6
m
JJ THURSDAY. MAY 31. 1962
jraark by'Swis
MEDFOHD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD. OREGON
(Editor's note: Swiss The
ologian Karl Barlh recent
ly asserted that some U.S.
jails resemble "Dante's
Hell." For comment on this
UPI went to James V. Ben
nett, director of the Fed
oral Prisons Bureau for the
past 25 years and on of the
world's leading penal au
thorities. The following dis
patch g'ves his rehultal as
well as his views on capital
punishment, the parole sys
tem and allejed "coddling"
of prisoners.)
fogiair Brings Review of Prison Management
TIteo
report to the American pco-,25 years or so in improving
pic on the seamy, shu:Bed-up prison conditiQs in this coun
civic problem of prison man-1 try, but there is a long way
aKement. o . Pstill to go. More than a hun-
In 25 vears as director of ! dred prisons still in use today
the U.S. Bureau of Prisons
James V- Bennett has estab
lished himself as a penologist
of international renown as
well as a respected adminis
trator. Today he directs 29
ferienil institutions with about
24.000 inmates. nt his con
cern reaches to the approxi
mately 500.000 Americans in
federal. ?tate and local
were built before the Civil
War. The Maryland prison in
Baltimore dates back to 1811.
and the Ohio penitentiary at
Columbus was opened in
11134. Overcrowding is a se
rious problem even In our
federal prisons. At the At
lanta penitentiary, eight and
10 men are occupying cells
intended for four. Men stand
nrisons. jails, workhouses and (in line at the toilets and wash-
other penal Institutions at ! rooms. They go to the dining
any given mfnent.
By LOUIS CASSELS1
United Press International
In lfl:B a congressional j Bennett is a gray-haired
commit lee retained James;m;in of great dignity. He
Vnn Pfjnschoten Bennell. a sneaks in a measured tone.
jVung attorney not long out' of 1 A,s discussed the problems
Silver Creek, N.Y.. and Brown
University, in study condi
tion in fer'ral jails. What
he found wa? a mess. He was
then hired In clean it up, and
this has been his life's work.
A famous foreigner said
room In shifts. Conditions like
these breed unrest, and, make
it virtually impossible to do
any effective educational or
rcluibllitational work with
prisoners.
Q. Why don t we build new
of criminal re'iabilitation a
nrnVilcm riii-ectlv nffnntinrt
roughly one out of every rim ''" y '"""
Americans his voice roe ' Roluctant to Vote Funds
and his hand shook.
Shocked By Conditions
Dr. Karl Barth, thi noted
something shocking about an 1 Swiss iheologian who current
American nrison inis mnmn. j jv , making his first visit
It stirred Bennott, now 67, lo : lo tnP United States, told a
look buck over his career and nrw, conference in New York
utter what might oe termed a
Liberate Slowed
By Tenden Strain
Portland -TOPU- PianiBt Lib
erace has been told to take
it easy for a few days after
n.iitir, uhnrl a PftncoH tild
Tuesday night because of a
strained tendon in his hand.
The entertainment idol
played the piano with his left
hand only during the shorten
ed final half of his perform
ance. He then was taken to a
hospital.
His doctor said Lihcrace
suffered an irritated tendon
when he slipped on an oil
slick in the driveway of his
Los Angeles home a week ago.
The doctor said Liberate
probably would be able to
play most numbers In a sched
uled appearance this Friday
at the Seattle World's fair.
Liberace said the hand has
hurt him since the fall. It
gave way during a Chopin
piece thai required the pianist
to stretch for notes.
that he
shocked"
was "terribly
by the conditions
JAIL VOTE CHALLENGED
Lincoln, N.C. - ftiPD - Cliff
Lowe, who lost an election for
sheriff to the Incumbent here
last, week by two votes, filed
a complaint Tuesday, charg
ing that two prisoners and a
minor were t.llowed lo vote.
Sheriff Frank P. lleavner de
feated Lowe by vole of 3,-KOfi-3,604.
