Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1898-01-20

and for repairs and contingent, for heat
| Ing six family buildings. enlarging the
chapel and erecting pesthouse.
For the girls department SIS, 100 is asked.
Among the items going to- make up this
aggregate is one for a family building for
the little girls. It is objected that at pres
Of associating with girls much older than
themselves, by whom they cannot but be
in some measure Influenced. i am con-
have Ia ssl little girls sent to this institution.
Provision had better be made for the
smaller ones. both girls and boys. at the
Home for INDECENT Children.
The Penitentiaries.
While the population at nearly all our
Institutions has much increased within
the last few years, the fact Is notably so
at the penitentiaries. In 1889 the number at
both prisons was 615, or only two more than
the number at Anamosa at the close of the
last fiscal term. In the two prisons there
were at the later date 1,1S9 convicts, an
Of IS per cent in eight years
little more than is per cent. What has
brought about this undesirable state Of af-
Is Subject Of sry ade py e War
den of the Fort Madison penitentiary has,
1 think, great force, which is that the alb
sence of an habitual criminal law offers
what may be called inducement to the Grim
inals of other states to migrate here.
Some system Of prison labor ought to be
devised for, furnishing employment for
DTlSOUGTS OlHeTWlSe lulc. lulS VIII DeCOIHe
Increasingly important as the time ap-
proaches for the termination of the con-
tracts at Fort Madison and the completion
of the edifce at Anamosa. / am advised
by one who has made a study of the SUBJ
ject who is one of the foremost pen
ologists of Iowa, and who has had actual
experience in prison management that ex-
perimentation in other states has devel-
oped systems that do away with the OBJ
lection OF unfair competition with free la
Dor, and at the same time utilize the labor
OF COnVlctS so TO make them Self-SIIp-
porting and allow the convict the amount
he can earn over and beyond the cost of
his support. Iowa has made no progress in
this matter.
The good-time law now in force in this
state is gravely defective in making no dis
tinction between first term and older GRIM
inals. In the spirit of the foregoing rec
ommendaton concerning the indeterminate
sentence, would suggest that the diminu-
only half of that allowed those serving
their first term, and that those in for more
than a second term should be allowed none
at all.
In reference to the government Of the
penitentiaries, / have few suggestions to
offer. In my judgment, the institutions
should come under the supervision Of
board, such as governs the Industrial
schools In fact l would recommend that
the powers of that board be enlarged so
that 1t would have like control Of the pen
itentiaries.
Institution Boards.
IHeTe has DStH HuCu ulSCuSSlOH OF ldle
as to the desirability Of single board to
have charge of all the institutions of the
state, the members of such board to be ex-
pected to give their entire time to the work
and to be suitably compensated therefor.
1t is urged that such a board, being famil-
lar with all the institutions, would be in a
position to know their comparative needs
and intelligently to advise the. general as
sembly thereon, and thus materially to aid
that body in its determinations as to the
amount to be expended for support and bet
tar0antS II iS also urged that such
TEN of management would be less expen-
sive to the state than the one now in vogue.
1 cannot bring myself to believe that such
a consolidation of the existing boards, and
placing all the institutions under one board,
will afford a remedy for any of the evils
supposed to inhere to the present sys-
tenn.
Special Appropriations.
The amount asked for the several insti-
tutions of the state, whether as additional
permanent allowances or special appropri-
atoms, are as follows:
Annual and
Specific Total
Apnr0p'tion Term