The Washington times., 1922-12-29
GATE OPEN
WIDE To
STREET
Properly Yard on River Front
Here Is Little Known Branch
of occoquan.
BY GEORGE FRANKLIN.

Unmarked by surroundings in
dicating a penal institution while
exhibiting many aspects sugges-
tive of rescue mission of the in
dustrial type, the property yard,
Ninth and / streets southwest, a
branch of the Occoquan work
house, is declared by persons in
terested in penal reforms to be
an ideal institution of the con-
Meeting link which they insist
should be established between all
prisons and the outside world.
Doesn't Look the Part.
Enclosed by a whitewashed wooden
fence. easily scaleable at any point.
its double gateway at the driveway
entrance left standing open for eight
hours a day. it's wharf.lined river
front offering every opportunity for
an ordinary swimmer to drop quietly
into the slow-flowing Potomac and
gain the speedway on the opposite
side Of the river undetected by the
two guards on duty. the property
yard Is as far removed from the con-
ception of a workhouse or prison en-
tertained by the average person al II
possibly could be.
But the property yard is a prison.
nevertheless, just as much as the
workhouse' proper or the reforma.
tory at Occoquan, a prison where
men serve sentences and where they
experience all of the restraint i'm.
posed upon the inmates of the other
District penal institutions. except.
that to a great degree they are self
imposed. for at the property yard
the prisoners are largely on their
honor.
OF course. they are short.term
men, men sentenced for minor Of
fenses to terms varying from thirty
days to six months. but they are
prisoners just the same and are un-
der exactly the same Impulse as
the men doing longer terms in the
workhouse and reformatory. In
fact. some of the men there at pres
eht-there are a dozen or more all
told-are transfers from the work
house. They are men with most of
q long term already served, who will
be released within few weeks.
1t is this feature of the system
which has attracted the attention of
penologists to the property yard and
causes, them to see in its operation
q practical solution to the problem
OF releasing men who have expert.
enced long prison terms to resume
elationship with world with which
they have become to a great extent
cut Of touch.
Some Arc Better There.
Industrially speaking. the property
yard is the shipping station for both
Il
Here practically all Of the output of
the two institutions Ia handled in
shipping and where much OF the
supplies reaching them is received.
It IL the work of handling the prod.
ucts and freight consignments on
which the men sentenced or trans
ferred to the property yard are en-
ployed.
Within the stockade, IL the white
washed board fence can so be desig-
mated, the man committed to the
property yard finds all of the con-
veniences of home. There he has
his quarters. there he messes. and
there he receives his friends during
visiting hours. There was a time
when conditions at the property yard
excited criticism. But that was be-
fore the present superintendent. q.
G. Stein. was detailed to take charge
of the unit. Since his advent ideal
conditions have been created and an
inspection of the grounds and build
ing convinces the visitor that In
many instances the unfortunate men
convicted of law violations fare there
far better as wards of the District
than when left to shift for them
selves in freedom.
Work at the yard 10 strictly man.
ual. Just now the men are engaged
in handling some half million brick.
The bricks come from the kiln at the
workhouse and are brought up on
barges In the center of the yard a
nile, declared by the superintendent
10 be in excess of a half million
bricks, stands stacked in even rows.
II will disappear within a few days.
for the brick are used on District
construction work by the contractors
engaged on such projects. Just as
these brick were loaded on wheelbar-
rows at the dock and trundled to
where they are piled at present 80
they will be loaded by the prisoners
on the contractors wagons when
withdrawn for District work.
When not engaged in handling
shipments the prisoners are kept
At work on yard improvements.
Superintendent Stein has many
ideas he is carrying out for the
Improvement Of the yard and its
Identification. He insists that at
no expense to the District 1t can
be made to correspond in attractive
ness with the conditions surround
ing the speedway on the opposite
side of the river. He also believes
that the prisoners are benefited by
improved conditions in their sur.
roundings, and that just as the
latter are made more agreeable the
reaction on the men is more pro-
nounced.
The coming Spring will see. for
example, great circular flower
bed in the center of the yard. In
the past this was but a wild waste
oyergrown with rank weeds.
Carrying his idea Of better con.
ditions to the interior of the build.
ing Superintendent Stein points
with justifiable pride to the sleep
ing quarters. The latter occupy a
spacious room along two sides OF
which stand a row Of cots. The
bedding used by the prisoners 10
Immediately clean. Each OF the
-. 10 reuuIred IN laundry his