Supplementary Report 
STATE COMMISSION ON PUBLIC WELFARE INSTITUTIONS 
Clemens J. France, director 
Department of Social Welfare 
and 
Member of the Commission Supplementary Report 
STATE COMMISSION ON PUBLIC WELFARE INSTITUTIONS 
Clemens J. France, director 
Department of Social Welfare 
and 
Member of the Commission TABLE OF CONTENTS 
INTRODUCTION 
(a) Synopsis 
(b) Charts 
CHAPTERS 
I Prevention 37 
II Division of Corrections 66 
III Division of Mental Hygiene 120 
IV Division of Hospitals 155 
V Division of Child and Juvenile Welfare . . , 167 
VI Institutional Personnel 177 
VII Major Points of Agreement and Difference between 
Majority Report and Supplementary Report . . 185 
Conclusion 193 
VIII Supplementary Report by Harry L. Jacobs . . 319 
APPENDICES 
I List of Reports of State Commission and 
National Research Organizations .... 200 
II The Proposed Correctional Authority. . . . 204 
III Nature and Character of an Integrated Program . 220 
IV Education under The Correctional Authority . . 235 
V Diversified Institutions under The Correctional 
Authority 240 
VI Prevention at the Point of Youth .... 246 
VII Minority Report of C. J. France Dissenting from 
Recommendations for Closing Reformatory for Men 254 
VIII Reply to the Majority Report on Alleged Deficiencies 
of the State Hospital for Mental Diseases . . . 265 
IX Menace of Mentally Defective Delinquent- 
Statement of John E. Donley, M. D. . . . 296 
X Endorsements of Proposed Correctional Authority 
Outlined in Chapter II 300 SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT 
STATE COMMISSION 
ON PUBLIC WELFARE INSTITUTIONS 
Clemens J. France 
Director, Department of Social Welfare 
And 
Member of the Commission 
Introduction 
Social Perspective 
This is a report which deals with our State Institutions. 
“Institution” is a rather big and somewhat formidable 
word. It is also, to a degree, a cold word. The word ‘ ‘institu- 
tion,” as defined in the dictionary, has two connotations. First, 
it is an organized body for carrying out certain objectives:— 
social, religious, or educational; second, it is a building or 
buildings in which to carry on the work of the particular organiza- 
tion. For example, the church is a religious “Institution.” 
The Cathedral or Temple is the building. So, our public school 
system is an “Institution,” organized to educate children and 
youth. The large, modern high school structure, like Hope 
High School, is a building. 
It is of the utmost importance not to confuse ‘ ‘bricks and 
mortar” with social organization and social objectives. There 
is an old adage, “Stone walls do not a prison make.” Like- 
wise, a fine Temple or a beautiful Cathedral in themselves do not 
constitute a religion; nor a magnificent high school, an education; 
nor a group of hospitals, the healing of the sick. The priest 
the educator, the doctor,—the spiritual ideals, the educational 
objectives, the medical knowledge and skill—these, we well know, 
are “the Heart,” these, “the Life Blood.” For it is the hu- 
man contact, the touch of the hands, the twin lights of thought 
and knowledge, which make or break an institution. In this 
sense, institutions have warmth, a comfort and healing. They 
exist for “people,” the human needs of “people,” whether 
those needs be spiritual hunger and thrist, or the need for phy- 
sical care, the healing of wounds to the body or the mind. 6 
Supplementary Report 
This human conception of State Institutions is so funda- 
mental, I may be pardoned if I elaborate upon it. Let us take 
a look at Howard.* There live there, in our Institutions, some 
five thousand people. I like to think of these people as guests 
of the State, who have found the haven of a sanctuary or a “Re- 
treat” from the buffets and storm of Life. “Hospitality” is 
a fine word. It stems from the same root as another fine 
word, “Hospital.” There is no virtue in this feeling of mine. 
I live at Howard. These “guests,” to whom our State gives 
hospitality and sanctuary in our State Hospitals, are my close 
neighbors. Many of them are not only my neighbors, but my 
friends. If you who read this report lived at Howard, I am sure 
you would feel as I do. 
One of my friends has passed on to her Reward. You 
would have been proud, as I was, to know her and call her “Friend.” 
She was a “Sword Swallower.” In the early days of P. T. 
Barnum’s “Greatest Show On Earth,” she was one of Barnum’s 
most sensational performers. She gave her performance in 
every city and town in America. She went with Barnum and 
his circus to Europe, and performed in every great city on the 
Continent. I shall never forget her telling me of when she was 
entertained by Royalty. She gave a special performance in 
Buckingham Palace before the late King Edward, son of Queen 
Victoria. 
In her later years, she returned to Rhode Island, her native 
State, to die. She had little of worldly goods, but a rich store- 
house of warm and beautiful memories, for had she not been 
the delight of hundreds of thousands of children, and grown-up 
children, too. 
When I knew her at the State Infirmary, she was a fascinat- 
ing old lady, mellow and sweet and kindly. To be in her presence 
was to participate in ‘ ‘Grace’ ’ and Graciousness. I was thank- 
ful, then, that we, in Rhode Island, had changed the name of 
that Institution from The State Almshouse to The State Infirmary; 
and the character, too, from a ‘ ‘run-down poorhouse’ ’ to a mod- 
ern, well equipped, well staffed Hospital. 
May I speak of just two more friends at Howard. One was, 
until recently, a patient at the State Hospital for Mental Diseases. 
*“Howard” is here used in a generic sense, and includes Exeter, Wallum Lake, the Soldiers' Home, 
and the State Home and School. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
7 
He was one of the most talented and accomplished organists in 
New England. He was possessed with all the sensitiveness, im- 
agination and charm common to most artists and musicians. 
You would have been proud, too, to call him “Friend” and 
“Neighbor.” 
My best friend of these wards of the State is in the State 
Prison, serving a long sentence for manslaughter. Pie is re- 
ported to be one of the best radio experts in the United States. 
He writes for scientific journals, and has been consulted by several 
of the leading radio experts in the country. He exerts great 
influence for good inside those forbidding high stone walls. He 
is President of The Holy Name Society which, with the aid of 
Father Jean, he has built up to an organization of ninety men. 
He conducts classes in radio transmission, and some of his stu- 
dents, former Reformatory boys, are today overseas in the Signal 
Corps of the United States Army. I am proud to call this man 
“Neighbor” and “Friend,” even as you would. 
These are but three examples, to illustrate that every one 
of the five thousand men, women and youths in our State Insti- 
tutions is an individual. The community at Howard, like any 
other community, is composed of men and women, each one a 
person possessing that mysterious quality we call “Personality.” 
Some have genius, some have high professional training, some 
are skilled mechanics, some are housewives and mothers. 
If the reader of this report would try to visualize one of his 
own personal family—father, mother, son—at Wallum Lake or 
the Mental Hospital, he would understand. In passing, may I 
say ‘ ‘the turnover’ ’ is large. The population constantly changes. 
It is reasonable to assume that in the course of a ten year period 
twenty to thirty thousand such individuals come to Howard. 
Once upon a time, such people were thrown into certain gen- 
eral classes—“the insane,” “the pauper,” “the idiot or 
imbecile,” “the criminal.” This was an over-simplifica- 
tion. It had certain deplorable social consequences. The aver- 
age citizen looked upon “the insane,” “the pauper,” “the 
criminal” as something inevitable—a sort of necessary evil, so 
to speak. We segregated them from society “like pariahs;” we 
grudgingly supported them “en masse,” and then forgot them. 8 
Supplementary Report 
There were always exceptions to this general attitude of the 
public. The husband whose wife was “committed” to “The 
State Asylum for the Insane” found it difficult to reconcile 
himself with this prevailing point of view. He could not say, 
“This woman is in a ‘madhouse’. Nothing can be done about 
it.” He remembered her as a young, lovely bride. He remem- 
bered each of the five normal, healthy children she brought into 
the world. He remembered what a mother she was,—what a 
mother. He knew better than anyone the strain of her life 
financial strain, trying to make his all too meagre earnings go 
around in order to house, feed, clothe and educate five boys and 
girls. She raised them. Then came the period—we call it 
“change of Life”—a critical period for every woman. The 
strains of the past told. She was “committed” to an “Insane 
Asylum.” 
I have been speaking in ‘ ‘the past tense.’ ’ There has been a 
change. I do not believe there is an ‘ ‘Insane Asylum’ ’ left in the 
United States. In all the larger states, we have State Depart- 
ments of Mental Hygiene, and State Hospitals for Mental Ill- 
ness or Disease. 
Institutional Progress 
Not more than seventy years ago, one of the great surgeons 
said, “The brain will be forever shut from the intrusion 
of the wise and humane surgeon.” I have been told of a 
famous painting, which I understand is in the Louvre in Paris, 
which pictures the “insane asylum” as it was regarded by the 
general public even within the lifetime of many readers of this 
report. The picture shows the mentally ill chained by their 
wrists and legs to the walls, but even then something happened, 
for the painting depicts a group of supervisors in the hospital 
with hammers in their hands, knocking off the chains from these 
so-called insane people. 
In the past fifty years, we have progressed from chaining the 
mentally ill to a point of view where the skilled psychiatrist and 
a growing number of citizens recognize that there are many types 
of what we used to call, so glibly, “insanity,” which are today 
subject to cure. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
9 
The scientific progress in the field of psychiatry points out 
two significant facts: first, that in an ever-growing area, mental 
illness can be cured; and second, that in the cure of the mentally 
ill, psychiatrists have learned a great deal about the psychology 
of “normal” individuals. Many of us who consider ourselves 
perfectly normal have behavior patterns which are quite akin to 
the behavior patterns of those we describe as insane. 
We well know that many physical diseases which, fifty years 
ago, were considered to be incurable, have, by reason of the ad- 
vance of modern science, proven to be curable. I doubt if there 
is a progressive man in the sciences of Medicine, Bacteriology 
and Bio-Chemistry who would say, today, that there is scarcely 
any physical disease which may not ultimately be cured. Those 
dealing with mental diseases have their eyes, today, on the same 
constructive horizon. 
In an address before the American Public Health Associa- 
tion on October 12, 1943, Mayor LaGuardia of New York City 
outlined the constructive steps which have been taken in the 
City of Greater New York in the field of prevention of the spread 
of tuberculosis. He spoke about the plans which New York 
City had, in the post-war world, for eliminating the slum and 
overcrowding in certain sections of Greater New York which were 
breeding places for tuberculosis. He predicted that it was possi- 
ble, providing there was proper cooperation between the federal 
government and the various states of the union, to eliminate 
this scourge on the body politic within the next twenty years. 
When we get into another area, that which deals with the 
criminal, we find, surprisingly enough, that here again science 
is at work; that specialists in the fields of human behavior have 
a growing confidence that by a proper understanding of ‘ ‘crime’ ’ 
and the “criminal” we can achieve to great degree here what 
we have achieved in the medical and mental field s. We can elimin- 
ate, or at least greatly curtail, what we call “crime.” 
More and more, we are coming to recognize that every 
type of individual who finds himself in one of our State Institu- 
tions presents a scientific problem, and that it is, in the great 
majority of cases, a solvable problem There are, also, individ- 
ual problems, which require individual diagnosis and treatment, Supplementary Report 
and this is true in the case of “the morally ill” (the criminal), 
as it is of the physically ill or the mentally ill As this report 
will show, we use the terms “crime” and “criminal” too glibly, 
just as we once used the term “insane.” 
We are also coming to recognize that, by a scientific ap- 
proach to these unfortunate individuals in State Institutions 
and by the application to them of the most advanced scientific 
knowledge, we will learn,to an increasing degree, many useful 
and constructive lessons with respect to those of us who are 
fortunate enough to have escaped the institution. For example, 
just as modern psychiatry, in its scientific treatment of the so- 
called insane, learned a great deal about the erratic behavior 
of a great many so-called normal people, we are finding, today, 
by scientific study and application of scientific principles to the 
“criminal,” so-called, that we can learn many useful lessons 
with respect to ourselves. In learning those lessons, perhaps we 
may achieve a higher degree of social understanding and a more 
dynamic social conscience. All individuals with anti-social 
conduct, destructive to society, do not find themselves behind 
prison bars. 
We are priviledged to live in one of the most remarkable 
historical epochs that has existed during the long history of the 
human race, from primitive savagery up to our present stage of 
civilization. One thing should be clear to everyone, and that 
is, in spite of our vaunted civilization, the human race is still 
both emotionally and intellectually immature. It should be 
obvious that, if the human race were emotionally and intellect- 
ually mature and spiritually developed, we would not have two 
World Wars in one generation. It is extremely interesting that 
a considerable number of individuals whom we find in our in- 
stitutions are different from the rest of us only in the fact that 
they are less mature, more unstable emotionally, than the average 
citizen. Our own maturity is not so great that we can afford to 
look down upon others. 
Democracy at the Crossroads 
It is important we consider the problem at hand in con- 
nection with this critical epoch in history, an epoch in which 
great changes impend. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
I quote a significant statement made by the Honorable G. 
Howland Shaw, Assistant Secretary of State, former President 
of the American Prison Association, and a lifelong student of the 
subject of Delinquency and Crime. This statement was made 
by Mr. Shaw at the Annual Congress of the American Prison 
Association in 1941. Mr. Shaw said:— 
. .Time and again in the past two years we have been 
told that we are faced with a crisis of momentous pro- 
portions, that we must make an all-out effort and that we 
are living at a turning point of history. Many of us have 
been aroused, but many are still more or less incredulous, 
more or less uncertain as to the meaning of such terms as 
‘crisis,’ ‘all out-effort,’ or ‘turning point in history,’ at 
least when such terms are applied practically and speci- 
fically to the world in which we wake up in the morning, 
eat breakfast, go to work, enjoy the movies or a baseball 
game, or do any one of the hundreds of other things which 
make up the daily life of the normal American. Now what 
in last analysis do these terms mean? Simply this—that 
our ideas, our ideals, our traditional way of life are being 
challenged by a very different set of ideas, ideals and way 
of life and that this challenge has resulted in a conflict 
the extent and future character of which cannot now be 
fully forseen but the fundamental reality of which is with 
us today. 
“It is a fact that there is no governmental function, 
no economic or social process which is not at the present 
time being tested and tested as never before in our 
our history because of this challenge and by this 
conflict. We are but dimly aware that we are being sub- 
jected to a test and that its results will soon become apparent. 
We still like to think and talk of defense vicariously and too 
exclusively and narrowly in military terms; we are often 
intent on figuring out how little we need sacrifice for the 
ideals in which we claim to believe and it is debatable wheth- 
er we bring to bear upon our public duties—whatever those 
duties may be—the greater degree of efficiency, the more 
sustained unselfishness and clear recognition of the signi- 
ficance of our particular task in the total defense effort 12 
Supplementary Report 
which the present crisis demands. That is a sobering pic- 
ture for all of us, for one thing is certain: if our democratic 
way of life is to survive and be perfected, it will do so, not 
because of some mysteriously inherent power of automatic 
self-defense or self-perpetuation with which it has been in- 
vested by our forefathers, but because of what we are 
and of what we do. We must be able to meet the test 
of History.’’ 
Let us remember that in this crisis in world history, America 
today, and even more tomorrow, is “the great testing ground 
of Democracy.” Rhode Island, the land of Roger Williams, 
is such a testing ground. Let it be said, when the history of this 
period is written, that Rhode Island was one of the greatest, 
one of the finest, “testing grounds of Democracy.” 
I am sure this desire to play a major role in the “testing 
ground of Democracy” was what motivated Governor McGrath 
to appoint this Commission in the first instance. It was the 
Governor who appointed, in 1941, a Commission to study the 
whole problem of relief and its administration in this State. It 
was he who, with the support of a progressive General Assembly, 
put on the statute books a new General Public Assistance Law. 
As a result, Rhode Island is recognized as leading the nation in 
the field of public assistance to the aged and the needy. 
Having achieved this, the Governor turned his mind to the 
improvement of our State Institutions and related agencies. 
Scope of Study 
It is important, at this point, to clearly understand the area 
embraced in this study. The resolution passed in the January 
1943 session of the General Assembly provides for:— 
‘T. A study of the present conditions and future needs of 
the State Institutions. These institutions are The 
State Hospital for Mental Diseases, The State Infirm- 
ary, The State Prison and Providence County Jail, 
The Reformatory for Men, The Reformatory for 
Women, Sockanosset School for Boys, Oaklawn School 
for Girls, Exeter School, State Home and School, 
Soldiers’ Home and the State Sanatorium at Wal- 
lum Lake. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
13 
“2. A study of the Probation and Parole system of the 
State. 
“3. A study of such state agencies which directly affect 
or are affected by the present conditions and needs 
of the State Institutions now within the Department 
of Social Welfare.” 
It does not require much reflection to see at once that a very 
broad field of study, investigation, research and planning is 
opened up by this resolution. 
Permit me, however, to give one illustration:— 
Correctional Institutions. . . It is, or at least should be, 
manifest, you cannot make a long-term program with respect to 
the State Prison, the Men’s Reformatory, or our juvenile correc- 
tional institutions, Sockanosset and Oaklawn Schools, without 
consideration of what happens ‘ ‘before’ ’ the individual is ‘ ‘com- 
mitted” to a correctional institution and what happens “after” 
he is conditionally released “on parole.” 
In a correctional institution, the agencies of Criminal Justice 
are deeply involved. The arrest, the trial, the conviction, the sen- 
tence are deeply involved. So, also, is deeply involved the sys- 
tem of release, Pardon and Parole, and supervision after ‘ ‘release.’ ’ 
So, also, is deeply involved another public agency, viz., our State 
Department of Education and our City and Town School Sys- 
tems (financed in part by State funds). We find, flowing into 
juvenile institutions, into the Reformatory for Men and the 
State Prison, (1) a high percentage of boys and men who have 
had no more than an eighth grade education; a very considerable 
percentage who have had less than an eighth grade education. 
(2) We find a considerable percentage of feeble-minded in all our 
penal and correctional institutions. We find an even higher 
percentage in our correctional institutions whom psychologists 
describe as of ‘ ‘dull intelligence ’ ’ 
What has been said with respect to the correctional institu- 
tions applies, to a greater or lesser extent, to the State Hospital 
for Mental Diseases, to the newly proposed Clark General Hos- 
pital (now The State Infirmary), to Exeter School, and to The 
Wallum Lake Sanatorium. Supplementary Report 
The whole crux of the institutional problem is that these 
State Institutions represent, very largely, the failures of organ- 
ized society. 
Justin Miller, Associate Justice, U. S. Court of Appeals, 
Washington, D. C., in an address before The American Prison 
Association, makes this focal point clear:— 
“Those who are charged with the custody and control of 
persons convicted of crime occupy, in the field of crime 
treatment, much the same position as do the pathologists 
in the field of disease treatment. 
“After organized society has failed—through its homes, 
schools, churches, hospitals, industrial organizations and 
other institutions—safely to integrate certain of its mem- 
bers into its conventional structure, or to protect them 
against the savage impacts of a ruthlessly individualistic 
and competitive way of life, it turns over to custodial officers, 
not merely the physical bodies, but the twisted mentalities 
of inadequate personalities of its victims; in other words, 
comparatively speaking, it turns over to them the dis- 
eased tissues of the great body of human society...’’ 
We, in the institutional field, are expected to take these 
‘ ‘diseased tissues of the great body of human society’ ’ and per- 
form miracles. I say, “we are expected to perform miracles” 
after organized society has failed. By some of our people, we are. 
By others, perhaps the great majority of our citizens, we are not. 
These latter take the defeatist attitude. But not so the father 
or mother, the husband or wife who has one of his loved ones, 
perhaps the breadwinner, committed to the Mental Hospital or 
the State Prison; not the fathers and mothers whose sons have 
been committed by the courts to Sockanosset or the Men’s 
Reformatory. 
The attitude of the general public in Rhode Island with re- 
spect to State Institutions is, by and large, a ‘ ‘negative’ ’ attitude, 
rather than a “positive” attitude. Because of this, State 
Institutions are not regarded as an integral part of the body 
politic, but as something extraneous thereto. To illustrate what 
I mean, every citizen in the State recognizes the important, pos- 
itive and constructive functions performed by the Rhode Island State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
15 
Hospital. We recognize this fine hospital for physical ailments 
as something essential to us, even as is one of the fine public roads 
over which we travel. It is interesting to recall that, fifty years 
ago, a considerable part of the general public had the same feel- 
ing of dread and apprehension with respect to going to a General 
Hospital as the public now feels with respect to a Mental Hospital 
or a Penal Institution. 
In this Supplementary Report, an attempt will be made to 
show that our State Institutions are as much a part of the com- 
munity or social body as is a fine private hospital like the Rhode 
Island Hospital or any of the great hospitals in the country. 
They exist to conserve, and where possible, reconstruct broken 
human lives. This is going to demand, on the part of the read- 
ers of the report, a degree of perspective and open-mindedness 
to new ideas, and a positive instead of a defeatist attitude. 
It has been customary,, in the past, to refer to the four 
‘‘D’s”;—-Dependency, Deficiency, Disease, Delinquency. 
These four “D’s” are the sources from which people flow 
into the Social Welfare Department: to our Institutions, or to our 
Welfare Services. , 
There is another point of view. We look now to four 
“P’s”:— Prevention, Preservation, Progression, Production. 
Note the four “D’s” spell Defeatism; the four “P’s” spell Crea- 
tive Success. 
We can change from “Defeatism” to “Creative Success.” 
To do so, we must utilize to the full modern scientific knowl- 
edge and the scientific techniques developed in several im- 
portant sciences:—Psychology, particularly the psychology of 
Behavior; Psychiatry, the science of Mental Hygiene and 
Therapy; Sociology, the science of the Community, community 
behavior and family behavior; the science of Medicine and 
the related science of Public Health; the science of Physiology, 
and the closely related sciences of Nutrition and Bio-chemistry; 
the sciences of Criminology and Penology. 
Positive Attitude Supplementary Report 
Future Role of Social Sciences 
Combined, most of the foregoing sciences have come, today, 
to be classified as “The Social Sciences,” as distinguished 
from the Physical Sciences and as also distinguished from the 
science of Political Economy. There are those who believe that 
these Social Sciences hold, for the coming century, as great prom- 
ise for achievement in the onward march of civilization as the 
Physical Sciences, in the past century, played a major role in 
laying the foundation for modern technololgy. 
One of the great pieces of evidence in support of the role 
the Social Sciences will play in the coming century is the dynamic 
quality of these Social Sciences. We find the individual men 
in these Science have formed national organizations. May I 
mention a few of these:— 
The National Committee for Mental Hygiene 
American Psychiatric Association 
American Association on Mental Deficiency 
American Prison Association 
Public Administration Service 
American Public Welfare Association 
American Association of Social Workers 
American Parole Association 
National Probation Association 
Child Welfare League of America 
American Association of Psychiatric Social Workers 
American Association for Applied Psychology 
The American Law Institute 
American Public Health Association 
American Sociological Society 
American Medical Association 
National Committee of Health Council Executives 
Family Welfare Association of America 
The Osborne Association, Incorporated 
The Social Science Research Council 
Each of these organizations publishes its own scientific pub- 
lication and bulletins. Most of these associations carry on pro- 
grams of research and planning. Each has special committees 
studying specific problems. Each has its annual meeting. The State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
interesting fact with respect to these associations is that they 
are not primarily academic in character. The membership of 
these respective associations is made up largely of public officials 
actually engaged in the administration of State Institutions, of 
public health services, and of public and private social welfare 
agencies' We can, therefore, visualize a picture in which scientif- 
ic men and experts in particular fields are working, day in and 
day out, in institutions, for example. Yet, these public officials 
are not working alone. They are definitely tied up with national 
associations and scientific research organizations in their re- 
spective fields. 
There is a two-way flow of information from the institutions 
into the national associations and back to the institutions (1) 
through scientific publications and bulletins, and (2) through 
annual meetings of a highly objective and scientific character. 
More and more, the individual institutions are becoming labora- 
tories in which this combined knowledge of all of the administra- 
tors is applied, to a greater or lesser extent, in the individual 
institutions. The same is true, also, of welfare agencies. 
A Program of Action 
As the peripheries of each of these Social Sciences expand, 
they first begin to touch, and then to merge with, related Social 
Sciences—psychology with medicine; mental hygiene with crim- 
inology; sociology with all four—out of which emerges an 
integrated social philosophy and a more closely co-ordinated ap- 
proach and methodology. As a result, there has developed a 
Program of Action, which is common to every one of the groups 
herein mentioned. All are agreed that the essential elements in 
any program are:— 
1. Prevention 
2. Diagnosis 
3. Treatment, if the trouble is a physical or mental ailment, 
and Rehabilitation, if the trouble is a social ailment. 
(Institutions) 
4. Release into the community from institutional care and 
custody in the case of an institution, or Full Rehabilita- 
tion in the community where a welfare agency has had 
supervision over an individual or has been giving an 
individual financial assistance. Supplementary Report 
5. Post-Institutional Supervision for a long or short period. 
One thing is abundantly clear, that such a program dealing 
with individuals for whom the State assumes responsibility must 
be “an integrated program,” with the community of the 
State an active participant. It follows, from this idea of “in- 
tegration,” that any State Institution is only one implement 
or tool in a total process. Upon this, without exception, 
practically every scientist and expert is in agreement. To treat, 
therefore, any given institution in “isolation” is contrary to every 
modern concept with respect to the right scientific and public 
administrative approach. 
This Supplementary Report will start, therefore, with a dis- 
cussion of what is regarded as the most important of the essential 
elements in a well-rounded program, namely, “Prevention.” 
Having dealt with ‘ ‘Prevention’ ’ in broad and general terms, the 
report will pickup the social objectives with respect to various 
individuals for whom the State finds it necessary to assume 
responsibility, either temporarily or permanently,—in some cases 
care and custody in an institution, in others non-institutional 
care and supervision. 
To realize the importance of this community approach 
as distinguished from the institutional approach, the following 
statement by George S. Stevenson, M. D., Director of the Nation- 
al Committee for Mental Hygiene, well illustrates the point of 
view which will be followed throughout this report as it deals 
with specific problems. Dr. Stevenson was speaking to a group 
in the State of Virginia. He said:— 
“Virginia, the state in which we are meeting today, has 
among her two and a half million citizens some 12,000 who 
need her special mothering (the mentally ill). Let us for 
the moment, however, forget this number. Let us think 
of just one of these citizens. What were his potentialities 
as a child? What caused these potentialities to be lost? State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
19 
What problems did he create in his home and his community? 
What disadvantages and delays did he experience in getting 
to the hospital? Were formalities and cruelties of court pro- 
cedure a deterrent to early treatment? Did the public atti- 
tude toward mental illness delay his family’s admission 
of the seriousness of his difficulty? What does he need to 
get well? What does he need to get back to his community? 
What does he need to stay well? What support, material 
and moral, does his family need in his absence? See how 
complex this one case is. See how it points to public 
education, public health, local clinical services, local 
hospital services, court procedure, public opinion, 
therapeutic facilities in a mental hospital, social ser- 
vice in preventive clinical work. ..” (Italics mine.) 
This type of approach is quite different from the approach of 
my associates on this commission who have, to a large extent, 
restricted themselves to a consideration of the institutions as i- 
solated utilities. In my opinion, approaching the problems of 
the mentally ill and the socially maladjusted purely from the 
institutional point of view has resulted in placing the report 
of the majority members of this Commission in too narrow a frame- 
work. As a result, the picture within the frame is incomplete 
and leaves us without a constructive social and scientific program 
looking to the proper treatment, cure and rehabilitation of those 
who are afflicted with a physical or mental ailment, or those 
afflicted with social maladjustment. 
It is of the highest importance to realize that this broad ap- 
proach looks to two social goals; (1) to prevent citizens like 
ourselves from getting into the care and custody of the 
State in the first place; (2) to get those whom it is found 
necessary to place in an institution out of institutional care 
and custody at the earliest moment when it is safe to re- 
lease them—safe from the standpoint of the community 
and safe from the standpoint of the individual released. 
Reduction of Institutional Population 
It is apparent that if such a goal were fully achieved we would 
largely do away with such institutions as exist at Howard and 
other places in the State, supported by public taxation. It may Supplementary Report 
be that we will never achieve such a goal. It is important to bear 
in mind, however, that in the State of Rhode Island we have al- 
ready gone a long way in reaching such a highly desirable goal. 
May I cite three examples:— 
In the year 1890, after a great deal of agitation on the part 
of the public, the State Home and School was opened to take care 
of neglected and dependent children. For a number of years, 
that was the only tax-supported State agency which made pro- 
visions for this most unfortunate group of children. Subsequent- 
ly, the Children’s Bureau was established in this State. At one 
time, The State Home and School had a population of neglected 
and dependent children as high as 412. At the time of this writ- 
ing, the State Home and School has a population of 110 neglected 
and dependent children. This, however, does not account for 
all the neglected and dependent children under the care and sup- 
ervision of the State. Under the supervision of the Children’s 
Division, we have, as of the date of this writing, 1374 boys and girls 
under eighteen years of age in foster homes. The State pays to 
the foster parents the basic rate of $5.00 a week for the care of 
these children in a home environment. The children are not just 
deposited in a foster home and forgotten, but are continually 
supervised by skilled social workers in the Chidren’s Division 
In addition to the foster home program within the Children’s 
Division, we have, within the Division of Public Assistance of the 
Department, what is known as “Aid to Dependent Children.’’ 
This program which, on a national scale, is made possible by the 
Federal Social Security Act, makes available grants-in-aid to all 
of the forty-eight states including the State of Rhode Island, to 
give financial assistance to mothers who have dependent children. 
By this program, in Rhode Island, we are giving major support to 
approximately 3000 children. 
Thus, we see 110 dependent children cared for in the 
Institution, but nearly 4,400 cared for either in their own 
homes or in “Foster Homes.” Just above, we made a state- 
ment that there were two goals, two focal objectives in this 
Institutional Problem:— 
(1) Prevention. To keep our fellow citizens out of State 
custody or care. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
21 
(2) To return those in Institutions to free society at the 
earliest possible moment. 
The Child Welfare program of Rhode Island shows it can be done 
for children. Can it be done for others? Yes! For in Probation 
and Parole we have a second telling example. In case of “Pro- 
bation,” we keep “offenders” out in free society. In case of 
“Parole,” we release them. In both cases, the convicted man 
is under close supervision. 
As of this writing, we have in Rhode Island, 2,480 individuals 
convicted of crime on Probation and Parole, compared to 745 
in all our correctional institutions. 
Let us take a third illustration. We have in Rhode Island 
12,147 men and women receiving Old Age Assistance and Old Age 
& Survivors Insurance. They live in their own little homes, 
or in convalescent homes. Compare this with 600 aged individ- 
uals in the State Infirmary. 
Summing up the data on this point of reduction of population 
in three of our State Institutions—the State Home and School, 
the Correctional Institutions and the State Infirmary—we find 
a total of 1,455 individuals now in institutions as compared with 
19,000 outside. Those outside might well have swelled our insti- 
tutional population by several thousand. To meet this, the 
capital outlay for new buildings would have been enormous. 
Equally great would have been the annual operating cost. 
Take as an example the correctional institutions. From the 
standpoint of the taxpayer, it costs on an average of $566.39 
a year to keep a man or a boy in a correctional institution, as 
against $42.63 a year to supervise the same man or boy on Pro- 
bation and Parole. It is apparent, therefore, that if all of those 
now on probation and parole were in our correctional institutions 
it would costs the taxpayer of this State $1,298,924 more than 
it does under our present system. We would also have reqiured 
large capital expenditures for additional correctional institutions. 
It may be said that every specialist in the correctional field 
is of the opinion that prisons, reformatories and correctional in- 
stitutions for juveniles, as presently conceived and operated, by 
and large, are probably doing more harm than good for a sub- Supplementary Report 
stantial percentage of those committed to them. Too often, they 
are breeding places for crime and delinquency rather than in- 
stitutions for the cure and rehabilitation of socially maladjusted 
individuals. 
We thus see significant progress in every one of our institu- 
tions toward this goal of keeping people out of institutions and 
toward releasing them under proper supervision at the earliest 
moment it appears safe for the community and for the individual 
released. From my experience as Director of Social Welfare, 
from my study of what has been done in other progressive states, 
I am satisfied that we have only scratched the surface of what 
is a great field for conserving State revenues in this field of re- 
ducing institutional population. 
One highly important aspect of a program which looks to the 
reduction of institutional population by placing out wards of the 
State or those convicted of criminal offenses in society under 
proper care and supervision is. that it opens greater opportunities 
for individual treatment as distinguished from “mass” treat- 
ment with respect to those who remain in institutions. Large 
institutional populations, with over-crowding, are the greatest 
obstacle to individual treatment which looks to cure in case of 
physical or mental illness or rehabilitation in case of the moral or 
social illness of offenders against the criminal law. Every expert 
and specialist is agreed that highly individualized special treat- 
ment cannot be readily achieved in institutions having large pop- 
ulations. By the same token, by reducing the institutional popu- 
lation and cutting down the cost incident to large populations, 
the State can afford to spend more money on a higher type of 
personnel. The net result of a better type of individual treat- 
ment would be earlier release from the institution, which again 
would cut down the overhead cost. 
The most fruitful field of all lies in a community organization, 
so organized that we will catch the potential institutional cases 
when the first germs of trouble appear, and not wait until one 
of us, and it may be any one of us who are citizens of this State, 
becomes a social derelict, representing what Justin Miller, As- 
sociate Justice of the United States Court of Appeals, described 
as ‘The diseased tissues of the great body of human society.” State Commission on Public Weljare Institutions 
23 
It is a significant fact that this method of approach, which 
first looks to Prevention so that our fellow citizens will not find 
themselves committed to institutions, and second which looks 
to scientific methods of treatment and rehabilitation so as to re- 
lease them from institutions at the earliest possible time under 
proper supervision for a period, brings together two major ob- 
jectives in public administration: (1) Conservation of State 
revenues, which is of great interest to all taxpayers; (2) It 
more nearly meets the social objective of caring for the health 
and welfare of our fellow citizens when they need the care of 
the State. It is rare, indeed, that these two objectives, which 
are often in conflict, can march together, hand in hand. 
I believe every citizen of our State would have been proud 
if he could have listened in on a conference held in my office 
only yesterday. I received a call from Mr. Yulin Hsi, a member 
of the National Chinese Government. Mr. Hsi came to the 
the United States as an accredited member of his Government, 
and as a personal representative of Generalissimo Chiang Kai- 
shek. His purpose was to study public administration in 
the United States, on the federal, state and municipal levels. 
He bore a letter to me from a prominent official of the American 
Public Welfare Association, an organization closely affiliated 
with the American Society for Public Administration. Mr. 
Hsi told me he *was recommended to come to Rhode Island 
because he was advised that in the Public Assistance field we 
had the best, the most progressive Social Welfare Department 
in the United States. 
So, we lead the country in our laws dealing with Public 
Assistance and Relief of those in want. 
Shall we now assume leadership in this nation with 
respect to our State Institutions? 
One of the many notable books which have come out of this 
critical period in the history of the onward march of the human 
race is a book entitled, “Conditions of Peace,” by Professor 
Edward Hallett Carr of the University College of Wales and 
a leading columnist on The London Times. Looking to the 
future, Professor Carr said:— 24 
Supplementary Report 
“The Old World is dead. The future lies with those 
who can resolutely turn their backs on it and face the 
New World with understanding, courage, and imagi- 
nation. 
“The first moral for Victory in the present War is not 
to look backwards to guide the post-war settlement... 
History shows that the one thing War never does is to 
maintain or restore the status quo.” 
This statement recalls the statement hereinbefore given from 
an address by the Honorable G. Howland Shaw, Assistant 
Secretary of State, to the effect that democracy is being today 
subjected to the most severe test it has ever faced since our 
own American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence. 
If there was ever a period when leaders should challenge the 
great body of citizens who constitute the living forces in a democ- 
racy, this is the time to make such a challenge. It is my Faith 
that the rank and file of the people in our own State are ready 
today, as never before in the history of Rhode Island, to move 
forward to newer and higher grounds in this fascinating field,— 
“HUMAN WELFARE.’’ 
May I close this introduction with the words of Victor 
Hugo:— 
‘ ‘There is one thing stronger than all the armies in 
the world; and that is an idea whose time has come.” 
It is the purpose of this Supplementary Report, in future 
chapters, to show that “the time is ripe” for a new social per- 
spective on the part of the people of this State with respect to 
these highly important institutions. I am confident that the 
adoption of the program herein proposed would place Rhode 
Island at the head of the forty-eight states of the union in deal- 
ing with every type of individual to whom it is found necessary 
to give institutional care or custody. The individuals who come 
to these institutions are people, just like ourselves. No field 
is more fruitful. By constructive community organization, we 
can prevent thousands from ever getting to the point where 
institutional care or custody is necessary. By the application 
of modern scientific knowledge and methods, we can cure and 
rehabilitate other thousands who find themselves in these insti- Juvenile 
Court 
Division of 
Child and 
Juvenile Welfare 
(Chart 6) 
Department of 
Social 
Welfare 
Welfare 
Services 
Over-all plan as outlined in accompanying report 
Division of 
Hospitals 
(Chart 5) 
Governor 
CHART 1 
Division of 
Mental 
Hygiene 
(Chart 4) 
Probation 
& Parole 
Correctional 
Authority 
Correctional 
Superintendent 
(Chart 3) 
State 
Security 
Council 
(Chart 2) 
Diagnostic 
Treatment 
Clinic 
Courts Labor relations; 
Unemployment 
Industrial 
Division 
Governor, 
Chairman 
Staff 
Consumers' 
Division 
Housing; 
Nutrition. 
State Security Council 
State Security 
Council 
Executive 
Committee 
Executive 
Director 
1 
Educational 
Division 
Education; 
Professional 
training of 
workers 
CHART 2 
Hospital and 
medical surveys. 
Health and 
Medical 
Division 
Technical advisors 
Directors of: 
Education 
Labor 
Health 
Social' Welfare 
Recreation; 
Child Welfare; 
Dependency and neglect; 
Inter-racial relations; 
Juvenile organizations. 
Welfare 
Division State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
25 
tutions. By an integrated program, we can give supervision 
and care to other thousands whose problems can be met, not 
within the walls of institutions, but in their own homes or in ‘ ‘fos- 
ter’ ’ or ‘ ‘convalescent’ ’ homes. It will be made clear that the 
institution is but one of many ways in which we can accomplish 
the major objective of cure and rehabilitation. 
Finally, it is my Faith that the “Four Freedoms” are living, 
burning realities,—living and burning realities because they come 
out of the very loins of the torn and suffering human race. Two 
of the “Four Freedoms,” “Freedom from Fear” and “Freedom 
from Want” lie at the very heart of the institutional problem. 
When we make men free from fear, when we make men free from 
want, few indeed of our fellow citizens and neighbors will find 
themselves ‘ ‘classified’ ’ in the statutes of this State as ‘ ‘neglected 
and dependent children,” as “indigent poor,” as “mentally ill,” 
or even as “delinquent” or “criminal.” 
SYNOPSIS OF SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT 
AND ITS RECOMMENDATIONS 
In the ancient Greek Tragadies which dealt with deviant 
human behavior and its tragic consequences, the producers 
adopted a unique and interesting device. Before the curtain 
rose on the main play “The Chorus” came on the stage. The 
purpose was twofold, first, to arouse interest and stimulate 
the intellectual appetite, and second, to interpret to the audience 
what was to follow. 
Such is the twofold purpose of this Synopsis. 
CHAPTER I 
Prevention 
It is recommended there be established by legislative en- 
actment a State Security Council. (See Chart II) 
(1) An Executive Committee; the Governor, Chairman 
(2) Five Divisions:— 
(a) Welfare Division 
(b) Health and Medical Division Supplementary Report 
(c) Educational Division 
(d) Consumers’ Division 
(e) Industrial Division 
Each Division will consist of a chairman and interested 
citizens. 
(3) The State Directors of Social Welfare, Education, 
Public Health, Labor and the Chairman of the Unem- 
ployment Compensation Board will act as a technical 
advisory staff to the Executive Committee. Also, the 
Attorney General and the Superintendent of State 
Police will act as technical advisors. 
(4) Director of Human Relations 
There shall be a full time Director of Human Rela- 
tions. He shall be directly responsible to the Governor 
and the Executive Committee of the Council. 
Social Objectives and Functions 
The social objectives and functions of the State Security 
Council shall be fivefold: 
(1) Planning for Social Action through community organiza- 
tion. 
(2) Prevention:— 
(a) Of Juvenile Delinquency and Crime 
(b) Of Physical and Mental Illness 
(c) Of industrial accidents and certain occupational 
diseases. 
(3) Collection, and interpretation to the public and to 
the General Assembly, of vital statistics:— 
(a) Unemployment - amount and causes. 
(b) Number of dependent and needy individuals of 
the State requiring Relief, together with causes 
of Dependency. 
(c) Vital statistics on illness and disease, particularly 
such types of diseases as Tuberculosis, Cancer, 
Infantile Paralysis, Heart Diseases, Alcoholism 
and various types of Mental Illness. 
(4) A continuous adaptation of our State Institutions and 
privately endowed hospitals to meet the needs of Rhode 
Island citizens requiring institutional care and treat- 
ment, looking to their cure and rehabilitation. Unsolved: 
(1) Psychopathic 
personality 
(2) Sex promis- 
cuity 
Court 
Vagrant 
prostitute 
Adult 
"'''fouth 
(Institutions) 
Chronic 
alcoholic 
Correctional 
Superintendent 
Misde- 
meanants 
Correction Program 
Youth 
Division 
Adult 
Division 
Director of 
Social Welfare 
CHART 3 
Detention 
center 
Correctional 
Authority 
Maximum 
security 
Probation 
r 
& Parole 
Medium 
security 
l Minimum 
security 
Diagnostic 
treatment 
Clinic 
Reception & 
classification 
center State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
27 
(5) Preparation of such Legislation as may be required 
from time to time in the field of Human Welfare, viz,, 
legislation in the fields of Social Welfare, Health— 
physical and mental, Education and Labor. 
The full time Director of Human Relations should be a well 
qualified Sociologist. He would gather and compile all types of 
vital statistics and interpret this factual knowledge to the Gover- 
nor and the State Security Council. This is essential for con- 
structive Social Action. 
CHAPTER II 
Division of Corrections 
It is recommended there be established within the Depart- 
ment of Social Welfare a “Division of Corrections.” (See Chart 
HI) 
Organization 
A Correctional Authority 
The Authority would consist of a three-man board; viz., a 
Judge of the Superior Court, the Director of Social Welfare, the 
Superintendent of Correctional Institutions. 
Under the Authority there would be the following:— 
(1) The Superintendent of Correctional Institutions and 
his Staff. 
(2) A Diagnostic Treatment Clinic, (For character of 
Clininc, see text) 
(3) The Administrator of the Division of Probation and 
Parole. 
(4) The following reorganized Institutions:— 
(a) Youth Institutions for Correction 
There would be two main institutions for the 
treatment and rehabilitation of youth offenders 
between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four:— 
(1) One wing of the existing Reformatory for Men 
would be what is known as a Reform School 
of “Medium Security.” Supplementary Report 
(2) The existing institution known as Sockanosset 
School would be transformed to a Reform 
School of “Minimum Security.” 
(b) Adult Institutions of Correction 
For adults, beginning with the age of twenty-four 
and upwards, there would be three institutions:— 
(1) A Penal Farm would be established for mis- 
demeanants and petty offenders at the present 
site of the Soldiers’ Home at Bristol.* 
(2) One wing of the Prison would be utilized as 
a correctional institution of ‘ ‘Medium Secur- 
ity.” 
(3) A second wing of the Prison would be utilized 
as a correctional institution of “Maximum 
Security.” 
As the text of Chapter II will show, “diversified” institutions 
are an essential feature in a modern correctional program which 
looks to the rehabilitation of offenders against the laws of society 
and their eventual re-establishment into the community. 
The above plan is not an ideal one. It seeks to utilize exist- 
ing institutions for ‘ ‘diversified’ ’ treatment. An ideal plan would 
involve the abolition of our present prison and the construction of 
several institutional buildings, running from those of ‘ ‘maximum 
security’ ’ to institutions similar to the late Civilian Conservation 
Corps Camps. (See text of Chapter II and Appendices) 
Social Objectives 
The major social objectives of the Correctional Authority 
would be: 
(1) Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency and Crime, 
(2) Diagnosis, classification, treatment of convicted offend- 
ers with a view to correcting anti-social behavior. 
(3) Re-establishment of the offender into the community. 
It is the functional operation of the Authority which is all 
important. The Authority will have complete supervision of the 
*Note: Both the Majority Report and the Supplemental Report recommend the abolition of the 
Soldiers’ Home. Intra-mural: 
(1) Internal services 
as recommended in 
Commission Report. 
Extra-mural services 
(Assistant 
Superintendent) 
Extra-mural: 
(1) Mental deficiency 
register; 
(2) School testing; 
(3) Post-school guidance,- 
(4) Psychometric services 
to State agencies. 
Division of Mental Hygiene 
Director of 
Social Welfare 
Division of 
Mental Hygiene 
(Superintendent) 
Exeter School 
(Assistant 
Superintendent) 
CHART 4 
Extra-mural: 
(1) Psychiatric services 
to State agencies; 
(2) Out-patient clinics; 
(3) Family care,- 
(4) Commitment system,- 
(5) Inter-institutional 
transfers; 
(6) Public education. 
Intra-mural: 
(1) Research department; 
(2) Personnel improvement; 
(3) Occupational therapy,- 
(4) Education of patients. 
State Hospital 
(Assistant 
Superintendent) State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
29 
offender from the time of conviction to release. It will have the 
following important social obligations:— 
(1) To make a complete diagnosis of every convicted offend- 
er. 
This diagnosis will include a complete history of the 
individual, a physical diagnosis, a mental diagnosis 
and a full appraisal of the individual with respect 
to his rehabilitation and re-establishment into the 
community as a useful citizen. 
(2) To “classify” the offender on the basis of the “diag- 
nosis’ ’ and recommend proper disposition of him. Such 
disposition might be (a) Probation, (b) Commitment 
to an institution. 
If the latter is recommended, a “first offender” could 
be committed to an institution of “medium” security 
while a confirmed criminal would go to a ‘ ‘maximum’ ’ 
security institution. 
(3) Treatment, Training-Education 
After “diagnosis” and “classification,” the Authority 
would establish a well rounded pregram of treatment, 
training and education. Education and training is of 
greatest significance. Our Rhode Island experience 
shows the great majority of both youth and adult of- 
fenders have no more than an eighth grade educa- 
tion and most of them less. For the past forty years we 
have had no education or training programs in our 
prison and correctional institutions, worthy of the 
name, “Education,” The Authority, with adequate 
legislative appropriations, would change that deplorable 
indictment of our State. 
We lag behind every progressive state in the Union 
with respect to education and training of both young 
offenders and adult offenders. 
(4) Release into the Community 
A fourth important function of the Authority would 
be to act as the ‘ ‘releasing agency’ ’ or ‘ ‘Parole Board’ ’ 
—when offenders were eligible for “release” into the 
community. Supplementary Report 
The Authority would have available the advice of the Cli- 
nic. As will be seen from the text of Chapter II, the Clinic 
would comprise full time specialists in the fields 
of medicine, psychiatry, psychology, education and 
social work. This is the group who would carry on the 
functions of treatment, education and training. Its 
members would know all there was to know about each 
offender. 
(5) The Authority would be responsible for the re-estab- 
lishment of the offender in the community (a) if placed 
on “probation,” (b) if released from an institution on 
‘ ‘parole.’ ’ The Division of Probation and Parole would, 
therefore, be under the jurisdiction of the Authority. 
The Indeterminate Sentence 
The above program involves changing our existing criminal 
laws with respect to judges giving a ‘ ‘fixed sentence’ ’ for a definite 
term of years. The ‘ ‘fixed’ ’ sentence is based solely on the con- 
cept of “punishment” and “social revenge,” plus the concept 
that a long sentence is a “deterrent” to other potential offenders. 
Every specialist in penology is today agreed;— 
The concept of ‘ ‘punishment to suit the crime’ ’ has 
to be changed to “treatment to suit each indiv- 
idual offender.” 
The “fixed” sentence is wholly incompatible with this new 
concept of therapy as applied to offenders against the laws of 
society. Some offenders are by no means “confirmed criminals.” 
Others are hardened offenders with long records of criminal be- 
havior. 
It is manifest that a system which seeks “to cure” men of 
anti-social conduct should be flexible. The very heart of such a 
system is a form of “indeterminate” sentence. 
This report makes two highly significant recommendations:— 
(a) The law should provide for youthful offenders (ages 16 
to 24) an indeterminate sentence, with a maximum of 
six years. 
There would be reserved in the trial judge the existing 
right for the judge to place the convicted youth on pro- State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
bation. If the judge did not place the youth on pro- 
bation, he would commit the youth to the Correctional 
Authority. 
(b) With respect to adult offenders, it is recommended 
the law leave open to the trial judge three courses 
of action:— 
(1) The judge could place the adult offender on pro- 
bation. 
(2) At his discretion the judge could commit the 
adult to the Correctional Authority—on an “in- 
determinate” sentence—the term in custody not 
to exceed the maximum sentence provided by stat- 
ute for a given offense. 
(3) The trial judge could give the offender the max- 
imum sentence provided by law and request the 
Authority, after diagnosis of the individual to 
recommend a “fixed” term of sentence. The 
Authority within six months would then be re- 
quired to recommend a “fixed” term. The judge 
could accept or reject the recommendation. If 
the judge did not act within a specified time, ‘ ‘the 
recommended” sentence would become “the term” 
of the sentence. 
CHAPTER III 
Division of Mental Hygiene 
It is recommended there be established within the Department 
of Social Welfare a Division of Mental Hygiene. This Division 
would comprise three sub-divisions: 
(1) State Hospital for Mental Diseases 
(2) Exeter School for Feeble-minded 
(3) Community Services, generally termed Extra-Mural Ser- 
vices. (See Chart IV) 
Organization 
There would be a General Superintendent of the Division and 
three Superintendents; (a) Superintendent of State Hospital for Supplementary Report 
Mental Diseases, (b) Superintendent of Exeter School, and (c) 
Superintendent of Extra-Mural Community Services. Each of 
these sub-divisions would be adequately staffed with professional 
and technical personnel. 
Social Objectives and Functions 
The major social objective and function of the two institu- 
tions in this Division would be to rehabilitate the mentally ill 
and the feeble-minded so as to return them to society as product- 
ive and useful citizens. 
The major social objectives of the sub-division of Extra- 
Mural Community Services would be (a) prevention and (b) 
post-institutional supervision and care. 
With respect to the State Hospital for Mental Diseases, there 
are four major recommendations looking to the cure of the mentally 
ill:— 
Intra-Mural Services 
(1) Research Department 
(2) Personnel Improvement 
(3) Occupational Therapy 
(4) Education of Patients 
Of special significance are the recommendations with repsect 
to the Extra Mural Services (a) for the mentally ill; (b) for the 
feeble-minded. These are listed below: 
Extra-Mural Services for Mentally 111 
(1) Psychiatric services to State agencies 
(2) Out-patient clinics 
(3) Family care 
(4) Commitment system 
(4) Inter-institutional transfers 
(6) Public education 
Extra-Mural Services for Feeble-minded 
(1) Mental deficiency register 
(2) School testing 
(3) Post-school guidance 
(4) Psychometric services to State agencies (1) Prevention 
(2t Treatment 
(3) Post-institution 
service 
Wallum Lake 
Tubercular 
Sanatorium 
Division of 
Hospitals 
(Supt. of Clarke Hospital) 
Director of 
Social Welfare 
Division of Hospitals 
CHART 5 
(1) Chronic cases 
(a) Diagnostic clinic 
(b) Treatment 
(2) Acute medical and surgical, 
including obstetric 
(3) Medical research 
Clarke General 
Hospital State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
33 
This program for the mentally ill and the feeble-minded is 
based on the studies and conclusions of the National Committee 
for Mental Hygiene, the American Psychiatric Association and 
leaders in this important branch of Medical Science. 
CHAPTER IV 
Division of Hospitals 
It is recommended there be established in the Department of 
Social Welfare a Division of Hospitals. (See Chart V) 
Organization 
This division will comprise two hospitals:— 
(1) The Clarke General Hospital, now known as The State 
Infirmary 
(2) Tuberculosis Sanatorium-—Wallum Lake 
The Division will be under the supervision of the Superin- 
tendent of the Clarke General Hospital. 
Social Objectives and Functions of the Clarke General 
Hospital 
(1) Diagnosis and Treatment of chronic diseases 
(2) Treatment of acute medical and surgical cases, includ- 
ing obstetrics 
(3) Medical Research 
Social Objectives and Functions of Tuberculosis Sanator- 
ium 
(1) Prevention—by Public Education 
(2) Treatment of Tubercular Patients 
(3) Research 
(4) Post-Institutional Service Supplementary Report 
CHAPTER V 
Division of Child and Juvenile Welfare 
It is recommended there be two main sub-divisions of a new 
division to be known as the Division of Child and Juvenile 
Welfare in the Department of Social Welfare: 
(1) A Welfare Services sub-division 
(2) A Juvenile Court sub-division (See Chart VI) 
Organization—Welfare Services Sub-division 
(1) Superintendent and Staff 
(2) Foster Home Program 
(3) Licensing and Supervision of Day Nurseries and Ma- 
ternity Homes 
(4) Assistance to Courts in Adoptions of Children 
(5) A Preventive Child Welfare Program 
(6) Institutions under Jurisdiction of Division:— 
(a) Oaklawn Training School, for girls under sixteen 
years 
(b) State Home and School Administrative and Re- 
ception Center (in portion not used for Boys’ 
School) 
Social Objectives and Functions 
(1) To care for all neglected and dependent children com- 
mitted to the Division by the Juvenile Court. 
(2) To carry on a family welfare prevention program, in co- 
operation with Catholic Charities and Family Welfare 
Society. 
(3) To serve Juvenile Courts in pre-investigation and 
diagnosis of children and juveniles coming before 
the Court. 
(4) To care for all child and juvenile offenders (up to six- 
teen years) committed to it by the Juvenile Court 
(a) in their own homes, under Social Work supervisors, 
or (b) in foster homes under Social Work supervision, 
or (c) in Oaklawn School for girls and State Home and 
School for boys where institutional treatment is deemed 
advisable. State Home 
and School 
Institutions 
Juvenile Court 
Oaklawn 
Treatment 
Foster Home 
Division of Child and Juvenile Welfare 
Division of 
Child & Juvenile Welfare 
Under 
Supervision 
CHART 6 
Director of 
Social Welfare 
At home 
Diagnosis 
and 
Classification 
Foster home program 
Adoption program 
Licensing program 
Child Welfare Services 
(Federal, preventive) 
Welfare 
Services- State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
35 
Juvenile Court Sub-Division 
For sound social reasons set forth in the text (see Chapter V), 
the Juvenile Court system is placed in the Department of 
Social Welfare. This completely divorces child and juvenile of- 
enders from the courts of Criminal Justice and makes of this 
phase of the program a social welfare approach as distinguished 
from the legalist approach. 
Organization 
(1) A Juvenile Court Judge and necessary staff. 
(2) A co-ordinated adminstration with the Sub-Division 
of Child and Juvenile Welfare Services. (See Chart 
VI) 
Social Objectives and Functions 
This is the last stage in a long historical journey. 
The journey started way back in England when a hungry 
and impoverished child who stole a loaf of bread was hanged 
by the neck until he was dead. 
The second stage was witnessed in Rhode Island when 
children and youth who were waifs were placed “on the block” 
and “indentured” to the highest bidder. 
The third stage was witnessed in Rhode Island when children 
were committed to local poor farms or the State Almshouse and 
were placed in a mixed population of adult vagrants, chronic 
alcoholics, prostitutes and feeble-minded. 
The fourth stage was the establishment, years ago, of Sock- 
anosset School for Boys as a “correctional” or semi-penal in- 
stitution, to which commitments were made by the courts 
of criminal justice. That is our present stage for both boy and girl 
offenders. 
We now come to the last stage of social enlightenment, 
I quote from the Reports and Studies prepared for the New 
York State Constitutional Convention in 1938. 
“In a report to the New York Legislature of a Special 
Commission on Youth, it is said:— Supplementary Report 
“The current attitude toward the children’s court is well 
summed up in the Reports and Studies prepared for the State 
Constitutional Convention in 1938:— 
“ ‘Its purpose is not primarily to punish a child for the 
commission of a specific wrong or to declare the nature of his 
legal rights, but to discover the causes of the child’s neglect or 
delinquency and then to determine what can best be done in 
his interest and in the interest of the State to rehabilitate him 
or to arrest further neglect or delinquency.’ ” 
CHAPTER VI 
Personnel 
Certain general recommendations are made with respect 
to the personnel of all State Institutions:— 
(1) An adequate “pay plan” for every classification of the 
State Civil Service, as these relate to institutions. 
(2) An 8 hour day for all institutional employees. 
(3) A program of “in-service” training applicable to every 
Civil Service classification which relates to institutional 
help. 
(4) Proper housing accommodations at these institutions, 
which are geographically isolated from the community. 
(5) A program looking to provide at these institutions, 
geographically isolated, a full community life for 
the employees. 
A General Recommendation 
It is highly recommended that all institutional positions 
be in the “Classified Civil Service System” of the State. This 
would include the Superintendent and other key personnel. 
Several of these top positions were designated two years ago 
as “Policy-making Positions.” These should be returned to the 
classified Civil Service. 
It is also recommended that when vacancies occur in the 
position of Superintendent or other top flight positions requiring 
professional and technical knowledge and skill of a high order, State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
37 
these positions be filled by a nationwide competitive examin- 
ation. 
Concluding Remarks: 
It is not contemplated that the foregoing progam should 
be put into effect all at one time or immediately. It represents 
a social-architectural plan for the future. 
It should also be understood that this plan in its various 
elements does not attempt to set forth in detail the actual nature 
of the legislation which would have to be passed in order to 
implement the program. 
CHAPTER I 
PREVENTION 
The Probem 
In the Introduction to this report, a four point Program 
was outlined:--(!) Prevention; (2) Diagnosis and Classifacation; 
(3) Treatment and Training looking to Cure and Rehabilita- 
tion; (4) Re-establishment in the community. This chapter 
will deal with the subject of “Prevention.” 
Prevention, practically every specialist and all the scientif- 
ic and technical organizations agree, is the most fruitful field. 
This conclusion is unanimous, whether we deal with 
the problems of physical illness, mental illness, child dependency, 
or the more baffling problems of juvenile delinquency, the youth 
offender, and the adult criminal offender. 
In order to point up, in a graphic way, just what is meant 
by Prevention and envisage its far-reaching potentialities, let us 
recall one of the greatest scourges which ever afflicted the human 
race Popularly called “The Black Death,” but technically 
known as the bubonic plague, this scourge was prevalent all 
over Euope in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, and was large- 
Iv unchecked until the 18th century. 38 
Supplementary Report 
There follows a quotation from the Encyclopedia Britannica:-- 
“The mortality of the black death was, as is well known, 
enormous. It is estimated in various parts of Europe at 
two-thirds or three-fourths of the population in the first 
pestilence; in England even higher, but some countries were 
much less severely affected. Hecker calculates that one- 
fourth of the population of Europe, or 25 millions of persons, 
died in the whole of the epidemics. It is hardly necessary 
to dwell upon social results of this terrible mortality. 
In England, great parts of the country remained untilled, and 
the deficiency of labourers was such as to cause a sudden 
rise of wages, which, in spite of attempts to check it by 
legislation, is thought to have effected the final emancipa- 
tion of the labouring class...” 
The Encyclopedia Britannica gives several major causes of 
this scourge which affected whole populations and had a profound 
effect upon history. The causes cited were poverty, filth, lack 
of education with respect to personal sanitation, and lack of any 
public sanitary utilities such as public sewage disposal systems 
and public water systems. 
When the writer of this report was a young man, typhoid 
fever was a widespread and prevalent disease. With the establish- 
ment in modern communities of public water and sewage systems, 
typhoid fever in the United States became a very rare disease in- 
deed, although typhoid fever and related intestinal diseases are 
still widespread over large areas of the earth where public sani- 
tation is not yet established. 
Social Sources of Delinquency and Crime 
Recent studies of juvenile delinquency and crime clearly indi- 
cate sources of social infection, different in degree but not differ- 
ent in kind to those which produced the scourge of the ‘ ‘Black 
Death.’ ’ Studies show that one of the major sources of juvenile 
and youth delinquency is poverty and filth in the slum districts 
of our large cities where there is improper housing and a low 
standard of family income. 
In 1929, the Department of Sociology, University of Chicago, 
with the aid of a Behavior Research Fund, made an extensive State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
39 
study in the City of Chicago. This study was made under the di- 
rection of Clifford R. Shaw. The study embraces more than 
100,000 truants, delinquents and older offenders dealt with by 
the Chicago police and court officials during the thirty year 
period from 1899 to 1928. The results of the study showed that 
there were high rates of delinquency in the low income areas of 
Chicago located near the central business district and slum areas, 
while low rates of delinquency prevailed in the outlying residen- 
tial community of higher economic status. In certain areas as 
high as twenty-five per cent of the boys in the teen ages were 
dealt with as delinquents in a single year, while in districts repre- 
senting higher economic status less than one per cent of the same 
age group was delinquent. One most signficant fact disclosed 
by the study was that delinquency and crime persisted in the low 
income neighborhoods over a long period of years, irrespective 
of the nationality or racial composition of the population. The 
study of one particular congested and low income area disclosed 
that years ago, when Irish imigrants occupied the district, the 
percentage of juvenile delinquency and crime coming from this 
source of community infection was the highest of any district in 
Chicago. When the Irish became more prosperous and moved 
out, people of German and Swedish origin occupied the same 
area, and it was found that the same high rate of delinquency and 
crime prevailed. Subsequently, the Germans and the Swedes 
moved out, and the district was occupied by people of Italian 
and Polish origin; yet, delinquency and crime rates remained high. 
At the present time, this same area is largely occupied by Negro 
people, and the same high rate of juvenile delinquency prevails. 
The study arrived at two conclusions: (1) that congestion, 
poor housing, low income with economic insecurity were the major 
contributing causes to delinquency and crime, and (2) that in 
such areas, delinquency and crime became a behavior pattern 
of the particular community area; that is to say, anti-social 
behavior was “passed on from individual to individual, from 
group to group, and from one genration of boys to another.’’* 
Barnes and Teeters,** referring to the studies of Shaw and his 
associates, had this to say:— 
*Shaw, Clifford R., “Delinquency Areas,” University of Chicago Press, 1929. Also, Barnes, 
Harry Elmer and Teeters, Negley K., “New Horizons in Criminology,” Prentice Hall, publishers. 
Chapter VII entitled, “Geography and Ecology in Crime.” This chapter cites several research 
studies made in different cities of the United States and substantiates in full the research made by 
Clifford Shaw and his associates. 
**Ibid. pp. 141-142. (Barnes and Teeters) Supplementary Report 
‘ ‘In their latest book (Juvenile Delinquency and Urban Areas, 
1942), Shaw and his colleagues have expanded their research to 
include several other cities where conditions similar to those 
reported and described in their earlier work ensue. The 
conclusions reached by Shaw and his associates are that 
group delinquency which characterizes much of our modern 
crime is deeply imbedded in the roots of modern community 
life; that attitudes prevailing in metropolitan centers seem 
to sanction delinquency through the conduct, speech, and 
gestures of adults with whom city juveniles come in contact; 
that the competing values of modern life confuse the grow- 
ing boy and encourage him to seek a life of excitement in 
which he can gain a satisfying status with his kind; and that 
year after year this situation grows more serious. Any 
solution, these writers feel, must come from communi- 
ty agencies focusing their attention on the setting 
or neighborhood life from which these young delin- 
quents emerge.” 
These facts are true in Rhode Island as they are in every sec- 
tion of the country. In preparing this report, I obtained certain 
statistical figures covering a five year period with respect to boys 
under twenty-one years of age committed by the courts to Socka- 
nosset School. It is interesting to note that during this five year 
period, it was a rare instance when any boy was committed to 
Sockanosset School as a juvenile offender from the better resi- 
dence districts of the city of Providence. On the other hand, the 
great majority of boys committed to Sockanosset School were 
found to come from census tracts 35 and 38 of the city of Provi- 
dence, an Italian district in the vicinity of Charles and Orms 
Streets; census tract 1, a downtown congested district,—a district 
which a survey made several years ago under the auspices of the 
Council of Social Agencies showed to be one of the worst slum 
districts in the United States; census tracts 18 and 19, which we 
know as the Federal Hill district; census tract 12, the South Provi- 
dence waterfront, and census tract 26, in the vicinity of Codding 
Street, a district of poor housing largely populated by Negroes. 
Thus, we have five areas which are community sources of infec- 
tion, producing a high percentage of the juvenile delinquents 
who eventually find themselves in Sockanosset School and later, 
too often, in the Reformatory for Men and in our State Prison. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
One of the best statements made on this subject of Prevention 
is that of George S. Stevenson, M. D., Medical Director of the 
National Committee for Mental Hygiene. In an address before 
the New England Health Institute, Dr. Stevenson said:— 
“The functions of a community are the counterpart of the 
needs of man, and in so far as those needs are universal, com- 
munities are similar, providing service for the sick and for 
those threatened with sickness, for the hungry, the thirsty, 
the ignorant, and the cold, for those in danger of attack, for 
those wishing to travel, for those wanting to trade, for those 
needing justice, and for those wanting communion. 
“These are needs of men, but these needs are not so clear- 
cut in real life. Jimmy plays hooky. This is a human-life 
episode. To Jimmy it is an impulse satisfied, a unit. Be- 
hind it may be hunger, inadequate clothes, bad tonsils, 
improper placement in school, nagging parents, compulsory- 
education laws, limited intelligence, and crowded living, 
and because of this multiplicity of factors, Jimmy may be- 
come the ‘property’ of first this and then that community 
agency, each of which is dealing with a part or a focus of 
Jimmy, but none with Jimmy. To him his episode was a 
unitary occurrence; all these various factors were integrated 
to the point where they became truancy. Never can the 
truancy be dealt with adequately by any peacemealprocess; 
Jimmy must be dealt with. The crucial point is that unless 
the services offered by a community are brought together 
and offered as a true counterpart of needs as they arise from 
people, and in such a way that the beneficiary gets a feel- 
ing of help from the community rather than from three 
or four separate agencies, the community is only partly 
deserving of the name. Today we are in a stage of cultural 
evolution in which community functions are progressing, 
but they still fall far short of being an integrated service 
that respects the oneness of the people served. We are 
progressing toward that ideal because, as technical fields 
expand, particularly in preventive directions, they encounter 
the expanding periphery of other technical fields and, after 
border skirmishes, come to an understanding. Most of our 
technical fields developed as a direct, circumscribed response Supplementary Report 
to an emergency—crime, poverty, insanity, pestilence, and 
the like. Preventive effort has caused them to spread more 
widely and more deeply to a point where the common ground 
beneath the technical efforts is reached. This trend should 
move us closer and closer to the goal of an integrated 
community service tuned to the needs of the people 
served.” 
The School As A Source Of Juvenile Delinquency 
Recent studies show that our public school systems carry a 
heavy responsibility, and, because of certain deficiencies, are, to a 
degree, responsible for juvenile delinquency. One of the best 
studies in this field in recent years was made by a Legislative 
Commission established by the legislature of the State of New 
York. This report, finished in 1941 after several years of study, 
has the following to say with respect to the responsibility of the 
public school system in this field of Prevention:— 
“Responsibility of Schools* 
‘ ‘The Committee believes... that the schools have a defi- 
nite duty toward the maladjusted children who attend the 
public schools of this State.... Personality difficulties are 
as serious a condition, meriting just as much public attention 
as these other conditions for which the schools have now 
made provisions. 
