of the manufactured goods on his own account of course. The state furnishes operatives (prisoners) whose services are to be paid for, not by the day, as now, but by the piece or process for work done to a given standard of perfection. By this system (1) the state is relieved from furnishing manufacturing capital; (2) the whole business of the prison governors is with the prisoners; (3) the control of the prisoners is unified; (4) the evil influence of the contract employes is abated, because the contractor gains nothing by extorting exorbitant tasks, there is no motive for chicanery; (5) the state is most sure to receive the real value of the prisoners' labor, more or less, and the state alone is responsible for the amount the prisoner shall earn; (6) the Piece Price plan best enables the prison government to place the prisoner in condition, as to labor and living, closely analogous to the natural social state in this regard, the prisoner may be made to live# and enjoy whatever he can earn but no more, and such "a situation is most serviceable in training and testing under the remedial regime; (7) since the Piece Price plan is almost universally in use by private manufacturers, the fair rate per piece can be easily ascertained and may by law, if thought best, be fixed at the average paid free laborers in the same locality for the same quality of work, thus, to the nearest possible point equalizing the valuation of prison labor and free labor by which injurious competition here, if any exists, is removed. Contractors generally express themselves satisfied with such a system, because they are by it relieved from all anxiety and liability for the quantity of work the prisoners shall do or not do, being sure to get an equivalent for every dollar paid the state for labor. The Piece Price Plan can be pub in place of the contract or Public Account System easily and without injury; the present industries may be and would naturally be continued. The system of accounts required is simple, and may be fully guarded against fraud by the identity of interest in earnings between the state and the prisoner. Prison industries should always subserve conjointly three grand purposes which are, when stated inversely, as to their importance namely, Income, Discipline, Rehabilitation. Believing the plan here proposed best meets this requirement and quite removes any real or fancied ground of complaint from the mercantile or laboring classes, it is recommended that the Piece Price plan be put in the place of the Contract'and Public Account systems of employing prisoners. IX. EDUCATION OF PRISONERS. It is surprising so little has been done for the education of prisoners. The juvenile prisons have schools, some of which are efficient, as schools go, but others are inefficient and perfunctory; while in adult prisons generally nothing of importance is attempted. There is known to be in many adult prisons cell-door or Sunday morning teaching to illiterates, which, if better than nothing, is certainly insufficient and by no means entitled to be called systematic education. Every prisoner in the penitentiaries should be placed under a graduated compulsory educational system while in prison, the school to be manned with the very best teachers and thoroughly worked with the most approved methods. The feasibility and utility of such schooling has been thoroughly tested and surely established. Such a school may be provided for every penitentiary without interference with the hours for work, without any burdensome expenditure or cost, and without endangering, the safe keeping of the prisoners. Large classes conducted on the oral plan of instruction, with monthly written examinations, taught by teachers not connected with the prison but brought in from the neighborhood for this special service at the school hour, is the best plan. None or but few text-books are required, for each lesson should be previously prepared by the teacher and printed by itself, for which an outfit of press and type costing $500 is sufficient, and almost every prison has a prisoner printer fit for this service. The course of instruction should include, at least, in addition to the usual primary English branches taught in the common schools, Physical Geography, Political Economy, Physics, Ethics, Natural and Moral Theology; and a recent experiment has shown the value of technical instruction in industrial as well as mechanic arts. The purposes of such a course are to develop the prisoner, per force, out of the criminal condition and character, and fit him for free life. If it be objected that education is not reformation, it may be answered that there is no reformation without education, and that honest behavior depends more than is imagined upon the ability to earn easily an amount sufficient to supply natural and proper needs. The penitentiary system should thus prepare its prisoners. X. THE PARDONING POWER. The exercise of the pardoning power vested in the Governor of the State should be, under a truly reformatory prison system, a rare clemency. The release of prisoners whether by pardon or otherwise should be only on condition of reasonable security against their further crimes, and then always with due regard to the effect upon society. The governing authority of the prison can best advise or determine this. The true limit of pardons by the Governor of the State is the correction of errors as shown by new evidence. The free issue of pardons has in some quarters given rise to carelessness in [sentencing prisoners, the Judicial having thrust its responsibility in this matter upon the Executive branch of the government. It would be a benefit if the judges could feel that their functions are final in criminal cases, unless for the best of reasons and in exceptional cases^ Under the Indeterminate System of sentence there is really no reason for pardons by the Governor. But two pardons in seven years were issued to the inmates of the Elmira Keformatory in New York, where this system is in