Hravner has agreed
to a recount of the ballots.
he observed in one prison he
visited.
Barth said he found human
beings incarcerated like ani
mals In "cages" and that it
was like a scene out of
"Dante's Hell." He added that
"the jails In Switzerland are
a pnradise compared lo what
I saw here."
When these quotations were
read to Bennett, he gazed
silently at the ceiling of his
office for a moment as if he
were praying for patience.
Then he asked, "Did Dr.
Barlh say which prison he
saw?"
Delivering Lectures
"No. he didn't identify it.
But he was delivering lectures
at Princeton Theological Sem
inary. Princeton, N.J., at the
lime."
"I thought so," said Ben
nell. "They prooably showed
him the New Jersey State
Penitentiary at Trenton. It is
one of the oldest prisons in
America - In use since 17IIR
- and it is one of the wor?t.
I have been saying for years
thai it is a disgrace to Ameri
can penology. It is hardly a
fair sample of our prison sys
tem. We have a number of
new institutions, state and
federal, which are just as
good as anything they have
in Switzerland. Why didn't
somebody phow Dr. Barlh one
of them?"
Q. Do we have many jails
like the one at Trenton?
A. We have made a great
deal of progress- in the past
A. With all the demands for
money to build new schools,
highways and hospitals, leg
islatures are reluctant to vote
appropriations for prisons.
The lawmakers are reflecting
publft' attitudes when they
put nrisons al the bottom of
I the list of needed civic Im
provements.
Q. Do you think the public
Is indifferent toward prison
reform?
A. A considerable portion
of the public has the idea
that prisoners are just a lot
of human scum who deserve
whatever misery they suffer.
The average citizen seems to
think that our jails are filled
chiefly by murderers, rapists
and kidnapers.
Q. Isn't that true?
A. No, il is not true. More
than half the people commit
ted to our jails are drunks
and vagrants. Two-thirds of
all offenders sent lo prison
each year are convicted of
non-violent crimes. Less than
10 per cent have been con
victed of homicide, rape or
kidnaping. Sure, there are
same prisoners who are pretty
nasty individuals, and who
ought to be quarantined. But
there are lens of thousands
who are simply victims of dis
crimination and environment.
They are the handicapped, the
underprivileg ', the slow
wilted, the alcoholics, the
drug addict, the kids from
slum neighborhoods who drop
out of sclflml and drift into
crime . . .
Voice Steadily Rising
Bennett's voice had been
rising steadly as he talked.
Now he was obviously angry,
and his hand shook slightly
as he interrupted himself to
light a cigaret. .
"To put It quite bluntly,"
he said, ".society uses prisons
new nee mixes
from Uncle Ben's!
Perfect riei dishis...tisy as bailing witirl
. t,,r , i.-:.: 3ufTZj.?t ac o
Curried Kiel Dlihn
Rich, leity, Roldan,
Authntlc curriad
rice, fragrant with
Fur Eastern htrb
and plctt . . .
ay as .?.',n,
sS Atf1
mt w s
ftSrPW'
Sj;i.v i
Perfect
Wild Rice Dlihst
ol Ions B'm and ljt-CA - '" '
tjrfactly sanioned
and iptcad . . .
amy Bit hnlllng watert0
Spanish Rice Dishes
that toloflul Old World
traat ol baautifullv
saasonad uca with
tomatoai and pappa'S
and onions . . . aa1
a bnilmg walarl
as a dumpingtSground - a
place to get rid of the misfits
and outcasts'eVhom we want
to get out of sight and out
of mind.
"The p r is o n population
could be reduced enormously
if communities would accept
the responsibility of . .-oviding
really constructive solutions
for some of our social prob
lems - like slums ... or alco
holism." Under Bennett's jurisdic
tion are 2!) federal institu
tions, ranging from "maxi
mum security" penitentiaries,
sufli as Alcatraz, to relatively
open correctionnl camps for
boys who have gotten Into
trouble with the law.
