Chapter III: Section 1: Be it enacted, etc., That the active or visiting committee of (3)

“I do not think a chaplain ought to be required to inspect and pass upon the incoming and outgoing mail of prisoners. In the first place his training and education unfit him to read between the lines of letters that need inspection, while the mental drudgery imposed upon him, if he carefully reads all outgoing and incoming letters in a prison of ordinary size, unfits him for the proper work of his office. Besides, the knowledge that he has read all their correspondence prejudices against him many prisoners and renders his efforts to help them vain.

“I doubt the wisdom of placing him in charge of the library in a large prison, save as a general adviser and aid to the prisoners in enabling them to select helpful books to read, and this work can be done during his visits to the prisoners in their cells and dormitories. This visitation is the most important work that he can do in the prison, and should on no account be omitted. The preaching service that he renders will be far more helpful and acceptable--as will also his Sunday-school instruction--if it grows out of and is tempered by his experience in cell visitation. A pastor who wishes to become helpfully acquainted with the inner life of his parishioners does not summon them one by one to his office for interviews and see them nowhere else. No more can the chaplain follow that plan and hope to succeed with his parishioners.

“Sometimes a warden deems it his duty to apply certain portions of the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians to his chaplain and require him to ‘bear all things, believe all things, hope all things and endure all things’; therefore it behooves the chaplain to be at all times as ‘wise as a serpent,’ and sometimes ‘as harmless as a dove’; but where the occasion arises (which fortunately is but seldom) for the chaplain to use the language of rebuke, it calls for the highest quality of courage, and the chaplain who then shirks or quails stamps himself as unfit for his high office.

“If the prophet Nathan, when he sought that interview with Israel’s king, had hesitatingly remarked that he had a very unpleasant matter to talk about, which might get into the newspapers and create a royal scandal, etc., the proud monarch would probably have kicked him downstairs. But the fate of a great nation depended upon his courage and when he said, ‘Thou art the man,’ his shaft of truth pierced the joints of the royal armor and brought the monarch to his knees. Comparing small things with great, even so may the fate of a public institution sometimes depend upon the fidelity to duty of one who esteems himself the least among all its officials, and when his word is backed by high courage and a consistent and blameless life, it may prove more potent for good than the utterances of wardens or commissioners or governors.

“From the warden’s point of view I beg to suggest that the clergyman who is called for the first time to the chaplaincy of a prison or reformatory should have the major part of his expectancy of life _before_ rather than _behind_ him. To make the chaplaincy a ‘snug harbor’ for the superannuated is unjust to the chaplain and to the institution. At no time in his life does a minister need to have his physical, mental and spiritual forces in fuller play than when he undertakes the chaplaincy of a prison or reformatory. He may grow old in the service, and his strength increase with his years because of his manner of life and the experience that faithful service has brought to him, but under ordinary circumstances the younger man has the best prospect of success.

“The question may arise, ‘Is anyone sufficient for these things?’ Not in his own strength, but ‘as thy day thy strength shall be’ is the promise held out to the sincere and faithful worker. And some of us can recall the names of men who have achieved splendid success in that particular line of prison work. Especially does the name of one come to me who took part in the organization of this Association, who served his Master and his fellow-men so successfully in the Michigan State Prison that when he was granted rapid transit ‘in the twinkling of an eye’ from the very corridor of the prison to the glory which was awaiting him, left a memory so fragrant and so well beloved that the name of Hecox is still an inspiration to hundreds of hearts, which, years ago, were turned by him into the paths of righteousness.”

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18

MORNING SESSION

The morning session of Wednesday was given over to the Prison Physicians’ Association. Dr. Charles V. Carrington, of Richmond, read a paper on “Sterilization of Habitual Criminals.” As a believer in the theory of transmitted criminality, Dr. Carrington proved himself a strong advocate of sterilization as a method of preventing the multiplication of criminals.

“Prevention of crime is the motto of our juvenile courts, reformatories, probation officers and societies for the aid of the discharged convict.

“After ten years of investigation as prison surgeon, I am unreservedly of the opinion that sterilization of our habitual criminals is a proper measure, and I believe that if habitually enforced it will lessen their number.

“The punitive side of our dealings with criminals is always to the front. Punish him is the first proposition. Lock him up. There are our Christianizing reformative measures, splendid in their way, but for the habitual criminal there must be some powerful deterrent remedy, and sterilization is undoubtedly that remedy.

“When I say sterilize the habitual criminal, I know that an understanding of the term is necessary before my remedy would be a just one to enforce. The incorrigible ‘second-term’ man, as well as those guilty of arson, assault, train wrecking and murder, should be treated as habituals.

