Read Ebook: The Review; Vol. 1 No. 4 April 1911 by Various National Prisoners Aid Association Publisher

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 149 lines and 16553 words, and 3 pages

VOLUME I, No. 4. APRIL, 1911

THE REVIEW

A MONTHLY PERIODICAL, PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL PRISONERS' AID ASSOCIATION

AT 135 EAST 15th STREET, NEW YORK CITY.

TEN CENTS A COPY. SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS A YEAR

E. F. Waite, President. F. Emory Lyon, Vice President. O. F. Lewis, Secretary and Editor Review. E. A. Fredenhagen, Chairman Ex. Committee. James Parsons, Member Ex. Committee. A. H. Votaw, Member Ex. Committee. G. E. Cornwall, Member Ex. Committee Albert Steelman, Member Ex. Committee

THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES AND CORRECTION

This year's conference bids fair to be the best yet. The topics in general are timely and fundamental. The Committee on Lawbreakers will have for its general session the opening evening, Wednesday, the seventh. In addition to the committee report, a speaker of national reputation will give an address. In the section meetings the topics will be, respectively, the care of defective delinquents, modern methods of dealing with misdemeanants, and the development of systems of probation and parole. The section meetings will be "round table" discussions, open to all.

THE TREND OF LEGISLATION

Most legislative sessions for 1911 are now through or nearly so. Certain general tendencies have been prominent in prison and correctional legislation. The problems of prison labor have been prominent in California, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, Missouri, Michigan, New York and some other states. The trend of legislation is strongly toward the introduction or strengthening of the state-use system. Legislative inquiries into alleged mal-administration have been instituted in several states. The question of corporal punishment has been under investigation in Michigan. The REVIEW will give the results of these investigations, but believes it inadvisable to print statements and comments prior to official findings.

Legislatures have been asked in many states, notably Wisconsin, Indiana, California, New York, to consider the establishment of new kinds of correctional institutions for tramps and vagrants, or for inebriates, or for young misdemeanants. The health of prisoners attracts increasing attention, as well as their mental conditions.

FOUR MONTHS OF THE REVIEW

The REVIEW is growing gently. We hope surely, also. Its purpose to be a live news-sheet in the prison field is being gradually worked out. What the REVIEW wants is comment from its subscribers as to how it can be made most useful.

The editor holds that the "prison field" includes efforts in behalf of the prisoner before imprisonment, after imprisonment, on probation and on parole. Very germane to the work and interest of prisoners and societies are movements for the care of those mentally and socially sick and tending toward delinquency and crime, such as the tramp and the vagrant, the inebriate, the feeble-minded offender, the youthful transgressor. So the REVIEW will give a share of its attention to such actual or proposed organizations or institutions as children's courts and villages, farm colonies, hospitals and colonies for inebriates, psychopathic institutions for the study of the defective delinquent, as well as to all the movements and progress of general interest in the narrower prison field.

During these four months W. D. Lane, a member of the New York School of Philanthropy, has been serving the REVIEW as Assistant Editor. His help has been of very material value.

MENTAL DEFECTIVES AND MORAL DELINQUENTS

FRANK MOORE, SUPERINTENDENT NEW JERSEY REFORMATORY

To deal successfully with the prodigious problem of moral reform, no one thing seems more essential than a scientific study and a systematic treatment of the mentally deficient delinquent. Obviously, a classification of evil doers based upon their mentality is of vast importance. Before the work of reform can intelligently be begun there must be such a complete diagnosis of each individual case that the cause of the moral malady may be discovered, if possible. Mental deficiency is without question a cause of moral delinquency, and the reform of a large number of delinquents cannot wisely be undertaken until the existence of feeble mindedness is established in each case where it exists.

In the work of reform, too little attention has been given to careful diagnosis; too much guessing has prevailed as to the criminal's mental character, or too much ignoring of mental ability. Criminals, whether mentally normal or subnormal, have all been subjected to the same system, with the hope that the weak-minded and strong-minded alike would be made into good citizens. The reason for this has been, perhaps, that there have appeared to be few if any standards by which it has been thought the mental character of the criminal could be accurately judged. But certain systems recently have been developed that render guessing no longer a necessity, and hence a great mistake.

Doctor Sante de Sanctis of Italy, Doctor De Croly of Germany and Doctor Alfred Binet of France have established admirable systems in dealing with this problem.

