The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1908-19??, 1916-02-18
RELEASED CO v|CTS
TO Be PROVIDED FOR
At Farm Home Established
by Volunteers of
America.

Of Which Gen. Ballington Booth is
Head-Farm to be Established at
Brooklyn, Bradford
County.
Adiutant L. A. Odom, vanguard
and State secretary of the Volunteers
of America, which is commanded by
General Ballington and Maud Booth,
son and daughter-in-law of the late
General William Booth, founder of
the Salvation Army, was visitor to
this city this week in the interest of
cause which has for its purpose the
reform and uplift of the entire pris-
on population Of Florida.
1t will be remembered that Mrs.
Maud Ballington Booth, with head
quarters in New York, and who has
resided there for some thirty years,
lis generally recognized as the worlds
greatest prison worker and reformer,
and the very fact that this state
wide campaign is under her leader
ship and supervision is sufficient
guarantee that it will prove a bles-
sing to Florida's prisoners and fill a
need that has seemingly been over
looked heretofore.
The work to be done in this state
will consist of a Farm Home, which
| is being opened at Brooklyn, a little
town in Bradford county, near Pa
latka on the G. S. & F. R. R., where
released prisoners will be received
and assisted with food, lodging, medi-
cal treatment and work until perma
nent positions can be secured for
each individual according to his abil-
| ity.
When a man comes from prison his
friends of the past, in most cases, re-
main of the past, and his friends Of
the future are such as his life shall
entitle him to.
The purpose of this Home is to help
each man morally, spiritually, and
mentally, which can and will be done
by throwing the proper environments
around him. In connection with
the Farm Home an employment agen-
cy will be conducted. The farmers,
truck growers, and public works and
various enterprises will be kept in
touch with, thus enabling the organi-
cation to properly place each man
where he can earn a necessary liveli-
hood and living wages.
Adjutant Odom states that regular
visits are being made by him and his
co-workers to the various farms, tur-
pentine camps, and institutions where
our state prisoners are employed,
where religious services are conduct
ed and reading matter distributed at
regular intervals among an army Of
some 1000 or 1900 convicts, and it
is very gratifying to know that much
good is being accomplished in
way, as the majority of the prisoners
are kind-hearted and sympathetic
class of men and not set of crimi-
nails, as many of us are inclined to
believe, but the most Of them rea
however, that they have made a mis-
take and they are sorry for it and
they are trying to atone for their
shortcomings by accepting higher
plane of living.
The majority of us think that men
in prison are hard hearted criminals,
but the writer of this article who has
visited hundreds of prisons and has
studied the lives of thousands Of
their inmates, declares that not many
men are criminals at heart, but simply
victims of circumstances. The ma
iority, if not all men in prison, hate
crime, whether it be committed by US
against them, or by them against US,
and because they committed some of
tense against the laws of our land
and country at some time or other,
does not signify that they prefer lead
ing a wrong life. Many of these
men are weak creatures, and while
under influence of the wrong delusion
ommitted that which they ordinarily
do not desire to do.
The purpose of the Volunteers of
America is to encourage this great
army of humanity to reform and
thereby prepare them for better citi-
zenship, and this Home at Brooklyn
located in the southeastern corner of
Bradford County on Bedford Lake,
will be conducted as an institution es-
pecially for the placing of released
prisoners on their feet, many of whom
when released are at loss where to
go and what to do. A man in pris-
on for five or ten years or longer, will |
naturally deteriorate in body and |
mind and he naturally comes out
weaker man than his brother who has
never fallen and is more apt to err
than his stronger brother. and for |
this reason an organized effort is be-
ing made to make these men feel like
life is worth living, though they may
nave made a mistake.
The Farm is to be conducted so the
men mentioned above can always feel
hat they have place to go, even if
hey have been forsaken by friends,
'elatives, and loved ones.
Another important branch of the
work is that of assisting the wives
md children of men in prison and in
very way possible trying to stimu-
ate interest in the hearts of the pub
ic towards this great army of inno-
ent sufferers.
Adjutant Odom states that Com
missioner w. A. McRae is making an
,ffort to get the state of Florida to
lonate $50 acres of land to the Volun-
GERS for the purpose of operating a
Farm Home and a canning factory
md other necessary lines of work for