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Title: The Delinquent, Vol. IV, No. 6, June, 1914
Author: Various
Release date: December 12, 2023 [eBook #72387]
Language: English
Original publication: New York: National Prisoners' Aid Association
Credits: The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Books project.)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DELINQUENT, VOL. IV, NO. 6, JUNE, 1914 ***
VOLUME IV, No. 6. JUNE, 1914
THE DELINQUENT
(FORMERLY THE REVIEW)
A MONTHLY PERIODICAL, PUBLISHED BY THE
NATIONAL PRISONERS’ AID ASSOCIATION
AT 135 EAST 15th STREET, NEW YORK CITY.
THIS COPY TEN CENTS. ONE DOLLAR A YEAR
T. F. Garver, President.
Wm. M. R. French, Vice-President.
O. F. Lewis, Secretary, Treasurer
and Editor The Delinquent.
Edward Fielding,
Chairman Ex. Committee.
F. Emory Lyon,
Member Ex. Committee.
W. G. McLaren,
Member Ex. Committee.
A. H. Votaw,
Member Ex. Committee.
E. A. Fredenhagen,
Member Ex. Committee.
Joseph P. Byers,
Member Ex. Committee.
R. B. McCord,
Member Ex. Committee.
Entered as second-class mail matter at New York.
MENTAL AND PHYSICAL FACTORS IN PROSTITUTION[1]
By Edith R. Spaulding, M. D.
[Resident Physician, Reformatory for Women, South Farmington, Mass.]
That a better knowledge of the mental and physical characteristics of
the prostitute herself could be obtained, and the causes as well as the
results of her life be understood, the following study was undertaken.
240 women who have recently been inmates at the Massachusetts
Reformatory for Women have been studied. All cases were included
in which at any time there had been a history of commercialized
promiscuous sex immorality. Only those cases were discarded in which
the physical examination was incomplete, if the history obtained gave
no evidence of disease.
A study such as this does not aim to discover the fundamental physical
or mental causes of prostitution as a social problem in the community.
Such a problem is too involved to be considered from this limited
standpoint. Recognizing, however, the fact that there is the demand in
society, this aims to show the types of women from whom the supply is
obtained and the benefits which may be derived for the community by
further study and treatment of such types.
Two hundred and five of the cases studied have received a psychological
examination. This has included the history of their educational
advantages and a study of the results obtained, as well as
psychological tests which estimate native ability aside from formal
educational training. In all doubtful cases, or in cases in which there
appeared to be mental defect, the Binet-Simon tests have also been
used. As a result of these examinations the cases have been roughly
classified as follows:
Per Ct.
Mentality Good 43 cases 20.9 32.6
” Fair 24 ” 11.7
” Dull 30 ” 14.6
” Subnormal 62 ” 30.3
Moron 45 ” 22.5 52.8
Imbecile 1 case
---------
Total 205 cases
About a third of the cases showed fair or good mentality. These cases
have been studied in detail for evidence of other mental and nervous
defects aside from mental deficiency. The results will be given later.
Over half of the cases studied were found to be defective mentally.
This corresponds to the results of the investigation of the White Slave
Commission[2] made recently in Massachusetts, in which 51 per cent. of
300 cases studied mentally were found to be defective and represented
segregable types. We should consider at least one quarter of our own
cases segregable from a standpoint of mental defect alone, and besides
these perhaps, another 20 per cent., candidates for a defective
delinquent institution, if such a classification should include
those cases which show marked psychopathic tendencies associated
with subnormal mentality. The cases which are considered segregable
types appear to be unable to care for themselves in the community.
Besides the harm that may be done to them on account of their weakened
resistance they become an active menace to others; first, through the
spread of venereal disease; second, through their immoral influence
in the community; and third, through bringing into the world children
who will grow up to be as much a menace to society as they themselves
have been. It should be the responsibility of representative members of
society to see that provision is made for the care of such individuals,
and that they are not punished for offences for which they can in no
way be considered responsible.
Besides the cases showing mental defect alone, there are many cases
both among the mentally defective and those showing normal mentality,
which show other mental or nervous defects, such as epilepsy, hysteria
and psychopathic tendencies. In the study of criminality of all kinds,
such abnormal mental and nervous conditions play an important part.
This is especially true of the class of women which is arrested on
account of sex offences. In the environment of mill towns and certain
sections of large cities, from which a large part of this population
comes, the temptations which appeal to sex are tremendous, even to the
individual who has a normal mentality and is well balanced. If through
such conditions as slight mental dullness or extreme nervousness, the
equilibrium is disturbed, the power of resistance is lost and the
individual is unable to cope with the temptations which are usually
about her.
Eighteen cases or 7.5 per cent. of the 240 cases studied have been
epileptics; 16 cases or 6.6 per cent. have hysteria. Both conditions
are very important as factors of social instability. The variability of
epileptics and the extremes of which they are capable are well known to
students of criminology. Many times we find cases suggesting a latent
epilepsy among individuals in whose families there are other cases of
the same disease. In these cases we see only what appear to be psychic
manifestations or great irregularity in tests and behavior.
The cases of hysteria are also interesting on account of their extreme
suggestibility. It is only necessary to watch the manifestations of
this characteristic in an institution, to realize what an important
factor suggestibility has been in the outside world in leading to their
delinquencies. Mental imagery in such cases is of immense importance.
One case of hysteria which we had under observation would while in
her attacks of unconsciousness, often repeat (naming a woman who was
living a life of prostitution outside), “Mary, I will come to you; I
will give up my child; there is nothing else for me in the world and I
will come to you and do as you say.” In studying her mental processes,
the pictures which had been drawn for her of luxury and gaiety in such
a life were continually before her, too strongly contrasted with any
reasonable pictures which it was possible for us to conjure up for her.
Another important class is that which includes the borderline cases,
which have perhaps never been satisfactorily classified. Many of these
would be in the group termed by one authority “control defectives.”
The term expresses well their explosive natures which may be seen
when, without provocation they attack any person who happens to
incite their enmity, whether she be officer or other inmate, or when
by unreasonableness and loss of temper they bring unruliness and the
necessity for discipline into an otherwise peaceful and well-behaved
group. Many of these cases come from families in which there are many
cases of insanity, and although they themselves show no signs of a
definite psychosis, there appears to be much inherited instability.
Other cases show the results of a meningitis or an encephalitis which
they have had in childhood. Occasionally we see cases in which the
instability apparently followed a head injury.
Besides these cases there are many who have previously been confined in
hospitals for the insane, and who represent very unstable types. They
may or may not have defective mentality, associated with the defect
in self-control. They are one of the hardest classes of cases to deal
with in institutions of any kind. The officers of penal institutions
recognize their abnormality, and feel that they should be confined in
insane hospitals because of their dangerous character. On account of
the lack of a definite psychosis the insane hospitals naturally take
them very unwillingly. Even though they show marked mental defect,
institutions for the feebleminded are unwilling to admit them because
of the demoralizing effect they produce on the more amenable types and
the upsetting influence they have upon the institution routine. Many of
these cases will doubtless be sent to defective delinquent institutions
when those institutions shall at last be established. Whether the
defect is a mental one or a nervous one matters little in their menace
to society. The following case may be cited as an illustration of such
a type:
A woman was arrested for assault after trying to throw vitriol in her
lover’s eyes. At that time she was taken from the jail to a hospital
for the insane because she had marked hallucinations of sight and
hearing. These at the time were thought to be of alcoholic origin,
and disappeared quickly. She was transferred to the reformatory where
she had previously served a sentence. At various times since her
confinement there she has assaulted other inmates and matrons, often
violently. Recently, after such an attack on a matron, she apparently
seemed ignorant of what she had done. While she acknowledged having
attacked people in the past, she felt that this time they had attacked
her. A few days later she was found in a vague although rather savage
mental condition, with marked delusions. She had had hallucinations of
sight and was not oriented as to time or place. The woman is subnormal
mentally and it would have been hardly possible for her to have
feigned the condition. That evening, becoming annoyed at something,
she flew into a tremendous rage, which was much more characteristic of
her usual self than the previous dazed condition had been. Her violent
temper seemed to bring her to herself, and the next morning she could
recall but faintly what she had said the day before, although she
remembered vaguely being much more frightened at what she thought she
had seen in her room. Two days later she laughed at what she was told
she had said, realizing the ridiculousness of it and could hardly
believe that it was true.
Although the condition and its quick recovery suggested an hysterical
basis (no evidence of epilepsy has been found, and alcohol was ruled
out by her long stay in the institution) nevertheless, the condition
while it lasted made her wholly irresponsible, and it can easily
be seen what a menace such an individual would be in a community.
Thirty-seven per cent. of the 240 cases studied represent aberrational
types of greater or less intensity. It can readily be understood what
a factor such types would be in furnishing individuals of weakened
resistance to help fill the demand of prostitution.
The 67 cases showing apparently normal mentality when studied further
have revealed the following characteristics:
Twenty-eight cases have shown hysteria, epilepsy or marked aberrational
tendencies. Of the 39 cases remaining, 8 show innate characteristics,
which, combined with the unfortunate conditions of home and environment
in which they were placed, were apparently responsible for their
delinquency. The innate characteristics of these cases include the
following:
The aggressive untamed personality with primitive passions; the woman
who has gone through life with a chip on her shoulder, believing that
the world owed her a living; the sensual type which has over-developed
physical characteristics; the immature personality, non-resisting in
temperament (often called weak-willed), which is unable to appreciate
and shoulder responsibility; excessive vanity and love of pleasure in
an indolent nature, or the craving for excitement and applause and the
love of leadership, with only undesirable avenues open in which to
exercise it.
