Los Angeles herald., 1910-04-24
REFORM WAVE TO STAMP
OUT PRISON BRUTALITY
Col. Griffith Says Coast Awak'
ened by Gaynor's Move on
"Third Degree"

crime unquestionably is attracting at
tention throughout the country sald
Colonel Griffith J. Griffith, head of the
Prison Reform league yesterday. THE
action taken In New York by Mayor
Gaynor with respect to the third de-
gree and the high-handed 'muggipg of
men still entitled to be regarded as in
nocent will give the movement much
additional impetus, and / hope 1t will
have the effect Of waking up this coast.
Assuredly there is need Of ii, as Is
shown by the brutalities here and in
the northern part of the state-I refer
to the shooting Of the lad Collins by
the military authorities at Aleatraz-
that the papers nave registered Wltnlh
the past few days.
"However, there is progress When
| went before the 1907 California leg
islature with bills for the grading of
prisoners, for facilitating the grant OF
parole and for Transforming san Quen-
tin into a reformatOry the entire Dody
of the board OF prison directors OPP
posed my bills. Yet 1t was recognized
that for nearly sixty years San Quen-
tin had been merely a school of crime;
that the cell accommodation was alto
gether defective and ruinous to health
and the most elementary morality, and
that torture and other unspeakable
brutalitles inflicted by ignorant and ir-
responsible guards were habitual
UNANIMOUSLY PASSED
"When l showed something of the
true conditions and pointed out that
the board of prison directors during
the preceding fourteen years had pa
rolled an average of only ID per annum
from San Quentin and Folsom com
bined the bills l had introduced passed
both houses unanimously, despite the
opposition of the board, but the gov
ernor unfortunately refused TO sign
them.
"Since that time the Prison Reform
league and others have kept up a per-
sistent agitation. with the result that
more than 600 men have been paroled,
and the legislature at its last session
appropriated $4,000 annually for a pro-
baton officer, whose duty 1t is to find
work for paroled prisoners and look
after their interests 1t also passed a
bill authorizing the grading and sepa-
ration of prisoners, and this the state
board of prison directors is about to
give effect to, according to the Sacra-
mento Union Of April 13.
MY understanding is that for the
past three years, since the agitation
began. the board of prison directors
has held its meetings regularly every
month. Formerly six months ire
quently elapsed without meeting at
which prisoners could be paroled, al
though hundreds were waiting anxious
ly for such a meeting; in all of which
il acted i'm direct defiance of law.
STILL A VIOLATION
1t still violates the spirit of the law
by insisting that every prisoner must
have serveL half his term before ne
can be regarded as eligible to parole,
however good his conduct may nave
been The law imposes a limit or one
wear in the case of ordinary Offenders
and seven years in the case or those
sentenced for life. By a ruling of the
board a life termer must have served
eight years. Thus, as the board at
present arranges things, a lie termer
is eligible to parole at the end OF elght
wears. but he who has been sent up
for twenty years must serve half his
time before he can get parole
"The pressure of pubic oplhloh'
therefore, seems to have had some in
fIuence on the board of prison directors.
though not as much as we would like.
From the reports that come to it the
Prison Reform league inclines to the
belief that the volume OF actual TOR
ture has lessened materially. II TINS
is so IL marks an enormous gain, FOR
the prevalence of torture in the past
has been an infamy to which no lam
guage can do justice. Last week, Tor
the first time i'm more than sixty years,
the female prisoners at San Quentin,
thirty-two i'm number. were given a
days outing to pick wild flowers. One
woman, who had been imprisoned for
more than quarter of a century, Tell
on her knees and kissed the grounnd
with joy.
IGNORED DUTY
"If In the past the boards Of prison
directors had done their dut" penniless
prisoners would not have been left
without towels. combs or brushes, nor
would such an institution as the dis
gracefully crude bath at the 1ute mill
have been tolerated; those sufrerlng
from tuberculosis and other infectious
diseases would not have been permitted
to occupy the same rooms as do the
healthy, and first offenders and boys OF
tender age would not have been forced
into the company of hardened GRIM
inals. sexual perverts and other low
degenerates. In San Quentin at pres
ent there are 300 cells containing two
or more men; thirteen rooms. including
two hospitals, each of which is made
TO accommodate from fifteen to more
than 200 persons, and only 1886 single
cells, although the prison population Is
about 1900. Eight hundred new single
cell buildings are being erected in san
Quentin and a similar number in
Folsom.
so far as the Prison Reform league
itself is concerned the greatest encour-
agement it has received has come from
distant states. information from many
being that the effect of its agitation Is
visible in decided improvement in
the general treatment of prisoners. and
the adoption of many specific measures
to that end. The league stand firmly
for the abolition of torture and punish
ment dictated by revenge, advocating
restraint for purposes of reformation,
under modern indeterminate sem
tenee and parole law