smelling, germ-breeding holes of sickness. “The old straw mattresses upon which the prisoners sleep are really filled with vermin. “The conditions of the cells of the untried prisoners are worse than the cells of those serving a sentence. “He deserves all he gets, let him have it, is apparently the motto at Moyamensing.” The Missouri State Prison.—“The Missouri penitentiary at Jefferson City is twenty-five years behind the times. It is a source of shame to all Missourians.” That is the substance of a statement on the Missouri penitentiary by Dr. C. A. Ellwood, professor of sociology in the University of Missouri. Dr. Ellwood says the blame does not rest on individuals so much as the system. For fifteen years he has been working to secure an industrial reformatory for the State. He also thinks the “contract system” is a great force for evil. It makes easier the smuggling of opium, the worst curse of a prison. Seventy per cent. of the long term prisoners are slaves of the drug, according to a former warden. Professor Ellwood blames the present and former officials for thinking every attack on the system was a personal attack. They resist and make impossible every effort which is made to ascertain the real state of affairs. This is in contrast with the Kansas officials, where the conditions in the penitentiary are just as bad. There the warden and his helpers are doing all they can to reform the prison system and conditions. Dr. Ellwood points out that the general knowledge of these conditions has done much to defeat the whole aim of criminal law in Missouri. Judges and juries are inclined to show undue leniency toward accused and convicted persons. They hesitate to send them into such a place. Yet with this general knowledge, it is hard to arouse the people of the State to action because the institution turns thousands of dollars into the State treasury every year. The only large opposition has come from labor unions. Several years ago a law was passed abolishing the convict labor system. It was never enforced and in the last legislature it was virtually repealed. The authorities were authorized to renew contracts for labor at 75 cents a day for each prisoner. Thus the system was continued which made it possible to continue the traffic in drugs. Also they continue to punish individuals for crimes for which the system is responsible. With more than a hundred contractors’ agents within the walls, it is clearly impossible to stop the smuggling. The existence of contract labor is not the most serious fault, according to Dr. Ellwood. In the Missouri penitentiary, first offenders and hardened criminals intermingle. No school exists in the prison. Punishment, not reformation, is its dominant note. Several of the cell-houses are antiquated in their arrangements. A warden once said he never knew a man who was benefited by his confinement there. A penitentiary physician told Dr. Ellwood there was as much dissipation within as outside the walls. The only separation of prisoners is for punishment. A full and thorough investigation of conditions is the remedy. An industrial reformatory is a necessity. These are the two things which should be done at once by Missouri, says Prof. Ellwood. A New Prison for Kansas.—According to the Kansas City Star, the commission to investigate and suggest plans for a new Kansas Penitentiary at Lansing is to go to work at once. The commission is to visit all of the new prisons in the country and study the plans worked out in those institutions for the humane, sanitary and convenient housing of the prisoners. The State architect is to accompany the commission to gather ideas for the rebuilding. The first proposition the commission must decide is whether or not it will rebuild the prison on its present site or build on a new site adjacent to the prison walls. If that is done it will be a complete new prison as far as housing conditions are concerned and the present prison will be used entirely as a workshop. If it is decided that the new prison should be built on the present site then the commission must first decide what is the most pressing need and urge the legislature to provide for the most urgent building at once. Progress in Nebraska.—According to the Lincoln (Neb.) Journal, “one year ago Warden Fenton took up his duties at the Nebraska penitentiary. During the year he has organized the work at the prison in many ways. The honor system has been used among the convicts both in and out of the prison. At some times fifty men have been working in various parts of Lancaster county, unattended by guards and making no effort to escape. Not one prisoner has escaped from the penitentiary itself during the year. Baron von Werner was one man who broke his word to the prison authorities and since he was recaptured at Woodstock, Ill., has been deprived of the privileges which he previously enjoyed. He had been taken to the home of Chaplain Johnson at Tecumseh for a visit and escaped from that town. Warden Fenton is pleased with the spirit of co-operation which exists between the prison officials and the convicts. He says that most of the prisoners are assisting in maintaining order and that they realize that every effort to help them is being made. The suppression of the dope traffic is one of the reforms which Warden Fenton feels has been the most important act of his administration.” Commissioner Randall on the Training of Judges.—At the Twentieth Century Club in Boston recently, Commissioner Randall urged that the great law institutions should have special courses in penology. “The law students of to-day become your district attorneys and judges of tomorrow. They should have some knowledge of the science which treats on public punishments in respect to the public and the sufferer. “Most lawyers,” he added, “know little or nothing of penology. There are 100,000 persons in prison today for felony. More than 12,000 defectives are freed each year who cannot care for themselves. Thus we have an army of defence (meaning soldiers) and an army of offence of about equal numbers.” A Sad Commentary on Prison Labor.