Governor Alfred E. Smith and Penal Reform

Abstract

On a gray January day in 1919 Alfred E. Smith was inaugurated as the forty-sixth governor of New York. During the next ten years, eight of which he served as governor, Smith instituted a series of reforms which virtually revolutionized New York State politics. He modernized the state government through the creation of an executive budget, the consolidation of state agencies, and the implementation of a four-year term for governor; he alleviated the plight of laborers through workmen's compensation, health and maternity insurance, maximum hours, and a minimum wage commission; he improved educational standards in the city and county; and he set aside lands for public parks, beaches, and recreation. His accomplishments as governor facilitated his reelection in 1922, 1924, and 1926, and gained him such national prominence that he received the Democratic presidential nomination in 1928. While many of Smith's achievements are well known, his efforts on behalf of penal reform in New York have been overlooked by most 'observers. His successes in other areas and his defeat on a number of prison reform measures have overshadowed his important contributions, particularly the establishment of a program of rehabilitation through industrial work. Smith, as a prison reformer, was far ahead of his time and among the first to envision a penal program which sought the return of prisoners to society as meaningful contributors.