Introduction
From its first meeting on October 29, 1957 to the
date of this report, and despite the short time which has elapsed, we have
served a useful purpose in cooperating with the Department of Correction
in the following ways:
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Obtaining a suitable site, on Welfare Island, for the new houses of detention for adolescents and women, and for a women's prison.
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Developing extended plans for the rehabilitation of our youth, and better
medical and mental care for all.
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Obtaining additional finances to make possible improved medical and custodial
coverage, and
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Obtaining more extensive support from our voluntary agencies.
Board's Relationship with DOC
The Board has received the full cooperation of the Department of Correction at all times. Nevertheless, as Commissioner Kross knows so well, the lack of statistical data has hampered both the Board and the Department. (We also badly need a penologist - secretary.)
Our various meetings have taken place not only in the office at 100 Centre Street, but also in the Raymond Street Jail, Rikers Island, the Bronx and Brooklyn Houses of Detention, and the Women's Prison in Greenwich Village. Each member but the Chairman has made one of the
main installations his special obligation, thus dividing the work.
Correction Commissioner Anna M. Kross' Fifth Annual Report -- 1958 also reprinted the following text of BOC's cover letter to Mayor Wagner for its first report |  |
March 4, 1959
Honorable Robert F. Wagner
Mayor, City of New York
City Hall, New York 7, New York
Dear Mayor Wagner:
This Board was appointed by you to concern itself with the operations of the Department of Correction, in accordance with Local Law 25. The Board has, in the 16 months of its existence, attempted to determine what procedures to follow in order to carry out its duties.
We have visited the prisons operated by the city; conversed with the personnel and the prisoners; studied publications on the subject; visited institutions in other cities, states, and even other countries; and, after having done so, arrived at certain conclusions. The attached report represents our evaluation and recommendations.
Obviously, we are not ready to give the best answers to all questions asked of us. Our sense of urgency to report to you at this early stage, however, is based upon our concern that we already can recommend changes, immediately effective, which could reduce the city and state expenses by many millions of dollars.
A preliminary study of the average cost of incarcerating one person in our city jails indicates it to be between ten and twenty dollars per day. The wide spread in the estimate results from our failure to get an estimate on the percentage of police department costs which could properly be applied to those of investigating, capturing, arresting, transporting,
guarding, and testifying against, criminal suspects. The police figure is most important in our calculation, as each ten per cent of the $258,500,000 (1958 - 59) police department budget would increase the cost of one prisoner-day by $9.45, based on our 1958 average census.
Even excluding any police department costs, we can save not only the $13,000 per cell in construction costs (based upon our most recent construction at Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn), but also more than $3,500 a year in other costs, by keeping one prisoner out of jail.
The Department of Correction has been advanced at least some capital funds for the construction of facilities to house a total of 3,620 prisoners, at an estimated cost of some $41,000,000. If the rate of increase in population is not halted, we will need at least $40,000,000 more before 1970 in order to house our prisoners adequately.
Prompt action to check the prison population increase is obviously needed. Some of the steps recommended in our report follow:
1. The immediate reduction in
population of our city jails by:
- (a) the implementation of several suggested methods to keep fewer people in detention
for a shorter time;
- (b) the permanent removal from our jails of the alcoholics, dope addicts and other mentally ill, and the vagrants;
- (c) substantially
increased probation and parole activities, aimed at either shorter prison terms
or suspended sentences.
2. A prompt organization of industry-labor committees to get prisoners who are ready for parole out of jail. (Seventeen hundred state prisoners now only await a job to make possible their release.)
3. Prompt consideration, by the city and state boards of correction, of matters of joint interest.
4. Immediate action toward a State
Rehabilitation Authority.
We are impatient with the city's rules which delay necessary construction for so many years after the need becomes obvious. Our impatience results from the combination of the dangerous overcrowding and the many millions of extra dollars normally needed to build the same structure a few years later. The added cost of the recidivist, who might never have returned to our prisons had he received more enlightened treatment, is incalculable.
The Board wants to record its thanks for the cooperation of the entire staff of the Department of Correction, from the Commissioner to the custodial officers. Our extensive criticism of the situation within the Department specifically excludes its hardworking, often overloaded, personnel. Theirs is certainly a case of service above and beyond the call of duty.
