Chapter IV: Section I: Be it enacted, etc., That the active or visiting (3)

The evolution of a new guard is one of the interesting, but soul-trying experiences of every prison warden. Perhaps the warden, before assigning the new man to duty, talks to him, admonishing him as to his procedure, and aiming to tell him of the pitfalls that experience has pointed out. But he talks “to ears that hear not.” He closes his first interview by handing the new man a book of rules for his perusal. But they are given “to eyes that see not.” That book of rules is the result of the experience, the mistakes, the observations, the failures and the successes of generations of prison officials, and can no more be fathomed by a new guard at once, than can the Constitution of the United States, upon first reading, be comprehended by one of Upton Sinclair’s Lithuanians on his journey to the Chicago stockyards.

Under the present system, that guard must learn largely by mortifying experiences, the commission of serious mistakes, alike costly to the institution and its wards.

While there are no general schools for the preparation of officers for institutional work (the School of Philanthropy of New York possibly excepted), yet there may be organized in every prison a school for the education and development of officers, and this should be done. Let there be a definite course of reading and study arranged for officers by the superintendent, and have frequent examinations and discussions bearing on prison problems.

Fortunately our literature is rich in books worthy the most careful study and research. There is Prof. Henderson’s admirable text book on “Dependents, Defectives and Delinquents;” Dr. E. C. Wines on “The State of Prisons and Child Saving Institutions,” the many valuable contributions of Rev. S. J. Barrows, Superintendent Brockway, Joseph F. Scott, Frank L. Randall, Revs. August Drahms, F. H. Wines, A. McDonald, Beccaria and Howard, Lombroso and Dugdale, Eugene Smith and Charlton T. Lewis and scores of others.

Charles Reade’s great muck-rake book “It Is Never Too Late to Mend,” which drove the separate and silent system out of England, deserves the most careful study and thought. Victor Hugo’s valued “Les Miserables” cannot be read too carefully or critically. Dickens’ “American Notes” gives a most graphic account of the separate system, and his “Pickwick Papers” portray most powerfully the debtor’s jail.

Every report of the National Prison Association and the Conference of Charities and Correction, replete as they are with invaluable discussions of vital topics, should be read by every prison official, as well also as the different annual or biennial reports issued by the different institutions throughout the country, which contain points of inestimable value on conducting prisons.

In one of the offices of the model prisons of this country is a great round table capable of accommodating thirty or forty people. Around this table at intervals officers are seated to listen to lectures and hear and participate in discussions upon approved methods of accomplishing the best work. This might well be emulated in every similar institution.

There should be a fund set aside in every institution to defray the expenses of a number of officials, annually to visit other institutions for the purpose of observing how the work is done elsewhere, and thus by actual contact to obtain the most approved methods. And this ought not to be confined to the heads of departments alone, but should be open to even the humblest official in his turn. In addition to its practical value, it makes him realize that his work is a profession not to be despised or made light of, and that the curing of moral ailments, the helping of those who cannot help themselves, is a grand and a glorious calling, exceeded in its value to the world by no other.

THE OFFICERS’ SOCIAL ENVIRONMENTS

When the day’s work is done officers should ordinarily leave the institution and its incidents behind them. They should participate actively and zealously in the outside social and religious matters of the community in which they are located. This balances them and gives them tone, and prevents pessimism, which may otherwise control them.

An officer’s usefulness is measured by the amount of good influence he exerts upon those under his charge. But every warden has at times the melancholy experience of observing that instead of some officers elevating and uplifting their men by their examples, the convicts’ influence has become the greater, and the officer’s ideals are gradually shattered, his resiliency lost, and his influence vanished. It is to guard against this melancholy possibility that officers should be urged to cultivate the best part of outside social, moral, and religious life.

All of the progress and reform that has occurred in penal legislation, prison rules, and procedure has come as a result of the study, care, thought, and efforts of prison officials and students of penology.

All the legislation that has taken away from prisons the gospel of labor, that has robbed them of the full opportunity of doing what was intended for them, has come largely as a result of the cowardice or lack of energy of prison officials who have not stood up against the unreasonable, unrighteous demands of thoughtless labor agitators, or who have not in time remedied and improved their labor systems and conditions so they might escape just criticism.

