T CORRECTIONAL AND PENAL TREATMENT CHAPTER I PENAL INSTITUTIONS FOR ADULTS THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WELFARE HE Department of Public Welfare of the city of Cleveland is divided for administrative purposes into four subdepartmentsthe Division of Health, the Division of Charities and Correction, the Division of Employment, and the City Immigration Bureau. In the Division of Health are the following bureaus, each under the control of a chief: Communicable diseases, child hygiene, public nurses, food and drug inspection, chief chemist, and laboratories and sanitation. The last has two persons in charge. In the Division of Charities and Correction. are the following agencies: Bureau of Outdoor Relief, city hospital, tuberculosis sanatorium, city infirmary, workhouse, parole office, the boys' home, and the girls' home. The charter provisions give the Director of Public Welfare wide powers. They read in part as follows: "The Director of Public Welfare shall manage and control all charitable, correctional, and reformatory institutions and agencies belonging to the city; the use of all recreational facilities of the city, including parks, playgrounds, public gymnasium, public bath houses, bathing beaches, and social centers. He shall have charge of the inspection and supervision of all public amusements and entertainments. He shall enforce all laws, ordinances, and regulations relative to the preservation and promotion of the public health, the prevention and restriction of disease, the prevention, abatement, and suppression of nuisances, and the sanitary inspection and supervision of the production, transportation, storage, and sale of foods and food-stuffs. He shall cause a complete and accurate system of vital statistics to be kept. In time of epidemic he may enforce such quarantine and isolation regulations as are appropriate to the emergency. He shall have the supervision of the free employment office. The Commissioner of Charities and Correction shall be the deputy officer of public welfare. The director's power to supervise parks, etc., has been withdrawn. "The Commissioner of the Division of Health shall be the health officer of the city and shall, under the direction and control of the Director of Public Welfare, enforce all ordinances and laws relating to health, and shall perform all duties and have all the powers provided by general law relative to the public health, to be exercised in municipalities by health officers; provided that regulations affecting the public health, additional to those established by general law for the violation of which penalties are imposed, shall be enacted by the council and enforced as provided herein. "The Commissioner of the Division of Employment shall have charge of the free employment office established to assist persons in securing employment. He shall extend such information and assistance to immigrants and strangers and perform such duties in the collection of labor statistics and information relative to labor conditions in the city as may be required by ordinance." A study of the organization and work of the present director's office shows clearly that there has never been developed any machinery or plan of work which would permit the director to exercise adequate control over the various divisions. The department is, in fact, an example of the failure of statutory enactment alone to effect a considerable change. It is a paper federation of bureaus, divisions, departments, and institutions without administrative cohesion. The sincerity and good purpose of the director of the department are unquestioned. He has never stood in the way of any good work; he has accepted cheerfully aid given him. The new city hospital and the new psychopathic hospital now under construction in his department show clearly the director's desire to carry out the recommendations of the Hospital and Health Survey. The changes he has directed to be made at Warrensville City Infirmary are indicative of the same desire. Within the Division of Charities and Correction the director exercises some control over the workhouse because of his active interest in the parole of prisoners. He has changed the officers and appointed an administrative board, besides making certain structural changes in the girls' home. But his supervision over the city infirmary, the Bureau of Outdoor Relief, and the boys' home is limited to occasional visits and to haphazard consideration of their work. Moreover, his appointment of advisory boards for the girls' home, for the city hospital, and for the employment bureau has had little significance, because he has never followed up their work. The boards were never given specific tasks and no effort has been made to keep up their interest. He has apparently even left the chiefs of divisions and superintendents free either to accept or to reject his suggestions, as suited their fancy. We do not mean to make excuses for the director's failure to meet his major opportunities, but it would be unjust to let him appear as a "scapegoat" for the perfectly apparent indifference of a whole city and the impotence of so many of the heads of welfare agencies and societies. Moreover, the people have been willing to accept the high civic standing of the director as a substitute for adequate appropriations and a real welfare program for the city. Recommendations 1. The people of Cleveland should be made to realize that the Department of Public Welfare, combining, as it does, a Health Department with a Division of Charities and Correction, offers an unusual opportunity to demonstrate a great economy in municipal service under the supervision of a single director. 2. The Director of Public Welfare should exercise direct control over all the work of the department in such a manner that general policies are formulated under his supervision, and every employee of the department feels responsible to him. 3. The director should have an assistant, or deputy director, who should, in accordance with the charter, supervise the correctional institutions. 4. The director should have the kind of secretary who can supervise and coordinate the work of the institutions with the employment bureau, the Bureau of Outdoor Relief, and the parole department. 5. The director should see to it that the health commissioner cooperates under the director's supervision with other divisions, institutions, and public schools of the city, with the other hospitals in the city, with the Western Reserve University Medical School, and with all the social agencies upon a well-thought-out public welfare and health program for the city, which would make the institutions diagnostic, treatment, and preventive health centers. THE CITY JAIL AND CENTRAL POLICE HEADQUARTERS The city jail occupies the same building as police headquarters, Rooms 1 and 2 of the Municipal Court, and the offices of the adult probation officers. The jail is under the general jurisdiction of the Division of Police. The entire municipal building is in a dilapidated and uncaredfor condition. Obviously, the jail has been allowed to suffer more than other parts of the building. It is a dark, dingy place. This is on account of the type of construction by which the limited amount of light from the outside finds entrance only on two sides of the building. The dingy appearance is accentuated by rusty iron work, filthy old iron toilets, and dirty, blackened walls. Rats and vermin live on easy terms with the |