The Delinquent (Vol. IV, No. 4), April, 1914Various
General
The Delinquent (Vol. IV, No. 4), April, 1914
Various
Prisons -- Periodicals
“Our large farm,” said Mr. Cooley, “cost us $330,000 ten years ago. We
have recently been offered $1,000,000 for it, but of course refused to
consider the offer. We have hundreds of heads of fine cattle, hogs and
horses and raise everything in the way of farm products. The profits
possible on a farm of this kind are not to be realized by people who
have had no experience with the system.
“We also do away with the problem of labor. We have the men on hand
with nothing to do with them but let them work. We do not compete with
labor, either. The men enjoy the work and nine times out of ten leave
the farm better morally and physically than they came to it. Such
is not the case with the man who spends a week or six weeks in the
stagnant atmosphere of a city jail.”
* * * * *
_422 Convicts to be “Turned Loose.”_--The New York World, of April 5th,
prints a special dispatch from Louisville, Kentucky.
“Kentucky is facing the problem of caring for 422 convicts, to be
liberated at approximately the same time and for whom no provision has
been made. The prospect is viewed with varying sensations in different
parts of the State. In cities and towns there is alarm, but on the
farms and plantations, where help is scarce, no fears are felt, and in
fact the liberated criminals will be made welcome for the labor they
can perform.
“This condition is brought about by the new indeterminate sentence law
which is now operative in Kentucky and which does away with the old law
by which the jury trying a case fixed the term of years for which a
person should be confined, in the same verdict declaring him guilty. As
it is now, the jury merely passes upon a prisoner’s guilt or innocence,
and if he is found guilty his prison term is automatically fixed by the
law covering the offense with which he is charged. These sentences, of
course, range from a specified minimum number of years to a maximum.
And it has been the rule heretofore for the Prison Board with whom the
power of parole rests, to allow the prisoners their freedom largely
upon the character of their crime and their conduct while in prison.
“But in the John De Moss case (recently decided by the Court of
Appeals), it is held that if a prisoner has completed his minimum
sentence and shows a clear record in the prison he must be issued a
parole then. Another feature is that he must be able to show that
he has some legitimate occupation waiting for him when he is set at
liberty again. This parole, of course, does not free the prisoner
absolutely. A string is held on him, and should he ever transgress
again he may be brought back and made to complete his original sentence.
“Naturally, the convicts are delighted. Of the 422 convicts to get
their liberty 232 will go from the penitentiary at Frankfort and 190
from the Eddyville prison.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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