Classification of the mentally deficient delinquent may be perhaps most easily arrived at by the psychological standards of the Binet system. This system has been in use in some of the feeble-minded institutions of the country, and has been used by the New Jersey Reformatory the past year; there may be some other reformatories that have also used it with most satisfactory results. Each inmate in the Reformatory of New Jersey, received during the year, has been subjected to the Binet tests, and this determining of a psychological age has established the fact that 46% of the inmates received during the last year are mentally subnormal.

There is, however, without question one point at which the system needs to be taken with a considerable degree of care. Of the 46% who were mentally deficient, according to the tests, it was found by a study of the history of these cases that 17 1/2 % had received only a year's schooling or less. What their minds would have been if they had not had this misfortune could not be determined by the system, but could only be arrived at when they had been given the opportunity of an education. From this data, it would seem wise to divide the 46% mentally defectives into two classes.

First: The hopelessly defective or feeble-minded delinquent, of whom there were 28 1/2 %.

Second: The hopeful cases of defectives, possibly capable of development into normals with proper training, of whom there were 17 1/2 %.

After diagnosis of the deficient cases, the next natural step is that of observation. Our observation, covering only a short time and therefore not very dependable, and perhaps of only slight suggestive value, has shown that these mentally deficient delinquents, while under discipline, seem to be inclined to commit only offenses that may be called neglects, and not offenses that are vicious in character, unless some one of a stronger mind has inspired the more vicious deed. The great number of their failures are failures of omission, due to lack of apprehension. They fall below the standard because their minds are below it. It is also most apparent that there is need of a special method of treatment of the delinquent who is defective. There should be a separation of him from the normal. His mind is slow. He does not grasp instruction as quickly as the normal, and to subject him to the same standards under the same rules is inhumane. In discipline he is seriously interfered with by those who are bright and yet wilful, and who make him the butt of their jest. He cannot be taught the same subjects that can be taught to the average mind. It is a waste of time to undertake to teach him more than the simplest rudiments of the lower grammar grades. In work he is most successful in that which is purely methodical, in which there is little intelligence and initiative required. He can rise very little above the laborer, and to expect him to be a real mechanic or to try to train him for such will only mean failure, and the reformatory system that recognizes these limitations will certainly be most apt to succeed.

The reformatory needs to be most discriminating in dealing with this class when they are dismissed. The character and influences of the place to which they are paroled is a vital matter. These delinquents amid evil surroundings, or in the hands or under the influence of unscrupulous people are most dangerous. Unhesitatingly and almost without knowing it, they become the tool of the vicious. They are like the weather vane, which sways instantly in the direction of the power that is exerted upon it. The best people, those who are interested in helping the unfortunate and who will seek to carry on through the years the work which the institution has but begun, ought to be sought to help them when these individuals are dismissed from the institution. If this class is wisely dealt with, a percentage of this by-product of humanity, large enough to make it worth while, will be changed from mere animal things into individuals of value in the world.

CHICAGO'S VICE COMMISSION

The report of the Chicago Vice Commission, made public last week, is a notable document for many reasons. To begin with, this is said to have been the first commission appointed by the mayor of a great city to deal with this question. In the next place, it conducted its inquiry in a scientific and dispassionate manner, and as a result has some definite and practical recommendations to make. But most important of all is that it rejects definitely and vigorously the theory that since prostitution has always been and is always likely to be, therefore there is nothing to be done but to regulate and tolerate and segregate. Into none of these pitfalls has it fallen. Without letting its idealism run away with it, the committee--a strong one, composed of business men, teachers, editors, doctors, and ministers--lays down the sound truth that the proper policy for a city is "constant and persistent repression," with "absolute annihilation as the ultimate ideal." There is no counsel of cowardice and despair here; no advocacy of those evil, out-worn policies of toleration which have long since demonstrated in Europe their inability to protect the public health or morals. What is counselled is a determined and vigorous grappling with the evil by the municipality, while the community as a whole devotes itself to those far-reaching policies of education and economic readjustment, which must eventually control some of the human currents that underlie this fearful social peril.

How great that evil is in Chicago alone appears from the committee's sober estimate that the annual loss in lives is 5,000 and the annual profit of those engaged in the trade is ,000,000, which latter figure has since been raised four-fold. It has often been pointed out in these columns and elsewhere that, if there were any other single drain upon a city that cost it 5,000, or let us say even 2,500, lives a year, the community would be up in arms about it. A fire loss of that figure would stir this city to its foundations; the heavy toll in children's lives paid every summer because of impure or improper food has roused the humanitarian spirit, and we are all familiar with the public determination to blot out the tuberculosis scourge as rapidly as possible. But these matters here come under the Board of Health, which spends great sums every year in such crusades. No department really has charge of this scourge of immorality save the Police Department, which in the past has regulated it as though merely with a view to obtaining for its corrupt members as large a share in the profits as possible.

That this indifference of the municipality to one of the most glaring and discouraging evils of our modern life is intolerable, the Chicago committee has fully realized, for it has recommended the immediate appointment of a morals commission of five members to be chosen by the mayor and approved by the city council, to serve for two years without pay, the commissioner of health to be an ex-officio member, its duty being to "gather evidence and to take the necessary legal steps for the suppression of vice in Chicago wherever such suppression is believed to be advisable." Its jurisdiction is to cover Chicago and the territory three miles beyond its corporate limits. In addition to this morals commission, there is urged a morals court to consider the cases submitted to it by the morals commission. But far-reaching as these are, they are not the only practical remedies suggested. The city is urged to erect a trade school and hospital for wayward women on a farm owned by the municipality. A special house of detention is urged as absolutely necessary, as is a second state school for wayward girls, the existing one being overcrowded. Of vast importance in any city would be the suggested creation "of a sympathetic agency with paid agents, who have followed a special instruction and would be charged with regular supervision of the children of unmarried mothers," and also an amply financed committee on child protection, unrestricted in its scope. Indeed, the welfare of the children has been a deep concern to the committee, which would keep them off the streets at night, forbid the sending of any messenger under twenty-one to a disreputable resort, while it suggests an increase in the number of small parks and recreation centers. It urges dance halls, properly supervised, with the sale of liquor prohibited; it implores the churches to use their facilities for sane entertainments and urges wise instruction in sex hygiene in the public schools.

As for the worst offenders, the procurers, the committee urges that there should be relentless prosecution of them and the professional keepers of disreputable resorts. For the betterment of the police force in relation to the evil there are suggested a number of remedies for the existing conditions, such as the severe punishment of grafters, the constant rotation of patrolmen in the various districts, and the investigation of complaints by picked men from distant districts. Most interesting of all is the suggestion that women police officers be appointed to deal with the question of morals, and particularly to protect strangers on arrival. Why this important duty has thus far been left to volunteer effort in almost all of our cities passes understanding. First offenders ought, the committee thinks, to be invariably placed under the charge of women probation officers. We note also this suggestion:

To Federal authorities: A Federal bureau of immigration should be established in great distributive centers, such as Chicago, to provide for the safe conduct of immigrants from ports of entry to their destination. Efficient legislation should be enacted and present laws enforced in such a manner, as to the traffic in women within the boundaries of each state, and as thoroughly, as the Federal authorities have dealt with the international traffic.

Not unnaturally, it finds that the public health authorities could do much to better conditions if they would put an end to the wholesale dispensing of cocaine and morphine by certain druggists.

Finally, these investigators are convinced that much of the race friction in large cities is due to the vice problem, and it dwells vigorously upon the crying injustice of the Chicago authorities in invariably driving the prostitutes into the quarters occupied by colored people--in one instance into the section occupied by the homes, Sunday schools, and churches of the best class of colored people. One feature in the report appeals to Chicago's pride. After all the terrible stories of her "levee" districts, the committee is certain that Chicago is "more moral proportionately to its population than most of the cities in her class." Are we so sure that New York is--as Mayor Gaynor would have us believe? Has not the time come for adapting to this city some of the many admirable, practical, and constructive suggestions this report contains?

FOUR SEARCHING LAWS FOR FOUR SOCIAL EVILS

W. D. LANE, ASSISTANT EDITOR REVIEW

A state campaign of much interest to social workers in general is being waged by the Associated Charities of Duluth, Minnesota, for the enactment by the Minnesota legislature of four laws pertaining to the four related social evils of vagrancy, desertion of family, drunkenness and poverty. A state labor colony for tramps, vagrants and deserters, a general stiffening of the punitive, reformatory, and other features of the law against desertion of destitute families, the establishment of boards of inebriety, and a commission on the causes of poverty, are, respectively, the specific measures by which the four enumerated evils are to be met.

At the time of our going to press, those fighting for the hills were hopeful for the passage of all except that creating boards of inebriety. All of the bills had been referred to their appropriate committees in both house and senate, and the wide-spread discussion given to them by newspapers throughout the state, most of which was favorable, was expected to aid materially in their passage.

