The Saint Paul globe., 1897-10-25

school Of lectures. both of which have
shown fine results. Several lectures
have been delivered by the inmates. A
young Swiss delivered last year very
good address on Switzerland.
Eight-tenths of one per cent fail in
the examinations of this large penal
school. 1t pays these young men to
pass as the time of their release very
largely depends upon their passing and
the marks they receive. The results
altogether in this institution have been
satisfactory. OF these young men 80
per cent, after their release, lead hon
est lives.
During the past eight years we have
been trying a corresponding experiment
in this stateh: You have several excel
lent gentlemen i'm charge Of this eX-
pertinent in prison reform. But none
Of them, I believe, were experts on
prison reform when they first became
iEdentified with the institution near st.
Cloud. In my judgment, the labor
element should be subordinate, and it
should be a. Fmatter of Indifference to
the state Of Minnesota whether the re-
formatory is self-supporting or not.
In the placer ofd the ten hours labor
in vogue, there, should be substituted
the trade classes, training school, and
the military department. These would
make a model reformatory. The Min
ICSOlG 1llSlicdllOH WAS SlluGleO, L DS-
lieve, near St.nCloud, as there were
quarries on the site of the institution,
and it was with view to utilizing the
labor for this purpose that the reforma-
tory was located,there.
H. HI. Hart. secretary of the state
beard of corrections and charities, was
the next speaker. He gave very in
teresting account Of his inspection Of
prisons, jails and lock-ups in the for
@; 4Tio ;-if
his three months trip abroad.
Mr. Hart compared American institu-
tions with those in Europe from the
standpoint of an expert. Mr.. Hart said
he had visited jails, prisons, and lock-
ups in three foreign countries, and
among them all he did not find one
reformatory. He said that Europe
seemed to come to the United States
for ideas on these subjects He found
number Of prisons patterned after the
Cherry Hill prison, of Philadelphia.
But in his travels he had not found
any in the United States modelled after
the Cherry Hill institution. He thought
this a peculiar circumstance. He was
greatly disappointed in the jails in
Germany At one in Hamburg all the
prisoners were thrown together with
out regard for classification. 81 saw
a cell there" he said, (which I should
for 200 years. The berth looked like
a coffin, and at the foot had stocks to
hold the feet and was rigged with
straps. The prison authorities inform
ed me that this was for bad cases Of
delirium tremens,. and they thought it
was a very good way of treating these
cases, as they were unable to hurt
themselves Or any one else. In Eng
land the jails were much better man
aged and arranged, all being under the
management Of the home Office, being
quite contrast to those of Germany.
The diet in the English prison was,
however, not near up to the standard
in this country. There had been a
great decrease in the criminal popula-
ton Of England, and many of the old
prisons had 5been torn down. In Nor
way the jaAs and prisons were uni
formly clean and neat. visited one
wcmen's prison which had for it's
warden an old man who seemed to
know what he was there for. He was
wrapped up in the reforming and re-
claiming of these women. All the sub
ordinate officers were women
Mr.. Hart told in a most interesting
manner of the different prison systems
in the United States which had been
copied by reformers of European coun-
tries. -1ss-