The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-10-31

on the calendar (Which was fixed years
before by some judge is reached. For
this calendar reason, and no other. the
doors of the prison swing open for his
exit to complete liberty, even though
he passes through those prison doors
swearing that he will be reyenged and
will rob or murder to get square with
those who sent him there. Is there the
slightest doubt which method shall have
your approval? The people of this state
have, by their senators and representa-
tiveS in general assembly convened,
unanimously decreed that the indeter-
inmate sentence principle shall be ap-
piled to all prisoners sentenced to the
state prison excepting those sent for
life, or to be executed. Is this law and
decree of the people obseryed? At
every criminal term of every superior
court in this state the expressed will of
the people has been nullified, and SEN
tence after sentence has been pro-
nounced which had not a particle of
practicable indeterminate sentence
about it. The letter of the law has al
ways been observed, while in many,
many instances the spirit of the law
has been absolutely eliminated. Hence
scores of sentences remain determinate,
although wearing the guise Of indeter-
inmate sentences. Take, for example,
sentence quite lately passed of not
less than twelve years nor more than
fourteen years in the state prison. Let
us analyze that sentence. The law of
Communication for good conduct enables
the prisoner tc secure deduction from
his sentence of sixty days each year for
the first five years, and ninety days
year for each year thereafter This
gives the prisoner in this case opportu-
nifty to earn Communication amounting
to eleven hundred and ten days, which
the warden must deduct from the max
| inum term, if the prisoner makes a
clean record. Therefore this prisoner
will be discharged by expiration of
term of sentence in fifteen days less
than eleven years, or one year and f1f-
ten days less than the minimum part
of the sentence pronounced by the wise
judge. ..".. .,g
Where has the indeterminate sentence
gone? If this sentence was an excep-
tioral one no notice of it would be es-
pecially called for, but the last pub
many sentences of such arrangement
that the indeterminate principle is eth
err entirely eliminated or so crippled by
| leaving an impracticably short time be-
tween the expiration of the minimum
and maximum that no parole test is
| feasible and hence scores Of sentences
expire by Limitation and are thus, for
all practicable purposes. Discriminate
sentences.
During the month of August last
seven prisoners were discharged from
| the state prison by expiration of term
of sentence, and every one of them was
under an indeterninate sentence, so
called. Last month there were two such
and this month five such will be re-
| leased, and the indications are that
these numbers must increase during the
coming months. This nullifies the de-
cree of the people shamefully. No man
who is found by a jury to be unfit to
lie at liberty should be restored to lib
erty except through the door of fitness
| for release, and only then by parole
for sufficiently long time to prove
| that he is fit for complete liberty. This
| is the method insisted upon with the
| innocent insane at MiddletoWn. No
enc would approve the absolute liberia
| ton of a patient from the hospital for
| the insane or from a smallpox hospital
| simply because a certain day on the
calendar had some. Why swing open
| the prison doors and absolutely release
| squads Of. convicted criminals because
a fixed date on the calendar is reached,
/ and for no other reason? More espe-
cially as many of these prisoners are
going to return Immediately to criminal
| ways, and even boast that they are.
Every prison official of much expert
\ ence knows this to be an exact repre-
sentation of conditions which now exist.
At the next legislature this state of
things must and will be remedied
| Second, the fee system of all county
officers especially of the Sheriff, must
be changed to the salary system. The
| fee system makes the sheriff's compen-
sation to depend upon the amount of
| his business The more arrests the
more criminals; the more of them who
are FOUNDERS the better for him. For
he receives a fee every time he turns
the key upon a prisoner. OH. the abom-
| nation of a legal and civil office that
fattens on crime! And yet we have
just that in good Connecticut. The
sheriff who cares for his income-and
can you imagine a sheriff who does not Z
docs not want any innovations in our
present system of penology. Why
should he? The bill for the establish
ment of probation officers was killed,
am assured, in 1901 by a sheriff. And
this last winter at the hearing in behalf
of the reformatory the state was af-
forded the humiliating spectacle Of hav-
| ing the sheriffs of two counties appear
| by their attorneys--to oppose the bill
| No other voice was raised except by
these men, who knew that the reform
atory established meant less business
and less income for them. The fee sys.
tenn Is being attacked in other states
notably in New Jersey by Governor
Murphy, who made it a feature of his
annual message to the legislature last
January.
| The system is wrong. The public
cannot know what the compensation Of
these public officers is. Some incomes
as of sheriffs in large counties, are
known to be inordinately large. The
system temps men to corruption an6
completely with crime. The system
must-it will-be changed.
But with this should come, and be-
lieve may come, If we will stand, tall
and work for it, thirdly, the abolition Of
the county Jail. 1t is a survival of out
! L a.