Three cases were due largely to home environment alone. In these cases
there has been immorality between different members of the family.
Five cases were due to the environment in the community alone,--with
an apparently good home environment a single bad companion or group
of companions had definitely influenced them to lead immoral lives.
The factors in two cases were unresolved. Twenty-one cases appear
to be due to the environment in the home and in the community, and
were apparently normal types. The last group of 31 cases, however,
represents but 15 per cent. of the 205 cases studied. Considering
that those cases which show poor mental ability are perhaps not able
to cope fairly with their environment on account of their slight
mental defect, we find 85 per cent. of the cases studied showing some
underlying defective mental or physical factor. We do not believe
that this represents to any extent the cause of prostitution, for
there are doubtless large numbers of individuals in the community
with the same mental and physical defects who are not leading such
a life. Still we feel that this class of women, if not sufficiently
protected, represents the ones who are first (on account of their
weakened resistance) to offer themselves to fill the demand. It may be
interesting to note, in this connection, that although all of these
cases have been studied from a social standpoint, and their own reasons
for going into such a life have always been inquired into, in only
two cases have we been able to find any definite relation between the
economic conditions and the choice of this means of livelihood.
_The Physical Aspect._
As complete a clinical history as possible has been obtained from
each woman, and has been supplemented in as many cases as possible
by laboratory tests to determine the extent of venereal disease. If
the clinical history or the laboratory findings have given evidence
of venereal disease, the individual has been considered to have the
disease without the verification by both methods. As has been stated
before, those cases in which there was no evidence of disease, but in
which it was impossible to make a complete physical examination, have
been discarded. As a result of these examinations we have found only
one case, which after complete examination, did not show the presence
of either disease. Thus over 99-1/2 per cent. of the cases show the
presence of one of the two venereal diseases--134 cases or 55.8 per
cent. gave no evidence of having had both.
Of 238 cases which were examined for syphilis, 156 or 65.5 per
cent. gave evidence of having had the disease. The results of the
examinations for syphilis are as follows:
Per cent.
Number of cases giving evidence of the disease clinically
or having a positive Wassermann reaction 156 or 65.5
Number of cases giving positive Wassermann reaction 137 or 57.5
Number of cases giving a positive history or presenting
symptoms of the disease 85 or 35.7
Number of cases which were verified by both history and
Wassermann reaction 64 or 26.9
Number of cases giving a negative Wassermann reaction and
presenting no clinical evidence of the disease 82 or 34.9
Number of cases giving evidence clinically or
bacteriologically of the disease 216 or 96.8
Number of cases which gave a clinical history of the
disease 209 or 93.7
Number of cases verified by bacteriological examination 159 or 71.3
Number of cases verified by both methods 152 or 68.17
Number of cases examined clinically and bacteriologically
which gave no evidence of the disease 7 or 3.1
If only the cases were selected in which it was possible to obtain
complete examinations both clinically and by laboratory methods also,
these percentages would undoubtedly be much higher. However, as
they stand at present, they represent a great factor in the problem
of prostitution. Statistics have shown that 22 per cent. of first
admissions in hospitals for the insane are cases with general paresis,
which is considered psychosis resulting from syphilis. This factor
alone should make us realize the importance of the treatment of such a
disease in the community and the necessity for hospitals (as pointed
out by the report of the White Slave Commission of Massachusetts) where
people could be invited to come for the treatment of this disease as
well as for gonorrhoea. At present, as is only too well known, there
are very few hospitals where either of these diseases are treated, and
it will be remembered that these are the only contagious diseases which
have not been made reportable by the Board of Health.
In studying the lives of these individuals for the factors which
have determined their mode of life, there are several physical
characteristics which should be mentioned. First, the perfectly normal
condition of adolescence is always to be taken into consideration.
In many cases of individuals with less than normal stability and
insufficiently protected environment, it has been the adolescent
tendencies which have been the dominant factor in determining their
life. Again, the factor of too early development has often been seen.
Puberty appears before the inhibitions which come with adolescence have
had time to be correspondingly developed. This is a very noticeable
factor in the study of such cases found in the juvenile court, and has
been recognized in our own cases and verified by the histories obtained
from the parents of the individual. Besides these factors, there is
the type in which the physical characteristics predominate from birth.
While it may be possible for these individuals to have their energy
directed along constructive lines, it is often impossible to reach them
and recognize their struggles until habits of an unfortunate nature
have been irrevocably formed in their lives.
_Summary._
In reviewing the 240 cases, which we appreciate represent the types
which come to reformatories and are not necessarily characteristic of
all types of prostitution in society, we find the following facts: 52
per cent. defective; 16 per cent. dull; 28 of the remaining 67 cases
with normal mentality showed other mental and nervous defects. Only
15 per cent. of the whole number appeared to be normal mentally and
physically. Probably 40 per cent. could be considered segregable types
and should be placed permanently, or at least during the child-bearing
age, in custodial institutions. If these cases who are apparently
unable to care for themselves could be removed from the community, we
believe the supply for prostitution would be materially lessened and
that such a movement would be a help in attacking the problem.
As has already been said, practically 100 per cent. of the cases
studied show the presence of at least one of the two venereal diseases,
while over 55 show the presence of both.
Of the cases studied for evidence of syphilis, over 65 per cent. had
had the disease; of those studied for gonorrhoea over 96 per cent. gave
evidence of having had it. Should we not recognize the far-reaching
results of such diseases in a community and use every means possible to
help eliminate them?
No one disputes the fact that the problem of prostitution is largely
a moral one, and must be solved through educational methods. However,
while we believe that certain conditions can be much alleviated, we
believe also that the problem will never be fully solved from the moral
standpoint alone. The most crying need of the present time is in the
mental and physical aspect of the situation, and we believe that the
greatest possible emphasis at this time should be laid on these factors
and their great menace to society.
[1] Read at the National Conference of Charities and Corrections,
Memphis, May, 1914.
[2] Report of the Commission for the Investigation of the White Slave
Traffic so called.
THE NEW HAMPTON FARMS
By Philip Klein
“There is plenty of room at the table, and we’ll have a bunk to spare
too, I guess,” was the answer to my request to be taken care of at the
New Hampton Farms that I was about to inspect. It would have sounded
like a joke to me had I not been acquainted with the plans for the farm
from the very beginning. The answer was to be taken literally. It is
nothing new in this country to take prisoners outside the institution
walls; to leave them unguarded at their work; for officers to talk with
them as man to man; for them to live in temporary, frail quarters. But
the New Hampton Farms goes beyond that. Its thirty-odd young inmates
and four of the five ‘officers,’ including the superintendent, sleep
in the same bunkhouse, and eat at the same tables. The bunkhouse is
as rough as can be, the eating arrangements no less primitive. The
whole physical outfit of the farm is a striking demonstration of how
much practical genius and invincible enthusiasm can make of the most
inadequate means, of the poorest equipment. Yet even this is not the
striking feature of this institution.
The City Reformatory for Misdeamenants of the City of New York is
situated on an island of about 100 acres, within the limits of the City
of New York. Its buildings are inadequate and overcrowded, its officers
insufficient, its methods largely repressive. It receives misdeamenants
between the ages of 16 and 30. On the same island is situated a branch
of the Workhouse of New York City, where the most useless of the city’s
criminal population is confined. To prevent intercourse between the
inmates of the two institutions is well nigh impossible. As a result of
all this, the Reformatory has hardly deserved its name. After long and
painful efforts, the purchase of a 600 acre farm in Orange County, 60
miles from New York, was effected, in order to remove the Reformatory
to the country, and to make it worthy of its name. So there was the
farm, but without appropriations for building the institution. And the
overcrowding at the Reformatory was worse than ever.
It was not only a question of relieving the congestion, though that
certainly was a large factor; nor was it chiefly to remove the
Reformatory from the vicious proximity of the Branch Workhouse. The
plans that had been developed for the New Reformatory were based on
penological principles quite at variance with those necessarily carried
out at the present location. The new institution would have to permit
the utmost possible classification and individualization; but above all
it would have to establish the possibility of practical inspiration of
its inmates by the encouragement of self-respect, by the exercise of
individual responsibility, by healthful contact between officer and
inmate. And in many other ways it was to strike out into new treatment
of reformable young men. To this ambition for a reformatory on such
lines was added the possession of a large fertile farm, the approach of
spring--and the enthusiastic propositions to Commissioner Katherine B.
Davis from the present superintendent of the Farm, Robert Rosenbluth.
“Let us build up the spirit with the institution” was his plan in
brief. What was this spirit to be? “Just what are the essentials
of your experiment?” I asked Mr. Rosenbluth. “It is,” I said, “a
commonplace, of course, to talk of the advantages of agricultural
occupation, of fresh air, hard work, and ‘honor system’; and the
economic advantage of utilizing, instead of wasting, a good farm for
a whole season surely could not have created in you the amount of
enthusiasm which you are carrying into this thing; after all, even
though you do produce quite as much as $10,000 worth of farm product,
it will hardly cover your expenditures for the year.”