‘ ‘The role of the school in the observation and treatment of 
conduct disorders likely to lead to delinquency and crime 
is most clearly set forth in the 1927 report of the New York 
State Crime Commission. This Commission made a study 
of the careers of 251 adolescents who had been school truants 
six years earlier. It was discovered that 51 per cent of these 
truants of 1921 had, by 1927, acquired court records. Al- 
most a third of these records were for a misdemeanor or 
felony. Even more startling was the discovery that 30 per 
cent of the former truants had, within these six years, an 
average of four arraignments each in the criminal courts.... 
‘Young People in the Courts of New York State,” Legislative Document (1942), Printed by 
Williams Press, Inc., Albany, pp. 32, 33. State Commission on Public Weljare Institutions 
43 
“The psychiatrist at Elmira Reformatory, Dr. Rene Bre- 
guet, in a very thorough and interesting statistical analysis 
of 1,000 commitments to that institution, discovered a fact 
which should challenge the educational leaders of this State— 
i. e., that the age of beginning delinquency among these re- 
formatry inmates was closely coincidental with that point 
in their school development when the demands of the cur- 
riculum started to exceed their mental ability as judged by 
the intelligence quotient. 
“Thus we see that when the school yields them little or no 
return for the interest and energies with which they are 
equipped, these children will seek elsewhere for such satis- 
factions .... 
“We therefore urge upon the educators of this State 
that they take further measures to deal in preventive 
fashion with cases of truancy and other forms of school 
maladjustment when the first symptoms of these con- 
ditions are revealed ’’ 
Community Organization Essential 
These facts clearly show that the congested city area, with 
bad housing, with families in the lower income brackets, and even 
our school system are important contributing factors to delin- 
quency and crime. They point to the need of community 
organization. A good statement on this need follows:—* 
“Community organization and planning is most essential. 
There is a woeful lack in the use of available community re- 
sources or the knowledge of how community conditions may 
have been responsible for the particular case in which we 
are interested. Probation and parole officers’ responsibilty 
should not stop with the cases they supervise. Their great- 
est contribution can come in the prevention of delinquency 
and crime through their knowledge of causative factors 
and their ability to reach back to the schools, the police, 
and the homes in a program of education and interpretation. 
The possibilities in this connection have hardly been touched. 
*Witte, Ernest F., “Training Probation and Parole Officers,’’ “Proceedings American Prison 
Association,’’ 1941, pp. 187-188. Supplementary Report 
44 
The statement by Jack Parsons, Superintendent of Child 
Welfare and Attendance of the Stockton Public Schools, 
is particularly significant. He states; 
‘ ‘ ‘ The school probably has done more to create delinquents 
than any other single factor in American life. Not many 
will agree with this. But, if I said that the lack of schools 
does more to create problems than any other factor, I would 
have almost unanimous agreement. And when the school 
does not adjust to the needs of the child or meet the demands 
of our present day civilization, there might just as well 
not be any school.’ 
‘ ‘A further indication along the same line is a statement by 
O. W. Wilson, Professor of Police Administration at the Uni- 
versity of California; 
“ ‘The most direct approach to the prevention of crime is 
through the juvenile population. If there were no juvenile 
offenders, there would be few adult offenders. How to 
prevent juvenile delinquency, then, is the immediate prob- 
lem.’ 
‘ ‘These statements but emphasize the need for a clear under- 
standing of the priciples of community organization...” 
With respect to the importance of mobilizing all of the com- 
munity resources in this field of delinquency and crime, the fol- 
lowing statement by Lowell Juilliard Carr, Director of the Michi- 
gan Child Guidance Institute, shows the necessity of a State 
Plan for Delinquency Prevention;* 
“Any state plan for delinquency prevention must come to 
terms with four very tough conditions. First is the fact 
that no state and no community anywhere in the United 
States has ever been psychologically prepared or socially 
organized to utilize more than a small fraction of the scienti- 
fic knowledge and the technical skills available for the con- 
trol of deviant behavior on a scale even remotely approach- 
ing the scope of the problem itself. That’s tough condition 
number 1; we simply aren’t using the existing scientific 
and technical tools available for doing the job. Tough 
*Carr, Lowell Juillard, “A State Plan for Delinquency Prevention,” ‘‘Social Defenses Against 
Crime.” 1942 Yearbook, National Probation Association, pp. 36-37. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
45 
condition number 2: most people, most community leaders, 
most legislators are totally unprepared to face the complex- 
ity of delinquency causation. Ordinary Americans want 
simple answers. Unconsciously most of them are looking 
for someone to solve the problem for them by pulling a 
rabbit out of a hat. That’s tough condition number 2; 
we’re still hoping for magic. Tough condition number 3: 
impatient for quick results and unaware of the complex 
and deep-rooted nature of the emotional and social causes 
of delinquency, legislators and budget directors everywhere 
have provided almost no funds for prevention. They have 
voted millions and millions for prisons and juvenile courts 
and correctional schools—although almost never enough 
for these institutions to do their work on a modern level. 
But for changing the emotional trends among tens of thou- 
sands of children before they collide with the law, and for 
controlling the anti-social pressures in the environment 
of these children to reduce the chances of their colliding 
with the law, no legislature has ever voted more than an 
almost invisible fraction of the actual tax-paid cost of crime, 
and only a handful have ever voted anything. That’s tough 
condition number 3; Americans haven’t learned to pay for 
delinquency prevention. Tough condition number 4: There 
are no panaceas. Pet-theory solutions are out. No one 
science, no one discipline, no one group of skills alone is 
enough. More than two generations of disappointments 
have finally driven home to serious students of the delinquen- 
cy problem the realization that just as you cannot fight a 
formidable foreign enemy without a complete mobilization 
of military, economic and civilian resources, so you cannot 
fight antisocial behavior on the home front without a com- 
plete mobilization of all we have—science, technology, social 
action and social organization. This is tough condition 
number 4; delinquency prevention means all-out mobiliza- 
tion of resources. 
‘ ‘We are not using the tools we have, we are still hoping for 
magic, we haven’t learned to pay for prevention, and actual 
prevention calls for nothing less than the mobiliaztion of Supplementary Report 
science, technology, social action, and social organization 
—those are the conditions under which any state plan must 
start.’ ’ 
Illness and Disease 
In the field of mental illness, as well as in the field of delin- 
quency and crime, it is today recognized that we have sources of 
community infection which are, in large degree, responsible for 
the fact that in the State of Rhode Island, as well as in many 
other states, we have a larger number of individuals in institu- 
tions for mental illness than we have in our hospitals for physical 
illness or in our institutions for youthful and adult offenders. 
For example, the current population in our State Hospital for 
Mental Diseases averages about 2,800 individuals as compared 
with a present population in all our correctional institutions of 
less than 700. Among the primary causes of mental illness are 
syphilis, a preventable disease; acute alcoholism, to an extent 
another preventable disease; and various psychopathic disorders 
which spring from avoidable stresses and strains in the home 
life, in the early school environment, in poverty and economic 
distress, and various other strains arising from malnutrition, 
chronic ill health, and economic insecurity. 
It is now an established fact in the medical profession that 
various types of physical illness which are attributable to microbes 
and germs are, generally speaking, on the decline. This is due 
to the great advance in modern scientific medicine in isolating 
disease germs, and the discovery of certain vaccines and drugs, 
such as the sulfa drug group, which kill the germs of microbes 
preying upon the human organism. 
On the other hand, the so-called chronic diseases have in- 
creased, according to studies made at the Cornell Clinic on Chronic 
Diseases in New York City, by nearly one hundred percent in 
the last twenty-five years. While not too much is known with 
respect to the causes of this increase in chronic diseases, it is fair 
to say that the medical profession has reached the general con- 
clusion that these chronic diseases stem primarily from the same 
community sources of infection as do juvenile delinquency and 
crime and mental illness. That is to say, they stem from physi- State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
47 
cal disorders, the seeds of which were laid in very early life due 
to poverty or a general low standard of living with resultant 
malnutrition in babyhood and early childhood. Here, again, 
a specialized institution dealing with chronic diseases is only 
part of the answer. The primary solution is in Prevention. 
It is needless to point out, in speaking of the tuberculosis 
sanatorium at Wallum Lake, that tuberculosis is a community 
disease which also has its sources in areas of community infection 
caused by poverty or low standard of living, with resultant mal- 
nutrition, poor housing and over-crowding, and lack of proper 
sanitation in our large industries and business establishments. 
The potentialities in this field are so great that they should 
fully capture the imagination of every citizen of the State and 
lead us to a new social perspective. In the field of physical illness, 
alone, may I quote the following statement recently made by 
Dr. Thomas H. Parran, Chief of the United States Public Health 
Service:— 
“We continue to waste both time and manpower. Even 
in peace-time, industrial disability takes 400 million man- 
days off the production line. If we could save only 10 per 
cent of last year’s loss, (1942) we should have the extra 
labor available to build 16,470 combat tanks. According 
to the industrial hygiene experts, at least 20 percent is 
preventable now. ‘ ‘A large army of workers were not on 
the job today because they were sick or injured. Next 
week, workers in the United States will lose iy2 million work 
days. In nine cases out of ten, they are laid up because of 
common ailments. The tenth will be off the job because 
of accidents in the plant. This is a sizeable army that is 
never mobilized.’’ 
Neglect of Human Beings Costly 
We, in America, in this World War, as we did in the last 
World War, have had a sad experience. It should be an enlight- 
ening experience. At the beginning of the operation of the Nation- 
al Selective Service and since, it has appeared that approximately 
twenty per cent of the young men in the draft age were not fit 
to serve in the armed forces of the United States, either because 48 
Supplementary Report 
of physical unfitness, mental ill health, mental deficiency, or il- 
literacy. It is important to know that 433,000 men of draft 
age lack sufficient education to serve in the Army. So we were 
compelled to draft “fathers,” many with young children. 
If such a high percentage of young men in what should be 
the period of greatest health and vitality, both physical and mental, 
are unfit to serve their country in time of war, it is clear that they 
are not fit to play a productive part in the creation of wealth of 
the state and nation in times of peace. The saddest fact of this 
situation is that these physically and mentally handicapped in- 
dividuals belonging to the ages of youth do not improve with age. 
In fact, they deteriorate. It is conceivable, therefore, that of 
the total adult population in the United States at least thirty per 
cent or higher of our adult population—men and women—are 
not physically fit, or if physically fit, are not mentally fitted by 
education for the kind of productive and creative work that is 
necessary if this country is to become increasingly a great pro- 
ducer of wealth, with the result of an ever increasing standard 
of living. As long as seventy or eighty per cent of our adult 
population carries the major burden, and another twenty or thirty 
per cent ‘ ‘ride,’ ’ more or less, on the shoulders of those fit mentally 
and physically, we cannot expect for this country and for our 
own highly productive State, a great future. 
The conclusion is clear. In times of peace, as in time of 
war, we need an organization similar in character and pattern 
to our existing State Council of Defense. Such is the proposal 
for a State Security Council, whose continual watchword would 
be “PREVENTION- Through Community Organization and 
Social Planning.” 
Post-War Problems 
As we look forward to the cessation of the war, the post-war 
period and its problems emerge on the horizon like a mountain 
range presenting barriers which we must cross. They are not 
insurmountable barriers. Yet, this transition from war to peace, 
everyone realizes, presents, not only to America but to the World, 
one of the greatest problems the human race has ever faced. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
49 
We read our daily papers. From them, we glean that the 
President of the United States, the Congress, great business 
organizations, state governments, local governments—all talk 
about “Planning.” Singularly enough, most of this talk about 
planning relates to building highways and various sorts of struc- 
tures, including new state institutions. When the talk is not 
about this, much of it comes from business organizations, which 
speak in “economic terms.” We must, for example, keep our 
national income up to its present height of one hundred thirty 
billion; we must give full employment; we must develop new 
types of products. Little is said about the Social Sciences, or 
Social Planning. There are many who believe that, as important 
as are the foregoing types of planning, Social Planning is of equal, 
if not greater, importance. 
May I speak again of the area of delinquency and crime. At 
the end of the last World War, there was what was called a 
“Crime Wave.” Though there is some doubt (due to the in- 
adequacy of exact statistics) as to whether or not there was an 
absolute increase of crime committed in the United States after 
World War I, Dr. H. C. Engelbrecht in “Revolt Against War,” 
1937, states;—“In spite of the difficulty of interpreting crime 
indices correctly, it is evident that the World War was a breeder 
of crime and lawlessness. In this country the period 1910-1923 
was marked by a disturbing growth in various kinds of crimes; 
forgery increased 68.2 per cent, homicide 16.1 per cent, rape 33.3 
per cent, violation of the drug law 2,006.7 per cent, and robbery 
83.3 per cent.” A Bureau of the Census Report for 1926 sum- 
marizes the development between 1910 and 1923 as follows: 
“In general there was a marked increase in the commitments 
for crimes of violence and for violations of drug and liquor laws, 
but a more marked decrease in the commitments for most minor 
offenses,” 
Concerning the extent to which ex-service men contributed 
to the increase in serious crimes after World War I, the Wisconsin 
State Board of Control in 1922 obtained information from twelve 
State reformatories and ninteeen penitentiaries. The percentage 
of ex-service men in these institutions ranged from 4.71 per cent 
in the Nevada Penitentiary to 33.33 per cent in the Washington 
Reformatory and averaged 18.12 per cent for all. On the basis 50 
Supplementary Report 
of studies made in Wisconsin in 1922, it was estimated that there 
were 20,000 ex-service men in penal institutions throughout the 
country. This incidence of criminality is considered far above 
that ordinarily found in the civilian population for the age groups 
of the veterans concerned, 19 to 31 years. 
Of even greater significance than the fate of the veterans was 
the rising tide of delinquency among the younger strata of the 
population, both during and after World War I recorded in the 
United States and England. 
In the light of past experience, we may conclude that we 
are now piling up a wave of future law-breaking that may dwarf 
anything heretofore known for the following reasons: 
1. The far greater number of returning soldiers—11,000,000 
as compared with 4,000,000 in 1919. Trained in recklessness 
and high speed, many will not readjust to the caution and re- 
sponsibilities of civilian life without missteps—traffic fatalities, 
high-spirited celebrations, and so on. Many will create problems 
because of emotional strain and mental breakdown. 
2. The return to civilian production of millions of our war 
industries. This will involve, for many, periods of unemployment, 
reduction in wages, migration and beginning life in new neighbor- 
hoods. This group includes the marginal workers, individuals 
who find it hard to find jobs and adjust, but who are now employ- 
ed because of the manpower shortage; returning soldiers will 
force many of them out of work or into less desirable jobs and 
make it easier for them to slip back into delinquency and crime. 
3. Present juvenile delinquents who will graduate into crime. 
With mothers as well as fathers employed or in the service, spend- 
ing money in their pockets, neighborhood controls lost because 
of the migration of many families, and with the unnatural ex- 
citement of wartime in the air, unprecedented numbers of child- 
ren in their teens are on the loose. Available statistics are no 
real guide to the numbers, but during 1942, 11 per cent more 
boys and girls than in 1941 found their way into juvenile courts. 
Many of them are getting the habit of anti-social behavior. 
All of the above facts emphasize the need for mobilizing every 
community resource. It specifically points to the need of preserv- 
ing the great social gains which have arisen out of the State Coun- State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
51 
cil of Defense. It supports, if nothing else does, the proposal 
hereinafter made for adapting our State Council of Defense into 
a post-war community organization, viz., “A State Security 
Council.” 
PROPOSAL FOR A STATE SECURITY COUNCIL 
In this period of war emergency, both the state and the nation 
came to realize cogently the need to mobilize for Defense all 
community resources. On the federal level, we organized “The 
Office of Civilian Defense”; also, under the Federal Security 
Agency, “The Office of Defense Health and Welfare Services.” 
In practically every state of the union, there was created ‘ ‘A 
State Council of Defense.” All community resources were 
organized. They were organized, first, to meet any emergency 
which might arrive from “invasion” or from ‘ ‘bombing’ ’ by enemy 
action—protection of physical property. Second, they were 
organized to meet urgent social needs which might arise during 
the War emergency. These second needs were based on health, 
welfare and education. They embraced such problems as gener- 
al public health, including adequate nutrition, especially for war 
workers; they embraced such problems as day-care for children 
of working mothers, and the rising tide of juvenile delinquency. 
They included also provisions for relaxation, rest and recreation 
of a population working under the stress of war production. 
The Rhode Island State Council of Defense is a splendid 
organization—a live, vital, alert organization. Never in the his- 
tory of this State has the whole community been mobilized and 
so fully fused into one organization of physical and social pro- 
tection as has been achieved by the State Council of Defense. 
It would be a tragedy if this splendid Organization, embrac- 
ing in itself every public and private agency, should pass out of 
existence and be lost in the critical post-war period. 
May I repeat, in the scientific literature, in the proceedings 
of scientific and social organizations working in the field of 
public welfare, “Prevention” or “Social Protection” is 
always cited as the most fruitful of all fields. Yet, it took Pearl 52 
Supplementary Report 
Harbor and a World War before we organized the community 
in this all important, this most fruitful field. 
It is here proposed that we create what shall be known as a 
“State Security Council.” Before outlining the nature of 
this Council, may I quote from a monograph entitled,“Health, 
Welfare and Related Aspects of War Services,” issued in October 
1942 by the Office of Defense Health and Welfare Services of the 
Federal Security Agency, under a chapter heading entitled, 
“Mobilizing Health and Welfare Services.’’ The mon- 
ograph says;— 
“Health, Welfare and Related Services—A Key Sec- 
tion In The Total War Effort. 
“One of the most important segments of the community 
war services is that which comprises the field of health, 
welfare and related activities. These services include medical 
care and protection against disease and malnutrition, fi- 
nancial security in times of crisis, educational opportunities 
geared to wartime circumstances, recreation to relieve 
stress and strain and other measures to keep life as nearly 
normal as possible under war conditions, particularly for 
children and workers producing war materials and food sup- 
plies. All these health and welfare services are an integ- 
ral part of the Nation’s total war effort. The development 
and coordination of these and other essential community 
war services is the joint responsibility of various Federal, 
State and local agencies and of Defense Councils... 
“Necessity of Organizing Available Resources 
‘ ‘Today every community in the country faces pressing so- 
cial and economic problems. These vary from place to 
place according to whether the situation is urban or rural, 
agricultural or industrial, seaboard or inland. But all 
communities must work to maintain the security and fitness 
of their people throughout the war and to establish a founda- 
tion for post-war reconstruction. These tasks cannot 
be undertaken piecemeal; they require suitable mach- 
inery through which all needs and problems affecting 
the war effort can be recognized and all available 
community resources utilized. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
53 
“The resources for meeting health and welfare problems 
include those which already exist in the community and 
those which can be supplied through state, federal, and 
national agencies and organizations. Planning and provid- 
ing for this important sector of community war services 
on the over-all basis necessitated by the emergency make 
an objective point of view essential. Health, welfare and 
related programs should focus upon the community’s total 
basic needs. This implies a forthright effort by agencies 
in these fields to work together with a clear concept of the 
part to be played by hem individually and as a group. 
Joint planning will be required by federal, state and local 
agencies both public and private. This in turn takes willing- 
ness to modify or, if necessary, to relinquish former objectives. 
A plan of concerted action based on specific community needs 
calls for the participation not only of health and welfare 
agencies and schools, but also of individual volunteers and 
voluntary organizations such as churches, civic groups, unions, 
youth organizations, and the like. Some form of community 
organization is necessary to unite all these efforts within 
the community and to plan the best means of achieving 
action, eliminating duplication, and bridging gaps. 
“Objectives of Community Organization 
“ ‘Community organization’ is a broad term applicable to 
activities with a variety of purposes and forms. The particu- 
lar objective of any plan of community organization should 
be clearly understood in order to avoid the confusion which 
may arise from adopting a plan not suited to the purpose 
in view. The following are especially important purposes 
in community organization:— 
“1. To plan a community program and co-ordinate 
services composing it. 
2, To bring about the establishment of operating 
units where needed to carry out such services. 
3, To provide support for community activities through 
promoting public understanding and interest, rais- 
ing funds, and recruiting workers. 
4, To facilitate participation on the part of the gen- 
eral public in planning and using community services. 54 
Supplementary Report 
5. To provide an organization by which specific in- 
formation and suggestions for action can be trans- 
mitted to the people of the community who are 
concerned in one way or another in a particular 
activity. 
“Elements of Organization 
“The basis for effective organization of health and welfare 
aspects of community war services is a structure through 
which persons responsible for or interested in these related 
fields may jointly analyze needs and plan action. 
“A sound plan of organization must provide a way to take 
stock of total community needs and services. It must also 
provide for maintaining a balance in program planning and 
for wise use of available leadership. The function of plan- 
ning must not be confused with operation, which latter sel- 
dom belongs in a coordinating group of any kind. The 
results of joint planning and co-ordination will, however, 
promote more effective operation by all agencies and groups.’ ’ 
The plan proposed here for the creation of a State Security 
Council is but a continuation of the work and organization of the 
State Council of Defense in this important field of Public Health, 
Social Welfare, Labor and Education. It proposes that we establish 
as a continuing function of our State administration, the organiza- 
tion and mobilization of all community resources, public and 
private, in the field of Human Relations. It recognizes that 
state institutions and private institutions such as hospitals for 
the physically ill, hospitals for the mentally ill and deficient, 
sanatoriums, correctional institutions, training schools and our 
whole system of public education, are important social tools in 
a community welfare process. 
This process, as previously stated, must be integrated so 
that the important elements of Prevention, Diagnosis, Treatment, 
Rehabilitation and Re-establishment of the unfortunate back 
into the community are considered one problem for which 
the State assumes primary responsibility; yet, at the same time, 
recognizes the important role to be played by private hospitals 
and a very great variety of private welfare agencies in the field 
of Public Health and the Social Services. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
55 
The State of Rhode Island expends, on the average, $20,000, 
000 a year in public administration. Approximately half of 
this, or $10,000,000, is expended in the fields of Social Welfare, 
Health, Labor and Education. This does not take into considera- 
tion a much larger public expenditutre on the part of cities and 
towns of the State for the same purposes: Public Welfare, Health, 
Labor and Education. I am satisfied that a frontal attack 
such as herein proposed, one which will mobilize all State and local 
public and private Health and Welfare services, would, in a short 
time, save the State of Rhode Island several million dollars 
annually spent in these related fields of Human Relations. 
The Existing Rhode Island State Council of Defense 
The Chairman of the Rhode Island Council of Defense is the 
Governor of the State of Rhode Island. Working with the Gover- 
nor is an Executive Committee. This Executive Committee is 
implemented by a full-time paid Director of Civilian Defense. 
Of great significance is the breakdown of the State Council of 
Defense into two major units. Of particular significance is 
the fact that one of these major units comprises the following 
branches;— 
1. A Welfare Division 
2. A Health and Medical Division 
3. A Consumer Division 
4. An Agriculture Division 
5. An Industrial Division, including Labor and Indus- 
try 
6. A Manpower Division 
May I call attention to the fact that the Welfare Division is 
divided into a number of subdivisions:— 
1. A Recreation Subdivision 
2. A Social Protection Subdivision (against social 
diseases, syphilis, etc.) 
3. A Citizenship Subdivision 
4. A Family Security Subdivision, which is again divid- 
ed into: 
(a) a Rehabilitation Committee 
(b) a Child Wefare and Care Committee Supplementary Report 
(c) a Social Services Committee 
(d) a Housing Committee 
The Health and Medical Division has several subdivisions 
1. A Medical Care Subdivision 
2. A Hospitals Subdivision 
3. A Disease Prevention Subdivision 
4. An Industrial Health Subdivision 
5. A Nutrition Subdivision 
6. A Nurses Subdivision 
In the Industrial Division and the Manpower Division, we 
find a Labor Managment Advisory Commitee and also in the 
Industrial Division an Education Subdivision and a Vocational 
Training Subdivision. 
The recital of these various branches, subdivisions and com- 
mittees of the State Council of Defense shows that, in the time of 
war emergency, the State of Rhode Island is fully alive to its 
responsibilities in this field of “Social Prevention” as an under- 
pinning of social security. The State Council of Defense is a 
fine example of community mobilization in a period of war emer- 
gency. 
It is specifically recommended that there be established, 
by legislative action, a permanent council, to be known as 
The State Security Council. It is proposed (1) that this 
Council have as its Chairman the Governor of the State of 
Rhode Island (2); that it have an Executive Committee of 
prominent citizens; (3) that the Directors of four State De- 
partments and the Chairman of the Rhode Island Unemploy- 
ment Compensation Board be ex officio members of the State 
Security Council, constituting a technical advisory council to 
the Governor and the Executive Committee. The four depart- 
ments are those which deal with problems of Public Health, 
Social Welfare, Labor and Education, viz., the Department of 
Social Welfare, the Department of Public Health, the Depart- 
ment of Education, and the Department of Labor. The Rhode 
Island Unemployment Compensation Board deals with the prob- 
lem of unemployment, including social insurance for unemploy- 
ment and cash sickness benefits for those in covered employment 
who are temporarily ill. The Superintendent of the State Police State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
57 
and the Attorney General of the State, who deals with Criminal 
Justice, should also be ex officio members. 
It is further proposed that there be established the following 
divisions;— 
1. A Welfare Division, which, with some modifications, 
would follow the established pattern of the Welfare 
Division as now established in the State Council of 
Defense. 
2. A Health and Medical Division, which would follow 
the pattern as now established in the Health and Medi- 
cal Division of the State Council of Defense. 
3. An Educational Division. 
4. A Consumer Division. 
5. An Industrial Division, which I would recommend be 
termed, ‘ ‘A Human Relations Division’ ’ of Labor and 
Industry. 
Appended hereto is a chart of this proposed State Security 
Council. 
There should be appointed, to head up the various divisions, 
subdivisions and committees, laymen in the community who are 
socially minded and who are members of the professions or organ- 
izations dealing with social security, public health, education 
and labor. This would include members of the medical and dent- 
al professions; psychiatrists; educators in our colleges and public 
schools; members of organized labor; professional and lay people 
working in the fields of social service, such as the Catholic Charities 
and the various councils of Social Agencies supported by the 
United War Fund. Special organizations would have representa- 
tion, viz., The Family Welfare Society The Society for Prevention 
of Cruelty to Children, The Children’s Friend Society, The 
District Nursing Association, and members of the new profession 
of Nutrition. 
There should also be, in the appropriate places on this Coun- 
cil, representatives of our protective services, such as local police 
organizations, local inspectors of public buildings, and local public 
health officials. Supplementary Report 
Director of Human Relations 
To properly implement the State Security Council, it is 
recommended that there be, responsible to the Governor and to 
the Executive Committee, a full-time Executive Director. This 
Executive Director would be an individual highly trained in the 
field of Human Relations. He should be given a proper staff 
of research men and statisticians. 
The Executive Committee would constitute an over-all 
board in the field of research and analysis of all types of human 
statistics. It would be the focal point for planning a program 
for the State in the four-fold area of Prevention—Diagnosis; 
Classification; Treatment, Cure and Rehabilitation, both 
“outside” of existing institutions and “within” institutions. 
The Office of the Executive Director would constitute a 
Human Relations Institute. Into this office would flow every 
type of human or social problem, and a wealth of statistical 
material: 
1. Data with repsect to the rise and fall of all types of physical 
illness such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, infantile paralysis and 
the lesser diseases such as influenza, the common cold, etc. 
2. Data with respect to unemployment, whether unemploy- 
ment is rising or falling, and as to whether, if unemployment is 
rising, there exists a large and permanent surplus labor market 
in times of normal business prosperity. 
3. All statistics with respect to dependency would be avail- 
able. We would have statistical graphs with respect to the num- 
ber of individuals in this State who were dependent because of old 
age, children of dependent mothers, or dependency due to such 
causes as blindness, chronic disease, mental illness, or mental 
deficiency. 
4. There would also be available data with respect to juvenile 
delinquency, youthful offenders and adult offenders. 
In course of time, this office dealing with Research, An- 
alysis and Planning would chart out every area of social infection 
in the State pertaining to citizens of the State finding them- 
selves in the toils of the criminal law or finding themselves in 
Institutions due to mental ill health, mental deficiency, or disease. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
59 
It is manifest that, within a short period of time, the State of 
Rhode Island would be in a position to make constructive plans 
and real achievements in the field of Prevention, and in the 
fields of diagnosis, treatment, cure and rehabilitation. 
The State Security Council would find a number of specific 
fields in which to work. While the following list is far from com- 
plete, it suggests the far-reaching potentialities for such a State 
Security Council,—social defense and protection in time 
of peace as well as in time of war:— 
1. Housing. The great need for housing in certain war 
production areas led to the building, under the auspices of the 
federal government, of a large number of model low-cost housing 
units. We have only scratched the surface of the opportunities. 
In every congested urban center, we realize this need. A study, 
made some years ago, showed that in the city of Providence we 
had slum areas comparable in their degradation to the slum areas 
on the east side of New York. 
2. Recreation. I have before me, as I write, a second sur- 
vey with respect to the lack of recreational facilities, particularly 
in the congested areas of the city of Providence. Notwithstand- 
ing this report was made years ago, nothing adequate has been 
done to provide recreational facilities for youth in these congested 
areas which, we have seen, are the sources of social infection 
leading to delinquency and crime. In the recreational field, 
also, there is great opportunity, through community organization, 
to stimulate recreational opportunities for adults. 
3, Education. There are two fields in which a State Secur- 
ity Council, patterned after the existing State Council of Defense, 
could do constructive work in the field of education. We have 
already seen that our school systems must give greater considera- 
tion to the home background of backward and maladjusted 
children. We cannot have it said that our public schools are 
a major contributing factor to juvenile delinquency. Second, 
there is the growing problem of adult education, the need for 
which cannot be over-emphasized in the post-war world, which 
will require new knowledge and new social adjustments on the 
part of every citizen. Supplementary Report 
4. Child Welfare. In the field of Child Welfare, there are 
several important areas; (a) Expansion and co-ordination of the 
work now being done by the District Nursing Association in 
educating mothers during the period of pregnancy and giving them 
professional aid with respect to children from birth to time of 
entrance into school. This program is a cooperative program 
between the Public Health Nurses of the State Department of 
Public Health and the District Nursing Association, (b) More 
adequate provision for “day care,” nursery schools and kinder- 
gartens for children of working mothers, (c) The development, 
through public and private cooperation, of social guidance clinics 
for children and youth. Rhode Island is quite backward in this 
field, which has been highly developed in several other states. 
5. Stimulation of professional training in such fields 
as that of social worker, registered nurse, probation counsellor, 
police officer, attendant, officer, and guidance counsellor in 
correctional institutions. 
6. Continuing surveys of the State’s hosp tal and med- 
ical services with respect to their adequacy and with respect 
to potential achievements in the field of preventive medicine. 
For example, industry and business could be encouraged to carry 
on what has been started in Rhode Island, in part, and carried 
on in a constructive way by the Walsh-Kaiser ship-building 
organization, viz., continuing “check-ups” on the physical health 
of workers in industry through periodic medical examinations. 
In this field, also, encouragement could be given to business and 
industry to carry on into the post-war period much constructive 
work that has been done with respect to adequate nutrition 
of workers in business and industry. 
7. Dependency and Neglect. Constructive work could be 
done in the whole field of dependency and neglect, especially by 
proper correlation, under the State Security Council, of all public 
and private agencies working in this field of the underprivileged 
and those requiring financial or other assistance. 
8. Inter-racial Relations. The recent report, submitted 
to the Governor and the General Assembly on the Employment 
Problems of the Negro, opens up a great opportunity in this 
delicate field of inter-racial relations. Closely related to this State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
61 
is the constructive work which was done by the Welfare Division 
of the State Council of Defense in aiding large numbers of our 
foreign born population to prepare themselves for citizenship and 
assisting them on the way to citizenship. 
9. Stimulation of Local Communuty Juvenile Organi- 
zations. In Rhode Island and other states, there has developed 
a fine group of organizations designed to afford juveniles the 
types of activities so essential to this age group. The Boy 
Scouts and Girl Scouts are a notable example. Various Boys’ 
Clubs are examples. Unfortunately, these organizations focus 
their attention largely on younger boys and girls. In the critical 
adolescent or youth period, such organizations are quite inade- 
quate. Notable results were obtained in Chicago in some of the 
districts previously described by Clifford Shaw and his associates, 
in the development of “Youth Groups,’’ particularly in the ado- 
lescent age. Here would be a most fruitful field for the State 
Security Council. 
These would be a few of the special areas in which a mobilized 
community organization under State leadership could work. 
Over and above these specific areas would be the broad function 
of Social Planning. When comprehensive social plans were made, 
it would be one of the primary functions of the State Security 
Council to prepare proper social legislation. Such a State Se- 
curity Council would abolish the necessity of appointing, from time 
to time, special commissions to study special problems. To my 
personal knowledge, we have had special commissions, appointed 
by several Governors, on such subjects as “The Care and Treat- 
ment of the Blind,’ ’ and the general subject of ‘ ‘Relief;’ ’ a Commis- 
sion on our Educational System, a Commission to study Em- 
ployment Problems of the Negro, and the present Commission 
to study our State Institutions. As valuable as these commis- 
sions are, they inevitably treat the particular problem without 
relation to the many other co-related problems. 
There exists no language strong enough to condemn Hitler’s 
Germany and the whole Nazi philosphy. This is especially so 
with respect to the false and anti-social ideology in which the 
Hitler regime brought up its Youth. There was, however, a slogan 
that developed in Nazi Geimany, which is worthy of thought. 
This slogan was “Strength Through Joy.’’ 62 
Supplementary Report 
A National Mobilization of Community Resources 
It is to be hoped that the federal government will also carry 
on into the post-war world the significant gains which were 
made through the Federal Office of Civilian Defense and through 
the Federal Office of Defense Health and Welfare Services. 
A single state like Rhode Island can make great achieve- 
ments in mobilizing all community resources in the manner here- 
inbefore outlined. Rhode Island and other states which adopted 
such a program would be greatly handicapped if there was not a fed- 
eral coordinating agency in certain fields, such as, for example, tub- 
erculosis. The disease germ does not recognize the artificial 
boundaries which separate state from state. 
So, also, in the field of delinquency and crime, the gang- 
ster or the professional criminal is like the wolf, a roving pariah. 
When things get hot for him in one state, he and his gang move 
to other states. 
Conclusion 
Early this Spring, I had a guest at my residence at Howard. 
The man was one of the leading designers of machine tools in 
the United States. As we know, many of these machine tools 
are the most complicated, as well as the most highly specialized, 
pieces of mechanism. They constitute, today, the very founda- 
tion of modern industry. Many of these machine tools are al- 
most human in the things they do. Without them, mass pro- 
duction and the high speed assembly line would be impossible. 
It is part of this man’s job not only to design machine tools, but, 
after the product is finished and sold, to visit large-scale indus- 
tries to check up on the actual operation of the new designs. 
I had with him one of the most interesting conversations 
which I ever had in my life. He was extremely interested in the 
institutions at Howard. He asked me question after question 
with respect to the physically and mentally ill, with respect to 
the character of boys in our delinquent instititions and the charac- 
ter of youth and adult offenders in our correctional institutions. 
I could not understand, at first, why a man who was the creator 
of highly specialized mechanical tools was so interested in what State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
63 
might be termed social derelicts and maladjusted people who 
had been, so to speak, thrown on the human scrap heap. He 
finally said to me, “Mr. France, this has been an enlightening 
experience, coming here to Howard. In my opinion, a large 
part of what you have here is unnecessary. It represents a 
preventable human wastage. I have been thinking a great 
deal, of late, of how industry employs the highest talent it can 
secure, without consideration of expense, to design and build and 
keep ever improving highly specialized mechanical equipment 
and at the same time has an almost utter disregard for what 
is the most marvelous instrument, an instrument which no mechan- 
ical machinery can ever equal or even approach. I mean,’’ 
he said, “The Human Being.” 
“The modern factory,” said this creator of technological 
equipment, ‘ ‘has hosts of experts who are continually testing 
and watching the machinery in the plant. The slightest indica- 
tion of a weakness in the complicated parts or bearings is detected. 
No factory runs a complicated machine until it breaks down. 
It catches the trouble at the source. On the other hand, the 
modern factory, up to recently, disregarded the more important 
factor, the physical and mental health, the housing and the nu- 
trition, the recreational opportunities of the most important 
factor, viz., Productive Manpower. I am of the opinion,” he 
said, “that if industry would, even to a slight degree, employ 
the same type of talent to safeguard—yes, to build up—the 
strength and efficiency of its workers as it does of its machines, 
it would pay dividends beyond the highest expectation.” 
I have my office at 40 Fountain Street. On the sixth floor 
of this building is the central office of the State Selective Service 
System. During the past two years, I have seen, practically 
every day of the year, some hundred and more young men drafted 
into the armed services. I have had, for a long period, much 
the same point of view as expressed by the designer of machine 
tools. With few exceptions, the great majority of these boys 
who have been coming to 40 Fountain Street have come out 
of Rhode Island’s factories, business houses, and shops. From 
a physical standpoint, even casual observat’on shows that they 
are, in a majority of cases, a pretty sorry lot—-round shouldered, 
narrow chested, pale in complexion, with many evidences of 64 
Supplementary Report 
malnutrition and physical neglect. I have seen this same type 
of young man after he has been six months in the Army. He 
is a transformed individual. He appears physically strong, men- 
tally alert, ruddy in complexion, with his chest out and his ab- 
domen in. It does not need a tape measure to show that several 
inches have been taken off of his belly and put on his chest and 
shoulders. 
In War, we cannot afford to have the physically unfit or 
the mentally unfit manning highly specialized mechanisms for 
destruction—tanks, machine guns, bombing planes, armored 
battleships and destroyers. 
Is there any sound reason why we cannot mobilize the 
community in times of peace to make our ‘ ‘youth’ ’ as fit physi- 
cally, as alert mentally, as we find it necessary to do in times of 
war? 
Is it any wonder that, with a state and national policy and 
practice that pays so much attention to mechanical machinery 
and gives so little consideration to this God-created human in- 
strument, we find, in a highly competitive society, a growing 
population in such institutions as hospitals for mental diseases; 
that we find chronic diseases increasing by approximately one 
hundred per cent as the speed-up in industry places greater 
strains on the human being; that we find juvenile delinquency 
an increasing problem in our industrial centers; that we find 
the youthful offenders creating a problem of the first magnitude 
in the United States? We still go on making capital expenditures 
for state institutions, for private hospitals, and we still continue, 
in the United States, to pay a very considerable proportion of mon- 
ey raised by taxation to support unemployable adults between 
the ages of twenty-one and sixty. 
A new social perspective, implemented by a State Security 
Council patterned after our State Council for Defense, would, 
in a short space of time, be able to do what the designer of mach- 
ine tools visualized during his visit at Howard. 
I am confident that, if Rhode Island would establish, as 
here proposed, a State Security Council in which would be mobiliz- 
ed all the community resources for constructive, creative living, 
we would do more to re-create our business and industrial struct- State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
65 
ure, we would do more to attract new industry and new business 
to Rhode Island than through any other one program. 
When I was Director of the Industrial Development De- 
partment of the Chamber of Commerce and interviewed in- 
dustrialists all over the country with a view to inciting their in- 
terest in Rhode Island as a place to locate a factory, the first 
question asked me was with respect to the nature and character 
of our working population. 
Industrial management of the nation has, in the past, given 
greater care to “machines” than it did to “men.” I am con- 
fident the war has taught industrial management the all import- 
ant lesson that strong, healthy workers are of vastly greater 
importance than machine tools. 
The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations is 
in many respects one of the most interesting, as well as one of 
the most fascinating states in the Union. In the first place, 
in comparison with other states, it is a wealthy state. The per 
capita wealth of Rhode Island stands well up amongst the first ten 
states of the Union. It is also a highly productive state from the 
standpoint of manufacture. It stands amongst the first fifteen 
states in the Union with respect to the value of products created 
in our textile mills, in our machine tool industry, and in our jewelry 
industry. This is a remarkable achievement when we consider 
that there does not exist in Rhode Island any of the great natural 
resources which are found in most states outside of New England. 
We do not raise any great amount of food on our farms nor any 
raw materials such as cotton and wool utilized by our textile 
industries. We have no coal fields, oil fields, or iron mines. 
Neither have we any great forests. 
Why is it, therefore, Rhode Island is a state of great per 
capita wealth and a state of great manufacturing industry? 
Is it not because we have utilized the chief of all resources avail- 
able on this planet, namely, the genius, the inventiveness, the 
skill, the industry of man? 
This being true, we are in a very peculiar position. We 
have no rich natural resources which we can either exploit or 
waste, as many states have done. It should be clear that, if 66 
Supplementary Report 
we are to play a continuing role in the future history of America, 
we must safe-guard our manpower. We must build up in Rhode 
Island a population which is well fed, well clothed, well housed. 
We must safeguard the health of our people. We must give our 
children and youth the best education it is possible to give, 
both academic and vocational. We must protect and strengthen 
the labor in our industries. 
It has not been too easy in the past for Rhode Island to 
hold a high place in competition with states rich in natural 
resources. It is going to be more difficult in the future. It 
is because of these facts that the writer of this report is convinced 
there is great merit in the proposal to preserve the social gains 
achieved through our State Council for Defense. We needed 
this Council for Defense in the war emergency. We will need 
a similar council in the difficult period of transition immediately 
after the war and in what we hope will be a great productive 
period in the coming century. 
CHAPTER II 
A PROGRAM FOR YOUTH AND ADULT OFFENDERS 
THROUGH ESTABLISHMENT OF A STATE 
CORRECTION AUTHORITY 
Introductory Statement 
When Winston Churchill was Home Secretary in 1910, he 
made a speech on crime before the House of Commons which 
showed the breadth of his vision and forecast the great, construc- 
tive program which Great Britain is now undertaking in the 
fight on war-time crime. He said: 
“The mood and temper of the public with regard to the 
treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfail- 
ing tests of the civilization of any country. A calm, dis- 
passionate recognition of the rights of the accused, and 
even of the convicted criminal against the state—a constant 
heart-searching by all charged with the duty of punishment 
-—a desire and an eagerness to rehabilitate in the world 
of industry those who have paid their due in the hard coin- State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
age of punishment; tireless efforts toward the discovery 
of curative and regenerative prosesses; unfailing faith that 
there is treasure, if you can find it, in the heart of every man. 
These are the symbols which, in the treatment of crime and 
criminals, mark and measure the stored-up strength of a 
nation and are sign and proof of the living virtue in it.” 
This impressive statement by Winston Churchill is deserv- 
ing of deep thought on the part of those citizens of Rhode Island 
who treasure its history, who take pride in its many achievements 
both cultural and technological, and who are not content to 
rest upon the historical laurels of the past, but have a burning 
desire that Rhode Island shall continue in the future to make 
outstanding contributions in the onward march of Democracy, 
The writer of this Supplementary Report has such faith in 
the citizens of the State that he has gone to considerable pains 
in working out a proposal which will meet in a constructive way 
one of our most baffling social problems, namely, Crime and the 
Criminal. The Program herinafter proposed is based upon ex- 
haustive research by men of pre-eminence in the field of Criminal 
Law and in the field of Administration of Penal Institutions. 
The basic principles underlying the program, long recognized 
as fundamental by experts in the fields of criminology and penol- 
ogy, were first brought together in practical legislation in what 
has come to be known as the Model Youth Correction Authority 
Act, prepared by a Committee of the American Law Institute. 
The American Law Institute is an organization whose mem- 
bership comprises leading judges of both federal and state courts, 
many leading members of the American Bar, leading professors 
in American Law Schools and laymen interested in the develop- 
ment of both the civil and the criminal law. Over a course of 
years this organization has made several outstanding contribu- 
tions in the development of jurisprudence. The Committee 
which prepared the Model Act above-mentioned comprises 
the following:— 
William Draper Lewis, Philadelphia, Director of the Institute 
John B. Waite, Law School, University of Michigan, Reporter 
Curtis Bok, Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia 
E. R. Cass, American Prison Association, New York 68 
Supplementary Report 
Sheldon Glueck, Law School, Harvard University 
Leonard V. Harrison, Community Service Society, New York 
William Healy, M. D., Judge Baker Guidance Center, Boston 
Edwin R. Keedy, Law School, University of Pennsylvania 
Austin H. MacCormick, Executive Director, The Osborne 
Association, Inc. 
William E. Mikel, Law School, University of Pennsylvania 
Thorsten Sellin, Department of Sociology, University of 
Pennsylvania 
Joseph N. Ulman, Supreme Court of Baltimore City* 
Several members of this Committee have given me personal 
counsel:—Mr. Cass, Dr. Healy, Professor Glueck, Mr. MacCor- 
mick, and John R. Ellingston, Special Adviser to the American 
Law Institute. 
The program herein set forth is also modeled after two bills 
now pending in Congress which proposed the establishment of a 
Correction Authority in the Federal Department of Justice. 
These bills were the result of the work of a Special Committee 
appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States. The federal 
program is sponsored by the Honorable Harlan F. Stone, Chief 
Justice of the Supreme Court; by the majority of the Senoir 
Circuit Judges of the Federal Court of the United States; by the 
American Law Institute; by the American Prison Association 
and by many eminent authorities in the Correctional field. 
Out of these studies and reports made by practicing lawyers, 
by Attorney Generals of the United States, by judges of the Fed- 
eral Courts, by legislative committees approved by many State 
Governors, by research organizations on whose Boards of Directors 
are leaders in American Industry and Finance, there has emerged 
a surprising unanimity (1) as to the Facts, (2) as to the Conclu- 
sions to be drawn from the facts, and (3) as to a Constructive 
Program (see Appendix HI). 
*Died in 1943 State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
69 
RECOMMENDATIONS 
It is recommended that there be established within the De- 
partment of Social Welfare a Division to be known as the Division 
of Corrections. This Division of Corrections shall be in charge 
of an over-all authority, to be known as the Correctional Author- 
ity, but which will be referred to herein as the Authority. 
The Authority shall comprise a judge of the Superior Court, 
to be appointed by the Governor; the Director of Social Welfare, 
and the Superintendent of all Correctional Institutions. The 
character and duties of the Superintendent will be hereinafter 
outlined. 
The administrative duties of the Authority follow very 
closely the model act prepared by the Committee on Youth and 
Justice of the American Law Institute, with some modifications. 
This model act has been adapted for Federal use by a comittee 
of Federal Judges appointed by the Chief Justice, and a bill is 
now pending in the Congress Of the United States for the creation 
of an Authority which embraces, in general, the plan herein sub- 
mitted for Rhode Island. 
The Authority will have four major functions: 
(1) Prevention. 
(2) Diagnosis, Classification and Treatment for (a) Youth- 
ful Offenders; (b) Adult Offenders. 
(3) Release under supervision; the Authority will act as 
the “Parole Board.” 
(4) Supervision over the Division of Probation and Parole, 
whose function is to adjust the offender in free society 
after his release, and reestablish him as a productive 
member of the community. 
It will thus be seen that the Authority will have complete 
jurisdiction of, and supervision over, all convicted offenders re- 
quiring commitment from the time of conviction up to the date 
of final release. In the model act of the American Law Institute 
and the bill now pending in Congress, the Authority is given a 
wide and broad discretion with respect to all youthful offenders Supplementary Report 
between the ages of 16 and 23 inclusive. In the proposed Fed- 
eral Bill, the Board of Corrections is also given wide discretion 
with respect to the adult offenders, 24 years of age and upwards. 
Youthful Offenders 
Upon conviction, the trial judge may fine, suspend sentence, 
or place the youthful offender on probation, or he may commit 
the youthful offender to the Authority for an indeterminate 
sentence, the maximum of which will not exceed six years. In 
case the trial judge commits the individual directly to the Author- 
ity, the Authority can exercise a wide diversity of dispositions. 
It can place the youth in his own home, under supervision; in 
a foster home; on a farm; or in charge of some approved private 
agency or institution. Where the Authority decides that insti- 
tutional treatment or training would be in the best interests of 
the youth and society, it could commit him to one of the several 
institutions hereinafter described. These institutions would 
be under the general supervision of the Authority, 
Adult Offenders 
Upon conviction the trial judge could fine, suspend sentence, 
place the adult offender on probation or commit the adult offender 
to the Authority. The only difference with repsect to the latitude 
of the Authority would be that there would be reserved by the 
judge the existing right of giving a ‘ ‘fixed sentence’ ’ to the adult 
offender. This giving of a fixed sentence by the trial judge would 
be subject, however, to certain modifications hereinafter ex- 
plained. 
It is important to recognize that the judge would never com- 
mit either youthful offenders or adult offenders to an institution, 
but to the Authority. 
With this brief outline of the nature of the Authority and its 
relation to the Department of Justice, we will briefly outline 
how the Authority will operate with respect to youthful offenders 
and adult offenders over whom it has jurisdiction:— 
1. Superintendent of Correctional Institutions 
There shall be established in the classified Civil Service the posi- 
tion of “Superintendent of Correctional Institutions.” The State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
Superintendent shall be the administrative officer of the Author- 
ity and shall be repsonsible for co-ordinating all phases of the 
integrated program in one unit of operation. The superinten- 
dent shall also have administrative functions similar to the 
functions of the superintendent of the State Mental Hospital 
or the State Infirmary. These functions in a hospital, whether 
it be a public or a private hospital, are well established. Briefly, 
they are of two-fold character; (a) The superintendent, as a 
specialist in his field, is in charge of the therapeutic treatment of 
those committed to his care. The primary object of the treat- 
ment is to bring about a cure of the patient, if this is possible, 
and, if a complete cure is not possible, to bring the patient to 
a point where he can live in the institutional community with 
the least possible restraint and participate in the institution’s 
community life. It is recognized, of course, that in a mental 
hospital, or in a state hospital like the Infirmary, there are certain 
individuals who, because of the character of their illness, must 
be regarded as cases of life-long custodial care, (b) The second 
function of the superintendent is to be the administrative head 
of the institution in respect to what might be termed ‘ ‘good house- 
keeping.” In addition to giving treatment and training, he 
must see that the wards of the state are properly housed, properly 
fed, and properly clothed, so that all of the needs of the people 
in his charge are met, even as the head of the family meets the 
needs of his children. 
It is manifest that a superintendent of the Correctional 
Institutions must be a specialist in the modern science of penology. 
This science, as it exists today, involves a very considerable 
knowledge of the modern science of human behavior. Because 
of the vital importance of the superintendent, the statute enacting 
this proposal for a Correctional Authority should require that 
the superintendent be selected as a result of a nation-wide open 
competitive civil service examination. 
2. Diagnostic Treatment Clinic 
There shall be established under the Authority a clinic to be 
know as the Diagnostic Treatment Clinic. This clinic will consti- 
tute what might be termed the “heart” of the system. Subject 
to some degree of flexibility, the clinic would comprise the follow- 72 
Supplementary Report 
ing full-time members, all of whom shall be in the Classified Civil 
Service. It is highly recommended that all of these be selected 
by a nation-wide open competitive civil service examination. 
(a) A Psychiatrist 
(b) A Physician 
(c) A Supervisor of Education and Technical Training 
(d) A Psychologist 
(e) A well qualified and experienced graduate in the field 
of social work and related social sciences 
All of the members of this clinic shall be members of the operat- 
ing staff of the Division of Corrections. Generally speaking, 
they will perform the same type of highly specialized work 
which we see in a state hospital for mental diseases. As such, 
they will be the scientific and technical advisers to the Authority, 
and will work in daily cooperation with the superintendent of 
the Correctional Division. Specifically, they will perform the 
following functions: 
(a) Diagnosis and classification: Each offender com- 
ing under the jurisdiction of the Authority will first receive a com- 
plete diagnosis. The diagnosis will be based upon the previous 
life history of the individual. This will involve a complete case 
work study of the individual, namely, his family background, 
his education, his religion, his previous occupation and work ex- 
perience, and all information which could be obtained with re- 
spect to the individual’s history from early childhood up to the 
time that he became involved in the toils of the law. It will also 
involve in many cases a complete psychiatric examination. After 
diagnosis, the clinic will then undertake what is termed a ‘ ‘classifi- 
cation,” and will prescribe the type of treatment which the clinic 
considers to be in the best interests of the individual and of society. 
It will then recommend to the Authority the character of the 
treatment. 
(b) Treatment: After a thorough diagnosis of the indivi- 
dual and a prescribed method of treatment, it will be responsibility 
of the superintendent, in case the individual is committed to one 
of several institutions, to carry out the treatment recommended. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
73 
In case the individual is not committed to an Institution, but to 
the Division of Probation and Parole, that division will carry out 
the prescribed treatment. 
(c) Release: The clinic will act as technical adviser to the 
Authority with respect to releasing or parolling the individual 
into free society. It is clear from the foregoing that the clinic 
will have a complete history of the individual, a complete under- 
standing of his physical and mental condition, the character of 
his education prior to coming into the institution, and his develop- 
ment while in the institution. Working constantly in the insti- 
tution as staff members, in cooperation with the superintendent, 
the clinic will be best advised as to whether the offender had reach- 
ed the stage where, in his own interest, and in the interest of society, 
he should be given his freedom. Generally speaking, his release 
shall not be an unconditional dicharge. In his own interest, 
and in the interest of society, it may appear wiser to have the 
offender for a period under the supervision of the Division of Pro- 
bation and Parole. To this, of course, there would be exceptions. 
(d) Division of Probation and Parole: It is important 
to bear in mind that a very considerable percentage of convicted 
offenders never find themselves in a Correctional Institution. 
For a number of years the Courts in Rhode Island have very wise- 
ly placed approximately 75 per cent of convicted offenders on 
probation. Under the proposed system this larger group, while 
under the direct supervision of the Division of Probation and 
Parole, will be under the general supervision of the Correctional 
Authority. For those who have ‘ ‘served’ ’ a period of time in an 
institution, the Division of Probation and Parole will have great 
responsibility. The Division will perform a major role in re- 
establishing the offender in his own home and family, providing 
he is the head of a family, and assisting all parolees in obtaining 
a postion where they can gain a living. 
In order not to encumber the main text with a great deal 
of the scientific background of this program, the writer has utilized 
the device of the Appendix and recommends to the reader that 
these various Appendices should be carefully read in connection 
with the Report. 74 
Supplementary Report 
Appendix II contains certain statistical facts with respect 
to Crime and the Criminal, the conclusions which experts in the 
science of Penology have drawn from those facts, and finally 
a more detailed exposition of the program which the American 
Law Institute embodies in the Model Act hereinbefore mentioned. 
Appendix II also contains excerpts from the testimony given 
before the Congressional Committe on the Correctional Authority 
bill now pending in Congress. 
Appendix III contains statements by Austin H. MacCor- 
mick, Executive Director of The Osborne Association, Incorpora- 
ted, and John R. Ellingston, Technical Adviser, American Law 
Institute. These statements explain the nature and character of 
an Integrated Correctional Program. 
Appendix IV deals with Ecucation and quotes at some 
length from two Legislative Commission Reports of the State 
of New York which dealt specifically with educational and train- 
ing programs for Correctional Institutions. 
Appendix V deals with the highly important subject of 
Diversified Institutions in the process of treatment and training 
of the offender. 
Appendix VI relates to the subject of Prevention and deals 
with the subject of Youthful Offenders. It is important, if we 
are to prevent criminal careers, to nip these in the bud, namely, 
in the period of Youth. 
Appendix VII is the Minority Report of Clemens J. France 
on closing the Reformatory for Men. 
There are several subjects which are of special significance 
for an understanding of the proposed program. Without unduly 
prolonging the main text of this chapter on the Correctional 
Authority, it is important to devote certain space to these subjects: 
(1) The Science of Human Behavior; (2) the Indeterminate 
Sentence; (3) the General Character of an Educational and 
Training Program; (4) the Importance of Diversified Institu- 
tions in a Treatment Program; (5) a Scientific Method of Re- 
lease; (6) Supervision after Release—Division of Probation 
and Parole, and (7) Can Rhode Island afford the cost of the Pro- 
posed Correctional Program. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
75 
Science of Human Behavior 
It will be recalled that, in the Introduction to the Report, 
reference was made to the statement of a great surgeon who, not 
more than seventy years ago, said, “The brain will be forever 
shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon.” Not- 
withstanding this statement we find great progress has been made 
in effecting cures of many types of mental illness. In consequence, 
throughout the United States the term “insane asylum” has 
disappeared, and, in place thereof, we speak of the Hospital for 
Mental Diseases. It is conceivable that in the not distant future 
there will disappear from current terminology the term ‘ ‘criminal,’ ’ 
just as there has disappeared, to a large extent, the term ‘ ‘insane.’ ’ 
It is also conceivable that the term ‘ ‘prison’ ’ will disappear even 
as the term “insane asylum” disappeared. There will be sub- 
stituted for this term one which is more in line with the present 
scientific knowledge with respect to “Human Behavior” and 
“Conduct.” 
In fact, there has developed in recent years a Science of 
Human Behavior. One of the great contributions to this Science 
has been what the psychiatrists have achieved in curing mental 
illness. Both the psychologist and the psychiatrist are confident 
that the various types of anti-social behavior, or criminal behavior, 
so-called, can be cured, so to speak. 
It is essential to understand that the foundation of the pro- 
gram herein rests on what we know today in the all-important 
science of “Human Behavior,” or “Conduct.” Once we realize 
that we are dealing with a highly complex science we readily ap- 
proach this problem of the “Criminal” or “Offender” against 
society from an ‘ ‘objective,’ ’ as distinguished from an “emotional,’ ’ 
viewpoint. Then, understanding of the proposed Federal pro- 
gram and the proposed program for Rhode Island becomes simple. 
When one talks about any science, the layman is often in- 
clined to hold up his hands and say, ‘ ‘This is too deep for me.” I 
am going to try to discuss the science of Human Behavior in 
its simplest terms. 
At the moment of this writing, there are boys who come 
out of American homes, who were educated in American schools, Supplementary Report 
who were brought up under the principles of the Christian religion, 
who now find themselves in far off lands in contact with human 
beings who were “conditioned” from birth in an entirely differ- 
ent culture. In some of these lands, for an adult male to go 
around without earrings in his ears would subject him to social 
ostracism. Some of our boys will meet “Headhunters” and even 
people who, not so long ago, were “Cannibals,” who considered 
it a moral virtue to eat the flesh of their chief enemies. The 
facts are that social habits, tradition and convention can, and do, 
‘ ‘condition’ ’ almost any type of human behavior. 
I believe every thinking person has learned, in the history 
of the past few years, a great deal about this science of Human 
Behavior, and particularly with respect to one important phase 
of it, that we are all “socially conditioned.” We know that 
in the early 30’s the Hitler regime in Germany deliberately initiated 
a movement, the purpose of which was to ‘ ‘condition’ ’ all of the 
youth in Germany and imbue this youth with what we know, to- 
day, as the Nazi philosophy. Amongst other things, these young 
boys and youth were deliberately “conditioned” for ruthless 
totalitarian war. 
We have seen, therefore, how easy it is to take youth, in 
its formative period, and ‘ ‘condition’ ’ it to ‘ ‘anti-social’ ’ conduct, 
‘ ‘condition’ ’ youth to the point where it has respect for neither 
life nor property. Because Germany so conditioned its youth, 
we, in England and in America, found ourselves where, as a mat- 
ter of salvation, we, in turn, had to ‘ ‘condition’ ’ our youth to do 
what we had formerly taught them was the most serious form 
of anti-social conduct, viz., taking human life and destroying 
valuable property. 
It should be apparent that, if we find certain groups 
of juveniles and young people who, because of a bad or 
unfortunate environment, have been “conditioned” to 
anti-social conduct, there is opportunity to change them 
from “anti-social behavior patterns” to “social behavior 
patterns.” 
As will appear, all criminal acts do not rise from the fact 
that the individuals have been conditioned in early life to anti- State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
77 
social behavior patterns. While that is an important factor, 
the science of Human Behavior is much more complex. 
The point we must bear in mind is that ‘ ‘conduct,” good or 
bad, is a result of various factors which have been at work upon 
an individual. As will appear in what follows, there are many 
causes, some of which are social and some of which are peculiar 
to the individual. Some of them stem from physical maladies; 
some of them stem from mental illness or mental deficiency. 
It is extermely interesting that the major sciences which 
deal with the human body or the human mind have gone through 
the same historical progress. There was a period, prior to the 
development of medicine as a science, when a very considerable 
number of physical maladies were regarded by the public with 
all of the emotions centering about ‘ ‘hatred’ ’ and ‘ ‘aversion’ ’ 
to the afflicted individual. It was even thought that certain 
types of illness were inflicted on people as a sort of punishment of 
the gods. We all know that, in previous history, those whom we 
now call mentally ill and who only recently were called “mad,” 
were thought to be possessed of devils. Today, all of this is 
changed. 
We now approach the “morally ill” or the “socially ill,” 
—the criminal, so-called from the same objective, scientific 
point of view. 
The following statement by Thorsten Sellin, Professor of 
Sociology and Graduate Chairman of the Department of Sociol- 
ogy, University of Pennsylvania, puts succinctly the scientific 
approach to this problem based on the modern science of Human 
Behavior: * 
“Some elementary psychological principles of behavior 
were well understood in older times. As Sancho Panza 
might put it, our forefathers realized that like seeks like, 
one rotten apple will spoil a barrel, and as the twig bends, 
so grows the tree. Modern psychology has lent the author- 
ity of science to these homely truths and has given us a 
better understanding of the mechanisms of behavior. 
♦Published for the School of Law, Duke University, in “Law and Contemporary Problems— 
The Correction of Youthful Offenders.” Professor Sellin is Editor of the Journal of Criminal Law 
and Criminology, and Author of “The Criminality of Youth,” (1940), and other criminological 
works. Supplementary Report 
“One effect of the conquests of modern science in 
its study of conduct has been that we now under- 
stand more fully that our penal system, even when we 
consider the great reforms made therein, still largely 
rests on a philosophy of correction which no longer is 
acceptable to the student of human behavior, having 
failed to adapt itself fully to the knowledge acquired 
in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, and sociology. 
“Today there is no possible disagreement on one principle, 
namely, that delinquency or crime should be prevented, if 
possible, and that if it cannot be prevented, it should be 
attacked when its first manifestations occur in a person, 
in order that recurrence be prevented.” 
The proposal for Rhode Island is based, as is the proposal 
for the Federal Department of Justice, upon the best knowledge 
we have in this science of Human Behavior. Fundamentally, 
we propose to do for those who are “morally” ill or “socially” ill, 
just what we do in the case of a man who has an acute or a chronic 
physical illness,—give to him, after a thorough diagnosis, the kind 
of treatment which his particular “moral” or “social” illness 
requires. We propose to make the treatment short if the illness 
is acute and can be easily cured, and prolong the treatment in case 
the “anti-social” conduct is deeply embedded in the offender’s 
system. 
The Indeterminate Sentence 
It is recommended that there be established by proper 
legislation: 
(a) an indeterminate sentence for the youth group— 
(ages 16 to 24). 
(b) a modified form of ‘ ‘fixed’ ’ sentence for the adult group. 
The nature of these will be set forth below. We will first 
discuss the significance of the indeterminate sentence in an 
integrated program which looks to rehabilitation of the offender 
against the laws of society. 
In September 1935, Honorable Herbert H. Lehman, then 
Governor of the State of New York, called a conference known as 
‘ ‘The Governor’s Conference on Crime, the Criminal and Society.’ ’ State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
79 
The Governor invited to this conference leading men in the State 
of New York interested in the whole field of public welfare, 
and particularly specialists in the field of juvenile delinquency, 
youthful offenders and adult criminal offenders. The conference 
lasted four days, and the Report, not including the Index, com- 
prises 1251 pages.* 
In summing up the over-all objectives of the conference, 
the Governor made this statement:— 
‘ ‘I believe that one of our principal troubles in the past 
has been that we have never considered the problem of the 
criminal as a correlated whole from the time he is a potential 
delinquent to the time he is returned from prison to society. 
“We have thought in terms of the police alone, of 
prisons alone, of laws, of courts, or of parole, and have 
directed our attention to the improvement of each one 
of those separately and without any attempt to co- 
ordinate or correlate their very definitely interde- 
pendent activities. How closely they are related and 
how much each one depends upon the effectiveness of the 
others is becoming more apparent to me every day ” 
One of the best statements with respect to this plan of 
Integration is found in a paper by John R. Ellingston, Special 
Adviser to the American Law Institute. The paper is entitled 
“Crime, Its Prevention and Correction-A Program fora 
State Agency.” Ellingston shows how the various procedures 
are intimately inter-related; one follows and determines another, 
and, in consequence, they should all be subordinate to the needs 
of the individual and administered by a single Authority.** 
Every specialist in the field of Crime, its prevention and 
treatment, is unanimous in the opinion that the cornerstone 
of a modern system under one over-all correctional authority is 
the “indeterminate sentence.” Honorable James V. Bennett, 
Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, writes as follows with 
respect to the indeterminate sentence:—*** 
‘Proceedings of the Governor’s Conference on Crime, the Criminal and Society,’ ’ September 30 
to October 3, 1935, Albany, New York. 
**See Appendix III. 
*** Published for the School of Law, Duke University in “Law and Contemporary Problems— 
The Correction of Youthful Offenders.” Supplementary Report 
“Indeterminate Control of Offenders: Realistic and Pro- 
tective. 
“The keystone of the Youth Correction Authority Act is the 
principle that the length of the period of treatment must be 
completely within the control of the Authority. Since the Act 
completely abandons the notion that punishment alone is the 
panacea for crime, it follows logically that the time required 
to redirect the offender must be gauged by the necessities of 
each individual case. This idea is neither radical nor untried. 
Rather it is a realistic facing up to the hard facts learned from a 
long fruitless effort to curb crime through fear, retributive punish- 
ment, and uncoordinated action. It stems also from the con- 
viction that the failure to check crime is because our criminal 
laws are not broadly enough framed adequately to protect society 
as a whole. 
‘ ‘The Model Act provides that the Authority may keep under 
continued study a person in its control and retain him under 
supervision so long as this is necessary to the protection of the 
public. The Act also provides that the offender be given full 
liberty as soon as there is reasonable probability that he will not 
be a menace to the public. The Act, however, does not give 
carte blanche to the Authority to determine how long an offender 
may be held, since one of its sections provides that court approval 
must be obtained if he is held beyond his twenty-first birthday 
if he was originally committed before he was 18, or beyond the 
age of 25 if he was committed subsequent to his eighteenth 
birthday... 
‘ ‘Thus protected and thus safeguarded, the principle of indeter- 
minate control of law violators is not only in conformity with 
our best legal traditions, but is also in accord with modern scientif- 
ic concepts of human behavior. The indeterminate sentence 
idea has long been recognized as fundamental to any system of 
individualized treatment of the offender. It arises from 
years of experience—that imprisonment for a specified period 
does not assure the reformation of those who violate the law nor 
deter others from similar conduct.” State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
Many similar statements by leading authorities could be 
given. Several of these statements, because of their preeminent 
source, merit space for quotation. I quote two statements from 
the Honorable Alfred E. Smith, which were made when he was 
Governor of the State of New York. I also quote a statement by 
the Honorable Paul V. McNutt, made when he was Governor 
of the State of Indiana, and a statement from Lewis E. Lawes, 
made when he was Warden of Sing Sing Prison:— 
Alfred E. Smith 
“I believe that the power of sentence ought to be taken 
away from judges entirely, and I further believe that fixed 
and definite sentences should be made dependent upon the 
finding of a commission... The Jury ought to determine 
guilt or innocence without anything in their minds except 
did he commit this crime or did he not, and as soon as the 
verdict is rendered and he is found guilty, he ought to be 
turned over to the State of New York for such disposition 
as would be determined by a board of the highest salaried 
men that we have in our community... After sentence a good 
many things are found out about a man that the judge does not 
have in mind when he is sentencing him... There are no two 
criminals alike. There are no two crimes exactly alike. 
