Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-10-17
Mould CHANGE IHE
IOWA PENAL LAWS
Board of Control In Favor of
Reformatory and the Inde-
terminate Sentence
COMMITTEE is INVESTIGATING
Members of the Board Of Control
Would Favor Making the Anamosa
Prison Reformatory and Sending Al!
the Hardened Criminals to Anamosa
Packard and the Fifth District.
Special to Times Republican.

Packard and the Fifth District.
Special to Times Republican.
Des Moines. Oct. 17.-If the legisla-
tive committee now investigating pen
al institutions in various parts of the
country should recommend to the leg
islature an indeterminate sentence law
and the Introduction Of reformatory
1t will be meeting the wishes of the
state board Of control. The commit
tee Is composed Ex-senator C. G. Saun-
ders of Council Bluffs and Represents
tiyes M. l.. Temple of Osceola and f.
E. Jones of Villisca. In former re-
ports the state board of control has
recommended the reformatory and the
hdeterm1nate sentence as well. Bills
nave even been drawn by members Of
the legislature tho the board has never
gone beyond recommending the meas
ure. 1t will likely recommend it again.
What the board has been desirous of
having done is the conversion OF the
Anamosa penitentiary into a refor1na-
tory and the use of the Fort Madison
penitentiary entirely for the hardened
criminals. This. as the board has fig
ured It out, would require no extra
expense except the employment OF
teachers for the reformatory. The
proposition is to obliterate the divisions
of the state into two districts with all
from the northern district going to
sAnamosa and all the criminals from
the southern going to Fort Madison.
The board would then limit the ase Of
those going to Fort Madison so that
none but the hardened criminals should
he kept there. Perhaps none under
thirty years old would be sent there.
but 1t is suggested to give the Judge
passing sentence good degree of lat
itude In this matter Men who have
never been criminals but who have
gotten into trouble because they have
no trade and are thus idle or who
thru drink or carelessness have been
lead to commit crime, 1t is proposed
to send to the reformatory, and those
who are hardened criminals to tho
penitentiary.
& F. &. e
The indeterminate sentence works
we'll with the reformatory," saiG the
Hon. John Cownie, chairman of the
board. "The great thing is to educate
man for trade or profession. There
are few good mechanics who find their
way to the penitentiary. 1t is a good
thing for the legislature to send COM
missions east to investigate the meth
ods used there, for In some ways Iowa
is behind the eastern states in the
matter of the punishment Of criminals.
Anamosa should be made a reforlnatory
but with that change there should be
the indeterminate sentence. There are
SO many young men who get into trou-
bic largely because they have no reg
ular and steady employment. II we
could put them at Anamosa in a re-
formatory and keep them there long
enough to give them a trade, they
would 60 out and make useful citizens
and probably would never find their
way back the second time. Now they
are for their first offense thrown into
the penitentiary for a few months.
There is no chance to educate them for
a trade and they go out aimlessly and
their contact with the older criminals
is liable to throw them into life of
crime With an indeterminate sem
tence and a reformatory we could make
them brick layers or mechanics Of
some kind and they would become use
full citizens.
Back In those eastern states they
will set the prisoners in the reform
atory to building brick building. They
will run up big building and then
tear It down and clean off the mortar
and build it up again. When those
men go out they are skilled brick ma
sons and have trade they can go to
work at at once. They train carpen-
ters and plasterers the same way"
The Iowa Humane Society will again
have a bill before the legislature to
establish a bureau Of protection to ami
mails and children, making the society
in effect department of the state SINH
lar to the law now in operation in Col
orado and other states. The bill was
presented at the last session and lost
in the committee by majority of one
vote because it carried with it
small appropriation for the expenses of
the department. With the agitation
that was carried on at the last session
making sentiment in favor of it the
members Of the society hope to get a
more favorable reception for the bill.
The society will hold its annual meet
ing In this city some time this winter
before the legislature convenes' and
will take steps at that time to boost
the idea.
1t is learned here that VIM. I. Crane,
till recently in the public schools in
Marshalltown, is a candidate for the
position in the Peoria city schools
made vacant by the discovery of the
defalcat.ons on the part of Dougherty.
Mr.. Crane is well known by Iowa
school men generally through his work
and his membership in the state asso-
citation.
The Iowa legislature has several
times been asked to make an annro-