The Review, Vol. 1, No. 5, May 1911

IN THE PRISONERS’ AID FIELD

NEW HAMPSHIRE SOCIETY AFTER STATE REFORMATORY

At the session of the New Hampshire Legislature which adjourned on April 15, the New Hampshire Prisoners’ Aid Association co-operated with the State Conference of Charities and Corrections and the State Federation of Women’s Clubs in the advancing of two measures which were deemed of immediate importance to the State.

The first of these was a resolution calling upon the Governor to appoint special commission of three members to investigate and report to the legislature, at its next session, in 1913, on the desirability of a State Workhouse or Reformatory. The resolution, which carries a sufficient appropriation to pay the expenses of the investigation, passed the legislature and received the signature of the Governor. A similar measure presented at three previous sessions met with defeat, owing to the false impression that a central state reformatory would mean additional cost to the taxpayers. This impression was weakened by the arguments before committees that the assembling of all minor offenders in one institution would make it possible to put them at some profitable industry and in the end save money. At present minor offenders are confined in about 20 county jails and houses of correction, in only one of which is there a population sufficient to operate an industry. In nine of the jails idleness is the rule. In the remaining institutions the prisoners are dependent upon work about the buildings and upon the farm, and when this work is slackest the prisons are fullest. It is hoped that the study of the commission will result in recommendations whose execution by the next legislature will in New Hampshire do away with the evils of the locally administered jail and house of correction.

The second item on the program was a bill providing for medical inspection by the state board of health of all penal institutions, and for thorough examination of all prisoners, at the times of committal and discharge, not only with reference to their present physical and mental condition, but also with reference to their personal and family history as to mental capacity and delinquency. This measure was felt to be important, aside from its immediate advantage in institutional administration, in two respects: (1) It would undoubtedly bring about some changes in classifying and treating offenders; and (2) the careful recording of the results of the examinations would probably in the course of years build up a mass of data from which it would be possible to draw inferences as to methods of preventing delinquency. This bill was not put into presentable shape until so late in the session that it failed of favorable consideration. The chief opposition came from those who believed that the cost of careful medical examinations in county institutions would be such as materially to raise the budget for the hospital departments. On the contrary, the warden of the state prison testified that the result of such examinations as have been voluntarily adopted by him has been a lessening in the expenses of the hospital department. The centralization of minor offenders in a state reformatory will facilitate the adoption of this needed reform.

Similarly it will probably be easier to get a system of probation for adult offenders if there is a state reformatory. The Prisoners’ Aid Association pressed a probation bill two years ago and failed. This year the measure was held in abeyance so as to give the more fundamental bill the right of way. A state penal board has for many years been desired by many. This too, would logically follow state control of minor offenders. So the Association feels that the first battle has been won in the wider campaign. The next battle, and the decisive one, if we win it, will be that concerning the actual establishment of the state reformatory.

E. L. P.

A GREAT BRITAIN PLAN

Mr. Winston Churchill’s attempt to lighten the load which every discharged convict has as a handicap in his efforts to retrieve his position will be watched with much interest in all Anglo-Saxon countries. A new commission is to be organized, with the financial and moral backing of the government, for the purpose of uniting and directing the efforts of all societies which have as their common purpose the opening of opportunities for legitimate activity to men who have made a mistake and paid the penalty for it. The Home Secretary is to be at its head and, while its scope has not yet been and possibly never will be definitely delimited, it will make possible the abolition of police supervision which has been one of the almost insuperable obstacles in the path of every ex-prisoner who tried to live down his past in Great Britain. Police officers, as a rule, are too actively engaged in the militant work of fighting crime to be able to share in the task of rehabilitating the vanquished. We have not, in Canada, the problems in this connection which Great Britain has to solve but we have enough reasons for fearing that they will come with our rapid development to make our interest in the new movement more than an impersonal one.--Montreal (Que.) Star.

THE PAROLE SYSTEM AS IT WORKS

Joseph T. Byers, now the Secretary of the New Jersey State Charities Aid and Prison Reform Association, developed, while he was superintendent of the New York House of Refuge, the parole system of that institution to a high degree. In his final report to the board of managers of the House of Refuge he said:

“The most important work of the institution is that of our parole department. It has been a source of great gratification to me, as I am sure it has been also to the board, to note the development and success of this work. Convinced that short parole periods of supervision were unwise, our work was organized on a basis of supervision that should last as long as the law permitted, namely, during minority. To those who would criticise this period as being excessive and likely to work hardship to the boys, to make them restive and intolerant, I can only say that close observation during the past five years does not warrant any such statement. The monthly reports of the boys have been made, as a rule, very promptly and satisfactorily. They have not shown any great desire to be released from parole supervision; and I present as further evidence of the fact that our parole supervision has been properly adjusted, the more than fifteen hundred visits made to me during the past twelve months by paroled boys. Three-quarters of these visits were purely voluntary on the part of the boys. The credit for this condition of affairs is largely due to the parole officers. They have been tactful, sympathetic, resourceful and in every way deserving of the full confidence I have had in their integrity and efficiency.

