THE DOWN-AND-OUTS

Evening Star, Issue 20346, 30 November 1929, Page 4

THE DOWN-AND-OUTS

AMERICAN PRISON REFORM Mr Hoover s appointment of Mrs H. 0. Whittpenn as American Commissioner on the International Prison Commission, now sitting at Berne, is a very notabie instance of the President’s knowledge of men and his determination to have the best regardless of party considerations, states an overseas writer. Twenty-live years ago Mrs Whittpenn and her brother, Mr Richard Stevens, worked among the down-and-outs, and constantly they had to deal with men and women who had come out of prison in an entirely brutalised condition. Those were the days when the prisoners’ heads were shaved, when they wore striped clothing, were thrust into dark cells under incredible conditions, and were leased out to work on the roads, where they could be seen by all and sundry. Treated like wild beasts, they naturally behaved like wild beasts. It was not long before the two Stevens formed a small committee to deal with the appalling prison conditions in their own State._ They drew up a plan for the reorganisation of the whole penal system—a plan which is now more or less in force at the present time, and which has perhaps reached its culminating point in the Clinton farms scheme for women. Mrs Whitt-' penn, in the meantime, became head of the probation office in Xew Jersey, and is so still.

Clinton farms is Mrs Whittpenu’s very own scheme. It consists of an estate far out in the country of 20,000 acres. The idea of it was based on confidence in and re-education of the prisoner There can be seen the small house with a big tree in front of it which housed the first girls and women sent there Since then many houses have been built both for whites and for coloured people, together with a chapel given by Mrs Whittpenn. The girls and women who are sent there have committed every conceivable crime. There are thieves and murderers. There arc young mothers who have killed their babies, wives their husbands, but under the special conditions which make reprieve seem desirable. For a short time each prisoner is kept by herself. Then she is given certain work to do. It may be laundry, farm work, cooking, needlework, nursing, according to her capacity. Trained psychologists look after the girls, and, as each advances, more confidence is placed in her. Finally, she is put on parole. Groups of women prisoners 'work about the estate under no supervision whatsoever. There is no wall round it, no barriers. The prisoners are simply on parole . ; . The result has‘been amazing. In the fewest possible cases have the girls taken advantage of the liberty allowed them. There have been remarkably, few attempts to escape, and the girls even come back afterwards of their own accord to testify as to the life they are leading. The whole was a daring experiment of faith in human nature, _ Mrs Whittpenn herself says that its instigators wore lucky in being able to secure a large estate sufficiently removed from undesirable people and surroundings. Had it not more than justified itself it would have dammed the whole scheme of reform.