“All of us know that in many instances the criminal inherits his instincts. The detective of forty years’ experience will tell you that a large percentage of prison inmates are hereditary criminals. Now, if the grandfather had been sterilized, what a lot of crime and suffering would have been prevented. In our enlightened age we should stop this hideous reproduction of criminals and sterilize the grandson for the good it will do in the coming years.

“Certain families in Virginia have been regularly represented on our prison rolls for the past fifty years, and will go on unless the breed is stopped. I have sterilized two prisoners in my connection with the State Penitentiary, and in each case it proved as proper a health measure as the removal of an appendix.”

In a paper on “Tuberculosis and the Colored Convict,” Dr. Julian W. Sloan, of Richmond, said in part:

“Taking up the colored convict himself as a cause we readily recognize in his heredity, his racial predilection for tuberculosis, his poverty with its attendant evils, his almost total ignorance of proper living methods, factors potent for the propagation and spread of tuberculosis.

“Add to these factors inherent in nearly all our colored convicts the devitalizing and resistance-lowering factor of cell life--a factor in itself capable of so increasing the receptivity of convicts as to leap with a single bound to the first place as a means by which tuberculosis is propagated and spread. Add again labor in factories where hygiene and sanitation do not hold sway, where factory dust constantly fills the lungs of the convict. Add yet again the depressing effects inevitable from even the best prison discipline--add these causes together, I say, and we have a sum total that appals us and seems to deprive the poor convict of every chance to escape this terrible scourge.

“Conquering tuberculosis in our prisons, as elsewhere, is not to follow upon any one method or agency or from the unaided efforts of the medical profession. I am here reminded to quote to this effect from Dr. Alfred Meyer, of New York: ‘The most hopeful sign in the world-wide combat with tuberculosis is the steady growth and coöperation among all the agencies engaged. The first impulse in the campaign came from the medical profession. Then gradually there came to our assistance sociologists, philanthropists, charitable and religious organizations, and finally municipal, State and national governments. If the chain which is to bind the scourge is ever to be forged it will be by the union of all the links hitherto disunited and by the substitution of systematic for sporadic efforts. That we are on our way toward this end was well illustrated during the recent session of the International Congress and Exhibition on Tuberculosis at Washington.’

“With the municipal, State and national governments awakening, as we see they are, to their sense of duty toward the man who goes wrong, and in their awakening providing that the square deal shall be given him--that he shall no longer be the object of vengeance, but a man to be detained and reformed and educated, I say, with this awakening a great stride has been taken toward the control of tuberculosis.

“I believe that Virginia has advanced _pari passu_ with other States. To begin with, the indeterminate sentence, with its inspiring hope, holds much not only for the future of the convict, but for every day of his prison life. It insures, too, to a great extent, better everyday conduct. This in turn helps largely to eliminate corporal punishment, which is one of the most potent causes of mental and physical wrecks among our convicts. Of course, with lessened need for corporal punishment comes lessened need for other punitive measures, namely, solitary confinement, bread-and-water diet, dark cell, etc., all of which present dangers to the physical welfare of the convicts that check our criticisms of the horrors of barbarism.

“Another step taken here in Virginia that has reached far forward was the erection and fitting of the modern sanitary building which takes care in the most approved manner of about one half of our convicts at the penitentiary proper.

“Another step forward, and one of which the wisdom and far-reaching consequences for good cannot be over-emphasized, is the law that directs that, at the discretion of the judge, all men with jail sentences, and all men sentenced to the penitentiary for from one to five years, shall serve their sentences at hard labor on the State road force.

“This is a great advance, especially in ridding our jails of short-sentence men, who formerly served their time in idleness, filth and disease--men who usually entered jail as criminals and in fair health, to leave as devils incarnate and probably tuberculous.

“At the Virginia Penitentiary we have the constant and loyal support of the Board of Directors, Superintendent and their aides in obtaining and maintaining hygienic and sanitary conditions and in all that pertains to the health of the convict. I venture the assertion that few places, whether prisons or private dwellings, are kept more rigidly clean and sanitary than the cells of the Virginia Penitentiary. As an educating feature alone to the colored convict, this is well worth treble its cost and trouble. Sufficient ventilation is looked after constantly. In the old building we cannot claim perfection on this important score, but in the new building I believe we can. Ample bed covering is provided--this appeals to everyone as a very necessary adjunct to proper guarding against tuberculosis. The food at our penitentiary is ample, and after hundreds of examinations I can say that I have always found it wholesome. However, whenever a convict comes before the daily call and appears to need more nourishment it is our custom to give him milk as long as it seems necessary. It has been our plan for several years at the penitentiary to diagnose any cases of tuberculosis as early as possible and then have them sent immediately to our State farm to receive the benefits of open air combined with dietetic and other treatment deemed wise by our farm surgeon. The tent system at our State farm has been of inestimable benefit.

