The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-10-22
PRISON REFORMS
ARE ADVOCATED
American Prison Associa-
ton Congress In Session
This Week
WOULD ABOLISH
CELL SYSTEM
Governor Smith of New York Thinks
it No Longer Necessary-Mr. CHS
holm Advocates Wage Earning foI
Prisoners to Support Families.

holm Advocates Wage Earning for
Prisoners to Support Families.
NEW YORK, Oct 22.-''It is not
difficult to break man, but is a big
man S job to make a man..
This statement by A. II. Leslie, pres
ident of the Wardens association, is
the keynote of the American Prison as
ISOLATION congress, in session at Hotel
Pennsylvania this week Making good
citizens of prison inmates, rather than
breaking them by old-time methods.
is the business of hundreds of dele
gates to the various branches of the
! congress. just where the prison re
war is over, what it deems necessary
/ for the rehabilitation of the thousands
! of persons imprisoned every wear, and
| how it intends to 90 about bringing
| these improvements to pass are sub
| iects being discussed by experts gath
cred together in the wardens. chaplams
and prison physicians associations, the
/ National Prisoners Aid society. the
beard of parole and pardon, the Ameri-
can Association of Clinical Criminolo-
gy. and the Juvenile Reformatory sec
ton.
Gov A. T. Smith who welcomed the
| associations to New York at the eve
ming session, said that the governor
should not be charged with deciding
whether or not man should be sen,
fenced to capital punishment or life
imprisonment lie said it was not fan
either to the executive or the prisoner
as il was impossible to study all APP
peals for clemency. For that reason
he favored board of pardon. Thu
governor also made a plea for industry
within the prison, both for the sake OF
the prisoner and his family, who might
otherwise be dependent on friends OF
1 public charity.
~ would also suggest the absolute
abolition of the cell-block system,
said the governor. A man locked az
in one of those cages over night can.
not feel that the state is treating him
like a human being. The ideal prison
III my opinion would he built on tho
cottage plan. ] don t believe YOU have
to cage men up as in caTluier times
It Is not 50 easy to escape in these day
5 of automobiles and motorcycles j
: would be good deal better for one O
two TO get away than for thousands t
be so bound down by law.
The prisons are suffering from
group of obsolete notions. handed dow
to them from generations back an,
many are still tied hand and foot t
the idea that 4 man may be cured o
his bad ways by making life unbear
able for him, said d. Ogden Chisholm
Of New York city.
el "Thc public : attitude is creating
class mere dangerous than the Reds
men who believe that society is thei
sworn enemy and no man is friendl
to them
I 'Truc reforms will be effected onl
I when the people understand that tn
prisoner is a victim of ignorance an
wrong thinking. This class of men VIII
are pouring out of our prisons and jail
each year, estimated at half a millior
stunned and despised and looked upo
as part OF the human scrap heap, neN
erthcless constitutes 4 power that mus
70 he reckoned with in order to maiI
RS taln peace and order in our land.
O. Mr., Chisholm said that until poop
4. awoke to the fact that the prison Wa
Is to make. not break, the man. erin
ID would not be decreased. He adve
= Gated work with wages for prisoner
5. in order that they might continue I
support their families and learn sci
rs control and self-respect, and urged tn;
l. politics be not allowed to play pa
+. in selecting and removing prison O
IN ficials, and that newspapers help Il
| lv-. oil, ,nf
nation concerning its work.
- The test of the prison is the ma
be .rl: -: - -.
is ana - Ia, -, piiSo "t -, noInnaa,,
es ''''' mus ~