Evening star., 1938-03-24

cy EfCotuEHb tOOoCCpu W. DCptCme
Der. 1885, In an erecutipe order
authorizing it to make studies and
surveys in the States and State po-
httcdl subdivisions, in cooperation
Nth public authorities. About
year ago, P. I. r. A. undertook
surrey OF District OF Columbia
prison problems.
Far-reaching changes in the Dis
trict's penal system we're proposed to-
day by the Prison Industries Reorgan-
1zation Board in long list of recon-
mendations designed to place the Cap
ital's correction program on a par with
the best in the country.
The recommendations, which are
based on information obtained by the
P. I. r. A. in an exhaustive study of
the Districts penal institutions for
adults and the administration of adult
probation and parole, were made pub
lie at a luncheon meeting of the Cor
rections Committee of the Council of
Social Agencies
The l9l-page report of the agency
describes in detail the institutional
problems and needs and the way in
which good probation and parole work
are hampered by lack of sufficient
trained officers The list of proposals
1t offered to meet these needs is, in
brief:
Establishment of a bureau of cor
rections within the Department of
Public Welfare.
An indeterminate sentence of one
day to one year for misde,neanants.
Adult Probation Bureau.
Establishment of bureau of adult
probation in the Public Welfare De-
partment
More officers for both the Juvenile
Court probation department and the
proposed bureau of adult probation.
Use of the jail as detention center
and receiving clinic, the workhouse at
Occoquan. Va, for short-term men:
Lorton Reformatory for serious Of
tenders who do not require maximum
security housing; proposed walled
. unit at Lorton, to be known as the
penitentiary division. for housing the
more dangerous types. and the wom-
ems division for all women prisoners.
Provision for more work at the in
etitutions through expanding the farm
activities and the work of present
shops and by establishing four new
shops to serve the state-use market
supplied by unsupported institutions
and agencies of the District.
A true revolving fund for the indus
tries.
Would Train Inmates
An aggressive training program to
equip men for useful work and i'm
mediate employment of skeleton
staff to start the educational program,
the staff to include an educational
director, with four assistants to handle
the vocational work. agricultural train
ing, academic subjects and classes for
women
Improvement and reorganizing of
the medical service by enlarging the
staff and providing decent hospital
at the workhouse and a tuberculosis
hutlAlOIl at lllc lclOI IIld IOIy.
A special research unit to study the
problem of chronic alcoholism.
The organization of modern classi-
dcation work to assign prisoners to
the proper housing units and give them
treatment suitable to their needs.
Civil service status for all employees,
together with higher wage scale to
n ffroaf r1lolifoI
Construction of new housing units
at the workhouse and reformatory.
including new women's division
entirely separate from the mems unit;
z sewage disposal unit at the work.
house; rebuilding of the District Jail
on It's present site. making use of the
walls of the present building, but COM
pletely surrounding it with new wings
80 as to provide modern detention cells
and ample quarters for the receiving
clinic.
Ask Five on Parole Board.
An unpaid part-time parole board,
as at present. but with the membership
increased to five if the volume of
work increases too greatly with the use
OF an indeterminate sentence for mis-
demeanants; organization of the parole
staff as a division of parole with a
director responsible to the board.
In recommending an indeterminate
sentence Of from one day to one year
for misdemeanants, the survey pointed
20 the tremendous turnover at the Jail
and workhouse. declaring that between
1900 and $4,000 cases moved through
the jail during the year ending June
80, 1887.
These figures" the report asserted,
"tell story of incessant and very
rapid turnover which defeats all at
tempts to organize or maintain a pro-
eressive prison program and to do
constructive work with individuals.
The result is that rs per cent of the
men and women passing through the
jail are repeaters who come back again
sooner or later, and to 10 per cent
regularly return as soon as they get
out. = = Short sentences of 10, IS and
30 days make possible this stream of
commitments and recommitments and
furnish the key to the excessive turn
over with which the courts and insti-
tutions struggle"
The P. I. R. A. urged that the prac-
tice of imposing fines with a prison
term as the alternative be abandoned
except IN cases where ability~to pay
ts well established. The practice Of
paying fines in installments also
should be developed further.
Clinic at Jail Favored.
The report declared that estab-
lishment of receiving clinic at the
Jail. which would be required under
the proposed indeterminate sentence
for misdemeanants, would cut down
the turnover substantially in about
six months" thus tightening the bur-
den on the courts as we'll as the
institutions, and greatly facilitating
better probation work"
Working toward a unified parole