The Review, Vol. 1, No. 8, August 1911

AUGUST 1911 ***

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE

Obvious errors and omissions in punctuation have been fixed.

Any inconsistencies in spelling have been retained.

VOLUME I, No. 8. AUGUST, 1911

THE REVIEW

A MONTHLY PERIODICAL, PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL PRISONERS’ AID ASSOCIATION AT 135 EAST 15th STREET, NEW YORK CITY.

TEN CENTS A COPY. SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS A YEAR

E. F. Waite, President. F. Emory Lyon, Vice President. O. F. Lewis, Secretary and Editor Review. E. A. Fredenhagen, Chairman Ex. Committee. James Parsons, Member Ex. Committee. G. E. Cornwall, Member Ex. Committee. Albert Steelman, Member Ex. Committee. A. H. Votaw, Member Ex. Committee.

CONTENTS

Page The New York State Board of Parole 1 The Organization and Correlation of the Probation and Parole Systems 6 Events in Brief 11

THE NEW YORK STATE BOARD OF PAROLE

GEORGE A. LEWIS

Member of the State Board of Parole, President of the Eleventh State Conference of Charities and Correction

Reprinted from the New York Herald

Of the value of the parole in the State of New York there need only be said that, so far as the parole authorities have been able to learn, out of every one hundred men paroled from Sing Sing, Auburn and Clinton prisons since the system went into practical effect, in October, 1901, eighty-three have “made good.” During these ten years approximately two thousand men on parole have complied with all conditions required of them and been discharged. Assuming what was pretty nearly the fact, that a former convict after serving a prison term under the old system was a morally broken man, even though he might not pursue an active criminal career, this means that there have been two thousand more useful members of the community returned to it, and that there are two thousand less actual and potential criminals in existence than if there had been no parole work in the State--this number, moreover, being exclusive of men under the restricted liberty of parole “now at large and in good standing,” who may be said to swell the satisfactory total to 2,600.

Aside from the moral advantage derived from the parole, it may be mentioned that the State has made a material gain to the extent of some hundreds of thousands of dollars that would otherwise have been expended for the maintenance in prison of men who have been at large and are self-supporting.

A large and increasing number of our prison population come sooner or later before the Board of Parole for its consideration and judgment, the number of applicants eligible for parole having grown more than four hundred per cent since September, 1907. The hope of early and favorable action furnishes the strongest incentive for the prisoner to conduct himself without fault in his cell, in the workshop and in the school. The family and friends on the outside bestir themselves with equal zeal to obtain suitable offers of employment (which are always investigated by the Board), a proper place of abode, and to enlist the interest of good people generally to lend a helping hand to the released prisoner.

As an illustration of the working of the system we may take the April meeting of the Board of Parole, under the chairmanship of Mr. Cornelius V. Collins, who has since retired as State Superintendent of Prisons, in which position his administration of the penal institutions under his control, from the point of view of broad humanity and enlightened philosophy, has been a model for civilization. (The consensus of the International Prison Congress, comprising delegates from forty-seven nations, that met in Washington last October, after a tour of inspection of the penal institutions of the United States, was that nowhere else in the world had the prisons so nearly solved the problem of the reformation of the criminal as in the State of New York.)

There were some sixty men who applied for parole at the April meeting of the Board at Sing Sing, and of these thirty applications were granted, and I may safely assert that in the case of every prisoner granted his parole it was better, both for the State and the individual, that he should be given the opportunity again to test his capacity in the struggle for an honest livelihood. In each instance the application for parole, signed by the prisoner, contained a statement as to his regular trade, profession or vocation, an account of his occupation in prison, his hopes and expectations on his release, with full details as to prospective employment while on parole and residence during that period. This application was accompanied by a written statement made by the prisoner at the beginning of his term, and by separate reports of the warden, the prison clerk, the principal keeper, the prison physician, the prison chaplain, the principal of the prison school and the District Attorney who had prosecuted the case originally. Each prisoner’s preliminary statement, filled out and signed on entering prison, covered about thirty-five points, including his own version of his “criminal history,” particulars of his conviction, family relations, information relating to drinking habits and insanity in the family, his own account of the particular crime for which he was convicted and his industrial history, with the names of his employers.

The report of the warden gave his estimate of the character and capacity of each man, with that official’s view as to the probability of the prisoner keeping his parole. The report of the prison clerk was as to the convict’s crime, the date of his reception in prison, his criminal history as revealed by photographs, finger prints and measurements, and an account of punishments, if any, and other particulars from the prison records. The principal keeper’s report was along the same lines as that of the warden, but made out quite independently, as was another by the prison chaplain. The prison physician’s report was as to the convict’s physical and mental condition and his ability to do work of various kinds. The report of the principal of the prison school showed the conduct and progress of the convict in the classes, unless he had been excused as competent or on account of bodily or mental disabilities. The report of the District Attorney who had convicted the prisoner was merely a statement of his views as to the advisability of granting the parole.

