HOME FOR CHRISTMAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 August 1938, Page 9

HOME FOR CHRISTMAS

CONVICTS LEAVE THE CELLS. Five hundred and fifty convicts, some serving life sentences, were due to return to Alabama prisons recently after their Christmas holidays, reports “The Times” from New York. The experiment of rewarding exemplary conauct by the grant of two weeks’ Christmas parole was first madein 1927 and succeeded so well that it has become a tradition in the State’s prisons. Convicts granted this annual holiday must give their word of honour that they will return to prison at the end of the two weeks, and of the 4,000 prisoners allowed to go home for Christmas since the plan was first introduced, only 20 have failed to report at the proper time. Some years ago a negro convict lost a leg while “riding the rods” on his way back to prison, and his first thought was to inform the prison authorities that he had been delayed. This year Daniel (Puddin’ Foot) Clenny, who is serving a "life sentence for killing a sheriff many years ago, was provided with a hypodermic syringe and a supply of insulin by the authorities, who were anxious that his holiday should not be spoilt by the diabetes from which he suffers. Of those eligible for leave this year only two declined to take advantage of the concession.