Each of our recommendations should result in substantial savings in city and state costs. We request your cooperation in promptly bringing the changes into being.
Respectfully yours,
CARL M. LOEB, Jr.
CML:amd
Enc.
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The personnel of our various committees all report the fullest cooperation, not only from Commissioner Kross and her headquarters staff, but also from the wardens and their aides at the facilities themselves.
The Operations of the Department of Correction
The Board of Correction members have been visiting all the prison facilities in New York City. Some of us have visited correction institutions in California, New York State, New Jersey, and even England. However, we are leaving, at least for the time being, the analyzing of the Department's operational activities to the Prison Association of New York and New York State Correction Commission personnel, who have been doing this expert job for many years. Our general impression, however, is that operation of the buildings is poor, being hampered by the almost total lack of competent maintenance personnel. As a result, the buildings
-- many of them not too well put together in the first place -- are deteriorating
at an alarming pace.
It's Cheaper to Put Our Prisoners in the Waldorf!
A study made by the Bureau of the Budget indicates that, without any consideration of what the percentage of the 1958-59 $258,500,000 police department budget could be applicable to the expense of incarceration, it costs the city about $10 per day to keep a prisoner in jail. This figure includes the cost of operations of the Department of Correction plus interest
cost on its buildings, loss of taxes, welfare costs to bereft families: and court, probation and parole costs. These figures point up the fact that, even were no humanitarian aspects involved, every New York City citizen should be concerned with the rapidly increasing prison population. (Please refer to the Chart at the back of this report.) Humanitarian aspects
should also concern the statistician because of the resultant reduction in recidivism. The problem is pointed up by the fact that, despite the present already-too-high cost of incarceration, our prisons are shockingly undermaintained and alarmingly undermanned.
How Much Money Is the City Throwing Away in the Department of Correction?
The Department of Correction has had no statistician
over long periods because of the low allowed pay. Frankly, we feel that,
under the present circumstances, this is a good defense for those who distribute
the city money. Anyone will agree that each of the following items is a
good example of the old penny-wise and pound-foolish adage:
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Seven correction officers act as cashiers, at a loss to the city of $1,366
per year per officer.
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Food service. Two million dollars are spent annually for food services
without a food service administrator.
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Laundry operations. One million, two hundred and sixty thousand pounds of laundry -- 681,500 pounds (estimated) for other city agencies are processed without a regularly appointed Laundry Supervisor.
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Maintenance. On an absolute minimum basis we are short 41 maintenance personnel.
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Automotive equipment. The average efficient large commercial fleet operates on a 21 per cent annual replacement basis and doesn't keep any car over five years. The Department of Correction for the past three years has been operating on a five per cent annual replacement basis. The argument that the prison inmates, at little cost, repair cars doesn't take into consideration the cost of idle drivers -- and sometimes custodial officers -- in the event of breakdowns.
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Construction and agricultural equipment. The Department of Correction's heavy equipment averages 19 years of age!
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Because of the shortage of doctors at our facilities, hundreds of unnecessary trips by Department of Hospital or Correction ambulances are made to hospitals each year.
These operational aspects will be dealt with at more length in our next report to you, as extraordinarily heavy commitments of capital funds have had top priority in our deliberations.
The Unnecessarily Large Prison Population
The New York City prison population is increasing at a rate of about 265 per year. (See chart.) The enormous costs for full custody prisons ($13,000 per cell in the case of our most recent Brooklyn's Atlantic Avenue Jail, now housing male adolescent detainees) demand a careful examination of methods which might cut down the increase in, or actually
reduce the number of, the incarcerated.
In Detention.
The Department of Correction had an average of 3,871 people in prison awaiting trial during 1958. The average time they waited for trial after arrest was about 43 days.
In Jail.
The New York City Department of Correction has about 1,600 convicted alcoholics, vagrants, and dope addicts in its jails. The best informed people available -- the psychiatrists, psychologists, other medical personnel, penologists, and even informed welfare personnel -- concur that these people are mentally ill, not criminals.
Misplaced Prisoners.
