REMARKS, MIDDLE ATLANTIC STATES CONFERENCE
OF CORRECTION - BALTIMORE

April 20, 1960

It is a pleasure to welcome to Maryland you delegates of the mid-
dle Atlantic States Conference of Correction and to extend to you
the warm hospitality of our State.

I understand that this is the first time your organization has met
here in this City, and quite naturally the members of our Depart-
ment of Parole and Probation and the officials of our various cor-
rectional and juvenile institutions are proud to be your hosts. We
hope that during your stay here you will avail yourselves of the
opportunity to visit as many of our institutions as possible and to
examine the work we are doing in the field of parole. I am sure that
Wallace Reidt and our other State officials will cooperate fully with
you in this.

We think that we here in Maryland have made substantial prog-
ress during the past several years in the development of many bene-
fits of parole. As Governor of the State, I realize how vastly impor-
tant it is to maintain a smoothly operating and effective system of
parole and supervision.

In 1953, our General Assembly set up the Department of Parole
and Probation, giving it full autonomy in the exercise of the parole
authority, with the exception of life-sentence cases in which the Gov-
ernor must concur. Prior to that time, the Governor of the State had
to examine and sign every parole. This represented a great step for-
ward in penology, removing parole entirely from politics and plac-
ing it in the hands of the experts where it rightfully belongs. Since
the establishment of the Department, the ratio of paroles to prison-
ers has increased gradually.

We believe here, as I am sure you do in your states, that it is bet-
ter, both from a rehabilitative and economic point of view, to
release prisoners, who qualify themselves for freedom, under super-
vision of parole officers than it is to keep them confined in correc-
tional institutions. We calculate here in Maryland that it costs ap-
proximately $800 a year to keep a prisoner, whereas it costs only
about $100 a year to supervise him under parole. Right now, we
have around 4, 400 under supervision in the State.

Let me say again that we are delighted to have you as our guests.
We hope that your stay in Maryland will be enjoyable to make you
want to come back soon.

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