The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-01-27
Governor Stanley Will Inaugu-
rate Another Reform
Experiment to Be Tried In
Topeka Institution.
THE RESULT OF MERIT
Sixteen Recommended by Su-
perintendent to be Released.
Will Be Placed in Good Homes
on Parole.

One of the conspicuous reforms in
troduced by Governor Stanley in man
aging the public affairs OF Kansas is
the plan of issuing conditional pardons
to convicts at the state penitentiary.
Now the governor has a new idea
home-f1nding for boys in the reform
school and state reformatory.
To bring this about he proposes pa
roles for the inmates of these institu-
tions
The governor is today at Hutchinson
making an examination of the reforrna-
tory. 1t was his intention to first visit
the charitable institutions, next the ed
ucational institutions, and lastly the
penal institutions, but as a number of
the institutions are now under quaran-
tine he has somewhat changed his
plans.
While he has felt it to be his duty to
examine each of the public institutions
that he might know for himself their
exact condition, he has from the first
been deeply interested in the manage
ment of the penal institutions, and es-
pecially those containing the younger
classes committed to the care of the
state, at Hutchinson and at the reform
school in Topeka. From the very first
the governor has taken the position
that a great deal of crime is the result
of idleness and lack of employment, es-
pecially among the younger element.
one of the conditions upon which he
grants conditional pardonS from the
penitentiary is that some responsible
person shall guarantee to him in writ
ing that the applicant seeking dis
charge shall have employment.
Discussing this subject the governor
said:
I believe that there are great many
young men at Hutchinson and boys in
the reform school here, who are not
vicious and whose confinement in these
institutions results rather from idleness
and bad training than vicious tenden-
cieS, and who could be fully reclaimed
and made good citizens If they could
have employment and reasonably good
homes. 1 have not only made employ
ment a condition to the granting of
pardonS, but have urged upon the sup
erintendent who took charge of the re-
form school the Importance of finding
homes for boys confined in that inSti-
tuition. In pursuance of these sugges-
tions. the superintendent has already
found homes in different parts of the
state for IS of these boys. He told me
quite recently that he had frequent let
terS both from the boys and from the
homes in which they had been placed,
and that all parties seemed we'll pleas
ed
Continuing. the governor said.
1T looks as if Kansas was running
largely to woman's ulcbs. The women
are banding themselves together in
cooking clubs, sewing clubs, literary
clubs, art clubs, music clubs, social
clubs, whist clubs, and in fact about
every kind of a club that can be
imagined.
"It is my impression that some of the
boys in the reform school now are there
as the result of some WOman'S club
Il mean," said the governor when no
one smiled at his joke about clubs, 1.-The
kind boys are thumped with.
THAT sustains my theory of cruelty.
IF the members of these women's
clubs, and the other well-meaning wO-
men of the state, of which there are
thousands, would interest themselves
in procuring good homes for these
young men and boys, paroles might be
issued for those the management would
be willing to trust and whom they could
safely recommend and in this way hun
dreds of homes could be found for these
unfortunate young men and boys, the
principal offense of many of whom was
their misfortune in being brought up in
homes with no restraining influences, or
what was nearly as bad, having no
homes at all.
"I think that if 16 boys can be taken
out of the reform school and placed in
good homes, through the efforts of the
superintendent, and the relation so
formed is found to be satisfactory and
helpful both to the boys and the homes
in which they are placed that the num-
ber of whom such homes might be
found could be greatly increased by the
helpful influence and efforts of the good
women of the state.
There are a number of boys now in
the reform school whom the superin-
tendent would recommend to those who
would be willing to assist in their train
ing and education in return for the ser
vice the boys would render"
The governor would be very much
pleased to open up correspondence with
persons who might desire to assist il
this work and give all the information
and help necessary to enable them to
obtain full knowledge of the facts.