Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-19

but to help rebuild wasted lives. we
are making education available to pris-
oners, not only by teaching reading
writing and the other elementary sub
lects, but by training hands and minds
Tor jobs outside prison walls when SEN
! fences have been served or paroles
granted. We are making books avail
| able to prisoners so that minds may de-
velop instead Of degenerate. as in the
past.
And, most important the opportu-
nifty TO work Is being constantly ex-
banded. This is being done without
bringing prison-made goods into COM
| petition with the product Of paid labor
| on the outside. Men and women are
working IN prison shops turning out
textiles, brushes, brooms, shoes and a
variety Of other products. but those
things are not sold on the market. In
| stead they are being used by Govern
ment departments.
In the prison shops the inmates are
now able to earn q small stipend, to
return. At the Atlanta Peniten-
tiary, for instance. 900 of the prisoners
earned an average of sl3ls each per
month IN the cotton duck mill. Men
so employed consider this q privilege
many times preferable to sitting in
idleness in cells. But until every man
and woman in Federal custody who Is
able to work Is given some useful, pro-
ductive task we shall not be satisfied
with that phase Of the new prison pro-
gram. Furthermore, until each Of the
individuals constituting the prison pop
ulatton has had his record, education,
mental and physical condition and
capabilities of useful development stud
led by those competent to Judge the
possibilities Of improvement and ref
ormation we shall not consider the
new prison plan anywhere near fulfilled.
Again. the prison problem cannot
be solved without some attention to
those outside who are related to those
within-and who arc equally q problem
to the community. In one of the Fed
eral penitentiaries, for instance. is a
man serving a four-year sentence. His
for assistance in supporting eight small
children. Aid for the family was OBJ
tanned from q local welfare agency so
that hungry children might be fed and
older ones clothed sufficiently to attend
school. Furthermore, the warden Of
the prison assigned the father TO the
cotton duck mill, where he Is working
for wages which will be forwarded to
his family. This could not have been
done under the old prison conditions.
So 1t Is all the way through the new
methods being applied IN khe Federal
prison organization. The purpose is not
to curry favor with criminals by leni-
ency but to apply common sense to the
problem Of curbing criminal tendencies,
not so much for the benefit of the
prisoner as for the future protection
OF Society-which will have to pay the
bill If the man continues with his crimi-
nal activities.
We are doing other things to give
what might be called individual treat
ment" TO the violators Of the law. No
longer is a Judge bound to send virtual
" all prisoners to the same type Of
penal institution. We are creating
places Of confinement for the first
offender. other places for other types
Of law violators.
We know-we do not gueSs-that this
kind of attention to the problem is
worth while from a practical stand
point. We have the subsequent record,
for instance, of 322 girls and women
released from our Anderson Institution
OF these $50 are known to be leading
law abiding lives or there Ia no record
Of subsequent rearrest. OF the other
q only 8 have been rearrested for
causes arising subsequent to their re-
lease. And Of 1874 released on parole
only . havA violated the pledge 10
lead law-abzGng lives.