The Kansas University Quarterly : $b Vol. I, No. 4, April 1893

An excellent phase of the Kansas system is the shortening of terms on account of good behavior within the prison walls. It is provided by statute that three days per month for the first year shall be deducted from the term of sentence of such prisoners as have no marks against them for disobeying the rules of the prison. If the record has been good at the close of the first year, six days per month shall be deducted during the second and eight days per month during the third if good conduct continues. These privileges apply to years or parts of a year.[11]

Another timely measure permits prisoners to participate in their own earnings. Five per cent. of each day’s labor at the rate of seventy-five cents per day, are entered to the credit of each prisoner.[12] If, on account of good behavior, a sentence is commuted at the end of the first year, the prisoner may have the privilege of sending these earnings to his family. There certainly is no reason why the prisoner within the walls should not support a family, if he has one, rather than allow it to be thrown upon the public. At least part of his earnings should be sent home and part saved for him to the end of his term. A certain per cent. of the earnings may be used by the prisoner in providing himself with a few comforts. (The floor in the cell shown in fig. 5 has a carpet provided in this way.) This, among other rules, suggests that the condition and conduct of the prisoner, as well as the crime, should determine the length of the sentence. If crime can be reckoned as moral insanity, as many specialists hold, then a sentence for a fixed time is similar to sending a sick man to a hospital for treatment, stating that he must remain exactly two years and three months to be cured, when in fact it may take longer or he may be cured before the end of a year. Certain it is that no criminal should be returned to the ranks of society until a reform has been thoroughly commenced. And when it can be ascertained that he will not commit crime again, it is idle to confine him longer. New York and Ohio have taken advanced steps in this direction and have instituted what is known as the indeterminate sentence for all criminals, whether in reformatories or penitentiaries.[13]

[11] Kansas Statutes, 6421, 1889.

[12] Ibid., 6439.

[13] See Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities, 1891, p. 290.

When the solitary cellular system is in vogue, the prisoners are limited to certain occupations within the cell, but when the associated system is practiced, all kinds of industry involving machinery may be carried on. This has given rise to what is known as the contract system, a method of employing prisoners, which should not be confounded with the unfortunate and nearly antiquated lease system. The statutes of Kansas[14] permit the contracting of prisoners to responsible parties, but still the state maintains its disciplinary control over the prisoners. The directors are obligated to advertise for bids in the leading papers in each congressional district. Contracts shall not exceed a term of ten years, and awards are made to the highest responsible bidder. Forty-five cents per day for able-bodied men is the minimum point below which bids are not accepted. There is a great controversy respecting the defects of the contract system, but it is not as bad as it at first appears when laborers are employed otherwise with great difficulty. Doubtless the better way is absolute management of all industries, as in case of the coal mines, by the prison superintendent.

[14] Revised Statutes, 6442, 1889.

The management of the mines is intrusted to a skillful engineer, Mr. Oscar F. Lamm. The writer has investigated the conditions under which men work, and has been to the face of the mines where they were at work, and can testify that the stories circulated about hard usage in the mines are wholly unfounded, except by persons who consider all labor, particularly mining, hard usage. The air below is pure--men are sent down every morning to test the air before prisoners are allowed to go down--and the mining is comparatively easy. There is very little difficulty in it, and the prisoners are not so bad off in these mines as are the miners in private mines elsewhere in Kansas. It may be a dreary life to lead for a person who has not been accustomed to work underneath the ground, but the average miner would pronounce the life in the mines endured by the prisoners as one of comparative ease and very few hardships. In all the experience of the mines, only one individual has been seriously hurt, and that when he disobeyed orders directly.

There have been many objections to the contract system urged by persons who are outside of the prison and its management. Whatever objections there may be to the contract system in itself, those usually observed are of no force. It is said that the goods made by prisoners come into close competition with goods made by union men outside of the prison and therefore the union men urge the repeal of the law granting the privilege of contracting prisoners for work. There can be no reason in this from the following principles: First, because every citizen of Kansas is interested in the right management of the prison as a means of protecting him and his family. In order to have this protection it is necessary that laborers be given employment for the sake of proper management. As there are less than a thousand of these prisoners all told, many of them are employed about the buildings and grounds and many employed in furnishing coal and other goods to state institutions, the competition does not figure at all in the great labor market. Again, while the prison mines have been putting forth abundance of coal in supplying state institutions and the market elsewhere, other coal mines in and around Leavenworth have been unable to fill the orders in supplying the demand upon them. Superintendents have tried again and again during the past two years to obtain sufficient miners to take out enough coal to supply the market, but they have failed. So far as the mines are concerned, the hue and cry about competitive labor amounts to nothing. Again, the contract system is carried on in this way: The prisoners are always under the charge of the warden and prison authorities. Contracts are let to the highest bidder for a certain number of laborers. This labor must be done on the prison grounds and under the general oversight of the prison authorities. If a prisoner is not doing well at a certain occupation, he is transferred to some other occupation. He has much the same treatment everywhere. Care is taken to adapt the prisoner to the labor that best suits his condition. When these goods are finished they pass out on the market in competition with other goods of the state and neighboring states. This, as has been stated, cannot be avoided unless the solitary system is adopted and with it an exclusion of machinery. The minimum price for contract laborers is forty-five cents per day, and as a matter of business, as those contracts are let to the highest bidder and as labor is plentiful outside of the prison, there can be very little difference in the effect of this contracting for prison labor and the injury of union labor outside as respects the cheapness with which goods can be thrown upon the market. However, it seems to me that it would be better to have all prisoners and all manufacturing under the direction of the prison, and that raw material should be purchased to supply the machinery placed there for the purpose of manufacturing the goods and then the goods should be furnished to state institutions where they need them and the surplus be thrown upon the market at the usual price. This would keep all the prisoners employed and would also give them instructions by way of learning and drill in completing the finished product, which is an education in itself. Then wherein it is necessary and possible, part of the time should be employed in obtaining a fair theoretical as well as industrial education. In this way the management of the prisoners in their graded condition would be more directly under the control of the warden and, instead of being treated as a gang at work in the shop and elsewhere, an individual consideration of every prisoner would be reached in discipline, manual labor and intelligent training.

It is not the purpose of penal institutions to humble or degrade humanity. There is no object in it and moreover it has a tendency to breed crime. Men who are sufficiently evil and reckless to commit flagrant crimes are not benefited by a punishment that degrades them or tends to rob them of the appearance of manhood. For this reason the striped suits worn by prisoners should be abandoned and suits which will classify persons within the walls, be adopted. If it be said that it is more difficult to apprehend those who escape if the traditional striped clothes are abandoned, let it be said this is of no importance; if the Bertillon or French system of registry be adopted, as represented in the following tables, there will be little chance of escape.

[Illustration: BERTILLON OR FRENCH SYSTEM OF PRISON MEASUREMENT AND REGISTRY.]

[Illustration]

One of the great difficulties in connection with prison reform is that of restoring to important places in legitimate society the ex-convicts who have been serving long terms of imprisonment. First and foremost is the consciousness of the prisoner that he has been a convict, that he has worn the striped clothes and been separated from society for a period of years on the supposition that he was not worthy to live in said society and therefore had forfeited his right to live in it. If he be strong enough to overcome the effects of such a feeling he must indeed have received a permanent reform or be strong in character. In addition to this is the fact that people know he has been a jail-bird and they will not want to employ him or trust him. This has a tendency to make him feel that he is still an outcast from society and that there are greater walls than those of the prison separating him from the trust and confidence of society. If he is employed by those who do not understand that he is from prison he carries with him continually the consciousness of deception, and this in itself has rather a bad tendency in developing a spirit which (if it does not already exist) will tend to make him feel that he is an enemy to the society which seems against him. It will be a strong character, even though it be determined to do right at all times and even though the prison reform has been salutary, if it resists the influence of such conditions. True there are prisoners of entirely different character, who consider all attempt at reform within the prison walls as so much nonsense, or at least nothing more than opportunities for winning the favor of their superiors while under sentence, and when they pass from the prison walls they still feel, if they feel at all, that society is against them and they are against society, and they are ready at the slightest opportunity to engage in their old pursuits without even attempting to enter a legitimate calling and live respectable and honored citizens.

