The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1902-10-03
CONGRESS-
FOR REFORM
Report to Governor Murphy Re.
suit Of Recent Meeting.

suit Of Recent Meeting.
Discussion of Penal System Particle
pated in by rIany Interested In
Prison Changes-Importan Recon-
mendations as to Rules Governing
the New Jersey State Prison-Ju-
veniIe, Court and Probation Sys-
tenn Endorsed.
Trenton, N. j., Oct. 1st, 1902.
The New Jersey delegation to the
National Prison Congress, which m ct
in Philadelphia, September 18th to
17th, appointed through their chair
man, Associate Justice j. franklin
Fort, committee of three to make a
formal report to Governor Murphy.
This committee, consisting of Charl-
ton T. Lewis, LII. D., President of
the State Charities Aid Association
tee of the Railway Reformatory,
Warden J. o. Osborne, State Prison,
and Prosecutor John s. Voorhees, of
Middlesex County, have sent to the
Governor the following statement
To His Excellency Franklin Murphy,
Governor of New Jersey:
Dear Sir
At a meeting of the New Jersey
IL. -
Congress, held in Philadelphia, Sep
tember 18th to September 18th of this
year, the undersigned we're appointed
a committee to report to you upon
the work of the Congress and upon
the participation in it OF the repre-
sentatives of our State. OF the dele
gates appointed by you, fifteen were
in attendance. A number of those
who would have been glad to attend
were in Europe, or at distance
from the State, but have expressed
deep interest in the occasion, and
sympathy with it's purposes. In ad-
dition to the official delegates, six
teen others presented credentials as
representing institutions and organi-
zations of the State related to penal
administration. Thus there were in
all thirty one delegates from New
Jersey, a number surpassed by
Pennsylvania alone.
We take pleasure in reporting to
Your Excellency the unanimous be-
lief of the delegation, that the repre-
sentation of the State in the National
Prison Congress has been a benefit
both to the work of the National
Association at large. and, by the ad-
vantages it has conferred upon the
Ill 10
State.
The proceedings of the Congress
will be published, and will show the
participation of New Jerseys repre-
sentatives. In due time we shall
have the honor of submitting the
volume to you. For the present we
would respectfully refer to certain
prominent topics treated in the dis
cussions, which seem to deserve es-
peciaI attention in our own State.
First. 1t was learned at the meet
ing of wardens that the New Jersey
State Prison alone, of forty institu-
tions represented. still persists in en-
forcing the prison short hair cut, the
lock-step and the prison stripes for
ordinary wear.
Second. The Congress seemed to
approve without qualification the
principle of the indeterminate SEN
tence, as expressed in the law govern
ing the Railway Reformatory. Other
States have gone further. and commit
wiGhout maximum sentences to State
prisons under the indeterminate SEN
tence, with excellent results.
Third. The probation system and
the juvenile court were shown to
have accomplished great good in H.
oahr
Pennsylvania. Wherever tried, this
system has done much to prevent
crime, and to reduce the cost of penal
administration to the taxpayer.
While in certain cities special courts
are constituted for juvenile offenders,
other cities seek to accomplish the
purpose of protecting the wayward
child from criminal associations by
setting aside certain hours of the reg.
ular courts for hearing Juvenile cases.
The deliberations of the Congress
will throw much light upon practical
problems which these reforms sug-
gest.
Fourth. Great progress was re-
ported in the care for discharged pris-
oners. 1t appears that in the Western
States the free laborer is more ready
to assist in the reinstatement of the
laborer who may come from prison
than is the case with us. In Indiana
1,l32 prisoners have been paroled and
set to work during the past five
years. The delegation is impressed
with the greatness of the problem
which confronts the institutions in
this State, and the need for the CO.
operation of the puplic-spirited en-
ployers and humanitarians in offering
to the 'ex-convict an opportunity to
re-establish himself in life.
Fifth. A bureau of Identification
of prisoners and criminals was recon-
mended, and a petition sent to the
Congress of the United States, urg-
ing it's establishment. The Prison
Association approved the Bertillon
system of Identification, which has
already been adopted at Railway, and
by some cities of New Jersey.
Sixth. Several States have re-
formatories for women, where under
the indeterminate sentence, women
and older girls are taught useful
branches and trained in self-control
From these institutions they are
paroled on probation, to such homes
or such employers as are accepted by
the authorities. A marked decrease
in second imprisonments, as we'll as
in crime by women. is reported. 1t
kAo 4