The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1913-08-21
KANSAS WARDEN
GIVEN WRITE UP
Rev. Botkin, New Warden at the Kansas
Prison is Given a Fine Send-off by
the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

The Rev. "Jerry Botkin, the new
preacher warden of Kansas Pententiary.
plans to spread the leaven of reform among
his wards by treating every prisonerf his
brother
Il regard every man, no matter whether
he is in prison or out as my brother, al
though find that some of my brothers are
instructive criminals, and have to be re-
strained by the strong arm of the law.
Some are made criminals by environ
ments, some are in prison because of some
accidental circumstances, such as some
sudden and violent temptation. All possess
some good.
''There is but very little hope of reform
ing the instructive criminal, although
every possible effort should be made to do
so. Those who have been led into crime
by environments can be helped by correcting
the environments. The use of liquor,
the dope habit, and the evil, as well as the
habit of drifting aimlessly through life,
are the forces that populate our prisons.
My experience and observation is that
liquor is the great curse of the state, and
does more to fill our prisons than any
other thing. While in many cases, liquor
is not the direct cause, it, is the primary
one, and find that most of the parole
violations are traceable directly to this
habit.
"From my observation, l am led to be-
lieve that four-ffths of the men in this
prison owe their loss of freedom to liquor.
They may not have been habitual drinkers,
but it is the man who drinks only occa-
sionafly that is the most apt to get into
trouble. If we can break up the drink
habit we will go long way to depopulate
our prisons.
ga little serious thought on the part of
our citizens would lead them to become
tremendously interested in all the reforma-
tory methods applied in our prison, but all
effort at reformation here, while society is
fostering the forces and influences that are
training the young people for the peniten-
tiary, is like Saving at the spigot and
wasting at the bung. The time will come
when awakened society will eliminate
booze and dope and pool halls and every
other device that contaminates youth and
leads them into habits of the spendthrift
and into aimIess drifting.
81 was confronted with a tremendous
proposition on taking charge of the prison
July 1. A fire in April destroyed the
binder twine plant and various other shops
and places of industry These are being
rebuilt on modern plans. The twine plant
furnished the only product that is put on
the general market from this prison. 1t
made profit of $32, 900 last year, besides
furnishing the farmers binding twine at
from l to cents pound less than the
trust price.
ttThe coal mine is 720 feet below the
surface and the vein is % inches thick
We work from 200 to 800 men in the
mines and are doing our best to furnish
coal for all state institutions. We put
none on the general market. We make
our own brick and furnish brick for state
institutions and new buildings and repairs
cit is my theory that no man can be re-
formed in idleness, and that no man, after
reformation, can make good in idleness
The effort is to keep all these men busy at
some employment. Few busy men are
criminals. They have neither the time
nor the inclination. | believe in the work
habit, and we are going to drill work into
all the inmates here, SO that when fhey go
out they will continue to work Not all
the men here can be taught trade, but
they can all be led to form the habit of
sustained labor as well as learn how to
work.
"My theory is that rigid discipline must
be maintained in the interest of the proper
government of the prison and for the adj
ditional reason that it is vitally important
for these prisoners to learn the habit of
obedience to proper rule and authority.
In addition to the industries named we
have printing plant, tin-shop, laundry,
a tailor shop, shoe shop, blacksmith shop,
extensive farm and livestock interests all
utilized to meet the requirements of the
prison interests and to furnish labor for the
inmates.