To relieve all this there have been attempts to form prison associations which would receive the prisoner at his discharge, place him in the hands of individuals who understand his life and character and who would sympathize with him in the attempt to continue his well begun reformation, and he, understanding them, would have confidence not only in himself but in the people around him. In this way he makes the connection which has been broken off between himself and legitimate associations, and has a possibility of outliving the past. Such an association in Kansas might accomplish a vast deal of good. It ought to be formed by philanthropists and business men who would take an especial interest in this work. Each prisoner when he has finished his sentence should be assisted quietly and earnestly in securing the proper place. It would save very many, who have left the prison with good intentions, from returning to old practices.

Perhaps the furlough system, as carried on by the Elmira reformatory, is the most unique that has ever been tried for the purpose of making the connection of the discharged prisoners with the industrial and social life without. Prisoners are discharged on furlough of three years, during which time they are placed under good influences and have all the opportunities for continuing the reform outside of the prison walls. These prisoners report monthly to the prison authorities and of their own accord. If, at the end of three years, they have made satisfactory progress and have occupied positions of trust without betraying confidence, they are given their final discharge on the supposition that they are, from that time on, able to care for themselves in a manly way. Of the discharged prisoners by the furlough system over 75 per cent. have completed their three years with credit to themselves, which speaks well for the permanent reforming character of the Elmira system. There is need of such a school in Kansas. When the Hutchinson reformatory was projected, commissioners were sent to study the Elmira system and other systems and it was determined to carry out or follow as nearly as possible the former, believing it would be of benefit to Kansas. Certainly a reform prison is needed at present for the younger criminals, where they can be separated from the old and hardened and be placed under the best influence possible. One chief detriment to the effective working of such a reform school in the West is that it is an expensive institution, and that the people of to-day are not willing to pay sufficient taxes for the support of an institution in which so much care is given to those who have committed crimes against the state. There is a feeling here still that it is better to give support to our educational institutions and to all efforts along the line of educating that part of society which is already good and making it better, rather than spending so much money on that which is broken down. But it must be remembered, as was stated in the foregoing principles, that the care for the broken down parts of humanity is only in the interest of general humanity and should be considered upon that basis. However, I think also that a reformatory could be carried on at Hutchinson on a less expensive basis than that one at New York, and with proper management it could be made to go a long way towards supporting itself and still give proper reformatory practice for all who should come within its scope. At least the Hutchinson institution should not be abandoned under any consideration whatever. It would relieve the present overcrowded condition of our penitentiary and provide in a large measure for a class which are not sufficiently provided for.[15]

[15] The Kansas Legislature at its recent session made an appropriation to complete the Hutchinson Reformatory.

Discharged prisoners from Lansing find but little difficulty in obtaining work in the mines if their previous training has prepared them for it. So, also, those who have trades well learned need not be out of employment and the prison authorities render assistance to prisoners in a general way in obtaining work after being discharged.

Much more might be said about criminology and penology in Kansas, of a more scientific nature than what is contained in this somewhat general discussion; it is the intention of the writer to refer again to this subject in connection with the study of sociology at the University of Kansas.

A Brief Bibliography of Municipal Government in the United States.

BY FRANK H. HODDER.