use. XI. TOO FREQUENT CHANGE OF PRISON GOVERNORS. The too frequent change of prison governors is an evil still. It is the product of our political system and of the low plane the prison question occupies in the public mind. The American idea that everybody can do everything paves the way for it, and the punitive idea pervading our laws perpetuates it. When it is generally understood that the proper protection of society from crimes requires the cure of criminal characteristics by natural means and rational methods, it will be apparent that men must be trained for such a work. Prison governors with good natural qualifications, broad-minded enough to scorn retaliation on the one hand and sickly sentimentalism on the other, thoroughly trained and firmly supported by the public should be kept in their place for a life-long service. Society with such agents may under a proper system secure protective and other benefits from the penitentiary system, so greatly needed, so long and vainly sought. XII. THE PENITENTIARY PROBLEM A SOLUBLE ONE. Practically considered the prison question is not an impossible one; great as is this public interest, it may be wisely controlled. The aggregate of prisoners of all grades is, in the United States, 70,000, of which number there are in hospitals, asylums, and reformatories, etc., 12,000; leaving less than 60,000 in the penitentiaries and jails. If we deduct then the prisoners in jails and station houses, 14,000, a special class not yet subject to penitentiary treatment, there remain only 46,000 penitentiary prisoners proper, a nunber less than one-naif the population of the city of our present sojourn. Surely there must be power and wisdom enough in the times and the government to effectually prevent further crimes from these. Yet we are from the prisons themselves sending out constantly a stream of moral leprosy, crowding the courts, creating a crime class in society, endangering the life and property of peaceful citizens; a class which, in the hands of unscrupulous leaders, is dangerous to the whole republic. Mr. Cable speaks confidently of a quarter of a million, and Mr. Round of a half-million ex-convicts abroad in community. There is no question but current crimes are largely committed or incited by this element in society. It is high time the question of penitentiary treatment is put on a sound b&sis of security to the public against crimes, an end to which the influence of this conference should certainly contribute. XIII. CONCLUSION. Let the criminal laws be reformed until criminals properly committed shall be obliged to reform or remain under needed restraint. Reform the prison structures, giving room enough with facilities for classification and efficient educational work. Then classify and educate until every prisoner, to the extent of his capacity-for the time allowed, is developed in industry, in mind and moral control of himself and until upon conditional release he actually shows his ability for good citizenship. To this end, let partisanship, whether political or religious, be eliminated. Give us prison governors capable and trained, and allow them to remain so long as they serve well. In short, elevate prison management from the low plane of its present existence to that of its true importance, where the'practical purpose of public benefit shall be the inspiration, scientific and sensible methods be employed, and, the public approval be awarded not for producing revenue alone, but for accomplishing the higher purposes for which laws, systems and penitentiaries are erected. Respectfully submitted, Z. R. BROCKWAY, G. W. BURCHARD, FRANCIS WAYLAND, R BRINKERHOFF, REFORMATION IN PENAL TRE YfMENT. BY JUDGE A. H. YOUNG. The subject of Penology is one of the most important, ones which society and the state are now called to consider, and in a sense, perhaps, ranks all others in its claim for wise consideration. That crime in its different phases is the most serious disturbing element in our social and political system, will not be questioned; but it has existed so long, in every age of the world's history, that society has come to look upon it as incident to human depravity, and in general to increase or diminish as reforms, from whatever influence, shall affect, or fail to affect, human character and social morals. So long as governments have existed, criminal laws have, for their enforcement, been backed up by penalties, in severity proportioned to the civilization of the age; but until a very recent date, little if any thought has been given to the moral effect upon the subject, of the infliction of such penalty. At times the deterrent power of criminal law has been supposed to be fairly proportioned to the severity of the penalty; but experience has questioned this principle, and modern civilization revolts against its adoption as a legislative* rule, and so governments have been straitened to know how best to deal with crime, being prompted upon the one hand, in order to secure the most deterrent effects of the law, to great severity; and upon the other hand, being moved by considerations of humanity and charity, to the exercise of mercy. And, as a natural consequence, these two influences have produced criminal laws in different states and governments, unequal in their terms, but, as far as statistics show, varying but little in the general result. The world is moving; moving with rapid strides; never so rapidly as now, and with this movement is growing ihore charitable, less vengeful, more liberal in thought, with broader conceptions of justice, mercy and compassion, and possibly more appreciative of the value of a human soul. There is a consequent tendency on the part of the advance guard in this great movement to relax forces which deal mainly with the physical in the treatment of human beings, and substitute those influences which relate more especially to the moral anct the mental faculties. On the other hand, the more conservative, having learned from experience how depraved |