—Pieces of wood from almost every interesting spot in history, and from practically all of the countries of the globe, are contained in a table constructed by John H. Abraham, of Percy, while he was a prisoner in the Western Penitentiary. The table consists of 25,497 pieces and is 56 inches in diameter. In the center is a star representing King Solomon, from which radiate 1,000 pieces of wood, representing his wives. Six Masonic emblems also surround the center panel; in another panel is an exact copy of the log cabin in which Abraham Lincoln was born, the wood used having been taken from the original cabin in Kentucky. Surrounding the Masonic emblems are 48 stars to represent the number of States in the Union. A Prison Car for Montreal.—The Delinquent has from time to time published accounts of the indignities heaped upon prisoners by public transportation in handcuffs or chains in this country. Some European countries spare prisoners this humiliation, which is no part of a prison sentence. Now we learn that the Montreal street railway has recently completed for the Province of Quebec a 54-passenger car for transportation of prisoners twice a day between Montreal and the new prison at Bordeaux, 7 miles distant. According to the Electric Railway Journal the car is divided into two compartments for the purpose of separating convicted from accused persons. The front platform is provided with a cab for the motorman, while the rear platform is arranged as a compartment for the prison officials who may be required to accompany the prisoners. The guard’s place is in front of this compartment on a seat which is elevated so as to give him a better view of the prisoners. The sides of the car are of sheet steel. The windows, of course, are placed above the line of vision. The car is run directly into the prison yard. The Montreal Tramways Company is the first in America to build a car of this kind. Prison cars have been built by the Great Berlin Street Railway. This method of conveying prisoners is cheaper than the use of the ordinary patrol wagons, and, furthermore, the inmates are saved a great deal of needless humiliation. “The adoption of the trolley-car service by the Montreal penal authorities is in harmony with the many humane features of the Bordeaux institution, which is a splendid example of a modern prison.” What the New Ohio Penitentiary Will Be.—From the Louisville (Ky.) Herald we learn that “the new penitentiary of Ohio is going to be a great 1,600-acre farm, modeled after the Cooley farm at Warrensville, which is used by Cleveland instead of the orthodox workhouses of other cities. “In this new kind of penitentiary the prisoners will sleep in white iron beds—not in cells! “They will work outdoors without guard! “They will go to school to learn the interesting things they have never heard of! “They will be taught trades so when they leave they can earn an honest living out in the world! “They will get exercise, medical attention and the best of foods. “They will get the benefit of all the latest discoveries in scientific penology.” Good Doctrine.—The New Bedford Standard says that “no amount of kindly sympathy for prisoners can obliterate the truth that in too many instances they are in prison because they would not heed their own moral responsibilities. They are to be pitied, certainly, and helped, of course. But all the pity and all the help will be ineffectual unless it leads up to a practical recognition of the truth that to be truly free, they must strike the blow themselves.” The Women of the Civic Federation and Prison Reform.—The American Clubwoman comments upon the growing activity of club women in prison reform, a subject in which women always have been especially interested. It says: “Prison reform is occupying the attention of several large organizations of women. The women’s department of the National Civic Federation, Miss Maude Wetmore, national chairman, will make this one of its most important topics during the coming year. This powerful organization will not only act as a clearing house to classify and prevent duplication of effort, but it will also embrace county almshouses and city jails in the scope of its constructive work. “At its last biennial meeting the General Federation of Women’s Clubs adopted resolutions protesting against the contract and convict lease system of exploiting the labor of prisoners for the benefit of private contractors. It endorsed the plan of paying the prisoner wages that he might contribute to the support of his family and have a little fund to start life anew when restored to freedom. “The women of the National Civic Federation also take this advanced stand, but the first prison work that women find at hand is the investigation of actual conditions in penal institutions. If political graft is eliminated from prison management, many reforms may at once be carried into effect. “Good sanitary conditions should be imperative in every public institution. Already it is found that Federal prisons, being practically free from graft, are the best from a hygienic point of view. County almshouses and jails nearly always reveal ghastly abuses. The reason is not far to seek. The latter class of institutions are at the mercy of the lowest type of political manipulators. “The moment women begin to investigate, reforms are forthcoming. Already the women of the Civic Federation have immensely improved the deplorable state of the jail of the District of Columbia. An awful condition of affairs had existed there for years, right under the eye of the legislators of the Nation. They simply did not take the trouble to acquaint themselves with the facts. That, as usual, was left for the women to do. “In a score of States club women have succeeded in improving conditions of prisons and in some cases they have secured the appointment of women on the visiting boards of prisons and reformatories. “With the intelligent women of the Nation working together we may expect to see great advances in prison management in the next two years. “This is not sentimentalism. It is good, practical logic. It is literally an economy to reform our prisoners and send them back to freedom as useful citizens.” The Charge Against the Atlanta Federal Prison.