The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1916-12-08
GARDNER OUTLINES
HIS STATE POLICY
State Cannot be Run on Present Reve-
nue. Suggests Plan for Raising
Revenue and for Penitentiary

as chairman, one as secretary and one
as counsel for said board.
d. This board should have general
supervisory control over the peniten-
tiary, the reform school for boys at
Boonville and the reform school for
girls at Chillicothe; it would have the
power to select the Warden of the
penitentiary and the Superintendent
of the Boonville and the Chillicothe
schools, respectively; it should have
authority to prescribe rules and reg
ulations governing the employment OF
all employees of these institutions; it
should constitute the Prison Inspec-
ton Board.
E. This board should be authorized
and vested with the power to acquire
by purchase or condemnation 1000
acres of rich farming land and 1000
acres of rougher ground adjoining, all
to be located as near as possible to
the penitentiary, for the purposes
presently mentioned.
F. The Legislature should appro-
pirate, say $150,000, to be available
at the end of one year for the pur-
pose of purchasing said land, and
$150,000 each year thereafter for the
purpose of building thereon a reform
atory for first offenders and equipping
the same, and developing State insti-
buttons in lieu of contract labor.
G. This farm should be operated
largely by first offenders and should
be made to produce food supplies of
all kinds, including meats, dairy pro-
ducts and canned goods, for use at the
penitentiary and other State institu-
lions.
H. This board should be given large
powers, such as experimenting with
road building and other methods of
employing convicts. With the pres
ent condition of the States finances,
it must be apparent that any plans of
this character must be developed
more or less by degrees. believe
that with board of control, and with
the showing that we could make dur
ing the next two years, that by 1919,
when the next General Assembly
meets, the financial affairs of the
State will be in such improved condi-
ton that even larger sum could be
set aside for completing these plans.
My view of the peaitentiary question
is that we must not be satisfied in
Missouri until ultimately it is placed
on plane fully equal to any in Amer
lea, both as to the time of incarcera-
ton and the condition of the prison,
ers at the time of their release to per-
form their duty to society in the best
possible manner.
Need of Work for Convicts.
The Governor invited a full
and free discussion of penitentiary
problems, and said that something
must be done quickly to provide work
for the convicts, only 300 of whom are
employed in State work, and 400 in
doing the work of the penitentiary.
To leave 1890 prisoners idle in the
penitentiary for any length of time
he said, meant that large number of
them would become insane.
Warden lyman of the Colorado
State Penitertiary told of the aboli-
ton of contract prison labor in his
State and of putting the convicts to
work building the State highways,
working and living in open-air camps,
without armed guards. Psi 4
He said the system had not only
proven beneficial in great degree to
the convicts, so per cent of whom, he
maintains, reform when they leave the
penitentiary, but had also proven a
great saving for the State and the
counties in the expenses of road MAX
ing,