The morning journal-courier., 1908-12-24
NEW PENALTY FOR
 MURDER FAVORED
State Prison Directors Recon mend Minimum of 25 Years and Maximum of Life
 in Second Degree.
HOPE FOR THE REPEMTAMT
Unified Control of the Penal System of Connecticut Is Also Urged
 The Condition of the Prison.

Hartford Dec. 23,--Thc biennial report of the directors of the Connec- ticut state prison was submitted to the governor by Warden GaryIn to- day
 They recommend that the penalty for murder in the second degree be 1 modified. The punishment Is now im- l prisonment for life. II Is positive and fixed, and offers no opportunity for the exercise of discretion and discrim- nation, It has no variableness. nclth- CT shadow of turning. Convinced that the grim rIgldity of the penalty is un- scientific, the directors venture to urge that the principle of lndetermin- ate sentence and parole, now recog- nized feature of Connectlcuts penal | system, be extended to the punish ment of second degree murder, and the suggestion, reduced to specific phrases, is that the penalty for this felony be changed to an indefinite sentence wAosc minimum term shall be imprisonment for not less than twenty years and whose maxi mum term snail be Imprisonment for life
 The proposal is not born of mushy sentiment hut Is prompted by the dlc- tates of logic and philosophy It Is based on desire to shoot ray of hope into the convicts cell. ln pris- on hope Is an anchor to mind, q tonic to tde soul, balance wheel for the nerves, and hardly any influence, ex- cept regular work, ls moro stealying and helpful It impels the prisoner to adopt, in part the rule of the Har- 1 ry Wadsworth club, and to look up and not down, to look forward and not back, to look out and not in-and 1 tho state may wisely lend hand Crushing is tho effect of mprlson- mcnt for life on a person of sensitive nature and of nervous temperament The sentence tends to sweep tho req son from it's moorings. and tho fact that the ratio of insanity among life prisoners Is nearly three times as great as among other fclons points q moral and adorns a tale
 The man withou, previous criminal record who, under the stress of gust l of passion, commits murder in the sec ond degree, Is a smaller menace 10 so e ciety than is the hahltual offender who 1 spends his working hours with the l Jimmy and his vacation hours with the | ialer of tho life prisoners in thc l United states who are set free by par | don only negligible fraction has any | further head-on collisions with law and | order After p bnc n l quarter of century behind iron grat ] lng7, his habits and character become so definitely established that his fitness | or unfltness for release on parole, with | m opportunity 10 gather up the broken threads in tho skein of life may be | guessed with almost certain accuracy l The proposed revision of the penalty l for second degree murder under which l hope would he substituted for despair and elasticity for rigidty would mol l determine any social defeuses against crime, and it would operate as sns. l tainins and wholesome force
 Merger of the administration of thc l penal institutions Of Connecticut ls worthy of consideration. Wholly devoit of unity is tho penal system now Eacl branch marches under its own lndc pendent banner and keeps step to lt' own music,
 Instead fl the penal system with 1t, NNi i'NN UNl N ''lfl iAilik bN " tlHInlDUl ous whole, there are now ten or clever
 systems each having scarcely speak ing acquaintance with the others. In der tHls arrangement no effective tean
 work can be done,
 During the biennial period covered
 hy ths report the population of tn,
 prison has manifested a drift towar,
 expansion The average daily censu
 of convlcts for the fiscal year of 1a0' was b20, but the figure for 1908 amount
 cd 10 55e created daily number o
 prisoners than was ever before i'm
 mured within tho walls at Wcthorsfleld Dulness of business in factories and of railroaGs means activity of business 1T
 criminal courts. Ir many cases it
 short cut from idiencss Co crime, an,
 the route Is equipped with guidcposts
 Surpassing inc showing for any pro
 viouS similar period, the revenues O
 inc prison for the two years ond
 September 30, last. footed m Sl431it
 Of the total receipts not less than sl30.
 064 ,$6s,45S for l9)7 and S67.5g6 fo
 1908 represented earnings from pro
 ductive employment. Income from con
 vict labor pays tho major fraction q
 the operating cost of the prison,