PRISON HARSHNESS

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 242, 9 July 1931, Page 9

PRISON HARSHNESS

111-treatment of Children SCANDAL IN AMERICA Cells for Trivial Offences BOYS KEPT IN LEG-IRONS By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. (Rec. July 8, 8 p.m.) Washington, July 7. President Hoover has received the Wicltersham Law Enforcement Committee’s report on a detailed study of juvenile offenders in the United States. The report asserts that nearly all Federal juvenile offenders are placed in living quarters which are in “poor repair, insanitary, and not fire-proof.” It is also stated: "Punishment In dark cells is given for trivial offences, and imprisonment In a guard house, such as six days for the possession of one two-cent postage stamp, is imposed.” According to the report boys are shackled in various types of legirons, the flogging system is widely misused, and over-crowding Is widely reported. The medical aid at one prison for juveniles is said to be “to stave off epidemics rather than to treat those who are obviously seriously ill.” Food supplies are alleged to be generally inadequate, and the “hardest punishments are generally found In the institutions for the reform of the young.” The six months ending December 31, 1930, saw 2243 boys and girls under eighteen years of age incarcerated, 990 of whom were convicted on prohibition charges.