Small Proportion
(The federal prisons, with
about 24.000 inmates, consti
tute a relatively small pro
portion of America's detention
system, About 175,000 prison
ers are housed in slate re
formatories and penitentiaries,
and some 300,000 are in local
jails and county workhouses,
making a total U.S. prison
population of half a million
persons.)
Bennett's blood pressure
also rises when anyone sug
gests in his presence that pris
oners are "coddled" in some
of his new model institutions,
such as the one at Seagoville,
Tex., where men live in an
environment like a college t
campus, with no walls and no i
bars on the windows. . I
"It is not coddling to make i
a decent human being out of
a criminal," he said. "With
the exception of the three or
four out of a hundred who
die in prison, the rest all come
out some day. They come
right back into the commun
ity, and the point of all prison
rehabilitation programs is to
prepare them for this day by
helping them learn the moral
values of society and the skills
that will make them produc
tive citizens.
Is Tough Medicine
"Make no mistake - a pris
on sentence is tough medicine
under the best conditions. It
! imposes a stigma that will
lingcP with the offender long
after he has served his time.
I takes him away from his
loved ones, confines him to a
few acres of land, enforces a
monotonous regime upon him.
I and deprives him of any
normal sex outlet. The latter
I is for most prisoners a more
i refined torture than the cruol
i est kind of corporal punish
ment. I "If you add a deliberately
I punitive prison program lo
these hardships, you are going
to send men back into society
al the end of hoir sentences
filled with so much Tiate and
bitterness there is not much
hope of their going straight."
Q. Isn't it true that a ma
jority of prisoners do come
back for a second or third
hitch?
A. Yes, we always have
that t.'ejrown at us as "proof"
that rehabilitation is a failure.
Considering the overcrowd
ing, the lack of rehabilitation
facilities and other handicaps,
I think it's pretty miraculous
that one third of the people
who serve time in prison
never get into trouble again.
Controversy on Paroles
Q. There is also a lot of
controversy about paroles.
Some people feel that parole
boards are too lenient and
release me who promptly go
out to commit new crimes.
How do you feel about that?
A. You newspapermen stir
up a l8t of that. You write
as if the parole board had
just deliberately turned loose
some criminal to let him prey
on the public. I'll grant you
that parole boards - like
everybody else - sometimes
make mistakes. But nobody's
ever been able to document a
single case in which a parole
board had wilfully released a
prisoner knowing he would
go out and commit another
crirtie.
Q. But . . .
A. Just a minute. Let's talk
about parole for a bit. Parole
is never supposed to be a
means ofocxtending lenience.
It has two purposes. First, it
is a technique of getting a
man out of prison at the time
'ghen he is best adapted to a
successful return to society.
Second, it is a devic where
by we can have, in reality
as well as theory, some sem
blance of equal justice under
law.
Q. What do you mean by
that? o
Different Sentences
A. I meant that different
judges impose greatly differ
ing sentences for the same
type of crime. We encounter
almost incredible extreiUVs.
One judge will put a man
on probation, and another will
send him to prison for 25
years - for the) same offense.
The United States is the only
nation in the western world
where the sentence, as long as
it remains within legal limits,
can be imposed by a single
judge without any review of
its fairness by a higher court.
We have some real sadists
on the bench. We also have
some mentally 111 judges who
are still passing out sentences.
Tie only way you can bring
some degree of fairness and
groun judgment into this is
I through a system gf paroles.
The system may not always
work perfectly - nothing does
- but what we0ought to do is
to improve it, not abolish it.
Q. Do you think you've
made any headway during
your 25 years as bureau di
rector in eductfting the public
about prison problems and
needs?
Bennett 'smiled at the ques
tion, and swheled his chair
around to look out of his of
fice window, which commands
a magnificent view of the
Capitol Dome.
"Oh. I think we've made
a little headway,'" he said.
"But I wis sometimes that
more of our citizens would
follow Dr. Barth's emple
of visiting prisons and taking
an interest in prisoners. It is
a very enlightening thing to
walk through a jail and look
at the people in it and re
membet that 'there, but for
the grace of God, stand I .
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