The moral development of the convict is first of all dependent upon the character and bearing of the officers of each institution. Doubtless, it is not easy to be an officer of a prison, and to preserve the finer instincts unblunted by contact with the criminal classes; but the moral impress can be made only by officials of high ideals and moral worth. The tone given to an institution by the personnel of the officers thus becomes the chief factor in the moral development of the convict.

EMPLOYMENT.

Prisoners should be employed at some productive labor. Such employment cultivates in the prisoners habits of industry, and keeps them in a healthy physical condition, so that on their release they are able to engage in physical labor. It is fair to the taxpayers that these offenders be required to contribute something toward their support, and receive training in some occupation that will help them to be self-supporting after their release. This labor should be both productive and educative. Sham labor, like treadwheels, has, whenever tried, proved a failure. The value of this labor should be reckoned not so much by what the prisoner produces as by what he learns to produce. Both hand and machine labor should be taught. We live in the age of machinery. Hence, it is important for prisoners, in order to meet the necessities which will confront them on release, to know how to work in an industrial shop where the chief part of the labor is performed with machinery.

The average number of prisoners in the jails of this State is about 3,000. Over 2,000 of these are serving sentence after conviction. The law for many years has required that these jail convicts shall be employed at hard labor. However, until the last few years, this statute has been inoperative, and all these convicts have been kept in absolute idleness. Recently, on the urgent recommendation of the State Commission of Prisons, the jail convicts in a considerable number of the counties have been employed either in breaking stone, to be used on highways,

or

in actual highway construction. In nearly every instance the results have been eminently satisfactory. The employment of jail prisoners is now in successful operation in the counties of Orange, Ontario, Broome, Niagara, Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Tioga, Chemung, and to a greater or less extent in other counties. It is the uniform testimony of the officials in these counties that this work not only improves the health of the prisoners, gives them some useful industrial training, and keeps them in fit condition to labor after their discharge, but it also benefits the community by reducing the jail population of the counties about 50 per cent, and gives to the counties some needed highway improvements.

In the reformatories of the State, practically the whole time. of the inmates is given to instruction in letters and trades. They are operated as great industrial schools and are the busiest prisons in the State. In the other prisons employment is under the restrictions of the Constitution of 1894, when our State adopted a new and unique system that was intended to prevent the products of prison labor from being put in the open market in competition with the products of free labor. The convicts in our State prisons and penitentiaries are employed in the making of things needed by the State itself, or by some of its institutions, or by the institutions of the political divisions of the State. None of the products of prison labor are sold in the general market. Contract labor is entirely banished from our prisons. It is undoubtedly true that the present Prison Law of this State is the most favorable to free labor of any law that has been adopted by any State or nation, and if the labor interests of the State will be content to allow the prisons to have the market defined by the Constitution without further limitations, and public officials observe the law in good faith, the need of the State and of her political divisions will furnish reasonable employment to our convicts. The prison authorities of the State have established in the prisons a large number of industries so as to distribute production along as many lines as possible.

The danger now threatening the present system is that, year after year, the representatives of different industries come to the Legislature clamoring for the exemption of their particular industry from any competition with prison labor; and the Legislature has shown considerable inclination to yield to these demands. Obviously, such a course, if once entered upon and continued, can end only in the elimination of all productive employment from our prisons, and a system which was devised in the interest of free labor, and which is more favorable to free labor than any other system anywhere in operation, will be broken down by the unwise action of labor itself.

Under the present system the annual value of the products of our prisons is about one-half million dollars. Nearly 90 per cent of this represents free labor in the cost of material, the employment of foremen, payment of freight, and other necessary expenses aside from the labor of prisoners. Under this system the prisoners are able to earn about 10 per cent of the cost of their maintenance. While this seems small, and puts upon the taxpayers of the State a heavy burden, yet it compares quite favorably with the actual net benefit received by the State during a very large part of the time when the contract system was in operation.

The present system has also these advantages over the former system, that all contractors are now excluded from the prisons, and from interference with the management and control of the convicts; and the facilities for giving to the prisoners instruction in morals, in letters and in trades are very much better than under the contract system, where the whole effort of the prison was to extract the largest possible amount of physical labor from the inmates for the enrichment of the contractors.

One of the difficulties in the successful carrying out of the constitutional plan in this State has been, and still is, the unwillingness of public officials to comply with this law in the purchase and use of prison-made goods. Many officials are solicitous to give the patronage of their office to their political friends rather than purchase from the State the things which the State is ready and willing to furnish. Doubtless other officials are looking for

a "rake-off" on their purchases, which, of course, the State does not give.

The active coöperation of public officials is essential to the success of this law. It may be remarked here that the benefits which this law was intended to confer upon free labor can be only slightly realized until a similar law has been adopted by the other states of the Union, or until the United States Congress has prohibited the exportation of prison-made goods into this State from other states and countries.

Hon. Samuel J. Barrows, Corresponding Secretary of the Prison Association of New York, read a paper on Supervision of Paroled and Discharged Convicts."

SUPERVISION OF PAROLED AND DISCHARGED
CONVICTS.

It has been said with much truthfulness that the most critical time for an offender is not when he goes to prison, but when he comes out. That is certainly the most critical time for society, but it is also dangerous for the man himself. The unsolved question of his readjustment to society is before him. When he went to prison he was brought face to face with his past; now he is facing a mysterious and problematical future. It is not necessary to point out the serious consequences which may ensue for society. The fact that the relation of the man toward society, and of society toward the man, is a purely experimental one suggests that the release of a prisoner ought also to be experimental.

This conviction is gradually forcing itself upon enlightened legislators. The idea of conditional liberation has been accepted and has found its way into the legislation of twenty-seven of our states and into that of the most prominent countries of Europe. It is known in this country generally as the parole law. The conditions imposed vary in different states. In some a man must have served one-half of his sentence, in others two-thirds, in others the minimum penalty imposed by the code for the offense. Where

the indeterminate sentence prevails, the prisoner's release depends not upon the length of time he serves, but upon the record he has made in prison. All of these laws are forms of conditional liberation. The only law which is perfectly logical is an indeterminate sentence without limitation, either maximum or minimum, and which assumes that no prisoner shall be released even tentatively until those invested with this discretionary power are convinced from his record that it is safe for society to release him conditionally.

Parole laws have already proved to be of great value in promoting prison discipline and in stimulating prisoners to fulfill all the conditions which determine eligibility, but I am concerned in this paper only with the effect of these laws upon the prisoner after his conditional discharge.

In the first place, the new law establishes a radical difference between the relation to society of the discharged prisoner who has completed his term, and that of the man liberated on parole. The prisoner with an absolute discharge is released whether he be a fit subject for release or not. He may have no home, no friends, no prospect of employment, but the law which forced him to go to prison on a certain day forces him to go out on another day, without regard to the consequences to him or to society. He is regarded as having paid his debt to the State and the State has no longer any control over him. The paroled man, on the other hand, is not discharged until he is assured of work, which means also an assurance of food and shelter. For the paroled man there is no need of a "prisoners' home," with the evils which may result from gathering together men who ought to be separated. The paroled prisoner enters at once into natural and normal relations with society. His freedom, however, is conditional upon his good behavior. The State still holds over him the hand of authority, a salutary and restraining influence. That authority is exerted in the form of supervision and correction. This supervision should be preparatory; it should mean a thorough investigation of any offer of employment which the prisoner has secured and of