AMERICAN PRISON ASSOCIATION.

ATTENDANCE.

The meetings of the American Prison Association in 1917 were held in New Orleans, November 19-23. Outside of the State of Louisiana, the registration of delegates and attenders amounted to 261, of whom seven were from Canada, one from Mexico, one from Cuba and one from Guatemala. One hundred and thirty-seven registered from Louisiana. Outside of this State, Massachusetts enrolled the largest number, thirty-two being accredited to the Bay State. Then followed New York, with twenty-nine, and Pennsylvania was third with twenty-two, of whom nine were Official Delegates. It must not be forgotten that there were many attenders at these meetings who had not received appointment as Official Delegates, but who were active and welcome participators in the discussions. In 1916 and 1917, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has been well represented, but for several years previous the attendance from the Keystone State had, from a numerical point of view, been rather insignificant.

THE PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS.

Dr. David C. Peyton, Superintendent of the Indiana Reformatory at Jeffersonville, ably officiated as presiding officer of the various sessions of the Association. He is evidently a believer in strict discipline administered by the officials who are legally appointed as the guardians of the offender, yet no one who visits the institution over which he presides, would assert that the regulations are harsh or unreasonable. His view of the Honor System would not involve government by the inmates.

“In prison management there have developed two colossal evils. One was peculiar to the past and the other in a measure characterizes the present. Most of the evils that are associated with prison work have come from these two roots. They are antipodal as east and west. They are cruelty and sentimentality. As the first was the child of ignorance, the second springs from half knowledge and is not the less reprehensible. True reform will come, not by a softening and relaxation in prison discipline, not by imputing to criminals qualities which their whole activities have proven them to lack and the very absence of which is the cause of their incarceration, not by making their pathway smoother and easier, nor yet by touching it with the magic of romance. If a little of the leaven of common sense were allowed to permeate the situation it seems to me that the clouds in our pathway would lift somewhat.

“Of course cruelty, the other bête-noir, is only named to be condemned, and thanks to our even half-knowledge it has no place in modern prisons except in isolated spots. But I doubt if ever cruelty was any more cruel than a regime which threatens to become popular today. It seems to me that prisons should be run for the purpose of training men for sane living. If that is true, then they should in fact train these men for sane living.

“A modern prison should be a beehive of industrial activity and should be more than self-supporting. Indeed, men should be able to serve their sentences and earn enough overtime money during their terms to support their dependents—in part at least. A trade should be taught when practicable, but even more important than a trade is the idea of inculcating industrious habits. It is not a misfortune for men to have to labor, but it is a blessing both for them and for us.

“Discipline should be strict but not arbitrary. The rules should be based on experience and should be obviously sound.

“Punishment has a place in prison, but it should be logical; should, as far as possible, flow as a natural consequence from the transgression according to the pedagogical rule of Spencer.

“The industrial training should be correlated with the didactic instruction and the prison library. The three should form the tripartite educative force of the institution.”

THE HONOR SYSTEM.

As was naturally to be expected, the so-called Honor System received a large share of attention, especially in the Wardens’ meetings. The Wardens generally are opposed to that feature of the Honor System which involves placing the discipline to any great extent in the hands of the convicts. The experiments of Mr. Osborne at Auburn, Sing Sing and Portsmouth are regarded as sporadic efforts largely affected by the personality of a masterful, though sentimental, empiricist. Men who have never governed themselves should not be elected to govern one another. Mr. Erskine, of Connecticut, argued that it was wrong to base any system on emotional appeal. “Twenty per cent. of the men in prison are entirely bad and vicious; 20 per cent. would wield a good influence if they had the opportunity, and the remaining 60 per cent. could be swayed by either the good or the bad element.”

On the other hand it was stoutly contended that the prison was the proper place for men to learn to govern themselves. Necessarily they were confined to a limited area, and still subject to watchful care by big-hearted, efficient advisers. Let them learn that discipline in life is an essential feature of any community. Let them learn this lesson by personal experimentation. Thus they may recover some sense of self-respect. They will rejoin the outer world with some measure of responsibility. They will return to freedom with a different understanding of life.