“It is a blot on our good name that we still have the bucket system in our old building. I wish to take advantage of this opportunity to strongly urge the necessity for the abolition of this system here and elsewhere.

“At the Virginia Penitentiary it is our custom to thoroughly fumigate the cells that have had in them tuberculous convicts. Our hospital wards are all regularly fumigated. Especial care is given to the fumigation of mattresses and convict clothing. Our convicts are taught from time to time the necessity of not expectorating on the cell and factory floors and walls, and we post liberally signs admonishing everyone not to expectorate on the walks.

“As will be seen we are merely endeavoring to put into operation those methods known nearly universally as the methods whereby tuberculosis may be prevented and cured.

“One recommendation I desire to make--and it is one that we will all agree is of very considerable importance--is that all cells, hospital, kitchen, dining room, factory, etc., be screened from flies.

“In my opinion this one recommendation, if carried out, would be a strong check to the spread not only of tuberculosis, but to other diseases as well. Another recommendation that would prove of undoubted profit to the State and a check to the spread of tuberculosis is that all convicts be required by law to spend as much as one to two hours or more a day in the open air exercising systematically. This--shall we call it recreation-health-exercise?--time, of one or two hours, could be arranged when contracts for convict labor were made.”

In his paper on “The Position a Physician Should Occupy in the Trial, Sentencing and Care of Criminals,” Dr. Theodore Cook, Jr., of Baltimore, made a strong plea for a larger recognition of the medical profession in all questions relating to the condition and treatment of the degenerate, sick and insane prisoner. His contention was that a great many criminals are sick either mentally or physically, and that when these appear for trial the State should see that their infirmities are recognized and treated scientifically. A recommendation made by him before the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland was to the effect that before a person is tried for a serious offense his mental and physical condition should be examined into by a committee consisting of the jail physician and prosecuting attorney of the county where the defendant is to be tried and an alienist; the alienist to be appointed by the Governor on recommendation of the State Medical Society at a stipulated salary, and required to organize this committee in each county at stated intervals. This committee would be required to pass on the fitness of the prisoner to stand trial and receive sentence and to see that any infirmities were properly attended to; the youthful degenerate being given special attention, the sick healed and the insane sent to a proper institution to remain there until discharged by this committee. This committee should have full power to summon witnesses to investigate the prisoner’s condition. Its findings should be filed with the other court records before trial. Under these circumstances the committee would determine the mental responsibility of the prisoner, and to this extent relieve judge, district attorney and jury of a burden.

Dr. Cook also strongly urged that the physician should be given more authority in the various institutions for the detention and correction of the criminal classes, and that for the sanitary and hygienic condition of such institutions he should be held strictly responsible.

EVENING SESSION

In his report of the Committee on Criminal Law Reform, Mr. Roger Phelps Clark, district attorney, Binghamton, N. Y., said in part:

“As the law is to-day no power can force a witness to go from the State of Pennsylvania into the adjoining State of New York to testify there either before a magistrate or a grand or petit jury in a criminal case other than federal. Consequently it is often the case that criminals escape punishment and sometimes even prosecution. The punishment of criminals should not be a local issue.

“Unfortunately the criminal laws are drafted by criminal lawyers, who, as legislators, are seeking to protect a line of clientage, present and prospective, rather than their constituents.

“Corporate interests that now possess as many avenues of escape from regulation that can be made effective only by criminal prosecution, as there are different State governments, are unwilling to have these regulations made and enforced by the undivided power and responsibility of one sovereign law. To them each State government is as a city of refuge. One of the great questions to-day is whether government shall control the corporations or the corporations the government.

“It is a deplorable fact that generally throughout this country the judges presiding in the trials of criminal cases in courts of record are not sufficiently versed in criminal law. This branch of law is as thoroughly distinct from civil law as admiralty law is from ecclesiastical law.

“Judge Taft, in his address on the administration of criminal law, in June, 1905, before the Yale Law School, called attention to the small proportion of murderers that were punished. Possibly this is due in a degree to the lack of courage on the part of jurors. It seems as though better results are secured in States that have abolished the death penalty.