There is a different set of facts and circumstances that lead 
up to them all. A great many of them are accidental, 
and if you can have a board to study this thing, spend 
money for it, it is worth while spending it.* “Sensible, 
sound, even-handed judgement based upon expert knowledge 
■ is possible by the creation of a board to make disposition 
of the prisoner after conviction. It is not reasonable to 
expect that it can be done by numerous judges sitting in 
various parts of the state, with widely varying ideas on 
the subject. The function of such a board as I suggest 
will be to dispose of the prisoner after the verdict of guilty 
has been rendered by the jury. The Judge would then 
simply preside over the trial, give the jury the law, and see 
that the prisoner gets a fair trial.”** 
*From remarks at a Conference with the Crime Commission of New York State, December 1927. 
**From “Up to Now—An Autobiography” 1929. Supplementary Report 
Paul V. McNutt 
‘ ‘One of the things which hampers treatment of the 
convicted offender most is the haphazard method of sentenc- 
ing. First offenders are often given sentences much more 
severe than repeated offenders for the same offense.., 
‘ ‘There is now no consistent policy on the part of courts for 
sentencing offenders with similar records and offenses. 
Present day penologists recognize the need for differential 
sentences for the same offenses but they believe that the 
personality traits of the criminal should have more weight 
in determining his sentence than the specific offense for 
which he is convicted. 
“Fitting the sentence to the criminal requires scientific 
study of him. It is only in rare cases that the judge as- 
sembles the varied information required to state such expert 
opinion—the variations in the sentence are determined 
largely by the temperament of the judge. Either injustice 
to the criminal or danger to society may—and does—result 
from this club-footed method of handling crime and criminals. 
In the interest of both the criminal and society the sentence 
ought to be scientifically determined. 
‘ ‘But even if the judge assembled complete information 
for a social diagnosis of the offender he could not then fix 
an accurate definite sentence. The effect of imprisonment 
is different on different men. One might be sufficiently 
adjusted to be paroled in a year whereas another one would 
require five years. All the judge really can do is to deter- 
mine guilt or innocence. The law should be changed to 
abolish all definite sentences, determinate or indeterminate, 
or the sentencing power should be removed from the judge. 
Many judges would undoubtedly be glad to be relieved of 
a duty which they know they can perform only in an un- 
satisfactory way.”* 
*From “Fit the Penalty to the Criminal” by Paul V. McNutt in the New York Herald Tribune 
Magazine, October 14, 1934. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
Lewis E. Lawes 
“The sentencing Board will naturally find here and 
there an individual who needs special attention. He may 
be the mental defective and should be cared for in an insti- 
tution for the criminal insane or a home for mental cases. 
He may be a hopeful case that requires training for a definite 
vocation—a failure of our public school system—or he may 
be suffering from a physical ailment. It may be that he 
lacks social resposibility beyond hope of early correction. 
These need institutional care. They should therefore be 
segregated. No human mind, be he judge, prosecutor 
psychologist or psychiatrist, can determine in advance 
how long it will take to correct these faults.’’* 
As is clearly indicated by the foregoing statements by State 
Governors and by specialists in the field of Penology, the ‘ ‘fixed’ ’ 
sentence places upon the State officials who seek to rehabilitate 
or reform the offender against society two severe limitations: 
first, if a man is sentenced, say, for twenty years, and he knows 
that even if he gets ‘ ‘good time’ ’ he must serve at least fifteen 
years of the twenty year sentence, he is in no mood to cooper- 
ate in a program looking to his rehabilitation or “cure’’ of 
his moral or social illness. In the second place, the prisoner 
is more acutely aware than anyone of the fact that our present 
method of sentencing results in grave injustices. He, who before 
all others, is expected to have a respect for “justice,’’ comes to 
the conclusion, to use a phrase of the street, “There just ain’t 
no justice.’’ 
The following statement by Austin H. McCormick is most 
apropos:—** 
“Existing Provisions for the Correction of Youthful 
Offenders—Sentencing. Discussion of indeterminate con- 
trol of youthful offenders under the Youth Correction Au- 
thority Act in accompanying articles of symposium reveals 
the nature of current sentencing practices. Their influence 
is so far-reaching on all the rest of the correctional process 
*Fiom “Twenty Thousand Years in Sing Sing,” 1932. 
♦♦Published for the School of Law, Duke University, in “Law and Contemporary Problems—The 
Correction of Youthful Offenders.” 84 
Supplementary Report 
as to necessitate a brief discussion here. A recent study 
of sentencing in federal district courts reveals shocking 
disparities. A judge in one district would give ten years 
for a certain offense, while a judge in an adjacent district 
would give one year. A committee of federal judges, report- 
ing upon this matter to the Judicial Conference of Senior 
Circuit Judges, has this to say:* 
“Judges who have never studied or visited prisons or re- 
formatories, who never met with parole boards or dis- 
cussed problems with their members, who never engaged 
in social work of rehabilitation, and who in their ex- 
perience have never come into contact with those of 
criminal tendency are seldom able to do better than 
guess at what may be a proper sentence.” 
Without intending, in any way, to criticize the judges of 
the courts of the State of Rhode Island, I deem it important to 
give one illustration which has made upon me, as Director of the 
Department of Social Welfare, a profound impression. Within 
the past year, a young colored man, age 22, was sentenced by the 
courts of Rhode Island to two concurrent sentences of forty 
years. While he did not take the life of a fellow human being, 
it is true that his offense outraged the community. He, with 
a group of other boys, formed a gang which repeatedly held up 
people in automobiles, very frequently slugged them with a sort 
of black-jack, and then took from them money or other posses- 
sions; of value. The colored boy in question came from a very 
poor family, and, in his childhood and early youth, had been de- 
prived of practically all the advantages and opportunities avail- 
able to youth in even the poorer class of our citizens. 
The interesting point follows: On Labor Day of this year, 
1943, the Prison baseball team had a game with the Quonset 
Point team. Baseball fans know that the Quonset Point team is 
one of the best teams, other than a professional team, that we 
have had in Rhode Island in a long time. It happened that 
the Quonset Point pitcher, this Labor Day afternoon, was a 
young man who had been ‘ ‘scouted’ ’ by the Philadelphia Athletics 
to join that team, but had enlisted in the Navy. The Quonset 
*Report of the Subcommittee on Sentencing of Adult Offenders, Report to the Judicial Conference 
of the Committee on Punishment for Crime (1942), State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
85 
Point team had been well trained by an athletic director. It 
was clear from the start that the Prison team was under severe 
handicaps. For five innings, this colored boy held the Quonset 
Point team to one hit, and struck out eight men. Anyone who 
has had any experience in baseball knows this was a major 
achievement. 
The colored boy knew he was backed by an inferior team. 
He realized that everything depended on him. Yet, he showed 
courage, fortitude, keenness of judgement and real mental capac- 
ity in this performance. Every reader of this Report has seen, 
at the end of a baseball game, when a pitcher has made an out- 
standing performance, how his team mates gather around him, 
oftentimes placing their arms around him as the “Hero” of 
the day. This happened in the case of the colored boy on Labor 
Day. 
I was thinking of his forty year sentence. Not only I, but, 
I am sure, five hundred prisoners, including his team mates, 
were thinking at that moment of the forty year sentence. They 
knew this boy had something. That these men in prison at that 
moment were resentful against the type of justice of this charac- 
ter is not surprising. 
Anyone who becomes acquainted with inmates of prisons 
knows that prisoners, generally speaking, are not too resentful 
because they have been “caught” and “convicted.” When, 
however, they see a long-term sentence given to one man on the 
basis of what appears to them to be ‘ ‘social revenge’ ’ and ‘ ‘retri- 
bution” and another man who is guilty of a like crime given a 
short term, they are justifiably resentful. 
The same resentment arises in the prison when, either 
through “influence” or through lack of knowledge, a man is 
released on parole who the inmates of the prison know is un- 
deserving of release and on the same day a man who the inmates 
realize is deserving of release is denied parole. Resentment 
against such injustice runs through the prison like a prairie fire. 
These are the considerations which lead a man like Mr. 
Bennett, Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and practi- 
cally every enlightened prison administrator, as well as all special- 86 
Supplementary Report 
ists in this field, to the conclusion that the ‘ ‘indetermniate sen- 
tence” is, as Mr. Bennett says, the keystone in an Integrated 
Program looking to rehabilitation of men. 
Recommendations as to Sentencing 
Youth Offenders Method of Sentence 
Youthful offenders between the ages of 16 and 24 shall, in 
cases of major offenses such as felonies, be indicted, tried and 
convicted under the existing criminal statutes, with certain ex- 
ceptions hereinafter noted. Upon conviction, it is recommended 
that the trial judge shall commit this class of youthful offender 
to the Youth Division of the Correctional Authority for an un- 
determined sentence, the maximum not to exceed six years. 
The Youth Division of the Correctional Authority, to which 
the courts will commit under such an “indeterminate” sentence 
all youths between the ages of 16 and 24, shall have wide dis- 
cretion with respect to the disposition of the youth. The Au- 
thority may send the boy back to his home on probation under 
the supervision of the Division of Probation and Parole, may 
place him in a foster home or ‘ ‘detention’ ’ home under the super- 
vision of the Division of Probation and Parole, may place him 
at work on a farm under the supervision of the Division of Pro- 
bation and Parole, or may place him in one of two training and 
correctional schools. These training and correctional schools 
will be hereinafter described. 
It should be borne in mind that under the system herein 
proposed the judge never commits a youth to an institution. 
The commitment is made to the Correctional Authority. This 
Correctional Authority has open to it the widest variety of 
treatment and dispositions. The cardinal principle of such 
a system is that each step in the process, from the time of sen- 
tence to the period of ultimate release from the care or custody 
of the Authority, is conditioned by the preceding step, and one 
naturally follows after the other. In consequence, generally 
speaking, the Correctional Authority, where it has placed a 
youth in an institution, would not, as a rule, give him an uncon- 
ditional release at the gates of the institution, but would place State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
him on parole under the supervision of the Division of Probation 
and Parole, which would be the final process in the course of 
treatment. There might be exceptions made to this rule, especial- 
ly where a boy had an opportunity to go into the Army or Navy, 
or into some other form of government service, and the Authority, 
acting upon the advice of the clinic, deemed such a step advisable. 
The advantage of having the majority of such offenders for a 
period under the Division of Probation and Parole will more 
fully appear when we discuss in detail the functions and opera- 
tions of that division. 
Avoidance of Criminal Trial for Certain Youthful Offenders 
It was recommended above that youths indicted for a felony 
in the age group 16 to 24 years should be tried in the usual man- 
ner by the criminal courts, and, when convicted, should be com- 
mitted to the Youth Section of the Correctional Authority on 
an indeterminate sentence. It is recommended that there 
might well be certain exceptions made to the criminal procedure. 
There may be certain cases where the Attorney General, in his 
investigation of a youthful offender who has either pleaded guilty 
or whose guilt is practically certain, may desire to call upon the 
advice of the Correctional Authority as to whether the youth in 
question should be subjected to a criminal trial. After a study 
of the case, the Correctional Authority could give advice re- 
quested by the Attorney General. In the event the Attorney 
General should then decide that the chancery procedures of 
the Juvenile Court System, as distinguished from the * ‘criminal’ ’ 
procedure, was in the interest of the youth, the Attorney Gen- 
eral could turn the case over to the juvenile court judge. The 
juvenile court judge, after an informal hearing, could then com- 
mit the youth directly to the Youth Section of the Correctional 
Authority. 
This recommended procedure raises certain constitutional 
questions, viz., the right of a youth who has reached his majority 
to indictment by the grand jury and trial by a jury of his peers. 
Courts of last resort have decided that in case of juveniles under 
21 years of age, the State stands in the position of ‘ ‘loco parentis’ ’ 
and that up to his majority a youth has not the constitutional 
right of indictment by grand jury or trial by a jury of his peers. 88 
Supplementary Report 
Certain decisions of the Supreme Court of the State of Rhode Is- 
land would seem to indicate that a youth of 21 years of age or 
over has the constitutional right of indictment by the grand 
jury and trial before a jury of his peers. In consequence, in 
order for the youth 21 years of age or over to have the advantage 
of the informal chancery proceedings of the juvenile court, 
he would be required to waive his constitutional rights as here- 
inbefore mentioned. 
Adult Offenders—Method of Sentence 
All adult offenders 24 years of age and over convicted by 
the criminal courts, to whom the judge believes a sentence of 
more than one year should be given, shall be committed to the 
Correctional Authority. 
The trial judge may excercise his discretion in the follow- 
ing manner: 
1. He can place the individual on probation. In such 
case, it is recommended for Rhode Island that the offender, 
on probation, shall become subject to the complete jurisdiction 
of the Correctional Authority, which Authority will have general 
supervision over the Division of Probation and Parole. 
2. The trial judge may in his discretion commit the of- 
fender to the Correctional Authority with an order that the 
Authority will have full jurisdiction over the offender, subject to 
the maximum sentence fixed by law. 
3. The trial judge may fix a definite sentence, which 
shall be the maximum provided by law, requesting the Authority 
for advice after the Authority has made a “diagnosis.” In 
such case, within six months, the Correctional Authority to 
whom the offender is committed shall submit to the trial judge 
a report recommending to the judge (a) that the offender be 
given an indeterminate sentence, or (b) that the maximum sentence 
imposed by the judge shall be a fixed term of years—either the 
‘ ‘maximum’ ’ or a lesser term. It shall be within the discretion of 
the judge to either approve or reject this recommendation of 
the Correctional Authority. 
As stated above, to achieve the social objectives of the Cor- 
rectional Authority System, “the indeterminate sentence” State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
89 
is the cornerstone of the whole system. Recognizing that 
the judges, the legislature and the public may not be quite ready 
to adopt in full the scientific principles underlying the ‘ ‘indeter- 
minate sentence,” the foregoing modified form of indeterminate 
sentence with respect to adult offenders is recommended. 
The door should be left open, however, when a “fixed sen- 
tence’ ’ is made in the manner above described, for future modi- 
fications of such ‘ ‘fixed sentence.’ ’ It shall be the responsibility, 
therefore, of the Correctional Authority, periodically, at least 
once a year, where a fixed sentence has been pronounced, to re- 
port to the trial judge with respect to the progress the prisoner 
has made, if any, and periodically the Correctional Authority 
can recommend to the trial judge further modifications of the 
“fixed sentence” previously made. 
As in the case of the youthful offender, the Correctional 
Authority should, as a general rule, never give an unconditional 
release of an adult offender from the institution to which he 
has been committed without a certain period in free society 
under the supervision of the Division of Probation and Parole. 
Classification 
The plan herein proposed contemplates complete scientific 
diagnosis and “classification” of the offender, whether he be 
a juvenile offender, a youthful offender, or an adult offender. 
The space of this Report will not permit too lengthy a 
discussion of this all-important phase in the new approach to 
the offender against society. It must be borne in mind that 
the whole basis of this system rests on scientific facts and on 
well-established statistical data with respect to the nature of 
offenders against the laws of society and why they come to do 
acts which bring them into the toils of criminal law. 
The science of Human Behavior, as previously indicated, 
is extremely complex. There are certain general facts with 
respect to the nature of crime and the offender which are well 
supported by statistical data, but which are, in fact, well known 
to every well educated individual in the community. For 
example, there are certain individuals who break the law, as 90 
Supplementary Report 
Professor Frank Tannenbaum of Columbia University says, 
“by accident, chance and mishap.” These are not pro- 
fessional criminals. They belong in an entirely different class 
from the A1 Capones and the Dillingers. 
It is manifest that if we are to understand why the individual 
in this class commits a crime, we must get the facts with respect 
to him in order to understand it. A very simple example will 
illustrate this type of case. Within the past year, a comparatively 
young man was convicted of robbing his employer of several 
hundred dollars. He had it within his power to have taken 
much more money than he actually took. It appears that he 
had been married a little over a year, and had obligated himself 
beyond his means in buying furniture on the installment plan 
in order to set up a home for his wife. Just before he robbed 
his employer, his wife expected to have her first baby. He did 
not know where to turn to get the few hundred dollars that was 
necessary to give his wife and his expected child proper care, 
so he took the money from his employer. He was convicted 
and sent to the State Prison for a term of years. He had not 
been in the prison very long before he recived a letter from his 
wife that his baby was going to be born on or about a certain 
date. She was a young woman, and apparently was dreading 
the experience of child-birth, and her letter passed her dread 
and apprehension over to her husband. No doubt, her fear was 
aggravated by the fact that her husband was serving a sentence 
in prison. The night after this man received the letter, he tried 
to get over the wall of the prison. His attempt to escape was 
a second offense, both of which had as their basic cause the fact 
that he wanted his wife and expected baby to be properly cared for. 
It is true that this man took the wrong course. A Correc- 
tional Authority which had made a “diagnosis” and “classifica- 
tion’ ’ of such a case might well have decided that, after this man 
committed the theft in the first place, the worst thing that society 
could do to him and to his family was to put him in prison. 
A second class of case is what might be termed that of the profes- 
sional criminal. He is the type which is played up by the news- 
papers. He is the man who has a full kit of expert tools for house- 
breaking, or, if he is a bank robber, for blowing up a safe with State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
91 
nitroglycerin. He probably has served ‘ ‘time’ ’ in the reformator- 
ies and prisons of several states. He is in quite a different ‘ ‘class’ ’ 
from the chance offender described above. Nevertheless, it is 
essential that his whole social background should be understood. 
It is essential that he be given a most complete medical examina- 
tion, a most complete psychiatric examination. It is essential 
that he be ‘ ‘classified’ ’ and proper ‘ ‘treatment’ ’ prescribed. 
There is a third type of individual who is led, in the first 
instance, to commit crime, in whole or in part, because of certain 
physical or mental handicaps. James V. Bennett, Director of 
the Federal Bureau of Prisons, mentions the fact that fifteen 
per cent of men convicted of Federal offenses are mentally ill. 
There are types of people who present, on “diagnosis,” 
a combination of medical, mental, and physical handicaps, plus 
social maladjustments. We find, in this “class,” the feeble- 
minded, the psychopathic, the individual who was born with 
homo-sexual characteristics, certain types of sex perverts, the 
chronic alcoholic and the confirmed prostitute. While they com- 
mit what we term crime, they are clearly cases which need medical, 
psychological, and psychiatric diagnosis, with recommended treat- 
ment. Most of them would probably be better off in mental 
hospitals or highly specialized institutions. None of them 
should be mixed up with youthful offenders or adult offenders 
for whom there is a real opportunity for training, re-education 
and rehabilitation. 
Experts in this field of Human Behavior all agree that 
even such general classifications as hereinbefore set forth do 
not fully answer the problem. Each individual differs from 
the other, and individual diagnosis and classification, 
with recommended treatment, is extremely important. 
The Classification Center 
A proper “Center” for “The Clinic” is extremely important. 
In this center, there should be adequate quarters for the ad- 
ministration offices of the three man Correctional Authority. 
There should be offices for each of the specialists who would 
comprise the Diagnostic-Treatment Clinic. Of equal, if not 
greater, importance would be a center or centers where youth- Supplementary Report 
ful and adult offenders would be segregated and means provided 
to keep them constructively occupied during the time they were 
having an individual diagnosis, looking to proper classification 
and proper assignment to the institution best adapted for such 
an individual’s treatment and training. 
Our existing institutions were never constructed from the 
point of view of a unified system under an integrated Authority 
working with specialists in several branches of the complex 
science of “Human Behavior.” 
The present Reformatory for Men is quite a large structure, 
and, without too much expense, it is believed it could be changed, 
under the supervision of an architect, to provide very ample 
quarters for the three man Correctional Authority and for the 
specialists comprising the Diagnostic-Treatment Clinic. In 
addition, segregated quarters could be provided whereby youth- 
ful offenders between the ages of 16 and 24 could be temporarily 
housed while they were going through the process of diagnosis, 
classification and assignment. 
Should the recommendation herein made to take the Provi- 
dence County Jail out of the State Prison be approved, there 
would be ample opportunity to take one section of the Prison 
and segregate adult offenders during the period when they were 
undergoing the process of diagnosis, classification and assignment. 
This is far from an ideal solution, but it is not impracticable 
from an administrative point of view. The main objective is 
to have “segregated” quarters for different types of offenders 
during the comparatively short period when they are undergoing 
the process of diagnosis looking to future classification and treat- 
ment. About four weeks is generally required before assign- 
ment to the proper institution, or for treatment outside of an 
institution. 
The Educational and Training Program 
It is recommended that sufficient funds be appropriated 
to enable the Correctional Authority to establish in all Cor- 
rectional Institutions a well rounded program of education and 
training. State Commission on 'Public Welfare Institutions 
93 
The general character of such a program will now be dis- 
cussed. For a more detailed statement, the reader is referred 
to Appendix IV. 
It is extremely interesting, in reading the literature with 
respect to all types of offenders, to find the great paucity of 
education which offenders against society have obtained. Through- 
out the United States as a whole, it appears that the great major- 
ity of offenders have never received more than an eighth grade 
education; a very considerable majority have not received 
more than a fifth or sixth grade education. The Annual Re- 
ports of the Department of Social Welfare for years have shown 
that few of the men in our State Prison and Men’s Reformatory 
have received an education equivalent to the eighth grade, and 
most of them less. High school graduates are exceedingly 
rare in either the State Prison or Men’s Reformatory, and a 
college graduate is even more rare. 
It is not necessary to elaborate on the fact that a man today, 
in our highly competitive society, has not too much chance 
to make an adequate living when he is handicapped by having 
an eighth grade education or less. The fact that so many of 
these drift into methods of living which are outside of the law 
should be no cause for surprise. What I desire to stress is the 
social and moral obligation of the people of this state to do every- 
thing possible to supplement this deplorable lack of education, 
when youths and adults are committed to .our custody and care. 
It is not a simple problem with respect to the youthful offender. 
When one considers the difficulties of taking an adult over 24 
years of age and supplementing a fifth or eighth grade education, 
the task seems almost insuperable. 
It should be a source of shame to the State of Rhode Island 
that it constructed, in 1929, a reformatory for young men at a 
cost of $500,000 and never provided either educational equipment 
or educational personnel. I am sure those who voted for that 
bond issue expected something more than a fine brick struc- 
ture. The facts are that, from the date of the construction 
of the Men’s Reformatory up to the present time, there has 
been no academic or cultural educational program, no vocational 
educational program, no vocational equipment, and no teachers 94 
Supplementary Report 
available either for an educational or vocational program. I 
cannot agree with the conclusion of my associates that because 
of this failure to establish an educational and vocational train- 
ing program at the Men’s Reformatory, the Reformatory should 
be abandoned and that we should take the reactionary step 
of placing these youthful offenders in the State Prison where 
they would be inevitably mixed up with all types of confirmed 
criminals.* 
Types of Education 
There are two excellent studies by Legislative Commissions 
of the State of New York on the subject of Education. The 
first of these is entitled, “A Preliminary Report on an Educa- 
tional Project at Elmira Reformatory,” presented to the Legis- 
lature of the State of New York by a ‘ ‘Commission to Investigate 
Prison Administration and Construction.” This report was 
presented to the Legislature of New York in 1933. The 
second is a Report presented to Governor Herbert H. Lehman 
by ‘ ‘The Commission for the Study of the Educational Problems 
of Penal Institutions for Youth” in New York State, presented 
to the Governor in December 1936. 
It is interesting to note that in both of these reports on 
the subject of Education, a somewhat wider point of view is 
taken than the narrow and traditional concept of limiting edu- 
cation to vocational training and special skills. These reports 
emphasize the necessity of a certain amount of limited academic 
education in what is known as ‘ ‘The Three R’s,’ ’ reading, writ- 
ing, and arithmetic. Recognizing the severe limitations upon 
placing youths and adults back at a desk, pouring over books, 
these New York Legislative Reports open up several interest- 
ing vistas and opportunities. 
The most important of these recommendations is the use 
of motion and still pictures. There is a Chinese proverb to 
the effect that one picture is worth more than a thousand words. 
Recently I have read articles with respect to the intensive train- 
ing that is being given to young men in the Army, where certain 
*The Writer in December 1942 presented a dissenting report to the Governor on this recommenda- 
tion of the Commission. This dissent is set forth in Appendix VII. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
95 
technical and specialized knowledge is required in mechanized 
warfare. I am advised, for example, that in the Signal Corps 
the use of books has been to a large degree abandoned, and 
motion and still pictures have been substituted therefor. It is 
said that men are being technically trained in the Signal Corps 
and other technical branches in a period of months for what 
it took years of book training to accomplish previously. 
Secondly, these New York Legislative reports emphasize 
what they term to be cultural and social education. Here 
again, the motion picture can be utilized to great value. There 
are many such motion pictures, and still pictures as well, that 
depict the history of the United States including our cultural 
and social advance. There are other pictures which show the 
grea advances that we have made in this country in protecting 
our natural resources, our forests, our soils, and the advance 
in scientific and mechanized agriculture. 
In a later section of this Report, I will speak on the subject 
of “Personnel.” At this point, I make one recommendation 
which is of major importance in this field of Education. One 
of the reasons why, in my opinion, we have failed to have an 
adequate educational program of a well-rounded character is 
that no one of our correctional institutions has been large enough, 
from the standpoint of population, to justify a comparatively 
large expenditure of money for teachers. 
I recommend the creation of an Educational Director 
and one over-all educational staff. 
This director and staff would be under the direct supervision 
of the Superintendent of Correctional Institutions. It would 
serve all of our correctional institutions—the Prison; the two 
institutions for youth asherein proposed, one in the Reformatory 
and one at Sockanosset School; and also the Women’s Reforma- 
tory. With one Educational Director and one staff covering 
all these institutions, the State would be justified in having a 
sufficient number of competent instructors in the various fields. Supplementary Report 
Prison Industries and Work 
One of the most important phases in a program of “treat- 
ment’’ and “rehabilitation” is Work. It is manifest that a 
very considerable number of Youth, as well as Adults, find 
their way into correctional institutions because they have never 
learned one of life’s essential lessons, that of the need for every 
man to work, the need of every man to play his creative part 
in the productive life of the community. Only too frequently 
the offender, especially against the laws provided for the pro- 
tection of property, feels that he can find the quick and easy 
way of making a living. His idea is, ‘ ‘Let the other fellow work, 
and I will take the fruits of his labor.” 
There is a basic fact with respect to all human beings. That 
is, man is creative; he likes to build. To deprive a great major- 
ity of people of an opportunity to work and create things with 
their hands or with their minds would be a personal disaster. 
It is important, therefore, to train prisoners in good Work Habits, 
and to imbue them with the pride which comes from honest, 
creative labor. 
The Integrated Program herein proposed, with the diversi- 
fied institutions, will offer opportunities for outside work with 
respect to many inmates of our prisons which heretofore have 
been closed. Several progressive states and the Bureau of 
Prisons of the Federal Government have developed “Honor 
Camps,” whereby inmates are allowed to work on public roads, 
in clearing forests and wastelands, and even on private farms. 
This is possible only where there is a proper diagnosis and 
classification of inmates. 
Diversification of Institutions—The Borstal System 
It is recommended that the Correctional Authority shall 
establish in Rhode Island something similar to what is known 
in England as The Borstal System. There is appended hereto 
Appendix V, a summary qf The Borstal System in England 
as applied to the youthful offender. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
97 
Briefly, the Borstal System carries out the conclusions 
reached by various Legislative Committees and incorporated 
in the Report to the Judicial Conference of the Committee 
on Punishment and Crime made to the Chief Justice of the 
United States and to the Attorney General, and now embodied 
in H. R. 2140. In essence, the Borstal System contemplates 
several types of institutional custody and treatment, ranging 
from an institution of “maximum security” to an institution 
of “minimum security.” 
In recent years, the Attorney General of the United States 
and the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons have made 
major achievements in diversification of Federal Prisons. These 
range from Alcatraz, a fortress of “maximum” security, to 
Forestry Camps. In the latter, men live in camps, working 
outdoors, with a minimum of custodial supervision. 
In New Jersey, there are two adult male institutions, one 
of ‘ ‘maximum security,’ ’ and one of ‘ ‘medium security.’ ’ In 
New Jersey also there are two institutions for youth, one of ‘ ‘med- 
ium security” and one of ‘ ‘minimum security.’’ We shall speak 
later of the Annandale Reformatory for youth in New Jersey, a 
model institution of ‘ ‘minimum security.’ ’ 
It is not proposed, in order to establish the principle of 
The Borstal System in Rhode Island, to recommend to the 
Governor and the people of Rhode Island any capital expendi- 
tures for establishing new institutions running from “maximum 
security’ ’ to “minimum security.’ ’ In the course of years, as the 
basic principles of ‘ ‘classification,’ ’ ‘ ‘treatment,’ ’ and ‘ ‘rehabilita- 
tion’ ’ prove themselves and become established, it may be desir- 
able to plan a completely new institutional set-up. For the 
present, it is proposed to take our existing correctional institu- 
tions and fit them, insofar as it is feasible, into The Borstal Sys- 
tem plan. 
In order to establish “Diversified Institutions” under 
the Correctional Authority based on the principles of the Bors- 
tal System, the following recommendations are made;— Supplementary Report 
Youth Institutions (ages 16 to 24) 
It is recommended that there be two Youth Institutions: 
one of “minimum security’’ and one of “medium security.’’ 
The institution of “minimum security’’ would be what we 
now know as Sockanosset School for Boys. The institution of 
“medium security’’ would comprise one wing of the present 
Reformatory for Men. 
Adult Institutions (ages 24 upwards) 
There would be three adult institutions:—(a) Bristol Farm 
for petty offenders and misdemeanants; (b) one wing of the 
present Prison would be utilized as an institution of “medium 
security;’’ and (c) one wing of the Prison would be utilized as 
an institution of “maximum security.’’ 
In addition to the above, provision would have to be made 
at Sockanosset School and at the Reformatory for Men for 
Reception Centers, where, during a period of several weeks, 
the Diagnostic Treatment Clinic would carry on the functions 
of “diagnosis’’ and “classification.’’ Provision would also 
have to be made in the Prison for Reception Centers to carry 
on these functions of “diagnosis’’ and “classification.’’ 
It was recommended in the Majority Report that the Soldiers’ 
Home at Bristol be abolished. With this recommendation 
the writer has agreed, but holds that the Bristol Farm should 
be utilized as a farm for misdemeanants, and petty offenders. 
It was also recommended that all County Jails in the State 
of Rhode Island be abolished. This would include the Provi- 
dence County Jail which now occupies one wing of the Prison. 
This would make space available at the Prison for an insti- 
tution of “medium security’’ and an institution of “maximum 
security’’ as above recommended. 
While this is far from an ideal application of the Borstal 
System, it would enable the Correctional Authority to classify 
adult offenders, placing lesser offenders in one wing of the Prison 
and confirmed offenders in another. One of the most deplorable 
situations at present is the mixing of casual and first offenders with 
confirmed criminals. State Commission on ’Public Welfare Institutions 
99 
When this program is well established and obtains the 
interest and support of the people, it is highly probable that 
the present Prison which has been described as a ‘ ‘walled Bastile’ ’ 
would be abandoned and several modern institutional buildings 
would be constructed to house the different types of offenders 
as classified by the Correctional Authority. This would follow 
the pattern well established in state mental hospitals, including 
our own. Anyone visiting the State Hospital for Mental Diseases 
would see eight or ten buildings ranging from “minimum” to 
“maximum” security. No modern mental hospital would con- 
sider for a moment placing a young man, for example, who had a 
slight neurosis, which, after treatment, could be cured, with 
violent mental patients who have confirmed brain lesions or 
brain deterioration. 
We will briefly discuss Sockanosset School as an institu- 
tion of ‘ ‘minimum security’ ’ and the Reformatory for Men as an 
institution of “medium security.” 
Sockanosset School Recommended as Institution of 
“Minimum Security” 
Under the present correctional set-up in Rhode Island, 
we have two male institutions: (1) Sockanosset School for Boys, 
located approximately a half mile from the reservation at Howard 
but completely separate from the reservation at Howard; 2) 
The Reformatory for Men, located on the reservation at Howard 
opposite the State Prison and County Jail. 
As is well known, the Sockanosset School for Boys is an 
unwalled institution. It has five cottages, easily susceptible 
to housing thirty boys each. In addition to the cottages, it 
has excellent recreational facilities, and educational facilities 
and equipment which, if not excellent, are at least good. At- 
tached to Sockanosset is a farm, comprising fifty acres, which 
would afford excellent work opportunities for youths between 
the ages of 16 and 24. 
It is recommended that Sockanosset School under the super- 
vision of the Correctional Authority be made into a Borstal 
institution of “minimum” security (age group 16-24). Supplementary Report 
The facilities at Sockanosset would make it possible to do 
in Rhode Island what is done at the Annandale Reformatory in 
New Jersey. The following statement of William Healy, M. D. 
and Benedict Alper is of special interest:—* 
“The device of classification has been heralded as provid- 
ing the solution of the problem created by concentration of 
these huge numbers of men behind the reformatory walls. Some 
of these institutions compile the most comprehensive, most 
carefully verified case histories to be found in any prison system 
in the world. The value of these standards is largely limited 
to their use by parole boards. Some of our best reformatories 
know many important facts about their inmates, and can classify 
them into finely shaded differentiations. When this is done, 
they are then at a loss to know how to deal with them; facilities 
are limited and segregation of the several main groups into 
separate wings or sections of the institution for living purposes 
does not prevent their intermingling at work, at meals, during 
recreation and assembly periods, and in hospitals. Emphasis 
upon individualization has carried us through the stages of 
investigation and classification. A penological science of 
diagnosis has made great advances and awaits now only 
the time when it may be given the opportunity to experi- 
ment with and to apply various treatment methods 
“In this regard, the institution at Annandale, New Jersey, 
which one of us recently visited for the purpose of this study, 
is particularly deserving of notice. This reformatory deals 
with a group of offenders between sixteen and twenty-six years, 
with a median age of nineteen. The population is not large— 
an average of about 450 inmates. The division of the institu- 
tion into eight cottages, accommodating from fifty to seventy men 
each, provides an opportunity for classification and for some- 
thing other than mass handling. Situated in the open 
country, the institution is without walls or enclosing fences. 
“The Division of Classification and Education in the State 
Department of Institutions and Agencies decides, on the basis 
of study and investigation, whether an offender is better suited 
for treatment at Annandale Farms or at the walled reformatory 
*Healy, William, M. D., and Alper, Benedict S., “Criminal Youth and the Borstal System,” The 
Commonwealth Fund, New York, 1941. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
at Rahway which accommodates men between the ages of seven- 
teen and thirty. Cases committed to either of these institutions 
may be transferred to the other by order of the Commissioner 
of Institutions and Agencies.” 
Present Reformatory Recommended as Institution of 
“Medium Security” 
The Reformatory for Men, which was constructed in 1929 
as a result of a bond issue voted by the people of $500,000, 
was originally designed as a “Reformatory” for young men be- 
tween the ages of 18 and 30. As appears from the Report of 
my associates, the Reformatory for Men has largely failed of 
its original purpose, namely to reform and rehabilitate young 
men between the ages of 18 and 30. It has largely been a custodial 
institution. The reason for this failure is clear. In the first 
place, there has never existed a complete program of training, 
education and rehabilitation. It has had no vocational train- 
ing equipment or instructors. It has never carried on any academ- 
ic or cultural training program. It is fair to say, however, that 
with all of this lack, young men at the Reformatory have been 
given in the past, and particularly in the present, considerable 
training in good work habits. This is due to the fact that these 
young men have been given work on the institutional farms, at the 
institutional bakery, at the institutional garage, and various 
outside maintenance work on institutional buildings. 
There would thus be, under the Correctional Authority, 
two institutions for youths between 16 and 24. The first 
would constitute Sockanosset, the institution of “minimum” 
security. - The Reformatory Wing would be an institution of 
“medium” security. It is probable that there would be a 
limited number of young men between the ages of 19 and 24 
who have bad criminal records (recidivists) and who have 
been convicted of major offenses. The Correctional Authority 
would have the discretion of utilizing the State Prison for such 
a type of youth, thus placing him in an institution of “maxi- 
mum” security. 
The Correctional Authority could, in its discretion, origin- 
ally assign youths between 16 and 24 (a) to the institution of 
“minimum” security; (b) to the institution of “medium” 
security; or (c) to the institution of “maximum” security. 
Under the flexibility of such program, a youth could be gradu- 102 
Supplementary Report 
ated or promoted, so to speak, from “maximum” security to 
‘ ‘medium’ ’ security and from ‘ ‘medium’ ’ security to ‘ ‘minimum’ ’ 
security, and from “minimum” security to free society under 
parole. 
The Abnormal Offender 
It must be emphasized that we are proposing a program 
for youth which is based upon the assumption that the majority 
of young men between the ages of 16 and 24 who commit anti- 
social acts have been previously “conditioned” because of a 
bad social or economic environment. Otherwise than the fact 
that they have developed anti-social traits and habits, they are 
normal. 
It is a basic principle in this whole program, and it is well 
recognized in England in the Borstal System, that a boy, to 
be “re-conditioned” so that he can be rehabilitated and safely 
returned to society, must be, generally speaking, normal. This 
is true also of the adult offender. The system, therefore, must 
give consideration to the abnormal cases. It is clear that the 
whole program of treatment, training and education will break 
down if normal boys are mixed with the class of case which 
is distinctly abnormal. 
Dr. William Healy, head of the Judge Baker Guidance 
Clinic, has given very special consideration to the abnormal 
offender. Dr. Healy has this to say with respect to this particu- 
lar kind of offender;* 
“Treatment of Abnormal Personalities. Now we come 
to one of the most difficult problems to be met in dealing with 
offenders, a problem not solved at all, even by the Borstal System. 
Indeed, through not having psychiatric diagnostic studies of 
their offenders, the problem is not faced there. Undoubtedly, 
as elsewhere, the abnormal personalities account for a very 
definite percentage of the failures. The fact is that after a 
diagnosis is carefully arrived at, certainly of one type, namely, 
the too loosely termed psychopathic personalities—better desig- 
nated as those who are abnormally unstable egocentric person- 
alities—everyone is at a loss to know what to do about treatment. 
*“Law and Contemporary Problems—The Correction of Youthful Offenders,” School of Law, 
Duke University, Vol. IX—Autumn, 1942—No. 4. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
103 
The records of recidivism of such individuals show that society 
would best protect itself by their prolonged segregation. Ex- 
periments are under way in some federal correctional institu- 
tions in this country to see whether under very special forms 
of treatment such individuals can gain enough insight to com- 
port themselves better in the prison regime. But how, after 
such treatment, they will behave when again free cannot as 
yet be predicted.” 
The foregoing cases present very specal problems, whether 
they fall in the youth group or in the adult group hereinafter 
to be discussed. This type of case is not susceptible to treat- 
ment, education or training except in Exeter School, the Mental 
Hospital or a specialized institution. 
Special Institutions 
There are certain types of acts which are defined as “mis- 
demeanors” or “petty crimes,” which, in the opinion of ex- 
perts, might well be eliminated from our criminal statutes. Our 
jails, for example, are filled with chronic alcoholics, who are, 
generally speaking, completely ‘ ‘down and out’ ’ and perpetual 
vagrants. In Rhode Island, as in other states, this poor un- 
fortunate class of our community is convicted over and over 
again for short periods of time and sent to our county jails. 
Warden Cranor tells me that there are cases of these—vagrant 
alcoholics—who have served as many as sixty short sentences 
in the Providence County Jail in the course of a short period 
of years. Most of these cases should be considered as hospital 
cases, A very considerable majority of them could be treated 
at the Clarke General Hospital, which, under the proposal 
of this Commission, is to have a special clinic for the study and 
treatment of chronic diseases, including alcoholism. 
A second case is that of the confirmed prostitute. She, 
again, like the confirmed alcoholic, finds herself repeatedly 
sentenced to jail or the Women’s Reformatory for comparatively 
short periods. The majority of modern penologists are of the 
opinion that prostitution is a “socio-medical” problem rather 
than a problem for the criminal courts. Rhode Island is fortu- 
nate, in normal times, in having a very small number of profession- 
al prostitutes of this character. Supplementary Report 
Both the chronic alcoholic and the prostitute have, generally 
speaking, a complication of diseases and infections which make 
it highly undesirable that they be mixed up with other petty 
offenders and misdemeanants. 
In the course of time the Correctional Authority, with the 
support of the public, might well provide special institutions 
for this group. 
Reformatory for Women 
I am in full accord with the recommendation in the Majority 
Report with respect to the Reformatory for Women. The 
present quarters of the Women’s Reformatory are in one of the 
oldest buildings at Howard, in juxtaposition to the quarters for 
the ‘ ‘criminally insane,’ ’ and are wholly unsuitable. There is 
considerable doubt in my mind whether Rhode Island would 
be justified in making any capital expenditure to build a new 
Reformatory for Women. 
In normal times the population at the Women’s Reformatory 
has been between 20 and 30. Of these, the great majority have 
been sent to the Reformatory because the women are vagrants, 
confirmed alcoholics or prostitutes. Rather than building 
a Reformatory for Women, it might be wiser to build two special- 
ized hospitals to treat the prostitutes, the alcoholics and the 
vagrant adult women. 
Release Procedures A Scientific Method 
We have seen that a scientific approach to the offender 
against society requires ‘ ‘an integration’ ’ of all procedures 
under one Correctional Authority. We first discussed integrat- 
ing sentencing procedures under a proposed Correctional Author- 
ity in conjunction with the judiciary. We then discussed “di- 
agnosis’ ’ and ‘ ‘classification’ ’ immediately following commitment 
to the Authority. We then discussed the character of training 
and education in order to change anti-social behavior patterns 
and develop a socialized individual prepared to enter free society 
on equality with his fellow citizens. This brings us to a scientif- 
ic and objective method of “releasing’’ the offender from 
the institutions. Here again, in order to achieve ‘ ‘integration,’ ’ 
it is essential that “release’’ from the correctional institu- 
tions should be under the control of the Correctional Authority. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
So important did the Attorney General of the United States 
consider this subject, that sometime prior to 1939 Attorney 
General Homer Cummings, with the aid of the Works Projects 
Administration, made an exhaustive survey of release procedures 
in federal courts and in the states of the nation.* 
The extent of this survey may be recognized when we realize 
that it was published in five large volumes. In commenting 
on the survey, Attorney General Homer Cummings said it was 
a lamentable fact that ‘ ‘widely varying methods of administering 
these procedures prevail in the various jurisdictions, state and 
federal.” The conclusions of this survey were that release pro- 
cedures should be made on a scientific and objective basis. 
Existing Release Procedures in Rhode Island 
In the State of Rhode Island, we have three types of re- 
leasing authority: (1) The Governor has a right to pardon of- 
fenders, with the approval of the Senate; (2) for the State Prison 
there is a Parole Board, comprising the Governor, the Attorney 
General and three laymen appointed by the Governor for over- 
lapping terms; (3) we have the Reformatory Parole Board which, 
under the law, comprises three men appointed by the Director 
of Social Welfare with the approval of the Governor. 
In the system herein proposed, which follows very closely 
the system proposed for the Federal Correctional Board now 
pending before Congress, it is obvious that the “indeterminate 
sentence” or a modified form thereof, which keeps the term 
of sentence at all times flexible, is as important in this field of 
“release procedures” as it is in the training and rehabilitation 
program. The whole concept of the training and rehabilitation 
program is to change the habits and social point of view of the 
offender and bring him to the point where he is ready for a trial 
period in free society. The fixed sentence nullifies this whole 
concept of training and rehabilitation, and is a major obstacle 
in reaching this highly important social objective. 
If we are to treat the matter scientifically and ob- 
jectively, the power to release should be in the same Author- 
ity which trains and re-educates the offender. 
♦“Attorney General’s Survey of Release Procedures”—Department of Justice, Washington, 1932. Supplementary Report 
This principle has long been recognized in hospitals for 
mental diseases. While a man may be committed for mental 
disease by authority of the courts, the time of his stay in the 
hospital and the time of his release is determined by the trained 
psychiatrists who have been seeking to cure his mental illness 
and rehabilitate him, both physically and mentally. The ordinary 
procedure in a mental hospital is for members of the Diagnostic 
Clinic to decide this all-important matter of the release of the 
man who has been mentally ill. 
No matter how socially-minded the Governor of a state may 
be, or an Attorney General, or three laymen, it should be obvious 
that they are not in a position to make the same objective and 
scientific judgement as the specialists who have been treating 
and training the offender. 
Recommended Release Procedure 
It is recommended that the Correctional Authority 
shall have the power to determine the date of release of 
(a) all those belonging to the “youth group”; and (b) 
the Authority would have the power to determine the date 
of release of the “adult group” subject to the modified 
form of “indeterminate sentence” herinbefore recom- 
mended. 
In all cases of ‘ ‘release,’ ’ the Authority should act upon the 
advice of the members of the Diagnostic-Treatment Clinic. The 
Clinic would, prior to recommending ‘ ‘release’ ’ to the Authority, 
make a thorough review of the individual’s case. It is important 
to bear in mind, in this connection, that the Integrated Program 
herein proposed contemplates both for Youth and Adults a series 
of diversified institutions ranging from “maximum’ ’ to “minimum” 
security. In all probability, the offender, prior to coming up for 
consideration as to ‘ ‘release,’ ’ would have graduated from an in- 
stitution of ‘ ‘maximum’ ’ security to one of ‘ ‘minimum’ ’ security. 
In both the institutions for ‘ ‘medium’ ’ and ‘ ‘minimum’ ’ security, 
he would have had many opportunities to work outside of the 
institution, on the farm, in maintenance of public buildings, on 
public roads, and even in forestry camps. It will be seen, there- 
fore, that the Borstal System of diversified institutions is tied up 
intimately with a scientific system of “release.” State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
107 
Supervision After Release—Division of Probation and Parole 
Equally important with the training and rehabilitation pro- 
gram during the offender’s period of treatment in custody is the 
period during which he is put ‘ ‘on trial’ ’ in free society under the 
supervision of the Division of Probation and Parole. It is high- 
ly important that this division should be integrated with the 
correctional system. Therefore, in the Integrated Program for 
Rhode Island, it is recommended that the Division of Probation 
and Parole be under the supervision of the Correctional Authority. 
In a previous portion of this Report, it was recommended 
that we leave the trial judge the existing power and discretion 
to place adult men on probation in lieu of sending them to an 
institution. 
Adults placed on probation should be under the jurisdiction 
of the Correctional Authority and not under the jurisdiction of 
the jffdge who places them on probation; otherwise, the de- 
sired integration would have a serious gap. Attention was 
also called to the fact that there were nearly twenty-five hundred 
or more men under the supervision of the Division of Proba- 
tion and Parole, as compared with some seven hundred fifty in 
our correctional institutions. The Correctional Authority could 
utilize the Division of Probation and Parole with the highest 
degree of flexibility under the procedures here proposed with 
an indeterminate sentence, and a flexible release system. 
The system herein recommended of placing practically all 
prisoners on parole for a period would get rid, for all time, of one 
of the most anti-social practices which has prevailed in prisons 
of the United States, including Rhode Island, from time immemori- 
al. This practice is a direct result of the ‘ ‘fixed’ ’ term of sentence. 
It is to give a man a shoddy suit of civilian clothes and five or 
ten dollars in cash, and throw him on the mercy of the community 
without any guidance or help to readjust himself into free society. 
The danger of this, and, I might say, the cruelty of turning 
a man loose with ten dollars in his pocket after he has served 
a long term in prison, is manifest. Supplementary Report 
The following statement by John Barker Waite, Professor 
of Law, University of Michigan, indicates a rich field for the Cor- 
rectional Authority:—- 
“Assistance After Release—In the way of provision for 
assistance to persons who have been released from imprison- 
ment, the Correction Act is far ahead of existing legislation; 
but not at all in advance of what all students of the problem 
have been advocating. The point is that when men are 
released from prison into social freedom, they face a problem 
of honest livelihood far more difficult than anything they 
have experienced before. The man who never has been in 
jail treads a primrose path of life compared to the rough 
course which the ‘ex-convict’ must struggle through. The 
latter has been ‘out of work’ for months or years, and it is 
difficult enough in normal times for even a man with a good 
reputation to thrust himself back into a place of employment. 
Many large employers have an established policy of Refusal 
to employ ex-convicts at all; small employers fear to do so. 
In times of war ‘defense industries’ close their gates to him; 
the army and navy are forbidden by statute to accept him as 
a volunteer for death. 
“Large-scale offenders who have embezzled thousands or 
have mulcted investors of millions may get jobs as managers 
of some friend’s country estate, or may even be met at Nash- 
ville station by a brass band and an automobile parade. 
But for every one so welcomed, thousands are finally released 
with no money, no job, and no prospect of one. What friends 
they have are the associates with whom they originally em- 
barked into crime; they are the friends—and the repeated 
influences toward repeated crime—to whom the released 
convict must return. It is the writer’s guess—there are 
no data from which to do more than guess that this 
one factor, the factor of lack of real assistance in honest 
living after release, accounts far more than any other 
one circumstance for the appalling percentage of re- 
lapse into fresh criminality. 
‘ ‘Existing law, except in two states, makes no real provision 
for help to the released convict. The conventional statute 
is like that of Washington which provides for each discharged State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
convict a suit of clothes to cost not more than $10., transpor- 
tation by the cheapest route to place of sentence, and $5. in 
money. The Florida statute adds insult to injury by say- 
ing that the $5. is given him ‘to provide the necessities of 
life until he can procure work.’ Five dollars in these days 
for that purpose! In his $10. suit, without money for the 
necessary tools of his trade, without money for the union dues 
without which his labor leaders will not permit him to work, 
what can he do but hope that this time he will not be caught?’ ’* 
One of the most important functions of the Division of 
Probation and Parole in this system would be to re-establish the 
parolee into the community. It could assist him in finding a job. 
If he or his family required financial aid, his case could be brought 
to the Division of Public Assistance of the Department of Social 
Welfare. 
We have in Rhode Island, on the whole, an admirable Divi- 
sion of Probation and Parole. This is evidenced by the fact that 
it is found necessary to revoke probation and parole in only ap- 
proximately six cases out of a hundred. 
One admirable feature of our Division of Probation and 
Parole is that it is state-wide and centralized in one division under 
an administrator. Another admirable feature is that the admin- 
istrator of the Division of Probation and Parole, and all parole 
counsellors, are chosen as a result of state-wide open competitive 
examinations instead of on a political basis as exists in many states. 
In a later portion of this Report dealing with the subject of 
“Personnel,” stress will be laid on professional training for all 
the personnel in our correctional institutions. It is lamentable 
that the position of a probation and parole counsellor has not 
reached the point where it is recognized as a profession. In my 
opinion, it is equally important to train men for this profession 
as it is to train men for the profession of law. We all know the 
high standards which are required before a man can enter the 
legal profession in this state and in most states of the union. 
In most cases, he is a graduate of a college and thereafter a graduate 
of a law school. He then is required to pass a very stiff examina- 
tion before he can become a member of the bar. 
*“Law and Contemporary Problems—The Correction of Youthful Offenders,” School of Law, 
Duke University, Vol. IX—Autumn, 1942—No.4, p. 611. Supplementary Report 
We should not have lesser standards for these probation 
and parole counsellors, into whose hands we place the very lives 
and destinies of men whom we seek to rehabilitate and adjust 
into free society after they have become offenders against the 
legal codes. 
In this field, the State Security Council as proposed herein 
could do much constructive work in breaking down public preju- 
dice against a man who has served a prison sentence. As long 
as the community’s attitude is one of punishment, revenge, 
and retribution, so long will society fear the man who has been 
convicted of a crime and served a prison term. How unwarranted 
that attitude is, we can realize if we bear in mind that about 75% 
of men convicted of felonies in Rhode Island never go to prison, 
but are immediately placed on probation. 
Guards and Custodial Officers 
It is apparent, as we review this Integrated Program, which 
has as its foundation the science of Human Behavior and the 
sound scientific conclusion that by proper diagnosis, classification 
and treatment anti-social behavior patterns can be altered,that the 
former emphasis on the prison as a place of “custody” and 
“protection of society” against dangerous men shifts to the 
emphasis of individual treatment looking to “rehabilitation” or 
“cure” from the social or moral illness. However, especially 
in the institutions of “maximum” security, we cannot overlook 
this principle of custody and protection. Therefore, we must 
have an adequate number ot ‘ ‘prison guards’ ’ and ‘ ‘custodial 
officers.’ ’ It is of the utmost importance that these guards and 
custodial officers should be a higher type of man than what has 
been the prevailing conception of a prison guard. Not only so, 
but these custodial officers should be given opportunity of having 
special training for this important function. The training schools 
which now exist in great metropolitan areas like New York City 
for police officers, and the training schools which exist in most 
states, including Rhode Island, for State Police, well illustrates 
the type of training which a prison guard should receive. 
Under this type of program, the Guard should be trained so 
that he will understand the scientific methods and the social State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
objectives of a program which looks to rehabilitation of men and 
changing anti-social patterns to social patterns. There is no 
reason why, with proper salaries, with opportunities for train- 
ing, and with a new public attitude toward the correctional insti- 
tutions, we could not attract men of education and character to 
the position of prison guard. The high type of man who is 
attracted to the New York State Police force is evidence in point. 
Austin H. MacCormick, speaking on the subject of Personnel, says: 
“The Importance of Institutional Personnel—No correc- 
tional system is better than the personnel that administers it, but 
the right kind of personnel can do wonders to overcome the phy- 
sical and organizational handicaps to effective rehabilitation. 
There was a time when the public could easily be fooled by a showy 
plant and formally laid-out grounds into thinking the state had 
a successful reformatory. We have since learned better, although 
some state institutions have been built in recent years'with the 
aid of federal funds which now stand as reminders of how futile 
it is to set up a beautiful plant and staff it with inadequate or in- 
competent personnel. Although the proportion of professionally 
trained persons in reformatory staffs is much greater than in 
prison staffs, few states have as yet been able to attract personnel 
with the high quality of human sympathy, intelligence and train- 
ing essential to help boys find themselves. The old custodial 
tradition still lingers and it is a constant battle to keep staffs from 
falling back on easy terms in which, for instance, inmates are 
forbidden to talk or act naturally because natural behavior de- 
mands increased alertness of the staff.” 
Prevention At The Age of Youth 
I wish that everyone reading this Report might take the 
opportunity to read some outstanding contributions in this par- 
ticular field with respect to the juvenile and youthful offender. 
Without question, we must solve the problem of the youthful 
offender if we are going to prevent criminal careers and reach 
any constructive solution of the problem of cirme in the 
United States. Any one of the following books and pamphlets 
would be sufficient to convince every reader of this Report that 
the program herein proposed is so sound that it should be adopted 
in Rhode Island without delay. I refer, particularly, to the 112 
Supplementary Report 
book by Leonard V. Harrison, “Youth in The Toils/' published 
several years ago by MacMillan Company. It was this book 
which, more than any other, interested men like John D. Rocke- 
feller, 3rd, Walter Gifford of the American Telephone and Tele- 
graph Company, and, eventually, the American Law Institute, 
to tackle this problem. It was the source from which eventually 
grew the model Youth Correction Authority Act. Succeeding 
pamphlets by Mr. Harrison, published by the Committee on 
Youth and Justice of the Community Service Society of New York, 
of which John D. Rockefeller, 3rd, is Chairman, are ‘ ‘Preventing 
Criminal Careers,’’ “Prisons Cost Too Much,’’ and “Chaos in 
Sentencing Youthful Offenders.’ ’ These are well documented book- 
lets, based on research and actual statistics. 
The reports and published studies by Dr. William Healy and 
his associate, Dr. Bonner, of the Judge Baker Guidance Clinic, 
also show how important is the critical period of youth. These 
reports of Healy and Bonner are based on thousands of actual 
cases which have come before this Guidance Clinic, many of them 
having been sent to the Clinic by the Juvenile courts of the State 
of Massachusetts. The book by William Healy, M. D., and 
Benedict S. Alper, “Criminal Youth and the Borstal System,’’ 
as to how the English people have attacked this problem of the 
youthful offender, is also a cornerstone of constructive information. 
The report of the study made by a Legislative Commission in the 
State of New York, of which Benedict S. Alper was Secretary, re- 
leased in the year 1942, demonstrates, as do the other publications, 
that the youth, in the critical period of adolescence between 
sixteen and twenty-four years of age, constitutes the focal point 
of crime. This report is entitled, “Young People in the Courts 
of New York State.’’ 
This subject of the youthful offender and the importance of 
preventing criminal careers in the plastic adolescent period is of 
such significance that in Appendix VI there are set forth a number 
of significant statements on this subject. 
Cost of Program 
Many of our citizens who take the trouble to study this 
proposed Integrated Program will, no doubt, agree that it is State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
based upon sound scientific principles. They will no doubt agree 
that it has a fine social objective,—the rehabilitation of men. 
The question will arise, with some at least, ‘ ‘Can Rhode Island 
afford it?’ ’ It may be argued that the cost of the War has been 
so great, the citizens of the State will be faced with large Federal 
taxes for many years to come. It will be said that this is no 
time to increase the State tax burden, even for such a highly desir- 
able program. 
At this point, may I refer to certain data which was given 
in the Introductory Chapter of this Supplementary Report. It 
was there pointed out that we had, as of the date of this writing, 
2,480 individuals convicted of crime on probation and parole, 
compared to 745 in all of our correctional institutions. It was 
stated that it costs an average of $566.39 a year to keep a man or 
a boy in a correctional institution as against $42.63 a year to 
supervise the same man or boy on probation and parole. We 
conclude, therefore that if we had no probation and parole system 
and all of those now on probation and parole were in prison or 
a reformatory, it would cost the taxpayers of this state $1,298,924 
more than it does under our present system. 
One of the chief accomplishments which will inevitably re- 
sult from the Integrated Program herein proposed is that our 
population in correctional institutions will be further reduced. 
With the great flexibility of disposition given to the Correctional 
Authority, many of the youths and adults previously committed 
to institutions will be placed immediately on probation. Under 
the system of “treatment” and “release,” the number of men 
released from our correctional institutions will be proportionately 
greater. If we reduced our population in correctional institutions 
by only one hundred, we would save approximately $50,000 each 
year. 
There was cited above the case of the colored boy who was 
sentenced to the State Prison for forty years. In view of the 
fact that it costs in excess of $550 a year to care for an inmate 
of a state prison, this boy, in the event he serves his full term, will 
involve an expense to the taxpayers of approximately $22,000. 
This young man, if he serves his full sentence, will be 62 years of 
age when he is released. It is apparent that from the date he is Supplementary Report 
released until his death he will be a state charge. Under the old- 
age assistance program, he would receive approximately $300 a 
year. Assuming he lived fifteen years, that would be an additional 
expense to the taxpayers of $4,500, or a total in excess of $26,000. 
This large sum of money would be expended, not with a view to 
‘ ‘rehabilitation’ ’ of a young man of great potentialities, but rather 
from a standpoint of “retribution” for his offense. 
Under the proposed system, the colored boy would undoubted- 
ly be placed on parole in five or six years, and, being a man of his 
ability and potentialities, would undoubtedly become a useful 
citizen, adding to the productive wealth of the State rather than 
being a burden on the taxpayers to the extent of some $26,000. 
What is Crime? 
When one raises the most basic question of all, “What is 
Crime?” there opens to view a problem of the first magnitude. 
Students of criminology have repeatedly pointed out that the 
major types of anti-social conduct, those acts of a predatory 
character which cost society most, very largely escape the net of 
criminal justice, so-called. The following statement, made by 
Barnes and Teeters, is in point;* 
‘ ‘It is usually believed that the seriousness of a crime with 
respect to its damage to society is the test which sets off 
criminality from other forms of anti-social conduct. This 
should be the case, but it is not in so far as we allow the crimi- 
nal code to determine what we regard as crimes. Many 
crimes listed are on the statute books solely because they 
were acts socially disapproved a century or more ago. They 
may not be at all serious offenses against the well-being of 
society. Other crimes are included because of the distorted 
fanaticism of ignorant or biased groups. Many of the more 
disastrous forms of anti-social behavior are not even regard- 
ed as immoral, to say nothing of being criminal. This is so 
because the dominant groups in society still approve such 
behavior. This fact is reflected in Bernard Shaw’s quip that 
if a man steals a loaf of bread he goes to prison, while if he 
steals a railroad he is likely to go to Parliament.” 
*lbid, State Commission on Public JVelfare Institutions 
The limits of this Report will not permit a long discussion 
of this all-important subject. The facts are that in Rhode Island 
and in other states, the majority of men convicted to penal insti- 
tutions are convicted of theft, robbery, or various forms of assault 
against the person. Penologists point out that hundreds of 
millions of dollars annually are mulcted from the public by vari- 
ous schemes, many of which are not classified as ‘ ‘crimes’ ’ in our 
criminal law, but which constitute anti-social conduct. Crimin- 
ologists also point out that hundreds of thousands of lives are 
taken by anti-social schemes, most of which are not classified as 
criminal acts. 
We badly need, in Rhode Island and in every state of this 
union, a survey of this subject of what types of anti-social con- 
duct should be designated as crimes. As Barnes and Teeters 
well say, many crimes listed on the statute books are there be- 
cause they were socially disapproved a century or more ago. By 
the same token, many forms of anti-social conduct which are de- 
priving our citizens of both life and property are approved 
moral behavior. 
We cannot go very far in a program of rehabilitation until 
our system of criminal justicp is really one of complete justice, 
and brings to the bar every type of injurious anti-social conduct. 
The chief justification for an anti-social act which the criminal 
has lies in the fact that our system does not bring into the net 
many of the chief malefactors. 
Before concluding, there are several other aspects of our 
system of criminal justice which require overhauling. I shall 
mention but three of these:— (a) the long delays which, too fre- 
quently, occur between the time a man is arrested and the time 
he is brought to trial; (b) the system, of bail, where the man who 
has friends or members of his family financially able to provide 
bail can get out unless his offense be murder, manslaughter, or 
some major crime, whereas the man without financial backing 
is sent to prison where he serves oftentimes a long period even 
before he is tried; (c) the system of deferred sente nces and con- 
current sentences. 
In any system of “justice,” there should be equality of 
treatment, and whether a man gets a speedy trial or whether he Supplementary Report 
gets out on bail or goes to prison awaiting trial should not depend 
on influence or financial backing. Here again, the men in prison 
realize thege inequalities in our system of justice. This, too, is 
one of the principal topics inside the prison walls. 
General Recommendations 
There follow three recommendations:— 
(1) That there be established in a reorganized Division of 
Correction in the Department of Social Welfare an 
overall Correctional Authority. 
(2) That by resolution of the General Assembly, a study 
be made which would re-survey what constitutes a 
statutory crime in this State. 
(3) That the Governor call a State-wide Conference on 
the subject of “Crime, the Criminal and Society.” 
(1) The Correctional Authority. 
This report has devoted 95 pages of the main text and six 
appendices to explain the most modern system looking to the pre- 
vention of Crime, and if Crime cannot be prevented, to the treat- 
ment of the offender, looking to curing him of anti-social behavior 
and re-establishing him in society. This is neither a ‘ ‘sentimental” 
nor a ‘ ‘starry-eyed’ ’ proposal. A reading of the text and the ap- 
pendices shows that this modern system of an Integrated Cor- 
rectional Authority is the result of a great deal of study and re- 
search in the twin sciences of Criminology and Penology. The 
Correctional Authority program today has the support of such 
outstanding organizations as the American Law Institute, the 
American Bar Association, and the American Prison Association. 
It has the support of a special committee appointed by the Chief 
Justice of the United States, comprising a number of the lead- 
ing Senior Circuit Court Federal Judges. 
It has the individual support of the Chief Justice of the 
United States, the Attorney General of the United States, the 
Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the heads of the 
leading organizations above-mentioned. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
It is also significant that this program has the support of 
leading men in industry and finance. For example, it is sup- 
ported by the Community Service Society of New York, of which 
organization Walter S. Gifford, President of the American Tele- 
phone and Telegraph Company, is Chairman of the Board. This 
program is also sponsored by the Committee on Youth and Justice 
of the Community Service Society of New York. The Chairman of 
this Committee is John D. Rockefeller, 3rd. 
A program which has such unprecedented endorsement and 
sponsorship cannot well be ignored by the citizens of Rhode Island 
and their duly elected Executive and Legislative Officials. 
(2) A Study of Statutory Crimes. 
It is further recommended that a resolution of the General 
Assembly be adopted for the appointment of a special commission, 
consisting of leading members of the Rhode Island Bar, to study 
the whole subject of what should constitute a criminal act, in 
order to bring our system of ‘ ‘statutory crimes’ ’ up to date with 
a view to including therein many predatory acts now considered 
lawful but which take from the public much larger sums of money 
than are taken by theft, larceny and robbery. 
This commission also should give consideration to the 
important question of scientific detection of criminal acts, 
of speedy trial, of our system with respect to bail, and the 
questions of deferred and concurrent sentences. 
(3) A State-wide Conference on Crime. 
It is finally recommended that upon the submission of the 
Report of the State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions, 
the Governor call a Conference on the subject of “Crime, the 
Criminal, and Society.’’ It is recommended that the Governor 
invite to such a Conference representatives of all agencies and 
organizations in the State of Rhode Island having a special interest 
in the subject. Amongst these would be the Rhode Island Bar 
Association, the judges of our Supreme Courts and other courts, 
the Attorney General of the State, the State Police and representa- 
tives of local police, representatives of various social agencies, 
representatives of the Rhode Island Medical Society, and certain Supplementary Report 
other organizations, such as the Legislative Committee of Rhode 
Island, the League of Women Voters, and the Rhode Island 
Parent-Teachers Association. 
It is recommended that the Governor invite to this Confer- 
ence representatives of the nation-wide organizations which 
have been specializing in this field; to wit, The American Law 
Institute, The American Bar Association, The American Prison 
Association, The Committee on Youth and Justice of the Com- 
munity Service Society of New York, representatives of the Con- 
ference of Senior Circuit Court Judges which sponsored and 
prepared the bill now pending in Congress for the establishment 
in the Federal Department of Justice of a Correctional Authority 
similar to the one herein proposed for Rhode Island. 
It is highly important that we in Rhode Island do not delay 
action in establishing a modern system of correction which has 
the two-fold social objective of “Prevention” and, where preven- 
tion has failed, ‘ ‘Rehabilitation’ ’ of the convicted offender. 
The Post War World for many years may well be chaotic. 
Many students of Penology predict a great increase in Crime. 
That has been the case after every great war. 
We should plan for Social Action in this important field to- 
day. Tomorrow may be too late. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR MENTAL HYIGENE 
Incorporated 
1790 Broadway at 58th Street 
New York, N. Y. 
President Honorary Secretary and Founder 
Adolf Meyer, M. D. Clifford W. Beers 
Medical Director 
George S. Stevenson, M. D. 
November 26, 1943 
Mr. C. J. France 
Department of Social Welfare 
40 Fountain Street, 
Providence, R. I. 
Dear Mr. France: 
I was very much interested in reading your sup- 
plementary report and I am in general agreement with 
it. I think you have worked out a program that is in 
general keeping with directions that will have to be pur- 
sued if the mental hospitals are to become more mean- 
ingful to the people they serve. I refer particularly to 
the material prevention and the development of extra- 
mural relations. The discussion of the causes for increase 
in census of mental hospitals may be more specific than 
present information warrants. I consider this to be a 
minor theoretical criticism and does not in any way re- 
flect on the vision contained in the setting up of the ser- 
vices generally. 
Sincerely yours, 
G. S. Stevenson 
Medical Director 120 
Supplementary Report 
CHAPTER III 
DIVISION OF MENTAL HYGIENE 
Basic Recommendations 
It is recommended to the Governor and to the General As- 
sembly that there be established within the Department of Social 
Welfare a division to be known as ‘ The Division of Mental Hy- 
giene.’ ’ 
This division will comprise: 
(a) The State Hospital for Mental Diseases 
(b) Exeter School 
(c) A Department of Extra-Mural Services 
There shall be a General Superintendent in charge of the Divi- 
sion, a well qualified specialist in the Science of Mental Hygiene. 