The Department of Correction has in its jails some 600 prisoners properly belonging -- in either over-full State or Federal institutions. The $1.67 per day we receive for keeping them is ridiculously below cost.
The Board of Correction Philosophy
"An offender is sent to prison as a punishment and not for punishment."
The Board intends to concern itself with the implementation of our interpretation of the above quotation as our prime objective. The following represents what we consider to be a sound method of achieving this goal.
The Aim of the Board of Correction
We define below our view of some improvements over the present handling of prisoners by the City of New York. Our plan is promptly to make changes in our arrangements as further improvements come to our attention. We will then work with the Department in an attempt to proceed to a point as close as possible to this ideal, while taking, into consideration the practical aspects which might interfere with the achievement of our aims.
Don't Cage Human Beings Unnecessarily
We believe that the caging of human beings should be resorted to only after all other efforts of reform have been exhausted. We recommend, therefore, that every conceivable method to prevent citizens from ever entering our jails be examined. This move will require concerted, enlightened, cooperative work on the part of our police, churches, welfare
agencies, hospitals and health agencies, teachers, judges, probation and parole departments, and parents.
Your Board believes that, with the exception of those who have committed a crime against the person of another (mayhem), incarceration before trial should be shunned; that every other one accused of a violation of any sort should be detained in prison before trial only if circumstances clearly show that a miscarriage of justice, or the loss of the prisoner from the state, would otherwise take place.
Rehabilitation
The present rehabilitation activities of the Department serve a limited purpose, if any. A program concentrating most of the rehabilitation personnel at present available to the entire Department on 60 of our youth at Rikers Island has been recommended to the Director of the Budget. We feel that the present personnel will probably be able to handle these youngsters effectively. The move will of course end any service for hundreds of other needy adolescents.
As well over 95 per cent of our prisoners become free citizens again, it behooves us to exert some effort -- at least enough to avoid regression -- toward helping all prisoners. Within our limited resources, however, and the short incarceration time of many prisoners, the full rehabilitation treatment cannot be given to all.
Remember: 95 % Come Out to Live Next to Us Again
Too many people forget that only a few of the incarcerated don't ultimately obtain their freedom. We must do all we can to improve them while in jail.
Board Recommendations
Humane Treatment.
Efforts must be made to prevent as much as possible
the degrading effects that inevitably are a result of the caging of
human beings (and even animals). The following are important bad effects:
-
Loss of personal freedom. (Many prisoners are effectively punished merely
by the fact of being incarcerated.)
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The separation from home, family and friends.
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The subjection to disciplinary control (and compulsory work without incentive
pay for sentenced inmates).
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The deprivation of most of the ordinary amenities of everyday life.
Qualified Guardians.
In view of the regressive effects of such treatment,
and believing, as we (and most penologists) do, that the deliberate punitive
methods have no deterrent effect upon prisoners, it is obvious that the
most a prison, by its very nature, can do is to provide, first, the atmosphere
under which prisoners have the best chance to "reform" for the better,
together with the right men and women to maintain this atmosphere.
The ideal custodial officer should have had at least some casework training, and should have proven his interest in rehabilitation before being employed.
The Department of Correction has spent at least its last half century in vainly attempting to increase the pay of its custodial officers to an extent which would attract the type person who could help to rehabilitate the prisoners. It has repeatedly called the attention of those in charge of city funds the fact that a custodial officer is expected
to be more intelligent in the handling of prisoners than a parent in handling a child. This work takes self-control of a high type and cannot be assumed in an applicant who can only seek the low pay given our correction officers. (Despite the low pay, there are custodial officers within the Department of Correction who are very interested in rehabilitation.)
Too few psychiatrists, psychologists, graduate caseworkers, and volunteer aids are available. To this one must add the demoralizing effect to casual medical care (because of a shortage of -- not inadequate -- personnel) and the appalling fact that only five per cent of the prisoner's aching teeth are filled -- all others are extracted (again a matter of shortage of personnel).
The Board has recommended a relatively large 18459,474)
increase in psychiatric, psychological, case work. dentistry and general
medical services for the Department for the fiscal year 1959-60. If the
1958-59 police department costs ($258,500,000), the hospital costs ($149,374,324),
and the youth board costs 1$4.151,420) were lowered by only 0.11 per cent
by a resultant reduction in recidivism, the investment would be worthwhile.