—Grave charges have been, in recent months, brought against the United States Federal Penitentiary at Atlanta by Julian Hawthorne, who was released in October, 1913. The Washington (D. C.) Herald of January 22d, 1914, prints the following:
Subsequently Representative Howard expressed himself as satisfied with the results of Dr. McKelway’s investigation. A Deadly Battle at the Oklahoma Penitentiary.—On January 19, seven men were shot to death and three persons wounded when three convicts attempted to escape from the State penitentiary of Oklahoma and were slain by guards. No general attempt was made by other convicts to join in the delivery, but the three mutineers were encouraged by their less desperate followers who cheered the onslaught of the armed prisoners. Before the escaping convicts fell, however, they had killed four men, a guard, a deputy warden, the superintendent of the Bertillon department and a visitor, who was formerly a member of Congress and a judge. No more desperate break for liberty has ever occurred in an American place of confinement, says the Washington (D. C.) Star. How the men obtained the weapons with which they were enabled to fight their way to the doors and to brief liberty is a mystery, but obviously they were smuggled to them by friends. All three of these were “bad” men, but only one of them was serving a long sentence. One had two years to serve in all and one five years, the third man having been sentenced for forty years for manslaughter, probably covering the remainder of his life. Doubtless they thought that they could get away, although, of course, the chances were heavily against them. Even if they had distanced their immediate pursuers they would have been trailed without mercy after having taken life so recklessly in their escape. Such tragedies give pause to the tendency toward a more lenient system of punishments, and may discourage those who believe in paroles and probations rather than imprisonments. “Men of the type who broke from the McAlester prison seem to be absolutely incorrigible. One of them, he who was serving the shortest term, had a long record of law violations and punishments. Under an habitual criminal’s act he would probably have been sentenced for his last offense to a very long term, but, of course, this would not have altered his disposition. There would still have remained the desire to escape and the willingness to kill if necessary to accomplish that end. The shocking slaughter points plainly to the necessity of a more rigid watchfulness over the desperadoes confined in prison to prevent them from obtaining weapons and using them.” The St. Louis Republic observes that, “to make the better ways of prison discipline effective a man is needed in whom are combined enthusiasm, sympathy, firmness and knowledge. It happens that the Oklahoma penitentiary at this time is the storm center of a political quarrel, and the real lesson of the riot and murders is not one of reaction, but merely that partisan politics does not lead to the discovery of such men.” The Responsibility of the Church.—Dr. Frank Moore, superintendent of the New Jersey State Reformatory at Rahway, and a clergyman himself, in an address before the Y. M. C. A. at Atlantic City declared “crime is on the increase in America, and the churches and the ministers are in a large measure to blame because they do not get the boys and the men who are unfortunate before they are gotten by the police and hauled into court and consigned to the reformatories or prisons.” Dr. Moore said that in 1910 statistics showed there were 125 arrests in the United States for every 100,000 of population. In New Jersey alone there were 53,000 arrests for crime, exclusive of 9,700 arrests for drunkenness. In 12 counties in New Jersey there were 44 murders. Socrates on Missouri Prisons.—Here Socrates: Very well. Now this is enough of that light topic. What about the Missouri prison? Thrasymachus: We hoped to talk to you about that. Socrates: Good! It is becoming so easy to get into prison these days that one should have some concern for what may become at any time his own future state. Glaucon: Certainly. Socrates: You will recall how unexpectedly Julian Hawthorne got into prison, and how he became interested in prison then for the first time. Glaucon: Yes. Socrates: Indeed, none of us has much concern for how other people are treated in prison. Glaucon: It seems not. Socrates: The thing to do, then, is always to view a penitentiary in the humane light of what we would ourselves require if we got into it. Glaucon: Certainly. Socrates: Very well. Viewing it, then, in the humane light of what we would require for ourselves if we got into it, the average prison is unworthy of our present-day civilization. Thrasymachus: Absolutely. Socrates: The Missouri prison is so bad that one must question the advisability of living in Missouri and running the usual risk of prison at all. Glaucon: Undoubtedly. Socrates: Probably that is what is the matter with Missouri. Glaucon: As like as not. Socrates: Other things being equal, people would rather live in some State where the prison facilities are more up-to-date. Thrasymachus: Of course they would. Socrates: Good, Thrasymachus! Now let us get up in the stand and see if we can’t help our own courage to do some of the things that ought to be done. The Construction of a Death House.