[Under this heading will appear each month numerous paragraphs of general interest, relating to the prison field and the treatment of the delinquent.]
Legislation in Maryland.—Prison reform legislation, as a result of the year’s investigation of Maryland State prison and the subsequent discussion of prison conditions in that State, eventuated through a report on February 19th by the Penal Commission to the Governor of Maryland. The report advocated a considerable amount of progressive penal legislation, mainly as follows: One bill provides for an unpaid advisory board of parole, in order that all the essential features of the indeterminate sentence principle may be worked out. Further bills provide for the suspension of sentences, for indeterminate sentences, and for the release of prisoners on parole. A state board of control is established for the management of the State Penitentiary and the Maryland House of Correction, and provision is made for the establishment of a State prison for women. The operation of a penal farm is recommended in connection with the State Penitentiary or the House of Correction. A hospital for tuberculosis prisoners is recommended.
The Lash in Delaware.—The “Umpire,” which is the prison paper of the Eastern Penitentiary of Pennsylvania, reprinted from the Delinquent the article by Governor Miller, of Delaware, defending the whipping post, and published the following editorial as a rejoinder:
“Governor Miller’s argument in defense of the whipping-post would be simply unanswerable if it were applied to any other state in the Union, but Delaware.
“Delaware is an agricultural state wholly, with only one city worthy of the name, and that, Wilmington, which by its close proximity to Philadelphia, is really a suburb of the latter. There are no large number of factories, business houses, or thickly settled residential sections of the wealthy classes offering temptation to the professional burglar of other cities. A few banks are there, but bank robbery has been classed among the lost arts for some years, and rarely attempted anywhere.
“Within the past six months, Wilmington has been termed by the daily press, as a “veritable hot-bed of crime.” Highway robberies, burglaries, and assaults have been so common that citizens formed patrols for mutual protection of themselves and property. The authorities were not only compelled to largely increase its police department, but to enlist the services of a former superintendent of the Philadelphia Police to reorganize it.
“If, as the Governor claims, professional thieves from other cities give his state a wide berth, the inference is that these recent crimes were committed by natives. This being so, why doesn’t fear of the lash act as a deterrent to those who are so fully acquainted with its frequent use?
“The probabilities are that the professional burglar from other cities does not know of the existence of such a penalty, and if he did, it would not enter into his calculations one iota. No man perpetrates a crime with a view to being caught, therefore he rarely weighs the consequences. The professional thief endeavors to provide against detection, not punishment.
“The Delaware whipping post is a relic of the first settlers of the state, and used at that time as a measure of economy instead of jails which were to come later with the increase of crime. The law has been on the statute books for so many years, it has become a matter of state pride to perpetuate it as something reverential, descending from their forefathers. It was not effective 250 years ago, else they would not have built jails. It is no more effective now.”
Why Prisoners’ Families Aren’t Supported by Prisoners’ Earnings.—Editorially the Boston Herald says:
“When the new prison commissioner advocates the dedication of the earnings of the prisoner to the support of his family, or, if he has no family, that they should be held for his benefit when he is released, he is proposing to load upon the State a charge which it ought not to bear. The State is entitled to the proceeds of the labor of its prisoners. With the handicaps which have been imposed upon prison labor by legislation such labor is not and cannot be self-supporting. The goods that prisoners make are excluded from the general market. Power machines are forbidden, for the most part, except in wood workings. Take the State farm, where the conditions are such that, if anywhere, the institution could be made self-supporting. With all possible use made of prison labor the average cost for the care of inmates above the proceeds of this work is in the neighborhood of $2.50 per week. Of course the able-bodied short-term men come nearer than that to self-support. But that is the average outlay for maintenance, allowing nothing for interest on the plant. The State has been put to the cost of ferreting out the criminal, arresting, trying, and convicting him. The State must provide for his safe-keeping, clothe him, feed him, shelter him with proper warmth. Under restrictions surrounding prison labor he will not nearly meet the expense to which he has subjected the State. If his family need support while he is imprisoned, let the municipality provide that. With all the work he can do, the criminal is a burden to the Commonwealth. The State is entitled to all he can do towards self-support.”
