St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-10-21
A Female Attendants Method
of Dealing With a Re-
fractory Patient.
Salaries Too Low to Secure a
Better Class Of Asylum
Attendants.
Secretary Hart Suggests Spe-
cial Agents Should Care
for Child Offenders.
Cost Of Maintaining the State
Correctional and Chapi-
table Institutions.

E The thirty-fourth quarterly meeting
of the state board of corrections and
charities was held yesterday. having
been postponed from Oct. by order of
the governor. Vice President Smith
was IN the chair, and o. NJ. Hall, of
Goodhue county took his seat as men,
Der of the board. The secretary was
instructed to arrange for tour of the
state institutions, and was authorized
also to visit the county seat of Traverse
and consult with the county authorities
about the building of a new Jail.
Secretary Hart submitted his quart
erlY report. 1t showed the population
of the state institutions estimated i'll
1888 to be 3.977, while the actual popula-
ton was 3,562; estimated expenditure,
S715, 100; actual expenditure. SOL, 121;
estimated expense per inmate, $179:
actual, i$20l. The apparent excess
per capita is due largely 10
the fact that the actual num-
bers have been less than expected.
The state institutions were visited. At
Rochester asylum complaints of cruel
treatment of two patients, NJ. j. Mead
and u. A. Krosus, were investigated,
but the charges were not sustained.
The superintendent, it was found, had
dealt summarily with cases where harsh
treatment had been inflicted. One at
Iendant was discharged for pushing
patient from the dining room, and fe
male attendant was discharged for
pricking a patient with hatpin. The
members who visited the prison are of
the opinion that there is hot sufficient
protection for patients under the pres
ent system, and there cannot be until
there is an increase i'll the wages of
head attendants. The amount paid
head attendants is only S27 month,
and good attendants cannot be held for
that. The population of the soldiers
home has decreased, as predicted. In
1889 there were 12i; 1890, lis; 1891, 10.
May 81, 1889, there were al, and Feb.
%, 1891. HI. since which it has declined.
The finances of the home show sur
plus of $3.50 at the beginning of the
fiscal year, which has increased to
IS. 195.
OF the new reform school the report
says the plant is one of the finest, if
not the very finest, in the United States.
The yefOrmatory has reached a salts
factory basis. Beginning the year with
deficit of $14217 they closed with
surplus of so, lob besides having unsold
stone estimated at $1,000. Twenty
ing the year. Under the new contract
for prison labor, contract citizens and
convlcts are not 10 be worked together,
thus doing away with one of the seri-
Gus evils of the old system"
The report closed with Il detailed ac-
count of the result of Secretary llart's
visit to the several county jails and
poor houses in the state.
A special report was made by Sacre-
tary Hart on the treatment ofdelinquent
children without commitment. based on
the result of his observations upon the
working systems which prevail in Mas
sachusetts, Michigan and Pennsylvania
of handling children. In these states it
is common practice to suspend sentence
in cases of minor offenSeS and allow the
offender to go free on promise of good
behavior. An official is present at all
trials. and exercises his Judgment on
the case, as between the prosecution
and the law. His recommendation is
regarded seriously by the court. Some
times a youthful offender may he placed
with Ills own parents, sometimes with
strangers, but he is always under the
care of the state officer deputiZed to
look after such cases. The girls so re-
leased are placed in families, in charge
of female visitor, chosen for the work
IhlOuSh SpcCldl Y OIL
Siderlng birth. education and former
associations. In Massachusetts there
are but four agents of the board of cor
rectionS and charities. while in Michi-
gan they have GRe agent for each coun-
tv. The Pennsylvania system is oper-
ated by the Children'S Aid society, with
the cooperation of the judges of East
ern-PennSyivania. Secretary Hart, in
concluding most comprehensive re-
port, recommends:
That the board ask the next legislature to
provide for a state agent in each judicial dis
trict of the state to attend all trials of chill
dren in any court Of said judicial district and
to take charge of such children, pending
trial: and afterward, if 50 directed by the
court, to visit the homes of children about to
be discharged from the state reform school
and recommend whether they shall be al
lowed to return thereto; to find suitable
homes for such children discharged from the
reform school as are homeless or have no
suitable homes.
Secretary Hart, in conclusion, states
there is no doubt of the economic and
moral value OF such an agency. If it
diminished the population of the re- FORM
school it would save the state $1,000 a
year. He thinks the reform school Off
GERS would oppose it, but holds that
many delinquent children are not con-
tirmed in vice and can be reclaimed by
a suitable change in surroundings.
The report was referred to the secre-
tarv and j. w. Willis to secure such adj
ditlonal information of the work of the
system as may be required to consider
the practicability of having the county
school perintendents to do the work
as agents in each county.