Read Ebook: The Review Vol. 1 No. 11 November 1911 by Various National Prisoners Aid Association Publisher

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The building of this prison in Illinois will be watched with great interest by all those in the United States interested in the construction of prisons and in the proper housing of the delinquent. The circular form of prison is not entirely new. In 1901 a circular prison was built in Haarlem, Holland, to accommodate about 400 inmates. The Haarlem prison, however, has wooden doors for each cell which renders the supervision of the prisoners much more difficult. The specially new features of Mr. Zimmerman's plan are the glass inside front, the circular form of construction, the central stairway with its "conning tower," the partition providing for the obstruction of vision, for the classification of prisoners and the elimination of a number of the attendants otherwise needed for supervision. Mr. Zimmerman believes that this cell house can be built for ten per cent. less than the familiar rectangular cell block.

OUR FIRST ANNUAL MEETING

The first annual meeting of the National Prisoners' Aid Association was held at Omaha, Nebraska, on Monday, October 16, while the members of the Association were in attendance upon the American Prison Association annual meeting in that city. That the National Prisoners' Aid Association meeting was encouraging to its members there can be no doubt. In fact two meetings were held, one an adjourned meeting. At each meeting from 30 to 40 members were present.

In a report sent out by the secretary to the various prisoners' aid societies in the United States, the following paragraphs occur:

Vice President F. Emory Lyon was in the chair. After Mr. Lyon had stated the purpose of the annual meeting and had outlined briefly the history of the Association, the Secretary, O. F. Lewis of New York, was asked to report. The main business presented by Mr. Lewis was the question of the publication of the Review, a monthly periodical of sixteen or more pages, which has been published since January, 1911, in the interest of the National Prisoners' Aid Association by Mr. Lewis as editor.

Mr. Lewis showed that the receipts of the Review had been up to the 6th of October 3.67, that the disbursements for the same period had been 5.97, leaving a balance of .70 in the treasury; that the principal items had been

Mr. Lewis then raised the question of the continuance of the publication of the Review. The expression was unanimous that the Review was a useful paper and should be continued and developed; that the affiliating societies should so far as possible obtain contributions and raise their own contributions to the Review; that the Review should be continued to be published by Mr. Lewis; that the affiliating societies should furnish more information for the Review than during the last year. Mr. Lewis on his part stated that he would gladly continue to be editor of the Review and would do what he could to obtain further contributions in New York and vicinity.

The meeting then proceeded to consider the nomination and election of officers for the ensuing year. After a frank and sincere discussion as to the proportional representation on the board of officers and executive committee of the various associations represented in the national association, it was voted on motion of Mr. Lewis that a nominating committee of five be appointed from the floor and the following persons were named:

Mr. Parsons of Minnesota, Mr. Lewis of New York, Mr. Cornwall of Massachusetts, Mr. McClaren of Oregon and Mr. Messlein of Illinois.

The meeting was then adjourned until 5.30 of the same date.

The adjourned meeting of the National Prisoners' Aid Association was held at 5.30 P. M., October 16, 1911, at the Hotel Rome, Omaha. Vice President Lyon in the chair.

The nominating committee brought in the following list of officers and executive committee for election: President: Judge Carver of Topeka, Kansas; Vice President: William R. French of Chicago; Secretary and Treasurer: O. F. Lewis of New York; Executive Committee: General Edward Fielding, Chicago; F. Emory Lyon, Chicago; E. A. Fredenhagen, Kansas City; Joseph P. Byers, Newark, N. J.; W. G. McClaren, Portland, Oregon; R. B. McCord, Atlanta. Georgia; and A. H. Votaw, Philadelphia, Pa.

On motion of Mr. Fredenhagen, the above persons were elected officers and members of the executive committee respectively.

A brief discussion followed on methods of supporting the Review.

It was voted that the executive committee of the National Prisoners' Aid Association should in their discretion ask of the American Prison Association that the National Prisoners' Aid Association be recognized as a section of the American Prison Association, and that it should have on the program of the 1912 American Prison Association one of the sessions.

Adjourned at 6:30 P. M.

NEW YORK CITY'S BOARD OF INEBRIETY

The city of New York has taken initial steps to make more adequate provision for dealing with inebriates and persons arrested for public intoxication. Following the enactment of a law authorizing the city to establish such a board, the board of estimate and apportionment of the city appointed a special committee to inquire into the feasibility and advisability of undertaking such a work. As a result of the report of the committee the board of estimate and apportionment decided to initiate the work. In accordance with provisions of the law, the mayor appointed a board of five members. The commissioner of public charities and the commissioner of correction are ex-officio members of the board.