“You are right,” he said, “those things are all very well but they
are not fundamental. None of those things counts a heap towards
reformation; the honor system is simply a more sensible, more effective
method--it’s a fairer method of preserving discipline, an easier method
of running your institutions. It does not touch your real man. It is
all a matter of habit. Now take those Dannemora prison fellows with
whom I worked in the forests around the prison; they were repeaters,
many of them hardened evil doers. And take these fellows here--young
fellows--and just hear them talk among themselves, as I had a chance
to hear them talk, night after night--nothing but crime. It’s an
obsession. Naught else has any interest for them. If it is not their
own exploits, then it is the latest from the newspapers (for you don’t
suppose all the regulations and punishments on earth can keep the
newspapers out of a prison). The only thing they are interested in is
crime. Everybody talks crime. How can you reform a fellow whose mental
habit is crime? My idea is this: You have got to change their topic of
conversation. You’ve got to coax their minds to a higher level. And
you can’t just tug at them from above. You have to be taken into their
community, into their confidence, you’ve got to be one of them. You
must push their thoughts upward from within instead of pulling from
above.
“My officers are all first class men. They are graduates of schools
of agriculture or forestry. And they have all lived in close contact
with men. They sleep in the same room, on the same rough bunk in our
three-decker, go to bed with the boys, rise with them. Their food is
exactly the same--neither different nor more. They do their day’s work
just like the boys. Their hardship is no less than that of the boys.
And the boys know that and feel it. Now, see, my point is this, I have
a right to expect the same thing from the boys that I expect from my
men, who are required to undergo the same hardships as the boys. In
this way I establish an equality which enables us to get into the
community of the boys, and naturally control their conversation and
their thoughts. Thus they are really reformed without their knowing it.”
The spirit among the boys and the officers was certainly remarkable.
They joked, called each other by their first names, and were “kidding”
each other at a great rate. I was wondering what would happen when the
question of authority arose. I was not disappointed. Alongside the
joyous camaraderie, there was a willing recognition of unquestioned
authority.
“You’ll be up in court, Kid; you went fish’n without permission”, I
heard one of them yell to another, and a little later, when one of the
recent arrivals wanted to go to the farmhouse to see the incubators, an
older member of the colony instructed him in a casual way.
“You gotta git p’rmission from Bob first.” “Bob” is Mr. Rosenbluth.
How open and frank the spirit of the conduct of the “court” is, and how
it reflects the character of the whole institution, I could only guess,
for unfortunately no session of the court could be held that Sunday, as
is the custom. In the midst of conversation of a group of some ten of
the boys one of them remarked that there would be no court that day.
“We ain’t got many cases, Bob, only one fight, one fishin’ without
asking, and one fellow smoking out of time.” There was no secret report
or accusation; only a cooperative policing, with apparently no trace of
grudge. Yet the boys average probably more than twenty years of age.
The unfortunate circumstances that prevented court session, as well
as the regular base-ball game and morning service that Sunday, was
the lamentable drowning of one of the boys while taking a swim, the
Thursday preceding. Despite the presence of several good swimmers,
and their desperate efforts to save him, he went down beyond aid. The
river was dragged the same day, but no trace of his body was found.
The next day and the day following was the real test, in my opinion of
the spirit of the Farm. The officers were preoccupied, the coroner,
undertaker, reporter were busy about the place; some of the boys were
taken from their regular work to search for the body; supervision was
practically naught. But the season was late. The farm behind time. Work
had to be continued. And the boys did work, though with hearts heavy
with real sorrow. The next day, Saturday, the coroner dynamited the
river in order to bring the body to the surface. Curiosity was added to
possible desire to shirk work. Yet all but those aiding in the search
were at their ploughs or hoes. Several acres were ploughed and five
acres of corn planted by less than twenty boys on Saturday afternoon
alone.
Early next morning the body was found by one of the boys on search
duty. The body was taken to Middletown, three miles away, by the
coroner’s undertaker. Morning service was postponed. The rest of the
morning was given over to bathing and to visits to the boys. The
visitors roamed the farm with the boys at will. The day was ideal, and
with the remarkably attractive scenery, helped lift the gloom from the
little colony. Even death cannot darken very long such a beautiful
spring day in Orange County. Dinner came along for a hungry two-score,
with spirits still somewhat subdued, but no longer blackened by the
shadow of death. To the regular dinner crowd there were added now the
wife and child of the officer occupying the farmhouse.
There were three long tables, with benches on either side, all
constructed of boards such as were used for building the bunkhouse. The
carpet of the dining room was rich green grass, and the ceiling green
foliage and blue sky, all gilded with bright warm sunshine. A brisk
fresh breeze made electric fans superfluous. Roast beef, gravy, brown
baked potatoes, coffee with real milk in plenty, (from the four cows
borrowed from another institution) and the most delicious of lemon pies
rapidly disappeared.
Soon after dinner a service was held. I confess I was quite curious to
see this service, without minister, conducted by “Bob,” separated from
his group by the deepest of sectarian differences. At these services
occurrences of the week and plans of the coming week are talked over,
and a kind of rough-and-ready, heart-to-heart moralizing is done.
The subject, this day, was of course the death of their unfortunate
comrade. I did not know then, that the most impressive of all funeral
services I have ever seen, was to come that afternoon. The boys and
instructors (that is what the officers are called) lay in a group on
the grass under the shade of tall trees, and Bob sat on a stump. His
face showed signs of the deep anxiety and sleeplessness of the last
few days. The talk was brief. The boys were asked to meditate over
the decease of their friend, and draw their own lessons. One point
only was enlarged upon. Some neighboring farmers had criticised the
management for continuing to work during the two days following the day
of the accident. “If sorrow is heartfelt, it does not require that duty
towards the living be sacrificed to empty form in regard to the dead.”
Only the words were simpler, more explicit.
The afternoon was spent in gathering flowers to give to the parents
of the dead comrade, who were to arrive that afternoon. There was a
wreath of white lilacs, and bunches of lilies of the valley, and
white wild flowers. When the parents arrived, boys and instructors
stood bare-headed in front of the old dilapidated framehouse that had
been patched up to serve for the various purposes of the farm, and as
a kind of general field headquarters. Some twenty to thirty feet from
the house each boy had planted a tree on arbor day. After a few words
from Bob, the tree that had been planted by the dead boy was dug up and
transplanted to a place of honor. Then amid deep silence, the father
spoke to the comrades of his lost son. It is impossible for me to
render the simple words in their true effect. He hoped that the death
of his son might teach the rest of the boys the same lesson that his
life could no longer teach, namely, that the efforts of good men could
not fail to save them from evil careers, if they brought but a little
good-will towards those that were willing to help them regain their
true selves.
Not an eye remained dry, and the instructor who offered the simple
closing prayer--in the absence of any minister--could hardly choke down
his tears. They had lost their son when he was all but saved from the
abyss of crime, by nature and by good men.
Under the stress of such an intense day, following days of hard labor
under untoward conditions, I came to understand why Mr. Rosenbluth
insisted so much upon the personality of his helpers; why he had spent
large sums of his own private funds, to persuade men to leave better
paying, often more than twice as renumerative positions, to come to
the farm. These men sacrificed money, comfort, even the one day in the
week freedom, to spend all their time with the boys, to reform them by
sheer force of personality. In labor, in fun, in sorrow they understood
and were understood by the boys. They could laugh with them and keep
silence with them. I want to congratulate them all: Mr. Rosenbluth and
his aids Messrs. Blue, Buck, Ford, Wissner for their remarkable ability
to dispense with the pleasure of pleasure-seeking, for the pleasure of
service.
The success of the New Hampton Farms as an experiment in reformation
lies surely not in its fertile soil, its excellent location, the
unprecedented plans for the classification of its future inmates, for
the erection of the future buildings. The crops of the farm in this
handicapped year may prove economically profitable or disastrous.
Individual inmates may escape, or otherwise disgrace the little colony.
Many may fall again into temptation, among bad companions, filthy,
immoral environments, and their own vicious inclinations. But the farm
has already shown that there can be a vastly different spirit between a
different type of officers and the same inmates, and that this “spirit
can be built up with the institution.”
PSYCHOLOGICAL WORK WITH OFFENDERS FOR THE COURTS
By William Healy, M. D.
Director Psychopathic Institute of the Juvenile Court of Chicago
The main trend of our findings and the outlook now, after five years’
study of offenders in connection with courts, is requested. It is plain
that in a short paper only a few of the more prominent points can be
touched. We must leave analyses and adequate descriptions for our
larger publications. However, we can here discuss some of the outcomes
and limitations of applied methods. In this summary fashion, taking
stock may be wise just at this time, when the practice of psychology is
beginning to be exploited similarly to the practice of medicine. Also,
lack of knowledge in many quarters of this new work and perhaps, the
recent statement of a well-known clinical psychologist to the effect
that psychology (or at least he says pseudopsychology) can render no
aid in the courts, call for review of the facts.
