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20 Prison J. 3 (1940)

handle is hein.journals/prsjrnl20 and id is 1 raw text is: The President's Report Not much has happened during the past year to encourage the friends of penal reform. The amount of prison idleness remains unchanged, and nothing much can be hoped for until the passage by the Legislature of a compulsory purchase bill, such as we have urged in previous reports. The day for the payment in prison in- dustries of a fair, remunerative wage seems as far off as ever. The Dropping of the Social Service Unit at the Eastern State Peniteniary There was a distinctly backward step taken when Warden Smith, of the Eastern State Penitentiary, in obedience to a call for economy, dropped from his budget the social service workers at Cherry Hill and Graterford. There was no suggestion that the men were not doing a good job, and their dismissal seriously weak- ened the work of the penitentiary clinic. It struck a heavy blow at parole, for it left nobody on the staff whose special duty it was to look into the prisoners' home conditions and work out, if possible, a parole plan. The Prison at Holnesburq The investigation of the heat torturing of prisoners at Holmes- burg in August, 1938, which resulted in the death of four persons and physical injury to a number of others, led, as we expected, to prosecutions in the Court of Quarter Sessions. Frank Craven, the Deputy Warden, and Francis Smith, a guard, were convicted and sentenced to a year in the County Prison. Appeals were taken to the Superior Court, and argument has beien had on the appeals. The court has not yet handed down its decisions. Superintendent Mills and Captain Maguire were acquited, and there were also Verdicts of not guilty in the case of six guards. The Board of Inspectors was not asked to resign as a body, but several Inspectors resigned of their own accord, and in filling the vacancies the Judges made excellent appointments. The new members are Dr. Edward Bortz, Dr. Thorsten Selli, Mrs. Elizabeth K. Kearns, James S. Hatfield and Arthur E. Stanger. An open letter had been sent to the Board of Inspectors by the 'ennsyl- vania Prison Society, urging that the Board should (1) Abolish heat treatment and eliminate the possibility of excess radiation in the isolation cells. (2) Abolish all cor poral punishment. (3) Assure the public that the Board will: (a) Completely reorganize the prisons, (b) P1ave in ciarge of them men of demonstrated ahit an d in sympalhy with the needed changes,

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