The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-11-17
URGES SOCIETY
 TO SEGRECATE
 THE HOPELESS
Commissioner Davis Advo. cates Isolation of Degen-
 crate Criminals.

depenera te.and for whom there is no hope of becoming useful members or society, should be segregated and the others should be givent reform atory treatment said pr. Katherine B. Da- wis. commissioner of corrections of the city of New York, speaking last ,1ial1t before the members of the Con temporary club.
 pr. Davis advocated the segrega- ton theory most strongly although she did not go definitely into details concerning this method. Her req sons for favoring it were-thats a scien- tiffc study of prisoners is proving that at least one-third of them are degen- crate and these are not adapted to. go out and take care of themselves in society.
 Two topics are to. be. considered in conIlection with prisons according to Dr. Davis--prison- labor and prison discipline Concerning prison discip- line, Warden O5borne's experim ents at sing Sing at present are much before the public eye and Dr. Davis told at length Of the warden's ideas on the subject eFe asserts that we live in a democracy and that when tho men leave prison they go out intosa world that is a democracy. Therefore they must learn for. themselves by them selves self control self direction, self confidence, responsibility for their own actions and to live as a social group. Of course hes knows that there will be mistakes but he be- Ieves the good eomplished will be so muck greater than the mistakes thatsit will warrant the plan
 On the whole, the system of self government that he has worked out is very similar to that of the George Junior Republic, with which he was form es.-Tx1- fofr1l1 3o ha T1O- 1iticaI system Of which the shop is fthe political unit. Each shop, ac- cording to the number of men ern- ployed in it, elects delegates to a cen traI body1of which nine arc chosen to dos t1se g3vernTnga in a sort of comrnis- sion form of ernfaent. These nine arg subdivided into committees of wRteh the board of judges is one Of the most important.
 These judges try all cases Of sbTe&.z. ing of laws which come to them and sentence the offending prisoners to forms of punishment, such as being blocked in their cells for a certain tenn of money in vogue in the prisonI Each prisoner reeeives 9 dollar a day for his labor and out of this mon- ey. he must pay for his cell, his food and everything he receives as in tho outside world.
 H. cording to Dr. Davis, the morality of the men seems better and quarrels. among themselves fewer than under the old system It must not be over looked that one case of immortality or one fight. will attract a great deal mere attention from the general pub lie today than would 10 eases before the prison was so much in the news papers because of the new experi-, ment.
 What really is making self-govern- 1nent success at Sing Sing, firmly belfeve,'' said pr, Davis, is the won derful personality of Warden Osborne, which carries the plan right along. If he were to be removed in the near fu- ture, T. am certain that the whole thing would fall to pieces
 Prisoners, on the whole, do not want vis- She. said that she lad tried the. plan at the Bedford Refornnatory fol, women. which she established and carried on for 13 years. She had given the se1f-governfnent to a few of tho girls who showed themselves interest ed in it and had been at the institu.., ton for, six months lsr, longer She asked the others who did not have it ef they would like self government too, and ethey voted against it. be- cause, they said, they did not trust the other girls, they were afraid that
 
 then besides they felt that the off cials of the reformatory were paid to govern them and they thought it should be left to them.
 thought" said Miss Davis, that they had such ideas because they were girls, and that had they been men they would have felt differently about 1t. When, however, we had some trouble at BIackWe1I's Island and went over to straighten it out I had each tier of cells elect their delegate and send them in to me to talk things over. Among other things 5sI asked them how they you'd like se1f-govern- nent. and to my surprise, they were very much against it, giving the very some reasons that my Bedford girls had given. This. mind you, was months before Warden Osborne went to Sing Sing. So thought then that the trouble was that they were pris- oners
 A short time later, when I was. at Vassar, my alma matter, I was talking with the dean concerning the self government system there that some of the girls wanted extended to cover many. more things, and she said, DO you know. pr. Davis, a great many of the girls do not want self overn- ment; they fell that the faculty are paid to govern them and that they can do it best Then knew that it wasn't question of prisoners or education
 When for the first time in the his tory of the state of New York voting at primaries was established, only abQNt 2 5 per- gent of. the registered voters cared enough about it to vote, I knew then that the thing went deeper, that it was the whole question of democracy and. I wondered how you could expect prisoners Ito care about self-government when people of education and good standing did not.
 1T believe that we should extend 8 limited suffrage to the prisoners who are interested in it, those who are not should be governed by the authorities and those who are degenerate should segregated We shouId3 train as large 9 number as possible fo the self goxernment class but those whom we