Concerning the part that psychology in its practical, applied,
clinical aspects should play in the court work, we may consider the
following. View it as you may, there is no escape from the basic fact
that conduct, social behavior, is a product of the mental life of the
individual. The most direct driving forces of misconduct therefore
are very properly to be regarded as material for study which comes
well within the province of the science of mental life. (It must have
been this which led the great jurist and criminalist, Gross, to state
that psychological valuations must ultimately become the basis of all
criminal law.) An individual differential psychology is involved which
requires knowledge of the bearings which many varieties of mental
conditions have upon action.
At the beginning of our work, we were advised by the most eminent
psychologists that the field was virgin. Everywhere we were told that
the use of the standard apparatus of the laboratory, the ergograph,
plethsygmograph, the chronoscope, all had no bearing on our problem,
for the results from none of them had been found to be correlated
with any traits or conditions which were of peculiar significance in
offenders. Many hopes that had been expressed by those who ardently
desired the rapid practical extension of psychology had not borne
fruition. We were told that methods must be worked and normal sought
out. In other words, it was deliberately stated by many, that neither
classical nor experimental psychology had as yet anything to offer
for dealing with this human problem. To introduce the usual and often
complicated devices of the laboratory, which are for measuring and
discriminating the simpler elements of mental life, would be, it was
said, to delude ourselves and be in the position of misleading others.
In accordance with our appreciation of this consideration we have all
along proceeded by methods which seem to have in them the greatest
proportion of common sense, and to be most likely to show correlation
between offending careers and characteristics possibly at the root of
criminalistic tendencies.
Moreover, as time has gone on we have become more and more convinced
that those who study offenders should seek not only for peculiarities
and disabilities, correlated with tendencies to offend, but also for
potentialities, for special abilities which might be utilized for
educational or occupational success. To grade the delinquent downwards
is not sufficient. There may be the possibility of constructive work
with him. As a matter of fact, some of the most encouraging results of
our own efforts have come through the discovery that the offender was
suited for something which he had never had the chance of doing, and
that a corresponding adjustment of his affairs brought cessation of
delinquencies. This has been even true with certain types of defectives.
Early in working with our cosmopolitan population, (and to a less
extent the trouble would have shown itself among those of one language)
we saw that any method of mental evaluation which was based largely
upon language tests, whether or not given by such a questionaire method
as that of Binet was quite unfair. Language, our universal method of
communication, does not cover all the social graces, all the social
values, nor does adeptness in the use of it mean unusual general
ability. In fact, nothing has been any more striking in our findings
than that some otherwise normal individuals have special defects
for language, and that some general defectives have such powers in
manipulating words that pass everywhere, even in courts, as normal and
even bright. It was soon felt that over and beyond tests which involve
the medium of communication, it would be more profitable to observe a
performance with concrete material which possibly might be arranged to
measure some of the socially most valuable mental qualities.
Such performance tests have had a great growth in these five years, as
emanating from several centers, until at present they are quite widely
used. For work with offenders, there is at present a wide range of
tests to choose from. For practical clinical work even more tests are
desirable, and it may be that some of those now used will be gradually
discarded and replaced by others. It stands out very clearly that what
one would like to know particularly about offenders is how they grade,
not only in general intelligence, but also on tests which may possibly
evaluate the powers of apperception, of mental representation, of
self-control, of the ability to learn by experience, and so on. Defects
along these lines seem likely to stand in much greater correlation to
delinquent tendencies than any other we could name. Special educational
and industrial disabilities may make for social failure and so may
indirectly lead also to delinquency. It is usually not difficult to
ascertain the nature of these defects. A few steps towards discovery of
vocational aptitudes can also be made by the use of tests.
We still think that the early advice to keep our testing methods simple
and direct was thoroughly sound. It is evident that we can use with
scientific safety the Binet scale for grouping young children and
defectives up to the level of 10 years. Beyond this, by using a wide
range of other tests, we can discriminate other subnormal groups who
are either defective in general or in special abilities.
In the present state of our knowledge concerning methods discretion is
needed in the selection of tests. Those primarily adapted to one group
may not be valid for another social or age group. We have just finished
an interesting comparison of the results of a certain performance test
in which college young women did worse on the average than younger
persons. We have all too little proof that tests worked up for children
are equally valid for adults. It is proposed that we render decisions
upon, for instance, findings by the Binet tests, and yet it does not
seem likely by the sort of results we ourselves have been getting
that they could be as freely applied to adults as to children for the
purposes of social diagnosis, of discriminating those who are bound
to be unsuccessful. We must remember that no one as yet has given us
the results of these tests as applied to hundreds of ditch diggers, or
section hands, who in their lowly spheres form most useful members of
society.
When it comes to the interpretation of tests we need to exercise much
discretion. It is most dangerous to proceed to render diagnosis or
prognosis without knowledge of the individual’s background in heredity,
developmental history and social environment. Such items as previous
illnesses, present physical condition, debilitating habits, and
educational opportunities need to be noted. In our work the question of
epileptic variations alone is frequently before us. We see very clearly
that grave injustice to the situation may be done without taking such
possible features of the case into account.
Very different phases of psychological work with offenders properly
are taken up from the viewpoint of human conduct in general being the
province of the student of human life. Quite the minority of offenders
show mental peculiarities which can be learned by testing and then
related to their delinquencies. Let us look at some comparisons of
offenders as we have grouped them by most careful study. Our court
work has been in the main to see the problem cases. Undoubtedly most
of the suspected psychotic or defective cases have been selected and
brought for study. We have made a series of 1000 recidivists, repeated
offenders, the average age of whom is about 15 years. These have been
graded by mental tests most carefully and we have found the following:
Per cent.
Considerably above ordinary in ability 3
Ordinary or fair in ability 55
Poor in ability 9
Mentally dull, but suffering from defective physical
conditions, or disease, or bad habits, which may be the
cause of the dullness 8
Sub-normal mentally, but not strictly feebleminded 8
Feebleminded (moron grade) 9
Feebleminded (imbecile grade) 1
Psychoses, ranging from well marked cases of insanity to
temporary, but well-marked mental aberrations 7
I have found in various parts of the country considerable doubt
expressed in regard to various statements which have been made of
the proportions of the feebleminded which probably would be found
by studying juvenile offenders. Teachers, judges, and probation
officers have scouted the idea that there was upwards of 25 per cent.
feebleminded among the children which come before a Juvenile court. Our
own long investigation would certainly show otherwise. But of course we
have never seen all of the thousands of children which come into the
Chicago court yearly, so we have never been able to definitely answer
the question of just what proportion is mentally defective.
This year I have asked the assistant director of the Institute, Miss
Bronner, to undertake at regular periods cross-section studies of the
population temporarily held in the Detention Home. These probably would
average lower than if one could see every case which was brought into
court, for frequently the most normal children who have been engaged
in a single offense are not brought into the Home. The results which
she is obtaining I shall merely hint at, but they serve to show that
the psychological study of delinquency involves very much more than the
discrimination of the feebleminded.
Any one who observed the considerable proportion of 7th and 8th grade
and high school girls and boys who become severely delinquent will not
be surprised at our findings. At least 91 per cent. of the girls and 84
per cent. of the boys have been found so far to group normal mentally,
if we take the 12 year old tests of Binet as a standard. Now, as a
matter of fact, I am not at all inclined without further investigation
to denominate anyone as mentally defective who can not pass the 12
year test, because of the obvious weakness of these particular five
tests for judging such an important point. But still we have been
willing to place this criticism for the moment aside. There are several
details of this given study which might be interesting to discuss, but
this will be done elsewhere.
The above statements are not offered so much in opposition to other
estimates of the proportion of defectives among offenders as to
show the possible variation of findings in different situations
where delinquents may be seen, and to show the nature of the work of
the psychologist in courts. We can easily see why institutions for
delinquents contain a greater proportion of mental defectives than
is found in court work, for obviously the brighter ones are handled
under probation, are found positions and succeed better on the outside
because they have more foresight and learn better by experience. It may
be that a larger percentage of the defectives will be found in studying
older groups in court work. Perhaps the brighter individuals cease
earlier to be offenders. I await with interest comparative findings
from the newly established municipal court psychopathic institutes, in
Boston and in Chicago. But of course fair general statistics can never
be made without covering an unselected series of court cases, such as
we have recently undertaken.
We must not find reason from the above figures to underestimate the
exceedingly important problem of feebleminded offenders. From their
ranks one has to come to know some of the most frequent repeaters,
some of the worst teachers of vice, and even some of the most adept
in such skilled criminalistic occupations as burglary. To answer the
problem of their care would be to relieve a strain on society that is
not even suggested by a statement of their proportionate numbers among
offenders. No one has been more surprised than we ourselves to find the
extent to which morons are actively engaged in criminalistics, and are
even definitely the instructors of others. The general notion that this
class is merely easily led is altogether erroneous.
The extent of our findings of a single disease, namely epilepsy, among
our repeated offenders we have often commented on. We need only to
mention that about 7 per cent. have been found afflicted with various
forms of this trouble. After all, this is only what might have been
expected from similar observations of others elsewhere. The psychic
manifestations of this disease make the victim a fit subject of study
by the psychopathologist.
Many of our interests have centered about the problems of adolescence.
