Van Waters Hits 'Pagan' Penology

Dr. Miriam Van Waters, head of the Framingham state prison for women, brought her state-wide campaign to arouse public interest in modern penology to the Canterbury Club (Episcopal) last night.

Directives on penal procedure last spring "wiped out 70 years" of progress, Dr. Van Waters claimed, while her removal from her position for "disobeying directives" was being investigated by a Governor's commission headed by Law School Dean Erwin N. Griswold.

Reinstated in accordance with the commission's findings, she found that traditional "pagan" penological procedures were once again in force, she said, instead of the scientific, Christian methods she had introduced.

The current "fuss" in Massachusetts, she said, is caused by laws dating from colonial times. Eighty percent of her inmates, she pointed out, are merely social offenders who would not be jailed in a progressive state, such as Illinois.

The only offense of many inmates, Dr. Van Waters said, is of "being an unmarried mother or just being stubborn."