The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-06-09

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by court-martial, at which defendants
arc represented by counsel, and thus
aunears 10 them more just than where
arbitrarily determined by prison
officials.
On Parole.
Before being liberated on parole the
graduate Of Elmira must obtain en-
ploymeut satisfactory TO the manage
ment, and preferably in the trade
learned at the reformatory. After re-
lease he must be under the supervision
of peace officer or agent Of the
reformatory for at least six months,
during which he must write monthly
report Of his progress.
Next to New York, Massachusetts
has made the most progress with the
determinate sentence and parole sys-
tens which are open TO first and sec
ond. offenders. In its reformatory for
men under 10 years of age there are
work shops, trade schools and evening
classes. In the woman s reformatory,
run by women, illiterates are taught
until they can read and write their
own letters. Inmates Tare taught
sewifery-cooking, dairying. sew.
ing, laundering. baby nursing, and even
gardening. They are given the re-
ining influences Of music two evenings
a week and are informed Of all of the
news of each day, Having been
graduated they can he paroled to do.
mestic service with private families,
and many remain in the same homes
after parole.
Finding Work for Those Discharged
The contrast of these pictures of
modern reformatorv influences with that
better known, black, melancholy picture
of penitentiary influence needs no com
ment. We have seen the equipment for
useful living given first to the dis.
charged pcnitentiary convict and then
to the rcformatory graduate. Some
states take measures for starting the
discharged pcnItentiary convict Alright.
The Massachusetts, law authorizes coun-
ty officials to assist prisoners discharged
from the iails and houses of correction,
and at Dedham there is temporary
asylum for discharged female prisoners,
mainly supported by private contribu-
'tlons. The State appropriates $4,000 a
the State prison and $4,000 for those
from the State reformatories, these sums
being expended by an agent Of the
prison commissioners. Through a sDe-
cial woman agent $4,000 year is also
distributed among discharged woman
convicts from any prisons of the State.
The Hope Halls
But surprising any other system for
the relief OF eX-convicts is that built
up in recent years by Mrs Maude Bal.
lingtou Booth of the Volunteers of
America. From such raw material as
the most hardened hahitual criminals
from more than a score Of our peniteu.
tiaries she is turning out Jean Valieans
day after day Into her three Hope
Halls, in New York, Illinois and
Iowa, she is constantly receiving newly
discharged convicts and sheltering them
until Gt TO start life anew. In the
course of her missionary work in the
various big penItentiaries she volunteers
to correspond with any convicts who
care To receive cheer from outside. She
tells me that al her Hope Halls all talk
of past wrongdoing is tabooed and ev-
ervthing is done to induce forgetfuness
of the criminal career and prison life. !
All inmates must come to these refugees |
direct from prison and without stopping !
anywhere enroute, No discrimination |
is made as to the nature of the crime |
or the religion of the criminal. All in
mates are started in life with employers
who know of their past. and it is a |
frequent feat of Mrs. Booth to 90 to
cmployers-even bank othcials-who |
have put men in the penitentary for |
abusing positions of trust, and to per.
suade them to take these men back at |
their old desks. The inmates of her |
refugees help to beautify the lawns and |
gardens or to perform repairs and house |
hold duties until suitable work is found |
for them outside. The rooms at these |
havens arc MS cheerful and homeil1e as
those of the comfortable country house. |
and the inmates play baseball and in
door games, or have parlor music dur
ing leisure. Mrs Booth keeps them
until the last stigma Of prison life has
left them and she tells me that many |
of the most hardened criminals whom
she has seen have been reformed by |
means of her system OF the thousands
of ex.convicts who have passed through |
these refugees for the despairing. she |
finds that 70 per cent have turned out
to he Jean Valjcans, that the lives of |
90 per cent arc uncertain, and that only |
; per cent are known TO have returned
To crime.
JOHN ELFRETH WATKINS.