JOURNAL OF PRISON DISCIPLINE AND PHILANTHROPY ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SECOND YEAR. 1787. OF 1909. THE PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY

ANNUAL REPORT OF JOHN J. LYTLE, GENERAL SECRETARY.

In submitting this, my Eighteenth Report, covering the last two years, I realize that I have much cause for gratitude. For a large part of this time, I have been blessed with health and strength to continue my labors among the prisoners of the Eastern Penitentiary.

I have been an Official Visitor at this institution for fifty-six years, and for more than a score of years I have given my entire service to this work for which I have felt that I had a special call.

While providing prisoners at the time of their discharge with a respectable outfit, it has also been my earnest desire to point them to the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. I have also continued my visits to the cells of the prisoners, and I have felt that a blessing has attended my efforts. While I can never know the result of these labors, I have worked in faith endeavoring to minister to both their temporal and spiritual needs. Many have confessed to me that their imprisonment had been to them a blessing. Arrested in their career of crime, they had resolved to lead better lives in the future. I have not doubted their sincerity, and have encouraged such to seek Divine help. It is right to protect the community, and the law-breaker must suffer the penalty for his crime, but while he is incarcerated it is our duty to avail ourselves of the opportunity to instruct him and to plead with him to follow better ideals. Indeed, I have felt it a great privilege to sit beside a prisoner in his cell and tell him of the “old, old story of Jesus and his love.”

From careful inquiries, I am satisfied that the most of the prisoners can trace their downfall to indulgence in drink and the social evil.

THE EASTERN PENITENTIARY.

At the Eastern Penitentiary several thousand visits are annually made by the members of the Acting Committee of the Pennsylvania Prison Society. This Committee is composed of clergymen and laymen, men and women. To each block one or more visitors are assigned, and it is believed that the interviews held by these with the prisoners, either in their cells or at the cell doors, are productive of much good. The lady visitors of the Committee are all assigned to the women’s block. Here a Bible class is held every Sabbath afternoon; and the matron is also earnestly and constantly interested in the spiritual welfare of those in her care. On every Sabbath morning, at 9 o’clock, service is held in each of the corridors under the direction of the moral instructor, the Rev. Joseph Welsh. The speakers are supplied by the Local Preachers’ Association of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Protestant Episcopal City Mission and the Lutheran City Mission.

The total amount expended by the Society during the last two years for the use of prisoners at the time of their discharge was $5,152.54, and for tools $93.30.

The following are the statistics of population at the Penitentiary during 1908.

White Colored Total

Males Females Males Females

Number remaining from 1907 925 12 280 8 1,225

Committed during 1908 524 4 137 8 673

Total population 1,449 16 417 16 1,898

Discharged during 1908 318 5 92 3 418

Remaining December 31, 1908 1,131 11 325 13 1,480

THE DISCHARGES WERE AS FOLLOWS:

By Commutation 357

” Order of Court 8

” Time expired 20

” Pardon 9

” Order of Huntingdon Reformatory 9

” Death 15

Total 418

Average daily population for 1908 1,371

Largest number in confinement during the year 1,486

Smallest number in confinement during the year 1,225

PHILADELPHIA COUNTY PRISON

There are two County Prisons in Philadelphia, under the same Board of Inspectors, one at Tenth and Reed Streets, known as “Moyamensing,” and the other at Holmesburg. The former is used chiefly for prisoners awaiting trial and for those serving short terms for minor offenses; the latter, for those who are sentenced to longer terms.

Cleanliness and good order prevail in both institutions, but both are overcrowded. “Separate and solitary confinement” may be a part of the sentence, but the insufficiency of the accommodations renders it impossible to carry out this provision of the law. Since there is abundant room for additional buildings at Holmesburg, it is unfortunate that the county authorities do not erect as many buildings as may be needed.

Frederick J. Pooley, the Society’s Agent at the County Prisons, also considers it very unfortunate that those awaiting trial, some of whom may be found innocent, have their minds contaminated by listening to the stories of the older criminals. When released from prison they are the more easily induced to enter upon a criminal career.

Mr. Pooley visits Moyamensing three times a week and Holmesburg twice a week. He gives special attention to those who have been committed by magistrates for short terms. These he interviews as soon as they are committed, and when he feels assured that anyone is being wrongfully or unduly punished, he takes measures to have him released. He regards the untried department as an especially fruitful field of work.

OTHER PRISONS

Among other prisons visited by members of the Acting Committee are the following: Chester County, by William Scattergood; Delaware County, by Deborah C. Leeds; the Western Penitentiary, by the Rev. A. J. D. Haupt, D. D., and Mrs. E. W. Gormly; Erie and Warren Counties, by the Rev. C. Theodore Benze.

THE DOOR OF BLESSING

The door of Blessing, at 4220 Chester Avenue, was founded and is conducted by Mrs. Horace Fassett. Its object is to provide a home for women discharged from prison until they shall return to their relatives or be put in the way of earning a livelihood. During 1908 forty women and one infant were admitted. Thirty of these women were from the County Prison, two from the Eastern Penitentiary, one from the House of Correction and three were sent by magistrates. Of the whole number five were returned to their homes in other states, seven to their homes in Philadelphia, twenty-two left to take positions and four to look for work. Only six are known to have resumed their former evil life. The Door of Blessing is indeed what its name implies, as many of the women who have been its inmates are now leading orderly lives.

THE HOME OF INDUSTRY

The Home of Industry, Seventy-third Street and Paschall Avenue, Mr. Frank H. Starr, Superintendent, is doing for men what the Door of Blessing is designed to do for women. It provides food and shelter, gives employment at broom-making, for which regular wages are paid, and seeks to bring all who seek it under the saving power of the Gospel. Its success in reclaiming men has been very pronounced.

From the minutes of the Society:

Isaac Slack. Born 1832. Died 1907.

The subject of this sketch was born in Cumberland County, England. About the time of the Civil War he came to America and located in Philadelphia.

He joined The Pennsylvania Prison Society about the year 1886, and subsequently became one of the most interested and active members of the Acting Committee. Though without educational advantages in his early life, and therefore self-taught and self-made, he had a remarkably clear insight into many of the social problems of the day, and knew how to give his convictions and conclusions forceful expression when occasion demanded.

His largely attended funeral brought together many friends unknown to his immediate family, to whom he had been a confidential adviser, and whom he had befriended in many ways.

The Society, the prisoners, and others have therefore suffered a genuine loss in his death, and it is with sincere sorrow that we record his demise.

With the earnest desire that the work of The Pennsylvania Prison Society may continue to grow and prosper, I submit this report.

John J. Lytle, Secretary.