Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-10
NO FAULTS ARE FOUND
With the Management of the Hunt
ingdon RefOrmatory.
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE.
Conduct of the Assistant Superintendent Is
Endorsed.
SENATOR OSBJUENS CHARGES FAIL

James B. Scott, member of the State
Board of Charities, and Chairman of the
committee appointed to investigate alleged
irregularities in the management of the
State Reformatory, at Huntington, has pre-
pared and will probably this week submit to
Governor Pattison report of that investi-
cation.
The report will be comparatively short,
but it will review in detail the cause of
the trouble in the Huntingdon institution,
will fully and thoroughly vindicate the
management and will indorse in positive
terms the assistant superintendent of the
Retormatory, upon whose account the in
vestigation is alleged to have been institu-
ted and whose dismissal was asked by those
who instigated the inquiry.
The story of the investigation and the
cause leading to it is interesting. Senator
Frank Osbourn, of Philadelphia, is q law
yer of standing and reputation. Shortly
after the adjournment OF the last Legis-
lature, and after Senator Osbourn had re-
turned to his law practice, the son of one of
his clients was convicted of some petty
crime, and was sentenced to the Reforma-
tory at huntingdon.
A Limit TO Senatorial Courtesy.
A week after the boy had been commit
ted Senator Osbourn wrote a letter 10 the
management of the Reformatory asking for
the boys release. The Superintendent at
Huntingdon wrote back to the Senator re-
fusing to release the boy, and assuring Sen
ator Osbourn that only the Governor and
the Pardon Board had the authority to re-
lease a prisoner from the institution. The
Senator Immediately replied, saying he
knew thoroughly well where such authority
rested, but he asked for the boys release as
an act of Senatorial courtesy. The As
sistant Superintendent then wrote back to
the Senator saving that Senatorial courtesy
could not be extended to violation of the
law, and that the boy would not be released.
Then Senator Osbourn threatened that he
would prevent the Huntingdon institution
from receiving an appropriation from the
State.
Judge Arnold, of Philadelphia, then Or
dered that ten of the worst inmates of the
Huntingdon institution be turned over to
him. The Huntingdon authorities obeyed
the order of the Philadelphia court, and |
ten boys who had been sent from Philadel- !
phia were released and sent with an officer |
to Philadelphia, where they are confined at |
MONOIleDSlnC.
boys, Senator Osbourn lnstigated the in |
vestigation. The Senator at once visited |
the Governor, and told him the disclosures |
made by the released boys. The Governor |
assured Senator Osbourn that he would at |
once go to Huntingdon and look into the |
alleged Irregularities
His Own Investigation.
Governor, YOU need not go to Hunting |
don" the Senator said, 81 will go there my
self" The Senator did 60 there. He was
met at the institution by the Committee of |
the Board of Charities to whom he said! az |
did not want the Governor here. This is
not Pattison's investigation. 1t is Os-
bourn's investigation
The inquiry was then instituted. The
charges of mismanagement, incompetency
and cruelty were laid against the assistant
superintendent. but the report which is now
prepared Will declare the institution to be
thoroughly managed and will especially ap-
plaud the conduct of the assistant superin-
tendent. The action of Judge Arnold in /
ordering and securing the release CT the ten
BOYS from the Retormatory Will not be ap-
proved and the enforcement of the law gov
erning such cases will be recommended,
In a recent opinion on the law governing
the Retormatory, Judge Samuel L. Mehard,
of Mercer county, decided that the manage
ment OF the Re1ormatory had authority un-
der the law to send refractory inmates of
the Retormatory to one or other of the pen
itentiaries of the State. That is, boy sent
from the eastern end of the State can be
sent by the Huntingdon management to the
Eastern Penitentiary, and one committed to
the RetOrmatory from the western end of
the State can be sent to Riverside, there
to remain always under the jurisdic-
ton of the Huntingdon management
The enforcement of this feature of this law
will be recommended by the report of the
Committee, and hereafter all
refractory prisoners at Huntingdon will be
sent to the penitentiary in the district
from which they were sent to the Reform
atory. This arrangement, it is argued by
the report, will keep down disturbances
aud will tend to allay the ugly rumors
which it is claimed are always started by
the inmates of the concern, and upon in
vestigation have always been found to be
without foundation.