Actually, the medical recommendations are the minimum which our topnotch,
hardworking medical advisory committee believes is required merely to avoid
neglect in violation of the law.
An indication of what other states would think of
the defacement by tooth extractions perpetrated by our Department of Correction,
is the fact that, in addition to a staff of five full-time dentists, a
full-time plastic surgeon is available at the Reception Center of the California
Youth Authority operation in Norwalk, California, with a capacity of only
350.
Proper Housing.
As the chart indicates, our city will be involved
in another $40,000,000 building program by 1965 unless an effective
method to get, or keep, many of our present prisoners out of jail is devised,
or unless other lower cost methods of incarceration are used. No ideal
plan for the housing of prisoners would countenance the present chronic,
dangerous overpopulation of all the city facilities. That new facilities
are badly needed is obvious. The Board has endorsed the construction of
buildings under C 71, C 73, C 74, C 75, C 76, and C 80 in the Department's
capital budget. These, however, would not begin to solve the physical fact
of overpopulation, as the 3,620 increase in capacity is supposed to
satisfy the closing of buildings [the Queens House of Detention, the Raymond
Street Jail, and the House of Detention for Women] with a capacity of 1,118
prisoners, present overcrowding of 1,750, and an expected increase of 3,500
by 1970.
We favor a substantially different type of structure,
for much of the future building -- one involving relaxation from the full
security which has been the rule in the City Correction Department.
Those on our Board who have visited correction departments
in other states have been impressed with the superior organization in many
of them for the easy handling, and well-being, of the prisoners. Even in
a building planned as late as the Brooklyn House of Detention, shockingly
inadequate space for recreation was allowed, and the only reasonable
facility -- the gymnasium on the roof -- wasn't (and still isn't) either
roofed or walled in for all-weather use.
Production in Jails.
In California the state prisons have 13 industry-labor
advisory committees. New York has no formal setup at all. One result in
New York is that, at present, about 1,700 prisoners remain in our state
jails although ready for parole, because they can obtain no jobs. If our
conservative $10 per day figure applies to the State, this costs them at
least $6,200,000 per year.
In line with the industry-labor advisory committees,
a variety of shops should be set up to furnish a maximum amount of
goods and services to all city agencies.
As an example of deterrents to any such plan, the
unions and a State law have stopped print shop prison printing of all items
except those needed by the Department of Correction. The rest of the city
departments could save thousands of dollars by getting their requirements
from the Correction Department. At the same time, with decent equipment
(now lacking) those carefully selected for this work as being rehabilitatable,
will, while in jail, get their certification for industrial jobs.
The same progressive steps as with printers could
be taken in other industries.
"Pay" for Prisoners.
We believe
some sort of "pay" scale should be set up for prison workers. The move
would train the prisoners in the habit of earning money legitimately --
a fine rehabilitation activity--
and would give them a chance to leave our jails with some pocket money.
We believe the Wisconsin system of allowing civil
violators to go to work every day, paying for their food and board, while
paying whatever debts they owe, is a simple, logical, humane, and economical
way to treat such prisoners. For prisoners jailed as debtors, this is just
about the only way they can pay their debts.
Adolescent Education.
This Board believes that a continuing educational
program for all detained and sentenced adolescents will pay for itself
many times over in the form of a reduction in recidivism. The training
can of course take varied forms, such as remedial reading, career training,
and general teaching courses. Many promising adults should also be
given this kind of training. Curtailed funds for our present educational
program have seriously cut the number of teachers during the summer vacations.
Obviously, in jail, where "vacations" are non-existent, all-year-round
teaching is necessary.
We recommend increased teachers' salaries, to bring
them up to those of most other jurisdictions in the city, in order to obtain
experienced teaching personnel; and adequate budgetary allocations to make
possible all-year-round teaching of at least the adolescents.
A Rehabilitation Authority.
There is a group of prisoners which clearly gives
one more opportunity for rehabilitation than the rest. In several states
a Youth Authority handles those under 21, on the logical theory that the
young can more readily be rehabilitated than other persons. The Board
of Correction however, believes that a first offender who forged a
check to pay for his child's illness is more readily rehabilitated
than a teenager who is in jail for the fifth time. We suggest, therefore,
that a Rehabilitation Authority is more logical than a Youth Authority,
and believe that the following setup, preferably state-wide, could be most
effective.
A state-operated reception center, in or near New
York City, should be established into which convicted prisoners (at the
judge's will) are placed, following conviction, but before being sentenced.
This single unit should be subdivided into age groups, and sex, to avoid
the need for duplication of the high-grade, expensive personnel needed
on the administrative level. The prisoners should remain there only long
enough to be properly classified. They would then be transferred, depending
upon the results of classification, to:
(a) Parole
(b) Honor-type "Farms"
(c) Semi-security prisons
(d) Full security prisons
(e) Hospitals
(f) Reform schools
(g) Homes for vagrants
The final decision on types of incarceration should
be left to the judges, but with the specific recommendation of the
staff at the reception center in mind.
All those sentenced to more than one year should be
the responsibility of the State.
City-State Coordination.
In the Spring of 1958 State Commissioner of Correction
McHugh announced that all their prisons were full. Therefore, one of the
solutions to overpopulation in the city jails -- sending to state jails
those prisoners who belong there -- became impractical.
Your Board is now seeking a meeting with the State
Department of Correction. It is our aim to discuss the following long-term
problems with them:
-
The removal to state auspices of all rehabilitatable prisoners from
the City Department of Correction, to eliminate the need for two rehabilitation
operations.
-
The removal of all prisoners from the New York City jails who have been
sentenced to more than one year in jail. (The three-year indeterminate
sentence -- since prisoners are kept on Rikers Island -- interferes with
the rehabilitation plan, and therefore must be eliminated.)
-
The operation of a reception center, by the New State Department of Correction,
in, or very near New York City.
-
More active parole and probation departments.
Reduction in Future Prison Population.
As can be seen by the projection in the chart, the long-term prospects in New York for a reduced prison population are infinitesimal -- in fact, it must be apparent that the first job is the reduction in the Tate of increase in population.
As already stated, alcoholics, drug addicts, prostitutes
and vagrants should not be dealt with in a penal atmosphere. By now all
experts in the welfare and health fields agree that these people should
properly be placed in the custody of, or under the control of, medical,
health, or welfare authorities. The removal of this group from the New
York City prisons might cut the population in half. We are aware of the
immediate resultant overpopulation problems of other agencies in the
city, but believe that proper planning would dictate the prompt estimation
of what such increased obligations would mean to them so that they,
too, could plan ahead.
The Reduction or Elimination of Bail.
A study, inspired by the Board, is now being made
(by the New York County Lawyers' Association and the Bar Association of
the City of New York) to investigate the possibility that bail practices
are a major contribution to the overcrowded conditions of our detention
facilities, and that an unnecessary large number of those in detention
could safely be free before trial.
Almost half of our prison population in New York is
in detention. This group includes many who might better be paroled before
trial. As it is now a crime not to appear for trial, no bail is often indicated,
where it was formerly considered necessary.
Public Relations
The Board of Correction has not yet felt that it required
the services of any one outside its own membership for the purpose
of public relations. At a time when the long-term target of the Board is
more clearly determined. it might be well to pay some attention to
such an activity.
Implementation
As this Board has no authority, it would be pointless
for it to attempt to get help, in the form of subcommittees, from
interested organizations, for the implementation of its ideas. It
is our view (already tested with encouraging results) that we can best
serve the purposes of the Correction Department, and therefore the city,
by discussions concerning the present needs of the Department with interested
groups, at informal meetings. An example, mentioned above, concerns bail.
Impatience
The New York City Board of Correction recognizes
the long-term aspects of many of its recommendations. We are impatient,
however, and will continue to be impatient, with those who deter the prompt
beginning of all constructive moves.
CARL M. LOEB, JR., Chairman
ROBERT E. CURRY, Vice-Chairman
LISLE C. CARTER, JR.
D.JOHN HEYMAN
Reverend VINCENT de PAUL LEE, S. J.
Reverend SIDNEY G. MENK
ROSE M. SINGER
ETHEL H. WISE
March, 1959
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