The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-03-30
PRISON AGENT. DISCUSSES
PAROlED MANS HAROSH|PS
Doors of Industry Closed to For
mer Prisoners, They Seek Solace
in Vicious Pursuits.
MISSION is PRAISED
Citizens, Says Mr.. Oglesbee,
Should Aid Institution with
Money and Influence.

Last night was one of great anxiety for
r. b. Ogiesbee, assistant state agent for the
prison at Michigan City who is spending
several days in Indianapolis with the two
fold object OF looking after the interests Of
the paroIed prisoners from that institution
In this city and finding satisfactory en-
pIoyment for several who are now ready to
be released on parole.
Returning to his room at the Hotel Eng
lish yesterday afternoon he received a tel
egram from Warden Reid directing him TO
meet at the station a prisoner who left
Michigan City to arrive here two hours be-
fore the message was placed in his hand,
and who came 10 enter a position opened to
him by a humane man in one of the large
local factories.
The agent hurried to Union Station, but
hts man, was not TO be found, nor had he
yet been located at an early hour this morn
Ing. Through the evening and night, with
the assistance of the police, the search was
prosecuted by Mr.. Oglesbee. who knew that
the Daroled man had landed in an unfamil-
lar city. penniless and helpless and in
state of mind peculiarly receptive TO dis
couragement- The tangle will doubtless be
Strengthened out during to-day and the
missing man will be found and started fair
~ on the road to law-abiding, self-main-
tanning citizenship.
Speaking of the incident Mr.. Oglesbee
said that it is but one of many of constant
occurrence in every great city, demonstrate
Ing the great and generally unsatisfied
necessity for making adequate provision
for the care of transient cases of helpless
ness that are too often left to the merciless
attention of barrel houses and other vicious
influences.
Men, and women too. released from pris-
on. discharged from hospitals. thrown sud
denly out of work, coming to the city
through deceit or ignorance said Mr..
Oglesbee, stranded by delayed trains, or
overtaken by some other form of tempo
rary misfortune that leaves them for the
time unable to obtain food and shelter,
must enter the door that is open to them
and. TO the shame of civilization. Ii must
be said, that door is almost invariably a
door Of vice. leading down instead OF up.
In the case of last night, said Mr..
Oglesbee. 'the prisoner, after a long pc
Rod of Incarceration, has been found wor-
thy OF another trial in life, and place
was found for him to make the effort. He
left the prison walls with high resolve TO
do right and make the best of his oppor-
tunity, but subdued by the consciousness
of his disgrace and not immune to discour-
-,To be left absolutely alone and unpro-
vided for at such time was the worst pos
sible thing that could have happened to him
and might easily lead to his immediate un-
doing, whereby the State would have an un-
desirable and dangerous citizen instead Of
a productive and valuable one
f.The one place that is open to all such
unfortunates i'm Indianapolis is the admir-
able Rescue Mission, conducted by Mr..
Wheeler South Pennsylvania street, but
through lack of sufficient means the work
of this institution Is quite limited and 1t
has no means for hunting out the cases OF
transient need, being pressed TO take care
of such cases as come to II.
The prison agent spoke warmly of Mr..
Wheeler's years of effort and of great good
accomplished. and expressed the hope that
progressive Indianapolitans Will not much
longer be without adequate home for
the Rescue Mission and ample provision
for its effective maintenance.
OF the paroled prisoners, Mr.. Oglesbee
said that employers are gradually becom-
ing awake TO the fact that such prison
graduates are in most instances valuable
to those who take them Less than 20 per
cent of the men who have gone into en-
pleyment from the Michigan City institu-
ton in the past seven years have been
unsatisfactory, and many times employers
have said that their prison wards were
more than usually valuable TO them. These
unfortunates start in under the influence
Of new resolves to live correctly, they are
under constant but inoffensive supervision,
and they are not permitted to change their
employment without cause. all OF which are
factors contributing to their availability.