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29 Prison J. 1 (1949)

handle is hein.journals/prsjrnl29 and id is 1 raw text is: WHY PENNSYLVANIA NEEDS A STATE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION by AUSTIN H. MACCORMICK Executive Director The Osborne Association EDITORs NOTE: Mr. Mac~ormick spoke informally at the annual meeting from notes but submitted this manuscript for the Society's records. Before discussing the subject assigned me, I would like to make a few remarks on a related subject. As most of you know, I recent- lY made a study of the Philadelphia County Prison and prepared a report for the Committee of Fifteen. My recommendations were rather narrowly focused on custodial personnel needs, for that was the point on which advice was desired. My recommendations Were accepted by the committee and the City Council, and the County institutions were granted some additional personnel that was badly needed. I did not wish this audience, however, to think that my interests had suddenly become narrowly limited to custo- dial problems. As a matter of fact, I recommended the addition of other personnel in the professional and technical branches, and the expansion of educational and other rehabilitative activities, development of the Holmesburg farm and other ways of employing Prisoners, and other improvements that Dr. Baldi wishes to make and for which he should receive public support. This study confirmed my opinion that there should be a City- County Department of Correction similar to, but naturally smaller than, the one I headed in New York City. The House of Correction should be brought under its jurisdiction. It is to be hoped that the Department would at last bring into being the House of Deten- tion for Untried Prisoners which was authorized by the Legislature in 1917 and for which Francis Fisher Kane and others have so long and staunchly fought. I see no reason why this institution should not be under the jurisdiction of the Philadelphia Depart- ment of Correction, as several similar institutions are in New York City. And now to return to my assigned subject. I count it a distinct honor to be invited to speak at an annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Prison Society. These meetings have now been held for so many years that the minutes constitute a running record of the penal history of the state. One might well wish, however, that the record did not so often repeat an earlier passage, as though the needle were stuck in a worn groove on a victrola record. About twenty years ago, for example, I made a speech here in Philadelphia, although not to your Society, which could profit- ably be read as an introduction to my remarks here tonight. At that time work on the new Eastern State Penitentiary at Grater- ford had begun, and, glowing accounts of the wonders of the new prison were being given out by its sponsors. It was to be the largest in the country. Its nine-sided wall would be 30 to 35 feet high and would run 45 feet below the ground at some points. The lines of visibility from the nine towers would extend into 1

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