We all know that criminalistic tendencies, those which perhaps control
the career of a life time, nearly always first show themselves before
the 19th or 20th year. The physiological aspects of this period are the
ones that have been most frequently dwelled on, but for our purposes
they may be ignored except as they influence the psyche. Overgrowth and
restlessness and other phenomena at this time do not directly create
criminalism. They have first to effect the mental life which directs
action. We have found a fair field for investigation here, and one that
opens up whole vistas of possible usefulness. Various new points of
departure for legal procedure are to be developed from data gathered
concerning this period of life, not the least of which is criticism of
that strange arbitrary discrimination under the law which says that
boys at 17 and girls at 18 are suddenly responsible, mentally formed,
able to properly care for themselves, when a few minutes or days
previously they were not. Our studies show that these age limits were
not based on practical observations of human beings.
Not the least interesting and therapeutically important part of
psychological study of offenders is ascertainment of the mental
mechanisms and mental content which stand in relation to delinquency.
However it may be with older persons, and such experienced men as
Parker in New York suggested that with adults this is a rich field
for endeavor, we have studied many cases of criminalistic tendency in
young people in which the whole trouble centered about some psychically
untoward experience or some mental conflict. From this was developed a
definite antisocial grudge, or at least an antisocial attitude. These
cases, well understood, present some of the most curable criminalistic
causes.
We must pass with bare mention such data as those on obsessional mental
imagery and the formation of mental habits, both of which psychical
phenomena play a considerable part in driving towards delinquency.
To appreciate what sets the mental machinery turning out antisocial
deeds we have to dig deep into many human experiences and many mental
activities.
It was easily to be seen at the beginning of the work that there would
be value in both extensive and intensive studies. The former would give
a survey of the field which might lead to establishment of definite
knowledge of the larger needs of the situation, would perhaps point
the way to better legislation and public provision for various classes
of offenders. The intensive work would furnish better understanding of
types and the possibilities of their treatment. Then we soon realize
that the careful and prolonged study of individual offenders was a
rational preliminary to working up statistics from which general
conclusions could be safely drawn. Time has justified this opinion.
Nothing is rasher than to make general statements about social needs
upon the basis of tests, observations and figures that have not been
proved to solve the point at issue.
As an incident to the work with offenders the psychologist in court is
occasionally asked about the reliability of witnesses. We have been
gathering data upon this point in hundreds of cases by some tests, and
find the matter a very difficult one to generalize upon. In this we
agree with various foreign students of the subject. The ability to be
a good witness is a highly individual matter, and frequently involves
the conditions of a given occasion, upon which tests do not throw any
light. Occasionally from psychological study one can render a strong
positive or negative opinion concerning individual capacities, but much
more frequently it seems to us that no safe opinion can be rendered.
We would still maintain, as we ever have done, that the greatest
hope for amelioration of the heavy burden of delinquency is in very
early studies and early understandings of individual cases. Not only
for scientific purposes but also for practical treatment the young
individual with delinquent tendencies is best handled. Not entirely,
since some social offences may first arise in late adolescence, but
in a large share of cases some of the most valuable criminological
work can be done by specialists in child study. Even in early periods
of life intensive studies must be made, especially of children of the
psychopathic type. We are more than glad to see the purpose all over
the country.
One word more about method. Those who early suggested to us that
intensive, continued study of a dozen offenders of a dozen different
types would be worth more than a thousand short examinations spoke from
a strong standpoint. Continuation studies are most valuable. They are
necessary not only for giving understandings of types, but also for
so understanding the individual that proper social adjustment of his
case can be made. Our work shows plainly that except in the case of the
grossly defective a short cross-section study is absolutely inadequate
for the work in hand, namely, scientific treatment of the offender.
As we continue to see it, then, the purpose of psychological work
with offenders is nothing more or less than the understanding of
the causes of misconduct. By no other methods will such causes be
known, and those who fail to reckon with the fundamental psychical
conditions and processes which underly delinquency will never get far
in developing better methods of treatment. Psychology in this field
is perfectly willing to be judged by results, and that is the best
self-recommendation that it can offer.
The application of well-rounded and safe psychological studies in court
work (not the pseudo-psychology that our friends decry) offers to the
law the important addition of a scientific method. It presumes to
gather in all the available facts that bear on the conduct in question,
to set down opinions of diagnosis and prognosis, and then to follow
these up in connection with any treatment given to see how correct they
may have been, and to offer the chance of such readjustment as may be
necessary. There is a direct study, then, of predictability. Now this
is exactly the method of every science that aims at self-improvement.
Unfortunately, this scientific endeavor at self-improvement has
heretofore not been the standpoint of the law. Nothing has been any
more striking to us than our observations on this point. Now through
the opening avenue of practical studies of mental life and conduct
applied to offenders in connection with court proceedings, we see every
reason to believe that the outlook may be much better for dealing with
the whole problem of delinquency and crime.
THE EASTERN PENITENTIARY OF PENNSYLVANIA
[The following article from The Umpire, a paper printed at the
Eastern Penitentiary, gives a graphic description, from a prisoner’s
standpoint, of that century-old prison, where once the rule of
perpetual solitary confinement was imposed. Today it is noteworthy for
the liberality of its rules.]
Sometime in the early “Forties,” Charles Dickens, the eminent author,
visited this institution, and the result of it is found incorporated in
his “American Notes” published in 1842.
He strongly criticised the methods in force at that time and depicted
conditions well calculated to arouse the indignation of every one with
a spark of kindly feeling in their make-up.
Many people believe these same conditions exist at present, for
Dickens’ works are read quite as freely today as they have been at any
time since they first left the press.
Then again, many people confound this institution with “Moyamensing,”
which is the county prison, and _somewhat_ different.
Some of our contemporaries, and especially those in Western States, are
evidently under the impression that the system in vogue fifty years
ago is yet in force in this institution, and so far from giving any
indication of being fully abreast of the times as they claim, one would
suppose they must have enjoyed a period of oblivion, second only to
that of dear old Rip Van Winkle.
More especially for their benefit therefore, it is said that the
Eastern Penitentiary of Pennsylvania, situated in the city of
Philadelphia, has for at least five years maintained a system of
humanitarian treatment of its inmates which is the STANDARD FOR THIS
COUNTRY, IF NOT FOR THE WORLD.
Among the benefits enjoyed by the people in this place, first is WORK.
Every man who is able, finds some occupation suited to his capacity.
Thirty-five per cent. of them are engaged in different occupations in
which they share in the profits to the extent of from $5 to $15 per
month. Labor unions have decreed that not more than this number shall
be so employed. But all others are engaged in some labor, for which the
State makes a very small allowance, sufficient to keep them in tobacco,
which is permitted in every form excepting cigarettes.
What these earnings amount to may be told right here, through figures
taken from the last annual report:
Sent to relatives, etc., $24,626.75; drew in cash on discharge,
$6,721.91; spent for sundries, $12,036.90; on hand in savings banks,
$3,795.00; cash to their credit in office, $12,278.18. A _per_
_capita_ “wealth” of a trifle over $10.
The average population is a little over 1400, but at this season
of the year we hover around the 1500 mark. Of this number, 500 are
attending the schools of this place, which are under the supervision
of a salaried teacher, who is assisted by inmates selected on account
of their qualifications for this kind of work. In addition, there is
a correspondence school for the higher branches of English, where men
receive instructions in their cells from visiting teachers.
We have trade schools, where men are taught carpentry, brick laying,
plumbing, plastering, and the different branches of electricity.
Instructions are both theoretical and practical.
We have a band of 40 pieces with an auxiliary band of the same number
under the direction of a salaried musician, who is in attendance six
days a week.
We have an orchestra of twelve pieces wholly under the direction of
the inmates, who arrange their own programs without suggestions or
interference from the officials, and the Saturday night concerts they
give throughout the year will compare favorably with those of any
similar organization in the outside world.
We have a hospital which is maintained for the sick, and not as a
loafing place for influential prisoners, which is the custom in so
many penal institutions. The physician with his family resides in the
institution and responds quickly to calls at any hour during the day
or night. The inmates are weighed once a month, and any deviation of
more than five pounds is called to the attention of the physician, who
immediately examines the man, to learn the cause. Many cases of serious
disease have thus been caught in their incipient stages, and cures
affected by prompt attention. The hospital patients are waited on by
salaried trained nurses day and night, while the druggist is also a
salaried official of the institution.
In addition to the regular resident physician, there is a consulting
staff made up of some of the most widely known specialists in the
State, who give freely of their best services.
We have a dentist who is in attendance daily from 2 P. M. until as late
as necessary, and every class of dental work is executed by him.
An optician is in attendance twice every week.
We have fewer rules to obey than the people outside the walls and every
one of them is for the comfort of the men, and not to degrade or annoy
them.
The silent system was abolished so many years ago it is forgotten it
ever existed.
At no time is a man’s hair clipped, unless he so desires it, and he may
wear any style of facial adornment in the way of whiskers that suits
his fancy.
We wear no stripes, but a uniform of blue and white mixed cloth. About
one fourth of the men are permitted to have their clothes made to
measure by the prison tailor, and these are cut and finished in a style
equal to any $15 suit in the open market. A vici kid dress shoe is now
being issued in place of the old time “brogans.” It has already proven
its economy.
Every man is given a complete new outfit, when he enters the prison,
and this is renewed from time to time as it wears out. No used clothing
is given to an inmate. When a man is discharged, what clothing he had
is sent to the incinerating plant, and destroyed.