This board has started its preliminary work. Possible sites for institutions have been studied and a request for funds for carrying on the work of the board has been made to the city authorities. In the budget for the coming year, provision is made for a sufficient amount of money for the board to secure a secretary and necessary office assistance. The appointment of a secretary, who can give his whole time to the work, will enable the board to study the problem further and formulate more in detail their plans and present them to the city for its ratification by providing the necessary funds for carrying them out.

This board has been established to do a most important piece of work. It will provide not only a hospital and industrial colony for the care of inebriates, but will establish under its jurisdiction a system of special probation work for cases of intoxication. The work of the board will doubtless be watched by persons interested in this work all over the country. A measure similar to the New York city law, giving authority to any city of the first or second class in the state of New York to make provision for the care and treatment of inebriates, was enacted at the last session of the legislature, and a committee has been formed in the city of Buffalo to secure the adoption of the plan in that city.

EVENTS IN BRIEF

"A noteworthy interest in the proper employment of the prisoners in American prisons, reformatories, and jails was the keynote of the annual congress of the American prison association held recently at Omaha. This interest resulted in the appointment of a special committee, in which the name of the president of the American federation of labor is found among others, to investigate thoroughly prison labor conditions in this country and to report recommendations at the next year's congress in Baltimore as to the best labor methods to be pursued in the correctional institutions of the various states. No more far-reaching action has been taken by the American prison association in the last decade. The sessions of the Omaha congress teemed with aspects of the labor problem. From New Zealand the success of reforestation by prisoners was reported: from Toronto, the remarkable working of convicts on a wide prison farm without armed guards. From the District of Columbia came reports of several successful years of collection of important sums from convicted offenders on probation, for the benefit and support of their families. Colorado has built almost half a hundred miles of state road by prisoners in the open, and other states have emulated the record. The congress was permeated with the feeling that prisoners should be steadily and profitably employed, not exploited by state or corporation or individual, and that so far as possible the families of prisoners should receive some portion of their earnings. Two other currents were strongly felt: one for the rational development of recreation in correctional institutions, the other for the more careful study of the mental and physical condition of each inmate. Baseball, lectures, concerts, prison schools, and other educational features were warmly advocated. Outdoor sports on a week-end half-day were held to be not only a valuable 'exhaust pipe' for pent-up spirits and emotions developed in a necessarily abnormal condition of living, but also a distinct part of the plan of re-creation that is a prominent purpose of imprisonment. As to mental and physical defectives, the testimony of specialists was strong, not only that a considerable percentage of prison inmates are mentally backward and deficient, thus requiring special treatment rather than ordinary prison discipline, but that many industrial and living conditions, in which offenders, young and old, have found themselves, tend predominantly to crime. In several sessions emphasis was laid also on the deplorable absence of statistics regarding crime in the United States, it being shown to be impossible to-day to tell whether crime is increasing or decreasing or what the general results of imprisonment in prisons or reformatories are. Encouraging indeed was the frank introspection that the prison wardens and boards of managers gave to this and their own work. Of special interest was the report of Attorney-General Wickersham on the success up to the present time of the parole system for United States prisoners, who now may be paroled, if first offenders, at the end of a third of the maximum term of their imprisonment, by the action of a board of parole consisting of the warden of the penitentiary in which the prisoner is confined and representatives of the Federal department of justice. The Attorney-General advocated the extension of the parole system to cover the cases of life prisoners, details of administration of which would naturally be worked out in legislation."

The following officers were chosen:

President--Frederick G. Pettigrove, Boston.

General Secretary--Joseph P. Byers, Newark, N. J.

Financial Secretary--H. H. Shirer, Columbus, Ohio.

Treasurer--Frederick H. Mills, New York city.

"The use of convicts in building roads is wrong in principle. In the first place the sight of convicts upon the public highways has a detrimental effect upon the young people, it is apt to inspire in them any but the purest of thoughts. But the worst effect is upon the convict himself. He is subject to public shame and humiliation, and if he is making an effort to reform, he becomes easily discouraged. I have no objection to preparing the stone and other materials for road building by the prisoners, provided it is done within the prison walls. The talk that the use of convicts upon the highway will eliminate the conflict between convict labor and free labor does not prove out. The exhibition of the convict upon the highway only tends to aggravate the conflict, as it gives the lazy free laborer a chance to claim that he would work on the roads if it wasn't for the convict. It is too expensive a method of road building."

"I found two children there, a boy and a girl, about twelve years of age. At night the station filled up with its inevitable horde of drunkards and offending women, whose language, if not immediate presence, was forced upon these children. I called upon the boy on Sunday and found him the companion of the loose women whose cases were to be heard in court Monday morning. I have nothing to say in regard to the accommodation of the men and women who must needs be shut up. But I think the treatment accorded to these children was outrageous.

