The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1913-11-20
MAKES RECON-
MENDATIONS TO
ATTORNEY GENERAL
W arden Meyer, Of the Federal Prison at
Atlanta, Georgia, in His Annual Report
to the Attorney General Makes Some
Excellent Recommendations for the
Benefit Of Prisoners in His Keeping.

In his annual report to the Attor-
ney General for the fiscal year,
Warden Meyer made the following
recommendations:
The parole law is an excellent
method of giving the man who is
sent to prison an opportunity to be-
come a useful and aw-abidng citi-
zen, but it does not save the man
from the disgrace of being sent to
prison. A wise probation law would
accomplish this and there can be no
doubt that many would be reformed
by its application before the prison
stamped it's indelible mark on the
mans record. Let the next step in
the direction of prison reform be the
enactment of probation law.
The Criminal Code Of the United
States, as amended during the second
session of the Sixty first Congress,
provides a maximum term of i'm
prisonment, but no minimum term
excepting in a few instances. This
code is better than the laws amended
by it, but | believe the ends of JUS
tice could be more effectively and
humanely reached if neither the
maximum nor minimum terms were
fixed by law. If when passing GEN.
tence, the court were empowered
to place the defendant on probation
or, in cases of recidivism, to send
him to prison for an indefinite time,
leaving another tribunal the respon-
sibility of determining when society
has been sufficiently protected and
the offender sufficiently punished,
the welfare of society and the man
could more easily and effectually be
guarded.
In it's origin, crime is the result
of individual thoughts and individ-
ual acts, and the effort to classify
crimes and to punish the criminals
of each so-called class under a
blanket-law which says, not less,
nor more," is but an an effort to
make general laws fit individual
cases with equal and exact justice.
That this is possible is proven by
existence of the parole and the par
doning power. Under an indetermi-
nate sentence every indiviual case
could be considered and disposed of
strictly upon its merits, hence |
strongly urge the passage of such
law.
In the progress y. ramane, re-
formative and modern methods of
handling prisoners, | believe the
time has come when something
should be done for the care of de-
pendent and helpless members of
the prisoners family. 1t is a ques-
tion for serious reflection whether
depriving family of necessary sup
port by sending it's head to prison,
without making any provision for
food. or clothing, shelter, and edu-
cation of the helpless family, is not
potentially a greater menace to fu-
ture society than is the incarcera-
ton of the man more beneficial to it
now.
The laws must be enforced and
the punishment of the innocent even
more severely than the guilty will
always be incidental to it's enforce
ment, unless relief can be given in
some authorized way. One effect
i've way to provide the needed relief
is to provide proper compensation
for the labor of prisoners, and to de-
vote at least part of this to the
proper care of the dependents of the
prisoner.
AS matter of information which
might be considered in connection
with this subject, desire to report
that during the ten years have been
warden of this penitentiary. the
prisoners have performed 1,752,667
days of prison labor. During the
same time cash gratuities amounting