The cells vary in size and average 8 × 12 by 12 feet high, with a
sky-light let into the roof and controlled by the inmate. There are
double doors, but the outer one is never entirely closed, day or night.
A steam radiator with individual control and portable electric light is
in every cell.
The men are permitted to furnish their cells at their own expense in
any manner they choose, and many of them are really luxurious.
Any kind of a musical instrument, excepting a drum, is permitted, and
some men have installed pianos and organs. Canary birds are the only
pets allowed, and there are hundreds of them carolling all over the
place from early morning until dark.
Running water from the city mains is in every cell but it is only used
for domestic purposes. The drinking water is boiled and then passed
through iced coils, so that we have unlimited quantities of iced water
summer and winter.
Every cell has a heavy white porcelain hopper, entirely free from sewer
gas and odors. When they erect a monument to Warden McKenty, they will
mention this hopper.
The Catholic chaplain celebrates mass every Sunday morning at seven
o’clock, and at nine o’clock nine Protestant services are held
simultaneously on the different blocks, by upward of one hundred
people. At three in the afternoon, visiting choirs from different
denominations render a sacred concert on the Center.
The men are allowed all kinds of tools and material necessary to
any work they may care to undertake for pleasure or profit, and the
management encourages such efforts by finding a ready sale for the
product. One man made $700 last year another $400 and a dozen of them
are earning more than $200 a year through work of this kind.
Every man has the privilege of the yard daily for a time, during five
days in the week. Sunday is the day when everything is closed down
tight after church services.
The baseball league is now in its fourth year and numbers nearly one
hundred men. Games attended by the inmates, are played daily except
Sunday during the season. Quoits and hand ball are in evidence at all
hours.
A semi-dark cell is the only form of punishment. The officer inflicting
it usually apologizes for being forced to go to this extreme.
We have 90 officers, and there is not a brute in the whole lot, and
only three “cranks.”
We are within ten minutes walk of the business center of one of the
great cities of the world, and there are no roads upon which we may be
employed in repairing. This is a matter for congratulation.
Philadelphia had the road building system in force 125 years ago,
and it was the sight of the humiliation and indignities suffered by
the prisoners from malicious onlookers that inspired the thought
resulting in the erection of this prison. Road building for prisoners
in Philadelphia would mean a backward step of over 100 years, before
the West and particularly Oregon was born.
The United States Government, with a full appreciation of the
humanitarian methods in force here, is sending its prisoners to this
institution from points as far as the middle West.
Much more could be said in favor of the Eastern Penitentiary, but let
this suffice: We have every comfort, and benefit accorded to prisoners
in any penal institute in the United States, --and then a whole lot more.
At the same time THE UMPIRE does not recommend it as a place of
residence.
EVENTS IN BRIEF
[Under this heading will appear each month numerous paragraphs of
general interest, relating to the prison field and the treatment of the
delinquent.]
_Warden Bridges._--The Boston (Mass.) Record says:
Warden Bridges wishes to retire from the post at the State Prison
which he has held for more than 20 years. He is past 78 years of
age. If Gen. Bridges insists upon his retirement the State will
lose the services of a man who through a long career in a post of
extreme difficulty has maintained the dignity and efficiency of an
important branch of the public service in a manner which will never
be forgotten. The trials and suspense of such a position as Gen.
Bridges has held for two decades are hardly weighed by the average
citizen, who regards them as matters of course, and expects, in this
State, thorough efficiency. During these past 20 years that public
expectation has not been disappointed. It has been worth much to the
Commonwealth to have had a man of Gen. Bridges’ sort at the head of
its State Prison.
He assumed his present position in 1893 when he was appointed by the
late Governor William E. Russell. Only one prisoner remains who has
been an inmate continuously since General Bridges took control. The man
is Jesse Pomeroy.
* * * * *
_Convict Labor and Labor Unions_--According to the Cedar Rapids (Ia.)
Times, Union labor’s war to prohibit state authorities to allow honor
prisoners at the penitentiary at Fort Madison to work for outsiders
as painters, plumbers, etc., at Fort Madison, will now go into court,
following the passage of an ordinance by the Fort Madison city council,
which prohibits prisoners entering the city only on official business.
Police will be ordered to arrest them and the ordinance provides for a
fine of from $1 to $100 in violation of the ordinance. The war against
the system has been going on for two years. The Governor and State
labor commissioners have been appealed to but nothing was done. The
State board of control allowed Warden Sanders to put honor prisoners
outside in competition with union labor. Leaders of union labor took
the matter to the city council, which resulted in the passage of the
prohibitory measure and will now be tested out in court.
* * * * *
_Says Georgia to Tennessee_--The Atlanta Georgian has this to say in a
recent issue:
“Since Governor Hooper of Tennessee and his party of prison
investigators, who came to Atlanta last week to inspect convict
conditions in Georgia, have returned home they have given interviews to
Tennessee papers upholding the Tennessee system of convict control as
superior to that of Georgia, particularly from health and humanitarian
viewpoints.
“To one who has spent several years in each state and has had
opportunity to observe the prison systems of the two states--not in
a three-day cursory inspection, but at frequent intervals extending
over these several years--the view’s of the Tennesseans seem open to
question.
“In Georgia all the able-bodied men convicts are worked out of
doors, under the direct supervision of state and county officials and
inspectors, constructing public highways.
“In Tennessee about half of the able-bodied convicts are worked under
ground in state-owned and operated mines, having exceedingly little
opportunity to enjoy the fresh air and sunlight necessary to the
physical well-being of a man. The other able-bodied half are worked in
factories within the penitentiary walls at Nashville under the lease
system that Georgia five years ago abolished as inhuman and unjust.
“A small per cent., too old or too infirm for mine or factory, are
worked on a farm adjacent to the Tennessee penitentiary. Georgia has
equally as good a farm at Milledgeville for its prisoners of the same
class who are not fitted for work on the roads.
“Tennessee convicts in the mines and in the factories come in direct
competition with organized free labor. Georgia’s road building convicts
are worked for and not in competition with other classes of labor.
“It is true that the temporary road building camps, which of necessity
must be moved from place to place as construction progresses, do
not possess the permanent sanitary improvements that Tennessee has
installed inside the walls and at the mines--a condition to which the
Tennessee party calls attention--yet this is more than offset by the
health-giving open-air life led by the Georgia prisoners.
“It is a matter of record that both Governor Hooper and his
predecessor, Governor Patterson, pardoned hundreds of Tennessee
convicts because they were victims of tuberculosis, produced by the
close confinement in the mines and factories. Without comparative
statistics on which to base the assertion, the writer is confident that
in the last five years there have been at least fifty per cent. more
cases of tuberculosis among Tennessee than Georgia convicts, despite
the fact that Georgia with its larger area and population, has about
fifty per cent. more convicts than Tennessee, of whom eighty per cent.
are negroes against Tennessee’s sixty per cent. of negro prisoners.
“Governor Hooper says Georgia is making fine roads. There may not be
as many prayer meetings in the Georgia road camps as in the Tennessee
mines, but Georgia is not blindly killing off the bodies with
tuberculosis while trying to save its convicts’ souls. Georgia believes
in saving both, but says to save the body first and have a better
chance at saving the soul.”
* * * * *
_A New Warden at Sing Sing._--Warden Clancy, who made a creditable
record at Sing Sing, has resigned, and Superintendent of Prisons Riley
has appointed Thomas T. McCormick of Yonkers as warden. Which leads the
New York Evening Post to say:
“Sing Sing Prison has long been a disgrace to the State, but this fact
was never so familiar to the people as it has been during the past few
months. The Superintendent of Prisons appears, however, to think the
present an auspicious moment for placing in charge of the prison a man
whose only recommendation for the post, so far as known to the public,
is that he has been successful in the plumbing business, and that he is
one of the mainstays of the Westchester County Democratic machine. In
the face of things like this, the men and women who are laboring to get
our penal institutions properly conducted have need of all the faith
and resolution they can command to keep on in their endeavor. But they
_will_ keep on, and the time will come when the idea of appointing the
warden of a great prison for any other reason than his special fitness
to conduct it wisely and well will seem too monstrous for belief. We
must not forget the encouragement there is in the fact that, bad as
these things are now, we have got beyond the utter shamelessness which
was so often shown in former times.”
* * * * *
_The New York Commission on Prison Reform_--The New York State
Commission on Prison Reform which was appointed by Sulzer a year ago
has just filed the preliminary report of its findings. The commission
of which Thomas Mott Osborne is chairman was authorized to examine and
investigate the management and affairs of the several State prisons
and reformatories, the prison industries, employment of convict labor
and all subjects relating to the proper maintenance and control of the
State prisons of the State. The Commission has made careful study of
these several matters and the report which has been released contains
many interesting and valuable suggestions.
The abolition of the ill-famed Sing Sing prison is recommended and the
erection on its site of a receiving station for the observance and
study of all persons sentenced to imprisonment in a State prison for
medical examination and treatment of those afflicted with diseases
and for weeding out those found to be mentally defective--the latter
to be sent to separate institutions devoted solely to the care of the
mentally defective.
