The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-12-03

 paying churches in the State. to take up his work. Each inmate is commit ted on an indeterminate sentence. He must remain for a year at least. None Is released on less time. He practical ly wins his own release. by obedience t. the laws of the institution, by good work and study and by learning the trade assigned him.
 When he Is released on recommends ton of. the superintendent, he is given good suit of citizens clothes, his transportation and S in money. This Is the least of his gifts, for best of all. ! job has been found for him. he is going to 1t with all his reformatory record known. Two field agents of the institution will help him with advice. and get him new job if he loses this one throdgh no fault of his own. In the event he fails again, he Is brought back to the reformatory Three out of every tour so far have made good.
 The thing that has astounded outsid- CTS Is that from the very beginning tho inmates are treated as men, are shown the courtesy and consideration that man offers man fin the world. and each is known by his own name, his tndiVid- uallty is preserved and bettered. This is rank heresy in prisondom in general, for the old theory has been that an ad- judged criminal Is a beast and must be cut of from all things human Super intendent Leonards' idea is that great CT pains must be taken to develop ev- cry human characteristic T never knew before that a fellow like me could really do anything that would count for anything" said young man as he sat on the high chair before the States Commissioners waiting to hear if he was to be paroied, after having been allowed to state his own case. "Somehow 1t had never seemed to mat ter to anybody what l did, and I had never learned to do any work that could make living at and IL Wasn until the first day I came and MT. Leonard talked with me that realized I could be as manly and as ft for life as any one else. Do you know, can't help bur wish my brother could come. He has never had any chance either. Might it not throw some light on this feeling of nobody caring" when 1t IS known that 75 per cent of the inmates here have come from homes where either the father or mother is gone that 50 per cent are from homes broken by divorce7
 What would you think to see the gates of a penitentiary open at nVe in the morning to allow a squad or unguarded inmates go out to the dal- ries or the barns? What would you think to see those gates opened after breakfast and 300 men and boys pass out to scatter over the 60O-aere Iarm, to be gone until noon, only four or five teach guards in attendance? There are trains passing acros the fields on which one could easily slip when they stop at the water tank, there are woods where one might hide until night, and there are other easy ways of escape. Here is the reason: In each fellows pocket there reposes an | imposing document which is a bond Of h fVguR Gl by the superintendent as his next best friend' and sponsor. Public opinion has been created, he has been treated as a fellow with honor, he has been | trusted for, perhaps. the first time in his life. and he passes back and forth to work with a consciousne5e of new manh ood. Of ,2,000 men and boys who have carried these bonds of trust, only
 five have broken faith.
 Not long ago two boys--not yet iT- vested with the esprit de corps that
 distinguishes the institution from the
 superintendent on down through every
 instructor and inmate-tried to run away. The guard being fleet of foot,
 ran one down. He looked to see if the
 other had escaped. He found him 1 captive under a pile of his fellow con- | victs, who, sitting upon him. were lec- | turing him and pointing out that he
 was a disgrace to the institution, dis | detriment to their own advancement. Good conduct and "trusty'' badges are | eagerly sought for, and royalty worn | The fellow who fails either here or
 out in the world Is denoted and is put in a brown or grey suit and must work his way up to the blue suit, the
 white cloth covered table of the upper dining room. and to this final release
 as a reclaimed citizen.
 As a rule, the inmates go to their
 tasks with a zest. Most of them had
 never been taught to do things with | their hands before. Would you mind | if I stayed until the building Is fin
 ished?" one boy asked when paroled after a good record. q never helped build house before." They were then making a workshop. Now they are building nv steel cells, saving the | State $310 oh each cell and learning
 trade at the same time. In the work
 shops are made all the shoes and brooms used by other State institutions. Later. 1t Is the hope of the superintend- ent to have all State-use articles made | here.
 To all appearances the inmate of the Ohio State Reformatory has most of the privileges of a free person. He
 may write a sealed letter of complaint at any time to the superintendent, or go before him for a private hearing. He may appeal from the superintendent to the Board of Managers, and even to the Governor. A most novel feature is the provision for bankrupts who have used up all their points" of conduct and who get deeper and deeper in debt of this kind and further from parole every year. If fellow who has fail ed in this way is really anxious to re- form. he may file a petition in bank ruptcy, the old scores are all wiped away. and he may begin again on just exactly the same footing as the first day he entered the place.
 Germany had a. commission over here not long ago looking into the work at Mansfield So did Canada, so should other nations and other States. for. like Elmira and Concord, it Is do- ing a wondefuI wurk. There is a cir culating library here, and 700 of the 1 inmates take good magazines. Where | in your sch eme have you made provis- l ion for talking and for laughing?" | wrote MT. Leonard to other institutions | before he began the work here They were silent. He has made provision for these and at certain times there is the same joy, the same merriment that oh aracterizes the club or the home of other fellows, and like all the other radical ana good things of the instt- tuition, 1t Is worth while.
 Copyright 1908 by Frederic I