Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-03-21


she has no money. Therefore, she proposes
to release some of the offenders on promise
of good behavior.
TRENTON, N. j., March 20.-The New
Jersey State Treasury being empty, and the
Legislature unable to raise the 100000
needed to provide additional accommoda-
tions for the rapidly increasing criminal
classes of the State, the ticket-of-leave plan
is about to be adopted in order to empty the
prison of old offenders to make room for new
ones. A bill of this character has been
passed by both Senate and House, and now
awaits the Governors signature before be-
coming law. The system is a new one in
this part of the country, and the experiment
will be watched with interest by persons
concerned with prison reform, although it
has worked satisfactorily in Ohio and Illi-
nois, where it is now in force.
Some measure of relief is absolutely
needed for the State prison at Trenton. The
institution has cell accommodations for 706
prisoners, and now has 1, ,OOS confined within
its stone walls. This necessitates doubling
up over 300 prisoners, and, as the law re-
quires that convicts shall be kept in soli-
tary confinement in the workshop, the
prison authorities are obliged to set the law
at defiance.
THE PENITENTIARY CROWDED.
!. In the old wing, where the cells were
made large enough to accommodate three
persons, four are now obliged to sleep.
But this can hardly be called oyercrowding,
when it is compared with the condition of
affairs in the east wing. There the cells are
feet long, 5 feet wide and feet high,
barely affording room for the healthful ac-
commodation of one adult. But yesterday
two persons were locked up in each of SO of
these boxes. The cots are ranged one above
the other, and when one man PAGES the cell
floor for exercise the other must lie in bed.
The prison authorities do all in their
power to mitigate the condition of these
miserable creatures. Nearly all of them are
out of the cells in the daytime employed in
the workshops, and only feel the effects OF
the overcrowding during the night. But
those who are not so fortunate as to be en-
gagged in the workshops, and are obliged to
spend day and night in the cramped quar-
ters, experience the bad effects of this over
crowding in all its force.
Governor Albeit, in his inaugural ad-
dress, in speaking on the subject said: eff
the people of the State knew. as do those in
charge of the prison, the result of this
crowding of prisoners and the placing of
more than one prisoner in cell, there would
be an imperative demand for legislation
that would carry into effect the law requir-
ing separate confinement of prisoners.
A NOVEL REMEDY.
"If the Legislature will investigate this
subject a condition of things will be found
to exist which should not be tolerated one
moment beyond the time necessary to remedy
the evil. intermediate State prisons must
be built or provision made for the county
institutions to care for certain classes of
criminals, or there must be an extension
of the State prison so as to afford additional
ROOM"
These suggestions of the Governor are re-
by the statements of the State
Prison Inspectors. who declare in their last
report after reciting the deplorable over
crowding of the prison, the population of
the institution being increased 116 in
year, that ''the moral condition of the pris-
oners demands that expedient efforts be
made for the care and safety of the unfor-
tunates who are compelled to undergo i'm
prisonment."
But the Legislature has gone to work in
novel way to remedy the evil. Instead of |
adopting the suggestions of Governor Alb |
bett and making the prison Accommodations |
sufficient for the criminals of the State, it |
has determined to make the number of GRIM |
inals fit the accommodations of the prison. |
CONDITIONAL FREEDOM.
This is much cheaper plan, but it re-
mains to be seen whether it will be to the |
best interests of the people. Under the |
provisions of the ticket-of-leave or parole
system, as it is known among prison author
tiles, the number of convicts in the Trenton
prison can speedily be reduced 200 or 800 by
turning the prisoners loose on their promise
of good behavior.
The success of the parole system will
largely depend on the care with which it is
Assemblyman Morris, of
q Union county, is the author of the bill now
before the Governor and as the power to
grant parole can only be exercised by the
Court of Pardons, which could grant
freedom to the convicts,
f it saw fit, the friends of the
ystem expect to see parole wisely admins
cred The Court consists of the Governor,
he Chancellor and the three lay Judges of
he Court of Errors and Appeals, and it is
,iven authority by the bill to grant written
State of New Jersey or in such part of it as
nav be allowed by the license during the re-
nainder of his term of Imprisonment.
The Court may demand bonds for the
aithful observance of the terms of the Ii
ense, and may impose such conditions in
he license as it may think proper.
TERMS OF THE PAROLE.
1t will be stipulated in all cases, however,
hat the license shall be forfeited if the
lolder shall be convicted of any offense; if
10 shall fail tn reDort at the times and n1onas
equired by the rules; if he shall change his
,lace of residence without giving written
lotice thereof, or go outside the prescribed
,ounds, or if he shall fail to produce his
license when required.
1t is also provided that paroled prisoners
hall not habitually associate with persons
f ill-repute, tramps or thieves, and shall not |
cad an idle life without visible means of
upport. In all cases where the parole shall
'e violated any member of the Court of
'ardons can forthwith order the recommit-
nent of the prisoner to serve out the portion
f his sentence remaining unserved at the
ime the parole was granted and three
nonths additional.
A bill similar to this proposed law was
,assed by the Legislature of 1889, but was
eclared unconstitutional because the
ower of granting parole was given to the
'rison Inspectors and principal keeper. The (
Attorney General held that this authority
ould only be exercised by the Court of
'ardons.
GOOD RESULTS EXPECTED.
81 expect good results to follow from the
doption of the parole system,'' Principal
Keeper Patterson declared yesterday, in /
peaking Of the proposed law. There need |
q no fear that it will omen the prison doors !