If there is a bad prison law on any statute book, or if a good one needs to be placed there, zealous, informed prison officials should never cease agitation until the defect is remedied. These reforms will come from no other source.

In this strenuous age the people have shown that they desire to do the right thing if the way be pointed out, and the age is ripe for reforms in prison laws and customs as it is in all other lines.

All those who have to deal with offenders of the law should be brought in touch with one another. Judges and district or prosecuting attorneys should be required, as part of their duties, to visit the institutions which house the men sent there through their efforts, and should know the conditions and be in a position to offer and receive suggestions.

Whenever a likely man, once discharged, reënters a prison, let the thoughtful warden not ask, “What did this man to be returned?” but rather let him inquire: “What did I fail to do? Where is my institution defective? What precaution did society fail to take that this man fell again?”

Precepts count for _something_ in prison and elsewhere. Example counts for almost _everything_. We proceed not from the abstract to the concrete in our daily lives. To-day the eyes of America are turned upon our strenuous president, not for precept, but for example; strenuous in his sports, therefore everybody becomes athletic; strenuous in literature, and all America reads; strenuous in the enforcement of the law and a “square deal” for every man, and the whole nation emulates his example and takes on a new lease of civic righteousness.

As Napoleon rode at the head of his legions through Egypt, past the pyramids, he halted, and in an impassioned address he said, “Soldiers, from the summits of these pyramids forty centuries look down upon you.”

But the modern warden, within his castled home, environed by frowning walls, at the head of his scores of officers and superintendents of departments, may say, “Officers, from these depths of crime, misery, degradation, and despair hundreds of imprisoned souls look up to you for example, for inspiration, for guidance, and for help.”

And as officers thus receive the message and the tacit command may each resolve that his heart shall be so moved, his mind be so cultivated, strengthened and disciplined, and his actions be so guarded and guided, that the pathetic call thus made by those below him shall not be made in vain.

AFTERNOON AND EVENING

At the afternoon session Judge Simeon E. Baldwin, of Connecticut, presented the report of the Committee on Criminal Law Reform, and in the evening brief addresses were made by Miss Katharine B. Davis, Women’s Reformatory, Bedford, N. Y.; Chaplain D. H. Tribou, of the United States Naval Home, Philadelphia; Superintendent Frank L. Randall, of Minnesota, and others.

The following is a list of the officers for the current year: President, E. J. Murphy, Joliet, Ill.; First Vice-president, J. L. Milligan, Allegheny, Pa.; General Secretary, Amos W. Butler, Indianapolis, Ind.; Financial Secretary, Joseph P. Byers, New York; Assistant Secretaries, H. H. Shirer, Columbus, Ohio.; L. C. Storrs, Lansing, Mich.; W. C. Graves, Springfield, Ill.; Treasurer, Frederick H. Mills, New York; Official Stenographer, Isabel C. Barrows, New York.

Wardens’ Association: President, F. L. Randall, St. Cloud, Minn.; Secretary, C. E. Haddox, Moundsville, West Virginia.

Chaplains’ Association: President, Rev. A. J. Steelman, Joliet, Ill.; Secretary, Rev. W. E. Edgin, Jeffersonville, Ind.

Physicians’ Association: President, Dr. W. D. Stewart, Moundsville, West Virginia; Secretary, Dr. O. J. Bennett, Allegheny, Pa.

Committee Chairmen: Board of Directors, Henry Wolfer, Stillwater, Minn.; Executive Committee, Joseph F. Scott, Elmira, N. Y.; Criminal Law Reform, S. E. Baldwin, New Haven, Conn.; Preventive and Reformatory Work, W. H. Whittaker, Jeffersonville, Ind.; Prevention and Probation, Julian W. Mack, Chicago, Ill.; Prison Discipline, J. A. Leonard, Mansfield, Ohio; Discharged Prisoners, Mrs. Maud Ballington Booth, New York; Statistics of Crime, S. J. Barrows, New York.

In 1907 the Association will meet in Chicago.