Parole In Kentucky.—According to the Louisville Herald, since the State Prison South was converted into a State reformatory sixteen years ago, 4,670 prisoners have been paroled, of whom 2,666 have received final discharges. During the parole period the sentences of 295 expired. Six hundred violated their paroles and were returned to the institution. Five hundred and eighty-nine are parole violators and are at large: 433 are still reporting, and seventy-eight have died while at large.
Out of each hundred paroled, twenty-six have violated their agreement; fifty-seven have received their final discharge; two died; the terms of six expired while on parole.
The paroled men have earned $1,315,642.76, and it cost $1,143,078.64 to maintain them, a difference in favor of the State of $172,564.26.
The Kansas State Prison Makes Money.—According to the Leavenworth, Kansas, Post, the State prison at Lansing saved the State about one half million dollars during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1913. This, according to those who should know, is a very conservative estimate. It represents about one-half of the appropriation asked for by the warden to be used in constructing the new penitentiary. The twine and brick plants and the coal mine are the different departments where the most of the saving was made.
The twine plant supplied the farmers of Kansas with three million dollars worth of twine last year at nine and one-half cents a pound. This represents a net profit of $32,000, which went into the State treasury. If the farmers had been forced to buy from outside dealers at eleven cents a pound it would have cost them $45,000 more. This $45,000 and the $32,000 profit, represents a total of $77,000 saved the citizens of Kansas in twine.
The prison burns its own brick and lime and supplies brick to the different institutions over the state. The prison brickyard manufactured, for the use of State institutions in 1912, 1,623,447 brick of different grades. The prison received credit on the brick account for $12,098. This was an average of about $2 a thousand less than the same quality of brick sold for on the market. If these different institutions had been forced to buy on the open market, the cost to the State would have been about $15,344. This does not take into consideration the brick used in the construction of the new twine plant and other small buildings in the prison yard.
The coal mine is the big money maker for the State. Last year the different institutions received 31,000 tons of coal from the prison, for which the prison was credited with $77,500—$2.50 per ton. It is said if the State had been forced to buy this coal on the open market, together with the twenty thousand tons it takes annually to run the prison, it would have cost the State at least $155,000. Some estimates have placed the amount as high as one-quarter million dollars. If the prison had new quarters it is said that the annual maintenance appropriation could be safely cut from $105,000 to $50,000, as the saving in fuel alone would run into the thousands of dollars.
The construction of the new twine plant is another instance of economy where the Kansas citizens profited. With prison brick, lime and labor, this plant, consisting of two buildings, will have cost the State, when completed, $60,000 less than a similar plant constructed by a sister State. The two plants are identical in size except the Kansas plant contains two more machines than its neighbor’s.
State Use in Ohio.—Printing of all the blank forms used by the counties of Ohio is a venture upon which the State soon may embark as one of the features of the “state use” plan of employing the convicts in the Ohio Penitentiary. Under the law the State Board of Administration sells all products made in the institutions to counties and other political subdivisions who are compelled to make purchases from the State. The blank supply business has been a lucrative one for the dealers.
The Governors on Road Work by Prisoners.—Twenty-five governors have placed themselves on record as favoring the working of convicts in the construction and repair of highways, according to a compilation of the discussions of prison labor in their last messages to the legislature, recently issued by the national committee on prison labor.
Convict road work is advocated by the governors both because of the healthful nature of such work and owing to the fact that convicts who have been employed in this way can more readily find employment when released; while many of the governors also point out the benefit to the public from better roads secured at a minimum cost.
Governor Dunn, of Illinois states that humanitarian reasons underlie the employment in open air work or the sort wherein and whereby the convicts are restored to society with their manhood quickened instead of deadened or destroyed.
Governor Oddie, of Nevada, who was instrumental in securing the passage of the legislation which provides for convict road work in that State is enthusiastic as to the success of the plan.
“There is no question,” he maintains, “but that the passage of this law has had a wholesome effect on our prison system, and has been the means of giving a new start in life to a large proportion of the discharged and paroled men. About forty per cent. of the total number of our convicts have been performing good service under the honor system at the road camp.”
