New Britain herald., 1930-02-03

latiVely few enlightened communi- ties IS there present the counterac!- | ing force that insists on merit i5 aD- | pointmcnts to positions in the pen administration. If by some political stroke, representatives from impor- | t2nt families were sent 10 prison, W would witness immediately an enormous change in prison person. ncl"
 | The first section Of the report | deals with the efforts Of our stat eS. cities and counties to build up ar administrative s'aff capable ,: l handling the problems in the fields
 Of probation. parole and institutional care. Civil service commissions arc l llkened to personnel departments Of ! business concerns, and the subconl- 1 mittec insists that they are even more essential in public business than the personnel department is | in private business. since in private business the drive for profits is usu- ally strong enough to overcome th4 pressure to place incompetent men
 on the payroll. The report finds that there is little or no systematic sci entific effort to build up personnel through civil service.
 In Section IT, there is given the carefully prepared and studied ac- count of the historical development
 oi our penal system. It shows that 1 the punishments meted out t6 con- vlCted criminals in Colonial days | have nearly all vanished. The death penalty, narrowly restricted to
 few crimes, still survives, though eight states have wholly abandoned ! it. Whippings are administered in the State Of Delaware. But the bi- 1 bees, the stocks. the pillory, bran J. ing and the practice of hacking off noses. tongues &ld cars have all passed on into the limbo Of discard co things. Punishment in Colonial 1 times. says the report, was 10 a very l3rce extent corporal in chara etc.: i fines were used but the substitute 1 for non payment was not imprison- mcnt as now but some one Of the
 numerous forms of corporal punish 1 ncnt Slowly but surely we are evolving toward individualization in tbc treatment of offenders, Urges Civil Service This evolutionary account Of ou" penal system IS a kind of job analy- sis 10 show what workers are really trying to accomplish through oIr penal and correctional institutions. probation and parole. While no ef- fort is made n this part of the re- port 10 outline the duties Of indi. vidua' officers in the various branches of our penal admInistrt- tion, the intent Of this summary is
 to afford an opportunity 10 note the changing character of the vorN ard to see that our evolving system ot penal discipline has required be- ter and better men at each sucCcel- , ing stage to run it successfully. Section III is devoted to showing
 that, although our penal system lfas | reached an advanced state of devel- opment so far as law and surface il}- dications show, the truth is that our actual accomplishments arc far moro mcagrc than we have been aCcuS- toned to think. For this the poor quality of personnel is largely to blame.
 The actual relationship between personnel and good institutional
 work, probation, parole and the col lection of fines is shown, as well es just what brings about failure in each of these divisions of penal dis cipline.
 Suggestion is made as to civil ser vice itself The committee feels that
 the practice Of business concerns in
 having a personnel officer directly
 responsible to the chief executive or ficer might not be a bad scheme to
 try out in public business. For cN-
 ample, the head of the civil service
 Nould be in the state government q
 cabinet officer directly responsible
 to the governor. and in cities h.
 would be similarly responsible to the mayor.
 It is said that the game Of chess