Hutchinson gazette. [volume] (Hutchinson, Kan.) 1895-1902, 1898-05-19
Q Miller, the grocerman, is giviD g
bronze hat racks, towel racks and wal |
pockets to their customers.
BAD co. the Reformatorm


Sunday night eight of the bad men
who were transferred from the reform
atory Othe penitentiary were returned
here. Among them was the notorious
"bad niger" Wade Thomas, who caus-
ed so much trouble when here. He
also had several of his spells while at
the peniteDtiaay. There are others
among them little better.
The statute passed in 1895, organiz-
ing the Kansas Industrial Reform
atory, gave the board of managers full
power to transfer incorrigible and in-
subordinate inmates to the peniten-
tiary, as was done with these. There
was no lack of authority granted in the
statute, but short time ago, one Den
mis- Dumford, who was transferred to
the penitentiary, went into the appel
late court to test the cOnstitutiOnality
of the statute under which the trans
fer was made, claiming that the order
for transferring inmates from an insti-
tuition to which they had been SEN
fenced, to another to which they had
not been sentenced, was the exercise
of judicial authority such as could not
be constitutionally granted to such a
board as the board of managers. The
appellate court so decided and lmmedi-
ately the courts began turning these
men out on wrts of habeas corpus.
Two, Dumford and another Lewis
Murphy, were thus let loose and imme
diately shook Kansas soil from their
feet. The courts decided that they
could be returned to this institution if
secured by an order from the board of
managers. The management had an
officer at LeaVenwOTth with an order
from the superintendent, to get Muir
ply as soon as he was turned loose but
the judge said he could only be secured
Oh an order from the board of manag-
ers, and Murphy isnOw probably en-
jOying more salubriOus climate. The
eight men brought back here are
among the worst men even at the pen
etentiary, and their return is very de-
mOralizing to the institution, They
are men that shOnld never have been
sentenced here. Some of them have
served time in the penitentiaries OF
other states, are hardened in crime,
and far past the maximum age for SEN
tenCe here. AS under present arrange.
ments OF the building the third grade
or even these men can not be separated
from the others, it will require a tight
ening of the discipline of the whole in
5titutiOn which is not in harmony with
the theory of the institution, and will
nearly convert it into a penitentlary
Until this difficulty is overcome, so that
improper inmates can be transferred,
the judges of the state should exercise
the greatest precaution before sentenc-
ing culprits here, especially if they APP
pear to be near the maximum age,
The only solution of the problem at
present visible, will be the passage OF
law, such as was recommended by
the governor AMI others and which
came near passing the last legislature,
placing all the penal institutions under
one board, so that this may be legally
considered a branch of the peniten-
tiary. That may obviate the consti-
tutional difficulty.
However the question will be passed
upon by the supreme court with a pos
sible chance for reversal, though it Is
hardly expected. The decision of the
appellate court seems to be law but it
is not good sense.
The following are those returned:
William Daily for burglary, from Reno
county; A. NJ. Kooken, grand larceny
Harvey county; Ed McGowen, larceny,
Wysndotte county; Wade Thomas,
burglary End degree, Clay county; E.
W. Barge. Grand larceny, Harvey coun-
ty; VIM. Smith, burglary, Reno coun-
ty; Henry Williams, burglary and lar