Governor Hanna, of North Dakota, Governor Cox, of Ohio, and Governor West, of Oregon, hold that out-door work should be a privilege to be earned by good conduct; Governor Mann, of Virginia, testifies to the efficiency of the convicts when employed on the roads and cites figures to prove the economy of such work, maintaining, however, that the present cost can be greatly reduced by placing the men on their honor and lessening the number of idle guards; while Governor McDonald, of New Mexico, and Governor Carey, of Wyoming, refer to the few attempts at escape that have been made by convicts practically unguarded.
Governor Hunt, of Arizona, is in favor of paying the convicts at least 25 cents a day for their services as the cost will be small compared to the actual benefit derived by the construction of splendid highways, while the benefit accruing to society will return the investment a thousand fold.
The consideration given to convict road work by the governors is an indication of the importance attached to the matter by the police throughout the country. The governors present many different view-points, but a careful study of their statements shows that road work when conducted on a basis fair to the convict and the State, will go far towards solving the convict labor problem and the problem of good roads.
Transportation Again?—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., says The Buffalo Express. The latest available figures show that in England only 118 of the 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.
Ohio Penitentiary Breaks Silence.—One of the most sweeping changes made in prison rules by Warden Thomas since he was placed in charge of the penitentiary came on February 24, when he announced that convicts would be permitted to talk to each other while working.
Almost since the time the prison was first built it had been one of the stringent rules of the institution that prisoners could not talk with each other while at work. This rule always was adhered to strictly. The theory was that to let prisoners talk in the shops and factories was to invite attempted escapes and plots leading to infractions of prison discipline.
A Good Idea.—From the Elizabeth, New Jersey, News, comes this information: “What New Jersey Is Doing for the Young Man Who Breaks Its Laws,” is the title of an instructive address being delivered throughout the State by the Rev. Frank Moore, of this city, superintendent of the New Jersey Reformatory. In his address Mr. Moore plainly shows the efforts of the State at its institutions to uplift manhood and instill higher ideals of living.
Superintendent Moore selects the county courthouse as the place to deliver his lecture, and has already spoken at seven county seats, including Toms River, Ocean county; Woodbury, Gloucester county; Freehold, Monmouth county; Mount Holly, Burlington county; Belvidere, Warren county, and Newton, Sussex county. At the two latter places, the audiences were so great that there was not room enough in the courthouses to accommodate them. At Mount Holly the largest gathering in years was the result.
Usually the county judge presides, and the lecture is heard by prosecutors, officials, ministers, school teachers, etc., who are naturally interested in the work from their vocations. Excellent reports have been made concerning the value of the lecture.
Prison Publicity.—The Montreal Star says that the farther the inquiry into the Kingston Penitentiary goes, the more it is evident that what the discipline of any prison needs is the wholesome and curative application of publicity. Punishments ought not to be inflicted upon convicts without the fact being made public. Any mischiefs which may arise will be possible only because the authorities of a prison have the power to punish prisoners behind their grim walls in entire secrecy.
“It is not necessary to charge that the authorities or even the guards are worse than the ordinary run of mortals, to see how the human nature in them may be exasperated by the criminal classes under their charge into taking action which they would not take if the steadying eye of the whole community were on them. It must be remembered that prisons are not young ladies’ boarding schools. We do not send the brightest and best of our youth to them. In fact, the deliberate purpose of our system of justice is to send them our worst. Undoubtedly, at times, we do send there some of our best—men whom a chance step from the beaten path has tripped into disaster—but our whole machinery of justice is at fault if the rule is not to select our criminals for our prison population.
“This being so, the guards and the prison authorities generally have a difficult and trying task constantly before them. It would be little wonder if they grew pessimistic and cynical touching the motives and the prospects and even the possibilities of their ‘guests.’ They are constantly in contact with men who ought to be far below the average in all these things. It would be a miracle if they kept their faith in human nature, and their attitude toward the human derelicts who thwart and defy them, at even the average pitch. Under such conditions, with the prison shut in on itself, like a little world islanded from the rest of the country, what can we expect but that prison opinion will come to justify harsh measures and cruel punishments?
“What is clearly needed is to correct this drift toward cynicism and possibly brutality by keeping it always in touch with the sane and unruffled point of view of the general community. This can only be done by publicity. Nor would a demand for publicity be unfair to the prison authorities. Their prisoner is sentenced to a fixed punishment for a definite crime. If he commits another crime, he should be sentenced to another punishment for that; but he should have his second trial and sentence as fully safeguarded by public opinion as his first. Refusal to obey prison regulations would be such a second crime; and his public trial for it would not only make it certain that the evidence was convincing and the punishment humane, but would bring the regulations themselves under public review.
