The public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1913-1968, 1920-12-08

Gated In such camps.
Mr.. Vreeland's letter to Chairman
Garrett, in part, follows:
For the ten years Immediately pre-
ceding June LIST, 1920, was chaplain
of the State Reformatory at Frank
fort In those years, | became very
much interested in the work of re-
formation of prisoners and made
many warm friendships among those
were were unfortunate enough to be
there under sentence.
Although, no longer officially con-
nected wit hthe prison administration
in Kentucky, nevertheless. still have
a deep concern in its welfare and sue
cess.
Early in the month of October /
read in the daily papers that it was
proposed by the State Road Depart
ment to ask the State Board of Chari-
ties and Corrections for an additional
five hundred men to be worked on the
public roads in the near future.
when | read the article, felt i'm.
PEELED to write to the Road Depart.
ment. as well as the State Board Of
Charities and Correction, respectfully
calling their attention to the danger:
that seemed to me to threaten both thu
inmates and the prison administration
by such an unfortunate move.
Il did not write the letter. but wheI
lookin COVER the Courier-Journal m!
attention was again called tc the sub
ject by an article in that paper in re
gard to the death in Harlan county o
Miss Parsons. Pine Mountain Settle
ment School teacher. who was recent
ly assaulted and murdered. am en-
closing copy Of that article.
1.-The events narrated in the articl
show very plainly how easy il is I,
direct the finger of suspicion at mel
once convicted of crime, who happel
to be in the vicinity where a ney
crime is committed.
"The article also illustrates tn
practical impossibility of having di
rect supervision over convicts Will
in road work, as we'll as the impossi
bility of preventing the evils of gamb
ling among men so quartered and S
scattered.
AS long as convicts are confine
within the walls of the State Refarma
tory. it is possible for the watchfr
eyes of the prison warden. prison ply
stefan and prison chaplain to stud
each individual convict, to gauge hi
mental, moral and spiritual condition
and to adapt the treatment he require
TO his individual needs, so that in
few years, he becomes eligible to pi
role, and also industrially, moral
and spiritually equipped for it. He ca
then be released without guard, an
permitted to re-establish himself
society under the supervision Of p;
role officers, or fhe violates his pi
role. he may be returned to the R
\ formatory.
q However, with the convict popul
ton of the state scattered about
different counties, into widely separa
ed road camps in the sam county, al
even in smaller scattered groups
the same road camp, the convict is r
moved many miles from the watchf
care of the prison warden, prison phi
stefan and prison chaplain.
HE is entrusted to the custodian
ship of guards who rarely know an.
thing of modern penology, who ha,
never studied or thought of the ps.
chology of crime or the graduate
that the convict passes through fro
criminality to repentance and parol
I'm road camps, the housing an
sanitary conditions are necessaril
bad, and cannot be favorable con
pared with similar conveniences of a
established reformatory. The visit
the physician to the camp is occasion
al, and he is only called in when
convict is i'll. The chaplain sees hi
rarely, if at all, in the road camps.
provision is made. nor is it practic
to make any for religious instructit
and services in road camps.
4 I'm the road camps, the men a
= taken from a central point of res