Various

“ To the man imbued with this spirit, society’s attitude toward him he feels is immaterial, not that he vicariously courts its hostility, but he is possessed of the sublime assurance that his character-force will carry him through. ”

“ A much more legitimate argument, but one less often advanced, is the healthful, wholesome environment thrown around the convict while at work in road building. The experience of the men who developed the road work in Colorado shows that this is an advantageous way of employing able-bodied convicts—of transforming the sallow ghost-like prisoner, fresh from the prison pen, into a rosy, happy specimen of humanity. ”

“ The funeral urn never pampered to anything but a sickly, morbid sentiment. A constant reviewing of failure is no inspiration to succeed. The most sanguine temperament falls a helpless victim before ravishing regret, and the man or woman, ex-prisoner, allowed to re-enter society unfortified by the philosophical truth that the past must have culminated in the present to make possible a happier, better, greater future, has been badly instructed in the ways of Providence—ever a witness to the wisdom and mercy that rejoiceth more over the lost sheep that is found than over the “Ninety and Nine.” ”

“ We are all familiar with the temptations besetting men going out—and their attraction would be greatly lessened by a less precipitous exit from prison and entrance into society than that now in vogue. Too often the last thing a man gets on leaving prison is the “ice-eye” of a turnkey, immune to any sentiment other than that arising from the expectation that his coming back is only a question of time. ”

“ The value of the convict’s labor on the roads is the same as the value of his labor in the prison factory—the wage at which free labor can be secured to perform the same work. Shall the prison department turn over gratis its convicts to the highway department—this is the question. If it does, it is giving to the highway department exactly that amount of money for which the highway department could hire free labor. It makes little difference to the taxpayers which he is taxed to maintain, prisons or roads. Prisons are deemed a necessity and the community is afraid to get along without them. ”

“ And mark you, I say MAN, for in Iowa we are trying to make men in our prisons today, not ex-convicts. I want to feel, and I am going to feel, when the day of liberation comes, and a man stands in my office prepared to re-enter the world, that society is about to receive back in the economic value of the man returned, the principal and interest on all it has cost to produce him. ”

“ It is our duty as missionaries in the field of prison philanthrophy to devote our uttermost efforts to secure them to him. But character-traits great and invaluable as they are and primarily of first importance in the work we have assumed, should be supplemented in a material way. No ex-prisoner should be turned loose into society unprovided with sufficient funds to maintain him suitably—not in luxury—if you please, but comfortably, for at least thirty days. ”

“ Self-confidence rests upon a self-recognition of ability, and this in turn is the outgrowth of experience which has been productive of pre-designed results. If in his prison experience he has been taught that results—all results—come through intelligent, systematic application and has learned to concentrate his efforts and apply himself and thus to realize them, he would be a strange anomaly if he lacked confidence in himself. ”

“ And I am sure every man works more cheerfully—more contentedly and more effectively with a ten or a twenty dollar bill in his pocket than when he feels himself to be absolutely insolvent.
And now permit me to briefly suggest what I regard as an important, indispensable, and in time to be, universally adopted prison innovation, directly affecting the man going out and which can be productive of only beneficial results. ”

“ The new going out, whom I insist upon holding in view, ought to be a new spirit incarnate in a rebuilt body, born over a second time into a new life, has nothing in common with the deal self buried in the past. ”

“ The responsibility for these failure will rest less on the men themselves than upon us. If there is one duty above all others we owe to society, to the men and to ourselves, it is to see that the man going out has not lost his job—but goes out to go into one. In a large measure this may be accomplished by reconciling the man to the necessity of filling any position which will support him until he can catch his balance and soar up to something higher. Where he is employed the prejudice said to exist against ex-prisoners is very much a popular error. ”

“ Under God’s own sky, with the fresh air of heaven, free from shackles and living on his honor with few guards to do more than supervise, the prisoner is surrounded by the best environment and governed under a method which is sane. ”