“The whole prison system is bad enough—necessary as it is because of the criminality of certain people—without keeping it in darkness.”
State Use in New York.—The Prison Commission of New York bewails the reluctance of municipalities to obey the law relative to the purchase of prison-made goods.
Seven municipalities have made no purchases of this sort since the enactment of the law in 1896. One city has bought nothing but a straight jacket in eighteen years. Towns and villages have been even worse offenders.
Rochester’s last order for supplies came in May, 1911; the authorities there contended that the city charter nullified the provisions of the Prison law with regard to the obligatory purchase of supplies from the State. In August last the Commission appealed to the Attorney-General, who rendered an opinion that local statutes did not supersede the provisions of the Prison law. When the matter came up once before, with regard to the liability of officers making purchases elsewhere than from the State Commission of Prisons, the Attorney-General held:
It is the duty of officers of political divisions of the State to make requisition on the State Commission of Prisons for such articles used in the municipalities as are manufactured in the State prisons. If such articles are bought elsewhere, without the certificate of the State Commission of Prisons showing inability to furnish the goods required, the officers making such purchases or auditing claims therefore are criminally and civilly liable for their acts.
The Prison Commission has issued the following:
The Constitution makes it the duty of the Legislature to provide employment for the convicts, and declares that the products of prison labor shall be sold only to the State or its political divisions. To compete as little as possible with free labor the prison industries have been diversified under assignments by the State Commission of Prisons.
Probable Abolition of Contract Labor at Chicago Bridewell.—The practise of hiring to private companies at a wage of a few cents a day the prisoners in the Bridewell, the penal institution of Chicago and Cook county, will be abolished in May if the recommendations of Superintendent John Whitman are acted upon favorably by the city council, says the Christian Science Monitor of Boston.
Instead of the present system of using the labor of the prisoners, a system is being worked out by which they will be put to work on public improvements, receive a fair remuneration for their labor, a portion to be applied to paying their fines and a cash return assured for the support of their families. By this method the prisoners will not be relieved from paying the penalty for the crimes for which they have been convicted in many instances of a minor character, but neither will their families be deprived of their supporting labor during their imprisonment.
The board of inspectors has voted to discontinue the contract system within three months. Mayor Harrison is in accord with the movement. Representatives of the Chicago Federation of Labor and various trade unions have been working for it for a long time.
A report of the efficiency division of the civil service shortly, will recommend that the city use the convict labor, and will criticise the present system as wasteful and disgraceful. It is expected that a recommendation will be made for the employment of an administrative officer to act as a business manager, in charge of the operating part of the house of correction.
Vermont’s State Prison Warden Resigns.—Following closely on our recent account of Warden Lovell’s “honor system” in the Vermont State Prison, comes the following from the Boston Post, under date of February 24th:
“The nine years of novel ‘elastic’ treatment of prisoners carried on by Wilson S. Lovell, superintendent of the State prison, came to an end to-day when Lovell resigned. It was believed the resignation was due to a fire of criticism from Governor Allen M. Fletcher and members of the penal board.
“Some of the administration have openly criticised the Lovell rule as “too soft,” and declare that “a more impersonal and severe ruler of the prison is required.”
“The Lovell system aroused nation-wide interest among humanitarians and social workers. One of its startling features, which is said to have shocked the more staid citizens of this State, was to let chosen prisoners go to work about the country without any restraint of any kind.
“Another was a plan for paying men for overtime work in the prison factories, so that convicts were often able to pick up a comfortable little sum for themselves.”
Prisoners’ Wages Reduced in Ohio.—Owing to an overstock of labor in the Penitentiary and the Mansfield Reformatory, the State board of administration has been compelled to cut the wage scale two cents on the hour. Hereafter, prisoners in the two institutions will receive a maximum of three cents an hour instead of five cents. The minimum of one cent an hour remains unchanged, says the Columbus Journal.
Under a law passed by the legislature last spring, prisoners were compensated at the rate of from one to five cents an hour, according to their character and good behavior. From September 16, last, until February 15, this year, there was paid to Penitentiary prisoners on this scale, $33,000. The amount paid to prisoners in the Mansfield Reformatory was $24,000.
