Various

“ In the first place, concerted action has been the slogan for every prison reformer. In all too many instances, however, it has been enforced concerted action, and that is of little or no benefit. In all the thirty-odd years that the women of Sherborn have been working in the shop, in the laundry, on the farm there was probably no spontaneous co-operation whatever. ”

“ The Bureau of the Census tells us that 452,055 persons were committed to county and municipal prisons in 1910, under sentence or for non-payment of fine. We call them misdemeanants. It is the name ordinarily given one whose offense the law does not deem sufficiently serious to warrant a State prison sentence. If the ratio of commitments to the whole number received is the same throughout the United States as in Indiana, it is probable that one and one-half million people annually come under the influence of these local prisons.
We know that jails are the spoil of partisan politics. ”

“ An offender against the federal law becomes a prisoner of the United States and is under the direction of the federal judge. Why should one who violates a State law not be a prisoner of the State? That is the theory that underlies the new law for jail supervision in Indiana. Offenders against the State law have been placed under the oversight and authority of the judge of the circuit or criminal court, who is a State official. ”

“ We are further coming to believe that too many persons are sent to prison. Some States have adopted a system of probation, under which many lawbreakers are reclaimed to society without the stigma of a prison sentence. Probation has been successfully tried in Massachusetts, New York and other States.
We have learned, too, the value of the farm colony for the open-air employment of almost all classes of public wards. This has been applied to the insane in Wisconsin, Massachusetts and Indiana; to epileptics in New York, New Jersey and Indiana ”

“ What part can such a policeman play in an enlightened system of penology?
In a number of States the constitution proclaims that the penal code shall be founded on principles of reformation and not of vindictive justice. How far has that been interpreted in the statute laws? The provision of most of our State constitutions that justice shall be administered “speedily and without delay” is wholly forgotten. We generally think that the day of imprisonment for debt is past. Yet many jail prisoners are held for debt—the fine assessed against them. The man of means pays his fine and goes free ”

“ We are coming to understand that the policeman can be a social agent, a next friend, an instructor in obedience to the law. We are beginning to regard as the best officer the one who makes the fewest, not the most arrests. In some cities women [Pg 23] are being added to the police force, and there are police matrons, and jail matrons, and even women judges. ”

“ But in his efforts to help the parole clerks guide the footsteps of the prisoners who had been given a chance through the parole law, Eytinge found that happiness can come to a man by doing something for someone besides himself. ”

“ Fifty per cent. of the women in Sherborn are there for acts which to the normal person would be unspeakably repulsive. The average woman is held back from filthiness by her æsthetic sense, even if she isn’t by her moral sense. By giving the women who for a year or two come under the State’s care an understanding of any one art, especially of music, which appeals most directly, a standard is given from which the individual never backslides. ”

“ The law contemplates that the construction work shall be done largely by State Prison and Reformatory men. The new institution is for men who have a jail sentence of sixty days or more, and prisoners may be transferred from the State institutions whenever room for them exists at the farm. Eventually there will probably be several such farms in the State, and this movement, with proper amendments to existing laws, should in time do away with the use of the county jails for the confinement of convicted offenders, and leave them only as places of detention. ”

“ People are so merciless, so cruel—they force the girl straight down again into the life she came from.
“The first practical step which our reform institutions must take is the creating of the indeterminate sentence, which will allow the heads of institutions to keep their charges until they are in some degree capable of taking care of themselves. For instance, in Massachusetts a sixteen-year-old girl can be committed to the State Industrial School for Girls [Pg 10] and be under its custody and its excellent training until she is 21. ”

“ Under such a system we can care for the extreme cases, which are always the most perplexing problem—those violent cases for which we now have to employ the punishment cell. For these women, who are often border-line cases, should be prescribed steady out-of-door work. My idea is to have a sort of movable shack and a cage where a violent case of this kind could have the opportunity for solitary confinement, which undoubtedly is the best treatment, and for working in the ground, making things grow. ”

“ Prison officials became suspicious that many of the letters going out from the prison were not what they purported to be. Some of the salesmen were suspected of filling their letters with fake statements which were little short of appeals for help.
Word went out from the warden’s office that each prisoner could write but two letters a week. Eytinge had been dealing with forty retail merchants. Many a man would have thrown up the sponge and quit. To have thirty-eight customers taken away in that manner would have proved a shock that few concerns would have been able to withstand. ”

“ Instead of sending to jail men who are unable to pay their fines, judges are releasing them conditionally and giving them a chance to earn the money. The plan works admirably. Judges are finding that their confidence is seldom misplaced. This principle has been enacted into law in Massachusetts and other States. Elsewhere it has been practiced without special authority of law. In New York State the probation law provides for the collection of fines on probation and also restitution on probation. ”

“ In short, we must offer industrial training of a sort which would enable a girl to earn her living when she leaves us.
“This is the greatest difference between the policy which we are working out at Sherborn and the policy pursued by Dr. Davis at Bedford Hills in New York State. The emphasis at Bedford is, I believe, too much on the educational side. The emphasis on Sherborn has been, I know, too much on the industrial side. The two must be properly balanced.”
The reformatory at Bedford Hills can hardly be compared to the prison at Sherborn. ”

