Policy Case Study: S.870 To Parole United States Prisoners, and for other purposes  (excerpts / original document)

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the States of America in Congress assembled, That every prisoner who has been or may hereafter be convicted of any offense against the United States, and is confined in... any United States penitentiary or prison... whose record of conduct shows he has observed the rules of such institution, and who has served one-third of [his sentence(s)], may be released on parole...

SEC. 2. That the superintendent of prisons of the Department Justice, and the warden and physician of each United States penitentiary shall constitute a board of parole for such prison, which shall establish rules and regulations...

SEC. 3. That if it shall appear to said board of parole... that there is a reasonable probability that such applicant [for parole] will live and remain at liberty without violating the laws, and if in the opinion of the board such release is not incompatible with the welfare of society, then said board of parole may in its discretion authorize the release of such applicant on parole, and he shall be allowed to go on parole ... to return to his home ... and to remain, while on parole, in the legal custody and under the control of the warden of such prison from which paroled, and until the expiration of... his sentence…. 

SEC. 4. That if the warden ... shall have reliable information that the prisoner has violated his parole, then said warden ... may issue his warrant ... for the retaking of such prisoner.

SEC. 7. [I]t shall be the duty of the officer [assigned by the parole board] to aid paroled prisoners in securing employment and to visit and exercise supervision over them while on parole...

SEC. 8. That it shall be the duty of the warden of the prison to furnish to any and all paroled prisoners... clothing, transportation, and five dollars in money; the transportation furnished shall be to the place to which the paroled prisoner has elected to go, with the approval of the board of Parole...

Section #1:  Why did people support the policy?

Henry De Lamar Clayton (D)Alabama, Speech to Congress on S.870, 1910, (Excerpts/Original Document)

Clayton was a lawyer in Alabama before serving in Alabama's State House of Representatives from 1890-1891.  He became a District Attorney in Alabama from 1893-1896, then in 1897 he was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives.  Clayton's full Biography

Mr. Speaker, after more than ten years of service in this House I am prepared to say that this bill is the most humane measure ever presented to Congress during that period.  It is in the interest of humanity. It seeks to extend clemency and mercy to those deserving clemency and mercy. It... would aid suffering humanity and at the same time lend a helping hand toward the reformation of convicted criminals. 

Mr. Speaker, a large majority of the States of this Union— more than 25, and if I mistake not, some 30 States of the Union—have laws similar to this, and the universal report from those States having a parole system is that it works well…  It works well by extending the parole system to those who are in prison and who give promise and evidence of reformation... 

Mr. Speaker, I have not time to go into all of the merits of this proposition. It is, I repeat, in accordance with the enlightened spirit of the age. It will tend to reform men now in prison, men who have been punished, and will be an inducement to all prisoners to behave themselves better. 

Charles Shirley Potts, The Need of Parole and Oversight, Bulletin of the University of Texas, 1910 (Excerpts/Original Document)

  Bio:  Potts was the Adjunct Professor of Government and Law at the University of Texas, This was a section of bulletin titled "Some Practical Problems of Prison Reform" .  Biography

There is no period in the prisoner's life so critical and so fraught with dangers to himself and to society as the weeks immediately following his discharge from the prison. He finds himself free once more and he is apt to throw all restraints to the winds... 

Then, too, he often finds himself without money, without employment, without friends... confronted by difficulties… he speedily falls back into the old life and in a few months is again knocking for admission at the prison door.

It is precisely at this critical period that the State should throw its protecting arms about him, find him friends and employment, and watch over him until... he has learned to stand alone once more. The prisoner should never be released finally until he has passed through a period of probation and proven that he may safely be entrusted with his liberty...

This is what the parole system is intended to do, and... it has proven one of the most efficient agencies in reclaiming the criminal.

John Allen Sterling (R)Illinois,  Speech to Congress on S.870, 1910, (Excerpts/Original Document) 

In the federal penitentiaries and in the state penitentiaries there are nearly 2,500 federal prisoners. None of them are eligible to parole. More than 30 of the States have parole laws. Every State that has a parole law commends it. The American Bar Association... investigated the parole system and recommended it as a federal law...

 In addition to the fact that the bill is... recognized as good legislation and in the interest of public policy, it is a matter of economy for the United States Government... 

It costs the Government of the United States $150 to $200 a year for each prisoner.  It would save the Government at least $100 a year for every prisoner paroled...

Prisoners convicted of murder, rape, incest, and prisoners who have served a year in some penal institution before, are not eligible to parole under this bill, so it applies only to the prisoners who have committed the smaller offenses and to those who are not habitual criminals…

Henry Allen Cooper, (R)Wisconsin. Speech to Congress on S.870, 1910, (Excerpts/Original Document) 

Cooper was a Wisconsin lawyer from 1875 until he was elected district attorney in 1880.  From 1887 to 1889 he was a member of the State Senate.  In 1893 he was elected to Congress.  His full biography.

As I understand the law, the imprisonment of criminals is not wholly for their punishment, but for the protection of society in the example which it affords. 

I have in mind a United States banker who embezzled over a million of dollars and received ten years' imprisonment... This will permit him, notwithstanding [his] despicable... crime, to be paroled after three years of imprisonment. 

There are many men yet who have not been convicted, who would be perfectly willing to run the risk of embezzling a million dollars... if they thought they could be paroled after three years of imprisonment. 

James Robert Mann,  Speech to Congress on S.870, 1910, (Excerpts/Original Document) 

Mann's Biography

I do not profess to be acquainted with the parole system. We have a parole system in Illinois, and the state's attorney of Cook County... repeatedly denounces it as an incentive to crime in Chicago. 

Whether that is so or not I do not know; but the argument of the gentleman that it would reduce expenses of the Government does not appeal to me at all. If it has come to a proposition that because the Government does not wish to pay the expense of maintaining a man in the penitentiary... and therefore we should parole him, we certainly have reached a very low degree in our ideals of justice...

Yet the fact is that under the provisions of this bill every bank looter in the country would soon get out of jail. I would rather extend the time to keep some of them in jail than to lessen the time and let them out.