Subject to the supervision of the General Superintendent, 
there shall be three Superintendents: 
(a) Superintendent of the State Hospital for Mental 
Diseases 
(b) Superintendent of Exeter School 
(c) Superintendent of Extra-Mural Services 
In many of the larger states of the union, there is a separate 
state department known as the Department of Mental Hygiene. 
Such a department always includes both mental hospitals and in- 
stitutions for treatment and care of the feeble-minded. For ex- 
ample, the State of New York has such a department, and also 
the State of Massachusetts. This is proper orgainzation, due 
to the fact that both types of institutions deal with the closely 
related problems of mental disease and mental deficiency. We 
would not be justified in Rhode Island to establish a separate De- 
partment of Mental Hygiene, but it is advisable to have a Divi- 
sion of Mental Hygiene within the Department of Social Welfare. 
It is important to bear in mind at this point the basic philoso- 
phy underlying this Supplementary Report, viz., (1) that every pos- State Commission on Public W el fare Institutions 
121 
sible step should be taken in the way of Prevention in order to keep 
people out of State institutions; and (2) where Prevention is not 
possible, to establish an Integrated Program looking to the cure 
or rehabilitation of those whom it is necessary to commit to the 
institutions. 
In the Introduction to this Report, the point was emphasized 
that you could not treat State Institutions in “Isolation,” but 
institutions must be considered from the point of view of the 
total problem, viz., (1) Prevention; (2) Cure or Rehabilitation; 
(3) Supervision after Release, and other Extra-Mural Services. 
1. Mental Illness 
In the Introduction to this Report, it was pointed out that 
in recent years there has developed in the United States an ex- 
tremely interesting pattern with respect to the type of problem 
involved in the study of state institutions. We listed a number 
of scientific and research organizations, national in scope. We 
pointed out that the membership of these associations largely 
comprised administrators working in highly specialized fields, 
and that there was a constant inter-action between the national 
associations and the administrators actively operating various 
types of institutions. 
In no field has this particular pattern been more highly de- 
veloped than in this field dealing with mental illness and mental 
deficiency. One of the best of all these national associations en- 
gaged in scientific research and improvement in administration 
is the National Committee for Mental Hygiene. Another as- 
sociation which has made outstanding contributions is the Ameri- 
can Psychiatric Association. 
The major recommendations herein made with respect to a 
Division of Mental Hygiene are based upon years of study by the 
two foregoing scientific associations and numerous reports and 
papers issued in their proceedings. 
I also wish to express here my indebtedness to George S. 
Stevenson, M. D., Medical Director of the National Committee 
for Mental Hygiene; to the Honorable Homer Folks, Chairman 
of the Temporary Commission on State Hospital Problems, State 122 
Supplementary Report 
Charities Aid Association of New York; and to F, W. Parsons, 
M. D., who for many years was Commissioner of the Department of 
Mental Hygiene of the State of New York, all of whom were kind 
enough to give me of their valuable time and counsel in the field 
of mental hygiene. 
I have also obtained valuable assistance from a report en- 
titled “A Study of the Public Mental Hospitals of the United 
States,” published by the United States Public Health Service. 
This report was the work of a committe representing the Nation- 
al Committee for Mental Hygiene, the American Psychiatric Asso- 
ciation, and the United States Public Health Service. I am also 
indebted to a progress report, issued in December 1942, by the 
Temporary Commission on State Hospitals appointed by former 
Governor Lehman. 
In the Study of the Public Mental Hospitals hereinbefore 
referred to, it is said:— 
“Those who have been responsible for the care and treat- 
ment of the mentally sick have so many ambitions, anxieties, 
hopes and problems in common that they have been deeply 
interested in each other’s activities and generally most eager 
to help in every advance—administrative, architectural, 
clinical, and therapeutic. One is reminded of the period of 
cathedral building in England, when architects took difficult 
and arduous journeys just to see and appraise any new features 
that had been devised by others.’’ 
The major point of departure which this Supplementary Re- 
port makes from the Report of the majority members of the Com- 
mission lies in the fact that the majority members of the Com- 
mission approach the total problem of our State Institutions by 
considering these institutions in what I term “isolation’’ as to 
two vital aspects; 
(1) what happens before it is necessary to commit a citizen of 
this State to an institution, and (2) what happens after the citizen 
is released, either under supervision for a period or unconditionally. 
In dealing with the correctional problem in Chapter II, the 
title of that chapter was ‘ ‘A Program for Youth and Adult Offend- 
ers Through Establishment of a State Correctional Authority.” State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
123 
This very title indicated that the writer was dealing with the total 
problem rather than with institutions per se. Nowhere is this 
point of view so essential as when we come to deal with those who 
are mentally ill and those who are mentally defective. Take, for 
example, the problem of the mentally ill. It appears from the 1942 
census that the total number of patients registered at Rhode Island 
hospitals, including public and private, was 6,164. Taking the 
population of the mentally ill at the State Hospital for Mental 
Diseases, Butler Hospital and the Chapin Hospital, it would ap- 
pear there were over 3,000 mental patients in the same year, which 
about equals the number of the physically ill. It is manifest 
that the problem of the mentally ill outside of the institution is of 
equal importance to the problem of the physically ill outside of 
the repective hospitals of the State. There is a basic reason for 
this. In the past fifty years, the strains and stresses upon the 
most complex organ of the human body, the brain, have been in- 
creasing to a degree unknown in any previous period of history. 
Modern society might be characterized as a society geared to 
‘ ‘high speed.’ ’ In our industries we have automatic machinery 
which is running, in this mass production era, with a speed un- 
heard of. On our streets, we have the new mechanism, the 
automobile, which is driven at high speed under increasing diffi- 
culties of traffic by every type of worker and professional man. 
Not only the drivers, but the pedestrians, are affected. We are 
entering on an era of high speed air transport, which will present 
again increasing burdens on this delicate organ, the human brain 
and the human mind. In fact, as civilization progresses, the 
stresses and strains requiring new mental adjustments and a- 
daptations will grow with an ever increasing tempo. It should not 
be a cause for surprise, therefore, that in the past fifty years the 
number of patients coming into State Hospitals for Mental Illness 
has increased in greater proportion than any other type of insti- 
tutional case. 
My associates on the Commission have adopted a Report on 
this vital problem facing the State of Rhode Island which, I re- 
gret to say, is largely negative in character and does not present 
to the Governor and the people of this State any constructive 
program to meet the problem. Because this problem is so far- 
reaching, I cannot encumber the text of this Report by answering 124 
Supplementary Report 
what is, in effect, an indictment of our State Hospital for Mental 
Diseases. I have exercised the privilege, however, of replying 
to that indictment, which is not founded upon accurate facts, in 
an appendix attached hereto designated as Appendix VIII. At this 
point, I will devote one short statement with respect to the indict- 
ment of our State Hospital. 
The test of any institution is what it has achieved for the 
people entrusted to its care. Specialists in psychiatry and mental 
illness are agreed that there are two major tests: (1) the number 
of patients within the hospital who have been brought to a stage 
where they can be entrusted to engage in various types of activi- 
ties—occupational activities, recreational activities, or individual 
activities; (2) the second test is the number of individuals who are 
released or discharged from the institution as a result of proper 
therapeutic treatment, of which occupational and recreational 
therapy is a part. There are three types of such release: (a) re- 
lease or discharge of those who are cured; (b) allowing patients to 
go out in care of their families on what is termed “trial visit,” 
and (c) the placing of patients out in boarding homes, known as 
“family care.” 
The State Hospital for Mental Diseases ranks high with re- 
spect to these tests, as to how its treatment affects the patients. 
At the date of this writing, there are 2,797 patients at the hospital. 
Of these, approximately 1,050 patients are engaged in various 
types of occupation. This is 36 percent of the total. Of the 1,747 
remaining patients approximately 500 are so disturbed or so un- 
tidy that they cannot be used in any useful occupation or given 
ground privileges. 643 of this remaining 1,747 are feeble, infirm, 
and bedridden. This leaves some 600 patients out of a total 
of 2,797 who are not given opportunities for occupational work 
or recreation. In Appendix VIII there will be given in consider- 
able detail the various types of activities in which 1,050 patients, 
36 percent, engage within the institution. 
With respect to the test of those who are released or dis- 
charged, I cite certain pertinent facts. In the fiscal year 1932-33, 
there were 222 patients dischaged or released; in the fiscal year 
1933-34, 264; in the year 1934-35, 237. This was the period just 
previous to the new building program referred to in the Majority State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
125 
Report which was initiated by Theodore Francis Gereen, then 
Governor and now United States Senator. The effects of this 
new building program did not begin to show until the fiscal year 
1939-1940. In this fiscal year there were 360 individuals released 
or discharged. In the fiscal year 1940-1941, there were 332; in 
the fiscal year 1941-42, 326, and in the year 1942-43, 422. We 
note that in the year 1942-1943 the percentage of persons dis- 
charged has increased over the year 1932-33 by nearly 100 percent. 
With respect to individuals placed out on Family Care, there 
was no such program as we conceive it today in the fiscal year 
1932-33. It is important to note that just prior to the outbreak 
of the war the hospital had 166 individuals on ‘ ‘Family Care.” 
This data with respect to patients who have freedom of the 
grounds and happy occupations in the institution, these figures 
with respect to discharges of individuals or out on Family Care, I 
am certain compare favorably with those of any state in the union. 
They far exceed the figures of the great majority of the states. These 
facts, alone, should suffice to answer the indictment of the State 
Hospital for Mental Diseases by the majority members of the 
Commission. Appendix VIII, however, will show why our State 
Hospital for Mental Diseases ranks so high in the nation. 
At the outset of this Chapter, it is important to recognize 
that we will not deal with the institution in isolation. We 
will deal with the problem of the mentally ill. The first recom- 
mendation, as above stated, therefore, is the establishment, with- 
in the Department of Social Welfare, of a Division of Mental 
Hygiene. 
With respect to the mentally ill, we make two major recom- 
mendations: (1) the establishment in the State of Rhode Island 
of extra-mural services for the mentally ill of our State, under 
the general supervision of the Division of Mental Hygiene (by 
extra-mural, we mean non-institutional services as distinguished 
from services within the hospital); 
(2) a number of improvements in the intra-mural services ren- 
dered to patients within the State Hospital. 126 
Supplementary Report 
Extra-Mural Services 
The following extra-mural services would be under the super- 
vision of the Division:— 
1. The establishment and expansion of psychiatric services 
for public and private agencies. 
2. The establishment of out-patient clinics. 
3. The expansion of the existing “Family Care” Program. 
4. A more modern, flexible and humane system of commit- 
ments to the State Hospital for Mental Diseases. 
5. A flexible program of transfers of individuals in the cus- 
tody or care of the State between the respective institu- 
tions under the supervision of the Department of Social 
Welfare. 
6. The establishment of a program of public education with 
respect to the scope and magnitude of the problem of 
mental illness. 
Intra-Mural Services 
With respect to the State Hospital for Mental Diseases, as 
an important tool of the Division of Mental Hygiene under the 
term of “intra-mural” services, we recommend: 
1. The establishment in the hospital of an adequate depart- 
ment of research. 
2. An improvement in the personnel of the hospital. 
3. The extension and improvement of the occupational ther- 
apy program. 
4. A marked expansion in the existing program of education 
with respect to patients capable of educational improve- 
ment. 
Extra-Mural Services 
1. The establishment and expansion of psychiatric 
services to public and private agencies. 
For a number of years past, there has existed a position in the 
Department of Social Welfare known as State Psychiatrist. The 
State Psychiatrist was directly responsible to the Director of So- 
cial Welfare. This individual was at the call of all the State Insti- 
tutions within the Department, except the State Hospital for State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
127 
Mental Diseases. For example, he performed psychatric services 
for the Correctional Institutions, for the State Home and School, 
for Sockanosset and Oaklawn Schools, for the State Infirmary, for 
Exeter School, and for the Soldiers’ Home. In addition to that, 
he was subject to call by the Attorney General or the courts of 
the State when the Department of the Attorney General desired 
to have a psychiatric examination of some individual coming up 
for trial for a criminal offense. In addition, the State Psychiatrist 
performed psychiatric services for one or two private hospitals 
and institutions. 
There have been two major defects in this admirable program 
under the State Psychiatrist. In the first place, the State Psy- 
chiatrist was not administratively responsible to the supervising 
head of a Division of Mental Hygiene. Administratively, he was 
directly responsible to the Director of Social Welfare. This natur- 
ally resulted in a lack of proper coordination between a highly im- 
portant extra-mural service and the highly important intra-mural 
service of individuals either mentally ill or requiring psychiatric 
advice. Second, the services were entirely too limited in their 
scope. One State Psychiatrist is wholly inadequate. The chief 
cause of the inadequacy, however, was the lack of any program 
of extra-mural services conceived with vision. An admirable 
paper by George S. Stevenson, M. D., Medical Director of the 
National Committee for Mental Hygiene, is entitled “Ways of 
Developing and Utilizing Psychiatry in Community Health and 
Welfare Programs.’’* 
In this paper, Dr. Stevenson said that the develop- 
ment of the Mental Hospital as an adequate community 
resource for other than intra-mural services is one of our 
most pressing needs. 
Dr. Stevenson inquires why our psychiatric hospitals have 
not developed a greater degree of community responsibility. He 
cites several factors: the isolation of the hospital, its historical 
background, the public attitude of fear toward it, its limited bud- 
get, its use for political purposes, its gravitation to a pattern of 
administration that is determined too much to considerations of 
♦Presented at the New England Health Institute, Hartford, Connecticut, April 18, 1940. (Re- 
printed from “Mental Hygiene,” Vol. XXIV, No. 3, July 1940, pp. 353-365.) 128 
Supplementary Report 
good housekeeping at the expense of the fullest service to patients. 
In his paper, Dr. Stevenson discusses these factors at length. It 
may be said for Rhode Island that neither the Department of So- 
cial Welfare nor the State Hospital for Mental Diseases has been 
handicapped by the utilization of the program of social welfare 
“for political purposes.” 
As indicated, the State Hospital has been “isolated” from 
the community. This is due to the point of view that the hospital 
operates more or less “in a vacuum’ ’ instead of being one import- 
ant tool in a total problem. This point of view has been repeat- 
edly stressed in this Report. It cannot be over-emphasized. With 
respect toThe public attitude of fear toward the Mental Hospital 
and the mentally ill, we will speak in more detail later. 
Let us consider how fruitful is this field of extra-mural com- 
munity services operated with constructive foresight and vision. 
We have already pointed out the stresses and strains upon 
every individual in the community and upon every family. Those 
of us who are working in the field of social welfare realize how these 
stresses and strains of modern life become seriously aggravated 
when someone in the family has a prolonged illness or when the 
breadwinner is unemployed, especially in periods of mass unem- 
ployment such as we witnessed in the great depression of the thir- 
ties. The social worker, both public and private, who seeks to do 
something more than hand out a few dollars of relief money, re- 
alizes that the psychiatric problems in the homes of the poor or in 
homes where there are either broken families or severe family 
difficulties always become acute. 
We have in Rhode Island one of the best general public assis- 
tance programs in the nation. By virtue of the splendid Divisions 
of Public Assistance and of Children’s Services in the Department 
of Social Welfare, Rhode Island has approached, to a very con- 
siderable degree, the ideal of Sir William Beveridge in providing 
care for individuals from the cradle to the grave. The greatest 
deficiency in this program of general public welfare lies in lack of 
adequate psychiatric service available to the Administrator of 
Public Assistance, to the Administrator of Child Welfare and to 
the fine group of local Public Welfare Directors who, in this State, 
work hand in hand in splendid cooperation with the State Depart- State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
129 
ment of Social Welfare. Many of our private hospitals which are 
supported in part by endowment and in part by money raised by 
the United War Fund and by the great charitable program oper- 
ated under the Catholic Dioceses of this State constantly find the 
need of psychiatric advice and consultation. 
I feel that no more important step could be taken as a result 
of the study of this Commission than the establishment, under the 
supervision of the head of the Division of Mental Hygiene, of a 
constructive program of extra-mural services. These services 
would be rendered upon request made by a division or institution 
of the Department of Social Welfare, or upon request of any 
hospital or well-recognized private agency. These latter would 
include such agencies as The Catholic Charities, The Family 
Welfare Society of the State, and the Society For Prevention of 
Cruelty to Children and the Childrens’ Friend Society. May I 
quote from the paper hereinbefore cited by Dr. Stevenson, Medical 
Director of the National Committee for Mental Hygiene: 
“In conclusion, I should point out that while I have apparently 
deviated from my subject of psychiatry in talking a great 
deal about the community, these principles are so fundamental 
to the effectiveness and spirit of psychiatric service that 
they are really very pertinent. If they are adhered to, the 
specific psychiatric organization is not so much of a problem. 
It is either a question of organizing a local service with ade- 
quate personnel, or of securing from some larger political sub- 
division a decentralized service, enhanced as much as pos- 
sible by a supporting and collaborating local organization. 
This is the essence of developing such service. Utilizing 
such service is likewise a corollary of these principles. There 
are mentally ill people, psychotic or neurotic, who appear in 
every agency and who need psychiatric treatment more than 
anything else. For this primary responsibility, a psychiatric 
agency is necessary. There are also mentally ill people for 
whom treatment holds little prospect of success or who have 
more emergent problems in some other field. For these the 
psychiatric agency acts as an assistant or consultant to anoth- 
er agency, health, welfare, or education, which carries the lead- 
ing responsibility. Then there are persons about whose be- 
havior the non-psychiatric agency has some doubt, or whose 130 
Supplementary Report 
cases present possible psychiatric implications. The psy- 
chiatric agency here acts as a consultant to the worker, us- 
ing the record instead of dealing with the patient directly 
unless indications for direct service appear. There are new 
workers and even some of the older workers in the co-agencies 
who have not that minimum of psychiatric knowledge that is 
necessary for the generalized ability that each worker should 
have. For these the psychiatric agency is an educational 
instrument, as far as possible, of course, through its clinical 
cases. 
‘ ‘And finally there are larger influences bearing on the men- 
tal health of the public directly or indirectly through school 
practices, dispensary practices, court practices, recreational 
facilities, industrial conditions, and the like. These in- 
fluences come to light through the patients of the psychiatric 
service who have broken under them. It is the task of the 
psychiatric clinic to reveal and weigh these threats to the 
mental health of the public. An aggressive public-health 
program can use these findings for continuous progress in 
making the community a safer and better place to live in.” 
Services to Public Schools 
A highly important psychiatric service could be rendered to 
the public schools and the parochial schools of the State, All 
of us will recall, in our youth, the so-called incorrigible boy. Lit- 
erature is filled with stories of the Bad Boy. The science of Hu- 
man Behavior, of which psychiatry is an important branch, does 
not recognize that there is such a thing as a ‘ ‘Bad Boy.’ ’ If such 
a boy is not feeble-minded, he is the result of lack of integration 
in his personality. The very foundation of the science of psy- 
chiatry is a denial of the ‘ ‘duality’ ’ of mind and body. It is posi- 
tive pronouncement with respect to the integration or lack of in- 
tegration of the total personality, physiological and psychological. 
The incorrigible boy or girl is such for many reasons. He or she 
may have come, and generally does come, from a home where 
the family belongs to the lowest income strata, or from a family 
in which there is conflict in the home. 
Modern education is coming to recognize that it has responsi- 
bilities for children which reach deeper than the traditional con- State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
131 
cept of education, which started with “The Three R’s.” Of all 
its responsibilities, there is none greater than to develop complete- 
ly integrated personalities. When, therefore, abnormal behavior 
problems appear in students, the modern educator looks to sources 
of trouble either in the home or in the environment of the boy or 
girl outside of the home, or to deficiencies in the school. The 
importance of this approach was emphasized in Chapter II, “A 
Program for Youth and Adult Offenders Through Establishment 
of a State Correctional Authority.” There it was pointed out 
that delinquency began at the very point where a boy or girl 
showed maladjustment in his school life. 
Psychiatric services in our school systems is one of the most 
crying needs of the day. Many large school systems, notably 
in New York, are beginning to furnish such psychiatric services. 
The larger public school systems of our State might be able to af- 
ford such services.* Even if they could afford them, it is doubt- 
ful whether the school systems should adopt them. The smaller 
school systems could ill afford to provide such services. Such 
psychiatric services could be made available to both the public 
and parochial schools by this particular service which it is proposed 
to set up in the Division of Mental Hygiene. For the State to 
make available such psychiatric services to the school children 
of Rhode Island would place our State in the front rank in treat- 
ing a problem of the first magnitude. 
2. The establishment of out-patient clinics. 
In the discussion under paragraph 1, we pointed out the op- 
portunity for extra-mural services, with special reference to how 
such services could be established to assist the divisions and in- 
stitutions within the Department of Social Welfare and private 
agencies including private hospitals. There is a second highly 
significant extra-mural service which should be established, viz., 
the Out-Patient Clinic. Prior to the war, Dr. Charles P. Fitz- 
patrick, then Superintendent of the State Hospital for Mental 
Diseases, expanded this type of service to several communities. 
It was done at the request of certain community organizations 
in such communities of the State at a place selected by the com- 
*The Providence School System provides a certain amount of psychiatric service with respect to 
children who present behavior problems. 132 
Supplementary Report 
munity organization. Clinical service was rendered by resident 
physicians of the State Hospital. This very moderate experi- 
ment, in the opinion of the Director of Social Welfare, proved its 
value with respect to the out-patient clinic. 
May I quote from a paper delivered by Arthur H. Ruggles, 
M. D., Superintendent of Butler Hospital and Charles P. Fitz- 
patrick, M. D., at that time Clinical Director of Butler Hospital 
but subsequently Superintendent of the State Hospital for Mental 
Diseases. This paper was read at the Ninety-Third annual Meet- 
ing of the American Psychiatric Association, May 13, 1937. It 
said:* 
“It is common practice in a great many states to operate 
mental-hygiene clinics in connection with the hospital. 
These, too, serve a double purpose; not only do they reach 
incipient cases of mental illness and maladjustment, but they 
also serve as a means of disseminating information about 
the problem of mental disease. These clinics are sometimes 
set up separately and apart from the hospital, but in many 
instances, they are a part of the hospital service. When no 
other provision is made for the operation of such clinics, this 
is probably the best method of dealing with maladjustment 
in the community. In addition, it serves to keep the hospi- 
tal in touch with community problems and the community 
in touch with the hospital. 
“A question arises in connection with these clinics, and, as 
a matter of fact, with any clinic operated by public funds, 
and that is the question of the attitude of the medical pro- 
fession at large to the clinic. There is a great deal of resent- 
ment in the profession against the inroads of anything that 
resembles state medicine. Many consider these clinic activ- 
ities as a wedge that is being driven in the direction of state 
medicine. In practice, it is questionable whether this is the 
case or not, because by far the greater number of cases that 
appear in a mental-hygiene clinic are not such as could be 
handled successfully by the average practitioner. The gen- 
eral practitioner, who is not specially qualified in mental 
medicine, is not familiar with the problems involved, nor 
♦Reprinted from “Mental Hygiene,” Vol. XXII, No. 3, July 1938, pp. 380—388. State Commission on Public Weljare Institutions 
133 
has he the follow-up facilities that these cases require. The 
mental-hygiene clinic, using the services of a psychologist 
and a social worker as aids, is able to render more effective 
service than would be afforded by the average practitioner. 
‘ ‘We do feel, however, that these clinics should not receive 
patients for advice, examination, or treatment unless the 
patient presents a letter from his own family doctor or from 
some local physician. In this way a great many difficulties 
that have arisen in the past might be avoided. This is not 
a minor point, but a major one, and sometimes it may spell 
either success or failure for the clinic. One of the prime req- 
uisites of such a clinic is that it shall be acceptable to our 
brother physicians.” 
At this point, may I refer to Chapter I of this Supplementary 
Report under the title of ‘ Prevention.” It will be recalled it 
was there strongly recommended that there be established in the 
State of Rhode Island a State Security Council, patterned after 
the existing State Council of Defense. The plan is to carry on 
into the post-war period the great social gains which have been 
achieved in the war emergency in mobilizing all community re- 
sources, Under such a State Security Council, there would un- 
doubtedly be established local Security Councils. A Mental-Hy- 
giene Clinic could be established in the leading communities 
of the State, which would, in my opinion, obviate any criticism 
by the medical profession. It will be remembered that in the 
plan for a State Security Council, the State Department of Health 
and the Rhode Island Medical Association would play important 
roles. It may be said, also, that the proposed State Security 
Council would be an invaluable bulwark to the extra-mural psy- 
chiatric services as proposed and outlined in paragraph I above. 
3. The expansion of the existing ‘ ‘Family Care’ ’ program. 
This subject is of such importance that I am quoting from 
the Progress Report of the Temporary Commission on State Hos- 
pital Problems submitted in December 1942 to Governor Lehman 
of the State of New York. At the beginning of this report, it is 
stated that the Comission was appointed by Governor Lehman 
‘ ‘to study the possibility of diminishing the rate of growth of the 
State Hospitals for the mentally ill.” There could be no more 134 
Supplementary Report 
important subject of study. It has been indicated that the num- 
ber of individuals in this State and other States in hospitals for 
mental diseases equals, if it does not exceed, the number of in- 
dividuals in all other types of hospitals. In the past twenty-five 
or fifty years, the rate of growth of populations in mental hospitals 
has been alarming. The result has been that in larger states mil- 
lions of dollars have been spent in building and staffing new men- 
tal hospitals. I have obtained figures in our own State which 
show that during the past ten years the rate of growth in our popu- 
lation, as compared with total discharges either by cure or death, 
represents a, total of 750. We were able to absorb this increase 
of population because of the expansion of facilities as a result 
of the bond issue and building program mentioned in both the 
Majority Report and in this Supplementary Report. We will 
face very shortly, however, the necessity of new hospital build- 
ings for the mentally ill unless steps are taken to stem this rate 
of growth. The Progress Report of the New York Commission 
above referred to recommended two important steps to stem this 
alarming increase in institutional populations of the mentally ill: 
(1) a research program; (2) the expansion of the Family Care 
Program. We will discuss the subject of a research program in 
a later section, when we deal with intra-mural recommendations. 
The Report of the New York Commission, in recommenda- 
tion 4, says: 
“4. It is both desirable and entirely practicable to place a 
considerable number of patients, who are not yet ready for 
parole, in carefully selected family homes with payment for 
their board. In many cases this renewed contact with com- 
munity life results, after a brief period of time, in the patient 
finding employment, showing a fitness for family and social 
life, and being placed on parole and subsequently discharged.’ ’ 
Of very great importance is the table published in the New 
York Report. This table shows the number of patients in resi- 
dence in the New York State Hospital at the beginning of each 
fiscal year (July 1st), from 1930 to 1942, with the net increase 
each year and the decrease in the last four months of the fiscal 
year 1942, State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
135 
Two things appear in this table: first, an annual increase 
in hospital patients during this twelve year period of approxi- 
mately 2,000 individuals. It further shows that in the fiscal 
year ending July 1942, this annual increase had been reduced 
to 726 and that in the first four months of the fiscal year beginning 
July 1942, there had been a decrease of 78. Commenting on 
these figures, the Commision says. 
“There has been nothing like this in the history of the New 
York State Hospitals during the past fifty years. Further, 
statistics show that this decrease was not due to decrease 
in admissions, but was due to a larger percentage being placed 
on parole or in family care. 
‘ ‘The fiscal implications of the above figures are substantial. 
The annual increase in the resident population of the State 
Hospitals for the ten years, July 1, 1930-July 1, 1940, vary- 
ing from 1,840 to 2,985, averaged 2,393 per year. If this aver- 
age annual increase had continued for the next two years, 
July 1, 1940 to July 1, 1942, and for the four months, July- 
October inclusive, 1942, a period of 2 1 /3 years, the number of 
patients in the State Hospitals on November 1, 1942 would 
have been 76,791 or 3,710 more than it actually was, 73,081. 
‘ ‘The per capita cost of maintenance of patients in the State 
Hospitals for the year ended June 30, 1941 (not including 
construction costs) was $386.46. Of the 3,710 reductions 
in resident population, 231 represented patients transferred 
to family care who were still being maintained by the Mental 
Hygiene Department. This leaves 3,479 as the actual re- 
duction in two and a third years in numbers of patients to 
be maintained by the State, The maintenance of 3,479 pa- 
tients at $386.46 per year amounts to $1,344,494.34. It is rec- 
ognized that the removal of these patients does not repre- 
sent an actual and immediate saving of the entire cost of 
maintenance. It does so, approximately, as to items of food, 
clothing and the like. On the other hand, costs of fuel, light 
power, etc. and to some extent of personal service, cannot 
be immediately reduced in proportion to a reduced number 
of patients. Nevertheless, the actual reduction within a 
relatively brief period would approximate closely the actual 
average per capita cost. Supplementary Report 
“The average cost of building new State Hospitals (before 
it became impossible to build them at all) was about $4,000 per 
bed. To construct buildings for an additional 3,710 patients, 
the number of which exceeds the census of each of several 
existing State Hospitals at $4,000 per bed, would amount to 
$14,840,000. This cost is actually postponed, or avoided 
indefinitely to the extent that the reduction of 3,710 patients 
in the State Hospital census can be maintained.’ ’ 
In mentioning the tests of efficiency of a State Hospital, at- 
tention was called to the great progress which has been made in 
Rhode Island in this particular field of ‘ ‘Family Care.’ ’ We have, 
however, just scratched the surface in this State. It is highly 
recommended, therefore, that the legislature give adequate finan- 
cial support to the expansion of this Family Care program. Not 
only is financial support required but organization is required. 
The recommendation herein of having an Assistant Superinten- 
dent in charge of all extra-mural activities, including Family Care, 
is highly important. One of the primary functions of this Assist- 
ant Superintendent would be to develop and expand the Family 
Care program in this State. 
4. A more modern, flexible and humane system of 
commitments to the State Hospital for Mental Dis- 
eases. 
I have before me a Report issued by the United States Public 
Health Service.* I quote from the first paragraphs of this Report: 
‘ ‘Appropriate arrangements for quick and comfortable ad- 
mission of the needy patient to the mental hospital consti- 
tute important measures in humane care of the mentally ill. 
“The legal requirements for admission have had an inter- 
esting development from almost no formality before ,1872 to 
the most difficult and harrowing procedures of the early part 
of the twentieth century that are still present in many States. 
The mandatory trial by jury to determine sanity or insanity 
was begun im Illinois in 1872 and spread throughout the 
United States. It was a typical reaction to false publicity 
*Laws Pertaining to the Admission of Patients to Mental Hospitals Throughout the United States,’ ’ 
by Grover A. Kempf, Medical Director, United States Public Health Service, Associate Director, 
Mental Hospital Survey. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
137 
regarding ‘railroading’ normal men and women to insane 
asylums, who then were alleged to have lost their reason amid 
the horrors of the asylum. As time went on the morbid at- 
titute toward the State Institutions began to change. They 
became known as hospitals that were no longer to be feared 
but to be considered more as a haven for the mentally ill, 
for whom there was increased hope of being returned to so- 
ciety. 
‘ ‘State mental hospitals are now generally looked upon with 
favor by the people of the States, and the more socially mind- 
ed and interested the citizens are, the better are the hospitals. 
‘ ‘The lag between the cultural level and the law is in no field 
more apparent than in the slow progress of law-making bodies 
in according relief to the mentally ill. 
‘ ‘The way to the mental hospital should be as open as 
it is to the general hospital. Due regard for the pro- 
tection of the rights and property of the individual 
can be, and in some States is, attained without mak- 
ing the institutions less accessible to the mentally ill.” 
It is not the purpose of this paper to outline in detail the 
amendments to the existing Rhode Island law with respect to 
methods of admission to our State Hospital for Mental Diseases. 
This is highly technical, and should be left to a small committee 
of psychiatrists. The Director of Social Welfare has in mind the 
appointment of such a committee, with the approval of the Gov- 
ernor. It is mentioned in this Report in order to apprise the Gov- 
ernor, the General Assembly, and the public of the need for a more 
liberal system of commitments in this State. It is fair to say that 
the laws of Rhode Island with respect to commitments are more 
liberal than those of many other states. There is, however, great 
room for improvement. 
5. A flexible program of transfers of individuals in the 
custody or care of the State between the respective 
institutions under the supervision of the Depart- 
ment of Social Welfare. 
This subject is dealt with under the general title of Extra- 
Mural Activities in connection with the proposed Division of Men- 
tal Hygiene, primarily because the problem of transfers largely Supplementary Report 
centers about the mentally ill and the mentally deficient. The 
problem, however relates to all institutions, and, to an extent, to 
certain of the welfare divisions as well. 
We must remember that the basic philosophy underlying the 
whole of this Supplementary Report centers around the concept 
of “An Integrated Program.” In the existing laws of the State 
of Rhode Island, there are a number of impediments which restrict 
the Director of Social Welfare, acting upon the advice of his tech- 
nical staff, in making transfers of patients and/or inmates from 
one institution to another. For example, it is not possible to 
transfer an individual convicted to the State Prison or Men’s Re- 
formatory for a fixed term of years either to the State Hospital 
for Mental Diseases or to Exeter School without resorting to the 
courts. 
We must bear in mind that the new system proposed in this 
Supplementary Report provides for a highly developed scientific 
Diagnostic-Treatment Clinic. This clinic is to be composed of 
a number of leading specialists in medicine, psychiatry, behavior- 
psychology and sociology. It is a social science clinic. The laws 
of this State should be so amended as to enable the Director of 
Social Welfare, upon written advice of the Diagnostic-Treatment 
Clinic, to transfer individuals in the custody or care of the State 
from one institution to another immediately, without resource to 
legal procedure. 
A recent case has been heretofore cited of a boy with an I.Q. 
of 40 who was committed to the Men’s Reformatory because of 
a shocking crime. The case of Donald Bennett is perhaps the 
outstanding example of the need for a flexible system of transfers 
upon the advice of a well-qualified Diagnostic-Treatment Clinic.* 
6. The establishment of a program of public education 
with respect to the scope and magnitude of the 
problem of mental illness. 
In a previous part of this Report dealing with mental illness, 
we refer to a paper by Drs. Ruggles and Fitzpatrick on the Edu- 
cational Functions of the Present Day Mental Hospital, In the 
*See special report of the Commission on Donald Bennett, prepared on behalf of the Commission 
by Dr. Charles A. McDonald. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
139 
beginning of this paper, Drs. Ruggles and Fitzpatrick say:— 
“You are quite familiar with the changes in attitude to- 
ward the care of mental patients and the function of insti- 
tutions for the mentally ill that have occurred in the past two 
hundred years. Until 1792 very little consideration was 
given to the treatment of the patient. The main purpose 
for which institutions existed was to protect the community. 
In other words, their function was principally custodial, and 
was concerned with the segregation of patients rather than 
with their treatment. With the advent of Pinel in France 
and Tuke in England in the 1790’s, however, the attitude 
changed. Pinel created a sensation by striking off the chains 
from more than fifty patients in the course of a week. It has 
been proven that Pinel’s philosophy of management was 
good. His work was subsequently carried on and elaborated 
by Esquirol. About the same time, in England, William 
Tuke and Lindley Murray, with the help of the Quakers, 
succeeded in building and opening the York Retreat. With 
this event, the modern era with respect to the treatment of 
patients began in England, The influence of the York Re- 
treat in handling patients without mechanical restraint gradu- 
ally spread, and, as we know, has now permeated most of 
the English-speaking world. 
‘ ‘During the past century there have been numerous advances 
in the treatment of the mentally ill. Refinements in treat- 
ment methods have continued to develop. The philosophy 
of the institution, however, did not change a great deal until 
approximately thirty years ago when the mental-hygiene 
movement began in this country. 
“This movement is so recent that it seems unnecessary to re- 
view it here. It has resulted in a change in the attitude of the 
mental hospital toward the question of mental disorder 
and the legitimate activities of the hospital. These activi- 
ties are no longer confined to the four walls of the hospi- 
tal, but extend in many directions in the community.” 
In spite of the fact that there has been a great change in the 
attitude of those dealing professionally with the mentally ill, in 
spite of the fact that there has been a considerable change in the 
public mind with respect to those suffering from mental illness, Supplementary Report 
we must admit that there is a very considerable social lag between 
the point of view of the psychiatrist and the general attitude of the 
public. Most individuals have a fear with respect to mental ill- 
ness. Many people feel that they would rather see a relative die 
than go to what they still think is “an insane asylum.’ ’ Connect- 
ed with this fear is a deep reluctance on the part of members of a 
family to admit the presence of psychotic or neurotic symptoms 
in one dear to them. The individual himself suffering from such 
symptoms is imbued with the same fear and with a horror of go- 
ing to a hospital for mental diseases. This fact results in deplor- 
able consequences. Individuals who should have treatment im- 
mediately when symptoms appear put it off. Even members of 
the medical profession are sometimes reluctant to advise families 
under their care that an individual with acute mental symptoms 
should go to a hospital. The net result is that the case is allowed 
to mature. The symptoms become more and more aggravated, 
until the point is reached where hospitalization is requisite. When 
this happens, the same fear and abhorrence prevails. The family 
often thinks they are subject to social ostracism because one of 
their members has been committed to an* ‘insane asylum.’ ’ The 
ramifications of this should be manifest. A highly important 
function of the proposed Division of Mental Hygiene, and especi- 
ally of the Superintendent and the social workers under his direct 
supervision, would be to carry on educational programs with a 
view to removing this fear of mental illness, this fear of hospital- 
ization from the public mind. 
I know of no area in which the State Security Council, as 
proposed in Chapter I on ‘ ‘Prevention,’ ’ could do more construc- 
tive work than in this field of public education on mental illness. 
Such education is becoming increasingly important. We have 
already indicated that the stresses and strains of a high-speed 
social order are presenting unheard of problems with respect to 
mental and social adaptations of the human being to a social order 
which is constantly undergoing repeated change. This is going 
to result in an increasing number of individuals developing symp- 
toms of mental disorder. These symptoms, under our modern 
knowledge of psychiatry, if taken at the very beginning, can easily 
be overcome, and a cure effected before the malady becomes deep- 
seated. A complete change in the public attitude toward mental 
illness is one of the most important needs in this whole field. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
141 
Intra-Mural Services 
Intra-mural services deal with all of the services to be 
rendered in the field of mental illness. These are the services 
rendered by the hospital itself. 
The following recommendations are made with respect to 
improvement in the services of the State Hospital for Mental 
Diseases; 
1. The establishment of a Department of Research. 
2. Improvement in the character and number of personnel, 
which would include an “In-Service” Training Program. 
3. Improvement in the occupational therapy program. 
4. Improvement in the educational program. 
I. Establishment of a Department of Research. 
In the progress report of the Temporary Commission on 
State Hospitals Problems, State of New York, hereinbefore referred 
to and submitted to Governor Lehman in 1942, the Commission 
devoted considerable attention to the subject of what is known as 
‘ ‘insulin shock treatment,’ ’ and other types of ‘ ‘shock treatment.’ ’ 
I quote from the report of this Temporary Commission as follows; 
“1. There is every reason to believe that insulin and other 
‘shock treatments’ have been of substantial benefit to the 
patients and that in many cases their stay in the hospital has 
been greatly reduced and their restoration to useful communi- 
ty life expedited. 
“2. When the Commission had reached this conclusion, in 
February 1942 the Commissioner of Mental Hygiene, at its 
suggestion, arranged a course of observation and participa- 
tion in insulin shock treatment at the Brooklyn State Hospital, 
to which course each State hospital not already having a 
staff member competent to administer such treatment, could 
send a staff member for such training.’ ’ 
In a recent talk with Dr. Arthur H. Ruggles, Superintendent 
of Butler Hospital, and former president of the American Psy- 
chiatric Association, he told me that at the Brooklyn State Hospital 
some 2,000 patients were treated with “insulin shock treatment,” 
and an additional 800 patients were used as a “control group.” 142 
Supplementary Report 
This ‘ ‘control group’ ’ did not receive the ‘ ‘shock treatments.’ ’ It 
appeared that many cures resulted from the 2,000 individuals re- 
ceiving the ‘‘shock treatments,” while a much smaller percentage 
of cures appeared in the ‘ ‘control group.’ ’ On the basis of leav- 
ing the social objective out, Dr. Ruggles advised me that it was 
estimated that the giving of these ‘ ‘shock treatments’ ’ to the 2,000 
patients resulted in a saving to the State of New York of three 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. 
We started the ‘ ‘insulin shock treatments’ ’ and electric shock 
treatments at our State Hospital but, because of war conditions, 
this program has been in part suspended. 11 is highly recommend- 
ed that we secure for our State Hospital one of the leading men 
in the United States 'n this field of research and development of 
‘ ‘shock treatments.’ ’ It will result in a large number of cures. 
It will result in saving in the future hundreds of thousands of dollars. 
It will be highly profitable from a financial point of view for 
two reasons: 
(a) It will go a long way in stemming the rising tide of mental 
patients, and thus obviate the necessity of large capital improve- 
ments in the future for new buildings. 
(b) In connection with the family care program it may well 
result in an actual reduction of the number of patients currently 
at the hospital. 
It is true this research and development program will require 
additional appropriations. The research head will be a fairly 
high priced man, and he will have to have considerable technical 
assistance in the way of personnel. 
In the paper by Drs. Ruggles and Fitzpatrick on the Educa- 
tional Functions of a Mental Hospital (supra), it is said: 
“It seems to us desirable that the public should not be called 
upon to face increasing expenditures over a period of years if 
anything can be done to reduce the incidence of mental disease 
and its more effective treatment. Nothing will be accomplished 
in this direction unless investigative campaigns are initiated. 
Nothing will be accomplished by sitting down and waiting for 
something to happen. Active work is required. If progress is 
to be made in the investigation of mental diseases and in treat- 
ment, funds should be appropriated for this purpose. It is not State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
unreasonable to ask that out of every dollar necessary for 
new buildings, one cent should be appropriated to stimu- 
late investigation and research. It is encouraging that some 
hospital systems at the present time are doing very laudable work, 
but the surface has only been scratched as yet. The field of men- 
tal disorder is a vast one and serious in its economic consequences. 
Increasing knowledge, attended by research, will repay an 
hundredfold every dollar spent on it. 
‘ ‘The hospital has a definite obligation to the patient and the 
community to keep abreast of new developments in psychiatry, 
particularly in the field of treatment. Any treatment that may 
shorten the stay of th3 patient in the hospital or that offers any 
hope of benefit, either immediate or remote, should be investi- 
gated. It may not be feasible sometimes actually to try out the 
treatment, but it should be feasible at all times to keep in touch 
with people who are trying it out. Hospitals may legitimately 
be criticized by relatives and by the public when they lag behind 
in utilizing knowledge that is at hand.’ ’ 
2. Expansion and Improvement of Personnel. 
During the past three years the State Hospital for Mental 
Diseases has suffered greatly by lack of every type of personnel— 
doctors, nurses, social workers, occupational therapists, and a- 
bove all attendants, both in number and quality. This emergency 
was met in part by the employment, with the approval of the 
Governor and the Rhode Island Medical Society, of alien physi- 
cians. With respect to attendants it was met by obtaining fifty 
conscientious objectors, made available by the United States Selec- 
tive Service Agency. The fifty Mennonites who have been with 
us a year have performed a valuable and gallant service. During 
the war period we cannot expect great improvement in personnel 
for it is not possible to obtain a proper quota of technical person- 
nel, to say nothing of attendants. It is recommended, however, 
that, in the post war period, Rhode Island appropriate suffi- 
cient moneyto bring this State up to the standards established by 
the American Psychiatric Association. 144 
Supplementary Report 
Nurses 
We should have a nursing force in proportion to total patients 
of not less than one to eight, and to the patients under intensive 
treatment, and in surgical units, of not less than one to four. 
Physicians 
We should have a medical staff of well qualified physicians. 
The proportion to the total number of patients should be not 
less than one to one hundred fifty, in addition to superintendent, 
and to the number of patients admitted annually, not less than 
one to forty. 
Attendants 
We should have an adequate number of attendants. It is 
recommended that there should be established two classifications 
of attendants: one, general attendants; two, specialized atten- 
dants. The general attendants should be sufficiently qualified to 
do the ordinary attendant work about a hospital. The specialized 
attendant should be an individual who has received ‘ ‘in-service” 
training of sufficient character as to be designated as a practical 
nurse. 
In-Service Training 
The program for in-service training for internes and resident 
physicians should be more highly developed than in the past. Ev- 
ery effort also should be made to expand the training program 
which has existed for psychiatric nurses. 
The 8-Hour Day 
It is highly recommended that there be established immedi- 
ately, when personnel is available in the post-war period, an 8-hour 
day for nurses, attendants and other members of the staff. The 
present practice of two 12-hour shifts is not conducive to the best 
type of care and treatment in a hospital for mental diseases. This 
shift from a 12-hour to an 8-hour day will cost considerable money. 
It is in effect, however, in progressive states such as New York 
and Massachusetts, and Rhode Island certainly can afford to 
give the best to these mentally ill individuals. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
3. Improvements in Occupational Therapy Program. 
In Appendix VIII, a considerable amount of space was used 
in discussing the criticisms of the Majority Report with respect 
to the Occupational Therapy program at the State Hospital for 
Mental Diseases. In replying to these criticisms it was shown 
that there had been developed a fairly adequate occupational 
program comprising (a) work, (b) recreational activities, (c) vari- 
ous types of amusement, including opportunities for musical 
expression by the patients. We should not be satisfied with these 
achievements. Occupational Therapy in the broad sense ex- 
presses one of the most important functions in treatment and cure 
of the mentally ill. For those who cannot be wholly cured, but 
whose condition can be greatly improved, every effort should be 
made to create, in the hospital, a situation which approaches as 
nearly as possible the conditions which exist in the community 
outside. In consequence, every form of community activity and 
every form of community opportunity should be made available 
to the patients at our Mental Hospital. In a subsequent section 
it will be recommended that when capital improvements are under 
consideration, a major capital improvement will be the con- 
struction of a ‘ ‘Community Gymnasium’ ’ at Howard. A ‘ ‘Com- 
munity Gymnasium” is recommended as it will be available to 
various types of patients and inmates in this community at How- 
ard, where there is a population of some five thousand people. 
This gymnasium should have such modern facilities as a large 
gymnasium floor, where basketball, volley ball, and other indoor 
recreational activities would be available. It should have a 
swimming pool, as well as a sufficient number of bowling alleys. 
There should be provision in this gymnasium, on a second floor, 
for various rooms suitable for games of all types. There should 
also be one section of the second floor in which there could be 
built up a good library, such a library as any community of five 
thousand people would require. Provision should also be made 
for outside recreational activities. Amongst these there should 
be, on the recreational field, a modern grandstand where patients 
could view baseball games, football games, and see exercises. In 
the next section, we will speak particularly with respect to educa- 
tional facilities which are closely related to Occupational Therapy. Supplementary Report 
4. Educational Program 
The attention of the reader is called to Appendix VII. In 
this Appendix there was outlined in detail the nature and charac- 
ter of an Educational program in connection with the proposed 
Correctional Authority The main elements of the program as 
outlined in this Appendix are (1) vocational and occupational 
training; (2) the use of Visual Education through motion picture 
films, this to include technical pictures related to the vocational 
training program, pictures of a cultural nature showing the history 
and development of the United States and other historical sub- 
jects; (3) an educational program on current topics. It was sug- 
gested, under such a program, that educators and other well in- 
formed persons could participate in a well-grounded lecture pro- 
gram on current topics and other subjects of interest. 
This type of educational program is as essential to patients 
at a mental hospital as it is for men committed to the Correctional 
Authority by the courts with a view to their rehabilitation. 
One of the important aspects of such an educational program 
is that it will better fit many of the patients to meet the problems 
of life in a competitive society when the time comes for them to be 
unconditionally discharged, or placed out in the community under 
the supervision of the superintendent of the hospital and his staff. 
For those who have had special training of a vocational or 
occupational character, there should be established adequate pro- 
vision for vocational adjustment and guidance in securing em- 
ployment in the community immediately after discharge. This 
could be a joint function participated in by those who have charge 
of the patients’ educational program and the superintendent of 
mental hygiene, who, it is proposed, will have charge of all extra- 
mural services. 
2. Mental Deficiency 
One of the best chapters in the report of the majority of the 
members of the Commission is that which deals with the Exeter 
School, and I subscribe to that report in toto. 
At the expense of repetition, may I call attention to the under- 
lying social philosophy of this supplementary report, viz., to nip State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
147 
in the bud the potential institutional case, and where such pre- 
vention is not possible, to carry on a scientific program of diag- 
nosis and treatment looking to cure or rehabilitation. Nowhere 
is this approach of greater significance than in the field of the 
mentally deficient. 
Some two years ago a special committee was appointed by 
the Providence Council of Social Agencies to study the total prob- 
lem of the mentally deficient as it presented itself in Rhode 
Island. The committee did not have the funds or the staff to 
make a complete and accurate factual survey. It did appear, 
however, from statistics which were available, that there were in 
the State of Rhode Island at least 8,000 individuals who could 
be classified as mentally deficient, and possibly as high as 10,000. 
This was based upon national statistics, including certain statisti- 
cal data which were obtained as a result of ‘ ‘the draft’ ’ in World 
War I. 
It will be recalled that the current population at Exeter School 
for a number of years past has been approximately 800. It was 
recommended by the majority of the members of the Commission 
that facilities should be established in the near future at Exeter 
School for the care, treatment and custody of approximately 
1,000 mentally deficient individuals. This leaves a potential 
caseload of at least 7,000 mentally deficient individuals in this 
State with respect to whom we, in Rhode Island, have no program. 
In the previous section of this report dealing with the pro- 
posed Division of Mental Hygiene it was recommended that there 
be established a new position, a superintendent within the Divi- 
sion of Mental Hygiene who would have responsibility of extra- 
mural services. There are great opportunities for such extra- 
mural services with respect to the mentally deficient. Three 
major recommendations are made: 
(a) The establishment of a continuous State-wide register 
of the mentally deficient. 
(b) The establishment, in cooperation with the State De- 
partment of Education and the public schools and par- 
ochial schools of this State, of a system of psychometric 
tests. Supplementary Report 
(c) The establishment of a program of social guidance for 
feeble-minded boys and girls from the time they leave 
school up to their “majority.” 
(d) Expansion of existing psychometric services rendered 
by the Department of Social Welfare. 
(a) The establishment of a continuous State-wide register 
of the mentally deficient. 
Early in 1942 the Director of Social Welfare, acting upon the 
recommendation of the Supervisor of Analysis and Research, initi- 
ated such a State-wide register. In a period of some sixteen 
months, we have secured the names and basic characteristics of 
approximately 7,000 feeble-minded individuals. The data of the 
register have been obtained from several institutional sources in 
the Department of Social Welfare, from various welfare divisions 
of the Department, from public school systems, and from private 
agencies. 
The Division of Analysis and Research has been greatly 
handicapped in building up this register because of lack of ade- 
quate technical personnel and because the sources of information 
are not wholly dependable. 
The importance of a State-wide register which would, through- 
out the years, give an accurate detailed picture of the feeble-minded 
in the State of Rhode Island, cannot be over-emphasized. 
The State-wide register should be under the direct supervi- 
sion of the superintendent of extra-mural activities of the Division 
of Mental Hygiene. 
(b) The establishment, in cooperation with the State De- 
partment of Education and the Public Schools of this 
State, of a system of psychometric tests. 
Eve:*y individual in the State of Rhode Island by law is, in 
the early period of his life, required to attend a public or private 
school. The largest number of children in private schools is 
in the parochial schools. 
It is recommended: That every public school system which 
receives financial support from the State, as a condition of receiv- 
ing such financial support, be required to have group psycho- State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
metric tests of all school children at least once in the early life of 
the school child; that, when it appears from these group tests that 
certain children show evidence of being mentally deficient, the 
case be immediately referred to the superintendent in the Division 
of Mental Hygiene in charge of extra-mural activities. It will be 
the duty of such superintendent to have an individual scientific 
psychometric test for the boy or girl so referred. He shall report 
his findings back to the school system from which the case was 
referred. This will have two important results: first, the school 
system in question will know that it must establish for the men- 
tally deficient child special treatment in backward classes; second, 
there will be a basic source for a complete and accurate State- 
wide register of the mentally deficient. 
(c) The establishment of a program of social guidance for 
feeble-minded boys and girls after they leave school. 
The superintendent of extra-mural activities in the Division 
of Mental Hygiene would give social guidance to feeble-minded 
boys and girls from the time they leave school up to their ‘ ‘major- 
ity.’ ’ 
The Director of Social Welfare, in the past year, has been 
working in cooperation with the School Department of the City 
of Providence in seeking a solution of this acute problem, namely, 
social guidance of the mentally deficient boy or girl who leaves 
the school system at sixteen years of age. The school system 
has fulfiilled at this period its entire obligation. It has given 
the mentally deficient child the best education which that child 
is capable of receiving. At least the school system should have 
achieved this result. 
The records in this State as well as in other States show that 
the best education which these handicapped individuals can re- 
ceive is, generally speaking, a sixth grade education. This ap- 
plies only to the higher I. Q. ranges of the mentally deficient. In 
the lower I. Q. ranges, the school child leaves at the age of six- 
teen with a third or fourth grade education, or less. 
Under the present social practices we are turning out of the 
schools of Rhode Island in the neighborhood of 300 such handi- 
capped mentally deficient children annually. As the individuals Supplementary Report 
leave school at sixteen years of age, there would be four years 
before the individual reached his twenty-first birthday and his 
‘ ‘majority.’ ’ We have, therefore, at all times approximately 1,200 
children between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one who are seri- 
ously handicapped in mental equipment and education. 
One of the prime needs of the State is to give post- 
school guidance with a view to assisting this unfortunate 
group in adapting themselves to community life and especi- 
ally to enable them to secure a place in private industry 
where they can carry, in part at least, their load. 
We must recognize that even in times of normal high employ- 
ment there are many difficulties which are presented to the nor- 
mal child in finding his place in life and adjusting himself to earn- 
ing his way in a highly complex industrial order. To the feeble- 
minded child, equipped, in many cases, with not more than a fourth 
grade education, it is almost impossible for such an individual to 
find his proper niche in the industrial order without social guidance. 
It is remarkable that in Rhode Island and other states these feeble- 
minded individuals have in the past adjusted themselves and 
found a place whereby they could earn a living and make their 
contribution to production of wealth of the community; that 
they have on their own achieved this result does not relieve the 
community of its social responsibility. 
Our failure to give such social guidance to these highly handi- 
capped boys and girls has not only undesirable social results 
but it is also costly to the State, We have not adequate statisti- 
cal data, but from his own experience the Director of Social Wel- 
fare can point out the undesirable social results and the cost to 
the State because we lack a program. May I cite a few: 
Delinquency: Records of Sockanosset School, of the Wo- 
men’s Reformatory, of the Providence County Jail and of the 
State Prison show too high a percentage of feeble-minded indi- 
viduals who find themselves eventually in the meshes of the 
criminal law. We should not be surprised at this when we turn 
out annually from our schools some 300 boys and girls, mentally 
deficient and with an education equivalent to that of the third 
or fourth grade. If we cast these individuals into the maelstrom 
of a highly competitive society without guidance, what can we 
expect? State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
Industrial Turnover; The records of the personnel manage- 
ment in our industries and our commercial houses will show, I 
am sure, that there is a high percentage of turnover in employ- 
ment amongst the mentally deficient. This is inevitable, unless 
the employer, when he employs a feeble-minded boy or girl with 
an education equivalent to the fifth grade, knows the character 
of the individual whom he employs. There are many types of 
employment in which the mentally deficient can and do excel. 
These are simple tasks of a repetitive nature. As long as too 
much is not expected of such an individual, he is efficient within 
his ability. He is also frequently more steady, more dependable 
and more loyal than is his more highly endowed brother worker. 
It is important, therefore, in this field of guidance, that the 
employer know just what he can expect of this unfortunate group. 
It is also important that the individual himself know just what 
his limitations are. It is also important that his family know 
these facts. 
We can have confidence that such a program of social guid- 
ance would result in a fine adjustment of a great majority of these 
mentally deficient people. It would prevent a considerable per- 
centage of them from stepping outside of the law, seeking to make 
a living through anti-social conduct in contravention of the laws 
of society. This would be a high social achievement. It would 
save the State thousands of dollars annually in preventing this 
group from landing in our institutions. 
In passing, I may say that, when these mentally handicapped 
individuals approach middle age and begin to slow down, we find 
them cluttering the relief rolls of both public and private welfare 
agencies. In this field of social guidance we have limited the 
social guidance program to the period between the time the feeble- 
minded boy or girl leaves school and to the time of his ‘ ‘majority.’ ’ 
It is proper during that period for the State to occupy a position 
of “loco parentis.’’ It is conceivable, in fact highly probable, 
when these individuals reach their ‘ ‘majority,’ ’ and have received 
counsel and advice from the Division of Mental Hygiene, that 
they will voluntarily call upon this Division during their adult 
life in the event they require further social guidance or help in 
adjusting themselves to community life. This will prevent many 
from going “on relief.’’ Supplementary Report 
(d) Expansion of existing psychometric services rendered 
by The Department of Social Welfare. 
In discussing extra-mural services of the proposed Division 
of Mental Hygiene, it was pointed out that there had been in the 
Department of Social Welfare a State Pschiatrist who had rendered 
psychiatric services to institutions and divisions of the Depart- 
ment and also to certain private agencies. So, in the field of Mental 
Deficiency, there has existed for several years, under the direct sup- 
ervision of Director o: Social Welfare, a State Psychometrist. This 
individual has likewise performed psychometric services for state 
institutions and divisions in the Department of Social Welfare and 
also for several private agencies. It is recommended that this State 
Psychometrist and the psychometric services rendered be placed 
under the direct supervision of the superintendent, who, it is pro- 
posed, will have supervision of all extra-mural services in the Div- 
ision of Mental Hygiene. 
These services could well be expanded so that, upon request, 
psychometric tests could be made for any private agency desiring 
an individual psychometric test as well as for the respective divi- 
sions and institutions within the Department o' Social Welfare. 
In passing, it should be recalled that in the recommendations 
set fourth in Chapter II with respect to a Correctional System it 
is proposed that there be established a Diagnostic and Treatment 
Clinic. This clinic will have its own full-time psychiatrist and its 
own full-time psychometric services. In consequence, the extra- 
mural services in the fields of psychiatry and psychometry, ren- 
dered under the supervision of the superintendent in charge of ex- 
tra-mural services of the Division of Mental Hygiene, would not 
apply to the Correctional Program. 
The Defective Delinquent Case of Donald Bennett. 
In closing this section of the report dealing with a Division of 
Mental Hygiene, it is highly important that consideration should 
be given to one of the most difficult problems, namely, the “De- 
fective Delinquent.” Dr. Joseph H. Ladd, Superintendent of 
Exeter School, at the request of the Commission, presented the 
following definition of this class of case: State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
“A defective delinquent is a person whose mental develop- 
ment, as measured by the commonly accepted psychometric 
test, has been retarded at least 25% in relation to his chrono- 
logical age, who has understanding and control of his actions 
and who habitually performs anti-social acts of considerable 
gravity of his own volition and on his own initiative.” 
It will be seen from this definition that not all feeble-minded 
individuals who commit acts which are infractions of our criminal 
statutes can be classified as “Defective Delinquents”; neither 
can all of the mental defectives who may have committed re- 
peated acts in contravention of the criminal statutes. 
I am attaching hereto, marked Appendix IX, a statement which 
appeared in ‘ ‘The Providence Journal’ ’ and ‘ The Evening Bul- 
letin’ ’ at or about the time the Donald Bennett case was so high- 
ly publicized in the press of this State. This statement of Dr. 
John E. Donley, former Director of Social Welfare, and one of the 
leading psychiatrists in Rhode Island, deserves special considera- 
tion, not only in connection with the “Defective Delinquent,” 
but in connection with this whole problem of the mentally defec- 
tive population in our State. 
This Supplementary Report has presented what we have 
termed an “Integrated Program.” No better illustration could 
be found to show the need in this State of such an ‘ ‘Integrated 
Program” than does the case of Donald Bennett. 
The Majority Report contains an exhaustive psychiatric and 
casework study of this boy. Briefly summarized, Donald Bennett 
had a feeble-minded mother, and, evidence showed, a brutal and 
sadistic father. At an early age it appeared that Donald Bennett 
had an intelligence quotient of approximately forty, which might 
well put him in the class of “imbecile.” He was committed to 
Exeter School and escaped on some twelve different occasions. 
On several of these occasions he committed infractions of the crim- 
inal statutes and found himself in the meshes of the criminal law. 
He was twice sentenced by the courts to the Men’s 
Reformatory on “fixed” sentences. Dr. Joseph H. Ladd, Super- 
intendent of Exeter School, marked on the books of Exeter School 
the word ‘ ‘discharged’ ’ on each occasion he was convicted by the Supplementary Report 
courts. The report of the majority members of the Commission 
seems to question the propriety of Dr. Ladd’s legally discharg- 
ing him from Exeter School. The writer of this report has in his 
possession a legal opinion to the effect that a man cannot be 
committed to two institutions at the same time nor be at the same 
time under the custody and control of a Superintendent of an in- 
stitution for the feeble-minded and the Warden of the correction- 
al institutions. 
The Majority Report makes a considerable amount of criti- 
cism, all directed against the Department of Social Welfare, in 
connection with Donald Bennett, running back over a period of 
time which represents practically all of the period that the present 
Department has been in existence. This Supplementary Report 
cannot take the time nor has the writer the disposition to answer 
all of these criticisms. The major criticism was that on the term- 
ination of Donald Bennett’s last “fixed” sentence, the Depart- 
ment of Social Welfare had a responsibility to return Donald Ben- 
nett to Exeter School. Let us assume for the moment it did. 
There are, however, certain constitutional provisions with respect 
to the protection of the life and liberty of any individual. This 
boy mind you, was sentenced for a ‘ ‘fixed term’ ’; he served his 
sentence in full. The question arises, where did the reponsibility 
lie to see that he be recommitted to Exeter or some more appro- 
priate institution. It might as well have lain in the Courts of 
the State of Rhode Island as in the Department of Social Welfare. 
The point we wish to emphasize is that the Donald Bennett 
case illustrates the soundness of the ‘ ‘Integrated Program’ ’ 
herein proposed. We must realize that there will be other Don- 
ald Bennett cases in the future. Let us review, therefore, the 
proposed “Integrated Program”:— 
(1) Under the system proposed in this Supplementary Re- 
port, Donald Bennett, upon first entering school, would 
have received a ‘ ‘group’ ’ intelligence test. Such a test 
would disclose that he probably had a low intelligence 
quotient. 
(2) The Superintendent of Extra-Mural Activities in the 
Division of Mental Hygiene would have received Donald 
Bennett for a detailed examination, both as to his in- 
telligence quotient and as to his psychopathic symptoms, State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
155 
if any. It would have appeared immediately that he 
was a boy of low intelligence. Two courses would have 
been open: It could have recommended that he return 
to school and be placed in ‘ ‘a backward class,’ ’ or it 
could have recommended that he be sent to Exeter 
School for special training and custody. Let us assume 
the wisest course was taken, viz., that he be sent to 
Exeter School because of his low intelligence quotient. 
(3) He then would have begun his series of escapes. The 
first time that he was arrested and brought to trial and 
convicted, under the proposed ‘ ‘Correctional Program,” 
he would not have received a “fixed” sentence. 
He would have been committed to the Correctional 
Authority, as recommended in Chapter II of this report. 
The first thing the Correctional Authority would do 
would be to turn him over to the Diagnostic-Treatment 
Clinic. It will be remembered that this Clinic is to be 
composed of specialists; to wit, a physician, a psychia- 
trist, a psychometrist and other specialists. This Clinic 
would have discovered at this period (a) that Donald 
Bennett had congenital syphilis, and (b) that he was 
beginning to show a mental deterioration due to syphilis; 
in consequence, he was a potential mental case as well 
as mentally defective. 
(4) In case such was the diagnosis, the Correctional Author- 
ity would have recommended to the Director of Social 
Welfare that he be transferred from the Reformatory to 
the State Hospital for Mental Diseases for an indefinite 
term of treatment, for life if necessary. 
CHAPTER IV 
DIVISION OF HOSPITALS 
It is recommended that there be established in the Depart- 
ment of Social Welfare a division to be known as the Division of 
Hospitals. This division is to comprise what is now known as 
the State Infirmary and the Tuberculosis Sanatorium at Wallum 
Lake. It would be under the direct supervision of the Super- 
intendent of the Clarke General Hospital. Supplementary Report 
In the Majority Report of this Commission it was recommend- 
ed that what is now known as the State Infirmary be called the 
Clarke General Hospital. It was also recommended that the 
Tuberculosis Sanatorium at Wallum Lake be transferred from the 
State Department of Public Health to the State Department of 
Social Welfare. 
THE CLARKE GENERAL HOSPITAL 
With respect to the Clarke General Hospital the following 
recommendations are made: 
(1) That as soon as practicable all patients now at the hospi- 
tal who after careful study are shown not to be suffering from 
any form of illness which requires medical or nursing care, be re- 
moved from the Clarke General Hospital. 
(2) That as soon as practicable, in the future, unless an in- 
dividual has an acute or chronic disease, or has an illness other 
than a mental or contagious disease, or is a woman coming to the 
hospital for prenatal care and obstetrical services, he shall be pro- 
vided for, if in need, by the Division of Public Assistance. 
The State of Rhode Island has an admirable program in the 
Division of Public Assistance of the Department of Social Welfare, 
which takes care of individuals over 65 years of age who are not ill. 
This is the Old Age Assistance Program. In this Division of Pub- 
lic Assistance, the Rhode Island Program affords financial aid to 
every type of person who is in need of financial aid. There are, 
therefore, no citizens of Rhode Island who need to be segregated 
as has been done in the past, either in a State Almshouse or in 
County or City Poor Farms. 
With all needy individuals young and old who are not ill re- 
moved from the Clarke General Hospital, this institution could 
then be available to give treatment to major types of physical ill- 
ness:— 
1. Chronic diseases. 
2, Acute medical and surgical diseases, including expectant 
mothers. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
157 
In an address delivered by our Governor, J. Howard McGrath, 
on September 23, 1943 at the Annual Meeting of the Rhode Island 
Conference of Social Work, the Governor said: 
‘ ‘The provision of medical care for our people is still far from 
adequate despite the great body of evidence showing that medical 
costs impose a heavy burden on large sections of the population 
and that much dependency on publicly provided income is at- 
tributable to ill health. 
“It is the broad and long-range objective of this State to in- 
sure, through its policies, that no man, woman or child in Rhode 
Island shall unnecessarily die, be crippled, or handicapped merely 
because of the fact that he does not have funds to pay for adequate 
medical care. A part of this objective is the belief that this 
State and country should not be robbed of the productive and 
creative forces of any individual because he has not received prop- 
er medical care. Inherent in this objective is the determination 
that the State and its political sub-divisions shall not in the future 
be subject to the costs of providing assistance to dependent in- 
dividuals whose dependency could have been prevented had they 
received adequate medical care. Fundamental to this objective 
is the determination that people in Rhode Island shall not lose 
their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness merely be- 
cause they do not have the money to pay for necessary medical 
care. The State is receiving very splendid cooperation from the 
medical profession in the development of plans to implement this 
objective, and our plans in this held are being developed in ac- 
cordance with the highest ideals and recognized standards of the 
medical profession.’’ 
(1) Chronic Diseases. 
One of the most constructive recommendations in the report 
of the members of the Commission was that there should be estab- 
lished at the Clarke General Hospital a Diagnostic Clinic for 
the study of chronic diseases. I am in full accord with these 
recommendations. 
I go further and recommend that the Clarke General Hospital 
specialize in treatment, as well as in diagnosis of chronic 
diseases. Supplementary Report 
In the following paragraphs, I am summarizing certain data 
and conclusions from the book entitled ‘ The Challenge of Chronic 
Diseases” by Ernest P. Boas, M. D., Attending Physician, Monte- 
fiore Hospital for Chronic Diseases, New York and Nicholas 
Michelson, M. D., Adjunct Physician, Montefiore Hospital for 
Chronic Diseases. 