At this rate, the estimated annual cost of prisoners’ compensation to the State would be about $140,000. The general assembly last month appropriated only $75,000 for this compensation; hence the revision of the scale downward. Where the maximum earning power of prisoners under the old scale was forty cents a day, or $2.20 a week on a basis of five and one-half work days each week, the new maximum will be 21 cents a day or $1.17 a week. No strike, however, is predicted because of the cut, but much complaining is looked for.
Prison officials have detected many schemes of prisoners to beat the State’s philanthropy. The law requires that 90 per cent. of their earnings shall go to their dependents. The remaining 10 per cent. is held in a fund against the prisoner’s release to tide him over the period he is looking for work until settled. A scheme of the older prisoners to obtain all their money was to represent that some relative in the country was in urgent need of support. The money would be sent to the “friend,” but soon returned to the prisoner.
Parole Law Recommended For Rhode Island.—The Board of Control and Supply of Rhode Island, which has charge of the State penal institutions, recommended in its annual report to the Legislature that a parole law be put into effect in this State. Under the proposed plan, prisoners who have served a portion of their sentence may regain their freedom and retain it as long as they live up to the terms of their parole.
Convicts Build Arizona Bridge.—“Cross-continental automobile tourists who will take the southwestern route to the Panama-Pacific Exposition at San Francisco in 1915, will cross the Salt river in going from Phoenix to Tempe over a substantial concrete bridge 1,508 feet long instead of having to ford either a wide raging torrent or a deep long, sandy, dried-up riverbed, according to season of the year,” says Dr. Charles G. Percival, in his new book, “The Trail of the Bull Dog,” which deals with the writer’s two years’ automobile trip of 50,000 miles. “The interesting part of this bridge lies in the fact that it was built of concrete in twenty-seven months entirely by convicts’ labor. The bridge is eighteen feet wide between curbs and 240 tons of steel rod and wire are contained in its construction. The bridge is floored with reinforced concrete and a two-inch bitulithic dressing. Eleven piers, each 125 feet in length, support the bridge, which is excellently lighted by electricity at both approaches, and throughout its entire length from power generated at the Roosevelt dam seventy miles away.”
In Iowa.—Prisoners at the Fort Madison penitentiary get increased pay and shorter hours through an agreement made by the State board of control for the cancellation of one prison contract and the transference of the contract of the Fort Madison Chair company to the Fort Madison Tool company. This takes 175 men out of the contract labor system.
By the terms of the arrangement, the board may terminate the remaining contract on or after March 1, 1916, by giving ninety days’ notice. The old contract could not be cancelled before October 15, 1917. The State gains more than a year by the new deal.
The State will receive 60 cents a day for each man employed by the tool company under the new agreement. In addition the company will pay each man 10 cents a day for himself. The working day will be cut from ten to nine hours.
Auburn Inmates Celebrate Under Their Own Captains.—Fourteen hundred convicts in Auburn prison, observing Lincoln’s Birthday, marched from cells to chapel and mess hall solely in charge of convict captains elected by the inmates several weeks ago as their representatives in the Mutual Welfare League. The convict officers relieved the regular officers and maintained splendid discipline.
The holiday entertainment was furnished entirely by convict talent and included an address on Lincoln by an inmate. Addresses were also made by Thomas Mott Osborne, chairman, and Professor E. Stagg Whitin, of New York, and Professor Henry T. Mosher, of Rochester, members of the State Commission for Prison Reform.
Tynan’s Way.—Writing to the New York Sun, Warden Tynan of the Colorado State Penitentiary says:
“The position of penitentiary warden is the last in the world for a policeman. The policeman’s education is all wrong. He thinks only of hunting out the evil in his victim, of making a record in convictions. A policeman warden would keep the black hole full, he would wear out the cat-o’-nine tails, he would revive the iniquitous stool pigeon and spy system; he would produce the typical, modern penitentiary which sends out unbettered and unstrengthened man and which menaces the society which it is supposed to protect.
“By removing the continual threat of arms, by eliminating oppressions and brutalities, by establishing a system of graded rewards for cheerfulness and industry, the Colorado penitentiary has been given a wholesome, helpful atmosphere. The men have taken no unfair advantage of square dealings and fair intent. They have met every advance in honesty and enthusiasm.