“ Americans, particularly in the eastern states, are loth to wear their hearts upon their sleeves. So we hesitate sometimes perhaps, to emphasize the message we have. Yet—life is short, and the field is wide. Prisons are still far from solving the problems of the deprivation of liberty, punishment, the protection of society, the rehabilitation of the criminal, and the reduction of crimes. ”

“ It will endeavor to organize such influence as will secure the building and equipping of proper institutions for those offenders who can not be dealt with more profitably and wisely by methods of probation and parole. It will direct its efforts to securing the proper equipment and regular inspection of jails and prisons of all kinds. It will in time organize such aid as may enable the discharged prisoner to establish himself again in the confidence of the people instead his possessing that dangerous state of mind which characterizes one who feels himself an outcast of society’. ”

“ And while I am grateful to them, and those who so liberally support and second them, I cannot help feeling chagrined at the thought that the great commonwealths of this country should leave a duty so palpably belonging to them to be discharged by philanthropic associations. I believe nothing is productive of greater practical good than to secure a prisoners’ compensation law in each state where one is not in operation at present. ”

“ The claim that free labor cannot be had at any wage for work on roads in certain communities is generally advanced as a justification for this, but the large employment agencies of the country as well as the student of economics will soon show conclusively that the difficulty lies not in securing labor at any price, but in reluctance to give an adequate wage which will induce labor to come into the work. ”

“ Passing a bill is only one of the steps in the process of educating public sentiment up to the acceptance of a new idea. Education must begin somewhere and sometime. So let us be active in advocating and introducing good legislation, even though we may not get all we want in any one year. ”

“ The theory that convict labor is a proper source of exploitation either by a lessee through his peonage, a contractor through his cheap contract, or a co-ordinate department of a state government through its subtle bookkeeping, is one that is untenable from any point of view. Road making is a legitimate use of state funds and is of practical benefit to all citizens by reducing the cost of transportation of the products of the farms to the great markets ”

“ If there is one thing a man needs most at such a time it is self-confidence. Its absence marks the weakling and is almost a sure precursor of his certain return to old habits of thought with their accompanying results. ”

“ A movement equally important with that of good roads is passing over the country. Efficiency is demanded in the management of prisons, with a wage for the convict which will benefit those dependent on him. To build up an efficient organization of prison industries is a task of no mean magnitude on an inadequate salary and hampered by red-tape of officialdom and incompetency of subordinates. ”

“ On the ground that imprisonment in the city jail for petty crimes brings punishment on the family of the culprit no less than on the culprit himself, Mayor Pratt, of Spokane, Wash., is urging the establishment of a work farm where petty criminals can be given employment that will contribute to the support of their families. Mayor Pratt is also said to favor an institution where the destitute can find employment. ”

“ The conditions under which homeless men were formerly lodged by the police in Minneapolis were so wretched that the new municipal lodging house has received a welcome from press and public.
One year’s work of the wayfarer’s lodge of the federation of charities in Toledo, O., is worth notice. During 1910, 3,896 men were taken care of, 8,465 beds being given. On an average the men stopped at the lodge two and one-half nights, 18,773 meals being given in 1910. Paid employment was found for 962 men, most of the positions being at manual labor. Seventy-three per cent of the men were American born. ”

“ The location shall be determined by the advantages offered in providing work for the inmates. The labor for erecting the buildings shall be furnished by prisoners transferred from the state prison and reformatory. The farm shall be in charge of a board of four trustees appointed by the governor.
All male delinquents, who are above the age of commitments to the Indiana Boys’ School, who have been convicted of the violation of any state law or city ordinance, the punishment for which now consists of confinement in a county jail or workhouse, may be sent to the farm. ”

“ This is in keeping with modern progress in the treatment of criminals. When a man is tried and sentenced for a crime, full publicity is given to that fact, and when he arrives at the penitentiary that fact also is announced to the public. After that man has served the term to which he was sentenced, or when he has served a part of it and is released on parole, he has paid his obligation to society for his violation of law. ”

“ I have often wondered whether we fully realize that in the experience of every man there is always the “middle man.” By the “middle man” I mean the character taken after its evolution from the innocent years of early life and out of which the last state of the man will evolve. ”

“ The many different experiments going on today appear to have grown out of local needs and conditions rather than out of any generally accepted theory of what is right from the standpoint of penology. To solve satisfactorily the difficult problem involved, or even to suggest its proper solution, would require long research and experimentation, but perhaps it may be timely to point out some of the difficulties which must be encountered wherever convict road making is tried. ”

“ There are those, I have been made aware, who are skeptical as to the policy of providing ex-prisoners with more money than is sufficient to meet immediate requirements. They argue that the pressure of necessity will have a stimulating effect, that the man determined to lead an honest life will, driven by it, go to work at once. ”

“ Next to self-confidence and a stoical attitude toward the past, the important thing to a man going out is “purpose.” I do not mean merely purpose to do right—that, of course, will be a conceded essential. ”

“ Civic clubs, men’s clubs and church organizations are being drawn into the effort to get the necessary bills passed by the legislature. The proposed farm for inebriates will provide physical and mental training for the inmates, and the bill authorizing it fixes minimum and maximum sentences of three months and one year respectively. The bill providing for a women’s reformatory asks for an appropriation of $30,000 for an institution on the cottage plan, to which commitment will be on the indeterminate sentence plan. ”

“ I believe we do the man going out an injury when we permit the transit from prison regime to freedom to be marked simply by the opening and shutting of a gate. It seems to me that this could be largely obviated if what might be termed a “transit squad” was organized, and to which all first offenders would be advanced two weeks prior to discharge. Here the discipline should be relaxed and the daily experiences of the men brought into close touch with those of the outside world. ”

“ It aims to arouse a more enlightened and humane sentiment toward the treatment of discharged prisoners, awaken a new interest in the improvement of laws, and show the forces that are at work to make criminals. Along relief lines it aims to do everything possible for the men while in prison, to find employment for them when they are discharged or paroled, and in cases where employment cannot be secured for them at once to furnish them with a temporary lodging place. ”

“ A bill to compel the sending of prisoners under 18 years of age to the state reformatory, and to permit the sending of first offenders, except those guilty of serious crimes, to the same place, and to prevent the sending of prisoners over 30 years of age to the reformatory, is being urged upon the legislature in Colorado. It is argued that some of the judges think the reformatory merely a branch of the penitentiary. ”

“ I have observed that most business men, for purely selfish reasons, if for none higher, recognize and are willing to pay for ability, nor are they given to looking for or picking flaws in a man’s past record. ”

“ God alone knows how many men inspired with the best of intentions have gone forth from our prisons and penitentiaries within the past year, who have failed, are failing, or will fail, simply because they have been led into attempting commercial impossibilities! ”

“ The commission, with the sanction of the legislature, is to spend $200,000 in seeking the unattainable. A prison known to be such is hideous and ugly. It can be viewed by two classes of people only, those who are inmates and those who are out. The inmates are not proud of their environments, however ornate, and no amount of embellishment can make it attractive to outsiders. ”

“ Massachusetts should establish from one to six institutions where drunks and criminals through drunkenness can be given outdoor treatment.”
It is reported that a bill is to be introduced into the Indiana legislature providing for the sending of convicted drunkards to the county infirmary which is reported to be able to work the men on the farm at a cost only one-fourth of that entailed by keeping them at the jail. ”

“ E. Stagg Whitin, General Secretary, National Committee on Prison Labor. (By Dr. E. Stagg Whitin, General Secretary, National Committee on Prison Labor) .
“Open up your jails, penitentiaries and prisons!” cry the good roads associations throughout the country—“a solution is at hand for your most difficult problem. Bad men on bad roads make good roads, while good roads make good men.”
“Good roads and good men” has become a slogan and no topic of prison news today is more widely discussed in the press from coast to coast than this—the employment of convicts in public road building. ”