  [Under this heading will appear each month numerous paragraphs of general interest, relating to the prison field and the treatment of the delinquent.] What Can Be Done With the Drunkard?—In many states the approach of the legislative season has brought forth bills providing for a more rational treatment of the drunkard. A commission appointed by Governor Warner of Michigan to make a study of minor criminal offenses will recommend to the legislature at the 1911 session the establishment of an inebriates’ farm where the drunkard, habitual or occasional, may work off the habit under the influence of helpful and healthful surroundings. The commission, all of whose members are lawyers, have found that petty crime is increasing in Michigan at the rate of ten per cent a year, while the population is increasing at the rate of but four per cent. The report emphasizes that the present Michigan methods of dealing with petty offenders are not reformatory. In Lewiston and Auburn, Maine, citizens are establishing a refuge for discharged prisoners who have served terms for vagrancy or intoxication. The Auburn Reform League hopes thus to find “a place where these men can be helped to a fresh start.” In Massachusetts, Warren F. Spalding, the secretary of the Massachusetts Prison Association, discussing the treatment of drunkenness before the commission which has been investigating the increase of prisoners and paupers in the Bay State, said recently: “Massachusetts’ system of dealing with the question is not good. It is sending thousands of persons to the houses of correction each year and then releasing them after short periods without having helped them.” “A drunk,” he said, “needs air, sunshine and outdoor work. He should not be in a cell 16 out of the 24 hours. These cells are not free from germs. What does Massachusetts do with her drunks? After sending each one to the House of Correction for a number of times, he is sent to the state farm at Bridgewater, where he receives the outdoor treatment he needed in the first place. Massachusetts should establish from one to six institutions where drunks and criminals through drunkenness can be given outdoor treatment.” It is reported that a bill is to be introduced into the Indiana legislature providing for the sending of convicted drunkards to the county infirmary which is reported to be able to work the men on the farm at a cost only one-fourth of that entailed by keeping them at the jail. A member of the State Commission in Lunacy of New York recently stated that 28 per cent of insanity in the state hospitals of New York is directly traceable to inebriety or the use of alcohol. Winter and the Vagrant.—New York City has been registering at its half-million dollar new free lodging house a record-breaking attendance this winter of the out-of-works. On January 15th the department of public charities lodged 982 homeless persons at the city lodging house and an overflow of 286 were lodged on a covered dock owned by the department. “In my fifteen years of experience,” said the superintendent of the lodging house, “I have never seen so many men come here with clean shirts and collars, and with neat clothes. They are men who have been working on the railroads and on the aqueduct and are now laid off for the winter.” The city lodging house has no work-test and the magistrates have largely discontinued their former tendency to commit frequent repeaters at the lodging house to the city workhouse. In the first sixteen days of 1910 the city cared for 5,841 persons at the lodging house; for the first sixteen days of 1911 the attendance was 13,197, an astounding increase of approximately 8,000 or more than 125 per cent. Meanwhile cities all over the land are complaining of the swarms of tramps and vagrants making claims, almost with the assurance of vested rights, upon the hospitality of the towns or the individual citizens. Minneapolis has recently attracted attention through its new city lodging house, where free food, free bath and nightshirt are a part of the regulations, as well as the fumigation of the guest’s clothing during the night. The conditions under which homeless men were formerly lodged by the police in Minneapolis were so wretched that the new municipal lodging house has received a welcome from press and public. One year’s work of the wayfarer’s lodge of the federation of charities in Toledo, O., is worth notice. During 1910, 3,896 men were taken care of, 8,465 beds being given. On an average the men stopped at the lodge two and one-half nights, 18,773 meals being given in 1910. Paid employment was found for 962 men, most of the positions being at manual labor. Seventy-three per cent of the men were American born. Over seventy per cent were in the best period of life, between twenty and forty years of age. Nearly fifty per cent of the men were common laborers. All the men were examined by medical students of Toledo University, and if in need of care were referred to a dispensary or other sources. About one man in five was found to need medical attention. Over forty per cent of the men were reported as having, or as having had, venereal disease. A Court to “Patch Up” Quarrels.