New Britain herald., 1930-02-03

EX-GOVERNOR LOWDEN
 counted for largely through OIL,
 failure to improve the quality Of the personnel which has been asked 70 undertake ever more compIcX and l more difficult jobs We are no5 finding out how impossible it is 10 turn into realities our new ideas ,: 1 pr'son treatment. probation and pa-
 role through an ill-chosen and in adequately framed personnel.
 Testimony to this effect cln easily be obtained ad nauscam. It IS an undisputed fact that the maiori- ty of prison guards and warders
 have been giTen their positions in
 return for some political scryI c they have rendered.
 Want Higher Standards
 In proof of this contention. the report gives | stat ytcnt furnish,a. l Tn June, 1928, by a high official Df an important western state as 10 .ha character of the probation officers, as follows;
 We are planning to introduce leg lslation looking toward higher standards of procedure and records. and some state supervision. At the present time, We have 5S varieties. one for each county, and we employ i as probation officers. policemen. bartcnders, cN-saloon keepers. | cooks carpenters, barbcrs, trucK drlvcrs and Shocmail,rs. who arr. theoretically supposed to do a high lN specialized and technical piece of human engineering which requires the highest type of training, cxpe, l. encc and Citizenship.'
 The report further quotes from the Journal of Criminal Law aaI Criminology the following summary as to Wardens and prison guards under present conditions ou' Wardens and prison officers arc often appointed solely for political reasons, with little regard to thci., qualifications, and the position Of prison guard is not only given as q; political plum, but is so poorly pail that few men of ability will accept 1t. The position of the guard, indeed, Is well nigh intolerable. His salary is ridiculously low and far less than that which can be earned by even the most Incompetent mechanic. His hours Of labor are long-SometimeS sixteen hours a day. and he himself IS virtually a prisoner. His isola- ton is cruel, as under the rules which exist at Joliet, at any rate. he is not allowed to converse with the prisoners. He is chiefly engaged in watching idle men and our criminal neglect has allowed almost eighty five per cent of the inmates to be idle. He, him self, is usually ignor- ant and he gets into the habit of believing that his chief duty is 10 report infractions of the rules rath- CT that to guard against them. He has 10 make a showing. as it were, and too often the inexperienced prisoner (N" say inexperienced because usually the confirmed criminal has learned to size up the guard and is his sl- pcrior in mentality. is the victim Of the guards own discontcnt and iso- lation. IL is on the reports Of thcs2 guards, nevertheless, that the pun lshmcnts are based, good time is al lowed or disalloWcd, and, in q large measure, the parole board acts. Their personal friendship and per- sonal cnmitics are all-controlling. Their likes and dislikcs often have a tragic influence. Our prison guards are among the most impor- tant of the officers who arc con- nected with the system of paroles. They should Oc carefully selected. They should not be political appoint tees. neither should they hold their offices by political favor. Their hours Of service should be rCason- able and their salaries adequate.'
 Want Job Analysed
 IL is the contention of the com mittcc that 1t is particularly ncces- sary in this class of state employees to use the modern method of jop analysis and thoroughly to compre- bend the duties of their positions in order to secure men qualified fo.' the work. The report says:
 Tn our opinion, an advance n penal administration can be brought about only through the full acccp- tance of this prcscnt-day business principle of knowing, rellly know iDc what rnrb iDh is and of fin.1- ing and developing the proper man to do it.
 "ln industry, this work is now carried on by personal departments organized within the management and subordinate to the chief exec'l- tive. The nearest thing in public administration corresponding 10 these personnel departments are civil service commissions. We be- lieve that these are more essential than the personnel departments of private business concerns. We must remember that any ono of our IS states or even any one of our num- orouS large cities or counties is, among other things, a large bust ness concern, very commonly the biggest single employer in the dis trict, spending large sums of mon2y annually on tasks of huge social sig rificance and having many en- ployees on it's administrative staff. In private business, the drive for profits is usually strong enough Co