The indeterminate sentence is a further recommendation of the
Commission, which urges that the penal law of the State be so
amended as to make it incumbent on all judges sentencing prisoners
to confinement in a State prison to impose sentences without either
maximum or minimum limit; while for the purpose of investigating all
applications for pardon and parole it is suggested that local advisory
boards of pardon and parole be instituted in connection with each
prison and reformatory of the State.
The Commission places itself on record as favoring the employment
of able bodied male convicts in constructing and repairing the
highways of the State and the several counties in addition to which
farms should be developed at all of the institutions so that as many
convicts as possible may be employed in the open air--all possible
work to be conducted under the so-called honor system, together with a
considerable and increasing measure of self-government.
As a final and essential basis for permanent improvement the
Commission recommends the consolidation and reorganization of the
various offices, boards and commissions which now divide among
them the administration of the prison affairs of the State into a
permanent State Department of Correction, to which the entire penal
administration of the State shall be committed.
* * * * *
_Will Works or Won’t Works?_--An examination of 2000 inmates of the
New York municipal lodging house showed that 63 per cent. of the 2000
were able to do hard work; another 10 per cent. were capable of doing
lighter work, such as gardening or using a broom, and still another
9 per cent. could do extremely light work, but still enough to keep
themselves in food and decent clothing. More light would have been
thrown on the general subject of unemployment if the city had been
able to go further and learn how many of this 2000 would be willing
to do the work they were physically capable of doing, were the chance
actually offered.
* * * * *
_More Privileges at Stillwater_--Prisoners at the penitentiary at
Stillwater demonstrate in many ways their approval of the new rules
inaugurated by Warden Henry Wolfer.
All the men in the third grade have been advanced to the second grade,
and now not a stripe is worn in the new prison.
All convicts will be permitted to talk to their neighbors at meal time
Sundays and holidays.
Each Tuesday and Friday at 4.30 P.M. motion picture shows will be given
in the prison auditorium. The prisoners are given half day off on
Saturday.
* * * * *
_Prisoners Earning Money at Joliet._--Warden Edmund M. Allen of the
Joliet penitentiary announces that for the first time in Illinois
prisoners employed in a penitentiary have become wage earners.
Employees in the reed and rattan department, where furniture is made,
have been given a share in the earnings. There has followed a marked
improvement in efficiency. Each employee earned $5.69 in March--small,
but a beginning.
Prisoners in this work learn a trade which can be followed profitably
upon their obtaining freedom. In March, 1914, with 259 workingmen,
6,595 pieces were made, as against 5,153 in March, 1913, with 288
employees. In April $6.32 per man was earned.
In addition to the share in the profits granted to employees in the
reed and rattan shop, the warden has given the prisoners the privilege
of making any articles which they are capable of manufacturing in their
cells during leisure hours. Materials are supplied where the supplies
of the prison permit, and the articles made are sold by the prison and
the money given to the convicts.
Joliet convicts to the number of 500 were back at their work peacefully
recently following a night of fire-fighting when flames destroyed a
portion of the rattan shop of the State penitentiary. Convicts, from
embezzlers to life termers, fought side by side with the prison guards
and members of the Joliet fire department. None tried to make their
escape, and when the fire companies withdrew from the blackened ruins
the men quietly returned to their cells.
Warden Allen says that he believes the introduction of the “honor
system” during his administration had much to do with the action of
the prisoners. For a long time the big east gate leading to the prison
stood open, and he has yet to learn of any prisoner that made any
attempt to get away.
* * * * *
_Harmless “Pirates.”_--At the State Reformatory for Women in
Massachusetts, on June 6th, before an audience of 300 guests, friends
of the institution, the “Pirates of Penzance” was given by the women
inmates. About 60 of the women took part on the stage. The excellent
work and good voices were a surprise and gratification, and this
performance, which was heartily applauded, was, undoubtedly, the most
elaborate and successful ever given by inmates of any penal institution
in the country.
The costumes, stage arrangements and decorations, were the work of the
women. All winter long the work has been an uplifting and engaging
employment for all the inmates, giving them new tasks outside the daily
prison routine.
At the rehearsals, the 350 inmates have gathered in the large hall,
and watched the performance of the 50 to 60 women on the platform. The
study and work has benefited every inmate, and especially inspired all
who took part.
The work is an indication of the broad scheme of Mrs. Jessie D. Hodder
and her staff in renewing the lives of the women in her charge.
* * * * *
_New Prison Training Effective_--So says the Buffalo Inquirer: Of the
1,639 convicts in the Ohio State prison at Columbus, 1,331 are first
termers. Of the 784 discharged and the 743 received in the last year
only fourteen were second termers.
“Such figures indicate that the Ohio prison management is doing
something to lessen the number of repeaters. Apparently the training
the prisoners receive is doing something to work up the ability and
will to lead to the life that saves them from being sent back again.
“It is related that the 500 Ohio prisoners who were allowed to work in
the open last year on their promise not to run away only twenty-four
escaped. That is to say, ninety-five per cent. showed the stamina to
stay on the prison job and five per cent. yielded to the temptation to
make a break for liberty. The ninety-five per cent. capable of staying
in prison when they might have escaped should be capable of keeping
out of prison after their release. Every statistical table showing a
diminished proportion of ‘repeaters’ is evidence that the new training
is really accomplishing in the way of abolishing the ‘comebacks.’”
* * * * *
_The Situation in New Jersey_--The Plainfield (N.J.) Courier outlines
it as follows:
It is claimed that politics interferes with the harmonious solution of
the new labor system in the State Prison, replacing the prison labor
contract system. The interruption has created an annoyance, because
all the present labor contracts at the State Prison expire on July
1, and a serious condition will be presented for the majority of the
1,400 convicts will be thrown into lives of idleness. State Prison
Keeper Thomas B. Madden regards the prospect as menacing. On July
1 all the prison contractors will cease their work and will remove
their machinery from the prison shops where so long the prisoners
were kept busy manufacturing shoes, clothing, brooms, brushes, caps,
handkerchiefs, overalls, etc., will be closed until the new prison
labor methods can be put into operation. It will take at least six
months to get the new system fully installed.
No definite plans exist for an immediate resumption of labor in the
prison, although the act abolished the prison labor contract system
and substituting the “State use” method under which the convicts
manufactures articles for use in all the State institutions, was passed
in 1911, three years ago. The new Commission is composed of Cook
Conklin, of Bergen county, president; Commissioner of Charities and
Corrections Joseph P. Byers, of Trenton, secretary; Joseph M. Dear, of
Jersey City, representing the Board of State Prison Inspectors; Freeman
Woodbridge, of Middlesex county, representing the Board of Managers of
the Rahway Reformatory; Richard H. More, of Bridgeton, and Henry Isleib
of Paterson.
“The condition is a serious one,” said Prison Keeper Madden today,
“and I do not know what we are going to do after July 1 when all the
prison shops must be closed. I know what it means to have a big lot of
prisoners idle, for I was here back in the hard times of 1873 when one
of the big prison contractors failed and the shops were closed down.
We had trouble then, and there were not nearly so many prisoners as we
have now.”
The act of 1911 abolishing the contract labor system created a Prison
Labor Commission composed of the Commissioner of Charities and
Corrections, the warden of the State prison, the superintendent of
the Rahway Reformatory and two other persons to be appointed by the
Governor. President Wilson was then Governor and his appointments made
the Commission Democratic. It has been claimed that if the original
commission had been let alone something would have been accomplished
ere this. In 1912 the Legislature was Republican. A bill was introduced
changing the Prison Labor Commission so that it would be composed
of six men, three Republicans and three Democrats. This was passed
and Governor Wilson promptly vetoed it as also were many other bills
sent to him by the Republican law makers. This bill was passed over
his veto, together with a lot of others, thus revolutionizing the
Commission. This is the Commission which has just been legislated out
of office.
Prison Keeper Madden does not think the “State use” will employ nearly
all the convicts. For instance, less than ten prisoners now do all
the tailoring work for the 1,400 men in the prison, so that, in his
opinion, all the industrial needs of the various State institutions
will be met without using the labor of anything like all the convicts
in the prison. It has been suggested that more convicts be employed
outside the prison, and that then some of the others be employed in
remodeling the old and unsanitary sections of the prison. This plan
will likely be discussed by the Commissioners next Tuesday. Only about
65 prisoners are now employed on the roads of the State, and it is
proposed that this be increased to 300. The suggestion is that at least
150 convicts be sent to the Prison Farm in Cumberland county, where
only 87 are now at work. There is a law permitting the State to acquire
a prison to mine and crush stone for good road work, and it is urged
that this would be put in operation and 100 convicts employed in this
way. An average of fifteen per cent. of the convicts are employed in
the prison as domestics and general helpers, or are in ill health and
cannot work. This leaves in round numbers, 600 convicts to be utilized
in the prison industrial system.
It would take from six months to a year, however, to put all these
plans into operation. Meanwhile the pressing problem is what to do at
once.
An appropriation of $25,000 is available in the supplemental bill for
immediate use for the establishment of the new prison labor system, but
although the money has been ready since April 15, nothing has been done
about utilizing it to meet the need.
* * * * *
_Shale._--Says the Boston Transcript: Shale is to be no longer the
outcast of the rock and soil families. It is fit to make into brick to
be laid down for the best of highways. In the past to point at a bit
of land and say, “Shale,” meant that the sale for any price above the
waste lot figure was impossible. The shale land farmer never prospered.
