The Penn's Grove record., 1916-05-26
CONvICTS LIKE
The OPEN AIR
Jerseys State Prison Farm
Productive OF Health.
HELPS MENTAL PROGRESS
Prisoners in Open Air Soon Prove
Manhood-WiIl Soon Pay Its Way
Members of Legislature on
Trip of Inspection.

NOpECld1 Gil
Trenton With forbidding hlgh
stone walls, heavy iron bars and graf
ings and gloomy steel cells melteo
away into broad, open fields, Hooded
with sunshine and swept by 1resh
breezes, and hedged about only by
great expanses of woodland, the New
Jersey State prison farm, established
two miles from Leesburg, two and a
half years ago, has not lost a single
long-term prisoner from among the
315 convicts who have been received.
This surprising information was
CLEANED by members OF the Leglsla-
ture who made their first formal IN
spection of the prison farm. The Leg
i~slators arrived from all parts OF the
State by train and automobile, n
were taken over the big farm, which
covers a 1OO0-acre tract. Many OF the
visitors opened their eyes at the alb
sence of b~arricades of any sort Wnat-
ever and of armed guards.
Most of the farm is also ~unfenced.
There is a rather low wire fence,
which an agile man could vault at a
single leap, stretching along the front
of tie farm buildings, where they face
the public roadway, but the purpose
of this is more to keep out curious
visitors and natives than to keep the
prisoners in.
Since the prison farm was estab-
lished there have been 81 escapes,
hut all of these have been short-term
prisoners, and Is of them have been
~recaptured. One prisoner who fed
had only six weeks of his term left %
serve, and his quick ~recapture landed
him back in the penitentiary at Tren-
ten for an extra period. Two other
short-termers who took French leave
were taken before the Cumberland
County Court when again caught and
they received sentences of from two
to three years each for ja~ilAreaking.
A record is kept at the farm of the
weight and condition of the prisoners
when they arrive, pale and fiabby,>
from the gloomy penitentiary, with it's
workshops and dingy cells. Weeks
and months of outdoor life and plenty
of plain but substantial food works
wonders with the men. Instead of
being emaciated and week when their
terms expire, or they are ready foq<
parole, the convicts are physically f
for following honest occupations aftef7
they are again at liberty. A testi-
monial to the health benefits of the
prison farm project is the fact that
the records show that only two men
49, l.ol N.ANf 4LA a@-o %ho- 0nn
who have been quartered there in the
past two and one-half years. One of
these deaths was due to pneumonia
and the other to heart failure.
Labor shortage, which has perplex-
ed nearly every other farmer in South
Jersey this season., causes no worry
for Joseph Sutton, who superintends
the agricultural end of the prison
farm work. Mr.. Sutton has been at
the farm ever since it was started,
October 1, 1918. Then he had IL men
at his disposal, and now there are 102
convicts quartered there. A large new
dormitory and hospital building,
100x40 feet, just completed in time for
inspection by the legislators, will
uOuS0 al duQlIlOnd1 AUU mGn.
Wonders have been wrought in this
wilderness tract by the convicts. Only
a small area was cleared, and there
was a single small farmhouse and
tumble-down barn on the farm when
the work vas first started. Expert
carpenters and mechanics among the
convicts have enlarged the old farm
house, built a large dining-room, two
large dormitories, Office, storeroom.
carpenter and paint shop, garage, wa
gon shed, blacksmith shop, large barn.
hennery and piggery.
Convicts have attacked the en-
c%roaching wilderness of thick brush
and timber with briar hooks. axes
and powerful stump-pullers, and thew
have now cleared nearly half of the
I00-acre tract. An extensive system
of drains is being laid, and millions
have been leveled into low, marshy
spots to make them tillable. Part of
the timber cut off by the clearing
gangs has been utilized in the new
buildings, and the rest is converted
into great piles of kindling which SUM-
plies all of the fuel used on the farm
for heating and cooking throughout
the year.
By no miracle will the Wilderness
blossom as the rose" this year or the
next, as the soil is stubborn and If
will take some time to get it in good
condition for the growing of crops on
an extensive scale.