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21 Prison J. 3 (1941)

handle is hein.journals/prsjrnl21 and id is 1 raw text is: The President's Report Since our last annual meeting there has been a marked ad- vance towards better things at Moyamensing and Holmesburg, our two Philadelphia County Prisons. A splendid report of some- thing over thirty printed pages has been published for the year 1939, prepared under the supervision of Dr. Thorsten Sellin of the University of Pennsylvania, one of the new members of the Board and a member of our Acting Committee. He states the facts with outspoken directness, frankly pointing out what is lacking in both prisons. The report shows how City Council, and not the Inspectors, are to blame for most of the things in which the prisons fall short of present day requirements. And to our mind another fact, appearing on almost every page of the report, is that the Inspectors are continually hampered by having to care for both untried prisoners and convicted offenders. It must be clear to anyone familiar with the facts that until we have a House of Detention, on an entirely separate property and managed by its own Board of Directors, the problem of caring for the untried prisoner will remain unsolved. At Holmesburg the distinction has now been definitely made between the labor in the manufacturing shops and the necessary maintenance work of the prison. The work in the shops has been extended, and so far as possible under the meagre allowance made by City Council, antiquated machinery has been replaced. The results are encouraging. Substantial amounts of clothing have been sold to the House of Correction, the Philadelphia Hospital, and the Hospital for Contagious Diseases. A fine showing has been made by the prison farm near Byberry, which, in addition to furnishing a variety of produce for both prisons, produced during the year over seven thousand bushels of potatoes, which Went to the other institutions named. Unstinted praise for this should be given Superintendent Baldi. In voicing the needs of the Prisons before the Finance Committee of City Council, he stressed the reasons for developing prison industries. He asked for a larger sum, but he got at least $10,000, with which to buy raw materials and machinery for the shops at Holmesburg during the coming year. If the public could be made to realize the urgent need of prison industries and the baneful effects of prison idle- hess, pressure would undoubtedly be brought upon City Council to encourage Dr. Baldi and give him adequate appropriations with which to expand his industries. It would be recognized, at least in Philadelphia, that idleness and lack of suitable employment at a fair, remunerative wage, does more than anything else to make our prisons the nurseries of crime they are. There are two other matters which we hope will not be over- looked by the Inspectors. One certainly requires additional money from City Council, and we hope that Dr. Baldi will stress its im- Portance when he next appears before the city fathers. It is that in each prison there should be established such a staff or clinic as 8

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