Dr. Bernard Glueck, director of the psychological clinic at Sing Sing, asserted that in general prison officials, through limitations to their work, were not fully qualified to pass judgment on the subject, and had not availed themselves of opportunities to carry out a comprehensive system of self-government. He stated that such a system had proven to be distinctly successful at Preston, California, and asked Mr. Calvin Derrick, the founder of the School of Industry at Preston, to present some account of this institution.

Mr. Derrick informed the Association that this California school has developed its honor system to the point where 250 of the boys were sent to the Sacramento fair alone, traveling through the country 250 miles, and returning without the loss of a single one. The boys have a complete republic system of government, and conduct all of the work of the school. A football team plays regular school and college teams of the State, traveling without supervision.

It appeared to some of us who listened with intense interest to these discussions that the difference in sentiment was rather one of degree than of principle. Wherever any privileges are allowed and wherever the trusty system is permitted, there is involved some measure of self-government. One warden permits the prisoners to mingle together on the base ball field. These men are on their honor. Another warden might say that he would allow his prisoners to play and observe games and leave the regulation of their conduct while on the field to the men themselves. They are still on their honor and doubtless are aware that their regulation of conduct must meet the approval of the warden. Suppose we allow the men to impose penalties for minor delinquencies. The warden still exercises his judgment on the punishment awarded. The warden governs. The men may have more or less privileges, but they are granted by the warden. It resolves itself into a question as to how far such privileges may be granted. And no two wardens in the world will agree precisely on this point.

For the last twenty years the trend has been getting away from the brutality of the former systems, from the petty rules, from degrading and humiliating treatment, and the avowed object of confinement has been reiterated again and again to aim at reformation. We admit that some wardens are more successful than others in accomplishing desired results, and yet we must not expect them to adopt an entirely uniform program. We must make due allowance for the personal equation involved, for the individuality of the ruling authority. The warden who claims that his system is perfect, and that he has nothing more to learn, is recommended for removal.

CLINICAL WORK.

Dr. Bernard Glueck exhibited a number of charts showing much that was deeply interesting in regard to the mentality, environment and parentage of the criminals sent to Sing Sing.

“Sing Sing is being reorganized and rebuilt to receive all of the criminals of New York for examination immediately after they have been convicted. We are trying to get at the man behind the crime rather than the crime itself. Two facts are very evident from our work. The social fact is that 66 per cent. of the prisoners we have received are previous offenders. The medical fact is that 59 per cent. of the prisoners can be classified for mental diseases or mental deviation; and thousands of this class can be treated and cured by means of vocational training and other modern prison methods.

“Sing Sing is being remodeled so that we can devote as much as four months to an intensive study of each prisoner who enters the institution. From this examination we can learn which men should be sent to the insane hospitals, which to the intensive vocational schools, and can outline the most effective method of treatment necessary to prepare the men for the future.

“The indeterminate sentence is essential to the proper working out of our plans, and the criminal courts of the State are working in harmony with this idea. Most offenders can be restored to a normal life and good citizenship after they have finished a term under proper treatment, and criminal judges in New York city tell us that fewer men come before them for a second time since we have adopted the present methods.

“It is the aim of the prison to turn the men into citizens with an understanding. They are allowed many liberties, and are made to take an active part in community life in prison. They have their own social organization, a system of self-government, including even a charitable society. In their charity work they aid prisoners who are leaving the prison, make it possible for poor people to visit imprisoned relatives, send the bodies of prisoners home for burial, and many other things of that nature.”

PRISONERS AND THE WAR.

Some problems arising as a direct result of the war received serious attention. There was the question of additional food production by prison labor; whether paroled men shall enter the army or navy; and whether conditional pardons may be granted, contingent upon military service.