“Insanity to-day is usually the moneyed defense. The fact that a rich man with a homicidal habit can produce experts, apparently respectable, who will swear that at the time of the commission of the crime he was insane by reason of a brain storm, but is sane at the time of trial, has brought such expert testimony into merited contempt and the administration of criminal law into deserved distrust. The only thing to do with such a criminal is to keep him under lock and key away from the stormy stress of free life.”

The Rev. Dr. A. J. McKelway, in speaking on “The Abolition of the Lease System in Georgia,” gave a history of the system, described its inhumanities and traced the steps by which its abolition came about. Beginning when one hundred convicts were first let out for $2,500 a year, the system grew to such proportions that in 1903 the price was $225 a man. Many of the men were sublet at $630 a year, and those who thus trafficked in human beings became known as “convict kings.” The abolition goes into effect on the first of April of the present year, and after that date the convicts are to be worked on the roads under State supervision, and on farms which are to be established. The reform was brought about by the overwhelming pressure of an aroused public sentiment; and Dr. McKelway summarized the present public opinion on this subject in the South as follows:

“First, it has been burned into the hearts of the people that it is not good for the State to make a profit on crime.

“Second, that the State should not delegate to any person or corporation not under its complete control the duty of punishing crime or of caring for the criminal, old or young, white or black.

“Third, that the working of felony convicts on the public roads or public works is an infinite improvement on the lease system; and that the working of misdemeanor convicts in the same way is an immense improvement over the old county jail system.

“Fourth, that the State farm is the best solution yet offered, with such manual and industrial training as may be given.

“Fifth, that the retributive idea of punishment is giving place at last to the reformatory idea.

“Sixth, that at least a fair proportion of the profits of the convict labor should be set aside for the helpless family, or as a fund for a start in the life of freedom.”

On motion of Joshua L. Baily, President of The Pennsylvania Prison Society, a resolution was passed congratulating the State of Georgia on its abolition of the convict lease system.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19

MORNING SESSION

Mr. T. B. Patton, Superintendent of the Industrial Reformatory, Huntingdon, Pa., presented the report of the Committee on Prevention and Reformatory Work; and Mrs. Frances A. Morton, Superintendent of the Reformatory Prison for Women, South Framingham, Mass., spoke on “Outdoor Employment for Women Prisoners,” describing especially the various forms of outdoor work in her own institution.

AFTERNOON SESSION

“Prison Discipline,” especially in reformatories, was the subject of a most interesting address by Mr. J. A. Leonard, Superintendent of the State Reformatory, Mansfield, Ohio.

“I wish to speak on discipline for certain exceptional types in our reformatory prisons. I would first consider _the trusty_. There have been trusties ever since there have been prisons. In our own work I had in mind to employ a great many young men committed to the reformatory in a trusted capacity--not to make them informers, not to make them a bulwark of safety to the institution, not to pamper them, not to make them envied by the other prisoners, but because the dictum to treat all prisoners alike is fallacious. All prisoners under certain given conditions should be treated alike. The even hand of justice is needed in a prison above any place else. But there are men sent to reformatories who would stay there if there was not a lock on the prison. I think fifty per cent. of the men sent to the Ohio State Reformatory would prove to be self-governing as to the matter of custody. It is to their interest to be so.

“In setting aside those who are trusties we appeal to intelligence and thoughtfulness. What has been the result? We had six hundred acres of land to farm, first as an economic proposition, and second as an agency for training. Originally our farm was a burden upon the institution, because all the farming was done under an armed guard. It was quite a spectacle for men to go along our public highways and see a boy, a convict, so-called, plowing corn with an $840 man following him with a gun. It made expensive corn and was a shock to public sense. What could we do about this matter? To make the farm profitable, economically and valuable industrially, it was necessary to employ in this outside work a large number of men. I believed it possible to find young men who would go out and work faithfully without a great degree of restraint. I wanted to make the test and we put out fifteen men without an armed guard. Three ran away. That was not a comfortable experience. I put out thirty and five ran away. I put out sixty and four ran away. Last year we had on an average one hundred and fifty men outside unrestrained by any physical force, and we did not lose a man. What produced this change? A change in human nature? Not at all. We simply gave free play to an idea and the sentiment within the institution underwent a change. Three men out of the one hundred and fifty tried to get away. Two of them conspired together, one running this way and one that way. The officer was fleet-footed and captured one of them. (By the way, I have come to employ officers because they can run fast rather than because of their ability to shoot straight.) This officer caught one and supposed that the other had gotten away, but when he came up over the hills by the roadside he found him. He was on the ground; a fellow-prisoner was sitting on him and saying to him: ‘You lie still. We are not knocking you; we are saving you trouble. You know you will be caught. We are doing you good, but that is not why we are holding you. You are knocking the system that the superintendent is trying to start here to give us a fair show, and we will not stand for it.’ Public opinion in the institution is what made that possible. How do we bring it about? Public opinion within the institution is largely influenced by our practical school of ethics. This school had discussed at great length this trusty system and had given full support to the idea. Discipline will not do it.

