Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-03-06
Friendly Visitors, in Confer
ence, Favor Turning Over
Earnings.
ORGANIZED LABOR NOT
OPPOSED TO PRISON WORK
II Asks, However,, That Con-
victs Be Not Employed on
Contract Work.

Commentator of plans for en-
p!oyment and compensation of pris-
oners as partly worked out and as
recommended by the prison labor
Commission and further provided for
in Assembly bill 3s9 by .Assemblyman
Nutting was voiced at a meeting
called by the Conference of Friendly
Visitors and held in the Free Pub
lie Library today
Organized labor represented by
Henry f. Hilfers, secretary of the
Essex Trades Council; the church
represented by the Rev. M. G. John
son. rector of Trinity Church prison
officials by Ferdinand j. Hosp, war
den of Essex county penitentiary,
and social workers by Arthur ".
MacDougall, of the Bureau OF As
ISOLATED Charities; Clarence L. Ston-
aker, of the State Charities Aid and
Prison Reform Association, and John
A. Cullen, of the Catholic Children S
Aid Society, were unanimous In ap-
proving work and pay for prisoners.
Some amendments to the Nutting bill
were suggested particularly the
clause providing for the division of
the prisoners compensation. The
prisoners wages are not to exceed 80
cents for eight hours work, and the
objection made was to the court costs
and fines being deducted before al
lowanee is made for the prisoner s
family, The bill provides that the
warden shall hold the earnings for
the benefit of the prisoner or his fam
lily, subject to the approval of. the
pudge of Common Pleas after the
fine and costs are deducted
working on Fines.
NJ. Cullen pointed out that in cases
of desertion, non-support and cruelty
to children, where Their is q fine and
not Imprisonment as a penalty, the
man is usually sent to Jail to work
out the fine. In such cases he must
be released as soon as the fine is
paid. but meanwhile the family is
receiving nothing.
Present accomplishments along the
line of employment and partial abo-
tertiary were told by Mr. Hosp with
plans which he hopes to see carried
out.
Essex Prisoners as Farmers.
Not only are the prisons benefited
both in health and character by work
to the warden, but from an
economic viewpoint it is for the wei
fare of the county. Work in the open
air was especially recommended by
Mr.. Hosp, who stated that only about
20 acres of the 591a acres of ground
attached to the penitentiary had been
cultivated previously, though 40 are
suitable for cultivation. More extern
sive farming is now planned, so that
rot only will the products be suffi-
cient for the keep of the inmates,
but a surplush may be had to supply
other county institutions. Men thus
employed, he said. will become ex-
pert farmers and gardeners and may
gain good employment on leaving the
institution. He expressed hope
that the charity organizations of the
city would assist the pententiary Of
fcials in placing such men.
fht StrIReb.
The gradual doing away with
stripes was said by the warden to
be proving helpful in the discipline
of prisoners. The present plan is to
give suits OF brown and blue to the
men doing good work and making
clean records.
That organized labor is in favor
OF prison labor, but not of contract
prison labor. was stated by MIR. Hill
fers, who urged the value Of the
State use plan. He declared his in
tention of helping through legisla-
ton looking to these ends and to the
compensation of prisoners for their
labor and of an allowance to the
families of prisoners.
Labor Against Contract Work.
Organized labors objection to en-
ployment of prisoners has reference
only to contract work, he said, and
expressed the thought that the or
CARNATIONS had been misunderstood
in this occasionally, even by it's own
members.
Contracts usually affected a few
trades, he stated, and those chiefly
employing women and children, and
it was because of this that the or
ganization had protested in the past.
He declared also In favor of the
plan of the Prison Labor Commits
sion for purchasing 5000 acres of un-
reclaimed land and clearing it by
prison labor.
Mr.. MacDougall intimated that or
ganized labor had been quoted as
opposed by freeholders and others
who desired not TO push the subject
of employment of prisoners. 1.-THE
present situation is hopeful said
Mr.. MaoDougall. referring to the
hearing to be given by the freehold
ers at the Court House on Tuesday
afternoon at 4:30 o'clock. -
Instances of suffering in families,
occasioned by the husband and
father being in the penitentiary.
were told by Miss Persis Snodgrass,
of the Bureau of Associated Chari-
ties. The typical cases were chosen
from among some now being helped
by the bureau