In political science, things near at hand and always with us are slighted, while remote and obscure questions are made the subject of most careful investigation. Taxation is a notable illustration of this fact. There is no act of government which so directly and intimately concerns the whole people, and yet it would be difficult to name one which has received so little careful study. In English there is not a single systematic and comprehensive work on the subject. Similarly with municipal government. With the present distribution of population this department of government controls more than one-fourth of our whole people in all their most important political relations. There is still no systematic treatise on the subject, but public interest has been aroused, and a large number of lectures, articles in periodicals and scientific journals has been printed in recent years. It is a hopeful sign that municipal government is beginning to receive careful attention in colleges. For the purpose of assisting college study of the subject, a list of such literature as could be found was printed some time ago. As it has been found useful in several institutions, it has seemed worth while to extend it and bring it down to date. The study of municipal government at home is very properly preceded by a summary of local government generally and by a glance at municipal government abroad. The order of the references is as follows:

I. Introductory. 1. Local Government Generally. 2. European Cities. a. London. b. Paris. c. Berlin. d. Other Foreign Cities.

II. American Cities. 1. Legal Status. 2. Statistics. 3. Finance. 4. General Discussions. 5. Municipal Industries. 6. Various Topics. 7. Particular Cities. a. New York. b. Other American Cities.

I. INTRODUCTORY.

1. LOCAL GOVERNMENT GENERALLY.

Short accounts of the systems of local government of the principal countries of continental Europe are given in the Cobden Club Essays: Local Government and Taxation, London, 1875, edited by J. W. Probyn. See also F. Béchard’s _De L’administration de la France_, 2 vols. Paris, 1851, with appendix on municipal organization in Europe.

The best short description of English local government is M. D. Chalmers’s Local Government, “English Citizen” Series, London, 1883. See also Local Administration, “Imperial Parliament” Series, London, 1887, by Wm. Rathbone, Albert Pell and F. C. Montague. For still shorter account read chapter 15 of May’s Constitutional History and article on “Local Government in England” by F. J. Goodnow in the Political Science Quarterly, December, 1887, vol. 2, pp. 338-65, and an article by the same writer on “The Local Government Bill” in the Political Science Quarterly, June, 1888, vol. 3, pp. 311-333. Supplement Chalmers with Cobden Club Essays: Local Government and Taxation in the United Kingdom, London, 1882, edited by J. W. Probyn. The most exhaustive work on English local offices is Rudolph Gneist’s _Self-Government: Communalverfassung u. Verwaltungsgerichte in England_, untranslated, 3d ed., 1876. For full bibliography see Gomme’s Literature of Local Institutions, London, 1886.

The best short outline of local government in the United States is an article by S. A. Galpin on “Minor Political Divisions of the United States,” in Gen. F. A Walker’s Statistical Atlas of the United States. The papers on the local institutions of several of the States in the Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science are especially valuable. Chas. M. Andrews has articles on Connecticut towns in the Johns Hopkins Studies, vol. 7, and in the Annals of the American Academy of Political Science, October, 1890, vol. 1, pp. 165-91. Especially important is Prof. Geo. E. Howard’s Local Constitutional History of the United States, vol. 1.: “The Development of the Township, Hundred and Shire,” printed as an extra volume in this series. John Fiske’s lecture on “The Town Meeting,” delivered at the Royal Institution, was printed in Harper’s Magazine, vol. 70, pp. 265-272, and in his American Political Ideas, N. Y., 1885. A different view of the present importance of local institutions is taken by Prof. S. N. Patten in an article on the “Decay of State and Local Government,” in the first number of the Annals of the American Academy of Political Science. For comparison of American and foreign methods, read R. P. Porter’s article “Local Government: at Home and Abroad,” Princeton Review, July, 1879, N. S. vol. 4, p. 172, and reprinted separately. See two articles on “Local Government in Prussia,” by F. J. Goodnow in the Political Science Quarterly, December, 1889, vol. 4, pp. 648-66, and March, 1890, vol. 5, pp. 124-58. For further reference on local self-government see W. F. Foster’s Monthly Reference Lists, vol. 2, pp. 23-29, and his pamphlet of References on Political and Economic Topics, p. 24.