New-York tribune., 1922-03-30
Sing Sing Attendant AL.
Ieges Measure Passed bv
Legislature Was Draft
ed to Release Him
Would Lift Bars
For 1920 Others
Protests From Prosecut-
ors and Judges Advo.
cate Veto by Gov. Miller
MON q SfnH rnrtnznn.d.n.


ALBANY, March %. 9.-Eobort p Brin.
deil former boss Of the building trades
III New York, would oe eligible fo,
paloie next week, it was learned to-dav
under the Westall parole bill now be
forS Governor Miller for signature. Re
ports arc current that the bill was
drafted and passed in Brndells inter
est, although hundrcds Of other con
vets would profit by it.
If the Westall bill becomes law anv
first offender whose maximum term Of
lmprlsonm ent would not exceed twenty
years may be paroled after he has
served one year of his term. Brindell
was sentenced to serve not less than
one year nor more than twenty years
He has almost completed his first year
According to figures obtained from
en' frlson Department, more than 200
iirst-termcrs, who are under sentence
for all crimes on the calendar from
picking pockets to murder in the sec
ond degree, could be freed after sery-
ing only one year of their sentences
The total prison population is $500
Judges Opposed to Measure
Superintendent Rattigan is opposed
to the bill and has filed formal
wr item protest with the Governor urg-
ing him not to sign it. No hearing
has been had on the measure. which
was jammed through the Legislature
without debate in its closing hours.
District attorneys and judges through
out the state are opposed to the bill
and they declare that a wholesale iail
delivery under cover of law could be
effected under its radical provisions.
Told it was common report that
Brindell was one of the first-termers
for whom the bill was intended to be OF
service, the Rev. William E. Cashin
Catholic chaplain at Sing Sing, said:
There is nothing to that. For every
Brindell | could point out a hundred
deserving cases. 1t would be bette,
for the state if this bill became law. as
many of the convicts are not criminals
at heart and their families need them
Warden Lawes, of Sing Sing, also
here, said that several prison reform
associations sponsored the bill. He
defended the measure as step in the
indiyidualistic treatment of prisoners
and said that the bill gave the Parole
Board permission to release prisoner
at the end of the first year of an in
determinate sentence.
Life-Termers Also Affected
In this Warden Lawes was in error
The fact is that the bill strikes out
the old law, which limited the parole
to prisoners who were serving an in
determinate sentence. All prisoners
even those who are sentenced for life
after serving one year of their SEN
tence can be paroled. Section 211 of
the prison law, as amended by the
Westall bill, will read, if the measure
is signed
Every person now or hereafter con-
fined in a state prison or reformatory
who never before has been convicted of
a crime punisha BILE by Imprisonment in
a state prison shall be subject to the
jurisdiction of the Board of Parole for
State Prisons. and may be paroled at
any time after he has served one year
of his sentence"
The Westall bill would strike from
Section 211 the qualifying language de-
manding that the parole be subject to
the same conditions and penalties as
prisoners confined under indeterminate
sentences.
The measure also amends Section 212
of the prison law by giving the Parole
Board the right to parole prisoners if
the Judge or district attorney, or their
successors, who tried and sentenced the
prisoners does not make a report to
the Parole Board within ten days.