“Half the men who come here are men who never had a chance—unfortunates grown to manhood without impulse or direction. Out of their very helplessness they cheated and stole, robbed and killed. Most manifestly, mere weekly religious services will not free society from the menace of these men. They must be taught something to do. A State farm protects the present and guarantees the future.
“The interests of justice and of society would have been better served had many a convict never known imprisonment. If he were paroled immediately upon conviction his dependents would not suffer, nor the taxpayers be forced to bear the burden of greater depravity that always and inevitably attends penal servitude.”
Tramps and the Railroads.—Crimes committed against railroads are increasing, according to the annual report of the police department of the Baltimore and Ohio system, which shows that 13,129 arrests were made during 1913, as compared with 10,417 arrests during 1912. There were 8,449 convictions in 1913, while in 1912 the number of convictions was 6,515. This increase in crime added materially to the expense of the railroad for doing business during the year.
The report of G. A. Ogline, superintendent of police, covers all classes of criminal offenses, from petty larceny and disorderly conduct to train wrecking, highway robbery and murder. The most frequent offenders were those who “violated railroad laws,” for which 8,303 arrests of tramps and others unlawfully using the railroad property were made. Arrests for intoxication and disorder numbered 2,526, with 1,567 arrests for larceny, 176 for burglary and 3 for murder. For receiving goods stolen from the railroad there were 67 arrests.
Commenting upon the large number of arrests of trespassers—tramps and other vagrants and loiterers about the railroad—Superintendent Ogline says: “It is evident that the number of persons unlawfully riding over the railroads and trespassing upon the property in other ways is on the increase, but the officials have been badly handicapped in coping with this evil on account of the lack of co-operation on the part of authorities. The courts will handle a few offenders, but it is continually impressed upon the railroads’ police department that the arrests to trespassers must be held to the minimum because the cities, towns and counties are unwilling to bear the expense of harboring this class of offenders in jails and other institutions of detention.”
The head of the police department further states that in numerous instances where reports were made of obstructions having been placed on rails, missiles thrown at trains, etc., it was found that “very small children were often guilty of these offenses,” and the railroad officers frequently brought the cases to the attention of parents in an effort to correct the trouble.
Convictions were secured under the Carlin Act, a federal law, for the robbery of cars on the Baltimore and Ohio lines and heavy penalties were imposed for such crimes.
Changes in Military Prisons.—Revision of the articles of war—the military law of the United States that has stood unchanged since 1906—is proposed in a bill passed without a dissenting vote by the Senate, in February, designed to make the soldier guilty of purely military offenses an object of reformatory discipline instead of a penitentiary convict with the criminal stamp upon him.
Fort Leavenworth, Kas., would cease to be a federal penitentiary under the terms of the bill, and hereafter would be known as the United States Military Detention Barracks. The prison would be modeled after the English army disciplinary institution at Aldershot, and no soldier or civilian convicted of an offense punishable by penal servitude might hereafter be confined there.
Military prisoners under suspended sentence quartered in the detention barracks would be organized into military commands, and their training kept up where prison conduct warrants in the opinion of the Secretary of War. Honorable restoration to the army, or permission to re-enlist without prejudice if the enlistment had expired, would follow good behavior.
This radical revision of the army’s disciplinary methods is proposed in a recodification of the articles of war, dropping thirteen sections from the old code as obsolete and inserting provisions for a policy of suspended sentence and less drastic treatment of military offenders generally.
The bill makes no mention of the military prison on Alcatraz Island, San Francisco. In this connection the committee report says the Secretary of War is convinced that establishment of the detention barracks and necessary branches would make the maintenance of a military prison unnecessary. The elimination of Alcatraz Island from the bill would make possible the use of the islands as an immigration station, as desired by the immigration bureau.
The jurisdiction of courts-martial would be broadened considerably under the proposed new code, extending to capital offenses in time of peace which are beyond the reach of civil courts. The present code gives this provision only in time of war. On spies in time of war only would the death sentence be mandatory under the new code, and a two-thirds majority of the court-martial imposing such sentence would be required instead of a bare majority.
