The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-11-29


These girls, boys, young men and
mature men and women cost the state
$3.50, 200 every year, not to mention
the loss through their removal from
productive occupations nor the expense
incurred in legal proceedings. There
is some return in the productive labor
performed-the Irvine mill and coal
mine at the penitentiary, farming on
erationS and minor Industries at the
other institutions-except for this
they are a dead load charged to the
taxpayers.
The popular idea is that the states
problem is to protect society and TO
visit punishment for deterrent effect
on Others with such remaking of the
inmates for good citizenship as may
be possible. Actually, its first prob
lem is how SO to safeguard it's rising
generation that there shall be a de-
crease in the number of inmates; its
second is how best to restore those
now IN custody to society; the ether
duties come after.these.
A criminal career seldom breaks
out suddenly. 1t is a growth The
boys and girls sent to our institutions
rarely are there for first offenses.
Mostly they have been bad boys and
girls the town marshal has repri-
manded them; the probate Judge has
struggled with them, finally running
with the gang they do something so
inexcusable that they are sentenced.
In a large number of cases there is,
ents are dead or divorced, or one is
dead and the other remarked. The
child had no real home. Driven to
the street, it learned the lessons of
crime. Many of the young men have
wandered over the country, tramping.
They know more of the worlds
wickedness than many a man learns
in all his life. Occasionally is one
who has good home but did not APP
preciate it. Sometimes a single mi,
step is so serious that conviction
quickly follows. To these there is as
much punishment in the first night
in a cell as can be given in Il years
hard labor in the mines.
Should Be Handled Individually.
The girls have somewhat similar eX-
perience-brokenf families, neglect, bat
tered around the world. victimized by
human wolves, they often look upon
the states care as the only touch of
kindness they remember in their
lives.
Because of these conditions each in
mate of the institutions for the young
er generation inmates must be handled
as an individual. No hard and fast
rule can be laid down for discharge or
parole. One 18-year-old boy with a
good home, fine Christian parents,
forged small check and was SEN
fenced to the refornatory. The dis
trict judge wrote a letter q few days
later asking that he be paroled. The
boy was away from home; he claimed
that his employer owed him for wages
but would not pay him. He was des-
perately homesick and tried to get his
money. The judge explained that he
did not understand the story or he
would have paroled him from the
bench. 1t would have been cruelty to
have refused the father who came to
plead for his son and to have kept the
boy for one or two years in the inStitu-
ton In other cases young men have
led such a life of recklessness that
nothing but a long time of restraint
can make them see the world in right
perspective. The truth is that many
inmates are better fed, wearing clean
er clothes, and are caring for their
bodies more intelligently than in years.
They have kept irregular hours, used
drank and wasted their
lives. One or two years of discipline
may instill ideas of right living that
will stay with them when they go out.