Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-05-31
NOW A MODEL PRISON
Iowa Should be Proud Of the Ana.
mosa Penitentiary.
CONDUCTED IN EXCELLENT MANNER
Col. W. H. Hunter IL Giving a Business
Administration, with High Ideals
As to What a Reformatory
Should BE.

Administration, With High Ideals
A. to What a Reformatory
Should BE.
The people of the state of Iowa have
every reason to feel proud of the state
prison at Anamosa, prison that will
soon become leader among the great
reformatories of the country. True, it
will continue to be in some sense
penal institution, until such time as
the state is able to build prison for
the 'shabituals' and ''incurables" but
it is safe TO say that many young men
will be discharged from that prison
as nearly reformed as it will ever be
possible to reform anyone. In fact,
no one will be able to gainsay the fact
that they are not completely reformed,
and while it is unfortunately true
that quite per cent of them will some
day return to this or similar insti-
tuition it will probably be due in a
large degree to the fact that society"
or the world, has not used them as it
ought. We organize societies for al
most everything except for the assist
ance of those who most need assist
ance, but perhaps some day there will
be plan discovered by which ex-con-
victs will not have to fight as hard
battle as the majority of them are
now compelled to face when released
from the prisons. Cynics are
wont to say that fallen women are the
only ones for whom there seems to be
no safe haven of refuge in the world,
but students of criminology can tell
you differently.
Has Splendid Record.
The splendid record of Col. w. II.
Hunter, of Belle PLANE, the new war
den of the Anamosa prison, ought to
be matter of much congratulation on
the part of the taxpayers of the state.
Assuming control of this great insti-
tuition at time when all its internal
affairs were badly disorganized and the
management being widely criticised by
partisan and non-partisan press over
the state, Col. Hunter has brought or
der out of virtual chaos, has carried
out the original plans of the state to
practical completion, has reduced ex-
penses to a minimum and has made
friend of every inmate of the prison
by the PRONUNCIATION of the gradesys
tenn, which gives them all an oppor-
tunity to shed the detested stripes,don
neat military gray and secure special
privileges not heretofore allowed pris-
oners. More than this, Col. Hunter
has attended strictly to the affairs of
state and has won the confidence and
respect of the people of Anamosa and
Jones county, in contradistinction to
at least one other warden.
IL a Busy Place.
Especially those who have visited the
prison within the past year or two will
be interested in the progress of the
work upon the new administration
building. which from an architectural
standpoint compares most favorably
with any public building in Iowa. The
massive stone steps leading to the
building from the street are now GO
| ing in, and when they are completed
the interior finish of the building will
soon be done. And such finish as it is!
There is no private residence in Iowa
! that will compare with it. The tile
work on the floors is simply beautiful,
all the work of convicts; the marble
| baseboards and mantels; the massive
oak doors and castings; the handsome
rotunda and dome, decorated in most
artistic style, all done with infinite
pains and without regard to time. The
scores of men employed in various ca
pacities about this building have
shown as much pride in their work as
tho it had been designed as a monu-
ment to free labor. The decoration of
the dome is being rapidly completed
by convict artist whose term soon
expires. The capitol dome at Des
Moines was the model for the designs.
The machinery that was used in saw
| ing, planning and finishing the interior
finish of the capitol is being used to
make the doors and castings Of the adj
ministration building. Bill McKivott,
a Cedar Rapids man, who will soon be
released, is at work on the oiling and
polishing.
The greatest activity prevails in all
the departments. Down in the butter
tub factory about 800 first class tubs
are being turned out daily by the
twenty-five men employed there. This
contract, which soon expires, calls for
600 tubs daily, but the men were prom
ised 21s cents each for all they would
make over 600, and the .'rake-off' is a
comfortable little sum every week.
In the foundry force of men are
casting dozens of steam radiators, by
which the new buildings will be heat
ed. They also cast all the extra parts
of machines needed and used about the
institution. But the greatest feat ey-
er accomplished in this department
was the casting of a fac smile of the
seal of the state, in solid brass War
den Hunter could find no foundry that
would undertake the job at any except
exorbitant figures. One of the con-
victs, handy with a pen, sketched the
design, another worked it down into
moulder's clay and one of the experts
made the cast, getting plate fourteen
inches in diameter and without the
semblance of flaw. This will 90 in
the center of a handsome tile design
at the entrance of the administration
building.
A Suggestion Here.
4 What do you suppose becomes of all
the thousands upon thousands of tin
cans which are emptied at the prison
ANNUALLY? Instead of being consigned
to the dump they become useful mem