This book gives a brief historical account of the State Alms- 
house. It points out the State Almshouse in the past was a catch- 
all for various types of people. It included in its population not 
only the pauper but also the individual who was suffering from 
chronic disease but who was not financially able to take a long 
course of treatment in an approved hospital. 
Drs. Boas and Michelson point out that chronic disease pre- 
sents financial problems which throw an exceedingly great burden 
upon the family in the middle income group, to say nothing about 
the unbearable burden on the family in the lower income group. 
If a member of the family is ill with some acute malady such 
as pneumonia, he can either be treated at home by his family phy- 
sician or go for a short period to a general hospital. While the 
financial burden of such an acute and transitory illness is great, 
it is not to be compared with the case of a chronic illness. The 
chronic patient requiring hospital treatment needs, at least, six 
months in a private hospital and may require a year or longer. Very 
few families but the rich can afford to keep a member of their fam- 
ily at a private hospital for six months or a year. 
If, on the other hand, a chronic patient stays at home, Boas 
and Michelson point out that this patient places an undue burden, 
particuarly upon the housewife. If she has a large family, she 
cannot afford the time or care for this chronic patient. She is 
faced with a dilemma, either neglecting the patient suffering from 
a chronic disease or neglecting the family. This often results 
in friction and frequently this friction results in broken homes. 
The second outstanding fact in this book consists of statisti- 
cal data. This data shows that during the past 25 years most 
forms of infectious diseases have been on the decline. The great 
advances in medical science have reduced the per capita percent- 
age of individuals who suffer from such infectious diseases as State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
typhoid, diphtheria, and recently under the sulfa drugs, pneumonia 
and other forms of acute trachael and pulmonary maladies. 
On the other hand there has been a rising curve in the cases 
which constitute various types of chronic disease, such as chronic 
heart trouble, arthritis, cancer, diabetes, etc. This rise in chronic 
dissasse is due in part to the fact that medical science has pro- 
longed life. The average life expectancy increases as medical 
science reduces infectious diseases and especially deaths resulting 
therefrom. Improved sanitation and improved public health 
services constitute another cause for prolongation of life. 
We all know what happens to our automobile, the longer we 
drive it the more chronic ailments develop in its mechanism. There 
are certain vital organs like the heart, the arteries, the liver, the 
kidneys and the stomach which, as life is prolonged, find themselves 
in the same position as the automobile which has been driven over 
100,000 miles and chronic troubles develop. 
These facts point to the growing need in every state 
in the Union to establish specialized hospitals to deal with 
chronic diseases. 
An interesting feature in the book of Boas and Michelson 
lies in the conclusion that all patients suffering from chronic dis- 
eases are not by any means hopeless. They classify the ‘ ‘Chronic” 
in three classes: 
Class “A” — Patients requiring medical care for diagnosis 
and treatment. 
Class “B” — Patients requiring chiefly skilled nursing care. 
Class “C” —- Patients requiring only custodial care. 
Drs, Boas and Michelson point out that patients falling in 
Class “A” and patients falling in Class “B” require hospital care 
and treatment. With proper care some of these can be discharged 
and returned to their homes and again take up activities, in part 
at least, as breadwinner or housewife. They may be likened to 
the “reconditioned” automobile or a typewriter. After diagno- 
sis and treatment they again have a period of usefulness, as well 
as a period of happiness. 
The Class “C” patient presents no medical problem. In 
him the disease is arrested leaving him with a permanent physical Supplementary Report 
disability. He may need some assistance in dressing, bathing 
and eating, but no expert nursing or medical care is necessary. 
This type of patient would be better off either in his own 
home or in a Convalescent Home than he would in a hospital. The 
Convalescent Home is, therefore, an essential complimentary 
service to the hospital, specializing in the treatment of chronic 
disease. 
In recognition of this fact, we have developed in this State 
a Convalescent Home program. All such homes are licensed 
and supervised by the Department of Social Welfare. We do 
need badly, however, a substantial increase in our Convalescent 
Homes. With this in view the Director of the Department of 
Social Welfare, in the latter part of October 1943, called together 
all groups in the State concerned with this problem. There were 
at the meeting representatives of most of the Private Hospitals, 
all Directors of Public Aid, District Nursing Associations, Family 
Welfare Associations and representatives of the State Department 
of Social Welfare. Everyone agreed that the Convalescent Home 
program required expansion. 
A representative from one of the largest hospitals in the State 
pointed out that one out of eight of all patients currently com- 
ing to the hospital was a case of chronic disease. It is not feasible 
for a general hospital to specialize in chronic diseases, as chronic 
patients require a protracted period of diagnosis and treatment. 
Center for Diagnostic Clinic—Chronic Diseases 
This Commission recommended to the Governor, in an interim 
report, that the building known as the Reformatory for Men at 
Howard be abandoned as a Reformatory in order to enable that 
building to be used for diagnosis and observation of patients suf- 
fering from chronic diseases. I dissented from this proposal to 
remove some 125 young men from the Reformatory to the Prison. 
As shown in Chapter II of the Supplementary Report, this is con- 
trary to the whole modern trend,—a trend toward diversified 
correctional institution's, especially for youth. I refer to discus- 
sion of this subject in Chapter II of the Supplementary Report, 
specifically to Appendix V. This appendix describes the Borstal 
System of diversified correctional institutions for youth. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
161 
In the event the recommendations herein made were carried 
out, it would not be necessary, in my opinion, to divert the Re- 
formatory for Men to an entirely different social purpose. 
If we placed all individuals now at the State Infirmary, who 
were not suffering from illness, outside of the institution and took 
care of them under a varied Public Assistance Program, we would 
materially reduce the present population of the Infirmary. If 
after further diagnosis we placed the Class ‘ ‘C ’ chronic patients 
in Convalescent Homes we would further reduce the population 
of the Infirmary. 
In the event that this reduction in population did not leave 
sufficient beds at the Clarke General Hospital for the care of the 
ill, I would recommend that the Clinic for Chronic Patients be 
placed in what is now known as the Jewish Children’s Home. 
This excellent property is now available and could be rented by 
the State for a very moderate sum. Its location on Summit Aven- 
ue in the City of Providence is central and it would be more ac- 
cessible to the medical profession and hospitals desiring to refer 
chronic cases to the Clinic than would any existing building at 
Howard. 
(2) General Hospital Cases. 
It is socially desirable that the Clarke General Hospital be 
available for individuals who may suffer from some acute phy- 
sical a Iment, or who require surgical aid. With respect to both 
medicine and surgery, the State Infirmary has excellent equip- 
ment. It has up to date, modern equipped surgical and obstetri- 
cal facilities, which compare favorably with any similarly equip- 
ped hospital in this state. 
It has also the most modern X-ray and physiotherapy ap- 
paratus. The newly named Clarke General Hospital, therefore, 
is in a position to care for any type of medical case or any type of 
surgical case. It is finely equipped for prenatal care and obstetri- 
cal service. 
At this point I refer to the statement herein quoted from our 
Governor. These far-reaching social objectives set forth by 
Governor McGrath with real social vision, could be realized at 162 
Supplementary Report 
the Clarke General Hospital. There we would give the most 
modern care and treatment to those suffering from acute or chron- 
ic diseases or to those who require surgical aid. 
Already a program is in effect whereby individuals receive 
hospitalization at the cost of the State. There is a cooperative 
program of the Division of Public Assistance in the Department 
of Social Welfare with local Directors of Public Aid and with our 
private hospitals. 
It may be said that a patient admitted to a privately con- 
trolled, voluntary hospital under these conditions is regarded 
to a degree by the staff as a ‘ ‘Charity Patient.’ * This would not 
be true, at least not to the same extent, if the individual were free 
to go to the Clarke General Hospital in case he was embarrassed 
financially and could not afford to pay for private hospital services. 
It is a fact that many individuals who are not on ‘ ‘relief ’ and who 
have never been on ‘ ‘relief ’ would seriously object to going to 
a private hospital under the best of cooperative programs which 
savored of “charity.” 
It is no disgrace to be sick or to require a surgical operation. 
It is no disgrace even for a family in the middle income group 
not to have the ready cash to meet the quick emergency which 
arises when an individual is taken with an acute disease which re- 
quires an immediate surgical operation. What a fine thing it would 
be to have a general hospital operated by the State ‘ ‘free to all 
comers” irrespective of their financial embarrassment. 
This would not mean that the State would bear the entire 
cost. We now have a well established principle that individuals 
who go to any of our State Institutions shall pay according to their 
financial ability or the financial ability of their families. 
TUBERCULOSIS SANATORIUM, WALLUM LAKE 
It is recommended that the Tuberculosis Sanatorium at Wal- 
lum Lake be one of the hospitals in the new proposed Division of 
Hospitals. This division would be under the general supervision 
of the Superintendent of the Clarke General Hospital. One of 
the best reports of this Commission was that which dealt with 
the Tuberculosis Sanatorium. I have ascribed thereto. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
163 
Here again, however, I feel that to a considerable extent the 
Commission erred in dealing with the problem of tuberculosis 
in “too narrow a reference.” This section of the Majority Re- 
port would have been stronger, in my opinion, if it had dealt with 
the subject of prevention of tuberculosis and placed greater em- 
phasis on post-institutional care and supervision after the dis- 
charge of the tubercular patient. 
In each section of this Supplementary Report we have em- 
phasized how important is the field of prevention. We have 
stressed the fact that, if we are going to solve in a constructive 
way the problems of any one of our institutions, we must establish 
means to prevent citizens of our State being thrown on the scrap 
heap. As one writer quoted in this report expressed it: All of 
these institutional cases represent the “diseased tissues of the 
community.’ ’ These diseased tissues of the community are in a 
large part not necessary. In no field is this so true as it is in the 
case of this scourge of tuberculosis. 
When discussing the general subject of Prevention in Chapter 
I, I took the occasion to quote a statement made by Mayor La- 
Guardia of New York at the last Annual Meeting of the American 
Public Health Association. It is worth repeating here. On that 
occasion Mayor LaGuardia said that they could in New York City 
prevent, ‘ ‘wipe out’ ’ so to speak, tuberculosis within 20 years, 
provided proper preventive steps were taken on a federal-state 
basis. 
When I was in attendance at the meeting of the American 
Public Health Association in October 1943, there was (outside 
of the Pennsylvania Hotel) a specially built automobile. At 
first glance it looked like a large delivery truck. On each side 
of the body were a series of five visible pictures. These were 
illuminated from behind with electric lights. The pictures changed 
every few seconds. In this series of pictures, which amounted 
to some 60 pictures in all, with the rapid changes, there was shown 
to the public the whole history of the patient suffering from tuber- 
culosis. It was a dramatic presentation. The pictures showed 
the nature of the tuberculosis germ; how it developed and spread 
in the “culture” of the patient’s lung; how it was transmitted 
from one member of the family to another; how sanitary steps 164 
Supplementary Report 
could be taken. The pictures also showed how easy it was to 
cure this dread disease if it was caught at its inception. The 
pictures also showed the proper methods of treatment in the insti- 
tution and also showed the proper methods of post-institutional 
care after the patient had been discharged. This educational 
exhibit was given by the Health Department of the City of New 
York. I am advised it is in constant operation all over the City. 
This is one method of public education in the way of pre- 
vention of tuberculosis. It is strongly recommended, therefore, 
that the State of Rhode Island take steps to develop a preventa- 
tive program in this field. This educational program should be 
under direct supervision of the Superintendent of the Tuberculosis 
Sanatorium. He should work, however, in cooperation with the 
private associations in this State now dealing with prevention 
in the field of tuberculosis. 
Here, again, the State Security Council, as recommended 
in Chapter I of this report, would in the course of years make 
outstanding contributions. We in Rhode Island can wipe out 
this scourge of tuberculosis if we exercise foresight and are pre- 
pared to spend a moderate sum for prevention. 
Research and Investigation 
In the section dealing with Mental Hygiene we quoted a 
statement from the paper delivered by Drs. Ruggles and Fitz- 
patrick at a meeting of the American Psychiatric Association. 
May I repeat, in part, their statement:— 
“It is not unreasonable to ask that out of every dollar 
necessary for new buildings, one cent be appropriated to 
stimulate investigation and research.” 
In the field of physical illness there is a most fruitful field 
for investigation and research. We are just beginning to think 
in terms of Preventive Medicine. While the time may not be 
ripe, I strongly recommend that at a not too distant date there 
be established a Research Department in the Division of Hospitals, 
It should be implemented by the best talent which could be secured 
in the country in the field of medical research. It would keep 
this State abreast of the research and discovery which is going 
forward in medical science, in bacteriology, in bio-chemistry. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
When a new drug like Penicillin is discovered, this department 
on medical research would be amongst the first to find out what 
could be achieved by such a new drug; how it should be administer- 
ed, what the dangers were with respect to its adminstration and its 
limitations. Such a department could give instruction to mem- 
bers of the medical profession in the use of such new medical dis- 
coveries. It would constitute a state center, “a clinic” of re- 
search and of modern medical knowledge, available to doctors, 
technicians and members of the nursing profession. 
To illustrate the great importance of a Department of Medical 
Research, I call attention to a very recent discovery with respect 
to the treatment and cure of Tuberculosis. It is needless to re- 
late the far-reaching effects of a scientific discovery which would 
practically eliminate this disease, which is a prey on the commun- 
ity, and from which no citizen is immune. A few years ago Dr. 
George W. Raiziss of Philadelphia found that Diasone holds promise 
of controlling tuberculosis chemically almost as effectively as 
the sulfonamides control streptococcus and other infections. 
Dr. Charles K. Petter, Superintendent of the Lake County 
Tuberculosis Sanatorium, Waukegan, Illinois, was the first Tuber- 
culosis Sanatorium doctor in the United States to administer 
Diasone to patients. 
The treatment of tubercular patients with this drug (diasone), 
according to Dr. Petter, showed remarkable results. I quote 
from Dr. Petter: “An analysis of the therapeutic results show 
100 per cent improvement in all the minimal cases.” 
‘ ‘Marked improvement was recorded in one-third of the sixty- 
day group, one-half of the ninety-day and three-fourths of the 
120-day group. Moderate improvement was recorded in the re- 
mainder.’ ’ 
Concluding his statement Dr. Petter said: “We feel that 
the sulfone compounds, which have been studied clinically, are 
definitely a step ahead in tuberculosis therapy, probably ranking 
with the advent of the Sanatorium and the collapse therapy.’ ’ 
This type of medical research opens up wide vistas. It is 
conceivable from the above statements of Dr. Petter that, if this 
type of medical discovery proved wholly successful, it would be Supplementary Report 
unnecessary in the future to have in Rhode Island and other states 
such an institution as a Tuberculosis Sanatorium. This goes back 
to a statement made in the Introduction of this report that the 
ultimate goal of Prevention would be to do away with the necessity 
of such institutions with which this report deals,—institutions 
which, after all, according to a statement hereinbefore quoted, 
represent the “diseased tissues” in the body of the community. 
In addition to Tuberculosis, our Rhode Island communities 
as well as other state communities are confronted with a second 
scourge from which no citizen is immune; viz., Cancer. It is es- 
pecially recommended that in this Department of Medical Re- 
search proposed for the Clarke General Hospital there be em- 
ployed one of the best specialists in the United States to keep 
abreast of the scientific discoveries that develop in this important 
field. It is well known that Science has made progress and is 
making continual progress with respect to the causes which lead 
to Cancer. 
There is no field in the world today where such rapid progress 
is being made as the fields of preventive medicine and sur- 
gery. In the course of the present war, marvelous things are be- 
ing developed, especially in the fields of plastic surgery and ther- 
apeutic treatment of various types of infections. It is essential 
that Rhode Island should keep abreast of these advances. No 
individual doctor and no privately endowed hospital in our State 
is equipped to do what we envisage. In the Clarke General 
Hospital, we can establish a Medical Research Department which 
will keep our doctors, our nurses and our privately endowed hos- 
pitals abreast of every advance in this field of medical science 
which affects so acutely every citizen of Rhode Island. State Commission on Public Weljare Institutions 
167 
CHAPTER V 
DIVISION OF CHILD AND JUVENILE WELFARE 
Today the eyes of the nation are centered on the problem of 
juvenile delinquency. We read every day in the public press, 
we hear repeatedly over the radio statements that, due to war 
conditions, juvenile delinquency is on the increase. Only yester- 
day the Catholic Bishops of America, in a statement dealing with 
post-war problems, made special mention of the fact that in the 
United States today there was a great increase in crime amongst 
juveniles and youth. It is significant that the Catholic Bishops 
state, in effect, that the most important way of meeting this prob- 
lem is by prevention. 
Well may the people of this Nation and the people of Rhode 
Island center their attention on children and the juvenile. It is 
so often repeated that the statement has become almost trite, 
that the very foundation of our Nation and of our Democracy lies 
in what we do for our children, for juveniles, and for youth in the 
all important formative stages of their life. America, above all 
nations, has been alive to this highest of responsibilities. 
In this Nation we spend a greater portion of money raised by 
taxation on education of children and youth than we do for all 
other purposes. This is true also in the State of Rhode Island. 
With all due respect to my associates on this Commission, 
in no area of its report has the Commission gone so far astray as in 
its over-all treatment of children and juveniles. This result was, 
in my opinion, inevitable, because of the fact that the majority 
members of the Commission in their approach to this whole prob- 
lem treated the institution in “isolation.” They failed to realize 
that in the various fields such as mental illness, mental deficiency, 
physical illness, and crime, so-called, there must be an integrated 
program, and that the institution is but one instrument or 
“tool” for a constructive solution of the particular problem. 
A review of this Supplementary Report will show that in Chap- 
ter II there was proposed a Correctional Program. This is quite 
different from dealing with prisons, jails, and reformatories. It 168 
Supplementary Report 
was recognized that the correctional instutitions were a focal 
point in a Correctional Program, but that the institution was 
but one of several instrumentalities. So, in Chapter III, we did 
not deal with the State Hospital for Mental Diseases as an isolated 
factor. We proposed a Division of Mental Hygiene. The Hos- 
pital for Mental Diseases was a factor, but only one instrumental- 
ity in an integrated program dealing with the problem of mental 
illness and mental deficiency. So again, in Chapter IV, we did 
not deal with the State Infirmary and the Tuberculosis Sanatorium 
as in isolation. We proposed a Division of Hospitals. Here 
again the institutions were focal factors, yet regarded as instru- 
mentalities in a total process with important extra-mural services. 
In no field is this method of approach so vital as in the field 
now under discussion which deals with Child Welfare and the 
Welfare of Juveniles. We mean by this all children up to the 
age of 16 years. 
An illustration of what appears to me a fatal error in the 
majority report is the recommendation that there be established 
a separate division of institutions with a specific recommenda- 
tion that the State Home and School be removed from the juris- 
diction of the Children’s Division and placed in the division which 
deals with institutions. This recommendation is clear evidence 
that the majority members of the Commission seem to believe 
that the institution is an end in itself rather than a means to 
an end, and only one of several important means or instrumental- 
ities to achieve a social objective. 
It is recommended that there be established in the Depart- 
ment of Social Welfare a division to be known as the ‘ ‘Division of 
Child and Juvenile Welfare.’ ’ This division will comprise sever- 
al highly important functions. It is proposed to integrate these 
functions into one division. The goal is to attain an important 
social objective, namely, the proper care and treatment of neglect- 
ed and dependent children and juveniles, and of the more un- 
fortunate class of children and juveniles who find themselves in 
the toils of the criminal law. 
It is highly important to recognize the social philosophy now 
accepted generally throughout the United States with respect 
to the offender under 16 years of age. I quote an excerpt from State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
169 
the Reports and Studies prepared for the New York State Consti- 
tutional Convention as follows: 
“Its purpose is not primarily to punish a child for the com- 
mission of a specific wrong or to declare the nature of his 
legal rights, but to discover the causes of the child’s neglect 
or delinquency and then to determine what can best be done in 
his interest and in the interest of the State to rehabilitate 
him or to arrest further neglect or delinquency.” 
The reader will see that the Constitutional Convention of 
the State of New York recognized that children under the age 
of 16 years should not be subject to the criminal courts, and 
should never be stigmatized with the concept of a ‘ ‘Criminal.’ ’ 
Barnes and Teeters, in their recent book entitled ‘ ‘New Hori- 
zons in Criminology,”* in a chapter entitled “Children’s Courts 
and Child Guidance Clinics,” (p.922 ff.) state that the chief 
characteristics of the juvenile court for minors included such 
radical departures from tradition as the following:— 
1. Separate hearings for children’s cases. 
2. Informal or chancery procedure, including the use of 
petition and summonses. 
3. Regular probation service, both for investigation and 
supervisory care. 
4. Detention separate from adults. 
5. Special court records and probation records, both legal 
and social. 
6. Provision for mental and physical examination. 
Barnes and Teeters quote E. H. Sutherland, in his book en- 
titled “Principles of Criminology,’’ to the effect that the first, 
third and sixth “are stated to be absolutely essential, so that 
a court without any one of them is not a juvenile court.’ ’ 
The principal sources of dissatisfaction, as shown in legisla- 
tive studies made in New York State and similar studies by stu- 
dents of juvenile and youth delinquency, arise from the following: 
1. Too many juvenile courts (both full-time and part-time, 
i. e., criminal courts which function as juvenile and domestic 
relations courts on one day a week) are merely criminal courts 
for juveniles. They do not give specialized treatment to juven- 
iles and so fail completely of their purpose. 
*Ibid. Supplementary Report 
2. Too many juvenile courts lack both the case work in- 
vestigators and the variety and quality of diagnostic and treat- 
ment facilities necessary to deal successfully and continuously 
with the problem children that come before them. 
We seek, in the proposed Juvenile Court System for Rhode 
Island, to provide all the foregoing requisites. 
Recommendations 
It is recommended, therefore, that there be established, in 
the Department of Social Welfare, a division to be known as the 
Child and Juvenile Welfare Division. This division would con- 
sist of two coordinate sub-divisions:— 
1. A Welfare Sub-division. 
2. A Juvenile Court Sub-division. 
1. A Welfare Services Sub-division (see Chart VI) 
This sub-division would carry on the well established and 
valuable functions of the existing Children’s Division, viz.: (a) 
a foster home program, (b) an adoption program, (c) a licensing 
of day nurseries and maternity hospitals, and (d) the existing 
Child Welfare Services Preventive Program. 
This sub-division would also have available under its direct 
supervision two institutions. These institutions would be utilized 
only in such cases where it was not possible to place juveniles in 
foster homes or in some approved institution. They would consti- 
tute Service Institutions for Juvenile Offenders, and certain juven- 
iles with abnormal behavior patterns of such a character that 
they would be classified by a diagnostic clinic in the same group 
as the juvenile offender. These two institutions would be:— 
1. What is known as the Oaklawn School for Girls. 
2. The State Home and School as a Training School for 
boys under the age of 16. 
In connection with these institutions, it is reasonable to as- 
sume that, after diagnosis and classification of juveniles, the 
great majority of boys and girls under the age of 12 years would 
not be committed to institutions. The prevailing opinion of 
specialists in the field is that institutionalizing of young children State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
171 
is not a sound method of treatment. This is true whether the child 
be a neglected or dependent child, or whether he has committed 
some juvenile offense. Therefore the Training School for Girls 
and the Training School for Boys would comprise a population 
between the ages of 12 and 16, with a few minor exceptions. 
The statute with respect to the Oaklawn School for Girls 
should be amended so as to remove from it the stigma of a ‘ ‘cor- 
rectional institution” and make of it a Training School. Under 
the existing statute the Oaklawn School is a semi-penal institu- 
tion. All girls who go into it come from the criminal courts. 
In Chapter II it was recommended that Sockanosset School 
for Boys be transformed into a reform school for youth be- 
tween the ages of 16 and 24. This would leave for disposition 
boys between the ages of 12 and 16. It is recommended that 
two or more of the existing cottages, according to the need, at 
the State Home and School, be utilized for this juvenile group. 
One of the major reasons for establishing Sockanosset School 
as a youth school is the importance of separating pre-adolescent 
boys from adolescent boys. Without going into too great detail, 
psychologists and specialists in this field of Child and Juvenile 
Welfare are all agreed that both the physical and mental charac- 
teristics of the pre-adolescent boy differ greatly from boys in 
their adolescent period. All are agreed there is grave danger in 
mixing these two groups in one institution. (See Chart No. VI) 
Administration Building and Reception Center 
There would have to be, in connection with the program here- 
in outlined, an Administration Building for the Division of Juven- 
ile and Child Welfare. There would also have to be a Recep- 
tion and Classification Center where juveniles could live temporar- 
ily prior to being placed in foster homes or institutions. 
It is believed there would be sufficient room at the State 
Home and School for adminstrative functions and for the func- 
tions of a reception and classification center, in addition to the 
State Home and School serving as a Training School for Boys 
whom it was necessary to commit to an institution. Supplementary Report 
This would be far from an ideal situation, and in time there 
should be established a small modern institution for boys under 
16 years of age, and there should also be established an Adminis- 
tration, Reception and Classification Center for this Division. 
The State Home and School is an institution which is 53 
years of age. As stated in the Report of the majority members 
of the Commission, it is to a large extent a “run down” insti- 
tution. It is located in the Mount Pleasant district, beautifully 
situated on a hill. The institution owns about 75 acres of land, 
most of which is not today utilized. In recent years this section 
has become a highly developed residential section. The 75 acres 
have great potential value for a real estate development. This 
land could be sold in the post-war period. It would undoubtedly, 
if sold in the open market, realize a substantial sum of money. 
This sum might well be adequate to build a small institution for 
boys between the ages of 12 and 16 and either build or acquire 
an adequate center for (a) adminstration of the division, and (b) 
a Reception and Classification Center. 
2. A Juvenile Court Sub-division 
It is recommended that the Juvenile Court System, herein- 
after outlined, shall be established within the Department of So- 
cial Welfare. It shall function as a welfare sub-division hand in 
hand with the sub-division on Child and Juvenile Welfare Services. 
This would involve the complete separation of the Juvenile 
Court from the Department of Justice. At first glance this may 
appear to be a radical departure. The reader is referred to the 
quotation above named from the Constitutional Convention of 
the State of New York, and the reader is also referred to the state- 
ment quoted from the book by Barnes and Teeters, which sets 
forth the essentials of a Juvenile Court. It is clear from both of 
these statements that the modern concept of a Juvenile Court is 
one which is entirely divorced from the principles and objectives of 
a Department of Justice. The criminal procedures in the Depart- 
ment of Justice are based primarily on the concept that the offend- 
er against the laws of society is, to a degree at least, responsible 
for his anti-social conduct. Because of this responsibilty it is State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
173 
the attitude of society to meet out to the offender what we call 
“justice.” This concept is incompatible with the whole basis 
of the modern juvenile court system. There we do not place 
the responsibility on the child. We recognize that whether he 
is a neglected or dependent child, he, as a child, is not responsible 
for it. The same is equally true, if not more so, of the juvenile 
offender, so-called, in the formative period of childhood. 
In the chapter on Prevention, statistical data was cited to 
show that the child and juvenile offender came primarily from 
community sources of infection, viz., from homes in the slum dis- 
tricts of our cities where either the families were subject to pover- 
ty, or if not subject to poverty, were in the lowest income group. 
We cited figures to show boys coming to Sockanosset School 
came from the slum districts of the City of Providence where our 
under-privileged families live. 
FUNCTIONAL OPERATION 
OF THE 
JUVENILE COURT SYSTEM 
1. The Juvenile Court Judge 
It is recommended that the Juvenile Court Judge, which 
we may say in passing is not quite the proper term, should be 
an individual with a background of psychological, pyschiatric 
and sociological training. He should understand normal human 
behavior from a psychological standpoint, and the reasons for 
deviations from normal behavior. He should be qualified, as is 
the psychiatrist, to see the child as an integrated personality, 
and as a sociologist he should understand that the home, the com- 
minuty environment, together with the prevailing “mores” of 
a sub-normal community area, are vital factors in child and ju- 
venile delinquency, as well as in abnormal behavior of children. 
Seldom, if ever, would we find a lawyer or a judge who would 
have had the professional train ng essential for an understanding 
of these psychological and social principles. 
It is recommended, therefore, that the juvenile court judge 
should constitute a position under the classified civil service, 
under specifications which would embrace the foregoing essential Supplementary Report 
characteristics needed for this type of position. It is further 
recommended that the position should be filled as a result of a 
nation-wide open competitive examination. It would be pref- 
erable that the individual have, in addition to academic qualifi- 
cations, experience in the juvenile field. Such experience might 
constitute that of serving as a juvenile court judge in a modern 
system, or it might constitute some individual man or woman who 
had been in charge of a modern training school for boys or girls. 
We use the word Juvenile Court “System.” The word 
“system” is used because the non-judicial procedures of the 
juvenile court judge must be closely related to the sub-division, 
hereinbefore mentioned, of Child and Juvenile Welfare Services. 
To point up the significance of this, reference is made to the es- 
sentials of a juvenile court system hereinabove quoted. It was 
there stated that three essentials must be embodied in a juvenile 
court system; otherwise it does not exist. There is pre-investi- 
gation, that is to say, a complete social casework study of the 
child’s home and his environment; then diagnosis, physical 
and mental. This also involves pre-investigation, the results of 
which should be on the judge’s desk at the time of the formal 
hearing. The third requisite, which is one of the utmost import- 
ance, is the supervision of the juvenile in case he is committed to 
the sub-division of Child and Juvenile Welfare Services. 
As has been indicated, the judge, if he found any form of 
commitment necessary, should commit to the Division of Child 
and Juvenile Welfare. That Division, on the basis of casework 
study, and on the basis of the diagnosis, would have several dis- 
positions open to it;— 
(a) Placing the child under supervision in his own home. 
(b) Placing him in a foster home or an approved institution. 
(c) In extreme cases placing the girl or boy in the Oaklawn 
Training School for Girls, or in the State Home and 
School, if a boy. 
On and after commitment, the sub-division of Child and 
Juvenile Welfare, working at all times in cooperation with the 
Juvenile Judge, would have complete supervision over the child, 
and if committed for his ‘ ‘minority’ ’ would act as a guardian of 
the person of the child. This sub-division of Child and Juvenile State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
175 
Welfare would, like the Correctional Authority described in Chap- 
ter II, have great flexibility with respect to “release.” In other 
words, the commitment by the court, even if made for the child’s 
“minority” would be an indeterminate commitment. 
Before concluding this chapter, it is important to stress one 
vital point. There are always those in a community who consider 
themselves as “realists.” Too frequently this group of self-ap- 
pointed “realists” regard proposals such as are herein set forth 
as either ‘ ‘sentimental’ ’ or as is often said ‘ ‘stargazing.’ ’ If the 
‘ ‘realists’ ’ would take time to study the available vital statistics, 
especially with respect to juvenile offenders, the writer is convinced 
that they would conclude that this program with respect to chil- 
dren and juveniles is highly realistic. The records in our own 
State amply justify certain general conclusions. We send, after 
a trial in the criminal courts, a boy 8, 10, or 12 years of age to 
Sockanosset School—a semi-penal institution. All too frequently, 
after he has been at Sockanosset School on an average of one 
year, he is a ‘ ‘recidivist’ ’ and finds himself back in the toils of 
the criminal law. He then reaches an age where, if he reappears 
as an offender against the law, he is sent to the Reformatory, where 
he spends on an average of a year, and all too frequently again is a 
“recidivist.” He then reaches the age of “majority.” He re- 
peats the offense. All too frequently the offense is a felony and 
he goes to the State Prison. In other words, he starts with the 
Court of Criminal Justice, he goes to a boys’ semi-penal institu- 
tion, then ‘ ‘graduates’ ’ to a reformatory, then to a prison. 
In Chapter II on Corrections, it was highly recommended to 
the reader that he take time off and read certain books which 
amply justify the foregoing social prognosis of the juvenile of- 
fender from his first offense up to the time he becomes a con- 
firmed criminal. These are not theories. They are facts. There- 
fore, if we are going to prevent criminal careers, we must approach 
children, juveniles and youth in their formative period of life 
from an enlightened social and scientific point of view. 
This report has stressed before the cost of criminal careers. 
It is not generally recognized that it is a two-fold cost. First 
is the direct cost to the State of building institutions, and the direct 
cost to the State of keeping juveniles and youth in these institu- Supplementary Report 
tions. We stated that the annual cost to keep such an inmate 
was approximately $550 a year. This direct cost is, however, 
the least cost which the taxpayer and society has to pay. The 
indirect costs are enormous. We urge the reader to read the 
first ten or fifteen pages in Appendix II to this report. It shows 
how crime has increased in the United States of America. The 
cost to banks, to business houses, to individuals by the depre- 
dations of the criminal run into hundreds of millions of dollars 
in this country annually. There is another great indirect cost. 
When we take able-bodied young men and adults out of society 
and place them in reformatories and prisons, we lose the creative 
and productive capacity of each and all of those individuals. 
Several years ago, I attended in New York City a taxpayers’ 
meeting. One of the speakers cited the cost of a modern locomo- 
tive. It is my recollection he said that the capital cost of such a 
locomotive was at least $25,000 and any big modern locomotive 
ran as high as $40,000. He stated the interest at 5% on $40,000 was 
$2,000 a year. He then stated that if you look at a productive man 
who earns $2,000 a year, that he represents for society a capital 
investment of $40,000. We have in our little State some 500 
adults in Correctional Institutions. If we take the realistic atti- 
tude that they are equal to the capital investment of a $40,000 
locomotive, we are throwing on the scrap heap 500 highly valu- 
able pieces of man-power which would represent a capital invest- 
ment of $20,000,000. 
Personally, I do not like to speak of human beings in terms of 
mechanism or mechanical power, but the “realist,’ ’ as hard-boiled 
as he is, might well think of man-power in the same terms as he 
thinks of mechanical power. No industrialist would throw on the 
scrap heap a piece of machinery worth $40,000 if he could do 
anything to prevent it. By taking constructive social and sci- 
entific steps in the formative period of childhood and scientific 
steps in the formative period of youth, we can prevent criminal 
careers. We can prevent this human wastage. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
177 
CHAPTER VI 
INSTITUTIONAL PERSONNEL 
The subject of Institutional Personnel is one of the most im- 
portant sections of this report. In the course of the report we 
have dealt with this subject as it applied to the Correctional Pro- 
gram. There are certain considerations with respect to personnel 
which are common to all our State Institutions. These can be 
best dealt with in a separate chapter. 
I do not like the term “personnel.” There is something 
rather cold about it when applied to individuals working in the 
field of Social Welfare. I am always impressed when I attend 
a meeting of a Labor Union and hear the chairman address the 
Union Members as “Brothers and Fellow Workers.” Let us 
think, therefore, of the employees in the Department of Social 
Welfare as brothers and fellow workers. It is significant that 
in the whole department we have in normal times approximately 
1,400 of these fellow v, orkers. In our Institutions alone we have 
approximately 900. 
There is sorely needed a new, and if I may say so, an enlighten- 
ed attitude toward this particular vineyard of social welfare. 
This is peculiarly true with respect to the workers in our Institu- 
tions. 
Those who have carefully read this Supplementary Report 
have seen that there underlies it one pattern, applicable to all our 
Institutions. This pattern is the historical development which 
has taken place whereby the institutions, once considered places 
of ‘ ‘custody’ ’ and ‘ ‘restraint,’ ’ have been changed to institutions 
in which there is therapeutic treatment looking to cure and re- 
habilitation. We have seen this historical development in the 
case of the Mental Hospital. This institution, once known as 
the ‘ ‘Mad House,’ ’ is now a hospital. So the institution which 
it is now recommended will become the Clarke General Hospital 
was once a State Almshouse, a place for the indigent poor, then 
popularly known as ‘ ‘paupers.’ ’ We have seen the same historical 
development taking place in our Correctional Institutions. From 
institutions of custody and restraint, they are becoming institu- 
tions for therapeutic treatment, looking to cure of moral and 
social illnesses. Supplementary Report 
This historical development alone indicates how essential 
it is that we obtain a new and enlightened viewpoint with respect 
to the workers in these Institutions. Most any type of individual 
as an employee might have been considered good enough in the 
days when the Insane Asylum was a place of custody and restraint. 
Most any type of individual as an employee was considered good 
enough when we had a State Almshouse, a place of custody for 
human derelicts. So, any ordinary policeman might have been 
good enough at the State Prison when that was an institution of 
custody and restraint in a regime where the primary function 
was “punishment” and “social revenge.” 
Under the changed concept with respect to the functions 
of our Institutions, a most important need is a change in the 
character of the institutional employees. In our State Hospital 
for Mental Diseases, in our State Infirmary, in our Tuberculosis 
Sanatorium, such a change has already taken place with respect 
to the professional and technical group. Here we have highly 
qualified doctors, professional graduate nurses, and numerous 
highly skilled professional technicians. We have, however, a 
long way to go with respect to the other classifications. In order 
to bring all of the workers in our Institutions up to a standard 
essential to carry out the new functions of therapeutic treatment 
and cure, there are a number of steps required: 
1. An adequate “pay plan” for every classification of the 
State Civil Service, as these relate to institutions. 
2. An 8-hour day for all institutional employees. 
3. A program of “in service” training, applicable to every 
Civil Service classification which relates to institutional help. 
4. Proper housing accommodations at these institutions, 
which are geographically isolated from the community. 
5. A program looking to providing at these instituions, geo- 
graphically isolated, a full community life for the employees. 
These recommendations will be discussed in the order above 
named. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
1. An Adequate “Pay Plan” 
It can be stated categorically that the pay of the various 
Civil Service classifications at our State Institutions is wholly 
inadequate to attract and to hold the high type of personnel re- 
quired under this new concept, namely, therapeutic treatment 
looking to cure and rehabilitation. The only exception, perhaps, 
is the pay given to the superintendents and a few top-flight officials. 
It is recommended, therefore, that the State Civil Service 
Commission make a special study with a view to establishing an 
adequate “pay plan” for all Institutional Civil Service classifi- 
cat ons. Without reflecting upon the ability and character of 
the Civil Service Commission, may I suggest that in making such 
a study, the Commission should temporarily employ an expert, 
with funds made available by the General Assembly. This expert 
should be directed to go to several of the states in the Union 
which are recognized as leaders in the institutional field. There 
he could obtain data with respect to the pay scale of various types 
of institutional help. He could also talk with superintendents 
of different types of institutions and obtain their views as to 
whether the “pay plan” in the state under consideration was 
adequate. After a thorough exploration, extending at least over 
a period of six months, the Civil Service Commission would have 
data upon which to make a decision with respect to all institu- 
tional Civil Service classifications, estimate the cost of an adequate 
“pay plan,” and make a recommendation to the Governor. 
May I stress one highly important phase of this subject of 
adequate pay. I refer to the pay of what might be termed the 
‘ ‘rank and file.’ ’ My experience at Howard has taught me several 
great lessons. One of the greatest of these lessons arises out of 
the services rendered at the Mental Hospital and the State In- 
firmary by what we have considered the lowliest of our employees, 
viz., “attendants.” This group of our employees is the most 
poorly paid group in our State Institutions; the minimum of the 
pay plan is $50.00 a month with an allowance of $360.00 a year 
for “maintenance.” We must realize that “maintenance” does 
not mean too much to a worker who receives the paltry sum of 
$600.00 annually. The result is that the weakest link in the 
whole program of therapeutic treatment looking to cure and re- Supplementary Report 
habilitation is in the attendant. This low pay in this age of ris- 
ing salaries and wages cannot help but attract the dregs of the 
labor market. Yet, it is these attendants who are in more con- 
stant contact with the patients at the Mental Hospital and the 
Infirmary than any other class of employees. They are-with 
the patients day and night. The doctors go home and go to bed 
at night, with a few doctors left in a central office in case of an 
emergency. 
These institutional patients are the husbands and wives and 
children of citizens of Rhode Island. Many of them, if they are 
not husbands and wives and children of the readers of this report, 
have been your friends, your neighbors. 
The State of Rhode Island is not meeting its social obliga- 
tions when it pays attendants in cash $600.00 or at best $800.00 
a year, with the expectation that it will attract a class of indi- 
viduals who you would like to have day and night in attendance 
upon a member of your family, or upon a good neighbor. 
May I say something about these attendants? You would 
be surprised to know how many attendants at our State Institu- 
tions have stayed on year after year with this almost inhuman 
pay, and in many cases inadequate living quarters. Yet in spite 
of this they have stayed on. Why? There is something, and we 
may be thankful for it, that touches the very heart of people who 
are working amongst the mentally ill, the physically ill, or the 
neglected or feeble-minded child. Many of these attendants who 
have served our State, some of them as long as 15 years in lowly 
capacities, have a sort of “consecration.” Nothing else can 
explain their devotion, and their continuity of service. Is Rhode 
Island going to ask this group of consecrated individuals to await 
their award in Heaven? 
2. The 8-Hour Day For All Institutional Employees 
Many of the leading states in the Union, after a long battle, 
have won the public and the General Assembly to the 8-hour day. 
It is not necessary to dwell on this. May I point out one or two 
important illustrations. We have at the State Hospital certain 
wards for what we call ‘ ‘disturbed’ ’ patients. These acute cases State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
frequently are not able to take care of even the simplest of phy- 
sical needs such as dressing, washing, or going to a toilet. To 
expect a high-class individual to work a 12-hour day in such a 
ward is inhuman both with respect to the patient and with respect 
to the employee. Similar illustrations could be given with re- 
spect to every institution. 
It is true the establishment of an 8-hour day will cost a very 
considerable amount of money. It will be an expenditure well 
worthwhile. It will better enable the State of Rhode Island to 
meet its social responsibilities to the unfortunate and the handi- 
capped individuals who find themselves under institutional care 
and treatment. 
3. A Program of “In Service” Training 
One of the most important steps which should be taken 
at all our institutions is a program of “In Service Training.” 
We have adopted ‘ ‘in service’ ’ training with respect to physicians, 
nurses, and in a slight degree at the State Mental Hospital with 
repsect to housekeepers and attendants. 
One might inquire why it is necessary to have “in-service” 
training for professional employees, when it is assumed that they 
had professional training before coming to the institution. The 
answer lies in the fact that in institutions like the Mental Hos- 
pital, the Infirmary, Exeter School, Wallum Lake, and others, 
there is year by year going on marked scientific progress. A 
graduate from a medical school in 1925 could almost be classified 
as a ‘ ‘hay-seed’ ’ physician if he does not keep abreast with the 
rapid progress in these highly specialized fields. The same is 
true of graduate nurses and professional technicians. 
In what we call “the rank and file” classification, there is 
a special need for “in-service” training. We can visualize that 
with a proper ‘ ‘pay plan’ ’ we will attract to our institutions at- 
tendants, cottage mothers and fathers, boy and girl supervisors, 
and like employees of considerable education and of real charac- 
ter. This type of employee, however, needs to have courses of 
training with respect to his particular job. If I should point 
out the greatest weakness at certain of our Institutions, it would 
be the lack of training of this type of employee. As the Director 182 
Supplementary Report 
of Social Welfare I have been distressed beyond measure at the 
type of cottage father and mother, for example, at Sockanosset 
School. I have been distressed at the type of cottage mother 
at the State Home and School, and so-called Boys’ Supervisors. 
Without reflection upon these people, they are not fulfilling the 
functions of cottage mother or father, the functions of boys’ or 
girls’ supervisors. There is existent no adequate program of any 
in-service training for these jobs for which training is highly es- 
sential. 
There are other classifications also where an “in service’’ 
training program would be most desirable. I refer to such classi- 
fications as cooks, cook’s helpers, junior dietitions and others who 
have to do with the preparation and serving of food. It is not 
every cook, whatever his previous experience, who can meet the 
special needs of patients suffering from mental or physical illness. 
Here again, a well-rounded program of in-service training 
would cost money. Such an expenditure would pay to the State 
greatest dividends. 
4. Proper Housing Accomodations 
It must be borne in mind that our State Institutions are lo- 
cated at Howard, Rhode Island which is some fifteen miles from 
the City of Providence. Because of this distance and infrequent 
bus service, Howard is, to a very considerable degree, isolated 
from any city. This isolation from the center necessitates that 
a very considerable portion of the essential help at the Institu- 
tions live on the institutional grounds. 
There is particuarly needed additional housing for resident 
physicians, for certain important technicians and for a number of 
important administrative executives working at the two hospitals. 
There is also badly needed housing for officers and guards at the 
State Prison. It is highly desirable to have all officers and guards 
living at or near the two correctional institutions in order to be 
available in case of any emergency. 
A survey by the Director of Social Welfare indicates that 
there should be at least twenty-five housing units constructed to 
meet the foregoing requirements. It is not proposed that these 
housing units be high-cost units. They might well follow the State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
183 
architectural pattern which has been established by the Federal 
Housing project at Newport and at or near Quonset Point. At- 
tractive two-family houses can be built today at a moderate cost. 
Within a short period of time there will also be required ad- 
ditional dormitory facilities at the State Hospital for Mental Dis- 
eases and at the State Infirmary. This will be especially true 
if the recommendations of this report are carried out with respect 
to an eight-hour day. 
5. A Program to Provide Community Facilities for 
Employees 
One of the first needs at Howard is a Community Building. 
The fundamental character of this building should be a commun- 
ity gymnasium. The need for a community gymnasium was 
cited in the chapter on Mental Hygiene. This building should be 
something more than a gymnasium. It should include facilities 
for basketball, volley ball, indoor tennis. It should have adequate 
bowling alleys. In addition thereto, there should be recreation 
rooms. These will provide for a lounge room and rooms for card 
playing and other games. A special section of this building should 
be set aside for a community library. It would be desirable to 
have in the basement of the building a swimming pool. 
This combined gymnasium and community center would be 
available in the daytime to patients at the Mental Hospital, to 
the patients of the Clarke General Hospital and for men or boys 
in the correctional institutions. Each of these institutions could 
have seperate days when this institutional building would be 
available to a particular institution. This would avoid inter- 
mingling of different types of patients or inmates. 
In the evenings the building would be available to all types 
of institutional help. It would be an institution about which 
the Director of the Department and the various Superintendents 
could organize a whole series of community activities. 
Since the writer of this report has been Director of Social 
Welfare, one of the chief complaints on the part of the institu- 
tional workers is the fact that in the wintertime, there is nothing 
for them to do in the evenings when they are not assigned to duty. 184 
Supplementary Report 
The bus service to and from Providence is such that few of the 
employees, especially in the hard winter months, feel like going 
into Providence. 
A facility, as proposed, is highly essential. The happiness 
and health, mental and physical, of these institutional employees 
is a matter of first order if we are to treat the wards of the State 
right. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
185 
CHAPTER VII 
MAJOR POINTS OF AGREEMENT AND DIFFERENCE 
BETWEEN 
MAJORITY REPORT AND SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT 
Before concluding this Supplementary Report, it would ap- 
pear desirable to call attention to some of the major points of 
agreement and difference, as they appear to the writer, between 
the Majority Report and the Supplementary Report. 
Major Points of Agreement 
The writer of the Supplementary Report is in agreement with 
the following: 
1. The Reports of the majority with respect to Exeter 
School, the Wallum Lake Sanatorium, and the Report on Reli- 
gious Services, In connection with the report on Exeter School 
and Wallum Lake, the Supplementary Report proposed certain 
extra-mural services in addition to the improved services rec- 
ommended for the institutions per se.* 
2. The writer of the Supplementary Report is in general 
agreement with the recommendation of the Majority Report with 
respect to a change in the State Infirmary in order to make it a 
general state hospital. The Supplementary Report, however, is 
in disagreement on this subject on several specific points. These 
points are: 
(a) While the Supplementary Report is in full accord with the 
establishment of a diagnostic clinic for chronic diseases, it will 
be recalled that the Supplementary Report recommended that the 
Clarke General Hospital should specialize in the ’‘treatment" 
of chronic diseases as well as in the ‘ ‘diagnosis’ ’ thereof. 
(b) The Supplementary Report recommended that there be 
established, in the proposed Division of Hospitals, a Division of 
Medical Research. 
(c) The Supplementary Report, while in accord with the gen- 
eral idea of a social study clinic, believes that there should be creat- 
ed ‘ ‘A Diagnostic-Treatment Clinic.’ ’ This clinic should not be 
*The writer is in full accord with the Majority recommendarions on Religious Services. 186 
Supplementary Report 
under the supervision of the superintendent of the Clarke General 
Hospital, but should be under the supervision of the Correctional 
Authority proposed in Chapter II of this Report. 
3. The writer of the Supplementary Report is in general 
agreement with respect to the statements in the Majority Report 
which have to do with Sockanosset School and Oaklawn School. 
The writer of the Supplementary Report could not agree to the 
reports on Sockanosset School and Oaklawn School for reasons 
which are apparent in the Supplementary Report. For example, 
the Supplementary Report proposes a complete change in the 
character of Sockanosset School, and recommends that it be made 
a ‘ ‘training school” for youths between the ages of 16 and 24 under 
the proposed Correctional Authority. Also, the Supplementary 
Report recommends a change in the character of Oaklawn School, 
making it a ‘ ‘training’ ’ school instead of a correctional institution. 
The report also places Oaklawn School under the supervision of a 
division to be known as the Child Welfare and Juvenile Welfare 
Division. 
In passing, may I say that Oaklawn School, under the direc- 
tion of its present Superintendent, Miss Isobel Knipe, is doing, in 
the opinion of the Director of Social Welfare, an outstanding piece 
of social work in training and rehabilitation of the girls at Oak- 
lawn. The School, however, is greatly handicapped, as stated in 
Chapter VI, because it is in fact a semi-penal institution. 
Points of Difference 
The reading of the two reports indicates a very considerable 
number of points of difference. There are, however, several major 
points of difference which require, in the opinion of the writer, 
special comment: 
1. The recommendation in the Majority Report for Boards 
of Trustees for each of the Institutions. 
2. The recommendation in the Majority Report for the crea- 
tion of a new Department of State Institutions, thus dividing the 
existing Social Welfare Department into two departments, one 
dealing with institutions, and the other dealing with welfare ser- 
vices. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
187 
3. The Majority Report took exception to several import- 
ant organization steps established with respect to the State Insti- 
tutions, viz., Centralization vs. Decentralization: Fiscal Account- 
ing, Central Maintenance and Farm Program. 
4. A Fundamental Difference of Approach: Instead of treat- 
ing the State Institutions as ‘ ‘isolated’ ’ factors, the Supplementary 
Report regards the Institutions as but one instrumentality in a 
three-fold social process of prevention, rehabilitation, and extra- 
mural supervision. 
The above major differences between the two reports will be 
discussed in their order: 
(1) Boards of Trustees 
The writer of the Supplementary Report is opposed to the 
recommendation for creating Boards of Trustees for each of the 
State Institutions. It is fair to say that when this proposal was 
first made, the writer objected to it. Later, the members of the 
Commission agreed that these Boards of Trustees should have no 
administrative functions, but would work in the field of what 
might be called public relations and planning. At this point, the 
writer was willing to go along with the majority. 
A further consideration by the writer led him to the conclu- 
sion that Boards of Trustees would perform no useful function in 
an ‘ ‘Integrated Program’ ’ as is proposed in the Supplementary 
Report. In lieu of Boards of Trustees, the writer of the Supple- 
mentary Report, in Chapter I on Prevention, recommended the 
establishment of a State Security Council. This Council would 
carry on into peace-time the constructive social functions in the 
fields of social welfare, public health, education and labor which 
have been performed by the State Council of Defense. 
This Security Council would be a mobilization of all commun- 
ity resources in much the same manner as we in Rhode Island 
have mobilized all community resources under the State Council 
of Defense. It would naturally have sub-committees dealing 
with all social welfare problems, including the problems of our 
State Institutions. It would be a body which would make con- 
tinuous plans with respect to all agencies of the State which have 
social objectives. Supplementary Report 
This State Security Council, in the opinion of the writer, is 
a much more constructive solution than separate Boards of Trus- 
tees. 
It is important, however, to raise certain questions with re- 
spect to Boards of Trustees. In the opinion of the writer, a Board 
of Trustees for an institution like the State Mental Hospital, for 
example, could operate only in one of several fields: 
(a) Such a board could be given by statute certain adminis- 
trative functions, (b) Such a board could be given by statute 
certain policy-making functions, (c) Such a board could be giv- 
en certain functions with respect to long-term planning, (d) 
Such a board could be a public relations board, as a liaison be- 
tween the institution and the general public. 
In the opinion of the writer, functions “a” and“b” are in- 
consistent with what has been referred to in this report as the 
Green Reorganization Act. This is a basic state administrative 
statute. In the Reorganization Act there is a well concieved 
plan of public administration. There is, first of all, an Executive 
Department of which the Governor is the head. The Executive 
Department constitutes the over-all administrative and policy- 
making department of the State, subject to the laws of the State 
passed by the General Assembly, which lays down policies. 
Under the Governor there are seven departments which are 
both policy-making and administrative. The Director of the 
department is the. over-all executive, and upon the Director are 
imposed both policy-making functions and administrative func- 
tions. 
It will be seen that this is a modern streamlined system of 
public administration. The appointment of Boards of Trustees 
that had either administrative or policy-making functions would 
interfere with the basic principles of public administration which 
were achieved in the Green Reorganization Act. 
In case this point of view is accepted, the Boards of Trustees 
would have neither administrative functions nor policy-making 
functions. Long term planning is a major policy-making func- 
tion. In this connection, it should be borne in mind that the 
superintendents of our respective State Hospitals and the Warden State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
of the State Prison are highly specialized men in their respective 
fields. Most of them have been selected under Civil Service. 
It has been recommended in the Supplementary Report that 
all superintendents, including the warden, should be selected on 
a nation-wide competitive basis by a civil service examination. 
It should be apparent that these specialists, acting in coopera- 
tion with the Director of Social Welfare, are the best qualified 
men to develop long-term policies and plans. What contribu- 
tion a group of laymen, who would have no scientific qualifications 
and who have had no administrative experience could make, it 
is difficult to see. 
There would, therefore, only remain for a proposed Board of 
Trustees a very narrow field of public relations acting as a liaison 
between the institutions and the public. Without minimizing 
the importance of this, it is submitted that the Director of Social 
Welfare and the highly specialized men in the technical fields 
involved are in a much better position to do a public relations 
job than are unqualified laymen. The Director of Social Welfare 
is constantly called upon to speak before community organiza- 
tions. The respective superintendents of hospitals, including the 
warden, are frequently called upon to speak before community 
organizations and over the radio. To the knowledge of the Di- 
rector, they have done a splendid piece of public relations work. 
This has been done as no Board of Trustees could do.it, because 
these highly specialized men know what they are talking about. 
The Director of Social Welfare also has constant relations with 
the press of the State, and is in the best position to prepare state- 
ments with respect to the social objectives, as well as the adminis- 
tration, of the department in all its phases. 
(2) Creation of a New Department of Institutions 
The second major difference arises from the proposal to create, 
out of the existing Social Welfare Department, two departments. 
A careful reading of the Supplementary Report, and the basic 
plan which underlies that report, clearly indicates why the writer 
believes that the creation of two departments,—a Social Welfare 
Department and an Institutional Department, would be a retro- 
gressive step. The recommendation of the majority is based Supplementary Report 
upon an assumption which, in the opinion of the writer of the Sup- 
plementary Report, is a false assumption. The assumption is 
that there is a distinction between welfare services and institu- 
tional services. The institutional services are not only highly 
important welfare services, but a reading of the Supplementary 
Report clearly shows that it is impossible to separate the welfare 
services of the institution from many other welfare services render- 
ed by the Department of Social Welfare. A few examples will 
suffice:— 
(a) In the proposed Correctional Program, it was recom- 
mended that the highly important Division of Probation and 
Parole should be directly under the supervision of the Corectional 
Authority. It is well to recall the fact that, at the writing of this 
report, there were some 2,400 individuals on probation and parole 
who had been convicted of criminal offenses, as compared with 
some 750 in all our Correctional Institutions. At the present 
time, there is not sufficient integration between the Correctional 
Institutions and the Division of Probation and Parole. Yet, 
at the same time, the Correctional Institutions and the Division 
of Probation and Parole are both subject to the over-all super- 
vision of the Director of Social Welfare. Under the proposal of 
the majority members of the Commission, the Correctional In- 
stitutions would be in one department of the State and the Div- 
ision of Probation and Parole in an entirely different depart- 
ment, each subject to a different director. This would indeed be a 
retrogressive step. 
(b) The Majority Report recommends that the State Home 
and School, which, under an order of Governor McGrath, was in- 
tegrated with the Children’s Division, should be in the proposed 
Department of Institutions, and the Child Welfare Services in the 
proposed Department of Social Welfare. Thus, we would have 
a situation where we would be operating a foster-home program 
in one department and a home for neglected and dependent chil- 
dern in an entirely separate department. This is contrary to the 
whole concept of a modern child welfare division. It would make 
impossible in this State a modern juvenile court system as was 
proposed in Chapter VI of the Supplementary Report. It would 
make impossible an integrated Child and Juvenile Welfare Divi- 
sion. It will be recalled that in the Supplementary Report two ju- State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
191 
venile institutions were recommended to be placed in the division 
dealing with child welfare and juveniles, viz., the State Home and 
School and the Oaklawn School for Girls. This is a progressive 
step. To have these two juvenile institutions separated from a child 
welfare program is contrary to every modern concept with respect 
to the care and treatment of juveniles. 
(c) The Supplementary Report proposes, for the State 
Mental Hospital, for the Exeter School, and for Wallum Lake, 
extra-mural services which are closely integrated with the institu- 
tions,—the institutions being the focal factors, but not separate 
from the problems of mental hygiene, mental deficiency and such 
medical problems as tuberculosis. 
(3) Centralization vs. Decentralization: Fiscal Account- 
ing, Central Maintenance and Farm Program 
As pointed out in Appendix VIII, the Director of Social 
Welfare, working in cooperation with the State Department of 
Finance and the State Budget Officer, established a plan whereby 
the bookkeeping with respect to Institutional expenditures, and 
what is termed Fiscal Control, were placed under the direct super- 
vision of the Division of Business Management. It was explained 
that the centralization of accounting did not take away from the 
respective superintendents the power of discharging personnel, 
or the power to purchase, within the limits of the respective ap- 
propriations, any type of consumable goods. The system merely 
relieved the superintendent of the bookkeeping functions, and 
set up a system whereby any superintendent would know at any 
given period just where his appropriation account stood. This 
system will have, in the opinion of the writer, two important results: 
(a) It will relieve superintendents of a great deal of mathe- 
matical detail, thereby freeing them for their main duties of the 
care and treatment of the wards of the State, and 
(b) It will undoubtedly result in saving the State a great 
deal of money. 
Centralized Maintenance 
The Majority Report takes exception also to a plan approved 
by the Governor and the Director of Finance where a vast amount Supplementary Report 
of maintenance and repairs at Howard was brought together in a 
centralized maintenance and construction repair unit. As explain- 
ed in Appendix VIII, this merely followed the pattern existing in 
the City of Providence, or in any good sized community, of having 
an engineering department. This also will relieve the superinten- 
dent of this necessary phase of institutional work and give him more 
time to attend to his main objectives, the care and treatment of 
patients. It will also undoubtedly save the State very consider- 
able sums of money. 
Institutional Farm Program 
It was explained that, some four years ago, three farms at 
Howard were centralized and put together in what is known as 
the Institutional Farm Division. In Appendix VIII we set 
forth in detail how the creation of one Institutional Farm under 
a highly skilled agriculturist had produced food in greater quantity 
and in greater variety than had ever been available to the wards 
of the State at Howard. In addition it had resulted in the im- 
provement of the dairy herds, the poultry flocks, and the swine 
herds. Also, this program made available farm products on an 
equitable basis to all wards of the State at Howard, where formerly 
the farm products were available only to the Mental Hospital, the 
Prison and Sockanosset School. 
With respect to the fourth major difference as set forth above, 
namely, the Method of Approach in the Majority Report and in 
the Minority Report, this difference is so fundamental that it will 
be considered in the following chapter, “Conclusion.” State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
CONCLUSION 
In the Introduction to this Supplementary Report, attention 
was called to the fact that there had developed in the United States 
an extremely interesting inter-relationship among a number of 
national organizations which existed in the respective fields of 
what is known today as the Social Sciences. As was pointed out 
these national organizations engaged in scientific research, 
including statistical research, pulling together the most modern 
developments in several scientific fields. The membership of 
these associations is not primarily an academic membership, but 
comprises professional men actually engaged in administration. 
In the mental field, for example, we call attention to the National 
Committee for Mental Hygiene and the American Psychiatric 
Association. Both of these comprise in their membership 
superintendents and other key officials in the leading mental hosp- 
itals of the United States. So again, in the correctional field, 
we call attention to such an organization as the American Prison 
Association whose membership comprises the leading adminis- 
trators of prisons and juvenile correctional intitutions, both fed- 
eral and state. 
We called attention to the fact that each of these national 
scientific and research organizations had reached, in general, a 
unanimity of opinion. Summarized, this opinion is that in the 
field of Social Sciences there are three important phases, whether 
we deal with the physically ill, the mentally ill or the so-called 
criminal and juvenile offender; (1) There must be a program of 
Prevention. (2) Where Prevention fails there must be a pro- 
gram based on the best available scientific knowledge as to the 
method of ‘ ‘treatment’ ’ to effect either cure or rehabilitation of 
the afflicted individual. (3) There must be a program for the 
“re-establishment” of the individual into free society. 
The foregoing Report, in its respective chapters, has followed 
this scientific approach with respect to the various types of in- 
dividuals who find themselves in our State institutions. 
My associates on this Commission did not approach the 
problem from the foregoing point of view. In saying this, I 
would not have the reader conclude that the majority members 
of the Commission did not, at certain points in the Majority Re- Supplementary Report 
port, avail themselves of available scientific knowledge and the 
application of that knowledge to institutional problems. What 
I seek to convey is that, on the whole, the Commission did not rely 
upon the great body of scientific knowledge and its application. 
This was available to the Commission in the form of well-thought- 
out programs. 
In my opinion, the failure of the majority members of the 
Commission to avail themselves of such existing programs that 
are based on the present scientific knowledge and the best con- 
clusions reached from that knowledge, led to several unfortunate 
results: 
(1) It led the majority members of the Commission, in Decem- 
ber 1942, to recommend to the Governor in an “Interim 
Report’’ that the Reformatory for Men should be closed as 
an institution for reforming young men, and utilized as a 
Diagnostic Clinic. 
This recommendation involved transferring young men from 
the Reformatory to the inside of a walled prison where they 
would live in “captivity” behind iron barred cells.* The great 
success which England achieved under the Borstal System 
of highly diversified institutions was pointed out in Chapter 
II. The Supplementary Report, therefore, instead of recom- 
mending placing youth behind stone walls mingled with con- 
firmed offenders, went in the opposite direction and recom- 
mended a greater diversity of institutions for youth than 
at present exists in this State. 
The writer can say without fear of contradiction that there 
is not a single specialist in the field of Penology who wolud 
not agree that the recommendation of the majority members 
of the Commission was npt only reactionary, but was extreme- 
ly dangerous. It would be a body blow to preventing crim- 
inal careers at the most important point, namely, the forma- 
tive period of Youth. 
(2) The failure of the Commission to take advantage of the 
existing scientific knowledge and conclusions reached there- 
from led, in the opinion of the writer, to a second reactionary 
step'. This is the recommendation of the majority to divide 
♦See Minority Report of C. J. France, Appendix VII. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
the existing Department of Social Welfare into two separate 
State Departments, (a) a Welfare Service Department and 
(b) an Institutional Department. 
The reader who has followed with any degree of thought the 
foregoing Report, will realize that specialists in Social Science 
all agree that you cannot separate the intra-mural functions 
of an institution from the extra-mural functions. I commend 
to the reader’s attention Chapter III of this Supplementary Re- 
port which recommended there be established in the Department 
of Social Welfare a Division of Mental Hygiene. It will be 
recalled that this Division depicted a well rounded integrated 
program of both extra-mural services and intra-mural services 
for the mentally ill. Every specialist in the field of Mental Hy- 
giene is agreed that the mental hospital must move out into the 
community if we are going to combat in a constructive way this 
critical problem of mental illness. 
So again, in Chapter II dealing with the Correctional pro- 
gram, it was shown how important it was to integrate several im- 
portant funct'ons: the function of sentence, the function of treat- 
ment and rehabilitation, the function of ‘ ‘release,’ ’ and above all 
the function of post-institutional supervision under the Division 
of Probation and Parole. The Majority Report fails to take this 
into consideration. As stated in Chapter VII, if the recommenda- 
tion for creating two departments were adopted, we would find 
our Correctional Institutions in a Department with our hospitals, 
entirely separated from the important Division of Probation and 
Parole. How a Division of Probation and Parole could work 
constru. tively under such a separation, it is impossible for the 
writer to conceive. 
In Chapter VII, it was also pointed out that you could not 
separate a program of Child and Juvenile Welfare from the insti- 
tutions dealing with the care and rehabilitation of juveniles. The 
very fact that we have somethimg over 1,200 children in foster 
homes and only a few hundred in juvenile institutions points up 
the necessity of an integrated program where Extra-Mural Wel- 
fare Services and Intra-Mural Welfare Services for children are 
closely integrated. Supplementary Report 
It may be argued that the existing Department of Social Wel- 
fare is too large, and that it would be better from the standpoint 
of administration to divide it into two departments. Such an 
argument is entirely fallacious. No great manufacturing cor- 
poration would consider dividing various important manufac- 
turing functions which belong together because the company was 
too large. Industry has met this problem of size in the one way 
in which it can be met. It has streamlined the organization and 
created within the organization several divisions. Each divi- 
sion has at its head a highly skilled man in the particular phase 
of manufature with which the division of the company has to cope. 
This system of administration was what the Reorganization 
Bill had in view when it took some forty odd bureaus and brought 
those bureaus together which belonged together and placed them 
under one State Department. Having created an integrated 
State Department, the administrative system was further stream- 
lined by creating “divisions” within the Department. 
Great progress has been made in the Department of Social 
Welfare, especially during the present administration, in creat- 
ing divisions within the Department, each of which has to do 
with a specific social objective and function. 
The recommendations in the Report propose a further stream- 
lining of the Department of Social Welfare. In the event the 
recommendations herein proposed were adpoted, we would have, 
under the Director of the Department, the following divisions: 
1. A Division of Public Assistance, which would deal with 
all types of people outside of institutions who were in need 
of financial aid or other forms of relief such as, for exam- 
ple, medical care. 
2. A Division of Mental Hygiene. In this Division, there 
would be brought together for the first time all of the 
existing functions under the State administration which 
deal with the mentally ill or the mentally deficient, both 
inside and outside of institutions. 
3. A Division of Hospitals, which would bring together for 
the first time the two hospitals of the State dealing with 
acute or chronic illness. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
197 
4. A Correctional Division, which would bring together for 
the first time all of the social objectives and functions 
of the State in dealing with individuals convicted of crim- 
inal offenses. For example, the Correctional Institutions 
and the Division of Probation and Parole would be 
brought together in one Division. 
5. A Division of Child and Juvenile Welfare. Under this 
Division, there would be brought together for the first 
time all of the social objectives and administrative func- 
tions of the State dealing with juveniles, both inside and 
outside of institutions. 
In addition to the above, in the institutional field there are 
several operational functions of a service character. These, too, 
have been brought together in separate divisions: 
1. A Power Division. This important service to the insti- 
tutions at Howard was, during the present administra- 
tion of Governor Me Grath, centralized in one division, 
with a highly qualified Power Engineer at the head. 
2. A Division of Institutional Farms. As was shown in 
Appendix VIII, three farms were put together in one 
large farm. The head of this Division is a highly quali- 
fied man in the field of modern scientific farming. This 
centralization of the production of food, including field 
products, milk, eggs, and the production of pork and 
poultry, resulted in production of larger quantities of food 
and greater variety of food for the institutions. 
