Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-10-28
SCHOOL OF INDUSTRY.
RESULT OF PRISON DIRECTOR DEv-
Inns EASTERN INQUIRIES.
Reformatories in Other Statss-How
They Are Conducted, and the
Results Obtained.

Robert T. Devlin, of this city. President
OF the State Board of Prison Directors, re.
turned yesterday morning by way of the
Northern Pacific Railroad after an ex.
tended visit throughout the Eastern States.
The object of Mr.. Devlin's trip to the East
was the carrying out. as far as practicable
the following provision in the Act of
the last Legislature, establishing School
of Industry in the county of Amador, the
supervision and government of which is
vested in the Board of which Mr.. Devlin is
President:
For the purpose OF maturing the system of
government, instruction and discipline of the
said institution. it shall be competent for the
said Board to authorize one OF It's number to
visit similar institutions in practical operation
and OF the best repute, and by personal inspec-
ton and ryestigation TO acquire an insight into
the principles and workings thereof, for the in
formation and benefit OF said Board.
Mr.. Devlin, while acting in the capacity
of Secretary of the State Pathological Com
mission, familiarized himself, through cor.
respondence and observation, with the
needs of reformatories and the methods as
to how they should be conducted and
managed. Fortified with this knowledge
he was in position to pursue his inquiries
while East. He made copious notes of
what he observed, and at the next meeting
of the Directors he will read and explain
them.
Of the reformatories visited he thought
most favorably of those located in the
States of Minnesota, Massachusetts and
Connecticut the plans of which he will
submit to the Directors. He was absent
nearly two months on his mission, and
visited twelve reformatories and about
eight penitentiaries located in various parts
of the Union. He stated to a RECORD
UNION reporter yesterday that at each of
these institutions, when he presented his
credentials and letters of introduction fur
nished by Wardens McComb and Aull, he
was cordially welcomed and given every
opportunity to inspect and examine their
workings.
He said that in st. Paul. Mimi, there is a
School of Industry which has been success
fully conducted for the past thirty years.
The school has been found to be inadequate
for the purposes intended, and the State is
now erecting at Red Wing, a short distance
from st. Paul, an additional one. This
new institution is being built on the very
latest improved plans (the cottage sys-
tem) now in vogue in many States.
The school, when completed, will not look
like prison, which it really is. The cost
of construction will be about $4,000, and
there will be sufficient room to accommo-
date three hundred inmates. The archi-
tect, Warren B. DunHel, and a Commas
sioner of the Institute, before adopting the
plan on which the school is being con-
structed, expended several months in visit
ing similar institutions throughout the
Union.
Mr.. Devlin seems to favor this plan, hav-
ing taken into consideration the fact of the
considerable time spent in perfecting it..
He will, it is thought, suggest the adop-
ton of the plan with notifications. Dur
ing his investigation he observed at some
of the institutions visited that. instead of
using steam power the convicts were made
to supply it with arm-power. In some of
the prisons smoking and the reading of
newspapers are steadily forbidden. Mr..
Devlin also observed that convicts were
made to eat in their cells, and not together,
as in this State. He found that, as a gen.
eral thing, the State prisons in the East were
conducted almost on the same plan as those
in this State.
Speaking of his trip, the Director re-
marked that he had a pleasant time, and
declared that, while the East was a great
country. it could not compare with Califor-
mia in point of climate and many other
essentials to health, happiness and pros
perity.
Mr. Devlin said that when the proposed
school is erected, it will be known as the
Preston School of Industry. The last Leg
islature appropriated 100000 for its con-
struction and maintenance. The school is
to be built at lone, Amador county, and
the law requires that it must be on site
to contain not less than 100 nor more than
300 acres of land, which must be of quality
adapted to the cultivation of vines and fruit
trees. The law provides, among other
things, that:
Any boy under the age of Is years who shall
be found guilty by Court OF any offense, and
who, in the opinion of the Court is fit subject
for commitment to the school, It is lawful for
the Judge to suspend Judgment or sentence lex
cept when the penalty is life imprisonment or
DEATH, and to commit the boy to the school for
a period not exceeding the time when he shall
reach his twenty. first year. No boy who is I'M
der the age of eight years or of unSound mind
is to be committed thereto. The Board has the
power to reduce. for good conduct, the time fol
which such boy has been committed.
Any boy under the age OF eighteen years in
the State Prison, may, upon the recommends
ton of the Directors, with the approval OF the
Governor, be transferred TO the school for the
uneXpired term of his sentence.
The inmates will be SUBJECT to military disci
pline including daily drill. They will be
clothed in military uniform, and under no cir
cumstances are they to be dressed in convict
stripes.
The ultimate purpose of the instruction, disci
pline and industries, shall be to qualify the in
mates for honorable and profitable employment
after their release from the institution, rather
than to make the institution selfsustaining.