"Why were they there? For the inexcusable, the damnable reason, that there was nothing else to be done with them. I am not criticising the officers of the central station. They are extremely kind to these children. It is the city of Fall River that is responsible. The community is committing an offence against children. If the city, as by all means it should, will take in hand either to punish or reform little children, it ought to make provision to properly accommodate such."

"The prisoners, in large gangs and with but two overseers in charge, work on the state roads, and at times are two hundred miles distant from the penitentiary. There is no confinement, guards or other precaution, yet during the past year there was a net loss of only two men by escape. In one instance a piece of road was constructed through solid rock for ,000, that would have cost ,000 under the contract system."

That the convicts are reconciled to the conditions, the Governor explains is due to a law providing that the time of every prisoner is commuted ten days for every thirty he works upon the roads, and the penalty of three years added to the original term of very convict who escapes, in case he is recaptured. The convicts are in better health than they can possibly be when kept in prison, and work harder than men who are paid by the day.

I sometimes think I'd rather be forgot Than be remembered by the things I've done I've often wished my name was but a blot, On mortal scrolls of battles lost and won. Or rather still I'd like to be a child, As innocent as in those other days, If from stern duty's path I was beguiled, Ere I had reached the parting of the ways. But still I see the folly of my fears, For something seems to say: "It's not too late; For to whatever port the pilot steers, He may return. It is not left to Fate."

Turn failure into victory, Don't let your courage fade; And even if you get a lemon, Just make the lemon aid.

Another great field in Baltimore for charitable endeavor has been exploited in New York--that is probationary systems for women. Under the present magistracy system of Baltimore, almost all women who are arrested on minor charges, unless hardened criminals, have to be dismissed. What is a magistrate today to do with a woman on her first offense of having too much to drink in the opinion of a police officer? There should be a probationary official to whom she could be released and who could look after her future conduct.

Many years ago an island in the Missouri river was sold to the state. The island has never been used, and the lands owned by the state around the prison have never been used to any great extent for farming. Warden Codding began work two years ago, and the first thing he did was to give the prisoners half an hour's liberty each day in the prison yard. The men can do anything they wish during that half hour. They can talk to each other and the guard, play ball, pitch horse shoes, play croquet or a dozen other games.

The prisoners had been morose and sullen, and there were twenty-two insane prisoners in the hospital and a half dozen tuberculosis patients. The plan was adopted to see if the insanity and tuberculosis could not be stopped. Not a new patient has developed in 14 months, and there is not a single prisoner in the tuberculosis hospital at this time.

"The farm does two things of great importance," says Warden Codding. "The first is that it gives the men a new aspect of life as they are about to leave the prison. The farm work and a half hour recreation period have reduced the ordinary prison vices seventy per cent. The plan of working the men on the farm has not been going long enough to make any figures, but I believe that there will be a less percentage of men returned to prison for second terms now than under the old plan of keeping them confined all the time."

"When prisoners are admitted they are given no medical examination whatever. The weak, the strong, the sick and the well are all one in the eyes of the prison officials. All receive the same food and the same treatment.

"The result is that there are any number of prisoners suffering from very serious and shocking diseases, who receive either no treatment or treatment of the most perfunctionory sort. In addition all these men use the same knives and forks, the same drinking cups, and the same towels as the rest of the men. They are shaved every day with the same razor.

"In other words no precautions whatever are taken to guard healthy individuals from contamination from diseases, the virulence and contagiousness of which are only too well known.

"The sanitary conditions of the jail are abominable. They are not fit to describe in print, and they nauseate me when I think of them. The bedding, walls and floors swarm with vermin, and the half-hearted attempt to get rid of them by an occasional sprinkling of ill-smelling powder only emphasizes their presence.

"Humanity, common courtesy, the slightest sympathetic realization that we are all human beings, after all, is unknown. There is no one to say a good word to the prisoners. During the three months I was there we had only two sermons, and these were perfunctory in the extreme, and delivered without the slightest idea of appropriateness and of crying spiritual needs of the listeners."

Alien prisoners in 1909-10 comprised one-fourth of all the inmates of the state prison of New York.

CHANCE

He made us all of flesh and blood, And we, in troth, are kin; You in your place as ruler stood, I in my place of sin.

A turn in the mould, a spot in the clay, Would have changed our spheres of life; Mine would have been the glorious day, And yours the bitter strife.

Brothers in spirit and brothers in form, Only a step apart; One life was lost in a raging storm, One saved by a fairer start.

"It is these children, our brightest and best, whom we are spoiling by giving them no proper chance for development. The city offers adventurous children nothing to satisfy their desire for pleasure, nothing which will allow them to cherish their determination to conquer the world and make it a better one.

"So these children go out and get into trouble, or else they stay in their poor houses and factories and turn into stupid dullards, all initiative, all ambition stamped out of them."

A commission, one of whose members is Governor Harmon, is seeking a site for a new reformatory in Ohio.

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