Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-11-02
PENAL REFORM PLAN
Indeterminate Sentence and
Parole at Workhouse.
VIEWS OF w. H. WHITAKER
Suggestion Endorsed by the Park
View Association.
GOES TO CITIZENS FEDERATION
Residents of Suburb Discuss Needs
CT Their Locality and Listen
to Addresses.
VIEWS OF w. H. WHITAKER
GOES TO CITIZENS FEDERATION

| important pathological reforms in the
District Of Columbia may follow the
adoption by the Park View Citizens AS
ISOLATION last night of resolution re-
| questinS the Commissioners to send to
Congress a bill providing an indetermi-
nate sentence and parole law for work.
house and reformatory prisoners.
| A recommendation to this effect was
made recently to the District heads by
w. H. Whitaker superintendent of the
workhouse, at o. coquan. Va. At a meet
ing of the citizens body. in the Whitney
Avenue Christian Church, Park road
near Georgia avenue, last night, Mr..
ton, stating that he believed an indie
| terminate sentence and parole law would
make possible the returning to useful
citizenship Of GO per cent of the prisoners
discharged from the workhouse.
| The Park View Association will bring
| the matter to the attention of the FEEDER
alton of Citizens Associations, which is
to meet tonight in the rooms of the
| hoped to obtain consideration of the re-
forms proposed by practically all of the
civic bodies of the District.
Commissioner Rudolph a Guest.
The meeting last night. presided over
by President John G. McGrath, was one
of the most enthusiastic ever held by the
association. more than one hundred men,
bers being in attendance. The guest of
the evening was Commissioner Cuno H.
Rudolph. who. in a brief address. COM
plimented the organization upon what 1t
has accomplished for the Park View Sec
tion especially in being successful in
having inserted in the estimates for next
year provision for sixteen-room school
building.
Supervisor of Fairgrounds E. S. Martin
spoke OF the playground needs of the city
as whole and the Park View neighbor-
hood in particular. He explained the
re concentration made to the Commits
siOners for the creation Of a department
of recreation. Other speakers were
Allan Davis. president of the Southeast
Washington Citizens Association, and D.
a. Edwards, president Of the Lincoln
Park Citizens Association.
Favorable action was taken on a reso-
luton requesting the Commissioners to
enlarge the police force so that more ade-
quate protection may be afforded the
suburban sections. The program con-
tanned a musical number. Miss Mary
Parsons, accompanied by Miss Florence
kidwell, rendering VOC al solo.
Supt. Whitaker described in detail the
proposal for an indeterminate sentence
and parole law, his address being fol-
lowed by the association voting unani-
| mously to bring the matter at once to
the attention of the Commissioners
and the Federation Of Citizens Associ-
atoms.
In the course of his address the
! workhouse head told how the institu-
tiOn at OccOquan, built almost entirely
by prison labor, has been brought to
within $4,000 of being Self-SuppOrting
in the two years it has been in ex-
istence.
Mr.. Whittaker's Address.
1T is only in recent years." said MI
Whitaker. that the mass of our people
have begun to realize that the methods
employed in handling citizens who are
so unfortunate to be committed to
the penal and correctional institutions
as criminals must be along different
lines.
The highest degree of reformation
will not be obtained in our penal and
reformatory institutions unless the in
dustry of the normal inmate be such
as to train him in useful trades. which
will enable him to better secure useful
and remunerative employment after he
has been paroled and discharged.
But One Punishment.
I'm my judgment the only punish
ment the state has a right to infiict
upon any man is to deprive him Of his
liberty, and when this is done the more
you can make him reSliZe his position
as Il man, the more he will realize
there is a place in society for him to
fill as an honorable citizen; therefore,
the more certain will be his punish
ment, if we must term it,
If t>ere is an important time in the
life OF man VINO has been convicted
and sentenced for crime, it is the day
| he is released from prison. If he is re-
| leased at the end of fixed sentence
| with no thought while he Is in the
| institution of his education or moral
| no recommendation from the manage
| ment, what hope is there for him?
| Statistics tell us that Is per cent of
| such fellows follow the life of a vagrant
| or a criminal"
| Describing what has been accom-
plished at Occoquan, Mr.. Whitaker
| said:
There have been in the short space OF
two years, with daily average of 100
| prisoners. more than 800 acres of land
| cleared ready for cultivation; more than
six miles of road constructed ready for
| the stone: a model dining room for 800
prisoners built; officers quarters for hous-
| ing sixty employees; washing and clothing
and library, to accommodate the num-
| Der. OF inmates We now have; miles of
| splendid sewerage constructed: water
system with tanks holding $1,000 gallons
| of raw water; filtering plant and tank
| that will filter and hold more than this
| amount of water each day: a pumping
plant, built on the banks Of the Occoquan
river that will deliver to the institution
| 900, 900 gal ons Of water per day: a steam
plant that furnishes steam and hot water
| for the entire institution: an eectric light
plant capable of lighting buildings and
| grounds.
Land Prepared for Cultivation.
More than 10000 tons of fertilizer have
been brought from the city of Washing
ton to enrich the 500 acres of land that
will be cultivated next year by the in
mates producing all vegetables necessary
| for feeding the 600 inmates for a year.
and more than 100000 feet Of lumber
have been cut with our own saw mill and
used in our buildings. Pens to accommo-
date go hogs have been built root
| cellar that viii accommodate thousands
OF bushels of potatoes and other vege-
! tables has been constructed at practi-
cally no cost. Hotbeds to raise tens of
thousands of plants for our gardens have
been made. A brick pant with a capacity
of 10000 brick daily. Is in ope' alton. In
cd To hrjC napt w