Various

“ For years we have been preaching the doctrine of the reformatory principle in prison management, of proper industry, of sanitary prisons, of segregation of prisoners into classes, of plenty of outdoor work for prisoners, of instruction in trades, of reformatory influences tending to keep men out of the penitentiary after they have been released, and of proper local jails and places of detention. ”

“ When we consider that it is the only agency in the state whose mission is that of giving aid to hundreds of discharged prisoners each year and the only organized body equipped for the work of systematically caring for offenders who are placed on probation by the courts, we believe it important that information should be carefully compiled by the Association upon the actual work that it is doing and upon the larger subject of the treatment of the criminal. ”

“ He has a very different population to deal with in your small state prison from the great population crowded in many of our all too unsanitary prisons of New York, New Jersey, etc. I have had scores of men come to me from state prison whose long prison terms had absolutely incapacitated them for work. Shattered nervously and physically, they have crept out into the world afraid to face the unfriendly crowd. I have taken men from prison who were blind with blindness that had come to them within those dread shadows. ”

“ Governor Hadley has recommended one reform, the establishment of an intermediate prison for first offenders, which should by all means be done, though this is but one of the many reforms necessary to take us even within sight of the outer confines of the dark ages.
“Yet, discouraging as is the progress made, sociologists and penologists will not cease their campaign of education on this subject of prison reform and the treatment of criminals as individuals and not as a class. The light will be seen in time.” ”

“ There are two first-class baseball teams and Saturday afternoon in the prison yard lets everybody loose to root as joyfully for his favorite team, and as loudly, as if he’d paid his half dollar to chase the pennant at home. During the winter, vaudeville and moving-picture shows take place in the chapel, which I have known to be completely darkened, simply on the word of honor of 860 convicts that they would take no advantage of the gloom.
“The visits of friends are not the cruel mockeries of a steel screen and a keeper’s open eye and ear. ”

“ The employer of labor will not only give such a person a position when he comes so recommended, but will take a friendly interest in the probationer and assist him to regain his lost position in society.
The recommendation handed by the prison management to a man the day he is discharged from the institution under the old law of fixed sentences bears for the critical eye the inscription of dishonor, doubt, discouragement. ”

“ Unfortunately, we have yet some probation officers who fail to come up to the standard, men who never interest themselves in their probationers outside of the courtroom, or take any concern as to their idleness, their companionship or habits, and do nothing to secure the confidence of the probationer or to aid him in restoring himself to manhood and good citizenship. The evils of continuing improper officers are so great that in my opinion it should be rendered impossible by requiring the approval by the Commission on Probation of all probation officers appointed by the court. ”

“ If some one of the prison officials of New York were to suggest the turning out of hundreds of the prisoners on Blackwell’s Island and Sing Sing into a colony in the fertile valley along the Hudson or the Mohawk river, under the care of a superintendent and a half dozen assistants without an armed guard, the inhabitants not only of New York state but of all the states in the Union would immediately hold mass meetings of protest and set their political organizations to work to have the official making the suggestion removed from office and incarcerated in an insane asylum. ”

“ The Board of Managers, in its annual report says:
“It is our firm conviction that it is a radical error to place a man in regular employment as soon as he leaves prison. There should be a probationary, or convalescent, period in every case. The Home of Industry for Discharged Prisoners provides a retreat for just such a period, where the man can be rebuilt. When he shows by his actions, outside of prison walls, that he is worthy to be recommended it will be quite time enough for the philanthropic to assume sponsorship. ”

“ How fortunate the person who under the indeterminate sentence has served one-third or one-half of his allotted time and by his advancement in industrial training and education and obedience to the rules of the institutions when he leaves on parole, with the management back of him stating to his employer that it believes in him and advises giving him a trial. ”

“ That the habit of drink is a disease requiring prolonged treatment is an accepted fact in these days, and it is for this reason that the “Women’s Prison Association” has obtained by act of legislature an appropriation for a state farm for women misdemeanants over thirty years of age. It hopes, by outdoor work, medical attendance and good food to make many of them self-respecting as well as self-supporting members of society. ”

“ In the prisons and reformatories the inmates should be taught the habits of industry and obedience to law and order, under humane and strict discipline.
There should be a complete separation of the first offender and the individual subject to reformation, from the weak-minded, physically deformed, and old and confirmed criminals; a reformatory for boys and first offenders, a separate prison for women and an industrial school for girls, with a parole system in each of the institutions. ”

“ Without the help and good-will of those who employ labor it would be almost impossible for us to secure positions for them.
We have placed many of our men in positions of responsibility and trust, and their employers speak of them in the highest terms.
Maryland was one of the first states of the Union to adopt a system of probation for first offenders, and its juvenile court has accomplished splendid results. The operation of the system for adult probation is yet to be worked out along correct lines. ”

“ After all, facts speak louder than theories, and we have the facts to show. It will be a great joy to me if some of your readers feel interested enough in this work to help me by offering positions for my boys. Hope Hall is not a permanent residence but merely a stepping stone to the place in life where men can lose their identity and take up their places as humble units in the great busy working world. ”

