Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1926-04-01
IF THERE WERE NO PAROLE
SYSTEM

HC III Impulse VI thC
ment is to say that if a person
has been sentenced to 10 years in
the penitentiary let him remain
there for that time or any other
length of time that he may have
been sentenced to serve. The
parole system is not something
that was dream and acquired
over night. 1t is a humanitarian
act and was acquired only after
hard battles for 1t. 1t has been.
abused of (which there is proof,
but should it be abandoned on
account of the exception? Read
the following editorial from. the
Duluth Herald, which throws
some good light on the subject:
There was a story in the
Herald last night about a prisoner
at Waupun, the Wisconsin state
penitentiary, who was convicted
of an attempted burglary and a
vicious assault, who was sem
fenced to twenty-five years at
hard labor, but who is to be re-
leased on, parole in May. with
only six years of his long SEN
tence served.
This is the sort of story that
inflames the imaginations of
those who want to do away with
the parole system and have it so
that when a criminal is "sent up"
for five years, ten years, twenty
five years or life, nothing shall
happen to prevent his serving
the full term. ...,.
But those who only want to
do the right thing by society and
humanity will find in this story
something that they need to
know before they agree too hasti-
ly with those who would throw
away all the progress that has
been painfully won in methods
of handling offenders against
society. ~
This man, Walter McDaniels,
seems to have been hard case.
He was a gun-man, a hold-up, a
daring and desperate youth. He
believed that he had never had
chance in life, and that thought
had made him hateful and bitter.
He was clearly dangerous citi-
zen. 1t was right to send him to
prison. 1t was right, in view of
what he did, to make it possible
to keep him there long time
if it proved to be necessary.
But in prison McDaniels ran
into something interesting. The
state university extension divi-
sion was conducting courses in
education which some of the
prisoners were using. Somebody
induced him to try it, and half
heartedly he tackled course in
arithmetic. He got a taste of
learning and liked it, and so he
tried algebra next, following that
with electrical engineering math-
ematics.
There was something in this
man that his previous experience
hadn't reached. Prison, coupled
with this fine work of the Wis
consin state university, reached
it. Before. he got through he had
developed a talent for electrical
invention. He has become qua
lifted engineer, and he has in
vented several useful electrical
devices and is working on more.
Because there is a parole sy-
stem, it is not necessary to keep
this man in the penitentiary for
the other nineteen years of his
quarter-century sentence. 1t is
possible, now that he has shown
it to be wise, to let him go out
and be a useful member of
society.
McDaniels thought he never had
had a chance in life. He found it
lin prison. 1t was good for him
to be sent to prison. 1t was right
that he should be sent there
If he had insisted on remaining
the hard-boiled criminal he was
when he went there, it would
have been right to keep him
there.