The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-05-01
Prison Reform Again.

A series of bills for the improvement
Of penal conditions in Pennsylvania
has been d,afted by Francis J. Tor
rance, of Allegheny, sanctioned by the
state board of charities and introduced
at Harrisburg with every prospect of
a speedy passage. Since the other
prison reform bills previously submit
ted to the Legislature have either been
killed outright or tied up in commit
tee, it is doubly essential that these
measures should receive early consider
alton. .'"'.'
The first bill Of the series directs that
all female convicts sentenced to the
penitentiary be confined in the West
ern penitentiary, where suitable accom-
modatlons and methods of government
prevail. The second bill empowers any
court in the commonwealth exercising
criminal jurisdiction to sentence any
male first offender between the ages
of Is and so years to the Huntingdon
reformatory. At present the age limit
is % years. The third bill overhauls
the present defective system relating
to the care of insane ConviCts in the
state penitentiaries, and virtually con-
verts a portion of the Eastern peniten-
tiary into an insane asylum with sep
arate accounts and supervision. The
fourth bill is the most radical. 1t in
troduces the parole system by invest
ing the governor with power to release
prisoners on conditional parole pro-
vided:
(a) That no convict or prisoner shall be
paro'pd until he has been imprisoned one
half of the full term to which he was SEN
fenced, nor unless he has complied with
all the rules and regulations while there
in confined
(b) That a convict sentenced or COM
mutod to life imprisonment shall not be
eligible to parole until he has been i'm
prisoned twenty years from the date Of
the sentence.
(c) That such parolCd convict shall re-
main in the legal custody of the board
of inspectors of the pcnitentiary from
which he was paroled, and for any Grim
inal offense he may commit during the
term of his original sentence may be
taken back within the inclosurc of the in.
sttution.
(dD That in considering subjects for
parole the respective boards of inspectors
shall not entertain petitions or receive
any written or oral communications or
hear any argument from any attorney or
other person not connected with the PEN
itentiary in favor of the parole of any
prisoner therein confined, but the boards
may, if they deem proper, institute in
quiry by correspondence or otherwise so
as to learn the previous history or char
aCtcr of any prisoner.
(c) No prisoner shall be considered elig-
ible to parole until a recommendation
therefor be made in writing by the war
den and chaplain of such penitentiary,
and with such a recommendation, shall
be attached evidence that the prisoner
has means of subsistence or can procure
employment whereby he can be further
removed from the temptation to relapse
into crime.
90 The paroled prisoner shall make
monthly return to the warden of the peni-
tentiary from which ne has been condi-
tonally released in which he shall state
the number of days and character of his
employment during the preceding month.
In this his employer shall unite or owl
dcnco thereof may be furnished by other
parties If required.
(g) Each man, when released, shall be
given a certificate wherein shall be entered
the facts in his case as above noted, and
that this parole is conditioned upon his
feted by a vicious life.
1t will be perceived that this last
measure, while it involves a radical
departure from the present treatment
Of criminals, escapes many of the OBJ
jections which we offered yesterday
against the experiment of a similar
character now on tria! in Indiana. 1t
does not take from the trial Judge
the power of passing sentence nor does
it enable the prison officials to turn
loose faVorite criminal at the expira-
tion of the minimum imprisonment. II
simply provides an incentive for good
behavior and informs the convict that
if he has a mind to try to make 4 man
of himself the state will help him. II
seems to us that this is clearly a prop-
osition in the right direction. The oc-
| casions upon which it would do good
| would be likely far to outnumber the
/ occasions upon which its operation
would be attended by i'll results.
| T..