Report Of The Prison Inquiry Commission

Author : New Jersey Prison Inquiry Commission
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9780365490180
Total Pages : 192 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (91 download)

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Download or read book Report of the Prison Inquiry Commission to Governor Walter E. Edge and the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey, Trenton, N. J., January 1, 1918, Vol. 1 (Classic Reprint) written by New Jersey Prison Inquiry Commission and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2018-03-24 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Report of the Prison Inquiry Commission to Governor Walter E. Edge and the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey, Trenton, N. J., January 1, 1918, Vol. 1 As the History appended to this Report, clearly shows, the experiment on which such transcendent hopes were based proved a tragic failure, but the new emphasis on reformation Of the criminal as an important object of the punishment imposed on him did not grow less. In 1852 the recently organ ized New Jersey Prison Reform Association, of which Daniel Haines was President and ex-governor Vroom, vice-president, memorialized the Legislature on the great need for a House of Refuge for juvenile Offenders in order that these might be removed from the unsuitable environment and improper asso ciations of the State Prison and be provided with special Opportunities for reformation. At the same time the Board of Prison Inspectors then, as now, the governing body of the institution, in its reports of 1852 and 1853, urged that minors and first termers should no longer be committed to the State Prison, which had no adequate provision for their reformation and education, but should rather be confined in the county jails and workhouses. These efforts bore no fruit until 1864, when they enlisted the vigorous support of Governor Joel Parker, who secured the passage of the act of April 6, 1865, to Estab lish and Organize the State Reform School for Juvenile Offenders, now known as the State Home for. Boys at James burg. A similar institution for girls, was created under the name of the State Industrial School for Girls, now known as the State Home for Girls, at Trenton, pursuant to an act of the Legislature passed April 4, 1871. It required 24 years more Of agitation to bring about the further differentiation in the treatment of Offenders which was involved in the establishment of the State Reformatory at Rahway, authorized by the act of March 28, 1895, and not until 1910 was this phase of development completed by the institution of the Reformatory for Women at Clinton Farms. That the newer conception of the reformatory purpose of punishment, even as regards the average prison population, was making its way in official circles is significantly Shown by the enactment by the Legislature of a series of remedial statutes, beginning with the act of April 14, 1868, providing for the commutation of sentence by good behavior and faithful dis charge of duty. This act made it possible for the convict to reduce his period of imprisonment by five days in each month. On May 13, 1889, a more sweeping measure of clemency was enacted as a part of the first parole law of the State. This pro vided that all first termers, except those convicted of one of the seven major crimes - murder, manslaughter, sodomy, rape, arson, burglary and robbery - should become eligible to parole, on the recommendation of the Prison authorities, after serving half the terms for which they had been sentenced. The Attorney Gen eral, however, questioned the constitutionality of this act, and accordingly, April 16, 1891, another act was passed, vesting in the Court of Pardons - then, as now, composed of the Governor, the Chancellor and the lay judges of the Court of Appeals, and which had theretofore been confined to the exercise of the pardoning power only - the authority to set any qualified con victs at large under such conditions as the Court might see fit to impose. This act created a new parol authority in addition to that claimed and exercised Since 1898 by the Prison authorities. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com