The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-20

ali convicts are sentenced by the trial judges to serve their sentence at that in stitution. If he has any influential friends or funds to retain an eminent at torney to represent him before the par don bureau, he may in time obtain a parole, but if he is a stranger in this state or without funds there Is at present no way for him to obtain any benefit from that law. Nor is this the fault of the pardon board as at present consti- tuted
 At first glance it may seem very desir- able to obtain as much revenue as pos sible from the convicts in retribution for the expense and trouble they have put society to in protecting itself against them. However, two wrongs do not, nor ever have made a right and taking from the evil doer large portion of his life. as well as the returns from his labor during that period to the detriment Of those dependent on him for support, Is not likely to lead to his moral uplift. When the pound of flesh has been exact ed he is abruptly turned loose to his own devices without cent, nor any equip ment to help him to earn an honest live lihood. Jobs do not grow on every bush, and when man has been secluded from the world for a long term of years, he is bound to lose touch with the work-a day life and to a certain extent he will feel that he is a pariah. In every casual glance he will read suspicion and in his search for friends and sympathy he will be more than apt to search out other dis charged convicts in former congenial haunts and from that it is but a short step to life of habtual crime
 Would it not be better to. sentence every offender under an inderteminate sen
 tence law so that when the experts who have him in charge are convinced that he
 is throughly reformed, that on their rec
 ommendation and with the pardon board s
 approval he could be paroled and turned
 over to Prisoners Aid society?' This
 society should be a branch of the state
 convict department, and it should re-
 tain control of paroed prisoners and sus-
 tain them until they could be placed at
 work The great desratum should be
 secrecy and the names of the paroled
 men should never be made public nor
 anyone made acquainted with their pris-
 on record except the direct head of any firm that might give them employment. Convicts are human and sensitive and they should be given a fair chance with a clean slate and not be handicapped at
 the start with lot of notoriety. Give a man bad name and he will very likely
 be forced to live up to it. except he has a strong character and the class We are considering is not noted for strength of | character or they would be in other ranks of life, TO the contrary those who have slipped and falen are entitled to special assistance and every manly man should feel in his heart a desire to help the under dog and to give him a chance to regain his manhood and self-respect. I do not ask you to receive a paroled convict as your personal friend, nor to put him up at your club, but I do ask you to aid the enactment of such legisla- ton as will give him a fair chance in life. It will cost you nothing, although the fees of the sheriffs and jailers may be re-
 duced We need an indeterminate sem tence law, a parole system based on merit, trade school for youthful offend- CTS, and a state aid employment bureau for paroled convicts. The whole convict department should be taken out of poli- tics and higher salaries would attract a better class of men as officers.
 Corporal punishment is a relic of the middle ages and in substituting a better and more humane system of maintaining discipline the morals of the wardens will be elevated. The writer,who has served seven years as state convict knows by personal experience and observation that this method of punishment is degratory to the administrator as well as the recip- tent. This form of punishment is seldom resorted to at this prison except to curb a violent prisoner. Messrs. T.. C. and L. E. Dawson, the wardens in charge here, are experts in controlling prisoners. and they succeed In bringing a man to reason by a heart-to-heart talk with him and an appeal to his manhood and better nature, when fogging would only brutalize him. However, it Is very arbitrary power to place in any one mans hands and 1t is open to abuse in some cases. But we
 don't expect the millennium all at once, in prison anyhow In enacting new legis- lation, past experience has proven that 1t is wise to make haste slowly.
 My heartfelt desire and my object in writing this article is the hope that r may inspire somebody to befriend the prisoners. We can't maintain a lobby
 at the capitol. The idea of delegation
 in stripes soliciting votes is ludicrious.
 do hope, however, that some broad
 minded member of the legislature will
 advocate our cause.
 ALBERT DRISCOLL,
 State Convict.
 Flat Top Mines, Maben, Ala. February 1s.