Polk County news-gazette. (Benton, Tenn.) 190?-191?, 1913-07-31


He studied the men ard their en-
/ vironment. and worked out the result
OF the combination He got a good
/ idea OF the advantage TO youthful con
victs OF having cocaine and morphine
smuggled in to them By keepers lot
more crooked than the prisoners they
guarded lie formed some impress
sious OF whether the prerOgatiye OF a
prison is 20 reform or create GRIMM
ais. and he got 20 know that even a
man with 4 jail sentence at his back
is a human being.
These things were what made him
determine 70 spend the rest of his bus
mess days-when he got out himself
helping the boys" as he calls them,
get a start despite the prison which
keeps many of them crooked. He
found that a man out on parole need
ed two things. princiDally-encourage-
ment. and a chance to make an hon
est living And he determined that
so long as 1t was in his power he
would provide those dual requisites.
These are some of the home made
statistics he compiled during his So
iourn in a Sing Sing cell:
Forty per cent. of the men in prison
ought not to have been sent there.
Nearly so per cent. of the inmates
of Sing Sing are dope fiends.
Twenty per cent are dope tiends
when they go there. The remaining
80 per cent. acquire the habit in their
cells
There should be prison segregation
prisons for first offenders, places for
old-timers, for murderers, for degen-
crates BY mixing all together, the
pestilence of each is spread to the
others. and the prison becomes
Crime College.
SAYS It Does Not Reform.
AN investigation of Sing Sings
1000 convicts will show any fair
minded man that the penal system of
today does not reform criminals or
benefit society,"" said the president of
that unique company He is a tall,
wide-shouIdered, black-haired, ear
nest-faced man. One needs but to
look at him and talk with him to dis
cover there was a blunder somewhere,
Eyes; l have taken all my office
force from Sing Sing and Elmira,
find them good, efficient, earnest
workers. Do have any fear OF en-
pIoying them direct from cell? No;
of course, not I know them, and they
know me We understand each other.
I
was. We got to know each other, and
l could pick my men. | never have
employed one that has not proved
himself reliable.
'I suppose | receive several hun
dred applications for jobs f'u'e Sing
Sing yearly I investigateaeVe = all
If | haven't place | find ott en+Vork
for them. Not long ago got IN
out of his cell into bank down ~
He's doing we'll and they know -
story and trust him.
Giving All a. "chanee."
J 5a'ssssas-- TOOK up. this wUrT after
seeing whatgsort of chance the boys
at Sing Sing had It was pretty pain
they needed help when they got out.
Nobody wants to employ convict, as
a rule, and If you're going to keep a
man who has committed crime from
going back to it when he gets out OF
Jail, you must show him the world
hasn't lost all faith in him. If he sees
it has, and can't get job, and hears
his babies crying at home because
they're hungry, he's going to feed
them. And if he can't do it honestly,
he'll do it the other way,
What they need is a chance-the
feeling they aren't blacklisted for life
lust because they've fallen, and some
one to encourage them. That's what l
try to give them!
81 found how it was myself, first
hand Remember that! / had money
and a big business when l came out,
but had that blacklist bugaboo to
face and l needed some one to encour-
age me. If a man doesn't get that its
back to the old game, or-the river,
generally,
Best Way to Put Down Crime.
IF people only would realize these
i mean the first time men Who've
made a mistake. Just one little mis-
takes enough, you know. 1t would |
make a lot of difference if somebody'd |
help them out when they first get pa
rolled l know of no better way of cut
ting down crime than helping the
criminals to quit 1t. i
"You see, I've got faith in human
beings. A mans naturally honest |
But let me give you an example of
how the prison system helps them to
be dishonest In one of those three
by-seven cells, when | was up there,
we're two men. One was an old-time
safe cracker doing long bit He
was hard as nails-mean and crooked |
to the soul, and cruel. The other was |