Plans and Illustrations of Prisons and Reformatories
Science
Plans and Illustrations of Prisons and Reformatories
Prisons -- Design and construction; Prisons -- United States; Reformatories -- United States
I do not mean that misbehavior is necessarily the result of or
associated with disease, either physical or mental, although this is
often the case, but that it presents an analogous problem to society,
and that it should be attacked in the same manner, that is, through
scientific analysis and classification, the discovery of causes,
probably very complex, and the application of remedies, probably
chiefly preventive, and based upon these causes. Only in this way can
it be hoped to turn this costly waste product of social life into a
useful by-product.
A NEW POLICY
When the “Sage Prison Bill” became a law, providing for the demolition
of the old Sing Sing cell block and the erection there of a new study,
classification and distributing prison, and creating the “State
Commission on New Prisons,” New York State committed itself to a new
and more intelligent policy toward its offenders and toward the whole
problem of misbehavior. The new commission, commanded to carry out the
above and other provisions, soon found itself confronted by problems
that belonged essentially to modern medical science, and it turned
to the “National Committee for Mental Hygiene” for counsel, and an
advisory medical committee was formed. About a year before this,
realizing the need of a more thorough psychiatric study of criminals
along the lines that had been followed so well by Dr. Healy at the
Juvenile Detention Home in Chicago, the National Committee had placed
Dr. Bernard Glueck in Sing Sing Prison, with the consent and sympathy
of the Department of Prisons, to carry out a complete mental analysis
of all new admissions.
[Illustration: THE NEW SING SING PRISON, OSSINING, N. Y.--PSYCHIATRIC
BUILDING
LEWIS F. PILCHER, _New York State Architect_]
The results of Dr. Glueck’s studies have been published in full in
“Mental Hygiene” and elsewhere, and form a valuable foundation for the
scientific handling of the mental side of prisoners.
The commission and the state were fortunate in having Mr. Pilcher,
the New York State Architect, to translate these ideals into actual
construction, and the completion of an important part of the plans,
including the Clinic Building, and, most of all, the final assigning
of the contract for the erection, insured the carrying out of this
interesting and important project.
THE CLINIC BUILDING
Mr. Pilcher has thrown himself into the undertaking with singular
diligence and intelligence, and has entered thoroughly into the spirit
of modern scientific treatment and research.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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