—The domestic relations court of Buffalo supervised through its probation officer in 1910 the distribution of $40,587 in non-support cases. This was the first court of this nature to be established. Recently New York and Boston have followed suit. Probation did not prove successful in every case, but the percentage of success “warrants enthusiasm,” according to the probation officer of the court. Three out of every four persons are reported benefited by the court. A Prison Twine Plant in Wisconsin.—On January 13th a bill was introduced into the Wisconsin senate providing for an appropriation of $400,000 as a fund to be used in operating a binder twine plant at the state prison at Waupun, $200,000 to be available May 1st, 1911, and the remainder May 1st, 1912. A bill will be introduced, it is reported, into the Ohio legislature providing for the sterilization of criminals and insane. Points in Prison Reform.—The Chicago Record-Herald of January 17th, says editorially: A Harvard professor advocates systematic experimentation on prisoners in state institutions with the different chemical poisons used in food preservatives. Such doings, he thinks, would be mild and humane as compared with those which are constantly being tried on the non-criminal public by the manufacturers of food products. The professor probably has in mind the experiments conducted by Dr. Wiley on government employees at Washington. But submission to such treatment was voluntary, and the work was under competent supervision. That such favorable auspices could be guaranteed in an average prison is open to doubt. One finds a spirit more human than that of the Harvard professor in the warden of the state prison at Walla Walla, Wash. The latter declares that the striped suit and the lock step are undesirable relics of an outlived past. He has put his charges into plain gray clothes, with no distinguishing mark beyond the prison number, and has abolished the lock step altogether. If those two antiquated features represented affronts to the dignity of human nature, the compulsory consumption of poison might reasonably be held to represent still another. Its introduction might lay the base of a new error and abuse, which itself would have to be abolished in turn. Life Prisoners Studied.—A thorough study of the subject of life prisoners has been made by Warden Henry Town, of Waupun, Wis. It is interesting to note the kindly feeling held generally by prison officials toward the “lifer.” Experience proves that the average character of life prisoners is higher than the short-term men, and fewer return again to crime, when given their liberty. This fact has increased the sentiment favorable to paroling life prisoners after they have served a reasonable period. The great majority of officials have expressed themselves as favorable to laws of this kind, and several states have already adopted them with satisfactory results. A Jail Catechism.—The following recommendations, made by Commissioner Frank Wade, of the New York Commission on Prisons, after an inspection of the Orleans County jail, may have a general applicability to the jails of the county: “That more beds and mattresses be placed in the lockup; that tramps and loafers, not under arrest, be not allowed to mingle with the prisoners detained for trial; that a jail yard be provided at the county jail, and that work be provided for time prisoners; that all the beds in the jail be equipped with new mattresses; that the walls of the corridors and cells be repainted and that the corridors and cells be kept clean; that the bed clothing be regularly washed and kept clean, in which event sheets and pillow cases should be washed; that a steel ceiling be placed over the wooden joists in the kitchen; that there be light in every cell and that there be a new lock on every floor which cannot be reached or tampered with by the prisoners.” A Court On Prison Architecture.—In the course of a decision denying an injunction brought to hold up the contract for a new state prison, Justice Betts of the New York Supreme Court, recently uttered the following dictum dealing with the psychological aspects of prison architecture: “It appears that a substantial change in plans was made, increasing the cost of the new prison from $2,000,000 to $2,200,000. This was solely in an attempt to beautify and adorn the exterior of the building. The commission, with the sanction of the legislature, is to spend $200,000 in seeking the unattainable. A prison known to be such is hideous and ugly. It can be viewed by two classes of people only, those who are inmates and those who are out. The inmates are not proud of their environments, however ornate, and no amount of embellishment can make it attractive to outsiders.” A state training school for boys under 18 has just been opened at Monroe, Alabama. It has been in preparation for several years. Federal Prisoners Paroled Without Publicity.