Some delegates asserted that a general restlessness was noticed among most prisoners. Many of them are exceedingly anxious to get into the war, and in some States prisoners are being paroled so that they may enter the army or navy. Prison officials know that many of their wards are fit for military service just as well as they are aware that other prisoners are unfit. After prolonged discussion of the subject, the Wardens’ Association unanimously adopted the following resolution:

“Resolved, That the Wardens’ Association of the American Prison Association suggest to and request of the President of the United States the modification of paragraph 849 of the Regulations of the Army and paragraph 3686 of the Articles for the Government of the Navy of the United States so as to permit the enlistment in the military and naval forces of the United States of men who, in the judgment of the proper military and naval authorities, are physically, mentally and morally qualified, despite the fact that such persons may have been convicted of the offenses set forth in the regulations and articles above referred to and imprisoned therefor, upon their being duly and honorably paroled or discharged from such imprisonment.”

At Guelph, Ontario, the great prison has been practically depopulated. The prisoners have gone to war, and the institution has been taken over as a hospital for convalescents returned from the scenes of war. The Superintendent, Dr. J. T. Gilmour, declared that it is only a step from prisoner to patriot.

“We have learned a great deal about prisoners during the three years we have been in war. We have learned that the prisoner’s sense of patriotism is not dead because he is behind the bars; that he is just as anxious to serve his country as the man who is not being punished, and if given an opportunity the chances are that he will make a good soldier. It has come to my notice that men have exchanged prison uniforms for army uniforms in three hours after their discharge from prison.”

He made the further statement that thousands of men had been released from Canadian prisons to permit them to serve in the army, and thousands of others were “doing their bit” by making hospital supplies during their imprisonment.

PRISONERS CONDEMNED TO SLAVERY.

In at least two Southern States, the infamous lease system, whereby prisoners are leased for an annual stipend to work in the mines or in the turpentine forests or in other work, prevails. Isadore Shapiro, a member of the Legislature from Alabama, and President of the Committee on Prisons, vigorously lambasted the government of Alabama for tolerating and continuing such venal disgrace. The Alabama legislature had made an effort to abolish the lease system but the governor had interposed so as to prolong the infamy. The prisoners could profitably and healthfully be put to work on the State farms but instead they are offered for sale to the highest bidder, and employed in mills, coal mines, lumber and turpentine camps. All of the women prisoners in one county were leased recently for the term of two years at the rate of fifteen cents a day. Mr. Shapiro produced a leather strap six feet long and an inch and a half wide with which prisoners are flogged.

Recently in the State of Florida 598 prisoners were leased at an average of $360 per head by the year. It is a fact that most prisoners who work in the turpentine industry are so broken down in health after a few years that for the remainder of their days they are unfit for any manual employment. Of course it is granted that this work must be done, but we insist that it must be done under humane regulations. We have yet to learn of any leasing corporation or individual that has treated his serfs with merciful consideration. Georgia, after a long fight, has entirely repudiated the system.

The Association, while insisting that employment should be given to prisoners, unanimously adopted a resolution condemning in the strongest terms a system whereby men and women are sold into bondage in order to enhance the revenue of the State.

THE INDETERMINATE SYSTEM.

There is no longer any debate about the Indeterminate Sentence. The principle is written upon the statutes of nearly every State of the Union, tho in a debilitated and illogical form in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Amos W. Butler, Secretary Board of Charities in Indiana, in an address delivered in one of the churches declared that we had brought very little understanding to bear upon our treatment of criminals until recent years. He compared our knowledge of smallpox, yellow fever and other diseases with crime and concluded that we made as many blunders in considering the offender as we formerly made in our attitude toward these mysterious and dreaded diseases.

“Prisons are the visible signs of our failures. It is now within the power of man to abolish many diseases from the earth, and so with crime. Criminals are not sent to prison for punishment, as many seem to believe, but prisons exist for the confinement of prisoners for the safety of society and for the reform of the man or woman there. They should, if possible, be reformed and returned to society.”

The speaker favored the indeterminate sentence. He said you would not send a diphtheria patient to the hospital for a definite time, say two or three weeks. Complications might appear and more time may be required to effect a cure. The same is true of criminals. They should be sent there until reformed, until fit to be returned.

Indiana has an indeterminate sentence law and in the past twenty years 11,000 men and women have been released under that law. Seventy-five per cent. of them succeeded, or made good. Prisoners there have earned about $3,000,000 for themselves.