“The number trusted is growing larger and larger each year. We select them very carefully. I take a boy out quietly in the evening and have a talk with him. I ask him if he will voluntarily assume that responsibility. If he agrees, I produce a bond, one that has been prepared with some red ink, red ribbon and red seals and burdened with all the meaningless expressions that our legal brethren have burdened us with. At the bottom of it there are two clauses of plain English that the boy is supposed to understand. There is nothing like being impressive as he signs the bond. I say to him: ‘Now here is the place for your surety. Where are you going to get it?’ He replies, ‘I believe my folks will give it.’ ‘That cannot be done, my boy. This is an honor bond.’ Then, ‘I will do it,’ I tell him. ‘I will be your first friend and stand for you with the deputy.’

“I have signed ten hundred and eighteen of those bonds and only five have been dishonored. That experiment has been worth a great deal more than it costs. It costs some anxiety. Next year I expect to put out about two hundred men if I live. I shall put out more and more each year and I shall expect this good record to continue, simply because the fellows inside are standing for it and even in their language they distinguish. The fellow who scales the walls gets the applause that always goes with the deed of daring, but the fellow who goes out after signing a bond with the superintendent’s name to it, ‘takes a sneak,’ and when he is brought back he is made to feel it.

“Those trusties are never informers with us. We have never let them inform us. The other boys have no prejudices against them. They want to be with them, but I keep them as far separated as possible. If I were building a new reformatory the ground plan would look like a spider’s web and I would have a detached cottage for those who have proven their trustworthiness.

“The second exceptional class calling for special discipline is _the bankrupt_. You men who have to deal with the indeterminate sentence know that no board of managers or set of men can make rules that will meet the peculiar needs of individual cases. You and I know that in every prison there are boys who cannot gain eligibility for parole under rules made for the average, notwithstanding the fact that they are not guilty of serious offenses, nor are they regarded as malicious or dangerous. They become bankrupt because of the accumulation of demerits for this thing and that. What are we going to do? If I excuse those reports it becomes a personal favor, which is wrong and leads to bad feeling. I asked myself the question: ‘What has society in all time done to meet such cases? What is done in the economic world?’ I recently read an article which said that sixty per cent. of the successful merchants were bankrupt some time in their life. If a man who has carried on a business comes into court with clean hands he is given the benefit of bankruptcy; his obligations are canceled and a new opportunity is afforded him. I asked myself the question, ‘Why can we not have something of like character here?’ So I instituted a bankruptcy court. Our general disciplinarian holds court on all offenses and fixes penalties under the general rules. There is, however, a right of appeal, first to the superintendent, and finally to the president of the Board of Managers. Why then another court? I wanted a court which would be free from any prejudice on account of the boys’ record, so I selected the assistant superintendent, who, while charged with the discipline in a general way, does not pass upon the original offenses, and then the chaplain, who has no embarrassing relations at all as to discipline. With these two officers we instituted a court in which were represented both the law and the gospel. The Board of Managers heartily approved the innovation. The rules governing that court are as follows:

“Any inmate, who because of misconduct has lost so much time as to
render the prospects of his parole extremely remote, and who, in
good faith, has resolved to establish a good record in the
institution, may make written application to the superintendent
for an exercise of clemency that may come within the
superintendent’s discretion under the rules of the institution.

“If the party making the appeal for clemency has a clear record
for thirty days next preceding the date of the application, the
appeal will be referred to the Bankruptcy Court, consisting of the
assistant superintendent and the chaplain, who will give the
applicant a hearing, carefully review his case, and make a report
of their findings to the superintendent. In case the appeal is
granted, the applicant will be placed in the second grade under
the same conditions as apply to inmates on first entering the
institution, and his consideration for parole will not be
prejudiced by his previous record.

“Any inmate who shall have served one year in the second grade,
and who has failed of promotion to the first grade because of
minor acts of omission or commission, may make written appeal to
the superintendent for promotion to the first grade, and his case
will be dealt with in like manner and on like conditions as stated
above. The superintendent will not remit time lost or make special
promotions except in the manner above indicated.

