Los Angeles herald., 1910-10-04
SUPERIOR JUDGE
VISITS PRISONS
Frank R. Willis Finds Humane
Treatment of ConviCts Be-
coming General
CRIMINALS TAUGHT TRADES
In Colorado Prisoners Work on
Roads and Are Given Part
of the Earnings
CRIMINALS TAUGHT TRADES

That the public is becoming more
rational in its treatment of criminals
is the opinion Frank r. Willis, judge
of one of the criminal departments of
the Los Angeles county superior court,
brought back with him from the east,
where he has just completed visit
of six weeks.
He found a general betterment in the
treatment of prisoners in the many
penitentiaries and reformatories he in
spected, and he is firm in the belief
that a municipal farm for petty Of
tenders and model state reformatory
for criminals serving their first terms
are greatly to be desired.
Among the institutions the jurist
visited were those at Canon City,
Colo; Charlestown, Mass; Joliet, Ill
Elmira, N. Y; Anamosa, Ia, and san
Quentin, Cal, where he stopped on the
way home.
"The penitentiary at San Quentin,
said Judge Willis, sis about as good as
any in the United States, and it is
being improved all the time The new
wing, containing $50 cells, and now un-
der course of construction, will remedy
the defect of having more than one
man in cell.
"At Elmira, N. Y, the inmates are
being taught useful trades, even. such
high -classed occupations as printing
and bookbinding. The illiterate prison
ers also are being instructed. Many
who could neither write nor read when
they were sent there year ago are
becoming proficient.
LEARNED A TRADE
One prisoner there, a Russian, wrote
a letter to the warden, saying that he
was glad he had been sent there, as
he has acquired an education since
being incarcerated, and he feels now
that when he is liberated he will be-
come a useful American citizen.
"At Anamosa, Iowa, there is a plan
for paying the prisoners for any labor
they may perform after regular hours.
By that a man can lay aside from $S
to SIS a month and have something
to start life upon when he finishes his
sentence.
"In a PENNSYLVANIA institution
where the same saheme is being used
one man, sent up Dr eleven years, and
who still has seventeen months tc
serve, has a bank account of $14O0.
"Public interest in offenders is shown
| by the Improvement in prisons. A
| Charlestown, Mass, part of the prison
is 100 years DID, The cells are mere
| holes in the stone. This Is being
changed to separate rooms for the men
In the new cells they have electric
lights, musical instruments, books
mechanical instruments, the privilege
to arrange the apartment as much
like home as possible, and in addition
are given good ventilation.
PUT ON THEIR HONOR
"The men who are accorded the
greatest amount of freedom are the
ones who are most easily controlled
That is especially true of Canon City
Colo. where the prisoners work on the
roads, take pride in their work and are
paid 35 cents a day. None try to
escape.
"It is only right that the prisoners
should be given some remuneration for
their work, because otherwise when
thew end their sentences they have
only the IS given them by the prison
authorities, together with cheap suit
which is as much a mark OF their
nreyious confinement as II they stlll
were cladAi striped garments, and
ticket bv the cheapest route to the
place where they were sentenced. BY
the new rule the men are aple 70 40
as they please when liberated; why,
in some eastern penitentiaries they can
nick from four or five grades of cloth
ing and have suit made by some
fellow prisoner who is a tailor that
cannot be told from the work OF any
other tailor.
"At Cleveland, Ohio, there is a
municipal farm which does away WIZ WIZ
the chain gang. There the men are
given the chance to brace up and re-
tain their self-respect."
While away Judge Willis visited ms
aged mother at Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
and passed two hours at North Adams
Mass, where he was born and which
his parents left while he was a mere
babe in arms. Nevertheless, he tooR
interest in brief inspection or the
home of his fathers. the mouse haylne
heen built in 1912 and being the place
where both his father and his grand
father were born.