Raleigh, May 7—Selection of the criminologists to investigate all prisons systems in North Carolina, as a result of charges of existing improper conditions brought by E.E. Dudding, president of the Prisoners Relief Society, Washington, is expected to be made early this week by Mrs. Kate Burr Johnson, commissioner of public welfare. Dr. Hastings H. Hart, ex-president of the American Prison Association, is among the experts who will be invited.
Decisions to employ experts was reached by the State Board of Charities and Public Welfare last week in Greensboro. The preceding week, the board held a conference with Governor Cameron Morrison, at which it was declared to investigate not only the State Prison, Raleigh, under direct attack by Dudding, but to include its subsidiary branches and county jails and camps. Previously, the Board of Directors of the State Prison had held a conference with the governor and declined to investigate Dudding’s allegations. The members expressed a willingness, however, for Mrs. Johnson, or any other recognized authority, to make an examination.
As a direct result of Dudding’s charges and evidence submitted by other parties, the board of commissioners of Guilford county has decided to conduct an investigation of its prison system. A conference of board members was to be held in Greensboro today to decide upon plans to follow in conducting the inquiry. The board, it was stated, will participate in the investigation.
When the experts employed by the state arrive in Raleigh, they will review data already on file in the public welfare department. The records here contain what have been termed sensational accounts of alleged conditions in certain camps, cases of flogging receiving a great amount of space. One official bulletin refers to “dungeons” at the State prison and quotes the superintendent of the institution, George Ross Pou, as being in favor of whipping prisoners rather than confining them in the particular cells.
Mr. Pou has entered several emphatic denials of the charges brought by Dunning. He declared he was willing for an investigation of the allegations to be conducted. After the decision of the board of directors not to consider Dudding’s allegations, at which meeting Mr. Pou was present, the superintendent invited newspaper men to inspect he prison. This was done by several Raleigh reporters and correspondents, but the trip through part of the prison was strictly unofficial and no report was authorized, the newspaper men taking the position such action would be irregular.
Numerous letters from prisoners commending the arrangement of the prison have been made public by Mr. Pou.
The state is expected to advance funds to conduct the investigation, it was announced by officials after the Greensboro conference, and Mrs. Johnson today was expected to confer with Governor Morrison in this connection.
From the front page of The Daily Advance, Elizabeth City, N.C., May 7, 1923
No comments:
Post a Comment