Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 March 1902 — REFORM IN PRISONS [ARTICLE]

REFORM IN PRISONS

Valuable Results of the Workings of Indiana’s Beneficent Penal .o. z Laws. SOME INTERESTING STATISTICS How the Indeterminate Sentence and Parole Law Has Worked for the Betterment of Those Who Come Under Its Operations. A few years ago the system of handling the criminal population of this state was very crde, if the constitution of the state is to be considered. But little attention was given the prisoners after their arrest and sentence to prison by the court. The object at that time seemed to be to throw the man into prison for a definite time and compel him to work, earning money for the state, and the more he could earn the better prisoner he was for the institution and the management. Section 63 of the constitution of the state of Indiana reads as follows: “The penal code shall be founded on principles of reformation, and not of vindictive justice.” Or, in other words, the authorities of our penal institutions should base their management upon ideas looking to the reformation and making, where possible, better men of those that are placed in their charge. With this in view, the men who were interested in this class of work began a few years ago, to educate our legislators on the subject of securing better legislation looking to prison management. | During the legislature of the winter of 1895 they were successful in securing the appointment of a committee by the General Assembly to make Investigation of the laws that were on the statute books at that time in the states of New York, Illinois and Minnesota, as these states were then working under the indeterminate sentence and parole law. This committee entered earnestly into their work and had the hearty co-operation of the management of our penal institutions at that time and before the meeting of the legislature in January, 1897, had consulted with the prison management of all the states that were successfully operating the indeterminate sentence and parole law system, and with this information at hand, drafted the law under which the penal institutions of our state are now working. This law was approved by the legislature on March 8, 1897. In the passage of these measures the Indiana State Prison North became the Indiana State Prison and the Indiana State Prison South became the Indiana Reformatory. Before the passage of this law all prisoners sentenced in counties north of a line running east, and wo«t through the center of the state, which line touched the southern border of Marion county, were sentenced to the Michigan City prison, and all south of this line were sentenced to Jeffersonville. This was done without regard to age, crime, or the number of times the prisoner may have been in prison. The result was that many a young boy who had committed his first offense was thrown into prison and put into the same cell with an old, experienced offender, and, after serving his* term of one or two years with no attention being given to him while in prison, he yvas discharged a graduate in crime. The new law seeks to remedy just such cases as this by committing to the istate prison all men who are over 30 years of age, and those who have been sentenced for life or treason and those who have served in prison more than one term. To the Indiana Reformatory are committed all persons under 30 years of age, except those who have a life sentence or found guilty of treason. The management of the state prison and the reformatory, as soon as the laws were passed, in 1897, set out at once to adopt rules and provide for the better government of the nrlsoners in their charge, as contemplated by the new law. In the enforcement and operation of this new law, no map did more to accomplish the results (that have made the operation of this law s') satisfactory, than the late Governor Mount of Indiana.

Meaning of the Law.

The first reform that was Introduced at these institutions was to abolish the lash, and in its well ventilated and warm cells were provided, where a prisoner is placed in solitary confinement, on short diet, being compelled to stand at his cell door during working hours. This punishment lasts until the prisoner is willing and the management is satisfied that he will return to his work and give no further trouble. The average punishment of this kind is about 48 hours. Again, the change of clothing from the stripes to the cadet blue for the first-grade prisoner and a checkered cloth of a dark and gray Check for the second grade, and the stripes for the third grade. The'lock-step has also'' been abolished and instead prisoners are permitted to march in military order, two abreast. These three reforms, the abolishment of the lash • T

