The President, The Treasurer and The Secretary, ex officio Entered as Second Class Mail Matter at Lyons, N. Y. Copyrighted, 1914, by The Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis. THE SOCIETY OF SANITARY VOL. V. OCTOBER, 1914 No. 4. THE AMERICAN SOCIAL HYGIENE ASSOCIATION AND THE SO- THE FOLLOWING PAPERS WERE READ: SOCIAL HYGIENE ACTIVITIES IN 1914 Edward L. Keyes, Jr., M.D., MEDICINE AND THE SOCIAL HYGIENE MOVEMENT Archibald McNeil, M.D. 193 203 DEPARTMENTS OF CORRECTION AND THE SOCIAL HYGIENE MOVEMENT MISS KATHARINE B. DAVIS Commissioner of Correction, New York City Every year in the City of New York there pass through our prisons from 35,000 to 40,000 individuals. At the present moment we have in custody nearly 6,000 individuals. Most of these prisoners are confined in institutions where they are sentenced for from a few days to several years. In the Workhouse the sentences only go up to six months. In the Penitentiary we do take in some long-term prisoners. It is very important for the public to know what the effect is of the turning loose upon the community each year of this number of men and women. In the past I do not think the City of New York has considered very much what the effect might be on the sanitary situation. In the last year or two we have begun to think of the matter a little more seriously. We have found, for example, in the Workhouse, that more than half of the prisoners who are sentenced each year have been sentenced more than once. The average stay of a prisoner in this institution is about forty days. The ratio of women to men is about six to eight; that is for every six women there are about eight men. The women as a rule get the shorter sentences, for they are sentenced for vagrancy, for soliciting, prostitution, and the offenses connected therewith-intoxication, etc. Some of these women have been sentenced as many as 200 times. The other day a woman came into my office to make a complaint. She said one of the matrons had called her the "scum of the earth," and she didn't think a matron had a right to call a prisoner bad names. I said neither did I, and she went on with her story telling how the thing happened, and she ended by saying: "I have been coming to the Workhouse now sixteen years, and this is the first time I have ever been taken to the disciplinary officer.' Just think of a woman who for sixteen years had spent the greater part of her life in the Workhouse! This woman was of middle age, badly diseased, and alcoholic. She had no way of |