3. A Central Maintenance and Repair Division. All main- 
tenance and repair functions at Howard were centralized 
in what might be termed one engineering division, under 
a competent Construction Engineer. 
4. A Division of Business Management. The highly im- 
portant functions of bookkeeping and fiscal control were 
centralized under a Division of Business Management. 
This, for the first time, creates a modern system of ac- 
counting with respect to all institutions which expend 
annually in excess of two million dollars. 
It should be clear, therefore, that there is no reason for div- 
iding the Department of Social Welfare because of the size of the Supplementary Report 
Department. It is only a question of proper organization, a pro- 
per division of functions and placing over each of these divisions 
a highly qualified man, either a professional man or a highly qual- 
ified technological man, as the case may require. 
This Supplementary Report is a long report. The fact that 
it is so long has been a cause of considerable concern to the writer. 
There is, however, a justification for its length. 
It was the understanding of the writer that when Governor 
McGrath first appointed this Commission he had in mind that the 
Commission should make what might be termed a Social Archi- 
tectural Plan, or blueprint, for the future. That this was the ob- 
jective seems to be clear in the two resolutions passed by the Gen- 
eral Assembly, one in the session of 1942 and the second in the ses- 
sion of 1943. 
One cannot very well make a blueprint or Social-Architectur- 
al Plan without doing two things-one, setting forth the Plan in 
considerable detail with respect to all its various phases; and two, 
explaining the scientific and social basis upon which the Plan is 
founded. 
As stated in the Synopsis of this Plan, it is not contemplated 
by the writer that every phase of it should be adopted immediate- 
ly. In this connection, may I refer to the many far-reaching plans 
that have been made by leading municipalities. The City of New 
York has such a plan. It runs into a thousand or more pages. 
It is a plan looking forward to the orderly development of the 
greatest metropolis in the world over a period of the next twenty- 
five years. The Planning Board of the City of New York is con- 
stantly revising this plan as conditions and needs change. 
It is essential in the welfare field that we have a comprehen- 
sive plan for Social Guidance and Action. Failing to have such 
apian, we will be proceeding in the future, as we have in the past, 
on a “hit or miss” basis. In my opinion, the wisdom of the Gov- 
ernor of this State in appointing a Commission to make such a 
Social-Architectural Plan showed vision and foresight. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
199 
Post-Word 
There is included in this report Appendix X. This appen- 
dix comprises letters from leading authorities in the field of pen- 
ology, endorsing the proposal for a Correctional Authority as out- 
lined in Chapter II. 200 
Supplementary Report 
APPENDIX I 
List of Reports of State Commissions, 
National Associations and Research 
Organizations 
(1) Governor’s Message and Report of Commission to Investi- 
gate the State Public Welfare Commission and all Depart- 
ments Thereunder... Made to The General Assembly, 1929, 
Rhode Island. 
(2) Proceedings of The Governor’s Conference on Crime, The 
Criminal and Society, State of New York, 1935. 
(3) Proceedings of the Seventy-First Annual Congress of The 
American Prison Association, San Francisco, California, 1941. 
(4) Report to the Honorable Legislature of the State of New 
York of the Joint Legislative Committee to Examine Into, 
Investigate and Study the Existing Facilities for the Care 
and Treatment of Children, “Young People in the Courts 
of New York State,’ ’ 1942. 
(5) Handbook of American Prisons and Reformatories, Fifth 
Edition, Vol. II, Pacific Coast States, 1942. Osborne Asso- 
ciation, Inc. 
(6) Report to Governor Herbert H. Lehman from the Commis- 
sion for the Study of the Educational Problems of Penal In- 
stitutions for Youth, New York, 1936. 
(7) Yearbook, National Probation Association, “Social Defen- 
ses Against Crime,” New York, 1942. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
201 
(8) National Commission on Law Enforcement and Observance. 
George W. Wickersham, Attorney General United States, 
1939. Vol. I, “Report on the Causes of Crime.” 
(9) The Attorney General’s Survey of Release Procedures,Vol. 
II, Probation, 5 Vols., 1939. 
(10) Report of the Joint Legislative Committee to Investigate 
Jurisdiction of the Children’s Courts, Known as Children’s 
Court Jurisdiction and Juvenile Delinquency Committee, 
State of New York, 1939. 
(11) Special Report by Commission to Investigate Prison Ad- 
ministration and Construction, “An Educational Program 
For New York State’s Penal System,’’ Presented to The 
Legislature of the State of New York, 1932. 
(12) Special Report by Commission to Investigate Prison Ad- 
ministration and Construction, ‘ ‘A Preliminary Report on an 
Educational Project at Elmira Reformatory,’’ Presented 
to The Legislature of the State of New York, 1933. 
(13) Report of Joint Legislative Committee on Children’s Court 
Jurisdiction, State of New York, 1941. 
(14) Report of the Joint Legislative Committee to Investigate 
Jurisdiction of the Children’s Courts, Known as Children’s 
Court Jurisdiction and Juvenile Delinquency Committee, 
State of New York, 1938. 
(15) Report by the New York State Advisory Committee on 
Prison Industries to the Commission to Investigate Prison 
Administration and Construction, Presented to The Legis- 
lature of the State of New York, 1932. 
(16) Report of the Joint Legislative Committee to Investigate 
Jurisdiction of the Children’s Courts, Known as Children’s 
Court Jurisdiction and Juvenile Delinquency Committee, 
State of New York, 1940. Supplementary Report 
(17) “Preventing Criminal Careers,” A Proposal for a Youth 
Correction Authority for the State of New York, 1941, 
Leonard V. Harrison, Director, The Committee on Youth 
and Justice, Community Service Society of New York. 
(18) “Chaos in Sentencing Youth Offenders,” Leonard V. Har- 
rison, Director, The Committee on Youth and Justice, Com- 
munity Service Society of New York, 1943. 
(19) ‘ ‘Prisons Cost Too Much,’ ’ Leonard V. Harrison, Director, 
The Committee on Youth and Justice, Community Service 
Society of New York, 1942. 
(20) Report to the Judicial Conference of the Committee on Pun- 
ishment for Crime, Washington, D. C., 1942. 
(21) Hearings before Subcommittee No. 3 of the Committee on 
the Judiciary, House of Representatives, Seventy-Eighth 
Congress, First Session on H. R. 2139, “A Bill to Provide 
Improvement in the Administration of Parole’ ’ and H. R. 
2140, “A Bill to Provide a Correctional System for Adult 
and Youth Offenders Convicted in Courts of the United 
States,” May 18 and 19 and June 10, 1943, U. S. Govern- 
ment Printing Office, Washington, D. C. 
(22) Law and Contemporary Problems, ‘ ‘The Correction of Youth- 
ful Offenders,” School of Law, Duke University, Vol. IX, 
No. 4, 1942. 
(23) “Criminal Youth and The Borstal System,” William Healy, 
M. D. and Benedict S. Alper, the Commonwealth Fund, 1941. 
(24) Report of the Maryland Commission on Juvenile Delin- 
quency, prepared by Dr. Herbert D. Williams, Superinten- 
dent of the New York State Training School for Boys, War- 
wick, New York, 1943. 
(25) ‘ ‘Principles of Child Care in Institutions,’ ’ A Handbook for 
Staff Study and Discussion. The Ohio Committee on Child- 
ren’s Institutions, in cooperation with the Division of Public State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
203 
Assistance, State Department of Public Welfare, Columbus, 
Ohio, 1941. 
(26) Committee on Personnel Standards and Training, “Report 
to American Prison Association 72d Congress,” Asheville, 
N. C., 1942. 
(27) ‘ ‘Prison Labor in the United States,’ ’ United States Depart- 
ment of Labor, 1940. 
(28) “Treatment and What Happened Afterward,” Healy, Wil- 
liam, M. D. and Bronner, Augusta F., Judge Baker Guidance 
Center, 1939. 
(29) White House Conference on Children in a Democracy, Final 
Report, 1940, Washington, D. C. 
(30) “Feebleminded Children as a Massachusetts Problem,” 
Jennette R. Gruener, Ph. D., Boston, 1941. 
(31) Handbook for the Use of Boards of Directors, Superinten- 
dents, and Staffs of Institutions for Dependent Children— 
Children’s Bureau, United States Departmment of Labor, 
1936. 
(32) “A Study of the Public Mental Hospitals of the United 
States, 1937-39,” Federal Security Agency, United States 
Public Health Service. 204 
Supplementary Report 
APPENDIX II 
The Proposed Correctional Authority 
In the introduction of this report, it was pointed out that 
there had developed in recent years a most remarkable pattern 
with respect to the various Social Sciences, viz., the work of special- 
ized national associations and scientific research organizations. In 
no field has this pattern been more highly developed than in the 
’field of delinquency and crime. We have, for example, The Ameri- 
can Prison Association, The Osborne Association Incorporated, 
and The American Law Institute. 
Let us consider, now, the facts and conclusions of these organi- 
zations. 
1. The Facts 
In spite of the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on build- 
ing institutions—prisons, reformatories and training schools for 
youth; in spite of hundreds of millions spent annually on police 
systems, on federal and state departments of criminal justice in- 
cluding the criminal courts and juvenile courts; in spite of the 
millions spent yearly for administration of the prisons, re- 
formatories and juvenile correctional institutions, and additional 
millions spent on probation and parole systems, we have failed 
to solve the problem of Crime and the Criminal In fact, we are 
losing ground. Between 1923 and 1940, the number of prison- 
ers in State and Federal Prisons increased seven times as fast as 
did the total population. 
A second fact is that more than half of the swelling army of 
citizens who are in Federal and State Prisons are repeaters, or, to 
use a technical term, recidivists. In the study, “500 Criminal 
Careers,’ ’ Professor Glueck and Mrs. Glueck, in tracing 500 boys 
released from Concord, Massachusetts Reformatory, found that 
80 per cent were not reformed five to fifteen years later, but went 
right on committing crimes after their discharge.’’* 
So we find, of 1,483 Federal prisoners received under sentence 
of more than one year during the third quarter of 1941, 1,127 or 
76 per cent were recidivists. Of the inmates in Pennsylvania’s 
♦Glueck, Sheldon and Eleanor, * ‘500 Criminal Careers,’ ’ Alfred A. Knopf, N. Y., 1930. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
205 
Eastern Penitentiary recently, 67 per cent had previously served 
time; in the Massachusetts State Prison, 70 percent; in the Loui- 
siana Pententiary, 80 per cent (figures from The American Law 
Institute). 
A third fact is that Youth Crime is, in certain types of crime, 
predominant. Youths are far in the lead over any five year group 
in arrests and convictions for burglary, robbery, larceny, and theft. 
A Report of The American Law Institute points up this fact 
about youth:—* 
‘ ‘Of all commitments to New York State penal institutions 
in 1940, over 35 percent were between 16 and 21 years old. 
In the whole country this age group committed half the 
auto thefts, a third of all burglaries, robberies and larcen- 
ies. These crimes against property are the habit form- 
ing crimes. Youthful offenders supply the recruits that 
make up the army of habitual criminals. Most of the re- 
peaters that clog our courts and fill our prisons get started 
in adolescence. The situation is getting worse instead of 
better. In the first nine months of 1942, crimes committed 
by persons under 21 increased by almost 20 per cent over 
the same period in 1941. More persons 18 years old were 
arrested than in any other age group. At the same time, 
the figures for juvenile delinquency, particularly in all areas 
touched by war industries, are increasing alarmingly. As 
Governor Dewey said to the New York legislature last Janu- 
ary:— 
“ ‘A high rate of juvenile delinquency means a high crime rate 
five years from now. It means a heavier load on courts and 
prisons and an increasing toll of human misery.’ On the 
basis of experience after the last war and of present trends, 
experts are agreed that the economic and social maladjust- 
ments which are sure to follow the peace and demobilization 
will face us with the gravest crime problem in our history. 
We are not equipped to meet it and we shall not be unless 
responsible citizens and groups accept a greater share of the 
obligations for prevention and correction than they have 
hitherto.’ ’ 
“The American Law Institute, “Crime Today and Tomorrow.” 206 
Supplementary Report 
A fourth fact, and one of significant import, is that a high 
percentage of these boys who start at an early age on a career of 
crime come from what we may term community sources of in- 
fection. This fact was stressed in Chapter I when we discussed 
and proposed a State Program of Prevention. It cannot be over- 
emphasized. The old adage, ‘ ‘As the twig is bent so the tree will 
grow,’ ’ is at the very root of this scourge on the body of society. 
As the Black Plague was only cured by public sanitation, so Crime 
can only be cured by far-reaching measures of community social 
sanitation. 
An excellent documented public report on this subject is 
“The Report of the Joint Legislative Committee to Investigate 
Jurisdiction of the Children’s Court” (Legislative Document, 1939, 
No. 75, New York State, submitted March 20, 1939). The study 
took the Health Areas of Greater New York as the geographical 
base. In Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens, those 
sections having high juvenile arraignment were “black” on the 
map; those having low arraignment were “white,” with shaded 
areas in between. The pattern was uniform. High rates of juvenile 
delinquency were in the slum and semi-slum areas where tenements, 
over-crowding, low standards of living, and too often dire poverty 
constituted the community pattern. Lowest rates were in the 
better residential districts. 
This Legislative Report to the New York Legislature para- 
llels the pattern in every city and state in the union. Poverty 
and the slum are not the sole factors. The children of the poor 
begin work at an early age, are poorly paid for their work, work 
irregularly, suffer from unemployment of their parents and from 
emotional conflicts of their parents and relatives. Also, they 
come to the period of adulthood deficient in education and with 
low physical vitality.* (See Studies by Clifford Shaw, Professor 
and Eleanor Glueck, The Osborne Association, Inc.) 
The Wickersham Report, Volume 1, “Report on the Causes 
of Crime,” concluded that maladjustment in the social and eco- 
*Criminal statistics show the great majority of persons convicted of crime have an eighth grade 
education or less. The high school graduate is rarely found in a prison or reformatory. The 
college graduate more rarely still. This is true in our own State. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
207 
nomic life of modern society provides the background and causes 
for much of the anti-social behavior of delinquents and criminals. 
The Report says:—* 
‘ ‘Human conduct, normal or abnormal, is socially conditioned. 
The one fact that emerges clearly from our studies of this 
problem (causes of crime) is that the major responsibility 
for crime is a social, as distinguished from an indivi- 
dual, responsibility. 
In a report to the New York Legislature on Education, it is 
said:— 
“There is evidence that certain conditions have direct re- 
lationship with delinquency and crime. School retardation 
and crime are highly correlated. Slum areas produce far 
more than their proportionate quota of criminals and delin- 
quents. Poor or broken homes; unwise or unjust discipline 
by parents and teachers; frustration of desires and failure 
in school and society; lack of adequate satisfactions; poverty; 
lack of recreational, educational, religious, and vocational 
opportunities; association with criminals; bad motion pictures; 
alcohol; the easy acquisition of fire arms;—all these and many 
other social and economic conditions have been contributing 
factors to crime and delinquency...” 
Speaking before a conference called by Governor Lehman at 
Albany in 1935, Austin H. MacCormick, Executive Director of 
The Osborne Association, Inc., said:—** 
“A second fairly constant factor appears in the picture of 
the criminal as we know him in custody. He comes pre- 
dominantly from under-privileged groups; from those people 
who live on the economic fringe; from the unskilled and poor- 
ly educated laboring group; from the poorer parts of town, 
no matter what town or how big the town may be; from the 
families whose homes are crowded, unattractive, and poverty- 
stricken; from the street corners, poolrooms, dance-halls, 
and gin mills; from those social and economic conditions 
*National Commission on Law Enforcement and Observance. George W. Wickersham, Director. 
Volume I, “Report on the Causes of Crime.’’ 
**State of New York, ‘ ‘Proceedings of the Governor’s Conference on Crime, the Criminal and 
Society,” Sept. 30 to Oct. 3, 1935, Albany, N. Y. 208 
Supplementary Report 
which would make criminals of you and me, unless, by the 
grace of God, there was something within us strong enough 
to combat the constant downward pull. Poverty may not 
breed criminals, but the things bred by poverty breed them.’ ’ 
There are cited below* two important authorities on the 
effect of economic conditions on crime. 
Such are the more important facts. We cannot plan either 
the ‘ ‘immediate’ ’ or ‘ ‘future’ ’ needs of Rhode Island’s correction- 
al institutions—the Prison, the Reformatory, Sockanosset and 
Oaklawn Schools—apart from such facts. 
Is it any wonder that prominent industrialists, like Walter S. 
Gifford, John D. Rockefeller, 3rd, and other prominent business 
men and tax-payers, are at present taking a great interest in the 
solution of this problem? 
The State of Rhode Island spends annually something like 
two million dollars on State and Local Police, Criminal Justice, 
Local Jails, State Correctional Institutions and on Probation and 
Parole. I bespeak most earnestly the interest of Rhode Island’s 
leading businessmen and tax-payers. I recommend to them that 
they confer with Mr. Gifford and Mr. Rockefeller, who surely 
are not “sentimentalists” or academicians, or unrealistic. For 
these businessmen have reached certain conclusions, and have a 
program. 
So, I recommend to the Attorney General of our State and 
to the Justices of our courts that they read the recent Report of 
the Senior Circuit Judges of the Federal Courts, a “Report to 
the Judicial Conference of the Committee on Punishment 
of Crime” (Washington, D. C. 1942). 
I recommend to the members of the Rhode Island Bar that 
they confer with the President of The American Law Institute 
and the President of The American Bar Association. 
I recommend this because what follows represents the gener- 
al consensus of the conclusions reached by all of the above groups, 
after several years of intensive study. 
*Bouger, W. A. ‘Criminality and Economic Conditions,’’ translated by Henry P. Horton, Boston, 
Little Brown. 
Taft, Donald R., “Criminology,” MacMillan Company, New York, 1942. Chapter 8, “Crime 
and Economic Conditions.’ ’ State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
209 
2. Conclusions 
Legislative Committees, Federal Judges, Attorney Generals 
of the United States, technical, scientific and research organiza- 
tions, working pragmatically in the sciences of Criminology and 
Penology, all have reached the same general conclusions. These 
may be summarized briefly as follows:— 
1. The concept of “punishment to suit crime” has to 
be changed to “treatment to suit the offender.” 
2. A proper system of Treatment, looking to rehabilitation, 
demands an “Integration” of various functions: viz., (a) sen- 
tencing after conviction; (b) diagnosis, as a basis of “classifica- 
tion’’and “treatment”; (c) “classification” of “offenders” on a 
basis of sound “diagnosis”; (d) diversification of institutions, 
ranging from those of maximum to those of minimum security; 
(e) individualized training and treatment as distinguished from 
the prevailing “mass custody.” The institutional program 
should involve every form of training and treatment that may 
remove handicaps and disabilities, physical and mental, increase 
desirable and useful knowledge and skills, correct individual and 
social maladjustments, change undesirable attitudes, and, in 
general, prepare the person for a free life; (f) the term of sentence 
to be “indeterminate,” the date of release, long or short, to be 
determined by the fitness of the individual to return to society; 
(g) the decision as to his ‘ ‘release’ ’ should be determined by a 
group of experts who have been responsible for the individual’s 
treatment and training; (h) in most cases the convicted offender 
should serve a period in free society on parole after imprisonment, 
and his final ‘ ‘release’ ’ shall be dependent on the decision of the 
experts in charge of him from the date of his conviction; (i) it fol- 
lows from the above that the probation and parole system should 
also be “integrated” with the correctional process; (j) during 
the time a man is in prison, especially if he is a youthful offender, 
consideration should be given to his home environment. For ex- 
ample, if the father is a drunkard or the mother a prostitute or 
feeble-minded, provision on release should be made for him to 
live in some other home. Even in case of a poor family living 
in a slum district, constructive social case work might get the 
family into better surroundings before the prisoner is paroled. 210 
Supplementary Report 
Finally, such an integrated program requires the es- 
tablishment of one over-all “Authority,” responsible for 
the man or boy from the date of arrest to date of final release. 
3. The Constructive Program 
We have set forth briefly the ‘ ‘Facts’ ’ and the ‘ ‘Conclusions’ ’ 
reached by specialists in this field. We find a crying need for an 
“Integrated Program,’’ under one Authority, which would 
make application of the scientific methodology so well established 
in the General Hospital and in the modern Hospital for Mental 
Diseases. 
Such a program is now pending before Congress, embraced 
in two bills: H. R. 2140, ‘ ‘A Bill to Provide a Correctional System 
for Adult and Youth Offenders Convicted in Courts of the United 
States’’; H. R. 2139, “A Bill to Provide Improvement in the 
Administration of Parole.’ ’ 
Briefly summarized, H, R. 2140 provides for the establish- 
ment of a federal Board of Corrections, appointed by the At- 
torney General and comprised of a chairman and nine members. 
Members designated by the chairman will serve in three major 
divisions, the Division of Adult Corrections, the Youth Author- 
ity Division, and the Policy Division. 
“1. The Division on Adult Corrections.—If the court de- 
termines that an offender shall receive a sentence of more than 
1 year, it will impose an original sentence for the maximum 
period provided by law. Within 6 months, after the Divi- 
sion has had an opportunity to study the case and has inter- 
viewed the offender, a defintie sentence will be recommended 
to the court by the Board. The court may accept or reject 
the sentence recommended, but, if the court fails to act 
upon the recommendation within 2 months, the sentence recom- 
mended by the Board becomes the definite sentence. The 
Division, after sentence has been fixed, may parole the of- 
fender at the expiration of one-third of the definite sentence. 
The powers now vested in the United States Board of Pa- 
role become vested in the Board of Corrections. 
“2. The Youth Authority Division.-Youths under 24 years 
of age may be committed to the Authority. When commit- State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
211 
ted, the youth is originally sent to a classification center. 
After study of the case, the Authority may permit the youth 
to remain at liberty under supervision, or direct his trans- 
fer to an institituon or agency for treatment. The Authority 
may release a youth conditionally under supervision at any 
time and may discharge him unconditionally 1 year after he 
is conditionally released. 
‘ ‘All youth offenders must be released conditionally within 
4 years after the date of conviction, and must be discharged 
unconditionally within 6 years after the date of conviction. 
The Authority may modify or revoke the conditions of release. 
“3. The Policy Division.—This Division, comprised of one 
member of each of the Divisions outlined above and the Di- 
rector of the Bureau of Prisons, will consider problems of 
treatment and correction, and establish general policies in 
these areas. 
‘ ‘The bill further provides for the appointment by the Attorney 
General of a chief parole officer to administer the parole sys- 
tem and the supervision of youthful offenders. 
“H. R. 2139, the companion proposal, provides that all of- 
fenders upon whom definite sentences of more than 1 year 
have been imposed shall upon release be subject to the pro- 
visions relating to the parole of United States prisoners for 
a minimum period of 2 years.”* 
*See ' 'Hearings before Subcommittee No. 3 of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Repre- 
sentatives.” Seventy-Eighth Congress. May 18 and 19 and June 10, 1943. 212 
Supplementary Report 
The Proposed Federal Program 
The following statements are taken from testimony given in 
May and June of 1943 with respect to H.R. 2140, the bill pending 
in Congress providing for a Correctional System, and H .R. 2139, 
a bill for improvement in the administration of parole:* 
Statement of Honorable Orie L. Phillips, Senior Circuit 
Judge: 
‘ ‘The bill under consideration, H. R. 2140, provides for a coordina- 
ted and integrated correctional system with desirable flexibility, 
embracing the sentencing of the offender, probation under super- 
vision or institutional confinement and treatment, conditional 
release under supervision, and final discharge. 
‘ ‘It is designed primarily, as every correctional system should be, 
for the protection of the public. But it provides for a system 
under which offenders can be classified and segregated and those 
susceptible of rehabilitation subjected to correctional treatment 
calculated to attain that objective. It thus departs from the 
merely punitive method of dealing with criminals and looks pri- 
marily at the objective idea of rehabilitation and the prevention 
of recidivism...” 
Statement of Honorable Francis Biddle, Attorney General 
of the United States; 
“We now recognize that the equality which justice enjoins must 
comprehend a wide variation in the treatment of persons who 
violate the same statute, depending on both the circumstances 
of the crime and the background and potentialities of the criminal. 
“What we seek, therefore, is not an oversimplified equivalence 
of treatment, whether it be measured in terms of the offense or the 
offender, but rather an underlying consistency in the evaluation 
of the multiple factors which have a bearing on the issue of sentenc- 
ing and on the values sought to be served in fixing sentences in dif- 
*Hearings before Subcommittee No. 3 of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, 
Seventy-Eighth Congress, First Session on H. R. 2139, “A Bill to Provide Improvement in the 
Adminstration of Parole’ ’ and H. R. 2140, * ‘A Bill to Provide a Correctional System for Adult and 
Youth Offenders Convicted in Courts of the United States,” May 18 and 19 & June 10, 1943. State Commission on Public Weljare Institutions 
213 
ferent cases. It is equality in these terms which the present bill 
will further. 
“In addition to providing a mechanism for furnishing the judges 
with information which will enable them to fulfill their responsibil- 
ity in imposing sentence on a more satisfactory basis, the bill will 
serve the desirable purpose of providing a closer integration be- 
tween the determination of sentence in the first instance and the 
release procedures subsequently employed. 
‘ ‘The Board of Parole now comes into the picture only when the 
period of eligibility for release on parole arrives. The Board of 
Corrections, to which the functions of the Parole Board are trans- 
ferred, will take cognizance of its cases at the beginning for the 
recommendation of sentence. By the time consideration of re- 
lease becomes appropriate, the ground work will already have 
been laid. 
“No less important than the proposal with respect to adult of- 
fenders is that portion of the bill which would extend the treat- 
ment methods available to the trial judge to the case of offenders 
under 24 years of age. Based in large measure upon the study 
and recommendations of The American Law Institute, the bill 
authorizes the judge to sentence the youth to the custody of a 
division of the proposed board for special treatment and super- 
vision. The court is not required to follow this course. As in 
the case of adult offenders, sentence may be suspended or the de- 
fendent may be placed on probation, or, indeed, the court may 
sentence the youth as it would an adult under the first title of the 
bill. The special treatment authorized is merely an additional 
possibility to be employed in cases where the youth will benefit 
from the type of special treatment and.supervision contemplated 
for his rehabilitation. 
“The upper age of 24 years for the jurisdiction of the Youth Au- 
thority is based upon a long record of experience and treatment. 
Physiologists and psychiatrists are of the opinion that this age 
represents final arrival at physical, intellectual, and emotional 
maturity. England has long since adopted a specialized form 
of treatment for youthful offenders in the form of the Borstal 
system. 
“It consists of a method of closely integrated and individualized 
institutional rehabilitation and after-care of youthful offenders in 214 
Supplementary Report 
this age group. Twenty-one was the originally set age as the up- 
per limit for Borstal care, but after considerable experience with 
the system this was raised to 23. Its success is well known. The 
present proposals build upon that experience. 
‘ ‘While the youth offender provisions will work the largest change 
in the present procedure in dealing with youths above juvenile 
court age, it may be expected that the establishment of the Board 
and the Authority will operate to strengthen the facilities of the 
Federal Government in dealing with juvenile offenders within 
the age covered by the present Juvenile Delinquency Act. The 
problem of youthful delinquency has never been more sharply 
before us than it is at the present time. The unmistakable in- 
crease in juvenile crime poses a problem of long-range dimensions. 
Anything that can be done to strengthen the hand of the courts 
and the Government in meeting the problem is entitled to warm 
support. 
‘ ‘The proposed Federal Corrections Act represents an eminently 
reasonable approach to some of the abiding problems involved 
in the administration of the Federal criminal law. The bill may 
be susceptible of improvement in matters of detail, but its basic 
principles and essential approach seem to me to be unquestion- 
ably sound. I hope that the bill will gain the approval of Con- 
gress, and I heartily recommend its enactment.” 
Statement of George Wharton Pepper, President of The 
American Law Institute: 
“It is reported that the majority of those who are habitual crim- 
inals received their impulse in that direction' during the dan- 
gerous years from 16 to 21. As has been said to you, some 50 
percent of the automobile thefts in the pre-war period is attri- 
butable to the activity of this youth group; something like 33 
percent of the burglaries and other crimes of adventure involving 
theft is attributable to this youth group, and when you reflect 
that the youth group is the reservoir from which there is drawn 
the supply of habitual criminals, we realize that under our system 
what we are really doing is recruiting from the ranks of youth the 
sins of age, and the thing resolves itself into a vicious circle. It 
is crime. It is arrest. It is trial. It is conviction. It is punish- 
ment. It is imprisonment. It is release. It is crime. It is State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
215 
arrest. It is conviction. It is punishment. It is release, and 
so on, in a vicious circle, which in some cases, gentlemen, has 
reached such a proportion as this, that in every major prison in 
this country you will find a very large percentage of criminals 
who have served time five times previously. 
‘ ‘There are cases in which the number of previous convictions rises 
far above that, and you are compelled to realize that something 
must be done about this thing, or else we are going to win a war 
on foreign fronts and we are going to lose the battle with crime 
in the country for which the boys are fighting. 
“I do not want you to think I am thinking as an emotional starry- 
eyed reformer. It happens that this particular matter of the 
care of prisoners and their rehabilitation has been a lifelong inter- 
est of mine. I have been an unofficial visitor at the Eastern 
Penitentiary at Philadelphia for years and years and am now. I 
have had a good many friends among the inmates of that insti- 
tution whom I have contacted there and with whom I have es- 
tablished friendly relations. I have a colored man there now 
serving a life sentence upon whom I am trying to bring to bear 
whatever influence of personality and friendship I may have in 
an effort to rehabilitate him. 
‘ ‘I am not at all in the group of those who think that prisoners 
ought to be mollycoddled, that we ought to be emotional and 
impulsive for their release. I believe, however, that we must face 
the hard fact that you cannot intelligently treat all people alike 
merely because of the crime which they have committed, without 
reference to age, to background, to physical condition, to the en- 
vironment from which they come, and the possibilities of rehabili- 
tation. Those things must be taken into consideration, and they 
cannot be taken into consideration by the average judge work- 
ing under the average conditions of a district court. You know 
how little penalty or punishment operates as a deterrent for crime. 
You have heard of the classical instance, extreme it may be, but 
still historic, that up to a certain date in the nineteenth century 
the penalty for pickpocketing in England was death, hanging, and 
reforms urged upon Parliament failed to bring about a change 
until it was discovered that the public had to be protected against 
having their pockets picked when they went to witness the execu- 
tion of the pickpocket on the scaffold. Supplementary Report 
“You cannot deter people from crime by heavy devices of punish- 
ment, and we believe that the only intelligent approach is the 
approach through the method which this bill outlines and for which 
it makes provision in the case of the authority.” 
George Maurice Morris, President of The American Bar 
Association, filed with the Congressional Committee the follow- 
ing Resolution:— 
“Resolution Approved by the House of Delegates of the Am- 
erican Bar Association, April 27, 1942, Detroit, Mich. 
“For the section of criminal law and procedure, Chairman James 
J. Robinson offered the following resolutuon: 
“Whereas the section of criminal law, and particularly its com- 
mittee on sentencing, probation, prisons and parole, has made a 
careful study of the Report to the Judicial Conference of Senior 
Circuit Judges of the United States by the conference committee 
on punishment for crime, and has concluded that the recommen- 
dations of the conference committee ‘represent a tremendous step 
forward in the methods of sentencing and of correctional treatment 
and that these recommendations should be vigorously supported 
by the American Bar Association’; and- 
“Whereas these recommendations should be promptly put into 
effect, especially for dealing with the difficult problems of crim- 
inal law administration which will arise following the present war: 
Be it Resolved, That the American Bar Association express its 
appreciation to the Judicial Conference and particularly to the 
members of the conference committee on punishment for crime 
for the excellent report and supporting studies which the com - 
mittee has prepared; and be it further Resolved, That the as- 
sociation authorize its section of criminal law to cooperate in 
securing prompt action by the Congress on the draft bills propos- 
ed by the committee appointed by the Conference of Senior Cir- 
cuit Judges of the United States. 
“Chairman Robinson referred to the general endorsement which 
the plan has received, including the statement by Judge Orie L. 
Phillips that it is ‘sound in respect.’ The motion to adopt was 
carried by the House.” State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
217 
Statement of William Draper Lewis, Director of The Amer- 
ican Law Institute: 
“Once the court has committed an offender to the Youth Author- 
ity, with no minimum term and a maximum of 6 years, continu- 
ous control over the offender until final discharge is lodged in the 
Authority, This represents an immense forward step over the 
present system of splitting control among three mutually isolated 
agencies-the sentencing court, the Bureau of Prisons, and the Pa- 
role Board. Unification of authority is the only sure way to pre- 
vent one procedure in the process of treatment from defeating 
what another has done. All procedures are intimately related; 
one follows and is affected by another. 
“The essential procedures fall into three major catagories: 
1. Diagnosis and classification. 
2. Training and readjustment. 
3. Reestablishment in the community. 
“Treatment procedures that are based on scientific knowledge 
of human behavior must begin with diagnosis. What factor or 
combination of factors-physical, psychological, or enviornment- 
al—led the youth into anti-social behavior? What are his apti- 
tudes and capacities? A study of the boy’s body, mind, home 
background, and life history is the essential first step. It is a 
task for not one but a group of specialists and to insure it the bill 
provides that the youth offenders shall be sent first to classifica- 
tion centers. 
“The ultimate pooling of information by the specialists who study 
the offender will reveal the treatment to which he is most likely to 
respond. We know from experience that only a minority of of- 
fenders require the penning in a fortress-type prison which is the 
traditional mode of handling committed men. Only the dan- 
gerously anti-social, those whose criminality has become a deep- 
seated habit, and, perhaps, the habitual runaway, need confine- 
ment under close custody. And for these the aim should be to use 
all types of thereapy to fit them for graduation progressively into 
less secure units where they can be made increasingly responsible 
for themselves and able to meet the strain of living in the com- 
munity. 
“For the majority of reclaimable offenders, particularly the youth 
group, close comfinenent—often with all types and ages of human 
derelicts—regimentation, and partial or complete idleness do not Supplementary Report 
add up to the prescription required to fit any human being to live 
successfully in society. Yet that is just the prescription we write 
for the vast majority of offenders we commit to jails, reformatories, 
or penitentiaries. Have we not had enough of this fatuous 
destruction of character and waste of public funds? Here is the 
big need and the big opportunity in the correctional field. 
“ I should point out that the Federal Bureau of Prisons under the 
extremely able leadership of Mr. Bennett already leads the way 
in this country in showing what can be done in segregating offend- 
ers by age and type and in the diversification of treatment faci- 
lities. The 30 units now operated by the Federal Bureau range 
down from the fortress rock at Alcatraz to the road camp in the 
Idaho Rockies and the maintenance camps on Army reservations. 
“We know that personnel of high quality directing a constructive 
program can hold most youthful offenders more surely than guns. 
The Los Angeles County forestry camps for delinquents and felons, 
16 to 20 years old, established in 1932—and in part the C. C. C. 
camps—provide the models and prove the practicability of such 
camps. 
“I do not intend, of course, to suggest that all youthful offenders 
who are classed as reclaimable should automatically be placed in 
camps or on farms. For some, training in a trade or special 
skill may be indicated. However, I am inclined to believe that 
the working camp or farm is the most promising substitute for the 
demoralizing jail to which most Federal offenders now sentenced 
for one year or less are committed. In this connection I want to 
add a special endorsement to the provision in section 1 of title IV. 
“Obviously, the goal and purpose of all procedures in such a cor- 
rectional system as we are considering is to get the individual back 
on his own feet in the community. That is why the Youth 
Authority is given the power to release an offender under supervi- 
sion as soon as his behavior and frame of mind indicate that he will 
probably make a successful adjustment in the community. The 
people best able to judge that that time has come are the people 
who work with him constantly. Here we see again the importance 
of tying in the whole process of diagnosis, training, and parole 
under one agency. 
“Successful replacement in the community for an offender usually 
means a job, friends, and favorable environment. In no step in State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
219 
the correctional process have the system and the public failed so 
grievously. Let me cite a case that came to my attention in 
Illinois. A young fellow in his twenties released from Pontiac 
Reformatory had been helped to get a job driving a truck for a 
small factory in Chigaco. He had worked for several months 
making cross-State hauls. He sometimes had to collect sums run- 
ning into several hundred dollars from the consignees. He had 
always turned in his collections and there had been no difficulties. 
“Eventually, on a day that he was making a delivery to Milwaukee 
and was to collect something over $200, some troublemaker in- 
formed his employer that he had done time at Pontiac and was an 
‘ex-con.’ The employer immediately telephoned the Milwaukee 
consignee telling him to take delivery but not to pay the driver 
‘because he was an ‘ex-con’ from Pontiac.’ What right has 
society to expect a man to respect its laws after such a foul blow? 
Unfortunately the story is not untypical of public attitude toward 
the discharged prisoner. 
“It is the intent of the Federal act to provide competent paid 
parole supervision and also to enlist responsible and healthy- 
minded citizens who will serve as ‘ first-friends ’ or parole advisors, 
without fanfare and without cost but with good will and human 
kindness. 
“Such is the rounded and intergrated system for dealing with 
youthful offenders that this bill would set up. It illustrates what 
is meant by individual treatment. I think it would increase the 
proportion of young Federal offenders who are turned from careers 
of crime. Of even greater value to our society, I think, such a 
Federal system would demonstrate to the States ways of doing a 
better job in human salvage—a demonstration that is urgently 
needed. I strongly urge the adoption of this bill in its entirety.’’ 220 
Supplementary Report 
APPENDIX III 
Nature and Character of an Integrated Program 
(A) Statement of Austin H. MacCormick, Executive Dir- 
ector of The Osborne Association, Inc.* 
“Among the tenets now generally accepted as fundamental are 
the following: that, whatever may be true of criminals in general, 
prisoners come predominantly from the lower economic and soc- 
ial strata of society; that they do not differ greatly from free per- 
sons on those levels of society; that they present marked individ- 
ual differences and cannot be treated effectively on a mass basis; 
that the ultimate aim of the institutional and parole system, to 
cause the offender to become a law-abiding citizen, can best be 
accomplished by training and treatment on an individualized 
basis; that the institution’s first task is to learn everthing possible 
about each prisoner, and to assemble the essential data in usable 
form; that a program should then be planned for each prisoner 
on the basis of the full data in his case and his probable future; 
that the program should involve every form of training and treat- 
ment that may remove handicaps and disabilities, increase de- 
sirable and useful knowledge and skills, correct individual and 
social maladjustments, change undesirable attitudes, and in general 
prepare the prisoner for free life; that the length of stay in the insti- 
tution should depend primarily, within reasonable limits, on the 
fitness of the prisoner for release; that release from an institution, 
in most cases, should be followed by a period under the type of 
supervision and control that a good parole system provides; and 
that the success of the released prisoner in free life depends not 
only on his own attitude and effort but also on the degree to 
which society gives him the opportunity and the encouragement 
necessary to success. 
“It is generally agreed among progressive penologists that the 
essentials of a well-rounded correctional program in an institution 
for adult offenders, the aim of which is to bring about the rehabili- 
tation of the prisoner through an individualized program of train- 
ing and treatment, include the following: Scientific classification 
‘Handbook of American Prisons and Reformatories,” 5th Edition, Volume II, The Osborne 
Association, Inc., pp. XIV., XV. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
221 
and assignment on the basis of complete case histories, examina- 
tions, tests, and studies of the individual prisoners; adequate med- 
ical service, having corrective treatment as its aim, and making 
full use of psychiatry; psychological services, properly related 
to the problems of education, work assignment, discipline, and so 
forth; employment at tasks comparable in variety, type, and pace to 
the work of the world outside, and especially tasks with vocation- 
al training value; education planned in accordance with the indiv- 
dual’s needs and interests, with heavy emphasis on vocational 
training; library services, designed to provide wholesome recrea- 
tion and indirect education; directed recreation, both indoors and 
outdoors, so organized as to promote mental and physical health; 
a religious program so conducted as to affect the spiritual life of 
the individual as well as that of the whole group; discipline that 
aims at the development of self-control and preparation for free 
life, not merely at conformity to institutional rules; adequate 
buildings and equipment for the varied program and activities 
of the institution; and, above all, adequate and competent person- 
nel, carefully selected, well trained, and serving under such con- 
ditions as to promote a high degree of morale and efficiency. 
‘ ‘No individual institution or prison system in the United States 
has been able as yet to establish such a program in its entirety, 
especially in the all-important essential of trained personnel. 
In several federal and state institutions most of the program out- 
lined above has been put in operation, but even in those where 
it has been possible to keep the population down to a reasonable 
limit, and where constructive efforts are not defeated by the twin 
evils of over-crowding and idleness, the officials would be slow 
to claim that they had achieved the elusive goal of individualized 
treatment. Experienced workers in the correctional field know 
that there is something inherent in institutions that tends to de- 
feat their purpose. The measurable progress which can be made 
by superior personnel operating a well-rounded program in an 
adequate plant is always retarded and impaired in some degree by 
the intangible effects on the prisoners of what is called institution- 
alization, effects which are felt increasingly in instutitions operat- 
ing on a mass treatment basis. 
‘ ‘In the effort to reduce the bad effects and increase the beneficial 
effects of institutional life, the present trend in American prison 
systems is toward diversification of institutions; the development 222 
Supplementary Report 
of institutional systems composed of a number of comparatively 
small units, with various types of programs and varying degrees 
of security, each unit being designed to care for a certain general 
type of prisoner and staffed with that end in view. It is recog- 
nized that there is more likelihood of discovering what training 
and treatment an individual prisoner needs, and accomplishing it, 
in a diversified system of this type, with an adequate classification 
program in operation, than in a system consisting of two or three 
oversized prisons and adult reformatories of the traditional type, 
each with a population so heterogeneous that even a superior 
staff finds itself inevitably engaged for the most part in mass 
treatment.’ ’ State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
223 
APPENDIX III 
Excerpt from paper— 
Crime, its Prevention and Correction 
(B) Program for a State Agency 
BY 
John R. Ellingston 
Adviser, Criminal Justice—Youth 
American Law Institute 
Periodically the United States wakes up to the magnitude of its 
problems of delinquency and crime. The emotional shock usually 
results in new legislation. Depending on the mood of the moment, 
this may call for harsher treatment of offenders, like New York’s 
Baumes Laws, or for more constructive treatment, like a parole 
law. Whatever is done is usually considered to have removed all 
cause for further concern and the subject is forgotten until events 
again force us to realize that we are no further along toward 
solving the fundamental problem than we were before. 
In terms of percentages of the population imprisoned and of 
the annual cost for their care, the situation in the Nation has 
grown steadily worse since the last war. In 1920, the penitent- 
iaries of Illinois had 560 prisoners per million of the State’s popu- 
lation; by 1939 the number had risen to 1,480 per million. In 
New York, the number jumped from 644 prisoners per million of 
population in 1920 to 1,350 per million in 1940. Over the same 
period New York’s annual expenditures for its State prisoners 
increased by 341 per cent. This trend, grave enough in itself, 
gives cause for real alarm in view of what may face us after this 
war. Many serious students of social history and penology antici- 
pate that the economic maladjustments and emotional reactions 
which will follow the peace will bring on the gravest crime prob- 
lem in our history. Whatever happens, we must take steps that 
will bring our chaotic and sometimes barbaric penal procedures 
more in line with the standards of democratic civilization. 224 
Supplementary Report 
The duty of providing intelligent direction falls logically on 
the State, The purpose of this statement is, therefore, to sum- 
marize certain fundamental aspects of the problems of delinquency 
and crime and their prevention and correction, in order to identify 
the goals towards which the responsible State agency should aim 
and to indicate the most promising roads to those goals. 
Part I--Bird’s-eye view of the whole problem 
A. Concerning Causes of Delinquency and Crime. 
There is much that we do not know about crime causation. We 
do not know, for instance, why the majority of young people in a 
slum neighborhood avoid serious anti-social conduct, even though 
many of their companions become delinquent and criminal. We 
cannot say why, of two brothers in a broken home, one becomes a 
valuable citizen and the other a criminal. Evidently, the inter- 
action between the individual and exterior forces is exceedingly 
complex. 
But admitting our large area of ignorance, we do have much 
very positive and useful knowledge. We know that the number 
of those whose anti-social behavior can be attributed directly to 
mental defects, paychopathic personality, or psychosis constitute 
a small percentage of all delinquents and criminals. Most delin- 
quency and crime is not due to organic disease; it does not result 
from pathological conditions in the individual. On the contrary, 
we know that external factors in the home and in the community 
play a major part in determining whether a suscpetible individual’s 
behavior shall be socially desirable or undesirable. We know that 
the majority of children and youths who commit crimes when sub- 
jected to one set of social conditions and group ideas and ideals 
would be law abiding under other conditions and ideals. That 
is vital knowledge for it places the major responsibility for delin- 
quency and crime squarely on the community. 
B. The Community’s Responsibility. Measures to coun- 
teract delinquency and crime must fall into two major categories: 
(1) Prevention; and (2) Correction, so that those who have offend- 
ed are restored to good citizenship and do not go on to become 
habitual criminals. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
225 
Prevention must always be the major job. Major social 
factors, such as the organization and condition of the Nation’s 
economy or society’s standards of business honesty, help to make 
prevention easier or more difficult. However, regardless of the 
national climate, each community can create a local climate favor- 
able to the prevention of delinquency and crime. To that end 
every community should be encouraged and aided to take these 
five major steps: 
1. Revitalize neighborhood life and morale. The nieghbor- 
hood is the indispensable link between the family, with its indivi- 
dual members, and society as a whole. It provides the arena in 
which most of us grow, learn, work, play, and worship, in which 
we obtain the indispensable satisfaction of our social instincts 
and acquire our habits, faith, and values. The rapid growth of our 
cities and the high degree of mobility of our population have weak- 
ened or destroyed neighborhood consciousness and deprived many 
individuals of the strength and guidance that they can get only 
by being part of a living social group. For every reason of social 
health we must revitalize the neighborhood everywhere. 
The Chicago Area Projects have shown how this can be done. 
In some of Chicago’s worst slum areas, the citizens have organized 
themselves to work first for better schools, teachers, truant officers 
and better facilities to keep children and adolescents wholesomely 
occupied in nonschool hours. Out of this primary group activity 
have come mutual knowledge and confidence that in turn lead 
to other neighborhood activities and to the establishment of that 
neighborhood morale which probably constitutes the most de- 
cisive factor in determining individual behavior. The develop- 
ment of neighborhood consciousness is a slow and difficult process 
but there is no short cut to social health. 
2. Furnish healthier leisure-time outlets for youth under 
creative leadership. 
3. Eliminate the community sore spots that encourage delin- 
quency and crime. 
4. Identify in the early grades of the elementary schools 
potentially delinquent children. Where there is no child guidance 
clinic, perhaps the best way is to have at least one teacher trained 
as a child psychologist in every grade school. 226 
Supplementary Report 
5. Follow indentification of the problem child with a correc- 
tive program in which public and private social agencies cooperate, 
affecting the child, the home, the school, or the community, which- 
ever appears to be the determining factor in bringing on delinquen- 
cy. 
So much for the community’s preventive program. Once 
an individual has become delinquent or criminal, primary respon- 
sibility for correction also rests with the community. Detection, 
arrest, detention, trial, conviction, and even treatment must for 
the great majority of offenders take place socially. This is true 
no matter what the age of the offender. There is vast room for 
improvement in every one of the agencies responsible for these 
various steps—police, jails, prosecutors, courts (including those 
for juveniles), probation departments, and local readjustment 
facilities. Nothing could do so much to raise the quality of these 
services as an aggressive community orgainization of citizens. 
For reasons of economy and efficiency, the State should take 
charge of most, if not all, offenders requiring custody or discipline. 
However, as soon as the State releases any of these, the task of re- 
admitting them to the community life and surrounding them with 
conditions that will help them to live acceptably must be shoulder- 
ed in the main by the community. In this task private citizens 
must participate. 
Thus we see that, even though the State can most effectively 
perform certain functions of correction, major responsibility for 
both prevention and correction falls on the local community and 
neighborhood. 
C. The State’s Responsibility. Naturally, the immediate 
task of a State agency in charge of correction is to protect society 
and do the best possible rehabilitative job on offenders committed 
to it. But to do these things the State agency must work closely 
with the community from the time of commitment of an offender 
through to his final discharge. And, in the long run, the State 
agency can do nothing more useful than to help each community 
to do its own job. The agency should serve as the State GHQ 
for prevention and correction. Its major duties can be listed 
under four headings: State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
227 
1. Stimulate and aid local preventive action as outlined above. 
2. Set standards for personnel, facilities, and procedures for 
local corrective action. This would include such activities as in- 
spection of places of temporary detention and setting standards 
for police officers and their training. 
3. Cooperate with the courts in every possible way to aid in 
the selection of those convicted offenders who need to be committed 
to the State for treatment. This means particularly pre-sentence 
investigation. 
4. Take charge of all convicted offenders requiring any type 
of institutional training or segregation from society, including those 
now committed to local jails. (See footnote) This is the field of 
immediate action and is elaborated in the remainder of this article. 
Part II--Correctional program for a State Agency 
As to how to handle convicted offenders to insure the maxi- 
mum protection of society, no one knows all the answers. But 
in this matter, also, we have much knowledge that we neglect to 
use. First, we know that punishment fails adequately to protect 
society. It does not effectively deter prospective offenders be- 
cause it relies solely on the fear motive and fear is often cancelled 
by many other factors—such as confidence that the offender won’t 
be caught; passion, insensibility, beliefs, loyalties. The indivi- 
dual who can be deterred by fear of punishment, the disgrace of 
arrest, trial, and conviction will be just as effective as the whip- 
ping post. Neither does punishment prevent the man who has 
offended from committing new offenses. That is the only con- 
clusion we can draw from the fact that over 50 per cent of the 
country’s prison population are repeaters. 
If prevention fails, we know that the effective way to pro- 
tect society from the recidivists or habitual criminals, who com- 
mit so large a share of all crimes, is by correction of the majority, 
Note: There should be no interference with the complete freedom of the juvenile court to work 
out any constructive solution for a juvenile delinquent: probation to his parents, to any other 
person; placement in a boarding or foster home or a in school or fcamp; use of any medical or 
psychiatric resources. However, all reform schools or training schools involving custody and dis- 
cipline should be administered by the State and juveniles requiring such handling should be 
committed to a State agency by the juvenile courts. 228 
Supplementary Report 
who can be corrected, and segregation of the minority who because 
of mental abnormalities remain dangerous to society. The points 
of attack in correction are the personal factors and patricularly 
the individual’s set of ideals or beliefs that encourage or permit 
anti-social behavior. At the same time we must seek to create 
external conditions in which it is easier for the offender to go 
straight. 
Effective correction has to take place within the individual, 
but it can be vastly helped or hindered by the treatment the in- 
dividual receives. It demands that we treat each offender as an 
individual and as a human being, with the same basic needs and 
responses we have ourselves. We talk much of individual treat- 
ment of offenders but it is often merely the study of a specimen 
and the type of personnel developed in the era when our sole 
purpose was punishment. 
A. Continuity of Treatment. So far we have discussed 
the spirit or principle that should inspire a State agency in charge 
of correction. Now, as to procedures and powers. To put into 
effect this principle of corrective treatment of the individual, the 
State agency needs to have complete control of the committed 
offender from the time of conviction through to final discharge. 
So long as one independent authority fixes the sentence, other 
independent authorities run the correctional institutions, a third 
independent authority grants parole, and a fourth supervises 
parole, the changing needs of the individual will get about as much 
attention as though he were a shuttlecock. 
Continuous control of the offender by one authority means, 
first, some form of indeterminate sentence. The criminal 
court should probably have the power to choose between suspend- 
ing sentence, imposing a fine, granting probation, or committing 
to the State agency for an indeterminate sentence. If the court 
grants probation, supervision should be by a probation officer 
appointed either by the State agency or by the court from a list 
of civil-service eligibles submitted by the State agency. Proba- 
tion officers should be required to meet high standards and should 
have a definite tie-up with the State agency. They can perform 
an invaluable function by serving as liaison officer between the 
courts and the State agency. They should make the pre-sentence State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
229 
investigation and so aid the court in identifying offenders who 
need to be committed to the State. Their relationship to the 
State agency would permit them to mobilize the varied diagnostic 
and other facilities of the State as a court needed them for any 
particular offender. 
Secondly, continuous control of the offender requires integra- 
tion of procedures and facilities. The procedures fall into 
three major categories: 
1. Diagnosis and classification 
2. Training and readjustment 
3. Reestablishment in the community 
These procedures are intimately interrelated; one follows and 
determines another. They should all be subordinate to the needs 
of the individual and administered by a single authority. 
1, Diagnosis and Classification. All offenders of the type 
now committed to State Prisons and reformatories should be sent 
to a central receiving institution. (See footnote) There they and 
their backgrounds would be subjected to the intensive study 
now given by our best classification committees—study by phy- 
sicians, psychologists, psychiatrists, and social case workers, to 
diagnose the nature and causes of their social maladjustment. 
This basic examination should suffice to weed out the psy- 
chopathic and psychotic and the low-grade mental defective. 
These should be transferred to institutions of the State hospital 
or colony type. A special institution or special treatment 
should be provided for chronic alcoholics. When these types have 
been eliminated, the remainder will be potentially reclaimable by 
less elaborate procedures. The classification committee has to de- 
termine the kind of treatment most likely to adjust them satis- 
factorily to society. 
2. Training and Readjustment. We know from ex- 
perience that only a minority of offenders require the penning in 
a maximum security institution which is now our preferred mode 
of treatment. Only the dangerously anti-social, those whose 
Note: See page 12 for method of treatment proposed for misdemeanants and others now sentenced 
to jail terms. 230 
Supplementary Report 
criminality has become a deep-seated habit, and perhaps, the 
habitual runaway would need confinement under close custody. 
And for these the aim should be to use all types of therapy to 
fit them for graduation progressively into less secure units where 
they can be made increasingly responsible for themselves and able 
to meet the strain of living in the community. 
For the majority of reclaimable offenders, particularly the 
youth group, close confinement (often with all types and ages of 
of human derelicts), regimentation, and partial or complete idle- 
ness do not add up to the prescription required to fit any human 
being to live successfully in society. Yet that is just the pre- 
scription we write for the vast majority of offenders we commit to 
to jails, reformatories, or penitentiaries. Have we not had enough 
of this fatuous destruction of character and waste of public 
funds? Here is the big need and the big opportunity in the cor- 
rectional field. 
Most offenders, particularly youths, who have crossed swords 
with society and its rules need a chance to get a healthy perspec- 
tive, to build up body, mind and character, to learn how to live 
with others and to discipline themselves, to learn the satisfactions 
of regular work, and to earn a nest egg. Every State can provide 
all these opportunities to its reclaimable offenders and at the 
same time receive in return work of the greatest economic and 
social value that will compete with no free industry or labor. In 
jail, reformatory, penitentiary, and even in some industrial schools, 
reclaimable boys and men decay in walled-in idleness while every- 
where soil needs to be rescued from erosion, forests to be preserved, 
streams cleared, roads built, jobs done that can give a man a sig- 
nificant relationship to the community and respect for himself. 
The State should have a system of small working camps and 
farms scattered widely over the State with some adjacent to all 
major cities and towns. These would not be chain gangs; they 
would have no armed guards. Personnel of high quality direct- 
ing a constructive program can hold men more securely than guns. 
The California forestry camps established in 1932 for offenders 
16 to 20 years old (and, in part, the CCC camps) provide the model 
and prove the practicability and value of such camps. State Commission on Public Weljare Institutions 
231 
It is not intended, of course, to suggest that all offenders 
convicted of serious crimes, who are classed as reclaimable and 
not requiring maximum security, should automatically be placed 
in camps or farms. For some, training in a trade or special skill 
may be indicated. The 30 highly diversified institutions and 
camps making up the Federal prison system suggest the wide 
range of possibilities. 
We come now to the special problem of offenders now com- 
mitted to our county and city jails. For the great majority of 
male misdemeanants sentenced to short terms, the camp or farm 
unit should take the place of the disgraceful and inexcusable jail. 
Of 3,078 American jails inspected by the United States Bureau of 
Prisons, it classed 2,211 as unfit for use. Of course, we must 
have local detention facilities for suspects pending and during 
trial, and perhaps for a few short commitments. Inspection by 
the State as well as every other possible means should be used 
to raise the quality of such facilities. Once convicted, no offender 
sentenced for more than a few days should be confined in a jail. 
No matter how slight the offense, if the offender betrays psycho- 
pathic tendencies, evidence of chronic alcohol or drug addiction 
or of sexual perversion, or is an habitual petty criminal, he should 
be committed to the State for diagnosis and placement in the in- 
dicated institution. All others should be committed to a State 
camp or farm, and the State agency should have complete free- 
dom of transfer and of release within a maximum term. 
If need be, each locality could pay so much per diem to the 
State for each misdemeanant accepted in a State camp instead 
of being supported in the local jail. It has been proved that best 
results for the offender and for the State are attained when the 
offender in a camp is paid something for his work. Since his 
work would be socially valuable, the State could well afford this 
expense. The actual out-of-pocket expenditutes for treating men 
in camps and farm colonies are substantially less than the present 
out-of-pocket expense for keeping men in idle custody in jails and 
prisons. 
Some States have recently considered releasing on parole of- 
fenders in jails. It seems that the end aimed at would be more 
surely and easily achieved by the substitution for jails of work 
units with all the facilities of an integrated State correction agency 232 
Supplementary Report 
back of them. The agency should probably have power to release 
misdemeanants committed directly to a camp at any time with- 
in some such maximum as six months. 
3. Reestablishment in the Community. The State agen- 
cy should have power, consistent with sound public policy, to re- 
lease an offender under supervision as soon as his behavior and 
frame of mind indicate that he might make a succesful adjust- 
ment in the community. The granting of parole is one step in 
the continuous process of correction and should be determined by 
the same authority that controls all other steps. The aim of all 
procedures from the time of commitment to the State agency is to 
get the individual back on his own feet in the community. To 
that end the parole officer should get to know the offender at the 
Diagnostic Center and there-after maintain contact with him, 
helping to work out a program to follow on his return to the com- 
munity. If his former environment would endanger his readjust- 
ment, he should be helped to find a place in a new environment. 
Full-time parole officers are indispensable and should be an 
integral part of the State agency’s staff. But the parole officer 
cannot do the whole job. The community through its private 
citizens must accept a share of active responsibility for readmitting 
the rehabilitated individual to the rewards and satisfactions of 
community life. The State agency should assign a competent 
man in its parole unit to enlist in every community a group of re- 
sponsible and healthy-minded citizens who would serve as ‘ ‘first 
friends’ ’ or parole advisors, without fanfare and without organi- 
zation and without cost but with good-will and human kindness. 
If we can build up the type of neighborhood civic organization 
doing the job of prevention described in Part I, its members would 
surely furnish desirable recruits to the “first friends.’’ 
Part III—Conclusion 
Obviously, so thoroughgoing an improvement in our penal 
and correctional procedures cannot be accomplished over night. 
It is a slow process of organization and education. It cannot be 
accomplished at all without a higher quality of personnel than is 
now generally available in our penal system. But the personnel 
problem can be solved, at least in peace time, as several jurisdictions State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
233 
in the United States have shown, by an apprentice system coupled 
with in-service training, security, fair play, public respect, and 
opportunity for advancement. To say that “We cannot get the 
personnel so we cannot undertake the bold program essential to 
the health and protection of society” is to declare our society 
bankrupt. A bold far-reaching approach, catching the public 
imagination, is likely to attract the able eager men we need, par- 
ticularly when peace comes and young men are looking for new 
and more satisfactory careers in human relationships. 
Fortunately, the proposed principles and procedures for ef- 
fective correction are not a leap in the dark. Each suggested 
procedure and form of organization has been tried somewhere in 
the United States and has proved its worth. All that is bold in 
the proposal is that we use most of our knowledge at one time in- 
stead of applying it in driblets. 
For States with large populations, the task of reorienting 
existing facilities for all age groups of offenders, of developing new 
facilities for diagnosis, training (camps, etc.), and parole, and of 
assembling the high quality personnel required is so large that it 
might well be undertaken initially for only the youth group be- 
tween 16 and 21 (or perhaps 24) years of age. This is the key 
group, the group that commits a disproportionate share of the 
serious crimes against property, that goes on to make up the army 
of habitual criminals, but also the group that could be most easily 
corrected. To reclaim the youth offender is to deal the most di- 
rect blow at adult crime. 
In order to apply the corrective program described in these 
pages to the youth group, the Amercian Law Institute developed 
its Model Youth Correction Authority Act. California has al- 
ready adapted the program for this age group and a Youth Au- 
thority is now functioning there. However, States with smaller 
populations might find it cheaper and wiser to adopt the program 
for all age groups. In either event, the Model Youth Correction 
Authority Act will prove useful to indicate the nature of necessary 
legislation. 
We come now to the final and basic problem of leadership. 
Whether the program is launched for the youth group only or for 
all age groups, its administration must be in the hands of men 234 
Supplementary Report 
who combine integrity and human sympathy with commonsense, 
sound training, and imagination. The unavoidable platitudinous 
nature of that statement must not be allowed to hide its import- 
ance. Politics and incompetent political appointees have demon- 
strated at the expense of much human misery that they have no 
place in a Department of Public Welfare or of Corrections. Neith- 
er welfare heads nor personnel should be affected by a change of 
political administration. State Commission on Public JVelfare Institutions 
235 
APPENDIX IV 
Education 
The following statements on the subject of education and 
training in criminal institutions are taken from two Reports on 
this subject presented to the Legislature of the State of New York. 
The first is entitled “A Preliminary Report on an Educational 
Project at Elmira Reformatory,’ ’ by a Special Commission to In- 
vestigate Prison Administration and Construction (1939). The 
second is from a Report presented to former Governor Lehman and 
the Legislature of the State of New York by the Commission 
for the Study of the Educational Problems of Penal Institutions 
for Youth (1937). 
I. “Visual Education 
. A second source of value is the use of the motion and 
still pictures. The motion pictures, particularly, are to be 
selected with reference to general topics which deal with ac- 
tual processes being carried on at the institution. For ex- 
ample, a class working in the Moulding Shop can be shown 
a moving picture indicating the mining of ore iron, its trans- 
portation to the smelters, the casting of ingots; further treat- 
ment for the various types of iron and steel and finally the 
finished products ready for sale. In this way, the inmate 
will get a glimpse, in addition to his shop work, of the larger 
picture back of the story of iron. The inmate working in 
the Bake Shop will have the advantage of seeing moving pic- 
tures of the growing wheat, its harvesting, methods of transpor- 
tation to the mills, and finally the means by which it is distribu- 
ted to the consumer. When he makes a loaf of bread in the 
Reformatory Bakery, he will then have a general background 
of the story of wheat. This idea can be carried out in prac- 
tically every trade that is being taught at the Reformatory. 
“The principle involved in depicting the general back- 
ground of any particular occupation is that of build- 
ing up community consciousness on the part of the 
delinquent. These pictures are not considered to be the 
necessary background for learning a trade, for many skilled 
workmen exist in all types of trades who have never viewed Supplementary Report 
a picture of this kind. The delinquent boy, however, has 
always considered himself above and apart from the commun- 
ity and he has lost his perspective as to his relationship to 
it. It is hoped that visual aids such as those just mentioned 
will be of some service in the readjustment of his viewpoints. 
“There are other moving pictures of general value to the 
entire inmate population. These refer to such matters as 
Civil Government, Travelogues, Geography, Botany, Zoology, 
etc. It does not seem advisable at the present stage of the 
project to attempt to develop interest in highly specialized 
topics, such as Chemistry and Physics, since these are com- 
paratively new ideas in the field of Motion Pictures. Funds 
for securing these moving pictures are still lacking, but the 
project in the immediate future, it is hoped, will be bolstered 
by this modern, up-to-date method of presenting these to the 
inmates. Still pictures are particularly valuable in 
connection with the work of the academic classrooms. 
The stills are arranged in series so that their entire presenta- 
tion permits the full development of the topic under consid- 
eration. This is not possible with a single showing of a mov- 
ing picture because of the rapid sequence of events. As far 
as possible, these still pictures will be commented upon and 
thought over by the individuals in the class room rather than 
be presented to them formally through the lectures by the 
teacher. In other words, here again, the individual inmate 
will be required to think for himself. This part of the pro- 
gram is being put into effect without any difficulty, since 
a wide range of very valuable stills is available by loan from 
the State Department of Education, free of charge ex- 
cepting transportation.’ ’ 
II. “Aims and Objectives of Education in Correctional 
Institutions 
“The basic and ultimate aim of the correctional institution 
may be stated to be ‘the social and economic rehabilitation 
of inmates.’ This is certainly the major objective of educa- 
tion in correctional institutions. Delinquents and crim- 
inals are socially and vocationally maladjusted. They repre- 
sent a definite and special problem for adjustment. The mal- 
adjustments result from many causes, some of which operated State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
237 
before incarceration and some of which are involved in con- 
finement away from a normal social environment. 
‘ ‘As a result of a recommendation by the Commission, that 
portion of the law relating to education in prisons (section 
136 of Article VI) was changed to read: 
“ ‘ 136. Prison education. The objective of prison educa- 
tion in its broadest sense should be the socialization of the in- 
mates through various impressional and expressional activi- 
ties, with emphasis on individual inmate needs. The objec- 
tive of this program shall be the return of these inmates to 
society with a more wholesome attitude toward living, with a 
desire to conduct themselves as good citizens and with the 
skill and knowledge which will give them a reasonable chance 
to maintain themselves and their dependents through honest 
labor. To this end each prisoner shall be given a program 
of education which, on the basis of available data, seems 
most likely to further the process of socialization and re- 
habilitation.’ 
“Education in correctional institutions aims first, to see 
that as large a percentage of inmates as possible do not re- 
peat criminal acts, and second, to enable the individual to 
live efficiently, and with sufficient interest so that he will 
adjust and contribute to the welfare of society. 
‘ ‘This defiines the task of correctional education; To provide 
a series of interesting worthwhile experiences which will lead 
to desirable changes in the attitudes and behavior patterns 
of the inmate so that he will be wiling and able to live effi- 
ciently in society. 
‘ ‘The process involved in achieving this objective is most 
accurately called ‘socialization.’ The term is more widely 
used than understood. According to Park and Burgess, 
‘socialization sets up as the goal of social effort a world 
in which conflict, competition,... if they do not disappear 
altogether, will be so diminished that all men may live to- 
gether as members of one family.’* Furthermore, it is in- 
dicated that ‘socialization’ is thus the process by means of 
*Park, R. E., and Burgess, E. W., ‘ ‘Introduction to the Science of Sociology,” University of Chicago 
Press, 1921. p. 496. Supplementary Report 
which individuals, on the basis of interests, grow together 
into a unity within which these interests come to realiza- 
tion.’ 
“As a goal of education in correctional institutions, social- 
ization sets up the task of bringing offenders against society to 
identify themselves and their interests with those of ordinary 
society and to discard certain emotional and mental patterns 
already built up through the influence of poor contacts and 
environment; it also aims at the development of new sets of 
values and now character patterns. It equips them with the 
skills required for successful living in a free society. 
‘ ‘Socialization is a continuous process of change and develop- 
ment within an individual which is to render him more and 
more willing and able to fill an acceptable place in society and 
to contribute to its betterment. Apparently this process is 
essentially one of social interaction and the expression of de- 
sirable interests and activities. 
“Ideally, and for most individuals, such development goes 
on more or less steadily and appears in the proper propor- 
tion from infancy to adulthood. In this development, dif- 
ferences between the individual and society are resolved 
early, and there is avoidance of too incessant conflict between 
the interests and desires of society and the individual. One 
is led to believe that in the case of the delinquent or criminal, 
particularly if he be a frequent offender, the process has been 
faulty and erratic due to insufficient assimilation of social 
understanding in combination with individual weaknesses. 