Two thousand five hundred and five boys have been actually under supervision. Of these, 914 are still reporting and doing well, and 237 were doing well when supervision expired; 1073 have for one reason or another been unsatisfactory on parole. Of these 791 have been returned to the institution (including 56 voluntary returns); 154 have been committed to other institutions or are now on trial, and in 128 cases supervision expired with the boys not doing well. In 281 cases out of 2505 nothing is at present known. This means that 11.21 per cent. of our boys are out of touch with the institution, having left home, family moved, or for some other cause. Five hundred and six boys have attained their majority and have therefore passed from under supervision. At the time of expiration 237 of the 506 were doing well; 128 were doing badly, or were at the time in other institutions; while in 141 cases no information was at hand. It is only fair to state that of this latter number (141), 80 are boys who were paroled before October, 1905, which was before adequate parole supervision had been established. Taking only the cases of these 506 boys who have graduated from our supervision, present records enable us to account for only 46.84 per cent. who were known to be doing well. In making this statement we are not crediting ourselves with probable satisfactory cases; any boy concerning whom definite information is not at hand is placed in the unsatisfactory class.

Short parole periods are a fallacy. Of the 202 boys returned for violation of parole, 49 were out of the institution more than a year and 18 of them more than two years.

Thirty-six per cent. of 202 delinquents were returned for crime (burglary, larceny, forgery, robbery, picking pockets, and receiving stolen property). Of the total number of Protestant boys on parole 09.26 per cent. were returned for violation; of the whole number of Catholic boys, 14.04 per cent.; of the Jewish boys 14.66 per cent.

PAROLE LAW ADOPTED IN TEXAS

The new parole law in Texas embodies the following important features: A board of prison commissioners acting as a board of parole; eligibility for parole when the minimum sentence has expired; the retaking by the employes of the board of delinquent paroled men; meetings of parole board when necessary; opportunity for each prisoner at expiration to appear in person or before board; merit system of recording prisoner’s life and conduct during term; absolute release at discretion of board; agent for employment and supervision; delinquent paroled prisoner to be regarded in same light as escaped prisoner.

“When a convict who has been paroled shall have complied with the rules and conditions governing his parole until the end of the term to which he was sentenced, he shall upon a written or printed discharge by the board of prison commissioners, setting forth these facts, be entitled to a restoration of his citizenship by the Governor of the State of Texas.”

EVENTS IN BRIEF

[Under this heading will appear each month numerous paragraphs of general interest, relating to the prison field and the treatment of the delinquent.]

_Convicts Put at Road Making._--With the coming of open weather the question of the relation of convicts to road making is reviving in different parts of the country.

W. M. Gammon, Rome, Ga., chairman of the Board of Commissioners Roads and Revenue, Floyd County, writes to the Manufacturers’ Record:

“The road from Rome to Chattanooga will be a graded macadamized road, with concrete-steel bridges over all streams and concrete culverts over all drains. Through Floyd county it will be of the same class as that of the government road through the Chickamauga Park to Lafayette in Walker county, with which this road will connect.

“The road will be built with convict labor. This county has two gangs of 50 convicts each, 60 mules, seven road graders, two traction engines, with teams of steel cars and road rollers. The bridges and culverts will be built by a bridge gang of trained convicts. These convicts have become really experts in this line and will construct the bridges at about one-half the contract price. In fact, we find the concrete culverts with this labor about the cheapest we can build--about $3 per cubic yard. With this gang we have built over 30 miles of this class of roads the past 18 months, 30 concrete-steel bridges and 120 concrete culverts.

“If all the States would adopt the Georgia convict system, we would in a few years revolutionize road building in the South and have first-class roads from the Potomac to Mexico.

“Chattanooga county and Walker county will only have about 16 miles to build of this road, and they propose to connect with our road and the Government road at Lafayette.

“This county has already built two roads of this character from Rome to the Alabama line, and with the co-operation of the Alabama counties expect to continue them to Birmingham. This county will also complete this summer one road to Polk county and another to Barlow, and with the co-operation of the other counties expects to continue the roads to Atlanta.

“We expect in the near future to have a through line from Chattanooga to Birmingham and Atlanta, passing through Rome. We advocate putting all convicts on the roads, and when the people understand the great benefits to be derived from this work we will soon have a splendid highway from Washington through Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia to the Gulf Coast in Florida.”

The new Kansas law allowing the prisoners of county jails to work on roads will greatly relieve congestion in the Wyandotte county jail, save that county thousands of dollars and improve the roads.

The Commissioners of Wyandotte county are planning to have steel cages built, each one to hold four “bunks,” to care for the prisoners while they are working in the quarries and on the roads. In this way the men can work eight or nine hours a day and no time will be consumed in bringing them to and from the jail. The cages will be built on wheels, so that they can be drawn from place to place.