J. F. OHL, _Official Delegate_.

JOHN WAY, _Treasurer_,

IN ACCOUNT WITH

THE PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY

1906.
January 25. To Balance on hand. Principal $2,365 37
“ Income 633 19 $2,998 56
“ Life Membership fee 20 00
“ Sale $1,000 Lehigh Valley R. R. Co., 4% 997 50
“ Membership Dues and Subscriptions 274 00
“ Interest on Deposits 41 02
“ Income from I. V. Williamson Legacy 630 00
“ Income from Investments 1,728 41
---------
$6,689 49

PAYMENTS

By Amount reserved account Goodwin Mortgage $1,100 00
“ Bond and Mortgage R. W. C. 5 years 4½% 2,500 00
“ Salaries, Secretaries and Prison Agents 1,550 00
“ Janitor’s Service and Office Expenses 39 00
“ Expense, Delegate National Prison Congress 25 64
“ Printing Journal 1906, Postage and other items 731 30
“ Prison Sunday Observance Committee 76 28
“ Sundry Printing, Franklin Printing Company 23 20
“ Safe Deposit Box Rent, Advertising, etc. 17 50
Balance of income account 626 57
---------
$6,689 49

SPECIAL FUND FOR DISCHARGED PRISONERS

Am’t collected by Gen’l Secretary during the fiscal year $4,585 50
Am’t disbursed 3,795 56

BARTON FUND

FOR TOOLS TO DISCHARGED PRISONERS

RECEIPTS

To Balance on hand January 25, 1906 $145 59
“ Income from Investments 63 00
-------
$208 59

PAYMENTS

For tools to discharged prisoners $69 16
Balance on hand January 24, 1907 139 43
-------
$208 59

C. S. WILLIAMS FUND

RECEIPTS

To Balance on hand January 25, 1906. Principal $484 25
Income 46 50 $530 75
“ Income from Investments 113 00
-------
$643 75

PAYMENTS

By $500 Electric and People’s 4% Stock Trust Certificates at 102 $510 00
“ Am’t paid Home of Industry 87 25
Balance Income Account, January 24, 1907 46 50
-------
$643 75

HARRIET S. BENSON FUND

RECEIPTS

To Balance on hand January 25, 1906. Principal $1,500 00
Income 35 93 $1,535 93
“ Proceeds of sale of $500 Electric and People’s 4% Stock
Trust Certificates at 102 510 00
“ Income from Investments 200 00
---------
$2,245 93

PAYMENTS

By $2,000 Lehigh Valley R. R. Co. Gen’l Consol, 4% at 101½ $2,010 00
“ Accrued Interest on above 20 00
“ Home of Industry 215 93
-------
$2,245 93

SUMMARY OF BALANCES

General Fund $626 57
Special Fund for Discharged Prisoners 789 94
Barton Fund 139 43
C. S. Williams Fund 46 50
---------
Cash on hand January 24, 1907 $1,602 44

We, the Committee appointed to audit the accounts of John Way, Treasurer, have examined accounts, compared the payments with the vouchers, checked the receipts of income from invested funds, compared the securities themselves with the list thereof and find them all correct.

JOHN W. DILLINGHAM,
GEORGE S. WETHERELL,

_Auditing Committee_.

PHILADELPHIA, February 20, 1907.

LIFE MEMBERS

Henry B. Ashmead,
[1]Francis M. Brooke,
C. H. Brush,
John E Carter,
[1]Alfred M. Collins,
Miss Mary Coles,
Henry S. Cattell,
B. L. Douredoure,
Rev. Herman L. Duhring, D. D.,
[1]Richard H. Downing,
Edward Grebel Dreer,
John A. Duncan,
Rev. Alfred Elwyn,
Helen M. Elwyn,
W. W. Frazier,
[1]George W. Hall,
Alfred C. Harrison,
Charles C. Harrison,
Emily J. Ingram, M. D.,
John P. Jenks,
W. W. Justice,
Alfred H. Love,
F. Mortimer Lewis,
[1]J. Fisher Learning,
Sarah A. Lewis,
M. Carey Lea,
William Longstreth,
Caleb J. Milne,
James W. McAllister,
Robert Patterson,
[1]Charles Santee,
David Sulzberger,
George C. Thomas,
Henry T. Townsend,
James W. Walk, M. D.,
E. B. Warren,
James V. Watson,
John Way,
Mary S. Whelen.

