The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-09-25

with parole feature, has been album
dainty justified by results,
The absolute indeterminate sentence
for all prisoners except life conyicts Is,
in my opinion, the only logical method
of dealing with the delinquent classes
Upon criminals it would operate as a
definite deterrent influence. To habit
, ual offenders it would be danger sign
and 1t would beget new risks in the
commission Of crime. Under 1T the SLIT
: ing process by which the reformable
prisoners are sorted from the incorrigi-
bles could be intelligently applied; pow
erful motives for the abandonment of
criminal practices would be created and
safeguards for the protection of society
would be erected.
The state might as reasonably send
an insane person to an asylum for
definite time as to commit criminal
to prison for a specific period. If the
management in the one case is compe-
tent to discharge, why not in the other?
From every penal institution in the
country convicts are being regularly
discharged who, as the management
only too well knows, will promptly re-
sumo the criminal programme which
was temporarily interrupted by term
in prison. Every consideration of So
cal welfare demands that on the one
hand, the criminal should be kept I'M
der restraint until he is fit to be releas-
ed and that, on the other hand, once fit
to be released, he should be condition
ally discharged. This system would
not only afford the largest measure Of
protection to life and property, but it
1ytpl11I ole tba Dr1ntin11
method for the reformation of the Of
fender
The absolute indeterminate sentence
is nowhere in operation, but a bill which
embodies it in q proposed law and which
is endorsed by Charles Dudley Warner
and other eminent students of penology
was introduced into the Connecticut
Legislature last year. The measure was
neither passed nor repealed, but 1t was
ordered continued to the next session
of the general assembly, when renewed
efforts to secure its enactment into law
viii he made. This Prison congress
should, as l think, place itself on for
NAL record as endorsing the absolute
indeterminate sentence.
PRODUCTIVE LABOR.
Probably no subject has caused a ma
jority of the members of this associa-
ton more anxiety than the opposition
which has developed in certain quarters
against productive industries in prison
Most of us are familiar with the legis-
lative committee which computes the
earnings of the prisons to a cent and
which, with an ambition to make a
record for economy, cuts a large slice
/ from the badly needed appropriation
\ Thereupon the usual bill, either wholly
prohibiting or seriously restricting the
| interstate transportation Of prison.
made products, is introduced into con-
gress. Panicly times then strike pro-
ductive penal industries; earnings are
curtailed; and some of us are forced to
face a deficiency in revenue.
The calling fire which Is kept III
against productive labor in penal in
stitutions is born Of a mistaken or par
tial view of the situation and is not
justified by the whole body of facts in
the case 1t is computed that the value
of the products of penal institutions
does not exceed one-tenth of one per
cent. of the total value of the products
of the manufacturing industries of the
United States This fact renders 1t OBJ
tive effect of convict labor upon free
labor is, in the aggregate, insignificant,
and that it wholly fails to justify the
persistent WARFARE which some people
take pleasure in waging against prison
industry. 1t would be supehfluous to
state in a gathering of this kind that
regular and intelligent employment is
absolutely essential to the moral and
physical welfare of convicts and that
enforced idleness begets sullenness, Inn
morality, sickness and insanity, and re-
tards, if indeed it does not entirely pre-
vent, the Improvement of which the
prisoners might otherwise be suscepi-
BILE. In all intelligent effors to reform
convicted criminals work is an indis-
pensable factor-and only productive
layor is formative labor. Both the
practical and the ethical requirements
of the situation make for productive la
Dor.
In combating the vicious bills that
appear periodically in congress this as
sociaton has encountered unexpected ]
obstacles. From several prisons main |
tanning productive industries which not
only lift a burden from the taxpaying
shoulder, but also to a large extent en-
able the ambitious prisoner to secure |
remunerative employment upon his re-
lease, no adequate support has been re-
ceived. Nevertheless, in spite Of steady !
efforts, which has been peculiarly siren
uous during the past year, no adverse |
national legislation has yet been enact |
ed, and [ do not anticipate any.
Prison-labor agitation has attracted |
much more attention than the econom-
les and ethics Of the case justify, but /
as political device it is assumed to be /
the popular thing. While much of the
unfortunate hostility to productive |
prison industries has been sincere, I
though mistaken some of it has been
rooted in demagogy and grounded in
fear. Neither of the two great politi-
cal parties has hesitated to oppose pro-
ductive labor, when such opposition
Geemed to possess vote-getting quail
ties. 1t strikes me that We have had
object lessons enough. Let the states
that are striving to exempt free labor
from one-tenth of one per cent. convict
oppression demonstrate that they are
the taxpayer upon whom the
burden must fall and are providing for
the prisoner an equipment which will |