—In accordance with the decision of the attorney general of the United States and the chairman of the federal board, prisoners who have won their paroles from federal prisons will hereafter be released without publicity. Thus they can go back into society unburdened with the disadvantage of readvertised notoriety. Commenting editorially on this change, the Cincinnati (Ohio) Enquirer says: “This is in keeping with modern progress in the treatment of criminals. When a man is tried and sentenced for a crime, full publicity is given to that fact, and when he arrives at the penitentiary that fact also is announced to the public. After that man has served the term to which he was sentenced, or when he has served a part of it and is released on parole, he has paid his obligation to society for his violation of law. He has a right to demand that he be permitted to re-enter the world unhandicapped by the renewed publication of the disgrace of his imprisonment. * * * * The attention of the Ohio prison managers is called to this progressive action on the part of the federal government. Its helpfulness would be just as important in state as in national criminal affairs.” Organized Labor Opposes “Third Degree.”—A dispatch from New Haven, Conn., states that organized labor in the various states is called upon to exert its influence for legislation forbidding the police “third degree” to get confessions from prisoners in a letter sent out from the National Headquarters of the American Federation of Labor at Washington. The letter, which is signed by Samuel Gompers, describes the practice as having no warrant for its existence “except the brute power of barbarism and the tradition derived therefrom,” and declares that “its practice on the part of the police is usurpation that must be stopped.” Former Lieutenant-Governor E. H. Harper has been elected president of the Colorado Prison Association, which plans to draft a number of bills for the legislative session. Penal Farm for Indiana.—A bill providing for the establishment of a state penal farm will be introduced into the Indiana legislature. The bill provides that the location of the farm and the purchase of the land for it shall be made by the board of trustees of the state prison, with the approval of the governor. The location shall be determined by the advantages offered in providing work for the inmates. The labor for erecting the buildings shall be furnished by prisoners transferred from the state prison and reformatory. The farm shall be in charge of a board of four trustees appointed by the governor. All male delinquents, who are above the age of commitments to the Indiana Boys’ School, who have been convicted of the violation of any state law or city ordinance, the punishment for which now consists of confinement in a county jail or workhouse, may be sent to the farm. Where the imprisonment shall not be more than thirty days it is left to the discretion of the trial court as to whether the prisoner shall be sent to the county jail or to the penal farm. Upon the recommendation of the boards of trustees of the Indiana state prison and the state reformatory the governor may order transferred from these institutions to the farms such prisoners as in the opinion of the board would be benefited thereby. The prisoners at the proposed institutions shall be employed at work in or about the building and farm. For the purpose of equipping the farm appropriations shall be made by the legislature. It is estimated the appropriation will require $200 a year for each prisoner. A Women’s Prison for Ohio?—Members of the Ohio joint legislative committee appointed to recommend what the state should do about building a women’s prison, have decided to recommend that a joint reformatory and prison for women be built under a management separate from the penitentiary. The board of managers of the penitentiary will be asked to abandon the project of erecting the woman’s prison near the institution for men. Probation in Connecticut.—The Connecticut Prison Association shows that the number of cases placed on probation during the year ended September 30, 1910, was as follows: Men, 1,613; women, 126; boys, 809; girls, 49. Those who observed their terms of probation and were released were: Men, 1,077; women, 117; boys, 677; girls, 43. Those who violated the conditions and were rearrested were: Men, 214; women, 12; boys, 52; girls, 7; while 92 men, 7 women, 17 boys and 4 girls escaped from the jurisdiction of the court. There were remaining on probation at the close of the fiscal year 858 men, 59 women, 325 boys and 26 girls, while the cases of 326 men, 18 women, 90 boys and 50 girls were investigated and settled out of court. The amount of probationers’ wages collected and expended for their families was $26,919.75. The amount of fines and costs collected from them amounted to $10,791.44. President Thorpe of the Massachusetts Prison Association, in support of his recommendation of state control