“People who come to our institution sometimes ask, What is the best thing you have done? In making reply I do not point to any material thing. I call attention to the bankruptcy court. It has relieved us of embarrassment, strengthened our discipline, opened the door of hope, extracted the teeth of criticism. It has done wonders in this direction. I had a talk with one of those sinister, embittered boys one day. He was sullen, not personally insolent to me, except in a degree unconsciously, and I said to him, ‘I am thinking, my boy, of that good day coming when you will do just the opposite.’ He said, ‘Why do you think that day will ever come?’ ‘Simply because you have sense enough in your head; it is sure to come. You are not so bad. You fancy you are a bad fellow. You are bad enough for all practical purposes, but you are not so bad as you think. All you have to do is to turn around. You are a six-cylinder fellow. You have force and will, and you have obstinacy and lots of other things you ought not to have, and when you turn around, then we are going to have one of the best boys instead of the worst.’ He said, ‘You cannot make the officers of this institution believe I would turn around.’ I said, ‘No, but you and I can make them believe it, not I, but you and I, and I shall expect it some day.’ After six weeks there came this letter from him: ‘I have turned around, but in doing so I’m face to face with a hopeless lot of demerits, and I therefore appeal for the benefit of the bankruptcy court.’ He was working in the right direction. I would not take the time to tell you his career afterwards. It was all I hoped for.

“The third type that requires special methods of discipline is the sinister ‘smart Aleck.’ A boy of this type came to me in a very insolent way and said, ‘I am a worse man than when I came.’ I replied: ‘I have talked to you often, and for the first time your opinion coincides with mine. I believe you are, as you declare, a worse boy than when you came.’ He said, ‘What is the good of a reformatory?’ I was sorely puzzled how to deal with that boy. I said to him, ‘Do you think a place makes a man good or bad?’ ‘This place has made me bad. No reformatory reforms anybody.’ ‘My boy, do you believe heaven is a good place. Do you think the rules and regulations reasonable up there?’ He replied, ‘I expect so.’ ‘Do you not know that one of the excellent but opinionated inhabitants of that place got out of tune with it, found fault with the management, created dissatisfaction among the weaker angels and created no end of trouble, and the Creator had to provide another place? Do you know the identity of this trouble maker?’ ‘Yes, the devil.’ ‘Do you know where he is?’ ‘Yes, in hell.’ ‘He is not in hell all the time, as long as you feel as you do now.’

“After a little further discussion he was asked if he saw the point of the illustration. He said he guessed he saw where he was headed for, according to the example I had held up for him. I then showed him what a privilege it is to be able to profit from the example of those who have made a failure rather than to share their experiences. He thereupon threw aside his cynicism and admitted in the most candid way that he had been irritable and ugly and expected to be punished, but that my patience, taken with the illustration, had made him feel differently, and that he would demonstrate to me that he was not the devil or his accomplice, nor would he be a trouble maker. He on more than one occasion later referred to the fact that the devil had been a saving agency in his reformation.

“The cynical fellow is apt to have sufficient intellect to which to make successful appeal. I think of a prison as simply a fulcrum for the lever of reformatory effort. By the sentence of the court confining these two young men heretofore referred to, I was afforded the fulcrum to bring to bear the right kind of discipline.

“The next type calling for special discipline is the _outrageous fellow_. I have asked myself what reason there is in psychology, in humanity or in common sense for making a prison a silent tomb. How can we hope to socialize young men by denying them communication by speech? If a man refuses to talk or laugh, incipient insanity is at once suspected. With these thoughts in mind, I thought I would do away with the rule requiring silence in the dining room. Hoary-headed tradition forbade it; prison administrators in whose wisdom I have the greatest confidence questioned it; but I was impelled to try it. All went well until one day the ‘outrageous fellow’ referred to was brought to court charged with quarreling with his neighbor at table, hurling a large porcelain bowl of tea into his opponent’s face, slightly burning him and cutting an ugly gash in his head. The most serious offense, however, was creating a condition in a crowded dining room favorable to riot. It was the opinion of our officers that he should be severely punished, their idea of punishment including the infliction of bodily pain. I agreed that he deserved whipping, but reminded the officers that this world was not entirely established on the basis of desert; that the best of us had little claim to heaven on that basis. We did not whip him, not because he did not deserve it, but because we owed it to him and to the institution to do that thing that would most positively quicken the moral sense and create a wholesome public sentiment. Calling him up, I told him that he had put me to shame; that he had justified all my critics who said that I would get into trouble by allowing the boys to talk at the table; that he was the only one out of a thousand that failed to appreciate what had been done for him. ‘Now,’ I said to him, ‘$1’ This method, I believe, had the approval of practically every inmate of the institution. The boy himself said that he would rather be whipped, as he felt that he had been whipped every time he came into the dining room and turned his back to the other inmates; they would all feel that he was unfit to be with them. After three weeks he made full amends and was allowed to join his fellows, and never gave trouble afterwards.

