Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1912-05-25
REPORT or cossoN coMMlssioN
CERTAIN TO START
AGITATION.
WILL RECOMMEND LABOR
FOR ALL coNvIcTs
Men and Their Families Should Re-
cs,ve Benefit Of Earninss-commis.
sion Finds That Modern Discipline
Tsnds to Make Criminals Rather
Than Reform Men Gone Wrong.
Special to Times-Republican.

Special to Times-Republican
Des Moines, May 25.-A thorough
overhauling of Iowa laws as to punish
ment for offenses. the administration
Of the prisons, application of the indie
terminate sentence and parole idea. and
use made Of prison labor.
This is the meaning of the volumin-
GUS report Of the Cosson prison COM
mission just completed by the attorney
general in association with Farley
Sheldon. of Ames. and NJ A. Roberts,
Of OttumWa. 1t is certain this report
will start discussion that will not
end until some substantial steps are
taken looking to undermining and re-
juveuating the whole penal code of the
state. Iowa will get out Of the eigh-
teenth century class and catch up with
twentieth century progress in this re-
spect.
Mayor Sheldon and Judge Roberts
were in conference with Attorney Gen
eral Cosson this week, and are I'M
mensely pleased with the report as pre-
pared.
Use Of Labor Conviets.
The most conspicuous feature of the
report will be recomnn endation that the
state make better use of the labor or
the convicts. Everywhere. in the most
modern prisons and reformatories, the
labor is being utilized not for the bene-
fit Of favored contractors but for the
benef1t OF the state and for the GOOD
of the men themselves. In many OF
the prisons visited by the commission
1t is provided that the prisoners are
credited with all or part of the earn
ings and that some disposition is made
Of these earnings for the benefit of
the prisoner or his family. The feel
ing prevails that there is no justice in
depriving the family of an offender OF
the right to his support even tho the
state takes him in custody. The re-
suit of the old system Is often to work
a much greater hardship on innocent
persons than on the guilty.
Discipline Fails to Reform.
1t is also found that the discipline
Of the modern prison is better calcu-
lated to make criminals out of the men
than to reform them. The reform idea
has not been sufficiently developed.
There is association Of those who are
merely accidental offenders and who
are not in fact criminals with those
who are by nature or by training given
over to lives Of crime. Recommends
tions will be made as to betterment OF
such conditions.
It is not expected that the report will
bring out any especially new or start
ling facts as to prison conditions in
Iowa, nor develop any essentially new
ideas in prison management; but
rather 1t will be such report as will
attract attention to a subject all too
long neglected by Iowa people, and
pave the way for some changes in the
laws. When the first bill for adoption
of the indeterminate sentence was pre-
sented to the Iowa legislature few
years ago it was literally ridiculed out
of the senate by~those who openly de-
clared that the sole purpose of the
criminal courts and the prisons was to
infiict punishment on the offenders. 1t
is expected that a period of education
al work will be needed before the new
ideas embodied in the forthcoming r
port of the Cosson commission are ac-
cepted by the people.