Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/346

 332 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

2. Should all jails and workhouses be placed under the same control ?

3. What changes would you recommend in your own state law relating to the powers and duties of boards of prisons, or of state boards of charities and correction in relation to prisons, reformatories, jails, and workhouses ?

B. ON REFORMS IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF JAILS AND WORKHOUSES.

4. Would a state board of control or of prison commissioners, having power to require changes in the structure and management of jails and workhouses, be desirable ? Would it help to prevent and correct the noto- rious evils of these local prisons ?

5. Would it be wise to forbid by law the retention of convicted persons in jails and to reserve jails exclusively for the detention of persons awaiting trial.

6. Should city and district workhouses, under strict prison regulations, be maintained for the punishment and correction of offenders who now usually serve short sentences in jails ?

7. Is provision made in the majority of the jails in your state for separa- tion of the sexes, and of minor offenders (under eighteen years of age) from adults ?

8. Are prisoners allowed to associate with each other in the corridors, and can they converse with each other while locked in their cells ?

9. Is the jailer paid for his service and for the cost of maintenance of prisoners by fees ?

10. Is there any form of registration of prisoners in a book provided for that purpose required by law?

C. ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE PAROLE SYSTEM UNDER THE "INDETERMINATE SENTENCE."

11. Where the "indeterminate sentence" is legally authorized, what board should have power to grant conditional release and to require the recall of prisoners who violate their parole ? Should it be (a) the board of prison managers ; (b) a state board of control ; (<:) a state board of prison commissioners ; or (d) a state board of pardons ?

12. Should the trial judge have a hearing before such a board on the question of granting conditional release ?

It will be seen that we sought to avoid abstract speculation about things in general and, positively, to go straight to the bearing of central control on vital specific problems: (i) of state penal institutions, generally recognized to be such, as state peni- tentiaries and reformatories; (2) of local penal institutions, as jails, workhouses, and bridewells; (3) of conditional release and the so-called "indeterminate sentence," because this involves central administrative action. We shall return to these points