Evening star., 1914-11-14
DRUGS ANDuQUOR
CALL FOR NEW LAWS
Board of Charities Recon-.
mends Institution for Treat
ment of Habitual Users.
WOULD MAKE OFFENDERS
PUNISHABLE BY FINES
Commitment to Hospital the Al
ternative-Work Reviewed and
Reforms Suggested in Report.

Enactment Of law making habltual
drunkenness and habitual use of opium
or other habitforming drugs misde-
meanor punishable by a fine or incar
ceration in a hospital for inebriates for
not longer than two years is again rec
commended by the board of charities in
it's annual report, submitted to the Dis
trict Commissioners today.
Such law, it is urged, should con-
template rational care and treatment of
the acute cases, followed by eompul-
sory restraint i'll Il custodial institu-
ton. To this end the board recon-
mends that an inebriate institution be
located on one of the farm lands al
ready owned by the District.
The report of the charities body re-
views at length the work done during the
year by the city's charitable. penal ana
correctional institutions.
Reforms Advocated.
Among the principal reforms ad-
and parole law 1t is stated that tine
Industrial Home School for white chill
d. en- is crowded beyond its normal ca
pacity and that the best way to re-
lieve the situation would be to locat.
new tract of land be acquired for
the home it should be large enough to
afford ample facilities for agricultural
and horticultural purposes, the board
suggests. In the meantime 1t rec
ommends that an appropriation OF
S.. 900 be authorized for relieving the
present congested condition
Need of an institution for feeo!e-
mirded children also is emphasized oy
the board.
community interest in this problem,
states the report. Last winter there
was organized citizens committee Oh
about forty persons under the leader-
ship of the Monday Evening CLUB, ana
comprised of representatives of various
philanthropic and social agencies. This
committee is now considering the draft
of a proposed law for the establishment
of a suitable institution and with the
co operation of the childrens bureau
is making a census or feeDle- minded
persons in the District. 1t is believed
that it will be possible for the Com
n,issioners to submit to Congress this
winter bill designed to provide Tor
this class of persons, accompanied by
accurate statistics showing the extent
of the need.
Progress on Two Institutions.
The report shows that satisfactory
year at the workhouse at Occoquan,
Va, and the Home for the Aged and
Infirm at Blue Plains. 1t recommends
an appropriation for purchase of ad-
ditional ground adjoining the latter
institution.
The workhouse brick plant, it is
stated, will manufacture 100000
bricks to be used in the erection Of the
new Central High School. Concerning
Z
coming a seif-supporting institution
the report says:
1T is hardly to be expected that the
class OF prisoners committed to the
workhouse can be made wholly self
supporting. Many of them are dere-
licts, wrecked in mind and in body.
They are the mere fragments of men.
They are the halt and the blind. No
very considerable proportion of them
are able to perform hard labor. and the
present system of short-term sentences
renders less efficient those who might
be classed as the able-bodied. This is
so not only because of the frequent
changes, but because most prisoners
when received are in poor physical con-
dition on account of dissipation, and it
takes some time to restore them to
such condition as fits them for hard
work. When at the expiration of their
short sentences they are relea sed. in
many instances they return few days
later. once more bankrupt in body and
soul"
Review of Activities.
In reviewing the years activities. the
board states that the two most i'm
portant appropriations made by Con-
Gress were for the preparation of plans
for the municipal hospital, to be locat-
ed at 14th and. Upshur streets north
west. and preliminary work upon the
proposed reformatory to adjoin the
workhouse. at Occoquan. Preliminary
appropriations for commencing actual
construction of these institutions are
requested in the Commissioners esti-
mates which will be transmitted to
Congress in December,