the striped clothing and the lock-step, have done more to improve the condition of the prisoner and make him feel like a man than anything that has been done. The indeterminate sentence law means that when a prisoner is sentenced to prison l«e goes for a minimum and a maximum term, which is determined by law in accordance with the offense committed. It may be from one to three years, one to 14, two to 14, or two to 21 years. On entering the prison the prisoner is permitted to enter the second grade, that is, his clothing will be of a checkered cloth. While in this grade he will be permitted to write one letter a month and receive one visit per month from a friend. At the end of three months, with perfect deportment in this grade, the prisoner will be advanced to the first grade and the clothing will be of the cadet blue. In this grade the prisoner is permitted to write two letters per month and receive two visits per month from his friends. For the breaking of any rule that has been adopted by the management, the prisoner may be reduced in grade; if reduced to the third grade, he will don the stripes, and while in this clothing will not be permitted to write letters nor receive visits from his friends nor to read in his cell. With the grading of the prisoner from the time he enters the institution, the management begins to study him, making a careful investigation as to his previous history while on the outside, and finding, if possible, if he has a criminal record. If he is illiterate he is taken to the schoolroom four evenings in the week and nine months in the year. There he is taught to read and write. He is permitted to attend Christian Endeavor meetings each Sunday morning and regular chapel service every Sunday forenoon; he is also permitted to have in his cell the best library books, papers and magazines. With such methods as these the authorities are enabled to study each prisoner, and at the end of his minimum sentence are able to judge as to the character and habits of the prisoner when he appears before the parole board asking for parole. When a prisoner has served one or two years in prison, as the case may be, and has complied with the rules, he is permitted to come before the parole board. The board first examines the statement made by the trial judge and prosecuting attorney; and I then questions the prisoner as to his past record. If they find that he has ! served other sentences and that his : past life has been spent in crime, his. case will not be favorably considered by the board and he will be ordered to return to his work, not knowing Just when he will again have another i chance to be heard by the board. On the other hand, if the board finds that it is the prisoner’s first offense, and i that the judge and prosecutor who tried him are favorable to his parole, and the records and all evidence at hand go to show that the prisoner will again become a useful citizen, they will parole him. Employment must then be found for the prisoner, usually in the home of his own people if they are responsible; if not, the management will secure work for him in a factory or on a farm, the person giving the employment agreeing to pay reasonable wages for one year and to take a friendly interest in the prisoner’s welfare. He is also to see that the prisoner makes his reports to the warden or superintendent on the first of each month, for the previous month, stating in this report the number of days he has worked; if idle, for what reason; amount of money earned and amount expended, and for what; how many times he has been to church during the month and where; where his evenings have been spent; and how often he has been in a saloon during the month. How the Law Has Worked. This report must be signed by the paroled prisoner and approved by his employer. If this monthly report Is not received by the warden or superintendent promptly, investigation Is at once started to find why the report has not been received. If, after investigation, it is found that the prisoner has violated his parole, he is at once returned to prison without trial and without cost to the county to which he has been paroled, and compelled to serve out his maximum sentence. During the operation of this law at the Indiana state orison from Anri] 1. 1897, to October 31, 1901, there have been 426 prisoners paroled, of which number five have been revoked, 14 are waiting employment; 154 have been finally discharged; the maximum sentence of 39 has expired, there have been nine prisoners returned and discharged; there have been 16 returned and still in the institution; there were three paroled a second time; 26 who are delinquent; seven have died; one insane, and 152 still reporting. This showing, as compared with other institutions, is remarkable, being a fraction over 10 per cent of the prisoners paroled that have violated the confidence placed in them by the management. The men who are out on parole are earning all the way from $5 to S4O per month and their board, and in many cases are caring for their families, that would otherwise be a public charge upon thetownship where they live had the prisoner been kept in confinement. The wise administration of Governor Durbin following in the footsteps of his predecessor, with a non-partisan management of the institutions of this state as they are today being conducted, brings them to a high plane. In fact, there Is no state in the Union

where the Institutions are more economically managed and managed with less scandal than they are at the present time in Indiana. The value and success of the new ideas that have been inaugurated in our prison management depends upon the faithfulness with which they are executed. All unworthy considerations must bo left out. The parole must not be granted upon influence, either political, religious or family, but purely upon the records and character of the prisoner in question. The ideal of prison discipline which this system involves, is a high one. It would be useless ror rue prison management, where high ideals of life are unpopular, to attempt to carry out this law, but such is not the case in the towns and country districts of Indiana, fur our people are always foremost in adopting and carrying out ideas and reforms looking to the betterment of all mankind, and we believe the time is now here that the people in the different counties, townships and cities of this state are ready and willing to assist the men who are worthy cf parole, in every possible way for them to regain their social standing. The parole law of Indiana is no longer an experiment, the results obtained from it more than meet the approval of Its friends. There is now a way open whereby the habitual criminal can be driven from the state or retained behind the bars where he can no longer prey upon society. At the same time, the unfortunate person who, temporarily crazed by Intoxication or laboring under some temporary derangement, commits his first crime, can be saved. The principle of the parole law Is in accord with the advanced thought of the day, which believes that there comes a time In the history of those incarcerated in prison when they can be Reformed and placed on the road to good citizenship.