“Another closely allied to this chap is _the rebellious man_. All prison men will agree that of the troublesome prisoners the rebellious man must be most promptly and effectually dealt with. I have friends who are my superiors in knowledge and wisdom who favor corporal punishment or handcuffs or the dark cell. I would not have a dark cell in the institution. Instead, I make the punishment cell lighter than any other. Why? That is not based on sentiment. If a bear wants to hibernate he hunts the dark cave. If you and I want rest we want the hours of darkness. If the creeping things of the earth want to get rest and dull their sensibilities they hunt a board or a log. The light is the most stimulating thing in all the world, and what I want to do with the rebellious inmate is to put him in a light cell. I want to stimulate him. Our reflection chambers are large, light and airy and so arranged that the occupants can smell every dinner that is cooked and hear the band and the boys playing ball. It gets to be uncomfortable and they want out and they want out badly. What is the result? They go to the deputy and say they are wrong and want to start new. If you whip a boy in prison he will suffer martyrdom if he can but have one admiring onlooker. But when you take a fool’s audience away, in prison or out, he loses the stimulation of his vanity. When he leaves our discipline department he cannot swagger that he endured this thing or that, because every person knows that there is only one way to regain his place among his fellows, and that is by the promise to conform. No handcuffs have been used in the Ohio State Reformatory for seven years. Our correction cells, known in the institution as ‘reflection chambers,’ have been all-sufficient.”

In the discussion which followed Mr. Leonard made the following additional remarks on the method of parole followed in his institution:

“The boys in our institution are eligible to parole after serving one year, but not before. When they are eligible, as laid down by law, they are presented by the superintendent and chaplain jointly to the Board of Managers for consideration. The Board of Managers has organized with a committee of six to meet from one to two days before the meeting and go over carefully the examination of the papers in each individual case. They make their findings separately and then bring them up and compare notes and get together. They then present their report added to that of the full board and the papers are gone over. Each boy is brought in and given a chance to make a personal plea. I believe that every boy has a right to make whatever impression he can on the board before they pass on his parole. After parole has been granted he cannot be released until there is a place of employment for him. We have regularly engaged, well-trained field workers who are also employment agents. If a boy cannot get employment we find it for him. They go out on parole for not less than a year, sometimes more. Occasionally we have a boy who asks for longer time for peculiar reasons, but usually not. He makes monthly reports to the superintendent, and our field officers visit him once a month until the expiration of the year. The field officer makes a report to the Board of Managers; then he is discharged and the governor issues a certificate to that effect.”

EVENING SESSION

At the evening session Mrs. Maud Ballington Booth delivered one of her characteristic and inspiring addresses, after which the congress adjourned, to meet at Seattle in the fall of 1909.

* * * * *

Among the resolutions adopted were the following:

That the committee appointed to arrange for the International
Prison Congress be given authority to add to its membership as it
seems desirable, and

THAT WHEREAS, the Congress of the United States had extended
through its President an invitation to the International Prison
Congress, which was first organized under the initiative of this
government in 1870, to hold its Eighth Congress at our national
capital in 1910, and said invitation has been accepted;

_Resolved_, that we respectfully ask Congress to make a suitable
appropriation for the preparatory work of the International
Association and for the entertainment of the Congress, as asked
for in the estimates of the State Department, and we pledge the
cordial coöperation of the American Association in making the
Washington session memorable.

That the Congress of the American Prison Association indorse the
plan advocated by the National Child Labor Committee and other
organizations for the protection of children, for the
establishment of a children’s bureau under one of the departments
of the national government, for the investigation and publication
of facts relating to child labor, including those relating to the
correction and reformation of juvenile delinquents.

The following resolution was referred to the Board of Directors for action at the next congress:

In recognition of the high moral character of many life men in our
penitentiaries, it is resolved that a committee be appointed who
shall make suitable investigations and report next year upon the
advisability of extending to this class of prisoners the benefits
of parole.

