Cattle-Herding

"Although congested as never before in the history of the Institution . . . we have been able to maintain the health and discipline of prisoners. . . . It has been impossible to segregate drug addicts from other prisoners, due to our congestion. I would respectfully recommend that some plan for relief of congestion be undertaken. . . ."--Report of the warden of the U. S. penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kan., July 1, 1928.

"The health of the prisoners has been excellent, especially when one takes into consideration the overcrowded condition of the Institution. At one time we had as high as 500 men sleeping in the corridors . . . after all cell and dormitory space had been filled. . . .";--Report of the warden of the U. S. penitentiary at Atlanta, Ga., July 1, 1928.

Such warnings of cattle-herding in U. S. prisons provoked no action in official Washington. Mrs. Mabel Walker Willebrandt, for eight years the Assistant Attorney-General responsible for prison conditions as well as Prohibition and tax cases, spent more time worrying about the conduct of Federal wardens than prodding Presidents Harding and Coolidge to get more cells built.

Not until last fortnight's mutiny at Leavenworth Penitentiary (TIME, Aug. 12), was something done. Prompt then to speak was President Hoover. Last week he announced a new program to meet this old problem:

"Further Federal accommodations for prisoners cannot be any longer delayed. We will ask Congress to give us the necessary authority and appropriations to revise the system.

"Atlanta is 120% over capacity in inmates at the present time and Leavenworth is 87%, all of which is the cause of infinite demoralization and the direct cause of outbreaks and trouble. . . . Our plans necessitate an expenditure of about $5,000,000 and will comprise some additions and revision of the old prisons and probably a new prison somewhere in the Northeastern States."

Figures told the story of U. S. prison-crowding. Atlanta was built to hold 1,712 men. Its present population is 3,787. Leavenworth's capacity is 2,000, its population, 3,758. Chillicothe, Ohio, has 250 more prisoners than its capacity of 1,000. Only McNeil Island, Wash., is below capacity. As of June 1, U. S. prisoners were incarcerated as follows: In Federal prisons--10,200; in State prisons--1,200; in county jails--9,000.

Causes for congestion were sought. The President explained from data supplied him: "The increased number of prisoners is due to the general increase in crime, the largest number of our prisoners being violators of the narcotics act. They comprise about 33% of the inmates. . . . Prohibition contributes about 14%."

Other major groups of U. S. prisoners were violators of the Interstate Motor Vehicle Theft Act, the Postal Laws, the Counterfeiting Act, the Mann Act (white slavers).

Herbert Brown, Chief of the U. S. Bureau of Efficiency, explained that in 1926 out of 5,120 convictions under the drug act, 1,540 persons went to jail whereas out of 37,018 convictions under the Volstead Act, only 765 men received jail sentences. Plain is the picture of what would have happened had 'leggers been sentenced to prison in the same proportion as violators of other U. S. laws.

Responsible for the President's program was Sanford Bates, U. S. Superintendent of Prisons, selected as a man of "advanced ideas" by Mrs. Willebrandt shortly before her retirement last spring. For ten years Mr. Bates was Massachusetts' Commissioner of Correction, fought many a fight to modernize that State's penal system. No sentimentalist, he believes in prison reform, rehabilitation of society's sick-minded. One of his methods for relieving U. S. prison congestion is to increase paroles, now limited by the scarcity of probation officers. President Hoover last week promised him more of these officers.

P: Prison congestion worried State as well as U. S. executives. The New York World made a survey of the 22 largest prisons in the U. S. outside New York, received reports that 15 of them were "dangerously overcrowded." The percentage of population over capacity in important local prisons was: Indiana State Prison, 79%; Eastern Penitentiary, Pennsylvania, 77%; Nebraska State Penitentiary, 61%; Missouri State Prison, 42%; Rhode Island State Penitentiary, 31%; Kentucky State Prison, 31%; Maryland State Prison, 25%.

The Maine State Prison was 16% below capacity, the "emptiest" in the U. S.

P: At Angola Penal Farm in Louisiana last week six convicts seized a locomotive, went roaring away towards freedom in the hills. When their steam gave out, they took to their heels, were shortly recaptured.

P: Kentucky's Governor Flem D. Sampson last week signed death warrants for two murderers, to be executed in September. At the same time he issued a proclamation calling attention to their crimes, their punishment, which he ordered read once a week in every prison and jail in the State. It began: "May the Lord have mercy upon the souls of these unfortunate men who are about to pay the extreme penalty for their transgressions."