_Offers of Employment._

In addition to these formal documents each prisoner’s dossier contained letters from persons whose names he had given as references, and offers of employment, written upon a blank form and signed by the proposed employer before a notary, giving his name, address and business, and stating the amount of wages he proposes to pay and whether the amount included board. These offers of employment had been investigated thoroughly by a parole officer or some one connected with the Board, and were indorsed as approved or otherwise. All of the documents had been prepared with care and deliberation within six weeks before the meeting of the Board.

Each applicant is brought separately before the Board of Parole, which consists of three members (the State Superintendent of Prisons, ex officio, and two others appointed by the Governor) of equal rank, the Superintendent generally presiding, though either of his colleagues is competent for the position and frequently relieves him. The Board having familiarized itself with the documents in each prisoner’s case, he is questioned as kindly and delicately as possible with regard to every detail essential to a knowledge of his past life and his future prospects and intentions. As a misstatement to the Board, if detected, has a most unfavorable effect upon the prisoner’s petition for parole, and as any statement he may make is subject to verification, he generally speaks the truth. No unnecessary inquisition is made, however. Indeed, at the meeting in April a prisoner who refused to answer certain question as to his parentage, because he had thus far succeeded in keeping information of his conviction for crime from his family, was nevertheless released on parole.

One of the interesting cases at a recent meeting at Sing Sing was that of an Irishman, forty-nine years of age, who had served twenty years of a life sentence for murder in the second degree, but had become eligible for parole under the law of 1907. Being asked the usual question:--“Do you think that you will be able to support yourself out of prison?” he replied confidently in the affirmative.

“Twenty-five years ago,” he said, “I got married and went into the trucking business in New York with one horse and wagon. When my trouble came I had twenty double teams at work. My wife has carried on the business all the time I have been in prison, but she had a hard pull to get over the panic four years ago, and now she’s only got four teams. Two years from now I’ll have the twenty teams at work again.”

Responding to another of the customary questions, “Are you and your wife on friendly terms?” the man’s eyes filled with tears.

“On friendly terms, is it?” he repeated, his voice trembling. “God bless her, she’s never missed a visit to me under the rules, winter or summer, snow or rain or sunshine, ill or well, in the twenty years I’m here, nor did I once fail to get a letter on letter day! Aye, we’re on friendly terms, or I’d stay right here in this prison rather than go out of it.”

It is reasonably certain that man will keep his parole.

Another case somewhat out of the ordinary was that of a man of thirty, who, in a confidential position, had embezzled several thousand dollars from his employer and spent it in riotous living. He had evidently been a wild young fellow, but he was possessed of superior intelligence and education and had undoubtedly come to realize that he had been making a fool of himself and that it was time for him to make amends. Indeed, the warden, the principal keeper and the chaplain, reporting separately, each expressed the opinion that the prisoner was sincere in his expressed determination to redeem his character on leaving prison. The meeting of the Board in April was the third occasion on which his application had been presented. The employer whom he had despoiled had objected to the man being admitted to parole on the two previous occasions, and while that might not have had undue weight with the Board, word had been received from the police of a city in the South that the prisoner was wanted there for murder. It turned out that he was the wrong man that time, but it put off his chance for parole.

On this last occasion the prisoner’s former employer had retracted his protests, against his being admitted to parole, and the man had the offer of a good position on his release. No prisoner is ever admitted to parole unless he can show that he will be self-supporting out of prison. Only a day or two before this meeting of the Board, however, a letter had been received by the warden of the prison from the New York Police Department to the effect that the police of a Western city had telegraphed that a warrant for the man’s arrest was on the way from that city, where he was wanted for grand larceny. Of course it was impossible to admit him on parole until this warrant had been disposed of. The prisoner was bitterly disappointed, for he had been anticipating immediate freedom after three years of incarceration.

_Convicted Public Officials._

There were two former public officials who had betrayed their trusts and been punished among the applicants for parole at the April Sing Sing meeting, one having been a magistrate and the other an official of his home county. Each of these men had a home to go to and sufficient money to live on for a time at least, and each announced his intention upon his release to go into the real estate and insurance business. Both of these men were put through the same course of kindly but thorough questioning on the same points as the prisoners from humbler walks in life by Mr. Collins, and both are, of course, compelled to conform to the same rules of parole as the others.

One convict who had the sympathy of the Board was an exceptionally keen and alert former man o’ war’s man of the United States Navy, thirty years of age, who had learned the trade of structural iron worker after honorable discharge from the service. He had kept up his union dues while in prison and had a job at $6 a day waiting for him on his release. The former sailor had served two years of an indeterminate sentence on conviction for bigamy, of which crime he was legally guilty. He had first married an unworthy woman, who had left him and their child, and, having reason to believe that she would not cross his path again, had gone through the ceremony with another woman, whom he had informed of his previous martial experience. On the first woman’s discovery of his relations with the other, however, she had sworn out a warrant against him and he had been tried and sentenced accordingly.

Investigation showed that the prisoner’s child was being properly brought up by his mother, an eminently respectable woman, and that the conviction for bigamy was the only blot upon an otherwise honorable life. He had never used intoxicating liquors even in the navy, which is something of a test of character. There is little doubt that this man will “make good.”