“ As the Departmental Committee under the English probation law recently expressed it, ‘the probation officer must be a picked man or woman endowed not only with intelligence and zeal, but in a high degree with sympathy and tact and firmness.’ When a properly qualified and earnest probation officer is attached to every court in Massachusetts, the probation problem will be solved. ”

“ He is permitted to buy luxuries—fruit, pies, candies, tobacco—and the prison will take care of them for him so that they sha’n’t spoil. He has his private bank account and can earn money by work for himself after the regular hours. They can even trade among themselves, by a special transfer system. When their private supplies arrive—two and three tons some days—the prison office looks like a grocery store.
“If a system has ever been devised which has succeeded in transforming a convicted criminal into an honest man, this is the one. ”

“ The Prison Association of New York is taking up the study of mentally deficient criminals, and has appointed several committees to inquire into what can be done to deal with their cases. An average of nearly four out of ten inmates of Elmira Reformatory are below the ordinary standard of intelligence and are not able to take advantage of the institution, but there is no place to which they can be sent except such establishments as Dannemora State Hospital for the Insane, where association with hardened criminals will destroy all hope of their reformation. ”

“ If a permanent home could be established for these unfortunate human derelicts, where they could not obtain liquor, and where they would be obliged to live indefinitely, doing such work as might be provided by intelligent overseers, I believe it would tend much to purify our cities. The money that is expended for their repeated arrests and conviction, under the present plan of dealing with them, would be saved; and this, with what labor they might learn to do, would contribute towards their support. ”

“ Charitable hospitals are overcrowded with men because they have been made sick on account of exposure and the lack of nourishing food. The best way to keep a man from getting sick—I mean the poor unfortunate without a home—is to house and feed him properly. New York has solved this problem with its beautiful municipal emergency home, six stories in height and a model in every respect. ”

“ I have taken men discharged from the prison hospital so weak that months of nursing has been necessary to put them into condition for work. I have taken men who have been twenty, thirty, and even forty-eight years within the walls. ”

“ In 1906 the legislature passed this act, which just now is working such havoc with the penal institution. The law abolishes contract labor, at the demand of labor organizations that competition with prison made goods was unfair to labor. It provides that convicts must be employed in remodeling the institution and in making only such goods as are used in state institutions. The legislature neglected to provide money for installing machinery necessary for so doing and also neglected to compel state institutions to use the prison made product. ”

“ That uncivilized portions of humanity still seem to exist when jails are under consideration is evidenced by a Kansas newspaper editorial on the Illinois report, part of which we print.
“From the state charities commission of Illinois comes the latest wail about jails which are not up to Waldorf-Astoria standards. In fact, it is claimed that the jails are as bad as they were thirty years ago, when they were not suitable to the whims of any high-class jail bird, who was accustomed to all the comforts of home and modern conveniences. ”

“ It is the duty of the board to recommend that paroles be granted to misdemeanants convicted in the municipal court and sent to the work house, whenever, in their judgment, such parole seems wise. The mayor must grant the parole. Paroles may be revoked, [Pg 10] however, at the discretion of the secretary of the board.
Paroled prisoners are asked to make written reports to the board once a week. A man who fails to report is notified by mail, and if he continues delinquent in this respect, his case is handed over to a parole officer. The board employs one investigator and one parole officer. ”

“ I presume their theory is that when the prisoner comes from prison he should not be associated with other one-time prisoners. But what is the alternative? If these men come from prison with the pittance allowed by the prison, where are they to go? Five dollars does not last long. To eke it out as far as they can, they go to board in the poorest lodging house of the city. That brings them down into the saloon neighborhood and throws them at once into the most undesirable classes. They are once more in the element where they will meet thieves, drunkards and outcasts ”

“ From time to time we receive patients from the reformatories who are so defective that they could not by any possibility enter the reformatory routine and benefit by it. As they are under sentence, there is no place for them but this institution, but here they meet more hardened criminals, and while we can improve their condition in some ways, their stay in a hospital of this character should not be prolonged. ”

“ In the meantime, on an average 300 men spend twelve hours each day on the benches in the idle house. This number is augmented on days when the weather does not permit working the prisoners about the yard. In one month, when the last contract expires, another hundred will join these ranks. In six months at the most, when all the contracts will have been cleaned up, all save the men employed in the administration of the big prison, which means about 1,000, will be idling. All the contracts but one have expired; yet most of the men employed in most of the old shops are still at work. ”

“ Many of our states, however, are adopting the indeterminate sentence with provisions that the prisoner may be released on parole. There is a great difference in the attitude of the public towards the individual released and known by society as a discharged convict and the individual released on parole. ”

“ The Massachusetts House of Representatives recently refused by an overwhelming vote, to substitute for an adverse committee report two bills relating to capital punishment—one giving the jury the right to say whether the penalty for murder in the first degree should be life imprisonment or death, and the other providing that the punishment should be life imprisonment. ”

“ Fortunately, but a small percentage of the men released from state prison or the Massachusetts Reformatory use liquor to an extent that interferes with their ability to earn a living. There is, however, a very large number constantly coming out of the jails and houses of correction and from the state farm who by their habits of intemperance are deprived of employment and are ever shifting from place to place. ”