of all penal institutions, which he suggested had been smiled upon taxation, and a governor or two, said that criminals violate the welfare of the state, not of the county, and that about the only opposition to his project comes from county commissioners. He called it wasteful for counties to build new prisons, where they house both serious and petty criminals, and suggested that the state should erect one in the country for classified lighter offenders. Following the wide publication of an article from the pen of Sir Evelyn Ruggles-Brise, K. C. B., dealing with prison conditions in this country, a statement condemning American prisons and prison systems was attributed to him. In a recent letter to Amos W. Butler, Secretary of the Indiana State Board of Charities, Mr. Ruggles-Brise, who attended the International Prison Congress at Washington, and who is chairman of the prison commission of England, stated that his criticism referred only to the jail system in this country. Three Reforms Urged in Maine.—Several reforms are being strenuously urged upon the Maine legislature by the prison association of that state. A farm for inebriates in Cumberland county, a reformatory for women, and a system of juvenile courts are those propositions attracting the most attention from the press and the public. Civic clubs, men’s clubs and church organizations are being drawn into the effort to get the necessary bills passed by the legislature. The proposed farm for inebriates will provide physical and mental training for the inmates, and the bill authorizing it fixes minimum and maximum sentences of three months and one year respectively. The bill providing for a women’s reformatory asks for an appropriation of $30,000 for an institution on the cottage plan, to which commitment will be on the indeterminate sentence plan. The proposed juvenile court bill was spoken of as follows by Judge Ben B. Lindsey, of Denver, Colorado: “This bill is the best measure yet proposed to protect and correct helpless, neglected or offending children.” In connection with what promises to be a state-wide investigation of several departments in New York which come under the control of the governor, it is interesting to note that Governor Dix declares his intention to make a personal inspection of the prisons, and a thorough study of their affairs. Cornelius V. Collins, Superintendent of Prisons, has stated publicly that he will welcome any investigation of affairs in the Prison Department. A bill to abolish the different prison boards and establish a new board to control all state prisons and perform the functions of the present advisory board in the matter of pardons, is in preparation by Rep. Robert Y. Ogg, of Detroit, Michigan. Both parties declared for such a bill in their state platforms. A stop has been put in South Boston, Mass., to the practice of sending juvenile offenders from the detention station to the courthouse in the same vans with adult prisoners. A bill to compel the sending of prisoners under 18 years of age to the state reformatory, and to permit the sending of first offenders, except those guilty of serious crimes, to the same place, and to prevent the sending of prisoners over 30 years of age to the reformatory, is being urged upon the legislature in Colorado. It is argued that some of the judges think the reformatory merely a branch of the penitentiary. On the ground that imprisonment in the city jail for petty crimes brings punishment on the family of the culprit no less than on the culprit himself, Mayor Pratt, of Spokane, Wash., is urging the establishment of a work farm where petty criminals can be given employment that will contribute to the support of their families. Mayor Pratt is also said to favor an institution where the destitute can find employment. A bill for the establishment of a reformatory for first offenders, now before the legislature of California, is said to have the backing of many organizations interested in prison reform. The bill provides for an institution to which prisoners convicted of felony for the first time may be sent for confinement, instruction and discipline, with the object of fitting them for self-support on release. The sentence of such prisoners is to be indeterminate. A plan for sharing profits with the prisoners of the Rhode Island state prison at Howard, R. I., has been proposed by Warden James F. McCusker, and is now in the hands of a committee charged with reporting upon it. It provides that in each department of the prison those who have worked steadily for the preceding six months shall share in a monthly distribution of the earnings of that department over and above a stated minimum amount. It is expected that legislature of Tennessee will make an appropriation at this session for a reformatory where boys convicted of crime may be kept separate from hardened criminals. The state has already purchased a farm five miles from Nashville on which to erect such an institution. |
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