The absolutely indeterminate sentence is not yet in vogue in any State. A criminal under such a sentence would be sent to prison as to a hospital to remain till cured of his malady. Perhaps, in some cases he would be subject to some detention as a deterrent to others contemplating entering upon a criminal career. Specialists would determine when he was ready to enter the community. We may at some time adopt such a system when there are enough men and women having the skill and training necessary to pass on the mental and moral characteristics of such patients.

Perhaps the best form of sentence is by statutes which fix the time for any given offense. The time for arson, for instance, may be placed from two to twenty years. It is the function of the judge or jury to determine whether the accused is guilty. If found guilty, the defendant is placed in care of a judicious board of control who will release the criminal at such time as they may deem best for him and the community.

Judge Willis, of St. Paul, said that no physician would send a patient to a hospital for a specified number of days or weeks, yet this very thing is done daily by judges who send mentally and morally sick men and women to jail. “A doctor would not presume to predict just how many days it would take to cure a disease, but a judge daily uses his prerogative as a diagnostician in sending morally diseased people to jail, although the records of trials show that no two judges think alike in the matter. * * * Society no longer tolerates vengeance in the criminal code. The desire of intelligent people of today is to restore the criminal to a place in society—an honorable place—and not only to restore him, but to make him a more valuable member of society than he was before his incarceration.”

NATIONAL PRISONERS’ AID ASSOCIATION.

This body is an auxiliary of the main organization. Two sessions were held at which various phases of the work were earnestly discussed.

The address of the President, Rev. James Parsons, of Minneapolis, presented a summary of what has been accomplished, and also some cogent reasons for the existence and maintenance of organizations having constantly in view the rehabilitation of those who have violated law. This address is given in another part of the Journal.

Rev. Charles Parsons, of Des Moines, called attention to the increase of crime in time of war. “A celebrated doctor declared that soon after the beginning of the war there was an abnormal increase of crime in Germany. * * * Juvenile delinquency increased 34 per cent. in Great Britain when the teachers were enlisted, supplies cut down, evening schools closed and pupils between eleven and thirteen years of age went to work, while a half million of the younger children had little care. The increase of crime was so alarming, the authorities had to take special measures of prevention. * * * Our American training camps probably are the best supervised from a moral standpoint of any in the world. More effort has been made to keep them decent and free from vice than in any other period of human history. Yet with all this precaution, it is impossible to eliminate all the evils connected with life in the camp.”

Col. Sedgwick Rice, Commandant U. S. Military Prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, said he had received instructions from the war department to prepare for a large increase in the prison population, but up to this time he was glad to state no great increase was manifest. Many of the deserters had left some branch of the service in order to join some other branch, not realizing that such an act constituted desertion.

Wallace Gilpatrick described the operation of the Christie House, N. Y., of which he has been superintendent since 1905. Their work is not limited to the young men out of prison, as they give help to all young men in trouble from whatever cause. “The matter of employment, vital as it is, is not always the first matter to be considered when a boy arrives at the house. Our first aim is to have him understand that he is among friends. We make him feel at home and we ask few questions. After he has recovered from his first feeling of strangeness, we provide him with a good meal, and clean linen, perhaps, a complete suit of clothing. When he sees other young men coming in from their work and engaged in games such as chess, checkers, billiards, and when he has had an invitation to participate in the fun, he begins to realize that he has gotten into a pretty good sort of place.” The superintendent had in the last twelve years made the acquaintance of about three thousand men who had availed themselves of the hospitality of Christie House. It had been impossible to follow their careers but he knew personally that 25 per cent. of them were making good. He was sure that many more had been successful who had not kept in touch with the House.

Albert H. Votaw, of Philadelphia, was elected President of this Association for the year 1918, and Geo. B. Newcomb, Bismarck, N. D., Secretary.

STATE PENAL FARM AT ANGOLA.