These individual weaknesses many times are emotional in 
character or in some manner deeply rooted in the personality 
make-up of individuals. Again, a criminal career may be the 
natural outcome of concepts formed under the stresses of an un- 
satisfactory economic environment. The outcome is anti- 
social attitudes and interests. It appears then that correc- 
tional education should be, basically, a process involving 
modification of attitudes, a sublimation of interests, and the 
development of the necessary skills for acceptable living. 
“In order to accomplish the desired socialization of the in- 
mate the educational program must have the following object- 
ives: State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
239 
‘ To develop a well-rounded, integrated program of activities 
which will enlist the sincere interest and effort of inmates, 
modify their attitudes and behavior patterns, and provide 
them with the techniques, knowledges, and understandings 
necessary for the maintenance of a desirable standard of self- 
sustaining economic and social living upon release. The 
attainment of this socialization and rehabilitation objective 
involves the following types of activities; 
“1. Vocational education activities which will enable the 
individual to become a self-maintaining member of society. 
‘ ‘2, Activities leading to clearer understandings of modern 
social and economic problems in order to bring about revi- 
sion of undesirable attitudes toward social institutions. 
“3. Activities to develop acceptable proficiency in essen- 
tial academic skills. 
‘ ‘4. Activities leading to the stimulation and development 
of interest and skill in worth while leisure-time activities. 
‘ ‘5. Activities leading to the ability to get along with people 
and live cooperatively as members of approved social groups. 
“These objectives cannot be reached separately because 
they are inseparably involved with one another and must 
be reached through paths that cross and recross. We can- 
not depend upon discrete methods of training. Vocational 
training, religious training, academic work, physical educa- 
tion and the like are not necessarily social in their nature. 
Only as these, together with many other activities, influences 
and contacts in the institutions, are consciously co-ordinated 
and as each institutional worker has understanding of the 
social point of view, can the program be effective. The 
first basic objective involves arousing the desire to make 
good—the will to make correct adjustment to environment 
—and can be circumscribed by the two words ‘atitudes’ 
and ‘interests.’ The next objective involves the develop- 
ment of those skills which will enable the individual to 
make good.’’ Supplementary Report 
APPENDIX V 
Diversified Institutions 
The following is an excerpt from a Report to the Legislature 
of the State of New York of the Joint Legislative Committee to 
Examine Into, Investigate and Study the Existing Facilities for 
the Care and Treatment of Children.* 
The English System of Borstal Institutions 
‘ This Committee was very favorably impressed with the idea 
of the Borstal System of institutional treatment and training of 
the offender sixteen to twenty-three, as it has developed in Eng- 
land over the past forty-five years. We were particualrly struck 
with the fact that the conditions confronting the English Prison 
Commission of 1895 paralleled the conditions which disturb us to- 
day, i.e., that the sixteen to twenty-one year old offender contri- 
butes a disporportionately high share of the serious crimes; that 
a very large number of youths in this age group are annually com- 
mitted to penal institutions; and, finally, that a large number of 
these committed offenders are released from correctional institu- 
tions little improved, if at all, by their period of training. There 
is a further parallel that these facts were brought to the attention 
of the Prison Commission and the public generally through the 
investigation of a Committee similar to ours in scope. 
‘ ‘The Borstal System as it is known today—or as it function- 
ed just prior to the outbreak of the war—was the final result of an 
experiment which has been continued over a period of almost half 
a century. The first beginnings of the system were in separate 
wings of the regular prisons. Successful results with this special- 
ized treatment led, after a period of years, to the establishment of 
special institutions in no way connected with prisons for adults. 
In light of the fact that the reformatory movement which started 
in this country in 1876 with the establishment of Elmira has ad- 
vanced but little since that date, it is interesting to note that the 
Borstal System has not deviated from its original aim; to keep 
the young offender apart from the older, more experienced prison 
inmate. In Elmira, the age of commitment ranges from sixteen 
‘Young People in the Courts of New York State,’ ’ Legislative Document (1942), No. 55,pp. 294 ff State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
241 
to thirty; most reformatories in this country receive offenders from 
age fifteen to thirty or thirty-five, while many so-called reforma- 
tories have no upper age limit. 
“Borstal training was originally established for offenders 
between the ages of sixteen to twenty-one, but in recent years as a 
result of experiments with offenders aged twenty-one and twenty- 
two, the upper age limit of Borstal training was advanced two 
years. 
“No judge may commit directly to a Borstal Institution. 
These institutions do not ordinarily receive first offenders; to be 
eligible for Borstal training the offender must have been previously 
convicted of crime and must, in the court’s opinion, be eligible for 
Borstal training by reason of his ‘ criminal habits and tendencies or 
associations with persons of bad charater. ’ After the judge has 
decided upon Borstal training, but before he may commit the 
youth, he must invite the Prison Commissioners (who are respon- 
sible for the management and control of all Borstal and penal insti- 
tutions in England and Wales) to make an investigation into the 
offender’s suitability for Borstal training. As a result of this in- 
vestigation, the Commission may or may not recommend com- 
mitment at Borstal, and the judge is, of course, not compelled to 
follow the recommendation. As a result of their experience with 
the judgement of the Prison Commission, however, the courts have 
come to rely on its opinion and in the very largest percentage of 
cases they follow its suggestions. This investigation is, of course, 
in addition to the pre-sentence investigation by the probation 
officer attached to the court. 
‘ ‘Not every youth who is found guilty is committed to Borstal, 
by any means; some are placed on probation and some are given 
prison sentences. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that Borstal 
receives almost one-half of all the offenders between the ages of 
sixteen and twenty-one who are sentenced to imprisonment and 
that they receive 97 per cent of all those in this age group sentenced 
to more than twelve months imprisonment. From this it will be seen 
that the courts have not only come to rely to a very large extent on 
Borstal, but that the Borstal institutions themselves are confronted 
with almost the entire body of youthful commitments, including 
the very serious cases for whom a term of imprisonment longer than 
a year is ordered by the court. 242 
Supplementary Report 
“When the convicted offender is finally ready for sentence, 
the judge has no power to commit him directly to any one of the 
nine training units which comprise the system. His power of sen- 
tence is limited to “Borstal training.” Beyond this point the 
Prison Commissioners have sole authority as to the institution or 
institutions in which the offender will serve his term. The mini- 
mum period of Borstal training is six months, the maximum three 
years. Parole extends for one year beyond the unserved portion 
of the maximum. 
* ‘Even with the report of the probation officer before it and 
its own report, the Prison Commission does not allocate the offend- 
er directly to one of the nine training instituions without a further 
period of study. 
‘ ‘Regardless of the court which commits him, the young of- 
fender is sent to London where he spends a period of not less than 
thirty days under observation in a special wing of the Wormwood 
Scrubs Prison. Here he is examined by a physicain, receives a 
mental test from, and has an interview with, the psychologist, is 
visited by the psychiatrist and is under observation by the ‘ ‘gover- 
nor” (warden) of the allocating center, the housemaster and the 
matron. During this time a more intensive study of his family, 
social and environmental background is made by the volunteer 
social workers attached to the center. 
‘ ‘At the end of his month’s period of observation, the offender 
is ready for allocation. The institution to which he will first be 
sent (he may later be transferred elsewhere) is determined by a 
board, composed of the governor, housemaster, and officers of the 
allocating center plus one or two governors of the open institutions 
who come in for the meeting. One member of the Prison Com- 
mission who is responsible for the Borstals serves as chairman. 
In their decisions, the board relies on all the studies and observa- 
tions that have been made of the boy as well as their impressions 
of the boy who appears before them. The attitude of the board 
is that all of these young men will be released back into the com- 
munity after a maximum period of thirty-six months of training 
and therefore, the selection of the training institution should be de- 
tremined by the degree of the offender’s likely response to conditions 
of limited freedom. They have at their disposal nine institutions State Commission on 'Public Welfare Institutions 
243 
ranging from maximum security to the most open type of farm 
colony and construction camp. 
‘ ‘Of these, five are walled or partially enclosed and four are 
entirely open. It is interesting to note that the open institutions 
are almost all creations of the past decade; that they have received 
their inspiration from the example of our own prison camps and 
farms. They have, however, been carried to a point far beyond 
anything in this country for offenders in this age group 
“The open Borstals are four in number. They are alike in 
that they take those who may be expected to respond well to a 
varied program under conditions of absolutely minimum security. 
Those who are allocated to these four institutions first make a 
pledge not to escape. The regime at the institution is described 
to them before they are sent there, and those who prefer a walled 
institution are given their choice. 
‘ This is the institutional setting in which the training process 
goes on. Several important principles are common to all of these 
institutions regardless of where they are situated, the type of boys 
selected for training there, and the particular program in which 
they may specialize. 
(1) The first of these principles is the selection of the men 
who will supervise these adolescents. While the staffs are drawn 
from a wide variety of sources and from all kinds of previous life 
experiences, their entrance into the Borstal service is carefully 
controlled by a Civil Service procedure. Recent years have seen 
increased emphasis on professional social work training, but even 
here men with good technical training who are without a broad 
experience of life would not be placed in positions of responsibility 
as housemasters.... 
(2) The next most important feature of Borstal training is 
the arduous program with which the average youth is occupied 
for a full fifteen or sixteen hour day. In each of these units there 
is in operation a program of work, physical training, education and 
recreation which makes the regime of our own reformatory institu- 
tions seem very soft by comparison 
“The days activities are numerous, varied, and so adapted 
to individual needs and interests as to challenge rather than de- 
press, A full one-half of the waking hours are spent at work; main- 244 
Supplementary Report 
tenance occupies the briefest possible time of the smallest possible 
number of boys, except where it has definite training value 
(3) While he is in the institution, the Borstal lad is not cut 
off from the world to which he is training to return. Regulations 
regarding visits and letters do not bind a boy who has progressed 
well and who has earned additional privileges. Some boys who 
make especially good progress may be allowed once during their 
term of instutional training to make a home visit, after the home 
has been investigated by the parole organization. Every Sun- 
day afternoon the population of all the Borstals goes out on a 
‘ ‘route march’ ’ or hike away from the institution. This applies 
even to the institutions of maximum security. Within the institution 
the Borstal youth sees the wives, children and pets of the staff; 
automobiles and tradespeople come and go freely; there is the 
general atmosphere and feeling that the institutions are not insul- 
ated stations without relationship to the world beyond their gates. 
Once during the summer some Borstal boys are allowed to camp 
out with a group of their fellows under the supervision of a house- 
master. They work during the morning to repay the owner of the 
camp site, but afternoons and evenings are free for a wide variety 
of recreational activities. Boys from some of the open institutions 
are allowed to go without escorts or proctors into the town or vil- 
lage during cerain hours after work—Saturday afternoons, for 
example—and at least two institutions make provisions for the 
attendance of their boys at extension courses in the nieghboring 
community. 
“This relationship with the community is a reciprocal one; 
not only do these boys have some contact with the world about 
them, but volunteer representatives from the community also 
come in to teach special skills and hobbies. At North Sea Borstal 
at least eight local people in the neighboring town of Boston vol- 
unteer their services in such widely assorted skills as baking, cabi- 
net making, square dancing, painting, hiking and sailing. At 
still another Borstal a special room is reserved for families visiting 
the institution who may wish to share the institution meal with 
their son or brother. 
(4) Over and above all is a degree of flexibility and individ- 
uality allowed the Borstal staff in their management of the insti- State Commission on Public Weljare Institutions 
245 
tutional programs. This has attracted to the instutions a type 
of personnel which would not last long nor be interested in a regime 
which was all routine and precedent. Many suggestions regard- 
ing the development of Borstal training have grown out of annual 
conferences of governors and housemasters, which are also at- 
tended by the parole officers. There is thus seen to be not only 
a wide degree of latitude permitted in the administration of these 
institutions, but also an integration and inter-relationship between 
institution and parole which is largely unknown in our reforma- 
tory systems.” 246 
Supplementary Report 
APPENDIX VI 
Youth 
The following three statements on the subject of “Youth” 
and the importance of preventing criminal careers in the adolescent 
period come from eminent authorities: The Honorable Orie L. 
Phillips, Judge of the Circuit Court of the United States; Dr. 
William Healy of the Judge Baker Guidance Clinic, recognized 
as one of the leading authorities of the United States in the field 
of scientific diagnosis and guidance of youth; and James V. Bennett, 
Director of the United States Bureau of Prisons. This Bureau is 
the largest system of correctional institutions in the United States, 
Statement of Judge Orie L. Phillips;* 
“Reliable statistics demonstrate beyond possible doubt that the 
period in life between the ages of 16 and 23 is the focal source of 
crime. It is during that period in life that habitual criminals are 
spawned. Persons in that age group constitute but 13 percent of 
our population, yet they are responsible for 26 percent of our rob- 
beries, 40 percent of our burglaries, and 50 percent of our auto- 
mobile thefts. Boys from 17 to 20 years of age inclusive are ar- 
rested for major crimes in greater numbers than persons of any 
other 4-year group. Nineteen-year-olds offend more frequently 
than persons of any other age. Eighteen-year-olds come next, 
and the proportion of youths less than 21 in the whole number of 
persons arrested is increasing at an alarming rate. This tremen- 
dous upsurge of criminality during this youth period is a startling 
social phenonemon and it would seem, therefore, that we must 
wisely direct our efforts to prevent crime upon the offenders in 
the age group between 16 and 23 if we are to make real progress 
in the solution of our crime problem. 
“Sociologists and psychiatrists tell us that special causations, 
which occur in the period between adolescence and manhood, pro- 
duce these anti-social conduct trends. They attribute it to tem- 
porary lack of balance in the organs of the body and in their func- 
tioning. These causes, they tell us, result in a feeling of restless- 
nesses and impatience, lack of stability and impulsiveness, and 
*“Hearings before Subcommittee No. 3 of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representa- 
tives, on H. R. 2139 and H. R. 2140, May 18 and 19 and June 10, 1943,” U. S. Government Print- 
ing Office, Washington, 1943. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
247 
confusion of ideas and emotions. With increase of physical vigor 
and urge to action, there is a release of feelings of aggressiveness 
and decrease of feelings of fear. There comes a real pleasure in 
adventure, in recklessness, and even in violent deed. While the 
inductuon of boys into criminal gangs is a well-known phenome- 
non in response to social pressures, it not infrequently is the re- 
sponse to an inner urge to reckless activity in combination with 
the acceptance of a boyish notion of what constitutes definite 
proof of virility. 
‘ ‘In addition to the ideas and impulses and the surcharged emo- 
tions of youth that tend to bring about antisocial conduct, social 
situations peculiar to the period between childhood and adult life 
also are a contributing factor. Most youths are released from 
school at about 16. Old companionships are broken and the boy 
finds himself more or less adrift and free to associate with casual 
acquaintences, or perchance with older fellows, whose behavior ten- 
dencies are unsettled. This results in groups of restive and dis- 
satisfied youths who have a common tendency to seize upon crim- 
inality as a solution for disturbing uncertainties. One further 
basic cause exists. Sixteen to twenty-one is the period of great- 
est vocational maladjustment. The youth is of working age. 
Not infrequently his vocational training in school cannot be util- 
ized in finding a job. This adds to the natural instability of that 
period of life, definite economic and vocational uncertainties. 
This tends to build up in the individual an attitude of cynicism 
concerning honesty and whether it pays. 
‘ ‘Again, reliable statistics demonstrate with reasonable certainty 
that existing methods of treatment of criminally inclined youths 
are not solving the problem. A large percentage of those released 
from our reformatories and penal institutions return to antiscoial 
conduct and ultimately become hardened and habitual criminals. 
Indeed, I sometimes wonder whether our penal institutions, be- 
cause of their environment and the lack of segregation between 
classes of criminals, do not foster, rather than prevent, crime. By 
herding youth with maturity, the novice with the sophisticate, the 
impressionable with the hardened; and by subjecting the youthful 
offenders to the evil influence of older criminals, and their teaching 
of criminal techniques without the inhibitions that come from 
normal contacts and counteracting prophylaxis, many of our 248 
Supplementary Report 
penal institutions actively spread the infection of crime and foster, 
rather than check, the plague...” 
Statement by Dr. William Ilealy of the Judge Baker Guid- 
ance Clinic:* 
‘ ‘The stark fact of the extent of recidivism proves that our pre- 
vailing methods of handling youthful offenders fail in great meas- 
ure to protect society from ill-doers. In a large percentage of 
cases their careers go on for years and years with continued out- 
breaks of antisocial conduct. 
‘ ‘Our philosophy of dealing with youthful criminality lacks sub- 
stantial foundations because it does not take into account the 
issues presented by the personality, the background life, and the 
developed behavior tendencies of the offender. Save in the best 
efforts of thoroughly competent probation and parole officers, and 
perhaps in very rare correctional institutions, our techniques of 
treatment—if we dare to call it treatment—are woefully unadapted 
to the task of turning a young criminal into a law-abiding citizen. 
‘ ‘The model Youth Correction Authority Act contemplates pro- 
viding measures which look to the substitution, in the case of the 
youthful offender, of scientific methods of diagnosis, treat- 
ment and prognosis for the inadequate techniques so gen- 
erally prevailing today. It is the purpose of this article to out- 
line and appraise the proper implementation of a Youth Correc- 
tion Authority—or any like body—if legislation along the lines 
of the Model Act were adopted.... 
‘ ‘Exactly for the prupose of estimating in a given case the possi- 
bilities—and, indeed, also the impossibilities—of obtaining good 
results from various forms of training and treatment, well-rounded 
diagnostic case studies of the individual are requisite. This means 
very much more than the common routine physical examination 
and psychological testing. 
“In the first place it is necessary to know what manner of person 
the young offender is; what his physical and mental status is, 
what he is from the standpoint of personality and character de- 
velopment—all in terms of both assets and liabilities. Next, the 
interests of society are deeply involved in the important question 
♦Published for the School of Law, Duke University, in * ‘Law and Contemporary Problems—The 
Correction of Youthful Offenders.’ ’ State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
249 
of what the individual’s needs are that can be supplied by any 
phases of a sensibly constructed plan of training and treatment. 
A fundamental consideration for the diagnostic study of youthful 
offenders is the common-sense fact that either there must have 
been abnormal urges—true in only a very small percentage of cases 
—or, as in the vast majority of instances, there must have been 
thwarting of satisfactions of quite normal needs which, had they 
been satisfied, would have prevented the growth of the tendency 
to unlawful behavior. For the diagnosis of these needs and their 
distortions we are often compelled to investigate etiological factors, 
at least as far as proximate or immediate factors of motivation of 
the particular offender’s criminality is concerned. The individual 
who has adequate satisfations in other than criminal activities 
does not engage in criminality. 
“This matter of the diagnosis of the offender’s needs which have 
not received satifactions represent a vastly important salient in 
the warfare on crime. Of course this is well recognized by all 
practical-minded workers for the prevention of delinquency, but 
equally, the knowlege of specific needs which, case by case, may 
vary greatly, is indispensible for all well-directed treatment of the 
youthful criminal who is in the hands of the law. Many pub- 
lished studies by ourselves and others deal with the multiplicity 
of factors that in given cases tend to produce delinquency and 
crime; hence there is no call to enumerate them here. It is suf- 
ficient to say that they range from peculiarities in the physical, 
mental and personality make-up of the individual, or circumstan- 
ces in his social and particularly his family environment, or mat- 
ters of early conditioning, to deep-lying emotional reactions to 
his life experience 
“Fortunately we are able to speak about a training and treat- 
ment program for offenders of the age group covered by the Youth 
Correction Authority Act, not from a theoretical standpoint, but 
rather from what we know has been in effective operation, at 
least until war-times, in various correctional systems. From 
these we can learn practical possibilities. Besides our knowledge 
of the camp program for offenders in California and the regime 
of the unusual reformatory institution at Annandale, New Jersey, 
we may draw upon our observations of the correctional commune 
system in Russia, the Danish scheme for the rehabilitation of 
offenders, and especially upon our prolonged studies of the Bors- 250 
Supplementary Report 
tal System in England. Aside from this we know of little that 
was being done in other countries applicable to the development 
of a more effective reformatory program in this country. In 
Russia and in Denmark we saw some few features of correctional 
treatment that in modified form we could profitably utilize. In 
England by the trial and error method there has been gradually 
evolved a highly intelligent and largely successful pattern of train- 
ing and treatment for youthful offenders which in many respects 
we might well copy. 
‘ ‘Indispensible for the success of such a system is a specially 
qualified personnel, including everybody, from the sup- 
erintendent to the disciplinary officers and guards, who 
by virtue of his position necessarily influences the offenders. 
Herein lies the cardinal difference between the equipment 
of our reformatories and that of the Borstal System. With 
our enterprising manhood, so frequently seeking satisfy- 
ing fields of endeavor, must we in the United States neces- 
sarily be so far behind ? 
“Since youthful offenders, case by case, present the diversity of 
requirements for upbuilding that diagnostic considerations show, 
the next step toward common-sense treatment must then be taken 
by providing a variety of training and treatment resources. Re- 
quisite in any one state is the establishment of a number of rela- 
tively small units with the several types of regime and training 
adapted to the differing needs of offenders. Our congregate re- 
formatories which in so many ways offer obstructions to the in- 
dividualization of treatment are hopeless for carrying out scien- 
tifically oriented systems of training. Though improvements 
in method may seem to imply great expenditures for new institu- 
tions, expensive buildings are far from necessary. Institutions 
of maximum security there must be for a certain class of cases, but 
part of already existing facilities could be used for this purpose... ’ ’ State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
251 
Statement of James Y. Bennett, Director, U. S. Bureau of 
Prisons:* 
‘ ‘Indeterminate Control of offenders Realistic and Protec- 
tive 
“One of the great advantages of the Youth Correction Act is 
that it permits a wide variety of treatment methods. The Au- 
thority can utilize commitment to different types of correctional 
institutions; it can place the offender in a hospital, in a vocational 
training or educational institution, require him to undergo a course 
of treatment in a mental hygiene or other clinic, or in fact put 
him in any community situation it may consider helpful. It 
would be futile to undertake such programs as these unless they 
could be followed through to their logical conclusion. Why 
spend time and money on half-way programs or attempt to im- 
provise a plan of treatment to fit into an arbitrary, predetermined 
time schedule which is bound to be too short or too long? Could 
there be anything more disheartening than to force an individual 
to continue in confinement or under supervision after the training 
period had been fully and satisfactorily completed? What in- 
centives are there for the young man who knows he must serve a 
period of time prescribed in advance by a judge unfamiliar with 
his needs and responses? How can the special needs of youth be met 
if every effort is circumscribed by demands for punitive treatment? 
‘ ‘Just as the Authority must have power to release from control 
when the treatment period is concluded, so also must it be able 
to retain control of those who continue to be a menace to society. 
This is the feature of the Act which incites the oppostition of those 
who shudder at granting such power to an administrative agency. 
But society had always demanded that the liberty of the indivi- 
dual be curtailed, if necessary, to protect the well-being of the 
group. Those afflicted with communicable diseases which can- 
not be controlled by known methods are isolated. So also are 
those with mental disorders of the type that make the individual 
a menace to himself or to others. Because of the impossibility 
of deciding just how long the disability will last or the danger 
will continue to exist, such isolation, which curtails the liberty 
of the individual but protects society, is necessarily prescribed 
*“Law and Contemporary Problems—The Correction of Youthful Offenders,” School of Law, 
Duke University, Vol. IX, No 4, 1942. pp. 621 ff. 252 
Supplementary Report 
for an indeterminate period. It should be obvious that the same 
principle is equally applicable to individuals with known delin- 
quent or criminal tendencies. It should be obvious because of 
the acknowledged inability of judges or anyone else to predict at 
the time of discovery of evidence of such tendencies just how 
dangerous they are, just what treatment is necessary, or just how 
long they will continue. 
‘ ‘In this respect, the provisions of the Act are similar to the com- 
mitment of mentally ill persons to state hospitals. It is very 
rare, indeed, that a patient is now committed who really should 
be at large while many are permitted to retain their liberty, with- 
out any restraint or supervision whatsoever, who should be hospi- 
talized. Similarly the determination and measurement of pro- 
nounced and well-grounded criminal behavior, psychopathy, and 
other abnormal characteristics can be made by experienced per- 
sons and reviewed by the court. The court and the Authority 
can base their judgement on the delinquency history of the offender, 
on his conduct while under observation, on his attitude as reflected 
by periodic examination, on various kinds of psychological tests, 
on the opinion of those who have observed him, on the manner in 
which he reacts to carefully devised situations and programs to 
which he can be subjected, on his physical condition, on his emo- 
tional responsiveness, on the normality of his brain waves as shown 
by the micro-electric brain-wave machine (electro-encephalo- 
graph) now extensively used in mental hospitals, and on a variety 
of other facts which are subject to specific measurement. The 
techniques of the psychologist, the psychiatrist, and other mem- 
bers of institutional staffs have advanced to the point where they 
can quite accurately predict delinquency and the possibilities of 
abnormal behavior. They have definite objective standards of 
the kind mentioned to aid them in reaching their determinations. 
Moreover, the Authority can, in any case where doubt exists, re- 
lease a person under its control for a period of trial in the communi- 
ty. Under such circumstances there is little or no danger of keeping 
a person in confinement who should be entitled to his liberty. 
‘ ‘The existing system of definite sentences cannot be defended on 
any ground other than obscure legalistic dialectics and by emotion- 
al reference to traditions of the law. References to Coke and 
Blackstone or unfounded fears that individuals on the board will be State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
253 
arbitrary and unreasonable give no consideration to the indis- 
putable fact that the existing system of definite sentences displays 
the utmost capriciousness and lack of understanding of the indi- 
vidual offender 
‘ ‘An indefinite period of control over the offender is basic to the 
treatment as opposed to the punitive process of redirecting the 
afitisocial tendencies of the offender. The statistics and data on 
recidivism abundantly demonstrate that somehow we must get 
away from the purly legalistic approach and apply the knowledge 
and skill of the physician, the psychatrist, and the sociologist.. .. 
‘ ‘No, we cannot measure a moral wrong against a physical pain. 
We cannot adjust the known to the unknown. We cannot curb 
crime or save the offender by any system of retributive punish- 
ment of proportionate retaliation. We cannot continue to talk 
only of laws, and judges, and prisons. We must look behind 
all of these to the handicaps, the problems, the inner-drives, 
the insecurities, the abnormalties and the perversities of 
the offender himself and gauge the period of his control 
and treatment accordingly. 
‘ ‘The old system has failed—failed because the machinery 
of criminal justice is outmoded and because we have timidly 
limited our past attempts at improvement to the making of 
minor repairs. A system based upon the principles of retribu- 
tion, punishment, and making the punishment fit the 
crime, cannot by slight changes be made to accomplish 
the purpose of public protection. The machinery of crim- 
inal justice must be redesigned, with basic structural 
changes forged around the principle of indeterminate con- 
trol of offenders, if an effective program of crime control 
is to be finally established.” (Italics ours.) 254 
Supplementary Report 
APPENDIX VII 
MINORITY REPORT OF C. J. FRANCE 
DISSENTING FROM RECOMMENDATION 
FOR CLOSING REFORMATORY FOR MEN 
December 18, 1942 
His Excellency, J. Howard McGrath 
Governor of Rhode Island 
State House 
Providence, Rhode Island 
In Re: Second Partial Report of 
the State Commission on 
My dear Governor: Public Welfare Institutions 
Minority Report of Clemens J. France 
At a meeting of the State Commission on Public Welfare 
Institutions on December 16, 1942, it was decided to present to 
you a second partial report. The Commission, at that time, 
adopted two motions:— 
1. To recommend to you that the Soldiers’ Home be closed 
with respect to its existing functions of an institution 
for the care of veterans of World Wars; 
2. That the Men’s Reformatory be closed with respect to 
its existing functions as a Men’s Reformatory, and that 
the present inmates of the Men’s Reformatory be trans- 
ferred to what is known as the Jail Wing of the Prison, 
and that subsequent young offenders be committed by 
the courts to the Jail Wing, The primary objective of 
this action was to vacate the Men’s Reformatory so as to 
establish there what is to be known as a ‘ ‘Medical Center.’ ’ 
I am fully in accord with, and voted for, the first motion. 
With respect to the second action of the Commission, I find 
myself in the minority, and herewith exercise the privilege of giv- 
ing my reasons for differing with my estemeed colleagues on the State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
255 
Commission. It will be necessary for me to outline certain facts 
with respect to the policy of this State as expressed in legislative 
enactments regarding Youthful Offenders. 
The General Assembly, in 1923, appropriated a large sum of 
money to build a wing to the State Prison. This appropriation 
was made with a view to bringing about a segregation of older of- 
fenders or criminals and young men. In the minutes of the meet- 
ing of the State Public Welfare Commission of April 8, 1925, it is 
recorded 
‘ ‘ ‘Pursuant to Sec. 3 of Article III of Chapter 413 of the 
General Laws of Rhode Island, 1923, the State Public Welfare 
Commission in meeting assembled gives notice that the Rhode 
Island State Reformatory for Men is hereby established as of 
April 30, 1925, at twelve o’clock midnight.’ 
“The statute so meticulously referred to reads as follows; 
‘ ‘ ‘Sec. 3. The building now being erected at the south- 
erly end of the State Prison shall be known as the Rhode 
Island State Reformatory for Men, and to which, on and after 
a certain day hereafter to be determined by the commission, 
may be transferred from the state workhouse and house of 
correction and the other institutions mentioned in this section 
all first term male offenders over seventeen and under thirty 
years of age, and such other male prisoners as the commission 
shall deem advisable to transfer from time to time; and to 
which may be thereafter committed all first term male offend- 
ers over seventeen and under thirty years of age, and such 
other male offenders as the courts may designate; and the 
commission may transfer from the jail or the prison, 
or from the State reform school to the state reformatory 
for men, or vice versa.’ ’’ 
In 1929, a Special Commission, appointed “To Investigate 
the State Public Welfare Commission and All Departments There- 
under,’ ’ presented to the Governor and the General Assembly a 
Report. 
It is interesting to note that this Commission was composed 
of three distinguished Rhode Island citizens:—Frank H. Swan, 
Monsignor Peter E. Blessing, and James L. Wheaton, M. D. May 
I quote to you from the Report of this Commission:— 256 
Supplementary Report 
“Prior to April 30, 1925, women were committed to 
the Rhode Island State Prison, where they were directly 
in charge of a matron, under the warden. The time 
came when Rhode Island aligned itself with other progressive 
states and determined that its women should not be sent to 
a prison for men, but should be kept in an institution by 
themselves, and be looked after by women officials. No in- 
telligent person in the state, conversant with conditions as 
they were before this change was made and as they are today 
under the new regime, would tolerate a return to the old order 
of things. But the same session of the General Assembly 
which took this progressive step in behalf of the state’s unfor- 
tunate women enacted legislation of the same nature 
for some of the state’s unfortunate men. Both enact- 
ments were in accordance with the most modern views 
of penologists and humanitarians. Neither partook 
of mollycoddling. The time had come in this state 
when the public desired to see a real effort made to save 
convicted women and young men from being made 
into hardened criminals by prison records and prison 
associations. We have already called attention earlier 
in this report to the gross neglect of those responsible for the 
failure to make of the Reformatory for Women something 
more than a prison for women. But what shall be said of 
those responsible for the flouting of the public’s desire and 
of the General Assembly’s enactment that the state shall 
make proper provision for all male first offenders over seven- 
teen and under thirty years of age, and for other male offend- 
ers whose welfare demands that they be given the benefit 
of an institution designed and equipped to meet their needs? 
‘ ‘Male offenders over seventeen and under thirty years of 
age may indeed spend their nights in the cells of this new 
building; but through the day they work in the prison shirt 
factory, eat in the congregate dining room with prisoners of 
all ages and of all kinds, mingle freely with them in the yard 
at noon and on holidays, take their turn with all others at the 
common shower,—and in all particulars fare the same as the 
hardened criminal of all ages. So that in this one institution 
are gathered together promiscuously and treated indiscrimin- State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
257 
ately all male offenders over seventeen years of age. When 
we visited the institution the warden informed us that he had 
three prisoners who had been there over sixty times. There 
were men serving life sentences for murder, men convicted 
of robbery, of arson, of almost every heinous crime. There 
were men committed on sentence by the state, by the United 
States, and by the cities and towns; boys committed for de- 
facing buildings, or for throwing glass in the street, or for 
trespassing on the railroad, or even for non-attendance of 
drills in our Rhode Island National Guard,—these and others 
like these were receiving their initiation into criminal circles, 
learning at first hand the evil practices of the seasoned gang- 
sters, and doubtless acquiring a perverted attitude toward 
society and the laws of the state. Worst of all, from time to 
time there are scores of men, old and young, detained at this 
institution who have never been convicted of any offense but 
who are simply awaiting trial or held as material witnesses. 
‘ ‘No witness before us attempted to justify this condi- 
tion of affairs. Members of the State Public Welfare 
Commission freely admitted that the law establishing 
a reformatory for men was completely ignored. Sev- 
eral of them told of their efforts to see that the mandate was 
obeyed. The warden protested that, given only the 
plant he has, with one dining room, one chapel, one 
shirt factory and one yard, it is impossible for him to 
segregate the first offenders, as the law contemplates. 
At least one witness had little patience with such a law. 
It was his belief that the young prisoner had nothing to learn 
from the old; that there are boys at Sockanosset who can tell 
older men in prison things of which these older men never 
dreamed, 
“It will be conceded by all that we should not tolerate the 
present condition. Either the law establishing a Reformatory 
for Men should be repealed or we should have a Reformatory. 
Warden Linscott testified from memory that probably fifty 
percent of the inmates were first offenders. The courts are 
continually sentencing men to the Reformatory, and yet no 
one pretends that there is such an institution! All freely 
admit that the law establishing it is a dead letter. As between Supplementary Report 
the repeal of the law and its enforcement, there can be little 
question by thoughtful men and women willing to take the 
time to investigate present conditions. The testimony be- 
fore us and the facts found by us are overwhelming in 
favor of the early establishment of a real Reformatory 
for Men. 
“We fully agree with Warden Linscott that with the 
jail and the prison combined as they now are, with 450 
cells and 629 inmates, with the necessity of working 
these men in the shops and departments, an attempt 
to establish a real reformatory at the prison is im- 
practicable without additional buildings. The warden 
was strong in his opinion that the jail should be an entirely 
separate building. In this opinion we concur. Even more 
important is the establishment of the reformatory. 
Whether this end may be best attained by separating 
the jail from the prison, thus freeing the 198 cells in 
the new building which the General Assembly desig- 
nated to be the Reformatory for Men, or by further ad- 
dition to the present buildings, so badly needed even 
now, can be easily determined by survey and conference. 
The expense involved need not be so large as to be a deterrent 
or even an excuse. The reformatory should be establish- 
ed and maintained according to accepted standards.” 
It is clear, from the foregoing excerpt from ‘ ‘Governor’s Mes- 
sage and Report of Commission To Investigate The State Public 
Welfare Commission and all Departments Thereunder.... Made 
To The General Assembly at its January Session, 1929,’ ’ that the 
good intentions of the General Assembly, which apparently had 
wide public support, to create a reformatory to rehabilitate young 
men between the ages of eighteen and thirty came to naught. 
This failure was due to the impracticability of bringing about a 
proper segregation as between these young men and male offend- 
ers, when both types of offenders were in the same four 
walls, with common vocational training facilities, with common 
eating facilities, and with common recreational facilities. 
In the January Session of the General Assembly of 1931, a 
resolution was passed and approved April 21, 1931, making ap- 
propriation for a building to be known as the State Reformatory 
for Men. State Commission on Public Weljare Institutions 
259 
This resolution provided for the submission to the people of 
an issue of bonds in the sum of $500,000 which was voted upon 
and approved by the people in the November election of 1932. 
It is fair to assume that the resolution of the General Assem- 
bly, and the subsequent approval by the people of this bond issue 
to build the new Reformatory for Men, resulted in a large part 
from the Report of the Commission in 1929 to the General Assem- 
bly, hereinbefore referred to, the members of which Commission 
were Frank H. Swan, Monsignor Peter E. Blessing, and James L. 
Wheaton, M. D. 
It is highly significant that the people of Rhode Island voted 
this half million dollars to create a separate Reformatory for Men. 
In passing, it should be mentioned that the General Assembly, 
in 1931, passed an Act looking to the time when the new Reforma- 
tory was to be completed. This Act provided that all males be- 
tween the ages of sixteen and thirty years, who may be detained 
or sentenced as first offenders under the criminal laws of this 
state, shall be detained in the State Reformatory for Men. 
Furthermore, the 1931 Act specifically repealed Section 3, 
Article III of Chapter 413 of the General Laws of 1923. It will 
be recalled that this was the act which established the Men’s 
Reformatory at the wing of the State Prison built in 1923. 
The recommendation of the majority members of your pres- 
ent Commission that the new Reformatory for Men, built at the 
cost of a great capital outlay, should be abandoned, and that 
Rhode Island should ‘ ‘turn the clock back,’ ’ and try again in the 
Prison Jail Wing an experiment which was a complete failure, is 
one which deserves your most serious consideration. 
The practices of massing together, at one institution, first 
offenders, recidivists, parole violators, sex perverts, psychopaths, 
and criminals with long records, some of whom have served in the 
penitentiaries of eight or nine different states, is universally con- 
demned by every student of penology. 
Historical Development 
There are attached two charts. These charts graphically 
indicate the historical development, not only in Rhode Island, but 260 
Supplementary Report 
throughout the United States, of the community’s policy as ex- 
pressed in legislation with respect to all types of individuals com- 
mitting anti-social acts. 
It will be noted that, in the beginning, in this State as well as 
in other states, there was but one institution. This institution 
was in the nature of a Bastille, a strongly built prison with iron 
bars, and, surrounding it, high walls of heavy stone construction. 
In this “Bastile,” society incarcerated children of both sexes 
from eight to fourteen years of age, boys and girls from fourteen 
to eighteen, young men and women from eighteen to twenty-five, 
and older adult offenders. The older adult offender group had 
amongst its members the most dangerous and most perverted 
elements of society, viz., drug addicts, sex preverts criminally in- 
sane, murderers, men and women convicted of homicide, and men 
convicted of the most atrocious crimes, such as arson, rape, bur- 
glary, and murder. At this period, the social idea was mass 
punishment for all types of offenders, young and old. The chart 
depicts the changed point of view. This changed point of view, 
to date, is summed up into twin goals: 
1. Diversification of Institutions 
2. Effective Individualized Treatment 
With respect to Diversification of Institutions, it is interest- 
ing to note that, through the years, Rhode Island has made con- 
siderable progress. Within the four walls of the prison, we have 
brought about a partial segregation as between adult offenders con- 
victed of major crimes and adult offenders convicted of misde- 
meanors and minor offenses. In addtition, we have established 
the Sockanosset School for Boys and the Oaklawn School for Girls 
for the reform and rehabilitation of the younger groups. In the 
existing Reformatory for Men, across the street, we established a 
third institution for youthful offenders between the ages of eight- 
een and thirty. 
An enlightened and progressive policy would indicate that 
there should be a further diversification, both with respect to the 
men in the Prison and with respect to the youthful institutions 
(Sockanosset School, Oaklawn School, and the Reformatory). 
Time will not permit me to go into how a further diversification 
should take place. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
261 
With respect to the second goal, “Effective Individualized 
Treatment,” we have also made in Rhode Island considerable 
progress. The greatest progress that we have made in Rhode 
Island in the way of ‘ ‘Individualized Treatment’ ’ is in the develop- 
ment, along modern lines, of a state-wide system of Probation and 
Parole. A glance at Chart II attached graphically shows that 
we have approximately 600 individuals in our three State Cor- 
rectional Institutions (exclusive of the Providence County Jail). 
We have, out on probation and parole, receiving individualized 
treatment from Probation and Parole Counsellors, approximately 
2,100 individuals. 
We have also made considerable progress in individualized 
treatment within our corrective institutions. While there is 
much room for improvement, Sockanosset, Oaklawn and the Men’s 
Reformatory are achieving results in ‘ ‘rehabilitation’ ’ of child- 
ren and youth. 
While the question of taxation is not the primary question, 
it is of more than passing interest to note that it costs the State ap- 
proximately $2.45 a week to care for individuals in correctional 
institutions as against some $12 a week to care for individuals on 
probation and parole. The cost of $2.45 a week in institutions 
does not include the capital investment in buildings. 
As the Men’s Reformatory is the particular institution now 
under consideration, let us consider it from the twin goals (1) of 
Diversification or Segregation, and (2) of Individualized Treat- 
ment. The average number of young men, for several years, is 
around 125, not too large a group for individualized treatment. 
The average age of the young men is around twenty-two or twenty- 
three years, an age when young men are still flexible in mind and 
so adaptable for mental and moral rehablitation. The average 
period of time which youthful offenders serve in the Men’s Re- 
formatory is a little over a year. The experience of the Division 
of Probation and Parole is that very few of these young men placed 
on parole become parole violators so that it is necessary to return 
them to the Reformatory. 
These brief facts speak for themselves, and indicate clearly 
that Rhode Island has made real progress in the way of reform 
and rehabilitation of Youthful offenders. 262 
Supplementary Report 
Personally, I feel that there is a great opportunity to make 
significant progress in this particular field of rehabilitation and 
reform. I have submitted to the members of the Commission 
very specific recommendations as to how this greater progress 
can be achieved. To throw these youthful offenders back into 
the pernicious environment of the State Prison and County Jail 
would block forever further progress in our efforts for rehabilita- 
tion and reform. It would, in fact, turn the clock of progress 
backward, not forward. 
I attach hereto excerpts from a pamphlet, entitled “Pre- 
venting Criminal Careers Through the Establishment of a Youth 
Correction Authority for the State of New York.” (See Ex- 
cerpt I, attached). There will shortly be introduced into the 
New York State Legislature a bill for the establishment of such a 
Youth Correction Authority. 
May I emphasize, again, that the policy of this State of estab- 
lishing a separate building equipped for special training of youth- 
ful offenders was a great forward step in this State. Since that 
time, every leader in the field of penology recognized that, if we 
are to carry on a real program of rehabilitation for the youthful 
offenders, we must go further in the way of classification and segre- 
gation. We must take steps in line with the Borstal System (see 
excerpt from pamphlet, ‘ ‘Preventing Criminal Careers,’ ’ attached 
hereto). 
For the majority of reclaimable offenders, particualrly the 
youth group, close confinement (often with all types and ages of 
human derelicts), regimentation, and partial or complete idle- 
ness do not add up to the prescription required to fit any human 
being to live successfully in society. With all due respect to my 
colleagues on the Commission, that is just the prescription which 
they propose to write when they recommend to you that we place 
some one hundred twenty young men, now in our State Reforma- 
tory, in the “Jail Wing” of the Prison. In the Jail, today, we 
have confirmed alcoholics, derelicts, drug addicts, and all types 
of petty offenders. A County Jail, like the Providence County 
Jail, like other jails, is the receptacle of the very dregs of the bar- 
rel in our social organization. In the Prison, we have men con- 
victed of graver crimes—forgers, embezzlers, the gravest crimes State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
263 
against sex, men convicted of arson, homicide, and murder. As 
stated, some of these are confirmed criminals who have served 
sentences in many of the penitentiaries of the United States. 
I cannot lend my support to a recommendation to you, as 
Governor of the State, that we close the Men’s Reformatory and 
transfer some one hundred twenty boys, most of whom have been 
convicted of minor offenses, into such a prison community as now 
composes the Providence County Jail and the State Prison. 
It seems to be the opinion of the majority members of the 
Commission that we could segregate the youthful offenders from 
the derelicts in the County Jail on the one hand, and the older and 
more confirmed offenders in the Prison, on the other. That ex- 
periment was tried in 1925 at the great cost of building an addition 
to the Prison, and was a complete failure. (See 1929 Report of 
Commission To Investigate the State Public Welfare Commission 
and all Departments Thereunder. From this Report I have 
quoted extensively.) 
I am fully in accord with the plan of the present Commission 
for the establishment of a Medical Center. It is my belief that 
room can be found for such a Medical Center somewhere within 
our present existing institutional structure. I contend, however, 
that, if room cannot be found in our present institutional struc- 
ture for a Medical Center, it would be a great mistake to estab- 
lish such a Center at the sacrifice of youthful offenders, deny- 
ing to them the opportunity to live in a separate institution, 
segregated from older male offenders, and to receive therein in- 
dividualized treatment. Without opposing such a Medical Cen- 
ter, may I point out that this State has a number of splendid 
hospitals in which those who are physically ill receive the most 
scientific and most highly individualized treatment. These hos- 
pitals have available highly trained men in the medical profession, 
specialists in every branch of that profession. These hospitals 
have professionally trained nurses, and are equipped with the most 
modern scientific apparatus for treatment. 
When we compare the existing facilities for highly indivi- 
dualized treatment in our hospitals with the type of professional 
treatment we give to inmates of our correctional institutions, we 
must admit that the crying need today is for the establishment, in 264 
Supplementary Report 
our correctional institutions, of a pattern of treatment and cure 
comparable to that existing in our hospitals, both public and pri- 
vate. For example, for all our State correctional institutions, 
we have but one State psychiatrist; we have but one State psy- 
chologist. We have no sociologist. We have no group of trained 
social workers. We have very few educational instructors. We 
have no full-time physician, and only one full-time dentist. For 
a realistic program, looking to rehabilitation and cure of men 
convicted of crime, see Excerpt II, attached. 
May I say, in conclusion, that it has been a privilge and a 
pleasure to have served with such a fine group of men and women 
as composes this Commission. I can assure you that I would 
not have parted company with them on this point if it had been 
possible for me to have gone along with this particular recom- 
mendation. 
Sincerely yours, 
Clemens J. France State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
265 
APPENDIX VIII 
Reply to Majority Report—Chapter on the 
State Hospital for Mental Diseases 
In order to properly appraise the past achievements of the 
State Hospital for Mental Diseases and its present position as a 
modern mental hospital, it is important to review recent history. 
Up to the time of the election of Theodore Francis Green as Gov- 
ernor of this State in 1932, the State Hospital for Mental Diseases 
ever since it was established as an Insane Asylum was, compara- 
tively speaking, one of the most backward institutions of its kind 
in the United States. A well known psychiatrist stated to me 
that the Hospital was so far down on the list that it could have 
been rated as forty-fourth in comparison with state mental hos- 
pitals in other states. While there is room for improvement, it 
is fair to say that our State Hospital would rank amongst the 
first ten public hospitals of this character in the country. In the 
dark period above mentioned, the buildings consisted of a number 
of old ward buildings. These were unsanitary, and, because of 
the great increase in mental diseases, there was great over-crowd- 
ing. In the year 1936, largely under the leadership of Governor 
Green, the State of Rhode Island took advantage of Federal mon- 
ey made available by the Public Works Administration, and prac- 
tically rebuilt the State Hospital for Mental Diseases. Prior to 
the time of this building program, the Hospital was lacking in 
practically all of the facilities requisite to bring the Hospital up 
to modern standards. 
At this point it is advisable to outline the standards for a 
mental hospital established by the American Psychiatric Associa- 
tion :— 
1. The chief executive officer must be a well-qualified phy- 
sician and experienced psychiatrist whose appointment and 
removal shall not be controlled by partisan politics. 
2. All other persons employed at the institution ought to 
be subordinate to him and subject to removal by him if they 
fail to discharge their duties properly. 
3. The position and administration of the instituion must 
be free from control for the purposes of partisan politics. 266 
Supplementary Report 
4. There must be an adequate medical staff of well qualified 
physicians, the proportion to total patients to be not less 
than 1 to 150 in addition to the superintendent, and to the 
number of patients admitted annually not less than 1 to 40. 
There must be one or more full time dentists. 
5. There must be a staff of consulting specialists at least in 
internal medicine, general surgery, organic neurology, diseases 
of the eye, ear, nose, and throat, and radiology, employed 
under such terms as will ensure adequate services. A record 
of their visits must be kept. 
6. The medical staff must be organized, the services well- 
defined, and the clinical work under the direction of a staff 
leader or clinical director. 
7. Each medical service must be provided with an office and 
an examining room, containing suitable conveniences and 
equipment for the work to be performed, and with such cleri- 
cal help specially assigned to the service as may be required 
for the keeping of the medical and administrative records. 
8. There must be carefully kept clinical histories of all the 
patients, in proper files for ready reference on each service. 
9. Statistical data relating to each patient must be recorded 
in accordance with the standard system adopted by the As- 
sociation. 
10. The patients must be classified in accordance with their 
mental and physical condition, and with adequate provision 
for the special requirements for the study and treatment of 
the cases in each class, and the hospital must not be so crowded 
as to prevent adequate classification and treatment. 
11. The classification must include a separate reception and 
intensive study and treatment department or building, a spec- 
ial unit for acute physical illnesses and surgical conditions, and 
separate units for the tuberculous and the infirm and bedfast. 
Each of these units must be suitably organized and equipped 
for the requirements of the class of patients under treatment. 
12. The hospital must be provided with a clinical and patho- 
logical laboratory, equipped and manned in accordance with State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
267 
the minimum standards recommended by the Committee on 
Pathological Investigation. 
13. The hospital must be provided with adequate X-ray 
equipment and employ a well qualified radiologist. 
14. There must be a working medical library and journal 
file. 
15. The treatment facilities and equipment must include: 
(a) A fully equipped surgical operating room. 
(b) A dental office supplied with modern dental equip- 
ment. 
(c) Tubs and other essential equipment for hydro-thera- 
py operated by one or more specially trained phy- 
siotherapists. 
(d) Adequately equipped examination rooms for the 
specialties in medicine and surgery required by the 
schedule. 
(e) Provision for occupational therapy and the employ- 
ment of specially trained instructors. 
(f) Provision for treatment by physical exercises and 
games and the employment of specially trained 
instructors. 
(g) Adequate provisions for recreation and social enter- 
tainment. 
16. Regular staff conferences must be held at least twice a 
week where the work of the physician and the examination 
and treatment of the patient will be carefully reviewed. 
Minutes of the conference must be kept. 
17. There must be one or more out-patient clinics conducted 
by the hospital in addition to any on the hospital premises. 
An adequate force of trained social workers must be employed. 
18. There must be an adequate nursing force, in the propor- 
tion to total patients of not less than 1 to 8, and to the patients 
of intensive treatment and acute sick and surgical units of 
not less than 1 to 4. Provision must be made for adequate 
systematic instruction and training of the members of the 
nursing force. 268 
Supplementary; Report 
19. Mechanical restraint and seclusion, if used at all, must 
be under strict regulations, and a system of control and record 
by the physicians, and must be limited to the most urgent 
conditions. 
In order to appreciate the position of our State Hospital with 
State Hospitals in other States, certain of these standards should 
be compared with existing practices at our Mental Hospital. 
With respect to standard no. 3, by virtue of our civil service 
law the positions and administration of the hospital are free from 
control of partisan politics. The one exception lies in the fact 
that the position of Superintendent of the State Hospital was, by 
rule of the State Civil Service Commission and with the approval 
of the Governor, designated as a ‘ ‘policy making’ ’ position. This, 
in the opinion of the writer, was a mistake, and it is recommended 
that the position of superintendent be placed under the State civil 
service. 
With respect to standard no. 4—adequate medical staff. 
Prior to the advent of the present war, the State Hospital for 
Mental Diseases had a medical staff which, both in character and 
number, compared favorably with other state hospitals. It 
never did reach the standard of the American Psychiatric Associa- 
tion, which recommended a ratio of one resident physician to every 
150 patients. This lack, in my opinion, has not been due to poli- 
cies of the various State Directors of Public Welfare or the various 
Superintendents in charge since the new building program was 
completed. It was due to a lack of appropriations by the General 
Assembly. In commenting on the above minimal ratio, the re- 
port hereinbefore mentioned states that nationally there have been 
few hospitals that meet this ratio. 
With respect to standard no. 5 above quoted, viz. ‘ ‘Consult- 
ants,” a glance at any one of the Annual Reports of the Depart- 
ment of Social Welfare will show that the State Hospital for Men- 
tal Diseases has had an especially fine staff of consulting special- 
ists. 
With respect to standard no. 6 ‘‘Internal Organization,” 
notwithstanding the criticism of the Majority Report, the medical 
staff under various superintendents at the Hospital since the com- State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
269 
pletion of the bulling program has been well organized, the services 
well defined, and the clinical work under the direction of a Clinical 
Director. 
With respect to standard no. 7, while there is room for im- 
provement, the respective medical services are provided with suit- 
able offices and equipment for the work to be performed, and have 
adequate clinical help. 
With respect to standard no. 8, our State Hospital has estab- 
lished an excellent system for keeping clinical histories of all pa- 
tients in proper files for ready reference for each service. These 
files at our State Hospital compare favorably with similar clinical 
file histories in any mental hospital of the country. 
With respect to standards no. 9, our State Hospital has on its 
staff a statistician. The statistics are kept in accordance with 
the standard system adopted by the American Psychiatric Associa- 
tion. They also are in accordance with the standards required 
by the United States Census Bureau, to which bureau our hospital 
furnishes accurate and adequate statistical data periodically. A 
representative of the United States Census Bureau called upon 
me this year. She had been making a survey of hospitals all over 
the country. She highly complimented us upon our files with re- 
spect to clinical histories and our statistical department at the 
hospital. 
With respect to standards no. 10 and no. 11, which deal with 
‘ ‘classification,’ ’ at our hospital the classification of patients in 
accordance with their mental and physical condition has been 
developed to a high degree. Also, there have been established 
at this institution various types of buildings, which run from Mini- 
mum to Maximum security, including buildings for special types 
of treatment in accordance with the nature and acuteness of the 
patient’s mental malady. The Mental Hospital has the Adolph 
Meyer Building, especially built and designed to receive new pa- 
tients, which is somewhat separated from the rest of the plant. 
We have the specially built Pasteur Building for those who are 
physically ill. We have a special building for the segregation 
and treatment of tubercular patients. We have special facilities 
for surgical operations. The surgical facilities would compare 
favorably with those existing in any hospital of like character in 
the country. 270 
Supplementary Report 
With respect to standard no. 12, our hospital has a special 
clinical and pathological laboratory which is fairly well equipped. 
This laboratory is in charge of a well trained specialist in patholo- 
gy, and he has as assistants a number of highly trained technicians. 
So well is this pathological unit regarded, both the State Depart- 
ment of Health and the Chapin Hospital utilize the services of our 
pathologist. There is needed a separate building for this unit 
of pathology. 
With respect to standard no. 13, the State Hospital is pro- 
vided with adequate X-ray equipment and a well qualified radiolo- 
gist. 
With respect to standard no. 14, the Hospital has a good work- 
ing medical library and this library is, at the present time, under- 
going changes looking to marked improvement. 
With respect to standard no. 15, as stated we have one of the 
best surgical operating rooms to be found in any hospital. We 
have a dental office with modern dental equipment. We also 
have essential equipment for hydrotherapy, operated by trained 
physiotherapists. There are adequately equipped examination 
rooms for specialists in medicine and surgery. With respect to 
occupational therapy and the employment of specially trained 
instructors, up to the time of the war, the hospital had well-trained 
individuals in this field of occupational therapy. Also, the hospi- 
tal employs instructors in the field of physical exercise and games. 
In a future building program, there should be provided a well- 
equipped gymnasium with a swimming pool in order to extend 
this most important field of treatment. Still referring to standard 
no. 15 of the American Psychiatric Association, the hospital has 
developed many types of recreation and social entertainment. 
Motion pictures are given in the large assembly room at Harring- 
ton House at least once a week, except in the summer months. 
Dancing in some form or other is held at least once a week, and 
in the winter months, large community dances are held in the 
Harrington House. The Social Welfare Department has a special- 
ist in this field of entertainment, who, for many years, was in one 
of America’s leading vaudeville circuits. He organizes special 
entertainments, and trains patients to perform at these entertain- 
ments. Recently, with the approval of the Director, a portable State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
271 
motion picture machine was purchased. This machine is taken 
into what we call “the back wards,” where patients with acute 
mental maladies reside. For the first time in the history of the 
hospital, these most unfortunate mental patients are enjoying 
motion pictures which are in part for amusement and some of 
which are educational in character. This portable motion picture 
machine goes even into the criminal insane wards where in the 
past there was no opportunity for entertainment or recreation as 
these patients have to be closely confined. 
With respect to standard no. 16 of the American Psychiatric 
Association, I desire to refer to language in the Majority Report 
which in effect said that the administration of the mental hospital 
was largely administration ‘ ‘by the grapevine route.’ ’ With no 
desire to criticize my associates on this Commission, I seriously 
question this statement. In the first place, one of the essential 
factors in the administration of the hospital is frequent periodic 
meetings of the clinic led by the clinical director. Such clinical 
meetings are held at our Hospital with great frequency. This 
clinic constitutes a very important staff conference with respect 
to treatment of various types of mental illness. In addition to 
this, to my knowledge, staff conferences have been held and are 
currently held between the superintendent and staff members en- 
gaged in different specialized services. For example, the super- 
intendent holds staff meetings with social workers, with various 
heads of administrative units such as the superintendent of nurses, 
chief dietitian, and men and woman engaged in administrative 
work such as those in charge of attendants and those in charge 
of various other special services. 
The new superintendent, Dr. John R. Ross, is one of the abl- 
est administrators of a state mental hospital in the United States. 
He has had the responsibility, in New York State, for the admin- 
istration of several mental hospitals nearly twice the size of our 
own. In the period of three months since he came to Howard, 
he has made signal improvement in this whole field of staff organi- 
zation and staff conferences. 
With respect to standard no. 17, which deals with out-patient 
clinics, I have dealt with this important subject in the main text 
of this supplementary report. For a number of years, out-patient Supplementary Report 
272 
clinic servfces were available to the citizens of Rhode Island. 
Under the administration of Dr. Charles P. Fitzpatrick, there 
were set up several clinics in a number of communities in this state. 
This important field had to be temporarily abandoned during the 
war emergency due to curtailment of doctors, nurses and social 
workers. 
With respect to standard no. 19, the State Mental Hospital 
at Howard had made great progress in this area. Mechanical 
restraint and seclusion is to a large extent a thing of the past, and 
is, to use the language of standard no. 19 of the American Psy- 
chiatric Association, ‘ ‘limited to the most urgent conditions.’ ’ 
When we compare the State Hospital for Mental Diseases 
with the standards established by the American Psychiatric Asso- 
ciation, we find that (a) the physical plant and equipment of our 
State Hospital approaches closely those standards, and (b) the 
various services rendered at our State Mental Hospital, while 
they do not fully meet the standards, compare most favorably 
with other States. So great have been these achievements, that 
our State Mental Hospital is rated by specialists in this field 
amongst the first ten of the institutions dealing with mental illness. 
It is extremely unfortunate, in the opinion of the writer, that the 
majority members of this Commission have subscribed their names 
to a report which is in general an indictment of a hospital of this 
high character. It is equally unfortunate that this indictment 
is not based upon all of the facts. 
There are four major allegations in the majority report: 
(1) The internal Administration is ‘ ‘of the grape-vine variety” 
(2) Certain administrative steps of the Director constitute 
a “blow” to the occupational therapy program. 
(3) In establishing a centralized system of accounting and 
fiscal control, the Director has taken from the Superintendent of 
the Hospital administrative functions belonging to him. 
(4) In initiating a transfer of funds from one appropriation 
to another, the Director of Social Welfare infringed upon powers 
of the Legislature. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
273 
I will discuss these allegations in the order set forth. 
(1) “Grapevine Administration” 
On repeated occasions I have requested the members of the 
Commission to call into consultation, with respect to the Mental 
Hospital, two of the leading specialists in this field who reside in 
Rhode Island. One of these specialists has recently been Presi- 
dent of the American Psychiatric Association and is now a member 
of a National War Committe of highest importance. The second 
Rhode Island specialist is most familiar with the State Hospital 
for Mental Diseases. He was, for a period, State Director of 
Social Welfare. The Commission did not see fit to call in these 
experts living in our State. 
I have also advised the Commission to call in specialists in 
this field of mental illness from outside of the State of Rhode Island. 
The members of the Commission did not see fit to call in such ex- 
perts. The only exception to this was that Dr. Adolph Meyer, an 
eminent psychiatrist, spent one morning at the State Hospital 
and thereafter spent approximately two hours with the Commis- 
sion. The statements of Dr. Meyer, after he had made a very 
casual inspection of the Hospital, were favorable to that institu- 
tion rather than unfavorable. 
Several statements in the Majority Report are a mixture of 
presumed facts and conclusions. One is to the effect that the 
Governor of the State had received numerous complaints, both 
from the patients and the families of the patients. It is implied 
that the public does not know what goes on inside of the institution. 
With this statement is an implication that there is, and has been, 
something ‘ ‘secretive’ ’ with respect to the State Mental Hospital; 
that it has been run for the benefit of the Department of Social 
Welfare and the various Superintendents, rather than for the 
benefit of the people. 
The statement of presumtive fact and conclusion is utterly 
without foundation. The writer of this report has been Director 
of the Department of Social Welfare for something over two and 
a half years. In that period I have received but one letter in the 
nature of complaint from the family of an individual who was a 
patient at the State Hospital. It is the practice of the Governor Supplementary Report 
to send to me all complaints of every kind which are received with 
respect to the State Institutions, To the best of my recollection, 
I have received from the Governor but three letters of this charac- 
ter, addressed to him. 
With respect to complaints of patients, it is true that the 
Governor and Director received quite a few letters from patients. 
Anyone familiar with the mentally ill knows that there are cer- 
tain types of the mentally ill who find it a matter of personal men- 
tal therapy to write letters to everyone concerned. In every case 
when a letter of this kind is received, the complaint of the patient 
is given a personal investigation. I do not know of a case where 
the Clinic at the Hospital did not report that the writing of such 
a letter was part of the symptoms of the mentally ill person. I 
have been personally astonished that, in the period of over two 
and a half years, hundreds of complaints have not been received 
from the families of some 2,800 patients at the Mental Hospital 
With respect to the implication that there is something secre- 
tive and that the public does not know what is going on, may I 
point out two highly important phases in connection with the 
administration of the Mental Hospital: 
(1) We have regular visiting days which are open to the 
families and relatives and friends of the patients. 
Everything possible is done to encourage the families 
relatives and even friends to visit the patients at the 
Hospital. When visits are made, the staff comprising 
physicains, nurses, and others are encouraged to talk 
with the relatives who are given complete facts with 
respect to the patient and his progress. 
(2) We have a well established staff of Social Workers. 
One of the important functions of this staff is to keep 
in touch with the relatives of the patients, advising them 
of the progress the patient is making and encouraging 
them to come to the Hospital and visit them. 
The Majority Report states this administration is of the 
‘ ‘grapevine variety.’ ’ Considerable space is utilized in discussing 
this type of internal administration. It is pointed out that in the 
past four years there have been three superintendents at the 
State Hospital. The Commission has commented most favor- 
ably upon the scientific qualifications and ability of these three State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
275 
superintendents. It is somewhat peculiar that three such able 
superintendents should have had such bad internal organization 
that it could be characterized as an administration of the ‘ ‘grape- 
vine variety.” 
I cannot speak for the period prior to the time I have been 
Director of Social Welfare. It happens that for the two years and a 
half that I have been in residence at Howard I was in constant 
contact with Dr. Charles P. Fitzpatrick, the Superintendent of 
the Hospital. I made it my business to know about the internal 
organization and the internal administration. Dr. Fitzpatrick 
was recognized throughout the United States as one of the leaders 
in this special field of Medical Science. He served on several im- 
portant committees of the American Psychiatric Assocition deal- 
ing with administrative problems; one of these which dealt with 
Psychiatric Nurses made signal contributions recognized through- 
out the country. This statement ‘ ‘grapevine variety’ ’ of internal 
administration is a severe reflection upon a man of Dr. Fitz- 
patrick’s character and ability and upon the constructive services 
he rendered to the State of Rhode Island in bringing the Hospital 
to its present point of efficiency and scientific achievement. 
(2) “Occupational Therapy” 
What was said in the Majority Report with respect to Oc- 
cupational Therapy deserves a considerable degree of discussion. 
In the Majority Report, a statement is made that since the 
initiation of the building program there have been four Directors 
of Social Welfare and that only one of these knew anything about 
Occupational Therapy. 
When a witness is called upon to testify in court, the attorney 
takes certain steps to qualify him to show that he is an expert. 
The present Director of Social Welfare, upon graduation from 
college, spent three years in post-graduate work, specializing in 
Psychology. He received a doctor’s degree from this post-gradu- 
ate institution and wrote a thesis dealing with an important sub- 
ject in the field of ‘‘Psychology of Human Behavior.” During 
the three years the present Director of Social Welfare was doing 
post-graduate work at Clark University, he attended a number of 
clinics presided over by Dr. Adolph Meyer, who had been brought Supplementary Report 
to the Worcester State Hospital from Austria, where modern psy- 
chiatry got its start. Dr, Meyer has been for years recognized 
as one of a half dozen leading psychiatrists in the nation. Be- 
cause of the early training and background in this field, the Di- 
rector of Social Welfare has taken a very special interest in the 
problems of mental illness. He has read much of the modern 
literature with respect to all types of Therapy. The writer be- 
lieves, therefore, that he is not entirely without qualifications to 
discuss Occupational Therapy. 
Several criticisms were made in the Majority Report of steps 
which the Director of Social Welfare has taken in connection with 
the administrative organization at Howard: 
(1) The Director has been criticized for taking the Farm 
away from the State Hospital for Mental Diseases, and 
establishing the Institutional Farm Program. It is 
alleged this was ‘ ‘a blow’ ’ to occupational therapy. 
(2) The Director has been criticized for establishing at 
Howard a Division of Centralized Construction and Re- 
pair. It is alleged this, also, is a ‘ ‘blow’ ’ to occupation- 
al therapy. 
It is import ant in order to understand the actions of the Di- 
rector which have been criticized in this report to visualize the 
nature and character of what we call “Howard.” Recently, a 
very able reporter of the Providence Journal and Evening Bul- 
letin characterized Howard as ‘ ‘Rhode Island’s 40th Comminuty.’ ’ 
It is in fact a “community.” It has all the administrative 
problems common to an incorporated city or town. For example, 
it has a power plant, it has a water system, it has important con- 
struction and engineering problems, some of which relate to 
specific institutions, and others which are common to the whole 
community. These include highways, sidewalks, steam lines, 
a sewage system, power and transmission lines, police and fire 
protection. At Howard there is a large and fertile farm, consist- 
ing of over 500 acres. In fact, it is the largest diversified farm in 
the State of Rhode Island. 
In the discussion which follows, there should be borne in mind 
the community aspects of Howard;— State Commission on Public Weljare Institutions 
277 
The Institutional Farm Program 
The Institutional Farm Program had been initiated approxi- 
mately a year prior to the time I was appointed Director. I gave 
it very serious study and concluded that this was a very sound 
program. 
I am reliably advised that before the Institutional Farm pro- 
gram was adopted, there were three separate farms; one known as 
the Mental Hospital Farm, one known as the Prison Farm, and 
one known as the Sockanosset Farm. Taking the last first, the 
Sockanosset Farm comprised some fifty acres. It had little or no 
modern mechanical equipment; its dairy had been allowed to run 
down and a very considerable proportion of the cattle were diseased. 
The boys at Sockanosset did little work on it, chiefly because they 
were too young for heavy farm labor. The Prison Farm while it 
was a good sized farm comprising some 350 acres was too small 
to carry on a fully diversified farm program under the modern sys- 
tem of rotating crops. In consequence, the principal crop at the 
Prison Farm was potatoes, planted year after year, with the result 
that much of the fertility had been taken out of the soil. Its 
dairy herd, also, had been allowed to deteriorate. This was true 
also of the farm facilities, the barn and equipment. The Mental 
Hospital Farm comprised some 250 acres. Like the Prison Farm, 
it specialized in certain types of farm products which were easy 
to grow. It lacked any diversified farm program involving the 
rotation of crops to rehabilitate the soil. The new Dairy Barn 
which had been constructed under the building program had 
been neglected because no constructive repair or replacemet pro- 
gram was made for a considerable number of years. The poultry 
plants, both at the Mental Hospital and at Sockanosset School, 
had been allowed to deteriorate so that the production of eggs was 
comparatively low. The cattle herd at the Mental Hospital farm 
had also been allowed to deteriorate. All of this was due to the 
lack of a centralized scientific program in charge of a highly train- 
ed agriculturist. At the present time, the Superintendent of In- 
stitutional Farms is holding the position as the result of a State- 
wide Civil Service examination. He is a graduate of Rhode Island 
State College and in addition thereto holds a post-graduate degree 
from that institution as a result of post-graduate work. Supplementary Report 
In the past two years, as the Director of Social Welfare, I have 
given a great deal of time, thought, and attention to this Institu- 
tional Farm Program which resulted in the combining of the three 
farms above mentioned. Several highly important achievements 
should be noted. 