[1] Deceased.

ANNUAL MEMBERS

Hon. William N. Ashman,
Rev. Samuel E. Appleton,
H. St. Clair Ash, M. D.,
Joshua L. Baily,
T. Wistar Brown,
Samuel Biddle,
Rev. R. Heber Barnes,
William Burnham,
John E. Baird,
Rev. Lewis C. Baker,
Henry W. Boies,
Ethel M. Boies,
David Boies,
Helen M. Boies,
J. Henry Bartlett,
Henry D. Booth,
Catharine C. Biddle,
Hannah S. Biddle,
Elizabeth Bradford,
T. Broom Belfield,
Mrs. Robert S. Bright,
Robert P. P. Bradford,
Layyah Barakat,
Joseph K. Calley,
Ethel Conderman,
John H. Converse,
Mrs. E. W. Clark,
S. W. Colton, Jr.,
Mrs. S. W. Colton, Jr.,
Miss F. Clark,
Henry H. Collins,
E. W. Clark, Jr.,
John Callahan,
Agnes Camp, M. D.,
Jonas G. Clemmer,
Charles F. Cripps,
Henry C. Cassel,
John H. Dillingham,
Edward T. Davis,
Isaac L. Detweiler,
Walter L. Detwiler,
Rev. J. G. Dubbs,
Charles E. D’Invillier,
Albert M. Dallett,
Agnes Dean, M. D.,
Mrs. E. C. Denniston,
Samuel Emlen,
Joseph Elkinton,
Otto Eisenlohr,
Rev. Solomon G. Engle,
B. W. Fleisher,
Spencer Fullerton,
Esther Fricke,
Mrs. Horace Fassett,
Melvin M. Franklin, M. D.,
Susanna Gaskill,
Sylvester Garrett,
D. W. Grafley,
Elizabeth N. Garrett,
Mrs. W. S. Grant, Jr.,
W. H. Gilbert,
Mrs. C. L. Grubb,
Samuel B. Garrigues,
Mrs. Louis Gerstley,
Luther Gerhard,
Mrs. E. W. Gormley,
Sallie H. Green,
Mary S. Gregg,
Rev. J. Andrews Harris,
William H. Hart, Jr.,
Edwin Hagert,
William B. Hackenburg,
Mrs. W. W. Harding,
William S. Hallowell,
Clyde A. Heller,
Miss C. V. Hodges,
J. H. M. Hayes,
Rev. C. Rowland Hill,
Charles P. Hastings,
Jacob D. Hoffman,
D. John Hampton,
Mrs. George W. Hensell,
Edwin S. Johnston,
William T. W. Jester,
William Kennard,
William Koelle,
William Kennard, Jr.,
Harry Kennedy,
J. Albert Koons,
Louisa D. Lovett,
John J. Lytle,
Josiah W. Leeds,
Deborah C. Leeds,
Charles H. LeFevre,
Mrs. P. W. Lawrence,
Rebecca C. Latimer,
George A. Latimer, Jr.,
Theodore J. Lewis,
Mary Lewis,
Richard H. Lytle,
Rev. Philip Lamerdin,
Frank H. Longshore,
Susanna W. Lippincott,
Benjamin K. Liveright,
Charles B. Miller,
Mrs. M. A. Mason,
Isaac P. Miller,
Charles M. Morton,
Hon. J. Willis Martin,
John Marston,
Mrs. Henry C. Mayer,
George R. Meloney,
Thomas H. McCollin,
Rev. H. Cresson McHenry,
Charles McDole,
Mrs. L. M. Mewes,
Rev. H. E. Meyer,
Joseph C. Noblit,
William F. Overman,
Rev. J. F. Ohl,
Albert Oetinger,
Frederick J. Pooley,
Charles Platt,
Laura N. Platt,
Miss L. N. Platt,
George F. Parker,
Joseph G. Rosengarten,
George J. Reger,
Marie Rosenberg,
Anthony W. Robinson,
Francis B. Reeves,
Mrs. Evan Randolph,
Mary Randolph,
Mrs. M. B. Riehlé,
David Scull,
Rev. F. H. Senft,
P. H. Spellissy,
William Scattergood,
Isaac Slack,
Dr. William C. Stokes,
G. A. Schwarz,
Samuel Snellenburg,
Mrs. Samuel Snellenburg,
Frank H. Starr,
R. C. Shafges,
Esther Strawbridge,
Mrs. E. Stillwell,
John Smallzell,
Augustus Thomas,
Mrs. George C. Thomas,
Augusta Thomas,
Rev. Floyd W. Tomkins,
William E. Tatum,
Mrs. J. F. Unger,
G. H. S. Uhler,
George Vaux,
Elias H. White,
Catharine A. Wentz,
Emily Whelen,
Sarah S. White,
Mrs. Frances Howard Williams,
Thomas B. Watson,
Samuel L. Whitson,
William C. Warren,
Mary S. Wetherell,
George S. Wetherell,
A. J. Wright,
E. M. Zimmerman,
Mrs. E. M. Zimmerman.

