The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1912-10-18

II viii be observed that about one-third
of the pardons granted by both McMiIlin
and Patterson were for bootleggers and
pistol toters.
Some Recommendations.
favor the enactment of law that
will devote a part of the earnings or the
convict to the care and maintenance OF
those dependent upon him, TO the end
that they may not become charges upon
public charity or be driven into crime, a
the result of poverty and neglect.
favor the building of hospital for
tubercular prisoners, to prevent the con.
Examination of sound men who are sent
to the penitentiary, and to diminish the
spread Of the disease among the people
by the prisoners who are discharged.
Irevived the use of the Juvenile parole
law which had not been used in several
years, and have placed number OF
small boys in good homes.
When the Legislature refused, for par
tisan reasons, to enact o general parole
law, dug up an old law passed before
the civil war, giving the Governor power
w SAshc SvhAitAohhi PotuOiloy hHu w pre-
scribe the conditions himself. I have
been using this as parole law, although
1t Is crude and awkward, without any OF
the ordinary machinery incident to the
elaborate parole system of other states.
Beginning nearly a year ago, have
granted forty-seven paroles or condi.
tional pardons to men and boys IN the
State Prison. Not one of them has VIC
lated his parole yet and had to be re-
manded to prison. think my success
full use of this homemade parole law will
induce the next Legislature to enact a
proper and adequate parole system, as
well as the indeterminate sentence law.
In this connection, may say that all
applications for pardon that have been
presented to me have been thoroughly in
vestigateu and carefully considered. The
lax manner in which executive clemency
had previously been exercised has caused
large numbers of applications to me
which contained no merit whatever. The
work of dicontinuing this pernicious
aDuse of executive power has, Their lore,
been difficult one.
Visits to Prison.
Some Of my critics have found much
cause for merriment in the fact that !
have frequently visited the penitentiary
and spent considerable time there. II
this pleases my enemies, | am indeed
glad, for nothing has afforded me more
pleasure than to feel that l am person.
ally known by more men within the
walls than any Governor that Tennessee
ever had.
have studied their conditions at first
hand, and have turned men out of prison
that had no attorneys, no friends and
no applications for pardons.
Nnlie we have striven to place the
man above the dollar in the management
OF the prison, we have at the same time
made the administration of the prisons
q business success. There has been some
rather picturesque prevarication about
this matter upon the part of some of my
political enemies. This has all been due
to the fact that The Comptroller refused
in 1911 to pay off large amounts of the
vouchers issued in the closing months Of
the preceding administration, and these
vouchers were dumped over into July,
1911, the month when my appointees as
sumed charge of the prisons. The prison
books have always shown the expendi.
lures of the prisons as made, and they
are kept now in just the same way as
heretofore. It is not at all material
when the vouchers are paid off by the
Comptroller and Treasurer 1t would
be possible for the Comptroller to hold
them all twelve months, but the final is
suance Of his warrants would not show
that the prisons had spent nothing for
eleven months and a tremendous amount
in the twelfth month.
The comparison of the receipts and
expenditures that l am now going to
make is taken from the prison books of
the MsMillin, Patterson apd Hooper ad-
ministrations, as kept by the respective
officials of said administration. These
books are open to the inspection of any
body.
Results Compared.
My prison commissioners took charge
In July, 1911, and I therefore compare
their first year with the corresponding
years of McMillin and Patterson:
Year Ending July l, 1900.
tMcMillin)
Expenditures .............. 53,S4S.11