Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1916-09-24
PRAISES PRISON
SCHOOL SYSTEM
Of CALIFORNIA
State Superintendent of Ed
ucation Admits He Had
Eyes Opened"

Sacramento, CAL, Sept. pa re-
markable new system of education
today is in eject in San Quentin pris
on, one of CALIFORNIA; two grim re-
formatories for offenders of all
classes. More than half the 2,432
prisoners, through the medium of the
convicts' school, are given the same
advantages, SO far as education is
concerned as busy men and women
outside the forbidding walls.
! Edward Hyatt, state superintendent
prison school and. to use his own
words, he chad his eyes opened"
''The forbidding gray walls of San
Quentin, rising from marshes Marion
county, might not be expected to har-
Dor anything Of educational interest.
Yet here l found the most original,
( forward looking and encouraging re-
formatory education of all.
"Warden Johnston is the impelling
power He is man of vision, of
dreams, of executive ability and driv-
ing power. He is frail, slender lit
| tie man. He used to run haber-
dasher's shop.
"When the gloomy gates opened,
the captain of the guard conducted
me to one of the buildings of the
great quadrangle that he called the
chapel. Inside was a huge, bare room.
One end was filled with the stacks
of a large library of well worn
books. The floor was covered with
long desks Blackboards and charts
hung from the pillars. Six convict
teachers were at work, with Mr.. Pur-
due, convict principal, in charge.
Over him, in general charge of the
educational activity, is the chaplain
of the prison. There are. therefore,
no outside professional teachers on
the work at all.
"This large room has all eight
grades running simultaneously. 1t is
for the prisoners under "a. The
largest class was in the first grade.
About 100 men are in this school.
'In another of the big buildings
was a night school, where the older
men who choose may get the elemen-
tary things of education after their
days work, as the younger ones do
in the day school after shorter
DAVIS work. Some so prisoners at
tend night school.
"Now comes the big thing, the
thing that Warden Johnston really
regards as his significant and orisi-
nal undertaking. He calls it the
Letter Box System. The day school
teachers prepare lessons in leafllet
form. in all the branches of the upper
grammar and lower high school
grades. These are turned out in
quantity, beautifully printed. by the
prison printing press. All prisoners
who will are given these lessons
regularly and encouraged to WORK
them out in their cells after the days
work is done. Twice a week
teachers take Up the paper from the
Letter Boxes, grade them and give
necessary explanations and en-
couragement. Eight hundred and fifty
men are enrolled in this work. Of
course no one can take it unless he
is at least past the fourth grade, but
the day and evening schools carry
them up to that point. In fact these
NAV be considered as feeders for the
big letter box school.
"For those further along there is
an organization of the university cor
respoadcnce school. The librarian
gets the desired lessons from Berke-
ley, issues them to the men who call
for them, takes up the answers and
papers as prepared by the men IN
their cells, delivers the gradings and
suggestions with the corrected papers
and keeps a card index record of the
whole proceeding. looked this over
with much interest The variety and
extent Of it was remarkable. A very
great many of the prisoners have
taken courses in Spanish. Not the
Spanish or Mexican prisoners, but
the Americans of the higher class.
who had taken it up TO add to their
general equipment. believing i was
important 20 the future. l was sur
nrised to learn that large number