Daily globe., 1883-11-03
OFFICIAL VISIT,

Secretary Hart Returns From a Six Weeks
Tour in Visiting Prisons and Reforma.
tory installations in Other States-How
They Compare With Those of Minnesota
The following members of the state
board of charities and corrections attended
the gathering of these bodies of the severa
! states of the Union at Louisville in Sep
tember, being accompanied by Secretary
Il. FL. Hart, Gen. Berry, of Winona; D. @
Bell, of Minneapolis; Hon. VIM. Campbell
of Litchfield, and Official Delegates D. W
Ingersoll, of st. Paul; Prof. Noyes, of Far
ibault, and Judges E. s, Jones and A. Fl
Young, of Minneapolis.
Through a special commission from the
governor, issued to Mr.. Hart that he might
post himself in regard to the workings ot
the several reformatory and charitable in
stitutions of other states with view OF
| comparing them with our own and adopt-
ing better forms of management, if sny
were observed, that gentleman visited
quite a number of these in Kentucky.
Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and New York,
end after an absence of six weeks return
ed to this city on Wednesday, and will
make report of his labors at the session
of the board to be held on the 18th inst.
Mr.. Hart reports having a very pleasant
interview with Gov. Proctor Knott, of
Kentucky, at Frankfort, who gave him
carte blanche to the Kentucky prisons and
the camps in which contractors were work
ing copvicts in the construction of rail
ways, etc. He was especially interested in
gang who were engaged in blasting a
tunnel near Richmond in that state, where
the contractors had full control of
their workmen, and who valued them as
worth to them $50 apiece, and had them
guarded by men armed with shoteuns.
who who were paid SIS month salary
and from whose vigilance at this pay many
are constantly escaping and fleeing west
The prison most resembling that at
Saltwater in its location under q hill or
ledge without any grounds or yards, was
that at Frankfort. The state penitentiary
at Joliet, ILL.,, he considered the best ad
m1nistered which came within his obser-
yation, while the most interesting one was
the Elmira, N. Y, reformatory, where
young men committing first offences were
placed and put under tuition to sndeayer
to win them from evil ways. A young
man after good behavior in this prison
toi tuo space OF one year,
(the only one of the kind in this country
was permitted, after the plan of Irish
prisons, to go out into the state on a
"hcket-of-leave" still under surveillance,
and by continued good behavior with this
liberty, was finally permitted to enter
upon full freedom of action and citizen
ship. Though the discipline at Saltwater
was less strict than in many prisons visit
ed, still Mr.. Hart considered the Minnesota
penitentiary fully up to the average stand
ard IN its conduct and management to any
which he inspected.
The insane asylums of Minnesota also
very favorably with those in 9th
er states in their management and disci-
pine, while it was q matter of surprise to
the officers Of quite number of institu-
tlons OF the kind visited, that we had
made hardly any change in superintend-
ents and wardens in these institutions in
this state for period of eight years.
when changes of this character were much
more frequent with them.
Mr.. Hart also visited besides prisons and
insane hospitals, many reform schools.
institutions and poor houses and
will report at length in regard to those
also at the coming meeting of the board.