The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1913-10-30

thirty years.
"Our two institutions, the State
Prison under Warden Henry
Wolfer, and of whom / can say
that there is no superior in this or
any other country along penal
lines, and the Reformatory at St.
Cloud under Supt. Reed, are mod
ell institutions and they will both
concur with me when ] say that our
needs are many.
Il further think that the Mini
mum and Maximum time of SEN
tence should be done away with en-
tirely, leaving it to. the Judgment
of the Parole Board when man
should be discharged. Some men
are today discharged from prison
when they should do ten years long
er, and others are made to do long
sentences when few months
would answer the purpose fully as
we'll. Then there should be some
definite way of taking care of the
offender who has been convicted
more than twice. The old way of
$1,000 or Ten days is or should be
thing of the past.
A discussion of DR.. Smiths pa
per was entered into by Hon. G.
E. Vasaly, Chairman of the State
Board of Control and Parole,
Warden Wolfer, Rev. Parsons, of
the Society for the Friendless and
Supt. Reed, of the St. Cloud Re-
formatory.
Mr.. Vasaly led off and from his
address we quote as follows:
There are many obstacles in the
path of the paroled prisoner, but
what [ believe to be the greatest
obstacle is the unfortunate attitude
of the police e-the rank and file of
the police force. / have found
that the majority of policemen hold
to the old theory that a man who
commits a crime is always a crimi-
nal. This attitude is unfair to all
concerned. One thing we need to
do and do badly, is to enlighten
the police forces of the large cities
in regards to paroled and dis
charged prisoners.
Mr.. Vasaly then told the Con
ference of one incident that came
to his notice in regard to paroled
prisoner from St. Cloud. Two
detectives. arrested this boy one
night for no apparent reason,
made him get up and dress and go
with them, not telling him where
they were going or what he was
wanted for. The arrest of the
boy worried the mother, and as they
would not give her any informa-
ton she naturally thought the boy
had committed some desperate
crime. The facts of the case were
that the police suspected the boy
of knowing something about some
thing that happened in neighbor-
hood close by. He further said
that there were numerous cases of
this kind
He thought that prosecutions of
this kind would make man a
criminal. He also told of another
incident along the same lines.
The citizens of the State of Mime
sofa are showing splendid popu-
lar sentiment in regards to the
paroled and discharged men and
he believes that every care should
be taken to place men in religious
surroundings not the jelly-fsh kind
of religion, but the good old
fashioned kind. / In fact you have
got to have that kind of influence
to keep man in line.
Rev. Parsons, of the Society for
the Friendless, made a few brief
remarks, which consisted mostly of
the object Of the Society for the
Friendless and what it is doing to
help the paroled and discharged
prisoner. Rev. Parsons said that
the Society for the Friendless had
over 1000 volunteer assistants
throughout the State, but that
there should be at least $4,000.
Warden Wolfer made a few
brief remarks in regards to the
Maximum and Minimum penalty
law. He said that he fully be-
lieves that the time is coming
when there will be no Minimum or
! Maximum sentence; that prison