Frank Sanborn on the State Control of County Jails.—In a letter to the Boston Transcript, Mr. Sanborn writes as follows:
“The present agitation of the prison reform question in Massachusetts, and the number of those who support a better system of prison discipline, are interesting facts to me, who, as secretary of the first Board of State Charities, appointed fifty years ago last October, was the first permanent inspector of all our Massachusetts prisons that had ever filled that post. I devoted much time to it in the first years of my service of five years; and on the 2nd of March, 1865, my friend, Gov. Andrew, sent in to the Senate my long special report on our prisons, with suggestions for their reformation, most of which were subsequently inserted as laws in our successive revisions of the statutes. But one suggestion, then first made, has not yet been adopted and is urgently needed for adoption by the present legislature—the control and classification of the prisons in our fourteen counties by the State government. It is not practicable, without a change in the State constitution, to make this control quite complete, for our county sheriffs are constitutional officers and have certain legal and customary rights over the arrests and custody of untried prisoners, witnesses, etc., which no statute can take away. But all convicts in the counties—that is, all sentenced persons—should be under a uniform discipline in their prisons, which the State alone can establish and enforce.
“Fifty years ago we had no separate prison for women, no State reformatory for young offenders, no State asylum for insane convicts, and persons untried because insane; and no State asylum for placing reformed young offenders in private families. The next year after my report, a first step was taken towards State control by the creation of a State Workhouse at Bridgewater. This, which is now called the State Farm, contains at present more than a third part as many convicts as were in all the county prisons in 1864-5—only 6,563 in all. Adding to the Bridgewater prisoners the 800 insane convicts held in custody there, the total to-day is more than half the number in all the county prisons in March, 1865. The Women’s Prison at Sherborn, with its hundreds, the Concord Reformatory and the Shirley branch, with their 1,000 inmates, and the reformed young offenders now living under State authority in families and other convicts under State authority elsewhere, would add for an aggregate more than the 6,563 who were in the county prisons fifty years ago. To that extent the State has exercised its right of eminent domain over prisoners.
“But there still remain in the county prisons and the few county reformatories about 4,000 permanent or average prisoners—most of them convicts—whose proper classification is impossible, even in the larger counties, and practically out of the question in the middle-sized and small counties. And this average population of some twenty-five establishments represents not less than 30,000 different persons during the year, whose separation and proper care cannot be provided for in these twenty-five prisons, etc., some of which are always crowded, others usually empty or half filled, and all under a varying, partial, costly and practically useless prison discipline. State control would give all but a few hundred of the 30,000 comers and goers a safe, judicious and to a good extent reformatory discipline, now quite uncertain or impossible as things are.
“Our county systems, of which the outward and visible signs are the prisons and court houses, expend hundreds of thousands of dollars every year and are the natural nests and breeding places of county rings, which waste the taxpayers’ money, manipulate and corrupt our local politics, and make the administration of criminal law, in several of the counties sometimes a job, sometimes a farce, and by its delays and appeals a great revenue for lawyers and officials, pocketing fees and postponing or perverting justice, in a manner that every one familiar with county business, as I was while a State official knows, but to a degree that can only be revealed by investigation in each county, such as that undertaken in my own County of Middlesex, and threatened by the mayor and other official persons in Suffolk. Let these investigations go on; but, in the meantime, follow the recommendation of all well-informed persons, and give the State commission control of these nests of crime and vice, our ill-governed prisons.”
The Booher Bill Passes the House.—On March 4th, by a vote of 302 to 30, the House passed the Booher bill that virtually prohibits the shipping of convict made goods in interstate commerce. The measure adopts the principle of the Webb law which provides that liquor shipped into “dry” territory shall be subject to local and State laws prohibiting the traffic in alcoholic liquors.
The Booher bill provides that convict made goods “shall upon arrival and delivery in any State or Territory be subject to the operation and effect of the laws of such State or Territory.”
Another bill dealing with goods produced by convict labor will soon be considered in the House. It applies the same provisions to goods made by convict labor abroad. This measure has already been reported in the House.
Gruesome!—In Virginia, according to the Richmond Journal, the body of a convict dying in prison is forfeit to the State; no matter if he has friends or money to receive it and give it decent burial. When a man dies in prison, whether he was sent for one year or for thirty years, his body is sent to the medical colleges of the State for dissection purposes. If he commit some horrible crime, which demands a death penalty, this is not the case. His family may receive his body and bury it. But the life convict and the convict who dies in prison are not given this privilege under the present law.