—The State of Pennsylvania is building, at the new Central Prison at Bellefonte, a separate building for the housing of condemned prisoners and for executions. In view of a movement in a number of States to segregate similarly the condemned men, the following detailed description is timely: The death house, where is to be placed the first electric chair in Pennsylvania for the execution of criminals since the passage of the law providing for the substitution of electrocution for hanging, is to be a long two-story building, 136 feet in length by 29 feet 4 inches wide. A cellar under the central portion will contain the heating apparatus, and on the first floor will be the gasoline engine for generating the electric current. But it is on the second story of the severely plain structure of reinforced concrete and of simple Renaissance type that interest centers, for here are the cells for the condemned prisoners, rooms for visitors and the sinister death chamber and post mortem room. The arrangement is on the corridor plan. To the right, and occupying nearly half the floor space, are the cell room and cells, six of the latter, 7 by 9 feet in size, being arranged in a row at the back of the building facing on a well-lighted room and separated from the rear wall by what is known as a “pipe corridor.” At the end of the row is a bath room, and beyond this a room for visitors, opening into the cell room through a gate protected by a grille. Beyond the visitors’ room is a room known as the “Lock,” access to which is had from the first floor by means of a curved stairway, and opening into a sort of antechamber to the cell room through a gateway and steel door. It may be said that all of the gates, grilles and metal doors in the building are to be of “tool-proof” steel. On the other side of the ante-chamber is the apparatus room, where the rheostats and other electrical devices will be placed and where the assistants of the chief electrician will be stationed during executions. Through a solid wood door, in contradistinction to the steel doors used elsewhere, entrance is given into the death chamber, which will be a spacious The last room on the floor, into which a door opens directly from the electrocution chamber, is the post mortem room, 19 by 26 feet 8 inches in size, and equipped with two operating tables, one of soapstone, the other covered with rubber. The execution chair will be constructed of solid oak, with a high back, from the top of which the head electrode, or cap, will project. Attached to one of the legs will be a connection for the other electrode which is strapped to the calf of the condemned person’s leg. Heavy straps will be attached to appropriate parts of the chair for securing the body, arms and legs of the criminal. The design and arrangement of the chair and of the electrical apparatus is practically the same as used in all of the States where electrocution is prescribed as the death penalty. The necessity for the erection of the death house as the first of the group of the new penitentiary buildings is evident when it is remembered that death by hanging is now abolished by law, and that at present no person condemned to death can be executed until the facilities for electrocution have been provided. The Crucial Period.—A prisoner writes, in “Good Words,” as follows: “There is no other situation incident to mortal life more powerfully conducive to searching and even creative thought than is enforced sojourn in a great prison. This is true of every inmate in his degree; but in all prisons there are a number of prisoners who, in the outer world, had been accustomed to apply the energy of strong and able intellects to dealing with the problems of external life—chiefly, of course, such are concerned with wresting wealth and position from the world. When these men are suddenly removed from their activities and prevented from further use of their faculties on the lines they have been pursuing, a phenomenon of singular psychological interest takes place. The immense mental energy which the man has hitherto been applying to the management of material things, is suddenly and violently thrown back upon himself, and it generally creates there, at first, a condition of bewilderment and distress. In the majority of cases, however, this chaotic state will be of brief continuance: a reaction occurs, and the man now directs the force which had been used in the ordering and subjugation of concrete matters, to the region of the immaterial—that is, of thought. He begins for the first time—and he has time to spare—to investigate and dissect the causes of things; to determine what are the principles and objects of existence, and of his own part in it; to ask himself what is worth doing, and avoiding, and why; and to measure and weigh the scope and value of his personal abilities and resources. The result of such an investigation must be worth; and the benefit of it might be, and should be imparted to others, instead of remaining shut up in the man’s private breast.” STATEMENT OF THE OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, ETC. of THE DELINQUENT. Published monthly at New York, N. Y., required by the Act of August 24th, 1912.
There are no bondholders, mortgagees, or other security holders. Sworn to and subscribed before me this 30th day of September, 1913. |
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