“ Local jails are recruiting stations for our larger State correctional institutions. We should make greater progress in reformation if we did not first pollute the stream we are going to treat.
The outlook is not bright, but it is by no means hopeless. The evils which exist are the natural result of the system we adopted. Let us change the system. Let us begin at the bottom and study all the steps in the treatment of the offender—his apprehension, detention, trial, conviction, probation, confinement, treatment, employment, conditional release, final discharge. Let us set as our goal ”

“ An examination of 427 cases from the reformatory showed that, should all women under fifty be grouped in one institution, the long-sentence women—almost invariably first offenders, and of a much higher type of intelligence than short-sentence women—would be classed with a large number of alcoholics and some of the worst of the sex cases, together with a number of definitely feeble-minded. ”

“ The most recent development of this movement is the New York State Farm for Women Misdemeanants. The simple, inexpensive, yet substantial form of buildings, the freer life and the opportunity to contribute in part at least to their own support, make it far better for the inmates and cheaper to the taxpayer. ”

“ Yet under such conditions as these we detain hundreds of thousands of persons:—The vagrant, the drunkard, the witness, the runaway boy, the first offender, the hardened criminal, the man awaiting trial, the convicted law-breaker. What can we expect but that they will degenerate in body, mind and morals? Even where work is provided, as is done in some larger jails and workhouses, it [Pg 22] is under the old contract system, which we should like to see abolished. In some States misdemeanants are employed on the public highways. ”

“ We have made some advance in this State in that the Parole Board never releases a girl if we oppose her release, so that we are able to keep the girls much longer than formerly, when they served the exact sentence and then were discharged. But it is very hard for us when a girl knows that her sentence is for one year and we keep her for two. ”

“ The training which the worker gets is practically no training at all. Hours are long, inspection is desultory. The worker who would go out from our machines into a white goods factory would not be able to measure up in speed and efficiency to any but the novice.
“The practical thing to do is to institute the factory standard, introducing some competitive basis. Then there must be correlation with the educational side of the institution. ”

“ The Governor thinks that if any white man calls another a certain vile epithet and is killed the verdict should not be greater than manslaughter. If a negro applies the epithet to a white man he doesn’t care to say what he thinks the verdict ought to be, but “people may draw their own conclusions.”
Germans to See Prisons.—An unofficial tour of inspection of American prisons and reformatories by Prussian Government officers will be made during the month of August. The Prison Association of New York has been asked to arrange the details of the proposed tour. ”

“ The Prison Association of New York is making a strong campaign for the erection of a thoroughly modern jail with outside cells, as contrasted with the old traditional type of inside cages, the prevalent American type of jail construction. ”

“ The girls of the old-style reformatory or prison have much time to themselves, and they put in every minute of it inspecting and piling up their grievances. Even when they are occupied they are thinking about themselves ”

“ In Indiana the first step in this direction came about through the establishment in 1907 of a State workhouse for women misdemeanants as a branch of the Women’s Prison at Indianapolis. The institution is entirely in control of [Pg 24] women. Then the Board of State Charities began a vigorous campaign for a state farm for male misdemeanants. Conditions in the county jails were shown forth in the following paragraph:
HOW PRISONERS LIVE AND LEARN IN INDIANA COUNTY JAILS.
They live in idleness at the expense of the taxpayer. ”

“ Eytinge says this is not enough, and thousands agree with him, so when he sees a man leaving prison who is deserving and in need, he is the first to come forward with financial aid. He has helped hundreds of men fight through the courts for their freedom, and the families of hundreds of prisoners can thank Eytinge for money that has tided them over the prison term of the head of their house. ”

“ In New York State road work by convicts is assuming important proportions. Superintendent of Prisons John B. Riley is strongly in favor or the outdoor employment of prisoners on roads.
The Prison Commission of New York is investigating the charges of Ex-Warden Clancy that drugs are smuggled into Sing Sing prison by officers and others.
On July 4th, at Great Meadow Prison, six hundred inmates were marched down to the prison ball field, one half mile from the prison, under the supervision of inmate officers. The regular prison guards were not used. ”

“ As a rule they are insanitary, they lack [Pg 21] proper provision for separating the sexes and there is no means of employment. Often they are crowded beyond their capacity. There is little attempt to classify the prisoners. They congregate in the corridors and the older and more experienced in criminal ways instruct the others in vice, immorality and crime. In how many such institutions are women not only waited upon but searched by men? ”

“ York State. A spectacular and effective campaign is now being waged in New York City against dope-vendors.
More than seven hundred prisoners out of 2000 at San Quentin prison have been taking correspondence courses given by the University of California. Spanish is a favorite language to be studied.
At Sing Sing the new warden has started out well. He has given to the inmates Saturday afternoon for recreation, and has introduced base ball and other sports. If it works successfully the inmates will have a recreation hour daily, at the close of the day’s work. ”

“ Should he be able to work out his plans with the aid of the State governing bodies, he hopes to be able to pay each prisoner for labor, deduct the amount of the prisoner’s keep from his earnings and turn over to those dependent upon the prisoner the surplus, thus preventing the privation to families and saving the State and municipal governments money spent through charity departments for the maintenance of those families. ”

“ What this means will be realized fully only by those who know the general temper of the women confined in our penal institutions, who have seen the sullenness, the bitter vindictiveness, the complaining spirit of the greater part of them. ”