The bill dealing with drunkenness provides that in every city having a population of over 50,000 the common council or city council may determine that there shall be a local board of inebriety, to consist of five persons, appointed by the mayor, two of whom shall be physicians, and one of whom, if practicable, shall have had experience in social or charitable subjects. This board of inebriety, or one of its field officers, may direct the dismissal of any complaint charging a person with intoxication or the use of any habit-forming drug. If the complaint be not dismissed and the accused be found guilty, the court may release the person so convicted under the supervision of a field officer of the board of inebriety for a period of from six months to one year. The court may impose conditions upon the person supervised and upon the violation of any of these conditions further penalties may be imposed. If the accused be sentenced to hard labor in a jail or house of correction, fifty cents for each day's work shall be paid over for the support of his wife or minor children.

The chief objection raised to this bill is that the State of Minnesota does not yet require such boards of inebriety, and that the work which it would do can be accomplished through an extension of the probation system.

The proposed commission on causes of poverty would consist of five citizens of the state, three of whom must be experts in social, charitable, or sanitary matters, and two of whom must be lawyers. The duties of the commission would be "to investigate causes of, or factors in, promoting undesirable living conditions, ill health or pauperism, such as poor and unsanitary housing, overcrowding in tenements, methods of dealing with minor offenders and juvenile delinquents, and such other kindred subjects as the commission may elect." It shall also study the adequacy of the present laws of the state on these subjects, the experience of other states and countries, and shall frame laws embodying the results of its investigations. Thus the bill aims to "eliminate the causes of poverty instead of dealing only with the effects." The members are to be unpaid except for reimbursement of travelling expenses. A salaried secretary may be employed. The bill appropriates ,000 for the purposes of the commission, whose report must be submitted to the legislature on or before January 15th, 1913.

The purpose of the proposed state labor colony for tramps, vagrants and deserters is thus stated by the Associated Charities: "To make useful citizens out of tramps and beggars, instead of the rounders from jail to jail, and city to city, created by the present system. To eventually eliminate tramps and beggars and vagrants, which has been largely accomplished in Germany, Holland, Belgium and Switzerland and to a considerable extent in Massachusetts."

Detention, humane discipline and instruction are to be the functions of the colony. Any court may, in lieu of other lawful commitment, commit to the colony any male over twenty years of age who shall have been adjudged by such court to be a tramp or vagrant, or a deserter of a wife or child in necessitious circumstances. The sentence must be indefinite in length and parole or discharge may be made at any time after commitment, except that in no case may detention exceed two years.

The colony is to be under the supervision and management of the state board of control. Its buildings are to be designed for not less than three hundred inhabitants, and 0,000 is appropriated for the purchase of a site and the erection of buildings. Educational and industrial training are to be provided for.

The problem of wife desertion is declared to be an extremely serious one in Minnesota. The new bill aimed at this evil is based largely on the "model law of the District of Columbia," as well as upon a study of every desertion law in the United States. It follows also recommendations of the commission on uniform state laws. The bill makes a misdemeanor of any desertion of, wilful neglect of, or refusal to provide for, a wife or a legitimate or illegitimate child under 16 years of age, in necessitous circumstances. In case of conviction it provides for a fine of not more than 0, or imprisonment at hard labor for not more than ninety days, or for both. The court may direct the fine to be used for the support of the wife or child.

Some prominent features of the law, which are declared to be advantages over the present law, are as follows: It provides specifically that when a deserter of a destitute family is sentenced to confinement, he shall be employed at hard labor. This tends to prevent desertion, saves the value of the man's labor to the community, braces him up and makes him a more useful citizen who is more likely to support his family after release.

It requires the payment of the proceeds of the man's labor where it most sorely is needed, to his deserted wife and children. Under the present law, the convicted deserter is supported in jail, while his family often become paupers.

It specifically allows any person to make the complaint and makes both husband and wife compellable witnesses in all relevant matters. Members of the family are reluctant to complain in the most flagrant cases of neglect and desertion, or else withdraw their complaint before conviction and then the desertion is repeated. If convicted upon complaint of members of his own family, the man is very apt "to take it out on them" when released.

It applies to the non-support of illegitimate as well as legitimate children.

A STATE PRISONER ON PRISON REFORM

From a state convict at Montgomery, Alabama, comes a criticism of that state's treatment of the criminal, and a series of recommendations for improving that treatment, which read like an extract from a report of a state board of charities. The author of the article is Albert Driscoll, who is serving a four years' sentence for safe-blowing. The article was addressed to the members of the legislature and was printed in a Montgomery newspaper. Driscoll recommends the indeterminate sentence, a prisoners' aid society, and suppression of the names of those placed on parole. Parts of his article follow:

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet