A Just Prison Policy

By Ben W. Hooper

Governor of Tennesee

Governor Hopper of Tennessee is so much interested in the subject of prison conditions that he has made it a practice since his election to spend an occasional day or two with the inmates of the State penitentiary. There he listens to their stories, while he studies them as individuals with a result that he has been able to inaugurate several reforms and to institute some much needed changes in prison methods.-The Editors.

THE

HE best way to get information as to what is going on in a prison among both the officials and convicts is to go there and get this information at first hand. The subject of penal laws and management has been given much thought by the people of Tennessee, but it has been neglected in a large majority of the States of the Union.

The masses of the people have concerned themselves about only two things in connection with the State penitentiary:

Party Politics in Prison Problems.

First, how to get a man in prison, and, second, how to get him out. The great question of what to do for him during his incarceration has not been given much thought. Just now the people of Tennessee are thinking more upon this subject than this or the preceding generations have thought during the century of our statehood. This is partly due to my agitation of prison reform, but is perhaps more largely traceable to the peculiar political condition in this State.

This is practically the first Republican administration since the civil war. We had one Republican Governor thirty years ago, but he did not get control of any of the departments of the State Government except his own Executive office.

Nearly all the papers of the State have belonged to the dominant party, and they have not been swift to turn the light on the little matters of detail in prison management. Now everything that is done by my administration is the subject of fierce discussion and keen public interest. The light has been turned on. An occasional friendly paper may treat my administration too kindly, a hostile paper may treat it unjustly, but the sum of all this is the education of the public. Newspaper publicity is the greatest educator of the masses.

Another thing that attracted much attention to at least one feature of the penal system was the abuse of executive clemency. During the four years preceding my term of office one executive granted 1,225 pardons and commutations, nearly all absolute pardons. The people rebelled against this, because it resulted in the establishment of what was termed as a pardon brokerage system.

When the Legislature met last winter, I asked for several new prison laws. I wanted a well-considered parole system, in order that the Governor might extend clemency in such a way as to appeal to the spark of manhood that still flickers in the breast of every convict. Every political party was committed to this parole law, but the hostile minority in the State Senate would not grant it, simply because I asked for it, and it was feared that the enactment of such a law might rebound to the credit of my administration.

This is not merely politics, but a matter of history. I did not get the parole law, so I have made me one of my own. I found an ancient statute enacted before the war conferring upon the Governor, in very simple words, the right to grant constitutional pardons, and prescribe the conditions. This, I saw, was nothing more nor less than the skeleton of the parole system, and I am using it to this end.

Of course, it provides none of the machinery of the parole law, and it compels me to prescribe the conditions in every case, but I am making sufficient use of it to arouse public sentiment that will bring results in the next Legislature.

A Boy From Memphis.

Last winter on one of my visits to the penitentiary I met a young fellow who had been sent up from Memphis, the son of a respectable railroad engineer. This boy was young and had been led into trouble by whiskey and bad companionship. He said:

"Governor, I used to be a good boy. I had a job with the railroad until I began to dissipate," and then, looking me in the face, he said, "I believe that if a parole law had passed you would have given me a chance on the outside to straighten up and be a man."

I notified that boy that, notwithstanding the fact that the parole law did not pass, I would give him the benefit of my home-made parole law and let him have the chance that he wanted. He has a good job in Memphis, and I know that he will make good.

If he stays straight for one year his conditional pardon will become absolute. This may be a crude way to handle the matter, but it is the best I can do under the law. I am granting a considerable number of these conditional paroles.

Prisoners Watch Reform Measures.

I was surprised to learn from the men in the penitentiary what a keen and intelligent interest they took in the progress of penal legislation during the session of our last General Assembly. Many of them read the newspapers and keep up with these bills at every step.

I talked the whole matter over with about 100 of them one night. They gathered around me in the corridor of the prison, and we had a man-to-man talk. Every fellow had his say. They discussed the rules of the prison, the benefits of the parole law, and the whole prison question. I said to them:

"Boys' I am not going to turn out as many of you fellows as some others have

done heretofore, but I am going to work hard to improve your condition in here, in order that you may be fit to turn out.

"You have always thought that regaining your liberty was the one matter of supreme importance. This is not true; the most important consideration is what are you going to do with your liberty after you regain it? If you go out of here a worse man than when you came in, the State has derived only one bencfit from your imprisonment, and that is the temporary prevention of the commission of further crimes by you. If you go out fitted to make a better citizen, the State has converted you from a liability into an asset."

My first impulse has always been, and will ever be, toward mercy. But no man in my position should be governed by the impulses of his heart or the importuning of friends. The good of the prisoners and of the people must be given more consideration.

The prisoners know that a good prison record counts for more now than ever before. Some of the men to whom I grant conditional pardons may abuse the clemency extended them, but I do not believe many will.

Governor Hooper's Schedule.

I have prepared a schedule of the prison reforms that I hope to see adopted by the Legislature. They are based upon my personal experience at the penitentiary:

"First-The indeterminate sentence-the minimum and maximum sentence making the length of term dependent on the conduct and condition of the prisoner.

"Second-The parole system, giving the Governor the right to put a man on his good behavior-stand him on his feet and steady him by appealing to his honor.

"Third-A law that would enable the State to devote a part of the prisoners' work and wages to the support of his dependent ones outside, who often are the chief sufferers. It would be worth a great deal to him to know that he was helping them, and it would frequently save them from becoming public charges."

Anarchists Claim Haywood.

William D. Haywood, who has again come into prominence as an agitator in the strike of the textile workers in Lawrence, Mass., has made himself so desirable to the Anarchists that they would like to adopt him. Says the latest issue of Mother Earth, the anarchist organ: "The lawyers, sky-pilots, and politicians of the Socialist Party are still after the scalp of William D. Haywood. Serves him right. What business has he, true revolutionary Socialist that he is, among men who use Socialism as a trap to catch votes, political offices, and sinecures."

What Is Socialism?

"Down With the Scars and Stripes!'

How Socialism Insults the Flag

By H. S. Randolph

"To-day devotion to the flag is really only submission to the most horrible, revolting, inhuman slave conditions."-New York Call, January 7, 1912.