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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


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