Mexico weekly ledger., 1891-02-12

that can be derived from both re-
ligious and secular instruction. H.
literacy is a prolific parent of
crime, indeed, next to absence OF
moral sentiment, it is the greatest
of all others.
DIR. Gauss has furnished the
press with a number of articles on
this subject, from which We make
the following extracts:
"One of the forward movements
of this age is in the direction of re-
formatory work in prisons. From
reports, not in every Ease the very
latest, and from private letters, l
have gathered some facts bearing
on this work, to a few OF which |
wish to call attention.
"We recognize as among the
leading States for population, in
telligence and wealth, Massachu-
sets, New York, Pennsylvania,
Ohio, Illinois, Iowa. Michigan and
Kentucky. What are these States
doing in the way of prison reform2
From these eight States | have at
command information of the work
in thirteen penitentiaries, and in
each the chaplain is required to
give his whole time to his prison
work preaching and experimenting
Sabbath School instruction and
prayer meeting services on the
Sabbath, visiting the prisoners in
their cells aud hospitals at all
times. in some prisons having
charge of the incoming and outgo-
ing mail, and in most of them
having control of day OR night
schools for the instr ctlon of the
i~lliterate with supervision of the
library.
"In December, 1884, the mana
gers abolished the office of chap
lain in the Ohio State prison, and
in 1888 the legislature restored it.
"The libraries in these prisons
contain from between 5000 and A.
600 volumes in the Kentucky
prison, up to 5000 volumes in one
ofthe Pennsylvania prisons.
sin all of these prisons there is
a system of schooling for the IL
literate, in the shape of day schools
IN Massachusetts and Pennsylva-
MIA, and night schools in most, il
not all, of the others.
sin some ofthe prisons of Michi-
gan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Massa-
chusests, in addition to chaplain.
the state provides a prison teacher.
In Massachusetts the state ap-
propriates $1,000 yearly for SAB
bath school and secular lnstruc
ton. In Ohio the teacher is paid
$500. In Michigan, when the
secular school was first establish
ed, If was put under the super
vision of the prison chaplain, but
later it was thought the chaplain
had enough to do in bis own spec
ial sphere, and a teacher was pro-
vided. In most of the prisons the
school is taught one hour and a
half or two hours daily for five or
six months of the year. and is un-
der the chaplain, who has the as
sistance OF convict labor in teach
ing. Among others that might be
mentioned there are very success
full night schools at Sing Sing,
Joliet and Fort Madison. The
chaplain at Sing Sing estimates a
school can be maintained at a cost
of $50 a month. In Kentucky the
state requires the chaplain to in
struct during the day such prison
ers as are off duty or convalescent,
and quite a number are in this way
instructed in the course of the year.
In their reports the wardens make
special mention of the value of the
prison schools, as we'll as of the
religious services of the chaplains
to prison discipline. The Ken
lucky warden, in a recent report,
expressed the hope that the way
would soon be open to establish a
night school. Missouri takes rank
with the foremost of our states in
wealth, population and intelli-
gence, but her showing in the
direction of prison reform is very
far below that of her sister states.
1.-THE chaplain of our prison is
required to give only a portion Oh
his time to his prison work, al.
though our prison population
probably exceeds that of any other
one prison in the Uuited States.
"Our prison library has only
about 1900 volumes. and nothing
is being done in the way of syste-
matically teaching the illiterate
Shall we not come abreast of the
foremost in this work of intelli-
gent philanthropy, patriotism and
civilization2"
22,97O.