FORM OF BEQUEST OF PERSONAL PROPERTY

I give and bequeath to “THE PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY” the sum of .... Dollars.

FORM OF DEVISE OF REAL ESTATE

I give and devise to “THE PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY” all that certain piece or parcel of land. (Here describe the property.)

ARTICLE V.

The Acting Committee shall consist of the officers of the Society, _ex-officio_ and fifty other members. They shall visit the prison at least twice a month, inquire into the circumstances of the prisoners, and report such abuses as they shall discover to the proper officers appointed to remedy them. They shall examine the influence of confinement on the morals of the prisoners. They shall keep regular minutes of their proceedings, which shall be submitted at every stated meeting of the Society, and shall be authorized to fill vacancies occurring in their own body, whether arising from death or removal from the city, or from inability or neglect to visit the prisons in accordance with their regulations. They shall also have the sole power of electing new members.

ARTICLE VI.

Candidates for membership may be proposed at any meeting of the Society or of the Acting Committee; but no election shall take place within ten days after such nomination. Each member shall pay an annual contribution of two dollars. If any member neglects or refuses to pay such contribution within three months after due notice has been given such person, the Acting Committee may, at its option, strike said name from the list of members. The payment of twenty dollars at any one time shall constitute a Life Membership. Any person paying not less than five hundred dollars shall be called a Patron of the Society.

ARTICLE VII.

Honorary members may be elected at such times as the Society may deem expedient.

ARTICLE VIII.

The Society shall hold an Annual Meeting on the fourth Fifth-day (Thursday) in the First month (January) of each year, and Stated Meetings on the fourth Fifth-day (Thursday) in the months of April, July, and October, at which seven shall constitute a quorum.

ARTICLE IX.

No alteration in the Constitution shall be made unless the same shall have been proposed in writing at a stated meeting of the Society, held not less than three months previous to the adoption of such alteration; and no such amendment shall be adopted unless approved by the votes of three-fourths of the members present.

The Secretary shall state on the notices of that meeting that an amendment or amendments will be acted upon. And not later than the usual time of sending said notices, he shall furnish the members with written copies of the word or words, and form of the proposed amendment _displayed_, and so much of the original form of the article to be amended as will show the relation of the proposed amendment to the context, and of the article in its amended form with all the words of the amendment displayed. All other questions shall be decided, when there is a division, by a majority of votes; in those where the Society is equally divided, the presiding officer shall have the casting vote.

OF VISITORS.

No person who is not an official visitor of the prison, or who has not a written permission, according to such rules as the Inspectors may adopt as aforesaid, shall be allowed to visit the same; the official visitors are: the Governor, the Speaker and members of the Senate, the Speaker and members of the House of Representatives; the Secretary of the Commonwealth; the Judges of the Supreme Court; the Attorney-General and his Deputies; the President and Associate Judges of all the courts in the State; the Mayor and Recorders of the cities of Philadelphia, Lancaster, and Pittsburg; Commissioners and Sheriffs of the several Counties; and the “Acting Committee of the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons.” Note: Now named “The Pennsylvania Prison Society.”

AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THE

Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons.