Daily Kennebec journal., 1916-03-16

1914.
The progress Of tn. Mutual Welfare
League was watched by penolosistS,
sociologists and others. including man,
men and women of note throughout the
country who believed they recognized
in it system of reform from within
instead of from without. George Cor
don Battle, of counsel for Osborne ar
guing recently in the Supreme Court at
! POughkeepSie on motion to dismiss
the indictments. emphasized what he
declared was the vice public interest
in Osbornes methods. The eyes of
the world are upon Mr.. Osborne Mr.
Battle declared. Prison reform y on
trial"
| Under the Osborne system the in
mates elect delegates who in turn elect
an executive committee. \ court is
appointed, either by the delegates or
! by the committee. Known as the Mu-
tual Welfare Court. Before this TIL
| bunal are brought inmates charged
! with offenSeS constituting IL breach of
prison discipline. The court acquits
; or convicts. and its verdict is always
subject to appeal to the warden, who
|
alarms appointed by the executive
committee act on a Prison police force.
cooperating with the prison guards III
maintaining order. At TIL" head OF TINS
, government of some 1900 men is the
Warden--superViSor advisor. final ar
bitter. Under this system Osborne be-
iieved the spirit of the inmates and of
Sing Sing as 2 whole, improved.
| One phase Of this treatment of con-
victs was associated with the perjury
| indictment brought against Osborne.
The prisoners were often voluntary
confessors Of crimes committed within
! Sing Sings walls. and Osborne and
members of the executive committee
rega rded these admissions as conf
Dental. This was the stand which
Osborne took when he appeared q
! witness before the grand jury last De-
cember. At the recent hearing on the
motion to dismiss the indictments. Mr..
Battle quoted grand jury minutes to
show that Osborne had declined to re-
veal confessions of immortality made to
him by convicts, the witness testifying
that there is no immortality case so
far as the prison is concerned"
A previous investigation conducted
by DR.. Rudolph Diedllng. state prison
commissioner. had revealed that of
nearly score of convicts admitting
immortality. some We're officers of the
Mutual Welfare League and had con-
fessed to Osborne Arguments on the
motions to dismiss the indictments in
dicatcd that the perjury charge hinges
Nv ncJ,n ora testimony
that there is no immortality case"--
that is, whether Mr. Osborne had
knowledge of such ca ses as existing at
the time he was testifying.
MANY of these convicts had been in
dicted, charged with immortality, prior
to the two bills brought against Os-
borne. In February. Nathan kaplan.
the first of these to he tried. testified
in Supreme Court here that he hao
been framed" by Csborne's enemies
The verdict in kaplan's case was ac-
uuittal.
This charge that enemies were be-
hind the grand jurys investigation OF
Sing Sing was made by Osborne as
grand jury witness and by MI bat'le
in his argument to have the lndlct :
meNtS OlSmlSSeu. Dui thN
PROCEEDINGS it was brought out tha'
osborne had stated before the grand
iury that lie believed politics was pe-
hind the inquiry but that he denied at
,he same time that he had said IN pup
,c sneeches that he believed there was
prison ring" engaged in con-
spiracy to disrupt and disorganize the
industries Of Sing sing.
Prof. George w. kicchwey. formerly
Of Columbia University. succeeded Us
borne as Sing Sings warden, accepting
the post. he said. as one actively iden
tilted with prison reform and lntena-
,np TO continue the work begun py MS
nredecessor. He had been in once less
than fortnight when he went TO Gov.
ernor Whitman with complaint ina.
John B, Riley, state Superintendent u
prisons. had ordered transferred from
!. Sing Sing to another prison more ,hai.
80, convicts who included those
-rorn,nently identified with the Mutua!
welfare League. Governor Whitman
wrote Riley that the effect of TINS or :
aar ..nust be to break down the ad-
m;nistration and render the warden
nosition intolerable." The Governor
demanded and received Riley's resls-
, nation.