An idea of the value of the scholastic instruction in our State prisons may be gathered from the fact that four convicts--three Italians, and one Russian--who came before the Board at the Sing Sing meeting in April had learned the English language and reading and writing during the periods of their incarceration. Three other Italian convicts, who had begun their sentences entirely ignorant of the language and had not progressed so far as to be able to answer the questions of the chairman of the Board without the aid of an interpreter, made not the slightest protest on being informed that they would be retained a little longer in prison until they should be somewhat improved in reading, writing and speaking English. Ten or twelve of the men paroled on this particular occasion had learned trades in Sing Sing. Entering the prison as unskilled common laborers, they left it fairly qualified in trades that pay good wages.

Provision for the indeterminate sentence in the State of New York was first inaugurated by a law enacted in 1889, which merely permitted such sentences in all cases and made no distinction between the first offenders and recidivists. The early hostility of the judiciary to the parole system is illustrated by the fact that during the twelve years’ life of this law, from 1889 to 1901, only 115 indeterminate sentences were imposed in all the criminal courts of the State, involving 13,000 convicts committed to its prisons, not one subject of an indeterminate sentence in all these years being sent to Sing Sing from New York city, which furnishes about 70 per cent of all commitments to the State prisons. In 1901 the indeterminate sentence was made mandatory for first offenders in all cases where the maximum penalty was five years or less, but it was not until 1907 that it became mandatory in all cases of first offenders, with the exception of those convicted of murder in the first degree. In 1909 a law was enacted applying the parole system to all first offenders then in prison under definite sentences.

The system that bears the name of “probation” is one which has grown to its present proportions and importance since 1901 through the enactment of no less than forty general and local statutes. First applied only to adults and in cities, its benefits have been wisely extended to children and to all the courts of the State. By legislation in 1909 a measure took effect which enables boards of supervisors to fix salaries for probation officers, and during last year fifteen counties availed themselves of this privilege, and others are following their example. The system does not exist and is not designed for habitual criminals and hardened recidivists, but only for first offenders; or, at least, for such whose personal characteristics and history give promise of good results from its restraining and guiding influence.

_Reforms Inside Prisons._

Had it not been for reforms inside the prisons it would have been impossible to successfully apply the parole and probation systems in the State. A writer in the World’s Work says, “With the last ten years greater advances in the reform of prison administration have been made throughout civilization than during all the previous centuries that man has been forcibly sequestering his lawless brother from society,” and he declares that the United States has led the world in these reforms, and that New York has led the other forty-seven States. More than to any other one man the constructive legislation and the progressive reforms that have brought about this splendid advance in humanity and civilization is due to Cornelius V. Collins, who, as has been mentioned, recently resigned the position of State Superintendent of Prisons, which he had held for thirteen years. When Mr. Collins first took charge of the prisons of New York the essential principal of penology was retribution; in the words of Dr. Frederick H. Wines, “to measure guilt on the one hand and suffering on the other, and to strike an equitable balance between the two.” The effort seemed aimed at stamping out the convict’s self-respect. He was forced to move about outside of his cell in the degrading lockstep formation, his hand on another convict’s shoulder and his eyes on the ground; he wore a hideous black striped suit of ashen gray; his hair was cropped close to his head; he ate his meals from tin dishes. Although it was against the law, corporal punishment was quite generally administered to prisoners.

To-day, due to the efforts of Mr. Collins, a well fitting uniform of bright blue gray has been substituted for the convict’s striped suit, and the military squad formation has superseded the lockstep. His hair is trimmed with shears to suit his individual preference. Crockery has replaced the old tin cups and pans in the prisons of the State. An oculist and a dentist look after the eyes and teeth of the prisoners. An electric light in each cell has replaced the old tallow candles. Infraction of rules in the New York prisons to-day merely consigns the convict to solitary confinement until he reaches a normal condition of mind and signifies his willingness to conform to discipline. The paddle, the rack, the ducking stool and all other forms of corporal punishment have been abolished in New York’s penal institutions.

Just now we are beginning to realize and measure the far reaching result of the prison system of graded schools, the inauguration of which was accomplished by Mr. Collins in 1905. These schools are conducted with the greatest earnestness and efficiency, under the supervision and with the co-operation of the State Department of Education. Many men who come to prison are absolutely illiterate: many, too, without the smallest speaking acquaintance with the English language. The prison school pupils are almost always eager to learn, and display the greatest patience in gaining an elementary education. Without attributing any distinct ethical value to the mere acquisition of unfamiliar facts, it is nevertheless true that the broadening of the mental prospect, the removal of blindness from the mental eye, is very often--particularly in the case of men guilty of crimes of violence and passion--the apparent proximate means of a practical reformation of the individual. He is awakened to a glimmering consciousness of the relativity of his rights, wrongs and desires, to the rights of others, and he is less apt to break out in anti-social criminal acts. The recent introduction of a carefully graded marking system, with honor bars or chevrons, and stars worked on the sleeve, has been a potent means of obtaining better discipline and improved conduct among the prisoners.