The word was good only for the novelist to write into the descriptions
of places where ghosts were found. But shale is about to be respected.
It may be fit punishment for that despised rock and soil derived from
that rock that it should be placed under the feet of men, the hoofs of
horses and the rubber of the auto tires, to be pulverized slowly into
dust, but that does not matter. Shale is making a reputation. Governor
Glynn of New York has announced that the tests of brick made from shale
about the Elmira reformatory have proved that the bricks are right for
laying down for the surface of highways. Samples of the brick sent to
the makers of clay brick machinery have been found to fill all the
requirements of the experts there employed, and that means that shale
almost anywhere may be made into brick with such economy that it is
forthwith regarded as one of the best materials for surface highways.
The advantage of the shale about the Elmira reformatory is that the
convicts there can be employed to collect the material and make the
brick for State roads. The highway commissioner and a scientist are
to direct the construction of buildings at the reformatory for the
manufacture of brick. Convicts are to make the brick and put up the
plant for permanent operations of the same materials. In many reports
of industrial enterprises of late there is used the expression, economy
was the result of finding the building materials on the spot or close
by. The use of shale in many sections is bound to come under that
head. Brick is now made of many materials which in the past have been
tabooed. Sand is considered as good as clay for making brick, and it
is handier to many places. The use of different materials makes a
variety in the building materials of blocks. Cities look better because
of that variety. But one of the best uses for brick appears now to be
the surfacing of roads for the joy machines as well as the business
motors of all kinds, and for horses. In the course of time the country
turnpikes may be generally paved like city streets, at least with hard
brick and that will have been done at reasonable cost to the country
because of the employment of convict labor.
* * * * *
_In Kentucky_: The New York Evening Post says editorially:--“From
Kentucky comes the report of a decision of its Court of Appeals which
appears to be most unfortunate in its effect, but entirely justified
by the facts of the case. The decision declares unconstitutional a
prison-reform act passed by the Legislature in 1910, which provided for
one of the State prisons becoming a reformatory for first offenders,
and the other a penitentiary, for the education of prisoners, and
for the assignment to them of a portion of their earnings under the
prison labor contracts. The decision was not based on any objection
whatever to the provisions of the bill; neither was it grounded on a
“technicality”. The trouble was that the bill, which was in the nature
of an addition of new sections to a pre-existing law, did not set forth
the whole act as it would appear after amendment, as required by the
State Constitution; also the payment of prisoners was not mentioned
in the title. The Court disavowed any desire to interfere with the
freedom of the Legislature except so far as distinctly required by
the Constitution; but the opinion went on, “to say that this act
does not boldly violate section 51 would be to say that the words of
this section have no meaning or effect, and that a section of the
Constitution has no more force than a legislative act.” There is no
getting away from this view of such a matter, unless we are to take
the position that there should be no Constitutions at all. In support
of that position there is room for valid argument; but to have a
Constitution, and yet set it aside when we please, is to invite the
dangers that would go with the abolition of Constitutions without
getting its advantages.”
* * * * *
_The Indeterminate Sentence and “Good Time.”_--According to the
Louisville (Ky.) Courier Journal, “some of the prisoners in the
Frankfort Reformatory are said to be preparing to file a suit to compel
the Prison Commission to carry out the law which gives eighty-four
days’ good time to every convict.
“There is no question as to the existence of such a law, but the Prison
Commission has not seen proper to apply it to those prisoners who were
convicted under the indeterminate sentence law. This seems to have
been in accordance with common sense. A prisoner sent up under the
indeterminate sentence law for a term of, say, one to five years is
eligible to parole after he has served his minimum term of one year.
If the good time allowance also is applied such a prisoner, one of the
commissioners has pointed out, would have to serve only about nine
months to be eligible for parole.
“The absurdity of making a good time allowance to those who are serving
the so-called indeterminate sentence is more apparent when the case of
a prisoner convicted of manslaughter is considered. This prisoner was
sentenced to serve from two to twenty-five years. In the natural course
of events he would be eligible to parole after two years. Given the
benefit of the annual good time allowance he would have to serve only
about eighteen months before being eligible for parole.
“The Attorney General has given an opinion to the effect that the
prisoners convicted under the indeterminate sentence law are entitled
to the good time allowance. Evidently there has been a good deal of
legislative bungling in connection with these prison laws. With a few
more amendments it is much to be feared the State will be unable to
keep anybody at all in the penitentiary longer than the time required
for hearing a mandamus suit.”
* * * * *
_How Newspapers Err._--The Providence (R.I.) News says that:
“There was a queer mix-up over a sentence passed by the district court
of Minnesota on a youth of twenty years. Two New York state papers
had the story that the youth was sentenced to forty years in prison
for robbing a man of $1.85. One paper used the sentence as a text for
a general cry down of Wisconsin’s very progressive, although what a
sentence passed in St. Paul had to do with the laws of Wisconsin,
progressive or otherwise, was not clear. The other paper commented on
the affair under the caption: ‘The Crime of a Court.’
“It appears by a letter from Judge Orr, who sentenced the youth, that
he was not sentenced to forty years in prison, but was sentenced under
the indeterminate law, and can, after two years, apply for a parole. It
is true that in robbery cases the maximum sentence is forty years, but
it is up to the board of parole and to the youth himself, very largely
to the youth, as to how long he will stay in prison. As the young man
had been a waif and pleaded guilty, the story, if true, was one that
could not fail to cause indignation. There was very little truth about
it, fortunately, and Judge Orr, speaking for his state says:
‘Minnesota is in the front rank in the matter of legislation
recognizing the principles of modern penology and criminology,
including the indeterminate sentence all cases, limited suspension of
sentence, etc., and the administration of justice in the courts of this
state is in full sympathy and accord with the statutes. Such blunders
as these are apt to do courts everywhere an injury, so the truth
should be known.’”
* * * * *
_Convicts make Brick and do other Work in Ohio._--Shipments have
been started from the brick plant established by the State board of
administration for the employment of penitentiary prisoners at Junction
City, Perry county, Ohio. Mason Chilcote of East Liverpool, is the
superintendent of the plant. Fifty prisoners are employed at the plant
and as soon as a new dormitory is completed another fifty will be
sent there. The plant can turn out 40,000 bricks daily. State Highway
Commissioner James R. Marker says that his department can use the
entire output of the plant for road building.
By using the convicts the State board of administration saved the State
more than $2,000 in tearing down old buildings and excavating for
the new administration structure at the Institution for the Blind in
Columbus.
It required 24 convicts 8274 hours to do the work. They were paid three
cents an hour by the State. The total was $248.22. The same number of
hours paid for at 27-1/2 cents an hour, the prevailing rate of wages,
would have cost the State $2,275.35.
Besides saving the money to the State the board furnished outdoor labor
for the prisoners.
Work on the foundation of the new structure which is to house the board
of administration, has been commenced. It is expected to have the
building ready for occupancy by early fall.
* * * * *
_Board of City Magistrates of the City of New York (First
Division)._--The annual report giving the work of magistrates in
Manhattan and the Bronx in the City of New York is always anticipated
with great interest, and is read with an increasing amount of
satisfaction both in general progress recorded and in the improvement
of form and statistical method. It is a great pity as Chief Magistrate
McAdoo remarks, that the important strides toward significant criminal
statistics that are being made in the magistrates’ courts can not be
combined and developed, together with data from the higher criminal
courts. There should be, in any event, a centralized statistical
bureau, covering all the courts concerned with the criminal bar in
Greater New York. “What was done with the man I held for keeping a
gambling house, a disorderly house, or maintaining a public nuisance
last month or the month before. I don’t know----.” We might add,
“Nor does any one else know.” The report presents the work of eight
district courts, a night court for men, and a night court for women,
and two domestic relations courts. There is no end of interesting
material in it. Perhaps the most interesting facts, however, relate to
the extension of the use of the finger-prints to cases of disorderly
conduct, “jostling” and “mashing,” with prospects of soon including
automobile speeders; and the increase of the percentage of convicted
among those arranged. The former will make it difficult for real
lawbreakers to escape punishment after arrest, while the latter shows
that the number of arrests of innocent persons is fast diminishing.
A remarkable fact is also the diminution of the number of defendants
placed on probation, directly attributable to the greater frequency of
preliminary investigations of such cases by probation officers.
STATEMENT OF THE OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, ETC. of THE DELINQUENT.
Published monthly at New York, N. Y., required by the Act of August
24th, 1912.
NAME OF POST OFFICE ADDRESS
Editor, O. F. Lewis, 135 East 15th St.,
New York City
Managing Editor, O. F. Lewis, 135 East 15th St.,
New York City
Business Manager, O. F. Lewis, 135 East 15th St.,
New York City
Publisher, The National Prisoners’ Aid Association, 135 East 15th St.,
New York City
Owners, The National Prisoners’ Aid Association, 135 East 15th St.,
New York City
There are no bondholders, mortgages, or other security holders.
O. F. LEWIS, Editor and Business Manager.
Sworn to and subscribed before me this 27th day of March, 1914.
H. L. McCORMICK, Notary Public No. 6, Kings County.
My Commission expires March 31, 1914.
Transcriber’s Notes
Title page issue number corrected from 5 to 6.
A number of typographical errors were corrected silently.
New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public
domain.
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