A bill that has come before the committee seeks to remedy this defect in the present law. It amends the law now in force so that it requires only such bodies as are to be disposed of at the expense of the State to be sent to the colleges. No man who saves the little money which he may have earned within the prison shops and lays it aside for this purpose will any longer be refused the right of burial.
This matter has for a long time been a source of much agony of mind and bitterness among the convicts. A Confederate veteran at the State Farm fears the dissecting table. If the bill is passed it will bring happiness to a number of the poor men, who have no other peace to look forward to than that of a quiet grave.
National Agitation for State Use System.—Organized labor has called upon manufacturers and citizens generally throughout the country to support the National Committee on Prison Labor, in its endeavor to bring about in the different States a system whereby prisoners shall be employed directly under State control of roads, farms, or in manufacturing articles for use in the institutions and departments under the control of the State. For the past four years this committee and the labor unions, especially the United Garment Workers of America, have been fighting the leasing system, whereby the labor of the convict is sold to the highest bidder, the bid always being from 50 to 75 per cent. less than is paid to the workers in the same line of industry outside of our penal institutions.
The effect of this prison competition is illustrated by figures gathered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of Missouri, which has just completed an exhaustive investigation into conditions at the Missouri State prison at Jefferson City.
The clothing factory at that prison reported an output for 1912 of overalls and other garments valued at over $2,500,000. The convict working force consisted of 887 men and 44 women, a total of 931, while for their labor the State received $200,629. The total amount paid out in wages and salaries for superintendents, etc., was $371,385. From these figures it will be noted that the cost of labor was so small when compared to that at a similar factory outside the prison walls as to be startling.
Free manufacturers are asked to compare their own payroll with that of the contractors at this prison where for healthy male convicts, 75 cents per day was paid, while for a few cripples and the women the figure was only 50 cents per day.
The National Committee on Prison Labor and the unions see that this unfair competition can be overcome by the work for the State, whereby no prison goods reach the open market, but these two groups need the support of all interested either for business or humanitarian reasons to bring about results which shall be effective and lasting.
From a practical business standpoint organized labor has brought this matter before the people of the country and awaits their action.
Pardons.—Governor David I. Walsh, of Massachusetts, has said he intends to refer to the members of the Board of Pardon and Parole, all petitions for commutation of sentence as well as of pardon, together with the ordinary cases which, under the statute creating the board, the Governor may refer to it.
The Governor said he could see no reason why he should discriminate between the man who is sentenced to the House of Correction and the man sentenced to State Prison, simply because the latter sentence is for a felony.
He would reserve the right to veto their recommendations and findings, he said. All petitions will be referred, the Governor said, except those where a convict is thought to be in immediate danger of death and prompt action on the part of the Governor is imperative.
Farming by Texas Prisoners.—Texas is to try the honor system among convicts in one of its prisons, says the Little Rock, Ark., Gazette, and is even going a step further by providing a profit-sharing plan to encourage prisoners in thrift and industry. Fifty white men have been selected for the test, and if the new plan proves feasible, it means that the entire prison system of that State will be revolutionized in the near future.
The prisoners are to be assigned to road work in a county that is to pay $15 per month for each man’s services. Half of their earnings will go to the penitentiary fund and the other half to the prisoners. The county will maintain the men and, as no guards or overseers will be employed, it is expected that the living cost of each prisoner will be less than one dollar per day.
Governor Colquitt has announced that preparations are now being made for the selection of another crew of 40 prisoners, who will work under similar conditions at construction work on Texas railroads. All of the men selected are young and have short sentences to serve. They will be placed under paroles while away from prison, but the paroles are revocable for disobedience.
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, | 135 East 15th St., New York City |
| Business Manager, O. F. Lewis, | 135 East 15th St., New York City |
| Publisher, The National Prisoners’ Aid Association, | 135 East 15th St., New York City |
| Owners, The National Prisoners’ Aid Association, | 135 East 15th St., New York City |
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.
Table of Contents generated by transcriber.
Obvious printer errors corrected silently.
Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.