The day before the meetings closed Governor Pleasant, of Louisiana, in an address to the Association gave the members a warm invitation to make a visit to the 18,000 acre prison farm of the State, at Angola, about 130 miles from New Orleans. On Saturday about fifty members of the Association availed themselves of this privilege. The railroad ran up the rich valley of the Mississippi through cane fields, cypress swamps and timbered country adorned with tropical vegetation and scenery to Angola where we received a warm welcome. At the Administration Building on the lawn, tables loaded with provisions were placed to which soon our company was doing full justice. It was explained that practically every article of the food was a product of the farm and was such as was supplied to the convicts with exception of the roast turkey, a few of which were kept on the place and which had been slaughtered for our delectation. Even the fish caught in the great river adjacent to the plantation may have belonged to the farm by some riparian right. There was some white bread which was not made from wheat flour native to Louisiana. Automobiles conveyed the party over the huge plantation affording full opportunity to examine the rude temporary barracks where the prisoners are kept. The men eat at mess tables and the food seemed to be ample and to be well prepared according to the culinary arrangements usually found in penal institutions. We saw much to admire and some things to condemn.

We did not approve of armed trusties stationed to guard the men while at work in the fields.

We hope at no distant day to hear that striped clothing is tabooed.

We were unanimous in condemning the system of punishing with the lash. One northern warden, not a sentimentalist either, offered to come down at his own expense and inaugurate a new system of penalties in which no corporal punishment should be allowed.

We saw the men at work in the cane fields cutting, stripping and piling the cane for the trucks or wagons. The most interesting proposition was the huge and complete sugar refinery. How the canes in car loads and wagon loads were carried by the endless carriers to the huge crushers, and after triplicate crushing the dry residuum was discharged in the furnaces, how the juice in huge vats was subject to three chemical processes, how the purified syrup was then conveyed, all without hands, to the heated evaporators and centrifugal apparatus, and how the product in the form of hot granulated sugar, six hours from the time the canes entered the mill, was caught in barrels at the rate of 400 barrels daily, is a truthful fairy story whose details we cannot enter upon in this report. Penal Farms in Southern States have become very popular and successful. From the standpoint of the reformer, they furnish better opportunities than the closed prison or the stockade both with regard to health and morals. The negro problem is in the forefront in their institutions; still many of us were disposed to believe that the punishments meted out to those who disobey the rules are too severe and fail to accomplish the main object of imprisonment which is to endeavor to build up character not by brute force but by reasonable restraints.

SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY.

The good people of New Orleans fully exemplify that genial and gracious hospitality which appears to be indigenous to the Southland.

Courtesies were extended on every hand and there was an air of friendliness delightful and assuring to the visitors. Four features of their cordial hospitality deserve special mention.

A series of personally conducted walks to the French quarter and other places of interest.

Automobile tours of the city giving the delighted guests an opportunity to see the beautiful lawns and residences, the parks and the magnificent live oaks, the cemeteries where the dead repose above ground, Lake Pontchartrain and its handsome shore resorts, the splendid drives level as the floor.

A steamboat ride on the Mississippi bringing into view the immense lines of docks and the admirable shipping facilities.

A reception at the home of Mrs. G. R. Westfeldt, President of a Prisoners’ Aid Society. A delightful lunch was served by the ladies of this society. A picturesque aged turbaned mammy dispensed pralines. The old home, typically southern, with its wide verandas, central hall and spacious rooms, lent itself admirably to the occasion. The company was entertained by readings, Southern songs and negro impersonations. President Peyton concluded the entertainment by expressing the appreciation of the guests for these tokens of southern hospitality which they realized was neither mythical nor merely traditionary.

FINAL.

Archdeacon B. M. Spurr, Moundsville, W. Va., was elected President, and Joseph P. Byers, of Philadelphia, Secretary, for the next year.

Oklahoma City was selected as the place of meeting, and the time will be in whatever portion of October the Executive Committee may determine.

In this hastily prepared sketch the writer does not pretend that justice has been done to the many admirable features of the meetings of 1917 at New Orleans. Those who desire to have the full published account, containing the splendid papers read before the Association, will write to Joseph P. Byers, Secretary, Empire Building, Philadelphia, Pa.

Albert H. Votaw,

Delegate.