New Britain herald., 1930-02-03
Better Jailers More Important Than Better Jails, Committee On
 Penal Institutions Study Saws

ing-Higher Standards
 in Personnel Needed.
 Better iailc"s are even more irl- portant than better jails if prisor- CTS arc to be returned to society it the expiration of their sentences at least no worse. morally and phySi- calIy, than they were when sen tenccd, Such is the conclusion rcac;,- c1 by the subcommittee on pa"- cons, parole, probration, penal laws and institutional correction Of the National Crime commission, which for five years has been engaged m Inc study of what practical and i'm mediate measures can be taken to reduce crime n this country.
 Former Governor Frank 0. Low den, of Illinois, member of the Ey- ccutivc Committee and chairman of this subcommittee. in his introduce ton in the report says:
 'Democracias arc weak on the executive side.
 'The evil consequences of this tendency of legislation to outrun ad- lnlnlStrat1on in q democracy are now beginning to be felt in the United States. A great change has taken place n our ideas Of what should be done with criminals. All 1he new ideas of reformatory treat mcnt, probation and parole, ind- Ndualization m short, have been in corporated to a very large extent i'll our laws. Our penal administ ration laS not kept pace with our advanc- ing thought. On the contrary, it has logged far behind, and as a conse- quence we, as body polite, are now suffering from that old con- palnt, common 10 many weak ind- Niduals, of good intentions not car rcd out The solution of the crime problem depends on many factors, not least of which, we believe, is the problem of personnel"
 study Prison Guards
 The report emboGics the results O an intensive study of more than a year of the qualification and char atlor Of prison guards throughout the United States and the regull- \ lions affecting their appointment and dismissal, which was undertake "n for the committee by Professor Louis x. Robinson, of Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania. the executive secretary of the committee and T we'll known authority on penal ad- mnistration.
 Not only are the qualifications and methods of appointment tabH- lated for the different states. but a comparative table of the salaries Of officials and employees of state penal institutions is also included, showing variation in WardcnS' salaries of 1000 for the Eastern Penitcntiary of Pennsylvania to $l.S00 for Idaho prison, and in the salaries of guards Of from 5000 for the Eastern Peni- t,ntiary of Pennsylvania to $500 in New Mexico.
 The committee finds there are but ten states having state civil scr vice boards, with varying degrees Of Jurisdiction over prison officials, and only four states where these con- missions have any voice in the selcc- ton of officials for the county and municipal institutions. Of the 3,o6o counties in the United States only five have county and municipal civil service boards, and in these only three have jurisdiction over appoint lncnts and positions in county penal institutions.
 When it comes to the important matter of probation officers, thr committee has been unable 10 find any state probation commission de pdrtmCnt or bureau which has work cd out any system of examination for probation officers. though some Of them conduct informal eXamina- tons.
 situation Not Encouraging
 The tables as to methods of selec- ton are summarized in the report as follows:
 The situation, then with respect to these public personnel depart mcnts is far from encouraging. Of Il civil service commission. Of these ten commissions, eight have been given power over appointments to penal institutions. Even these eight commissions are not truly state wide i'll their activities; they have been created mainly 10 take charge Of state jobs. Four of the eight do rot tpncb nnDoiOt n, cDtc cplIOt i,,G o: municipalities. There are some 3,O65 counties in the United States and we have been able to find cH- actly five with their own central personnel agency. In New Jersey. New York and Ohio, the state com mission has jurisdiction over some county appointments.) Of the five county civil service commissions three have jurisdictions over aD- pointmcnts to county penal and cor rcction institutions. Of the 1920 cities throughout the country having more than 5000 population, only about 200 have any civil service or Ganization After much search, we have found fourteen of the 200, which claim powers over appoint ments to offices in municipal jais or warehouses. Probation officers who should have at their finger tips the technique of social case work CTS are, for the most part, appoint eG in haphazard way by local judges usually from the ranks of small political workers. We are fGced, therefore, with the fact that there is little or no systematic sci entific cndeavor to build up per sonnel in penaA institutions or in probation work in the United States
 The report says: