  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 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 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: 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 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 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.
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 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 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 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 “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 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 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 “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 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. 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, 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 “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. 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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 “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.
There are no bondholders, mortgages, or other security holders. Sworn to and subscribed before me this 30th day of September, 1913. |
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