Under a scientific program of rotating crops and diversifica- 
tion of products grown, we have been able to furnish all the insti- 
tutions at Howard, throughout the summer months, with the 
highly important items of diet, viz., green and leafy vegetables. 
While the farm products formerly went only to the Prison and 
Mental Hospital, they now go to the Prison, the two Reformatories, 
State Infirmary, Sockanosset School and Oaklawn School. When 
there is a surplus of certain vegetables, these are furnished to the 
State Home and School. 
Not only are the ground crops so distributed, but the milk 
and eggs are distributed from the Institutional Farms to all insti- 
tutions. We also raise a very considerable amount of poultry 
meat and pork products. This is distributed equitably to all insti- 
tutions. 
With the fine support of the Governor and the General As- 
sembly, we have received increased appropriations during the 
past two years for the expansion of the Farm Program. As a re- 
sult, in two years, farm products of all kinds, including ground 
crops, milk, eggs, poultry meat and pork products have been in- 
creased twenty percent. We are now well on the way to having 
one of the best herds of dairy cows in the State; also one of the 
best breeds of poultry and pigs. Under an expanded program, 
we expect to furnish all the milk and eggs consumed by a popula- 
tion of nearly five thousand persons. Under the old program, 
the purchase of milk and eggs was a leading item of cost in the food 
appropriations. 
Also, since the inauguration of the Institutional Farms Pro- 
gram, a small and insignificant canning program on the grounds 
of the State Hospital for Mental Diseases has been greatly ex- 
panded. Last year we canned approximately 34,000 one-gallon 
cans of vegetables, fruits, etc. This year we will have canned 
when the season closes over 60,000 one-gallon cans of vegetables. 
On the market today these canned goods alone would have a value State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
279 
of approximately $60,000. The type of goods canned are tomatoes, 
squash, beans, carrots, beets, rhubarb, and apple sauce. 
Today, the value of the farm products produced equals ap- 
proximately thirty percent of the total value of all food consumed 
by the various institutions. 
Speaking of the Mental Hospital, every psychiatrist with 
administrative experience realizes the importance of diet in the 
treatment and cure of mental patients. This diet must be of 
great variety; the food must be appetizing and well served. At 
the Mental Hospital we have one of the best dietitians in the 
United States. The character and quality of the food served to 
the Mental Hospital patients compares most favorably with other 
State Hospitals. 
There is no question that the variety and the type of food 
furnished the patients at the Mental Hospital has been greatly 
improved as a result of the Institutional Farms Program. This 
fact was recognized by Dr. Charles P. Fitzpatrick, who was great- 
ly interested in this dietary problem. Fie had experience, both 
under the regime when the farm was exclusively devoted to the 
State Mental Hospital, and the new regime of the Institutional 
Farms Program. 
With these advantages in mind, who supervises the patient? 
At all times he is under the supervision of the Superintendent of 
the Mental Hospital. For example, the Superintendent and his 
assistants carry on the ‘ ‘classification’ ’ and ‘ ‘assignment’ ’ program. 
To anyone familiar with Occupational Therapy, this is one 
of the keys to this type of therapy, viz. ,the selection of the patient 
with respect to the potential value to him of a particular work 
assignment. When the patient is actually on the work, there is 
always an attendant in charge of a comparatively small gang. 
A most important phase of Occupational Therapy is the pro- 
gress made by the patient as a result of the particular ‘ ‘assignment.” 
Full opportunity is afforded to the Superintendent and the clinic 
to appraise the beneficial or adverse results to any person assigned 
to farm work. Supplementary Report 
We see, therefore, that the Institutional Farm Program in no 
way interferes or jeopardizes the four essentials in an Occupational 
Therapy Program. 
1. Classification and assignment to suitable work, 
2. Direct supervision by a member of the Hospital staff. 
3. The therapeutic value of the work itself. 
4. Evalution by the Hospital Clinic of the beneficial results 
to the patient. 
On the other hand, a scientific farm program offers oppor- 
tunities for learning about scientific farming. 
The expansion of the Farm Program has also increased the 
opportunity for a larger number of Hospital patients to work at 
this healthy exercise. 
We conclude, therefore, that the Institutional Farms pro- 
gram has, first, given a greater quantity and variety of food, and 
has highly improved the dietary content of patients at the State 
Mental Hospital, and second, it has given these advantages to 
other institutions which were heretofore deprived of the proper 
dietary content. Third, it has saved substantial sums of money 
with respect to food appropriations. This latter is of no small 
importance. To the extent we can make Howard with respect to 
food ‘ ‘self-sufficient,’ ’ to the same extent we can request and ob- 
tain from the General Assembly adequate appropriations for other 
essential needs. It is important also to bear in mind that the 
State Hospital for Mental Diseases, with nearly twice the number 
of patients as all other institutions at Howard, has been the chief 
beneficiary of this constructive food program. 
Division of Centralized Maintenance and Repair 
In the Majority Report of the Commission, it is also alleged 
that the recent action of the Director of Social Welfare in the es- 
tablishment of a Central Construction and Repair Division was 
a blow to Occupational Therapy at the State Hospital for 
Mental Diseases. 
Attention has been called to the fact that Howard, Rhode 
Island has been designated as Rhode Island’s 40th Community. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
281 
In this community, including all of the institutions, there are ap- 
proximately 132 buildings. These buildings include large hospital 
buildings, and a special medical and surgical building and several 
buildings for administration purposes; one large well equipped 
gymnasium and swimming pool; the State Prison and County 
Jail, two Reformatories, cottage-type buildings for inmates 
at Sockanosset and Oaklawn, and a very considerable number 
of residential buildings. There are miles of roads and highways 
and miles of under-ground steam lines, sewage systems, electrical 
and power lines running from institution to institution. 
Like any community, these buildings have all of the modern 
equipment, viz., running water, toilets, bathrooms, and several 
thousand plumbing fixtures. The buildings also have thousands 
of doors which are constantly suffering damage by reason of the 
nature of the patients. All of this requires the expert services of 
plumbers, carpenters, electricians, etc. 
Do mental patients do this highly specialized work? You 
would so assume from the Majority Report. That assumption 
is ridiculous on the face of it. 
To my knowledge, when plumbing fixtures get out of order, 
the Superintendent never calls upon a patient to repair it. He 
calls upon the plumber who is an expert and on the payroll. When 
window panes get broken these window panes are replaced by 
the carpenter. When the doors and locks get broken or are in 
disorder, these are repaired by the carpenter. When electrical 
fixtures get out of order and require new wiring or a replacement 
of new parts, this work is done by an electrician. These jobs 
are emergency jobs and have to be attended to quickly. The 
most that a patient would ever have to do would be to assist in 
carrying a kit of tools or hold a wrench or a hammer. The patient 
cannot do this expert mechanical work. The only major type 
of repair or maintenance work which is done by patients at the 
State Mental Hospital is interior painting of walls and floors. 
This painting is generally done under the supervision of the ex- 
pert painter on the payroll of the Maintenance Division. 
It should be apparent, therefore, that the Division of Central 
ized Maintenance and Repair is not a ‘ ‘blow’ ’ to the Occupational 
Therapy program. As a matter of fact, the painting of walls and 
floors is still being done by the patients. As in the case of the lu- Supplementary Report 
stitntional Farms program, general supervision by the Central Con- 
struction and Maintanence Unit does not in any way interfere with 
the Occupational Therapy objective. In some cases, the patients 
do certain painting and occasionally perform some very rough 
carpentry work. As stated, the essentials in an Occupational 
Therapy program are: 
(1) Classification and assignment. 
(2) The value of, the work itself under direct supervision 
of hospital attendants. 
(3) The evaluation of this work by the Psychiatrist with 
respect to how it has improved the mental condition 
of the patient. 
These factors are in full control of the Superintendent of the 
Hospital and the Psychiatrists assisting him. 
The Nature and Objectives of Occupational Therapy 
It is important that readers of this report understand the 
objectives of occupational therapy. 
While there is some difference of opinion as to the scope of 
the term ‘ ‘Occupational Therapy,’ ’ the prevailing opinion amongst 
psychiatrists is that any activity which may afford a patient 
in a mental hospital opportunities to keep him occupied and to 
assist him to utilize such mental faculties as he is capable of should 
be included in this term. 
At our State Hospital for Mental Diseases, there is a great 
variety of such activities. For example, all patients who are 
capable of so doing, make their own beds and sometimes work on 
the wards in making beds for other patients; some patients scrub 
floors; some patients peel potatoes; some patients cut bread. 
Some are assigned to work on the farm, and in a very limited de- 
gree some are assigned to assist in painting walls and floors, and to 
do rough carpentry work. This, however, comprises the least 
of all the many activities. Some patients mow lawns, rake leaves, 
trim hedges, etc. All of these activities are under the direct super- 
vision of the Superintendent of the Mental Hospital. There are 
other work activities which the patients perform, such as making 
and repairing mattresses, cutting material for making sheets and State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
283 
pillowcases. Under supervision they cut material and make dress- 
es, overalls, and other work clothes. Other patients work in a 
shoe repair shop and in the furniture and upholstery shop; all of 
this is under the direct supervision of the Superintendent. In 
addition to work activities, there are various recreational pro- 
grams which, broadly speaking, come within the scope of Occu- 
pational Therapy. For example, patients belong to baseball 
teams; patients engage in community dancing and dramatics. 
We have a patients’ choir and a small orchestra. In the summer, 
in the recreational field we have patients who engage in various 
forms of outdoor games. We have community singing, sometimes 
in large groups at the Harrington House, and sometimes in small 
groups in the wards. 
In addition to the foregoing, a very considerable number of 
patients who are quite harmless are given ground privileges. Many 
of these are “on their own.’’ They go out in season and pick 
blueberries, other wild fruit and mushrooms. This type of in- 
dependent activity is considered of high value. 
There is also a class of patients who have serious mental de- 
rangement that are in what we term ‘ ‘back wards’ ’ in the Pinel 
and Dix buildings. Even these patients are given a type of oc- 
cupational therapy in the summertime. They are taken out in 
groups. Under the supervision of nurses and attendants, they 
are taken on hikes, walked around the grounds; sometimes they 
get on a hay wagon and take a hay-ride. This is also occupational 
therapy up to the limit of their capacity. Many of the patients, 
by this outdoor exercise, come to recognize the beauty of nature; 
as they hear the birds sing they begin slowly to reach back into 
the light of the world. As soon as they are able, light and easy 
types of work are given them, such as raking leaves, etc. Many 
of the patients who cannot readily be taken out are given specific 
instructions in crocheting, needlework, rug making and various 
other types of art handicraft. 
I find that of the 2,800 mental patients in the Hospital; there 
are on the average of approximately 1,150 patients who are en- 
gaged in the various types of occupational therapy activities cited 
above. This is a high proportion and I am suit compares favor- 
ably with the best institutions in the country. Therefore, the 284 
Supplementary Report 
statement or implication in the Majority Report that the Occu- 
pational Therapy program at our State Hospital has not been 
developed is contrary to the facts. 
Financial Accounting and Fiscal Control 
The Director of Social Welfare is criticized for establishing 
a system of centralized accounting and fiscal control. I quote from 
the Majority Report: 
“.... He (the Superintendent) must follow his budget but 
there has been set up over him a financial system by the Director 
which is to tell the Superintendent what he can do and what 
he cannot do and yet he still has the responsibility.” 
This statement is erroneous from two points of view; first, 
it is not in accordance with the laws of the State of Rhode Island 
and second, it is not in accordance with the facts as to what the 
Director did in setting up the system of fiscal control. 
With respect to the law, since the passage of the Green Re- 
organization Act establishing six separate State Departments, 
the superintendent of an institution has not had thfe absolute 
control under the appropriations as stated in the above quotation. 
In fact, he never had it in the history of this State, to my know- 
ledge. 
(1) Under the Green Reorganization Act, the Director of 
Finances has the basic control over the expenditures of all appro- 
priations as well as the basic control over all purchases. 
(2) Under the Green Reorganization Act, the Director of 
each Department has been given direct supervision and control 
over the expenditutes of the various institutions and divisions 
within his department. 
Under this system, all purchases are made by the Purchasing 
Agent within the Department of Finance. All requisitions with 
respect to purchases have to be signed or approved by the Director 
of the Departemnt or his authorized agent. So much for the 
statement of the law with respect to the powers of a superintendent. 
Let us next consider what the Director of Social Welfare 
actually did when he established a Division of Central Business 
Management. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
285 
As a bit of background, the establishment of this new system 
of centralized fiscal control was worked out over a period of near- 
ly one year by the Director of Social Welfare and the Business 
Manager of the Department, working in cooperation with the 
State Director of Finance and the Budget Officer. It has been 
stated that there was this year appropriated for the Mental Hos- 
pital some $833,000. In addition to this, there was appropriated 
for other institutions which are embraced in this study the sum 
of $1,000,062 or a total of approximately $2,000,000. 
The statement above quoted carries the implication that 
this new program takes away from the superintendent of the Men- 
tal Hospital and other superintendents the power to expend the 
monies appropriated for his institution in any way he determines 
is best for the institution. This is entirely contrary to the facts. 
Space will not permit setting forth the full Administrative Order 
establishing this new Division. This Administrative Order ex- 
pressedly provides that there is not taken from the superintendent 
or other institutional heads the power to make appointments or to 
delegate the services of individuals, or to recommend salary in- 
creases; nor is the power taken from superintendents and insti- 
tutional heads of initiating all requisitions for such items as food, 
clothing, consumable supplies, repairs and replacements, includ- 
ing new equipment. 
This function is regarded by the Director as one belonging 
to the superintendent or institutional head. It has been a basic 
policy of the present Director to decentralize these functions and 
place the responsibility on the superintendent and institutional 
head. The Director considers that a capable superintendent is 
the best judge with respect to his personnel, their qualifications, 
and the best judge as to the type of items he should purchase 
within his appropriation. 
What was actually done? A summary and functions of opera- 
tion of this new Division are set forth: 
Operations Unit 
Under this Unit there are four Sections, namely: 
Document Examination 
Consumption Research and Planning 286 
Supplementary Report 
Inventory and Consumption Control 
Specifications and Standards 
The objective of the Document Examination Section is to 
check the accuracy of the various documents when received from 
the Institutional Heads, such as requisitions, purchase orders, 
receiving reports, invoice-vouchers, and related papers. Pur- 
chase Requisitions will be priced before presentation to the Ac- 
counting Unit for posting against the appropriation acccount. 
The objective of the Consumption Research and Planning 
Section is to complete statistical data with respect to quantities 
consumed, as food, clothing, shoes, blankets, and the like. This 
will develop a series of yardsticks for establishment of needs on a 
quota basis, and will serve as an intelligent basis for estimating 
budgets. Further, this research will enable the Department to 
determine and set up certain standard specifications. 
The Inventory and Consumption Unit will exercise super- 
vision over all inventories of all staple items, such as food, cloth- 
ing. This ,is tied in closely with the Consumption Research and 
Planning Section with respect to quotas. 
The fourth section within the Operations Units, known as 
Specifications and Standards, is designed to determine that the 
goods delivered come up to specifications as set forth in the requisi- 
tion and purchase orders. From experience as developed in this 
section, we will be able to set up definite standard specifications. 
Accounting and Control Unit 
Under this Unit there are two sections, namely: 
Machine Accounting 
Reconciliation and Reports 
The Machine Accounting Section will keep track of all ap- 
propriation expenditures, which were previously handled manually 
and separately by each Institution and Division. This will be 
accomplished by encumbering against these appropriations from 
requisitions and/or purchase orders, and the final liquidation 
of the purchase orders from the paid voucher. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
287 
By this process as outlined, this Unit will be in a position 
to reflect accurate daily, weekly, or monthly unexpended 
balances of each appropriation account. 
The purpose of the second section, Reconciliation and Reports, 
is obvious; that is, reconciling the balances with the Controller’s 
Office and reporting the financial status to the Institutions and 
Divisions concerned. 
This new activity will also serve the Institutions outside the 
Howard Reservation. 
In conclusion, there has been set up a special committee 
known as “The Dietary Standards Committee.’’ The Chairman 
is the Superintendent of the Mental Hospital. Other members 
are Superintendents of the Infirmary, Exeter School and the War- 
den of the State Prison. The Director and the Busineess Manager 
are members ex officio. The head dietitians of the Mental Hospi- 
tal and the Infirmary are also members of this Committee. It 
will function in close co-ordination with the Consumption Re- 
search and Planning Section, and is a very important Committee 
in these days of food shortages and rationing. 
Anyone familiar with the field of Business Management and 
Control would make a clear distinction with respect to what might 
be termed ‘ ‘policy’ ’ in connection with the selection of personnel 
and the purchasing of food, clothing, equipment, etc. All of 
this policy resides today in the hands of the Superintendent as it 
did in the past. No restrictions are made upon him whatsoever 
as to whom he shall appoint, whom he shall discharge, or what types 
of articles he shall purchase or the quantity he shall purchase. 
The only exception to this is that the new division keeps a check 
on the existing inventories as to whether the quantity purchased 
at the given time is necessary. It reviews the state of the in- 
ventory and advises whether there is money available within the 
appropriation. 
In addition, however, to what we term ‘ ‘policy’ ’ with con- 
nection to the purchases, there is the important question of fiscal 
control and accounting. This is a two-fold problem. Some- 
body connected with any State Department must be advised at 
all times of the exact state of the appropriation, particularly when 288 
Supplementary Report 
the appropriation is broken down into line item budgets. Some- 
body must know, as the months roll by in the fiscal year, as to whe- 
ther an institution is keeping within the money available through 
appropriations. 
In the case of the Mental Hospital, which has an annual ap- 
propriation in some years approaching nearly a million dollars, 
this fiscal control and financial problem is no small matter. Neith- 
er is it a small matter for the Social Welfare Department as a 
whole. In the expenditure of millions annually, every well organ- 
ized private business has such a Departemnt of Fiscal Control and 
Accounting. It is essential in order that the private business 
know, each month, where it stands. 
In all the hsitory of the State Institutions at Howard, there 
has never been an adequate and efficient system of control 
and accounting. This is due to several facts: In the first place 
no institution, even including the State Mental Hospital, was 
large enough to justify having a man at the head of such a fiscal 
control and accounting division who had the proper training, back- 
ground and experience. For example, the present Business Mana- 
ger of this Division receives $5,000 a year. This is comparable 
to the salaries of the superintendents and institutional heads of 
major institutions. It exceeds the salary received by the Superin- 
tendents of Sockanosset School, Oaklawn School, State Home and 
School, and the Soldiers’ Home. 
As a matter of fact, in all of the institutions except the State 
Hospital for Mental Diseases, there has never been anyone with 
adequate experience and training in this important field of fiscal 
control and accounting. The work has been left to the Superin- 
tendent who has had as his aid a bookkeeper or an assistant in a 
classification generally receiving less than $2,000. yearly. Sec- 
ondly, because of this situation, none of the superintendents, dur- 
ing the administration of the present Director, ever knew to any 
degree of accuracy the status of their appropriation, particularly 
as broken down into line item categories. May I cite one notable 
example. In the first year when I was Director of the Department, 
the Superintendent of the State Hospital for Mental Diseases re- 
quested a deficiency appropriation in January 1942, in the sum of 
$50,000 for his Operating Account, basing it upon the estimate State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
289 
of requirements for the balance of the fiscal year. The Legisla- 
ture appropriated the sum of $50,000 in a Deficiency Bill and 
made it available for expenditures for the balance of the year. 
When the books were finally closed, the Operating Account showed 
a surplus of $40,000. This could not happen under a proper system 
of fiscal control and accounting. It is needless to say that this 
transaction was exceedingly embarrassing to the Governor, to the 
Director of Finance and to the Director of Social Welfare who 
had taken the word of the Superintendent of the Mental Hospital 
as to the need for this deficiency appropriation. 
Transfer of Funds 
The Majority Report makes certain criticisms with respect 
to transfer of funds. As this criticism involves the Governor and 
the Acting Director £>f Finance, these important officials might 
well have been consulted. They were not consulted. 
The following is an excerpt from the Majority Report:— 
“ In our opinion, money appropriated by the Legis- 
lature for the running of the State Hospital should be spent for 
the State Hospital, and unexpended balances returned to the State 
Treasury. Emergencies should be met by Emergency Funds. 
The Legislature appropriates the money. The State Hospital 
has a budget. The Commission is of the opinion that the transfer 
of large sums of money from the funds of the State Hospital for 
Mental Diseases to other projects which are not allied and only 
distantly related is going too far, and usurping the will of the 
Legislature, which appropriated the money. Sums thusly trans- 
ferred are difficult to trace, and are contrary to the budget system 
which is the law.” 
Here again the Majority members of the Commission have 
been misinformed both as to the law and the fact. 
First, with respect to the law, I quote from General Laws of 
1938, Chapter 7, Section 4, which reads as follows: 
“Clause J. In case of an emergency, or unforseen circum- 
stances not existing at the time of making an appropriation, 
any department may request the transfer of a portion of any 
item of appropriation to another item of appropriation made Supplementary Report 
for the same department; and the state budget director and 
comptroller, with the approval of the governor, may issue 
an order for any such transfer; provided, that no such trans- 
fer shall operate to increase the total of the amounts appro- 
priated for any such department; and the state budget direc- 
tor and comptroller shall record the same and cause the ac- 
counts of the appropriations affected to be changed accord- 
ingly.” 
It will be seen by this statute that neither the Director of 
Social Welfare or any other Director of the State has the power to 
transfer monies appropriated by the Legislature from one appro- 
priation to another. Very wisely, however, the Legislature itself 
delegated to the Governor of the State and the Director of Finance 
the power “In case of emergency” to transfer funds within 
a Departemnt. 
This type of statute is considered by experts in the field of 
Public Administration as a wise and necessary delegation of power 
by the General Assembly. It must be remembered that in our 
State, Annual Budgets are prepared, generally speaking, on or 
before December first, prior to the meeting of the General As- 
sembly. This is necessary in order for the Finance Department 
to make up an over-all State Budget which will be within the an- 
ticipated revenue. It is also necessary in order that the Gover- 
nor can prepare his Budget Message to the General Assembly. 
When the General Assembly passes the Appropriations Bill for the 
fiscal year beginning July first, it is apparent, therefore, that the 
budget appropriations as requested by a Director of a Department 
were prepared same eight months in advance of the first day when 
the appropriations are available for expenditure. These expend- 
itures extend for a whole fiscal year thereafter; to wit, July first. 
It can happen and frequently does happen in every Department 
of the State, that in January or February of a fiscal year, which is 
fourteen or fifteen m onths after the budget was first prepared, that 
changes have taker, place. These changes may consist of avail- 
ability of personnel, prices of goods, and various other factors which 
are entirely beyond the control of the Director of the Department 
and which could not have been anticipated by him fourteen months 
before. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
May I point out that the transfers criticized were made to 
benefit the Farm Program. The need of repairs to farm buildings 
“cried out loud.” It is the implication in the Majority Report 
that this money was diverted for non-institptional purposes. 
The chief beneficiary of this expedniture on the dairy barns, 
piggery, and poultry plant was the State Hospital for Mental 
Diseases. It was not diverted for an unrelated purpose. Also, a 
certain amount of unexpended balances was transferred from 
certain institutional accounts to make up a deficiency in the Operat- 
ing Expenses of the Institutional Farms. This was to pay for hay, 
grain, and feed for cattle, poultry and hogs. There was a deficien- 
cy in the Institutional Farms’ Operating Account due to two fac- 
tors; (1) a great unanticipated rise in the cost of all types of feed 
products due to the war and (2) due to the expanded farm program. 
Had this money not been transferred, it might have been 
necessary to dispose of cattle, poultry, and hogs which were 
essential to feeding the population at the State Hospital 
and other institutions, or, in lieu of this, to ask for a deficiency 
appropriation. The Department of Finance very wisely agreed 
with the recommendation of the Director to make this transfer 
in lieu of making a request for a deficiency appropriation from the 
Legislature. All of this was done under a signed order by the 
Governor, acting by virtue of the powers delegated to him by the 
General Assembly in the Act above quoted. 
This review of various statements and criticisms contained 
in the Majority Report clearly indicates that the majority members 
of the Commission made statements based upon misinformation, 
both as to the law and the facts. May I conclude this review of 
the Majority Report of the Commission with one very important 
statement. The majority members of the Commission view with 
alarm the fact that the Institutional Farms program was in- 
augurated with a scientific farmer at its head; the majority of the 
Commission view with alarm the establishment of a Division of 
Central Construction and Repair under a well qualified Construc- 
tion Engineer; the majority of the Commission view with alarm 
the Division of Central Business Management and the placing of 
fiscal control and accounting under a highly qualified expert in 
this field. I am led to raise the question What are the major Supplementary Report 
objectives of the Hospital for Mental Diseases and what type of 
man should be selected as Superintendent to carry out these ob- 
jectives? 
I am sure that everyone reading this Report will agree that 
the major social objective of the State Mental Hospital is not to 
run a farm and produce food; that the major social objective of the 
State Mental Hospital is not to take care of maintenance and re- 
pair of doors, lighting fixtures and plumbing; that the major social 
objective of the State Hospital for Mental Diseases does not lie 
in fiscal control and accounting. 
The major objective of the State Hospital for Mental Diseases 
is to give the very best type of scientific medical therapeutic treat- 
ment and care to the mentally ill of this State. This is an obliga- 
tion and a responsibility of the highest order. It is a responsibility 
of the Governor of the State when we have some 2,800 mentally 
ill in our Hospital; it is an obligation which no Director of Social 
Welfare can ignore. 
What type of a man is qualified to carry out this all-essential 
objective, viz., the care, treatment and where possible the cure 
of the mentally ill. He must be a man with the highest type of 
training in this field of mental hygiene; he must be up to date with 
respect to scientific research and scientific development in thera- 
peutic treatment, in a science which is progressing with a degree 
of speed today almost unheard of in this field of physical and mental 
illness. To keep up with the progress of this science is no easy 
task. The Superintendent of the Mental Hospital must also be 
an able administrator; he must understand the type of physician, 
nurse, occuaptional therapist, attendant and dietitian required. 
He must have the ability to set up and maintain a proper internal 
organization, the importance of which is so well expressed in the 
Majority Report. 
Is it not clear that there is a grave danger in placing upon the 
superintendent of a mental hospital a great variety of administra- 
tive obligations, responsibilities and duties which are not directly 
related to the main issue, the scientific care and cure of the mentally 
ill. I do not believe on this side of the ‘ ‘Pearly Gates’ ’ there exists 
a man who embraces within himself the fundamental qualifications 
of a highly trained psychiatrist and administrator of a mental State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
293 
hospital, a skilled scientific farmer, a skilled construction and 
maintenance engineer; and a skilled business manager dealing with 
fiscal control and accounting. There is an axiom that ‘ ‘he who 
is jack of all trades is master of none.” 
It is my considered opinion the chief fault in our State 
Hospital for Mental Diseases, in our State Infirmary, in Exeter 
School, in Sockanosset, in Oaklawn, in the State Homes and School, 
and even at a lesser institution like the Soldiers’ Home, is, that the 
superintendent is expected to be a specialist in his field and at 
the same time a “jack of all trades.” To the extent that he tries 
to be a ‘ ‘jack of all trades’ ’ will he fail in his major function of 
scientific care, therapeutic treatment and efficient administration. 
May I say that two of the leading superintendents now hold- 
ing office under the Director of Social Welfare stated to me in eff- 
ect, ‘ ‘Thank God,’ ’ when I explained the plan for an efficient sys- 
tem of Business Management, Control and Accounting. Each of 
them stated that with the advent of increasing requirements with 
regard to the bookkeeping and fiscal control of appropriations; 
with the advent of the State Civil Service system which required 
a multitude of forms, controls, and checks with respect to person- 
nel, that at least half of the time was deviated from the main job, 
the care and treatment of patients in their charge. 
Conclusion 
I regret that it was necessary to take so much valuble space 
in this Appendix to the Supplementary Report in answering criti- 
cisms of the Department of Social Welfare and its Director, and 
past Superintendents of the State Hospital for Mental Diseases. 
The major direction of these criticisms was in the field of public 
administration. To the public at large, especially the taxpayers, 
in these days when taxation is bearing heavily upon everyone in 
the communinuty, there is no more important subject than effi- 
cient, business-like administration with respect to the monies ap- 
propriated by our General Assembly. 
Whatever the qualifications may be of the present Director 
of Social Welfare, his previous background and experience give 
him certain qualifications in this important field of management, 
both personnel and business management. He was connected in 294 
Supplementary Report 
the past with two of the largest private business organizations in 
the nation. In that period he was called upon, as part of his job, 
to study the principles of efficient business management as it had 
developed in a significant degree in private industry. Faced 
with the responsibility, when Chairman of the Unemployment 
Compensation Board, of expending annually several hundred thou- 
sand dollars of public funds, and faced, as Director of Social Wel- 
fare, with the expenditure of approximately seven million dollars 
annually of public funds—substantially a third of all the monies 
spent for all purposes by our State Government-the Director of 
Social Welfare would have been indeed derelict if he had not given 
special study to this important subject of Public Administration, 
especially as it related to the expenditure of public funds. 
Future history will alone tell. Yet I am confident that the 
Director of Social Welfare has made lasting and constructive 
achievements in the very area which has been so subjected to crit- 
icism by the Majority Report on the State Hospital for Mental 
Diseases. May I take the liberty of summarizing: 
(1) Food, at all times and especially during this War Emergency, 
is a matter of vital importance to some 5,000 men and women in 
our State Institutions. The development of the Institutional 
Farms Program has been a significant development. To raise on 
our farm in value substantially one-third of the food consumed at 
Howard is an achievement. Under the present program, the In- 
stitutional Farms at Howard will, without question, become known 
not only in Rhode Island but throughout New England as one 
of the best scientific farming projects of its size. For this I make 
no apology. 
(2) The Centralizing of Maintenance and Repairs for a commun- 
ity of sojme 5,000 or more people is also an achievement. Where 
would the City of Providence be, or even a smaller city, if it did 
not have a City Engineer with supervision over a City Engineer- 
ing Department to meet the various and manifold technical re- 
quirements in respect to the community’s utilities. These include 
power, water, sewage, roads, sidewalks, and the proper upkeep 
of millions of dollars of city buildings. 
When I became Director of Social Welfare, I found out that 
the lack of a centralized and integrated Engineering Department State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
295 
with no competent Construction Engineering Head had resulted 
in the serious deterioration of valuable State property. In some 
cases this deterioration was so great that it placed impediments 
in the way of proper treatment and therapeutic care of patients. 
For curing this defect, I make no apology. 
(3) The program which relieved the Superintendents of the vari- 
ous State Institutions of the highly technical business of account- 
ing and fiscal control, I am sure achieves two major results. First, 
in the years to come it will save not thousands, but millions of 
dollars to the State of Rhode Island, and second, the Superinten- 
dent of our Institutions will not be bothered with mathematics 
and figures. He will be able to devote his time, his talents and 
his experience as a scientist, to the development of a scientific pro- 
gram for the care, the cure and the rehabilitation of those unfor- 
tunate citizens who find themselves in a State Institution. It 
should be borne in mind that the only thing that has been taken 
away from any Superintendent, is ‘ ‘mathematics’ ’—mathematics 
of fiscal accounting and control. It is needless to say how impor- 
tant this is in a department which is responsible for the expenditure 
annually of some seven million dollars of State monies. 
It is unfortunate that the majority members of the Commis- 
sion proceeded on what I term “academic” assumptions. The 
Commission might have consulted the Acting Director of Finance 
and the Budget Officer of the State with respect to all of the three 
subjects above mentioned. I am sure two hours spent with the 
responsible Fiscal Officers of the State would have been an en- 
lightening period for the majority members of the Commission. 296 
Supplementary Report 
APPENDIX IX 
MENACE OF MENTALLY DEFECTIVE DELINQUENT 
State Shoud Supply Means of Restraint for This Incorrigible 
Type. 
John E. Donley, M. D.. 
(Former State Director of Public Welfare) 
The mentally defective delinquent in Rhode Island requires 
consideration not because of his numbers, which are small, but 
by reason of his powers for harm, which are great. He is no new 
discovery, for he has been with us always, lost in the mass of the 
general population. With the advance of knowledge and tech- 
niques in the social sciences, he has become the object of scientific 
interest and study. He demands the attention of physicians who 
are concerned with him because they have to treat him; of lawyers 
because they have to defend or prosecute him; of pedagogues be- 
cause he is a problem in their classrooms; of psychologists because 
he invites their tests; of policemen, because he challenges their 
authority; of parents because too often he breaks their hearts. 
When one studies a "sufficient number of mentally backward 
people, it is apparent that they fall naturally into three main 
groups. There are those with dull minds and good characters, 
those with dull minds and bad characters, and those whose minds 
are dull always but whose characters, like our own, are a mixture 
of ingredients good, bad and indifferent. 
The dull people of predominantly good character are a most 
valuable social asset; they contribute the brawn which, under the 
direction of competent brains, has done an important part of the 
world’s work. It is difficult to imagine how we could have dis- 
pensed with their humble and too frequently unappreciated ser- 
vices. They have helped to build the foundations of civilization. 
Not Numerous in Rhode Island 
From the ranks of those with dull minds and bad characters 
come the people whose exploits interest and shock the readers of 
newspapers. We call them defective delinquents and they con- State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
297 
stitute a perpetual menace to the society in which they live, as our 
own recent experience so tragically proves. Fortunately, mental 
defectives of this vicious type are not numerous in Rhode Island; 
if they were we should have heard of them. But even if they are 
few, it is nevertheless important to appreciate that no community 
is safe in its lives or its property while even one mental defective 
of proven or potential criminal tendencies is allowed his uncontrol- 
led freedom, because such freedom affords opportunities to com- 
mit arson, rape, burglary, robbery and homicide, not to mention a 
host of lesser infractions of the law. 
The vicious kind of mental defective is usually incorrigible 
and therefore his liberty should be restricted so that he cannot 
carry into action the fantasies of his warped and stunted mind. 
The material basis of his incorrigibility is the poor quality of 
his brain. Obviously then, it is utopian to expect such a brain 
to exercise powers and faculties it does not possess. It is even 
more utopian to believe that the possessor of such a brain can de- 
rive any socializing benefit from a sojourn in a penal or correctional 
institution. 
And yet it is to such institutions that Rhode Island courts 
are now compelled to send defective delinquents who appear be- 
fore them. A man accused of crime may be found not guilty by 
reason of insanity. He is then committed to a hospital for mental 
diseases and thus he is accorded the consideration which modern 
knowledge and justice demand. If, on the other hand, the court 
has to do with a mentally defective delinquent, such humane, 
enlightened and adequate treatment is impossible. 
And why is this? Why do we treat defective brains with 
less than proper consideration? 
It is because we, as a State, have thus far failed to supply 
the means of restraint for the mentally defective delinquent. In 
our treatment of this type of offender we are still hovering in the 
period of penology when children were hanged at Tyburn for the 
stealing of a few spoons. And if, in this matter, our sin is one of 
unwitting omission, then surely when we are awake to our feelings 
we shall take measures to correct them. Supplementary Report 
Duty of Schools to Find Feeble-Minded 
How socially important are the relations between crime and 
mental defect, the studies of modern investigators have revealed. 
It has been found, for example, that from 25 to 50 percent of the 
inmates of our jails and other penal institutions are feeble-minded; 
more than 10 per cent are epileptic and mentally unstable; 20 per 
cent are psychopaths, that is to say, people who are not clearly 
insane but who cannot get along either with themselves or others. 
There is thus a remainder of 20 to 40 per cent of fairly normal in- 
mates in these institutions. 
Of 850 delinquents studied in Boston, 231 were found to be 
feeble-minded; 104 psychopathic; 58 insane; 31 epileptic and 
unbalanced. All but 148 of the remainder were defective to a 
greater or lesser degree. Less than 20 per cent could be considered 
normal persons. Similar studies from other sources indicate the 
close association of crime and mental defect; and the important 
truth emerges from these studies that over 90 per cent of adult 
criminals begin their careers as juvenile delinquents. Since this 
is true, it is clear that there rests with our schools the urgent duty 
of discovering and providing for these children, because it is from 
this group that many delinquents are afterwards recruited. 
It is unusal to engage in ordinary conversation without hear- 
ing something about the moron, and this with good reason, because 
the moron, whose mental age is somewhere between eight and 
eleven years, is the most difficult problem among the feeble-mind- 
ed. His outward-seeming appearance of normal mentality is 
often so good as to deceive even the elect. It is, of course, easy 
enough to recognize the lower grades of mental defect and to pro- 
vide, as far as possible, for proper care. 
But the higher grade defective, the moron, is by no means 
easy of recognition. Indeed he may present a most difficult and 
even, perhaps, insoluble problem in diagnosis. It sometimes 
happens that the moron’s mental handicaps are not known even 
to his own family and not infrequently he surprises and startles 
his friends by peculiarities of temperament and conduct. 
By the general public the moron is held to legal and moral 
responsibility, and yet he is capable of neither because the finer State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
299 
structure of brain tissue is, in him, deficient in quality. In the 
group of morons are found many of those who commit the most 
revolting crimes. 
The social dislocations which always accompany war are 
usually combined with an increase in delinquency, Accordingly 
we may expect to find defective delinquency more prevalent than 
in times of peace. This is another reason why we should prepare 
for the handling of the problems raised by the defective delin- 
quent who when unsupervised may commit crimes which, in their 
aftermath, may well prove irreparable. Supplementary Report 
APPENDIX X 
Endorsements of Proposed Correctional Authority Out- 
lined in Chapter II of Supplementary Report 
The following men, all of whom are leading authorities in 
the field of Penology, many of them experienced administrators, 
have endorsed the Proposed Correctional Authority outlined in 
Chapter II of the Supplementary Report. Each of them has read 
Chapter II before writing his endorsement. 
Brief Biographical Sketches of the Writers of the Attached 
Letters 
James V. Bennett 
Mr. Bennett is at present Director of the Federal Bureau of 
Prisons. As such, he is chief administrator of the largest num- 
ber of prisons and correctional institutions under one administra- 
tion in the United States. Under his administration, the Federal 
Bureau of Prisons is recognized as a leader in progressive prison 
administration looking to rehabilitation and reform. Mr. Ben- 
nett is a graduate of Brown University. 
Austin H. MacCormick 
Mr. MacCormick is at present Executive Director of The 
Osborne Association, Incorporated, a national organization named 
after the late Thomas Mott Osborne, and organized to promote 
higher standards in the penal and correctional field. Mr. Mac- 
Cormick was formerly Commissioner of Correction of New York 
City and Assistant Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. 
Dr. William Draper Lewis 
Dr. Lewis is the Director of the American Law Institute. 
This is an organization whose membership comprises leading 
judges of both Federal and State courts, many leading members 
of the American Bar, professors in American law schools, and 
laymen interested in the development of both civil and criminal 
law. The Institute had made outstanding contributions in the 
development of jurisprudence in the United States. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
301 
Dr, William Healy 
Dr. Healy, for many years, has been head of the Judge Baker 
Guidance Center. This is one of the leading, if not the leading, 
clinics in the United States for the study and treatment of juvenile 
delinquents and young people of abnormal behavior. Dr. Healy 
is recognized, both in this country and abroad, as a leading author- 
ity in this field. 
Edward R. Cass 
Mr. Cass is General Secretary of The American Prison As- 
sociation. This is the leading prison organizaiton in the United 
States, which comprises in its membership the wardens of all 
State prisons, the chief administrators of Federal prisons, and 
many leading penologists. The association has made outstand- 
ing contributions in the field of Penology. 
R. Clyde White 
Professor White is Professor of Social Service Administra- 
tion at the University of Chicago. He has been called upon, both 
by the States of Illinois and Indiana, to make studies and reports 
in the institutional field. When Paul V. McNutt was Governor 
of the State of Indiana, Professor White acted as Technical Ad- 
viser to the Indiana State Committee on Governmental Economy, 
a committee which studied all of Indiana’s State Institutions. 
Sanford Bates 
Mr. Bates was formerly Commissioner of Correction of the 
State of Massachusetts. Later, he was Director of the Federal 
Bureau of Prisons, and at present is a Commissioner of the New 
York State Board of Parole. He is also President of The Ameri- 
can Parole Association. 
John R. Ellingston 
Mr. Ellingston is Technical Adviser to the American Law 
Institute. As such, he participated in the preparation of the 
Model Youth Correction Act, and played an important part 
in assisting the State of California in adopting the first Youth 
Correction Authority Act in the United States. 302 
Supplementary Report 
William J. Ellis 
Mr. Ellis is Commissioner of the State Department of In- 
stitutions and Agencies of New Jersey. Under his administra- 
tion, the State of New Jersey has developed one of the most pro- 
gressive correctional systems for both adult and youth offenders 
in the United States. 
Sheldon Glueck 
Professor Glueck is Professor of Criminal Law and Criminol- 
ogy, Law School of Harvard University. Together with his wife, 
Eleanor Glueck, Professor Gluck has, in recent years, made 
exhaustive research into the subject of Recidivism. The books 
of Professor and Mrs. Glueck on this subject are outstanding 
contributions to the problem of preventing criminal careers. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
303 
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE 
BUREAU OF PRISONS 
James V. Bennett 
Dirctor 
WASHINGTON 
December 14, 1943 
Mr. Clemens J. France, Director 
Department of Social Welfare 
40 Fountain Street 
Providence, Rhode Island 
My dear Mr. France: 
As a native Rhode Islander I was naturally much interested 
in reading your report and recommendations with respect to prob- 
lems of social welfare and correctional treatment, but I had not 
anticipated it would be one in which I could concur so thoroughly 
and wholeheartedly. It is, therefore, doubly pleasant to be able 
to write you that I think your suggestions and plans are sound 
and that they will, I believe, be practicable of application in 
Rhode Island. 
Your correctional program appeals especially. When I first 
heard of the proposed State Security Council it seemed to me to be 
a siraight-forward and realistic way of getting down to cases, not 
only with respect to juvenile delinquency and crime, but also to 
guide in the solution of the many critical social problems which 
will arise during the demobilization and readjustment period which 
will follow the war. In fact, it seemed to me to be so constructive 
in its concept and approach that I recently suggested to the com- 
mittee of the United States Senate studying Juvenile Delinquency 
that they consider your plan as a pattern for adoption in other 
states having similar problems. Supplementary Report 
I have also consistently recommended, as you do, the indeter- 
minate sentence, the Youth Correction Plan of the Law Institute, 
and the integration of all state correctional institutions and policies 
under a single directing head. These taken together with the 
other suggestions bearing on the work of your department would, 
if adopted, place Rhode Island in the vanguard of those states 
seeking realistically to meet the social problems we can now see 
on the peace-time horizon. 
With every good wish and kind regards, 
Sincerely, 
James V. Bennett 
Director State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
THE OSBORNE ASSOCIATION, INC. 
COMBINING THE NATIONAL SOCIETY OF PENAL INFORMA- 
TION, INC. AND THE WELFARE LEAGUE ASSOCIATION, INC., 
BOTH FOUNDED by THOMAS MOTT OSBORNE 
114 east 30th street Zone 16, new york, n.y. 
Charles D. Osborne, 
Chairman of the Board. 
G. Howland Shaw, 
President. 
Thorsten Sellin, December 11, 1943 
Treasurer. 
Austin H. MacCormick, 
Executive Director. 
Honorable Clemens J. France 
Director of Social Welfare 
40 Fountain Street 
Providence, Rhode Island 
Dear Dr. France: 
I have read your proposed program for Rhode Island with the 
greatest interest and want to go on record as believing that the plan 
is a sound one, both in the general principles that are involved and in 
the detailed way in which you propose to apply them. I know 
how long and carefully you have studied the situation, how re- 
ceptive you have been to the ideas of others whose experience 
seemed to you to qualify them to speak on the subject, and how 
persistently you have tried to work out a program which is sound 
and practical and not merely justifiable from the standpoint of 
ideal principles. 
The soundness of the foundation on which you base your plan 
seems to me beyond question. I do not know of any ideas in the 
correctional field that have been worked over with such care and 
by so many people of ability and long experience as the ideas which Supplementary Report 
have been embodied in the Youth Correction Authority proposal 
and the other plans which are based on the same general principles. 
Rhode Island has always seemed to me an almost ideal state in 
which to apply these principles, and it seems to me you have used 
excellent judgement in planning the administrative setup and 
procedures which would work well in your state. If any details 
need to be changed later, that could be done but there is no ques- 
tion in my mind of the validity of the proposal as a whole. I be- 
lieve I know enough about Rhode Island institutions to know that 
your proposals for utilizing them in more effective ways than at 
present are wise and workable. 
Trusting that the people and officials of your state will have 
wisdom and vision enough to recognize the worth of your plan, 
I am, 
Sincerely yours, 
Austin H. MacCormick 
Executive Director State Commission on Public Weljare Institutions 
AMERICAN LAW INSTITUTE 
President 
George Wharton Pepper 
Vice-President 
Learned Hand 
Director 
William Draper Lewis 
3400 Chestnut St. 
Philadelphia, Pa. December 13, 1943 
Dear Dr. France; 
I have read with satisfaction the proposal for a rational and 
integrated correctional program for youth and adult offenders in 
Rhode Island contained in your Supplementary Report. Your 
adaptation of the Institute’s Model Youth Correction Authority 
Act to meet local conditions seems to me particularly happy. The 
composition of the proposed Authority—a Superior Court judge, 
the Director of the Department of Social Welfare, and a Superin- 
tendent of Correctional Institutions (who, I take it, will serve as 
executive officer)—gives promise of enlisting the cooperation 
of the courts and the confidence of the public, and of insuring the 
effective use of existing resources, with a minimum increase in costs. 
Naturally, the Institute views with approval your proposed 
extension of the principle of individual treatment to offenders of 
all ages, along the lines developed in the Federal Corrections Act, 
now before Congress. The demonstration of such a program by 
Rhode Island would be a service to the Nation. 
I want to endorse especially your emphasis on personnel. 
Your plan provides the indipensable machinery. To make it work 
will require trained and understanding men, such as you propose 
to enlist. 
I believe the principle and procedures for administering crim- 
inal justice that you have incorporated into an integrated program 
to be essential to the health of our democracy. May I, therefore, Supplementary Report 
offer you and Rhode Island any help the Institution can give 
in the adoption and administration of the program. 
Sincerely yours, 
Wm. Draper Lewis 
Dr. Clemens J. France, Director 
Department of Social Welfare 
Providence, Rhode Island State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
309 
JUDGE BAKER GUIDANCE CENTER 
FOR CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 
38 Beacon St., Boston, Mass 
Directors p ., . 
George E. Gardner, M. D. stephen'p. Cabot 
Frederick Rosenheim, M. D. A 
Vice-President 
Consulting Directors Mrs. Robert Homans 
William Healy, M. D. Treasurer 
Augusta F. Bronner, Ph. D. Richard saltonstall. 
November 30, 1943 
Dear Mr. France: 
Your masterful survey of the problems that the Department 
of Social Welfare of Rhode Island faces has been carefully read 
with enthusiasm by Dr. Bronner and myself. It impresses me 
personally by its statesman-like qualities and I say this because, 
with your wide perspectives, you take into account many well- 
considered thoughts of others and facts of accomplishment scat- 
tered elsewhere, while, above all, you show the possibilities of 
integrating humanitariamism and economic advantage in the 
democratic process of goverment of a State. 
This report of yours is, to my mind, a remarkably fine docu- 
ment and lengthy though it is, I hope it will be carefully read and 
considered by the legislators. It ought in some way to be made 
available for reading by every intelligent person in your State. 
Sincerely yours, 
William Healy Supplementary Report 
Richard A. McGee, President E. R. Cass, Gen. Sec. 
Olympia, Washington New York City 
THE AMERICAN PRISON ASSOCIATION 
135 East 15th St., New York City 
SPONSORING THE 73rD ANNUAL CONGRESS OF CORRECTION 
AFFILIATED BODIES 
Warden’s Association 
Chaplain’s Association 
National Prisoners’ Aid Association 
National Conference of Juvenile Agencies 
American Parole Association 
National Probation Association 
National Jail Association 
Medical Correctional Association 
Penal Industries Association 
November 30, 1943 
Hon. Clemens J. France 
Director, Department of Social Welfare 
Providence, Rhode Island 
Dear Mr. France: 
I consider it my good fortune to have had opportunity to read 
the Supplementary Report to the Governor’s Commission on Pub- 
lic Welfare Institutions which you so kindly made available for 
me recently. Very soon after examining the pages, I was convinc- 
ed of the soundness of the social thinking on which your report is 
based. I quickly became aware of an unwillingness to be satisfied 
with a piecemeal or patching program. I was reminded of the 
man who was not content to patch a leak here and there in the roof 
of his house when in his own heart he realized that the roof was 
worn out and should be rebuilt. Over a period of thirty years 
I have had the benefit of observing steps in the various States to 
improve the correctional systems. It was indeed very gratifying 
for me to have the opportunity to function for the Civil Service 
Commission in the State of Rhode Island to assist in the selection 
of qualified persons to fill important posts in the institutions. State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
Generally speaking, the tendency in the States is to deal with 
one phase of the problem instead of attempting a long range pro- 
gram of an over-all character. I have served on legislative com- 
missions myself, particuarly in New York State, following the 
riots in 1930, and for years I’ve been a member of the State Com- 
mission of Correction, a Constitutional body. You will note from 
records that one year there is agitation about probation, then anoth- 
er year about crime prevention, and another about parole. Then 
there is scandal in one of the institutions and general public clamor 
that something be done; but seldom do we find an attempt to be- 
gin at the bottom and try to understand and treat in logical fashion 
the problem of crime and its treatment as a whole, such as you are 
attempting in your report. The result is that we have in America 
too frequently the hodgepodge kind of correctional programs and 
systems. 
I make the above emphasis on piecemeal consideration and 
treatment because of its unsoundness and inadequacy, and further 
because it seldom gets us very far. In the instance of your report 
I am convinved that you want to do something more than patch 
a few leaks here and there. You are desirous of doing a well 
rounded and big job, and I believe that such an undertaking and 
demonstration will be of national benefit. Further I am con- 
vinced that a good place to start would be in a State the size of 
Rhode Island. 
Sincerely yours, 
E. R. Cass, General Secretary Supplementary Report 
312 
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 
THE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SERVICE ADMINISTRATION 
Residence Address: 
8208 Maple Avenue 
Gary, Indiana 
Mr. C. J. France, Director November 28, 1943 
State Department of Social Welfare 
40 Fountain Street 
Providence, R. I. 
Dear Mr. France: 
You have outlined a program and a plan of operation which, 
if enacted into law, should put Rhode Island out in front of all 
the states with social welfare programs. To adopt the program 
would be just practical commonsense. But let me comment upon 
a few specific matters. 
The recommendations concerning a correctional program are 
soundly based upon your own valuable experience and the best 
experimentation in this country and abroad. The integration of 
all services involved in the identification and treatment of the 
offender against the law is, in my opinion, a clear necessity, if we 
are going to use our scientific knowledge for the protection of 
society against the abnormal person and for the rehabilitation 
of the normal offenders. In no other type of organization is it 
possible to bring to bear upon the criminal, the delinquent and 
the potential delinquent the skills and knowledge necessary for 
treatment. 
A primary condition for integration of services under a single 
administrative head is the redefinition in law of the function of 
the court; namely, to determine guilt or innocence. Beyond that 
point the court should have no more to do with a probationer or a 
parolee than it does with the individual committed to prison. But, 
further, the court lacks the knowledge at the time sentence is 
usually passed to fix minimum termination. If the right to habeas 
corpus is assured the convicted offender and machinery is easily State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
313 
available for him to use, no injustice will be done; indeed, justice 
will more assuredly be guaranteed those who run afoul of the law. 
The General Assembly may hesitate to deprive the courts of the 
sentencing function, lest the public protest the change, but if 
definite determinate or indeterminate sentences are retained for 
such crimes as first degree murder, rape and treason, the public 
would probably not protest very much a universal minimum of, 
say, one year for all other serious offenses. The actual time served 
in the institution and on parole would be a matter then for scienti- 
fic determination; the punishment would fit the person rather 
than the crime. 
The problem of sentencing is crucial in a state plan for treat- 
ment of the delinquent and criminals. I analyzed all the sen- 
tences of prisoners in the Indiana State Prison and the Indiana 
Reformatory in 1934 to convince myself of this fact; this study 
was later published in the Social Service Review, June 1937, 
pp. 234-46, and somewhat earlier in the Report of the Indiana 
State Committee on Governmental Economy in 1935. It was 
from the report of this Committee, which I wrote, that Paul Mc- 
Nutt took the material for his address which you have quoted. 
Some years later I had one of my students analyze the sentences 
in the Menard Institution in Illinois, and although Illinois has 
had a better indeterminate sentence law than Indiana, we found 
similar curiosities in sentencing practice. Your plan to set up 
the principles of the Borstal System is highly desirable, but it will 
not work effectively unless you can do something about sentencing. 
Likewise, I think you have to have a change in the sentencing law 
before probation and parole can be administered scientifically. 
With kindest regards to you, 
Sincerely yours, 
R. Clyde White 
Professor of Social Service 
Administration Supplementary Report 
AMERICAN PAROLE ASSOCIATION 
AFFILIATED WITH THE AMERICAN PRISON ASSOCIATION 
135 East 15th Street 
New York City 
Sanford Bates, President 
80 Centre Street. New York City 
December 14, 1943 
Clemens J. France, Esq. 
Director 
Department of Social Welfare 
Providence, Rhode Island 
Dear Mr. France: 
With the assistance of a mild attack of influenza, which 
caused me to stay home for a few days, I read your excellent 
supplementary report to the Governor’s Commission on Public 
Welfare Institutions. I am in thorough sympathy with the views 
expressed and in general with the plan proposed. 
One of the things that appeals to me most is your recognition 
that progress will be made more swiftly if our whole institutional 
and jurisdictional approach is along preventive rather than puni- 
tive lines. Too long have we all, and by that I mean institutional 
men, courts, district attorneys and police officials, felt the role 
of avengers in the past and only now are we beginning to realize 
that it is infinitely more important to plan constructively for the 
future. 
The summary of your report makes a comprehensive state- 
ment of your blue-prints for the future social welfare program in 
Rhode Island and I congratulate you on its breadth of vision. 
Very truly yours, 
Sanford Bates 
Commissioner 
New York State Board of Parole State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
315 
AMERICAN LAW INSTITUTE 
President 
George Wharton Pepper 
Vice President 
Learned Hand December 13, 1943 
Director 
William Draper Lewis 
2400 Chestnut St., 
Philadelphia, Pa. 
Dr. Clemens J. France, Director 
Department of Social Welfare 
Providence, Rhode Island 
Dear Mr. France: 
I heartily approve the program for prevention and cor- 
rection outlined in your Synopsis of Supplementary Report and its 
Recommendations. It is a practical proposal, based upon a clear 
understanding of all the conditions, social and psychological, that 
compel improvement in our administration of criminal justice. 
It cannot but be helpful to have these conditions spelled out as 
you have done. 
You will be interested to know that a close approximation 
of your plan for a State Security Council, as well as for an integrat- 
ed correctional system, has been drafted by the Council of State 
Governments, and is now being translated into draft legislation 
for submission to the States. Rhode Island seems again to be 
at the head of the procession. Congratulations. 
Sincerely yours, 
John R. Ellingston 
Special Adviser 
Criminal Justice-Youth Supplementary Report 
STATE OF NEW JERSEY 
DEPARTMENT OF INSTITUTIONS AND AGENCIES 
TRENTON, NEW JERSEY 
December 14, 1943 
Mr. Clemens J. France, Director 
Department of Social Welfare 
40 Fountain Street 
Providence, Rhode Island 
Dear Mr. France: 
I have read with very real interest your supplementary re- 
port to the Governor’s Commission on Public Welfare Institutions, 
together with your appraisal of the problems as you see them 
and as they confront the public welfare agencies in Rhode Island. 
It seems to me that you could not be accused of advocating 
anything bizarre or unattainable. The general policies which you 
advocate are consistent with those which have been established by 
law and followed by the State Board of Control in this State for 
the past twenty-five years and are distinctly realistic and attain- 
able objectives. 
I am glad you have placed emphasis on the importance of 
technically competent personnel rather than on putting too much 
reliance on ‘ ‘bricks and mortar.’ ’ This indeed is the proper empha- 
sis. Furthermore, the approach to the state-wide meeting of these 
problems through treatment and training, looking to cure and 
rehabilitation and looking to the reestablishment in the com- 
munity, presents a fundamentally sound procedure. 
I can see much to commend your suggestion for the establish- 
ment of a ‘ ‘State Security Council.’ ’ The individual states should 
be the laboratories for proving the possibility of progressive and 
constructive social action. There has been altogether too much 
tendency for the federal agencies to take over and administer 
activities dealing with the lives of individual citizens. Through State Commission on "Public Welfare Institutions 
such a program as your proposed State Security Council, you in 
Rhode Island can develop cooperative activity on the part of re- 
lated state agencies and under responsible leadership. I have 
recently seen a report of the Committee on Crime Control of the 
Council of State Governments in which they made a recommenda- 
tion very similar to the one which you have set forth in your re- 
port. 
I am, naturally, very much interested in that phase of your 
report that deals with the program for establishing a juvenile 
court and a Youth Correction Authority as a means of meeting the 
needs of juvenile, youth and adult offenders. 
Under our program here in New Jersey through the State 
Board of Control we have had an integrated plan with many of 
these relations well established for a long period of time and in 
addition, we have had a provision for pre-sentence study and 
classification which has given us many of the advantages of the 
proposed Youth Correction Authority. 
I personally believe your plan is a forward-looking one and 
that you will find that it is particualrly well adapted to a state 
so closely knit geographically and otherwise as Rhode Island is. 
I appreciate your having given me the opportunity to look 
over this material and trust that you will let me know how its 
presentation is received. 
With every best personal wish, I am, 
Cordially yours, 
Department Institutions and Agencies 
William J. Ellis, Commissioner 
WJE:0 Supplementary Report 
LAW SCHOOL OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
Cambridge, Mass. 
December 17, 1943 
Mr. C. J. France 
Director, Department of Social Welfare 
40 Fountain Street 
Providence, Rhode Island 
Dear Mr. France: 
You have taken some of the better building stones of crim- 
inology, psychology, psychiatry and education and skillfully com- 
bined them into a structure of great promise. The plan you pre- 
sent seems well organized and economical. It should bring a great 
deal of rationality into the treatment of the handicapped and 
particularly the delinquent and criminal classes. It is, in brief, a 
civilized system that you would have the brave little State of 
Rhode Island put into effect. May you succeed in your com- 
mendable enterprise. 
Sincerely yours, 
s) Sheldon Glueck 
Professor of Criminal Law 
and Criminology 
SG :fbd State Commission on Public Welfare Institutions 
319 
December 8, 1943 
STATEMENT OF HARRY LOEB JACOBS, 
MEMBER, STATE COMMISSION ON 
PUBLIC WELFARE INSTITUTIONS 
TO HIS EXCLLENCY, 
J. HOWARD McGRATH, GOVERNOR 
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND 
PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS 
My dear Governor: 
In view of the fact that I, as a member of this Commission, 
cannot wholly agree with the report of the majority members of 
the Commission, and the fact that I do not subscribe to all that 
is contained in the Supplementary Report submitted by Clemens 
J. France, member of the Commission, I present herewith a brief 
statement. 
In presenting certain points where I cannot agree with the 
Majority Report, may I say that I have for all members of the 
Commission the highest respect. This Commission, as you know, 
has worked for over two years and devoted themselves to many 
long hours on this highly important subject. 
As you are aware, for approximately six years I was a mem- 
ber of a State Commission known as the Penal and Charitable 
Commission of Rhode Island, of which I acted as chairman for two 
and a half years. During that period I came to realize that 
this whole problem which has to do with our various State Insti- 
tutions is a highly complex one. For a proper solution of it, 
there is required the best expert opinion and advice which is 
available in the United States. 
There are four major points wherein I find myself in dis- 
agreement with the majority members of the Commission:— 
1. Institutional Business Management 
There is a sharp difference of opinion between the majority 
members of the Commission and Mr. France on this highly import- 
ant question of Institutional Business Management. 320 
Supplementary Report 
It appears that in the past several years, the Director of 
Social Welfare took several steps with a view to improving Busi- 
ness Management and Administration: -First, three farms were 
consolidated into a central farm in a division of the Department 
known as the Division of Institutional Farms. The evidence is 
clear that since the establishment of the centralized farm program 
there has been an increase in both the quantity and variety of food 
grown at Howard for the benefit of the patients. It is stated, and 
there is no evidence to the contrary, that this centralized farm 
program has increased farm products in the past several years by 
at least twenty per cent and the program is still expanding. The 
evidence also shows that where only three Institutions shared in 
these farm products, now seven Institutions share in these 
products. It appears that the value of the products grown repre- 
sents in excess of thirty per cent of the total value of the food 
consumed at the various Institutions at Howard. 
The majority members of the Commission seem to hold that 
the centralized farm program should be decentralized as it was 
some years ago with the special objective of placing what was 
known as the State Mental Hospital Farm under the jurisdiction 
of the Superintendent of that Hospital. 
I cannot agree with the majority members of the Commission 
on this plan of decentralizing a farm program of this importance 
and value. 
Second, within the past year the Director of Social Welfare, 
with the approval of the Governor, established a Division of Cen- 
tralized Maintenance, Construction and Repair. This placed 
under one Supervising Construction Engineer all construction, 
maintenance and repair work at Howard. The majority members 
of the Commission are of the opinion that maintenance and repair 
work should be under the direct supervision of each Superintendent 
as it was in the past. 
Anyone familiar with the situation at Howard knows that 
there are located there a large number of buildings of various types. 
Also there are streets, sidewalks, underground power and steam 
lines and a sewer system. State Commission on Public JVelfare Institutions 
321 
I am in agreement with the Supplementary Report that there 
should be centralized under one competent Construction and 
Maintenance Engineer all construction and repair problems at 
Howard. This seems to be common sense. 
Third, it also appears that in the past year the Director of 
Social Welfare set up under a Division of Business Management 
a plan for centralizing all bookkeeping, accounting and control 
of expenditutes under a well qualified Business Manager. The 
majority members of the Commission hold that this important 
problem of accounting and fiscal control should be left in the 
hands of the respective Superintendents of the State Institutions. 
I cannot agree with the majority members of the Commission 
on this point as I feel it is in the interest of efficiency and economy 
that there be one centralized system of accounting and fiscal 
control in an institutional program which expends annually ap- 
proximately two million dollars. 
In my opinion, there should also be centralized all stores in 
one division. When I was on the State Penal and Charitable 
Commission, we established such a Centralized Stores program. 
All consumable supplies were in one warehouse and were drawn 
upon from time to time by the respective Superintendents of the 
Institutions. 
2. Boards of Trustees 
The Majority Report recommends that there be established a 
Board of Trustees for each of the institutions which are owned 
and administered by the State. The Supplementary Report of Mr. 
France disagrees with this recommendation. 
After very serious consideration I am of the opinion that the 
establishment of Boards of Trustees would not add to the effi- 
ciency of the Institutions. Such Boards of Trustees might well 
interfere with the highly specialized work of the respective Super- 
intendents as well as the important functions of the Director of 
Social Welfare in having over-all supervision of the Institutions, 
especially with respect to major policies. 322 
Supplementary Report 
3. Dividing the Existing Department of Social Welfare Into 
Two Separate State Departments 
The majority members of the Commission have recommended 
that the existing unified Department of Social Welfare be divided 
into two departments: a State Department which would comprise 
all State Institutions; the other a Department which would com- 
prise all Welfare Services, so-called. The Supplementary Report 
of Mr. France is in disagreement with this recommendation. 
This proposal to divide the Social Welfare Department into 
two Departments is in many respects the most far reaching pro- 
posal made in the Majority Report. After serious consideration 
I am impelled to disagree with the majority members and agree 
with the Supplementary Report on this highly important question. 
The Supplementary Report of Mr. France, in my opinion, gives 
very sound and conclusive reasons why there should not be estab- 
lished a State Department comprising institutions which would be 
entirely separate from a State Department comprising welfare 
services, so-called. I do not propose to discuss this subject at 
any length. May I point out that very careful consideration was 
given to the reorganization of the administration of various func- 
tions of this State at the time when Theodore Francis Green was 
Governor and there was passed by the General Assembly what 
was known as the Reorganization Bill. Subsequently, under the 
regime of former Governor William H. Vanderbilt, very careful 
study was given to the organization of the State government. Un- 
less, therefore, very sound reasons can be given for dividing the 
existing Department of Social Welfare into two Departments, in 
my opinion, the State organization should be left as it is. 
May I say that the Majority Report does not, in my opinion, 
set forth any sound reasons for the establishing of another State 
Department. It is manifest that such a State Department would 
result in increased costs in administration.. No increased costs 
in the administration of our State government should be 
incurred without exhaustive study based upon sound 
reasons. State Commission on Public Welf are Institutions 
323 
4. The Correctional Authority Proposed in the Supplemen- 
tary Report 
In the Supplementary Report, Mr. France has recommended 
the establishment in Rhode Island of what is known as a ‘ ‘Cor- 
rectional Authority.’ ’ This Authority would have over-all super- 
vision and control of all young men between the ages of sixteen 
and twenty-four years convicted of a crime, and of all adults over 
the age of twenty-four. This Correctional Authority would also 
have supervision and control of all the correctional institutions, in- 
cluding the Prison, the Providence County Jail, the Reformatories 
for Men and Women and the Division of Probation and Parole. 
As pointed out in the Supplementary Report, this recommen- 
dation for the establishment of a Correctional Authority is based 
upon a bill now pending in Congress for the establishment of a 
similar Authority under the Attorney General of the United States 
who has charge of all federal prisons and prisoners. 
The Federal program has been endorsed by the Honorable 
Harland F. Stone, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the 
United States, by a special Committee of Senior Circuit Court 
Judges, by the Attorney General of the United States and by the 
Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Also this program 
has been endorsed by a special resolution of the American Bar 
Association and by the American Law Institute, the two leading 
organizations in the United States representing members of the 
Bar. 
In view of these outstanding endorsements, it is my opinion 
that the Correctional Authority, as proposed in the Supplementary 
Report, is deserving of serious consideration by the people of 
Rhode Island. 
« 
5. Study and Treatment of Cancer 
I am intensely interested in the proposal for establishing 
an institution in Rhode Island for the special study and treat- 
ment of cancer as well as other chronic diseases. 
There appears to be no disagreement between the Majority 
Report and the Supplementary Report on the importance of this 
subject. The Majority has recommended that the building now 324 
Supplementary Report 
used as the Reformatory for Men should be utilized as an insti- 
tution for a Diagnostic Study Clinic with respect to chronic diseas- 
es. In the Supplementary Report, Mr. France disagrees with 
the recommendation to utilize for this purpose the existing Re- 
formatory for Men. The disagreement, therefore, between the 
Majority Report and the Minority Report lies in where the Diag- 
nostic Clinic for chronic diseases should be placed. 
I feel that this matter is of such great importance, particu- 
larly the study and treatment of cancer, that I go along with the 
majority members with respect to utilizing the Reformatory for 
Men for this purpose. 
Respectfully submitted, 
Harry Loeb Jacobs