a trusty. Before his assignment is made the deputy warden takes into consideration all he has learned about the man. He calls the prospect for outside farm work before him and talks to him individually. He ascertains that the man desires to be on the farm and appreciates the opportunity; that he fully recognizes it is a compensation for his good behavior. He reads the Honor Pledge to him in measured phrases and makes sure that he has understood it. He then asks the man to sign the pledge. Compared with quarry work this is a great reward for good behavior and is a real incentive. The Honor Pledge for Southern Illinois Penitentiary reads as follows:

HONOR PLEDGE

I, the undersigned, inmate of the Southern Illinois Penitentiary, in consideration of being detailed to work in a position of trust and honor, whether inside the prison walls or outside the prison walls, and in further consideration of the great benefits which I and other prisoners will derive therefrom, solemnly promise R. R. Woelfie, Warden of the above-mentioned institution, the People of the State of Illinois, its Governor, Len Small, on my word and honor, that I will obey all orders of my foreman, keeper or guard, while engaged in such work or do any work to which I may be sent.

I further promise on my word and honor, that I will not trade, sell or give away any property of the above-mentioned institution; neither will I trade, sell or give away any article of any value or no value belonging to any prisoner or prisoners of the above-mentioned institution; neither will I be the means of communication between any prisoner of the above-mentioned institution and any citizen while serving on such detail.

I further promise on my word and honor, that I will not be guilty of any immoral or illegal conduct, or drink of any intoxicating liquor in any form while serving on such detail.

I further promise on my word and honor, that I will not escape or try to escape, and that I will do everything in my power to prevent the escape of any prisoner or prisoners.

I further promise on my word and honor that I will give to my foreman, keeper or guard, any information which may come to my knowledge of any immoral or illegal conduct of any prisoner or prisoners, or the drinking of liquor in any form by any prisoner or prisoners.

I further promise on my word and honor that I will give to my foreman, keeper or guard any information which may come to my knowledge of any intended escape of any prisoner or prisoners, and that I will give the same as soon as same is received by me, and that after an escape, should any occur, I will notify my foreman, keeper or guard, as soon as I learn of same, and render every assistance in my power to effect the capture of any prisoner or prisoners who have escaped.

I, the undersigned, having had the above promises read to me and thoroughly understanding same, do hereby honestly promise to fulfill the

same.

In testimony of which, I have signed this pledge at Menard, Illinois, this. .day of.. A. D. 19.....

Attest:

Signed..

Reg......

THE WARDEN'S COURT

The warden at the Southern Illinois Penitentiary follows a custom which is characteristic of his prison administration. After his evening meal he retires for a period to his office to hold court, a court which is peculiarly not for disciplinary purposes. Convicts are informed that if they have any special difficulties or problems which they wish to discuss with the warden they are permitted to report to him at this evening session. Each man is granted an interview in privacy. The warden, unarmed and unguarded, receives the man. The Committee has attended this session and found that the business affairs of these men on the outside, family matters and advice with regard to procedure in connection with parole form a large part of the subjects taken up individually in this court. The warden has the friendly manner of the country banker talking to his client. In several instances he informed the convict of answers received to correspondence with regard to loans on veteran's insurance, other fiscal matters related to the home farm interest of the convict, and correspondence with the chairman of the Parole Board. These interviews are leisurely and, by and large, these friendly interviews work out well. In the rural districts men are often sent to prison for small infractions. During the course of the interview the warden learned that one of the convicts had been sent up for stealing several secondhand tires and another for being caught a second time with a pint of whiskey on his hip; the latter was a teamster driving in the cold winThese private interviews act as a check on the personnel management of the institution.

ter.

HOSPITAL

The same personal knowledge and understanding which pervades every phase of administration exists in the hospital. There does not seem to be an equal fear of malingering here as at the other institutions. While the doctor does not sit in the staff meeting he frequently visits men in solitary confinement and often makes remarks about men under punishment which introduce certain mollification of their punishment. The continual contacts of the various officers, including the doctor, during the day's duty, result in a great deal of mutual understanding. One need not look for the type of staff meeting which is held in Pontiac but the same result-conference and mutual exchange of ideas-is gained here through informal contacts.

Here as at the two other institutions, a medical report should be retained in the documents presented to the Parole Board, for the advice of the Board in cases where men should be retained within the prison to finish treatment and of the parole supervision in that a man's physical condition has a bearing on the kind of labor he can or cannot do.

PSYCHIATRIST

The psychiatrist who devotes about half of his time to Pontiac and half to service at Southern Illinois Penitentiary examines all inmates who are about to appear before the Parole Board for determining the length of the sentence. A psychologist gives mental and achievement tests. The number of prisoners makes necessary very hurried work. By the time the particular inmates have come up for examination they have already been in the institution for at least a period of several months.

As in the other institutions, the psychiatrist's report is valuable to the Board for the few material social facts stated and for the prognosis as to success on parole. The psychiatric classifications are of less value to the lay Board. The long careful life-history record taken by the deputy warden in addition to the formal data required by the clerk and other officials serves as an aid to the psychiatrist. But the report of the psychiatrist is not in the hands of the disciplinary officers of the institution soon enough after commitment and is not therefore used in personnel management.

The psychiatrist can recommend psychopathic cases to the "crank gang," which is an idle group, the time of which is given over to light exercise and rest. It comprises both the physically and the mentally unfit who are not violent. The violent are locked up, but the congestion at the Chester State Hospital for the Insane makes the transfer of the definitely insane from Southern Illinois Penitentiary to its next-door neighbor-Chester Hospital for the Insane-as difficult as a transfer from Joliet or Pontiac.

CONGESTION

Congestion is the great problem at Southern Illinois Penitentiary from several points of view, chiefly those of hygiene, discipline, and occupation. The cellhouses at Southern Illinois Penitentiary are over-crowded to the extent where about sixty-six men must sleep three in a cell, two in a bunk, and one on the stone floor of the cell.

There is a system of cages in use, iron cages, which are not built in but placed in the open corridors. These cages are, of course, even less private than the cells as the occupants can be viewed from three sides in all stages of dress and undress and all conditions of intimate privacy. The bucket system is in use. However, in the regular cells the bucket is placed through a trap door into a flue in the wall through which air circulates. Air pipe connections ventilate this space. The pipes are so arranged that a man in a lower cell cannot shut off the cell above him; in other words, there is a separate air pipe running to each cell.

The industrial over-manning has already been stated. The hygienic, as well as the moral, problem of congestion can be imagined.

Not so much is said about perversion here, though undoubtedly it is stimulated by the congestion.

It must be emphasized, however, that we do have at Menard a wholesome type of convict in the first offenders sent to the penitentiary on what would be considered very slight offenses in the metropolitan centers; and that we also have here the gangster from East St. Louis and Williamson County and other centers of organized crime. Segregation, therefore, is as necessary at Southern Illinois Penitentiary as anywhere else.

CONCLUSION

The Committee was impressed by the fact that policies and methods of prison administration differ for each institution and even between the Old Prison and the New Prison at Joliet. There is no evidence that the centralization of penal and reformatory administration in the Department of Public Welfare has resulted in standardization of disciplinary administration in the different institutions. Indeed, the Committee does not believe that institutions of such different character and population would necessarily be better governed under a rigid, uniform system of state-wide administration.

CHAPTER XXV

PAROLE SUPERVISION AND THE REHABILITATION

OF THE CRIMINAL

Part II of this report deals with the procedure, evidence, methods, materials, and deliberations of the Parole Board. We shall examine, in this chapter, the processes of parole supervision and rehabilitation. What is the recorded information available in the office of the parole agent assigned to an institution?

A. THE RECORDS OF THE PAROLE SUPERVISION

The forms for parole work are substantially the same at Joliet, Menard, and Pontiac. The Parole Office at the institution had merely a documentary contact with the parolees, in order to satisfy the statutory requirements. Aside from these documents there are reports in statistical form accounting to the Central Office at Springfield for the movements of men out of the institution, and for violators and violations of parole; while on parole, copies of the monthly report (which is again formal and very short) of the individual paroled man to the parole agent supervising him are forwarded to the parole officer at the institution from which the parolee was released. This serves as a basis for the statistical reports.

THE RECORD NEEDED IN PAROLE SUPERVISION

If the parolee is to be given supervision as to home and employment, as to associates and habits, in order to prevent his return to criminal life, then it is of great interest to the supervising parole agent to have as much as possible of the recorded observation of the man made by officials of the prison-disciplinary, occupational, physical, mental, recreational, religious. This person, the inmate, has had experience of some kind in all these phases of life within the institution. But only three forms are forwarded by the institution to the Parole Office or agent at the locality where the man's problem of rehabilitation is to be worked out.

The three forms are (a) a copy of the face sheet of the man's past record, made upon his arrival in prison. A study of the full record of about two hundred of these cases shows that this face sheet is often full of errors. The facts on the face sheet turn out, in many respects, to be taken in a perfunctory, formal way in the routine of induction. The copy of the face sheet which contains the data upon which the parole agent must work is on a loose-leaf form which can be 1 See foregoing pp. 150, 171.