Evening star., 1911-06-01

each prisoner has been turned into gain
Of 30 cents. There is also the gain to the
prisoners themselves In employment In
the open unemployment which should
tend to divorce them from city slums and
make them self-sustaining in that class
OF lsbor for which there is a strong and
steadily rising market-feld work.
In the matter Of wholesome and ra-
tional treatment of minor malefaetors
the District Of Columbia Is keeping pace
with the rest OF the world. The Wash
| ington Board Of Trade. through its COM
mittee on charities and corrections, was
one of the leading influences to bring
| about betterment OF conditions for Dis
trict prisoners. In the eighteenth annual
report. 1905 Of the Board Of Trade the
committee on charities and corrections
reported:
During the past year an investigation
and believed will result in radically i'm
proving the conditions in the District OF
Columbis relating to the treatment or
prisoners. The crowded. tnsanitary ano
unscientific conditions at our jail ana
workhouse have long been a disgrace to
the capital OF the nation. where modern
conditions should prevail. 1t is almost inn
possible to believe that In this enlightened
age our institutions should be SO out VI
step with the advances made In other
parts of the country. In our jail. prison.
ers are crowded two and three together
In a cell in almost absolute idleness. with
Inadequate sanitary arrangements e ana
and moral truth that prisoners are not
confined in jails merely to punish them,
but that hand in hand with the punish
ment should go the work OF reforming
realized at the very beginning of its work
that the prison conditions OF the city
call strongly for action. and at Its first
meeting appointed a subcommittee to IN
vestigate and report. Then came the sug-
gestion for an official commission to make
such investigation, and to this suggestion
your committee lent its aid. The ap-
pointment Of the commission by the
President of the United States. the high
character and ability Of Its members and
the painstaking manner with which 1t
conducted its examination make II more
probable that its report Will present q
practical plan on which action can be
secured"
This committee. Justice Wendell r.
Stafford. John Joy Edison and Robert V.
La Dow, made its report in January.
1909. The commission recommended that
the present jail be used as a house OF de-
tention and that 1t should be modernized;
that a probation system be established:
+
tract Of land Of not less than 1000 acres
and widely separated from any other penal
institution; and that another tract OF
land of equal size be secured as site for
a workhouse. The District appropriation
bill OF 1903. making provision for the sup
port Of the District government for the
fiscal year ending June 30. 1910. carried
an item Of 100000 for and directed that
the Commissioners proceed with the
construction Of certain buildings. The
work at Occoquan. where the District is
creating its model workhouse or work
farm. progresses well. appropriations hav-
ing been made in the general deficiency
act for the fiscal year, 1911, and in the
District ppropriation bill for 1912.
The reformatory is hanging fire. The
Commissioners selected as its site Bel
voir. three miles below Mount Vernon.
Belvoir was the home Of William Fair
fax, cousin Of and agent In Virginia for
Thomas, Lord Fairfax. One of the
Misses Fairfax Of Belvoir became the
wife Of Lawrence Washington. half
brother of George. and who beQueathed
Mount Vernon to Washington the Great.
Because of the intimacy of the Fairfax
and Washington families and the prox-
unity of Belvoir to Mount Vernon num-
Der OF patriotic bodies raised successful
opposition to the location OF the District
reformatory on the Belvoir peninsula
and Congress passed an act which will
hereafter prevent the location Of any
penal institution in Virginia or Maryland
within ten miles Of the home and tomb of
Washington.