The following are the Presidents for the year 1909: American Prison Association, Dr. J. T. Gilmour, Toronto; Wardens’ Association, E. F. Morgan, Richmond; Chaplains’ Association, the Rev. Aloys M. Fish, Trenton, N. J.; Physicians’ Association, Dr. Daniel Phelan, Kingston, Canada.

Reported for THE JOURNAL,
J. F. OHL, _Official Delegate_.

JUDGE LINDSAY AND HIS COURT

I first met Judge Ben B. Lindsay in his home city of Denver, Colo., in 1906. A remark he then made impressed itself strongly on my mind, namely, that he owed his position as judge of the juvenile court to the women. In Pennsylvania such support could be only moral. In Colorado it was in this particular case both moral and political, inasmuch as in said State women have the right of suffrage. It is to the everlasting credit of the women of Denver that in a struggle involving a great moral issue they should have stood by the man who has made it his life work to save children from criminal careers, and whose defeat had been planned by hostile elements.

I again had the pleasure of meeting Judge Lindsay in the fall of 1908, on the occasion of a visit to his court. With my personal card, I sent in my membership card in the Acting Committee of The Pennsylvania Prison Society, and was promptly shown into the courtroom and given a seat near the judge. He wore no ermine, not even the judicial silk gown; nor was he seated behind the usual high desk of a judge. As I entered he was standing beside an ordinary table, and later sometimes rested against it. The boys and girls brought before him handed him the reports of their recent conduct. His manner toward all was the kindest, and his language was so plain and simple that none could fail to understand. He would receive a report card from the hand of a small boy, read it, and then comment on it. If the report was good, he would commend the boy and encourage him to persevere in his course; if not good, he would express his sorrow. “Now, Johnnie, what’s the trouble? It makes me feel real bad to have such a report from you. Now don’t you think you can do better if I give you another chance? I think you can. Just make an effort and I am sure your next report will be better. If not, we will have to try some other plan.”

Presently the hearings began. Several groups of boys, who had in various ways given the street railway company considerable trouble, were brought before the judge. Standing between two of the young culprits, and perhaps laying a hand on the shoulder of each, he would first listen to the charges preferred by the officers, and then gather from the boys themselves all the information he could regarding their school attendance, occupation, family life and surroundings. With this to guide him he would begin to talk to the boys in the most affectionate and fatherly manner, and endeavor to make them realize what might have been the consequences of their misdeeds to others, and how they would bring to themselves still greater trouble if they persisted in their present course of conduct. To those who showed a disposition to respond to this kind and tactful treatment every encouragement was extended, but perverse ones were given clearly to understand that they could expect no leniency from the court so long as they refused to mend their ways.

In the fall of 1908 Judge Lindsay was defeated for renomination by the powerful influence of certain corporations to which he had given offense. With these he joined issue as an independent candidate, and though it required thirty thousand “split” or “scratched” ballots he was triumphantly elected. The women of Denver had made it their cause, and before these even the corporations were impotent!

One of the most striking proofs of Judge Lindsay’s profound moral influence over those coming under his authority is the fact that he has sent hundreds to the reformatory at Golden altogether unattended. The number who have been unfaithful to this trust and who failed to deliver themselves at the institution is so small as to be practically negligible.

Judge Lindsay is working at that end of human life at which results are most readily achieved. A vessel that has become misshapen can be remodeled so long as the clay is still plastic. Like a skillful potter Judge Lindsay seeks to mold human lives, and the success which has crowned his efforts has deservedly attracted the attention not only of his own countrymen, but of those in other lands who are interested in the child-saving problem.

GEORGE S. WETHERELL,
_Member of the Acting Committee_.

PREAMBLE

TO CONSTITUTION OF THE PHILADELPHIA SOCIETY FOR THE AMELIORATION OF THE MISERIES OF PUBLIC PRISONS.

Adopted May 15, 1787.

When we consider that the obligations of benevolence, which are founded on the precept and examples of the Author of Christianity, are not cancelled by the follies or crimes of our fellow creatures, and when we reflect upon the miseries which penury, hunger, cold, unnecessary severity, unwholesome apartments, and guilt (the usual attendants of prisons) involve with them, it becomes us to extend our compassion to that part of mankind who are the subjects of those miseries. By the aid of humanity their undue and illegal sufferings may be prevented; the link which should bind the whole family of mankind together, under all circumstances, be preserved unbroken; and such degree and modes of punishment may be discovered and suggested as may, instead of continuing habits of vice, become the means of restoring our fellow creatures to virtue and happiness. From a conviction of the truth and obligations of these principles, the subscribers have associated themselves under the title of “The Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons.”

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.)

AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THE

Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons.