The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 96, July 1992 - April, 1993 Page: 34
681 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historzcal Quarterly
Texas State Dental Society, the National Committee for Mental Hy-
giene, and faculty members from Texas colleges and universities. Their
report, released in 1924, announced: "Texas needs new methods of
dealing with her prisoners, new methods of training them . .. our pres-
ent farms do not lend themselves to this new system." Investigators dis-
covered that a majority of the state convicts suffered from serious men-
tal and physical deficiencies and had not completed primary school; the
system did nothing to better their physical, mental, or moral condi-
tions. Plantation farms placed convicts "in a slave status" while neglect-
ing to train them for industrial pursuits.'3 Surveyors also criticized the
location of most farms in low-lying areas susceptible to flooding, dis-
ease, and noxious weeds. Perpetual economic losses and poor manage-
ment prompted the investigators to decide: "There is practically no
hope that the system as now organized can ever become self-support-
ing." Dr. Arthur C. Scott, who directed the medical survey, decried the
"tremendous sums of money squandered annually in efforts to sup-
press crime, most of which are rendered futile by the methods of han-
dling prisoners." 1
The CPPL recommended practices emblematic of what historians
have labeled "progressive penology." Key proposals suggested psychi-
atric classification and segregation according to age and potential
for rehabilitation, development of special reformatories to train the
younger and more promising "white men," and increased educational
and recreational opportunities for all prisoners. Urging improved
medical care and a modern women's reformatory, the CPPL also de-
manded an end to corporal punishment. Additionally, the report advo-
cated establishment of a parole board and the adoption of a modern
probation system."
' Texas Committee on Prisons and Prison Labor, A Summary of the Texas Prison Survey, I,
8-12, 13 (1st quotation), 25-26, 27 (2nd quotation). Speer's title was "Secretary to the Chair-
man." W H. Mead to W. A. Paddock, July 29, 1929, Governors' Papers: Moody.
'4A. C. Scott, "Summary of the Physical Examination of the Prison Population of the State
Penitentiary System, by a Group of Representative Members of the Texas State Medical Asso-
ciation, and the Duty of the State of Texas Toward its Prisoners," Cohen Papers.
' David Rothman believes that the era of progressive penology extended from igoo to 1965.
Rothman, Consczence and Convenience, 12 (1st quotation), 43-45, 117-132, 159-160; Texas
Committee on Prisons and Prison Labor, A Summary of the Texas Prison Survey, I, 48, 49 (2nd
quotation), 50-52, 86-87. Previous Texas prison reformers and some state officials had often
expressed dissatisfaction with the system's location. Relocation proponents, however, fre-
quently could not agree upon a new site For a brief discussion of the history of relocation
controversies prior to the Moody years, see James Robert Reynolds, "The Administration of
the Texas Prison System" (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1925), 107-115 Although the
Thirty-seventh Legislature enacted a relocation measure in 1921, the law appeared largely in-
effective. J. A. Herring, chairman of the Board of Prison Commissioners, for instance, opposed
relocation, but advised Governor Pat Morris Neff to sign the bill because he believed it actually
made relocation impractical. The law created a board consisting of the governor, attorney gen-
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 96, July 1992 - April, 1993, periodical, 1993; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101215/m1/60/: accessed June 3, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.