_George Junior Republic During 1910_--The annual report for 1910 of the George Junior Republic, Freeville, N. Y., looking, with its pictures of open cottages and stretches of unwalled country, like a real estate company’s advertisement of rural sites, or the prospectus of a summer camp, is out. One imagines, as he reads, that he has in hand not the annual statement of an institution for delinquents, but a breezy report on the growth of a modern village, or a pamphlet boosting some “Summerville--1915” movement.

On October 1, 1910, there were 137 “citizens” in the George Junior Republic. A “citizen” is simply an inmate. During the year there had been discharged 89 boys and girls, and just the same number had been received. With the exception of four, concerning whom it is not stated how they were received, the report shows that these had been taken in either for delinquency or for improper guardianship, from poor officers, from parents or guardians, or by their own application. Eleven are listed as having been received for delinquency, and 15 by their own application.

The Republic is a training school for all classes of boys and girls. The only qualifications for membership are sound minds and bodies--no mental defectives or cripples, deformed or sickly children are retained--and an age of at least 14 years. The Republic is a big farm of 350 acres, having upon it a modern village with its own system of water, sewerage, steam heat, roadways, and cement walks. Perhaps the two main reasons for its interest to most people are its form of government, with legislative, judicial, and executive departments, and the independent basis of self-support which every boy and girl within its bounds is obliged to maintain.

It has often been said that a successful school in the George Junior Republic was an impossibility because of the heterogeneous character and training of the pupils. From 1896 to 1905, a school for elementary pupils was maintained. In the latter year was opened what is known as the Hunt Memorial School. Later a high school was added. In June, 1910, regents’ diplomas were awarded to the first class of graduates from this high school. Four of the students entered college without conditions. The examinations in 1910 showed a decided academic awakening among the students. In June, 1910, the first prizes in the Owasco Valley prize speaking contest were awarded to a boy and girl from the Hunt Memorial School of George Junior Republic.

Existing without State aid, and with endowments which give an income of only $1,151, the Republic faced, on September 30, 1910, a deficit of $14,647.75.

In January, 1911, was opened a large gymnasium, the gift of friends of the Republic.

_Some Bad Conditions in North Carolina_--That all the county convict camps of the state be placed under a state board of supervisors is a recommendation embodied in the annual report for 1910, just issued, of the Board of Public Charities of North Carolina. Thirty-nine counties maintain these camps. Reports of the county commissioners show that in 17 of these counties the prisoners in the camps are chained together at night. Sixteen counties report that whipping, administered usually by the superintendent or foreman, is resorted to as a form of punishment in the camps.

The report urges also that the burden of executing the conditional release, or parole law, be lifted from the Governor, on whom it now rests, and placed upon the prison board of directors, who should be made a parole board with power to release conditionally every prisoner except those sentenced for life.

Concerning the county jails in the state, the report says:

“Generally speaking, the prisoners are not kept in as cleanly a condition as they should be. The bedding and cells more particularly should be especially cleansed whenever not occupied and ready for the next comer. The great difficulty is the fact that prisoners wear their own old clothing into the jail and thus introduce dirt and vermin which require a continual fight from those in charge. A limited number of suits could be provided by the county and the men required to bathe and put these on while their own are fumigated. There is no excuse for the filth in some of our jails.”

_English Progress_--In the Providence (R. I.) Sunday Journal, of April 9th, the London correspondent of that paper quotes Thomas Holmes, Secretary of the Howard Association of London, as follows:

“If some of the American methods were grafted on to the English prison administration, the effect would work remarkably for good. I found that their probation system was worked much more effectively and thoroughly than it is in England. Their probation officers are fitted absolutely for the work. On this side there are no paid probation officers as such; they are either voluntary workers or servants of some charitable society, not state officials. At present we are only playing with the probation idea in England. If we could get men of character and capability, occupying fairly well-paid posts, we should have better results than you have in America.”

Secretary Holmes went on to say that in his opinion the weakness in the position of the American probation officers resided in the fact that the judges made the appointments. If the probation officer was a strong man he influenced the judge too much, and if a weak man he was apt to become creature of the judge.

He feels strongly that England is following the lead of America, slowly but surely, in the development of the parole system, though no legislation has as yet been passed in this direction.

“We are getting tired of judges inflicting very long sentences--practically life sentences,” he says. “There is a constant agitation always going on behind the scenes to get sentence commuted. Again and again the Home Secretary--whom I know and respect--has to reconsider the sentences prisoners are serving. This puts him in a delicate position. He has to consult the judges who passed the sentences. If the Home Secretary commutes the sentence it is a snub to the judge.

“What we want in England at each prison is a board, consisting of the governor, chaplain, doctor, a representative of the Home Office and one or two visiting justices. They should have the power of releasing on parole any prisoner whose condition warranted that concession. But the American Board of Parole is not comprehensive enough; it is too much in the hands of one or two.”

The mercantile element in some of the American State prisons came in for some adverse criticism, but in the matters of greater space, better buildings, better equipped workshops, greater variety and volume of work and more recreation and education for the prisoners, the American State jails, said Secretary Holmes, are superior to the English. But in the construction and appointment of the local county jails he thinks the advantage lies with the English models.