The Topeka state journal., 1922-12-09
Three Addresses VIII Be De-
ivered in Local Churches.
lENOUNGES KANSAS SYSTEM
Is Grandson of Founder of the
Salvation Army.
Visited Kansas State Prison at
Lansing This Week.

/ Charles Brandon Booth, widely
known criminologist, president of the
! Prison Development league, and
grandson of the late Gen. William
Booth, founder of the Salvation Army,
will deliver three addresses Sunday in
! Topeka churches on prison conditions
in the nation. He visited the state
penitentiary at Lansing this week
Booth will speak at the morning
service of the First Baptist church on
Life Stories from Prison Shadows
At o'clock in the afternoon he will
deliver an address at the Central
Congregational church on Shall
Our Children Become Criminals ?"
Beauty for Ashes" Will be the sub
ject at his last address Sunday even
ing. He has not announced at what
church this address will be given.
Denounces Kansas System.
Booth denounced the Kansas prison
system as wasteful and unproductive
in an interview with a representative
of The State Journal today.
''The people of Kansas cannot any
longer afford to squander their pub
lie funds on a system of prison admin
istration which is wasteful and un-
productive and which has been uni
versally condemned and generally
abandoned in this country" said Mr..
Booth. mo one profits by the present
methods. The warden is hopelesSly
handicapped both in his administra-
inmates are in no wise benefited and
the taxpayers of the state are forced
to foot an unnecessary bill of thou
sands upon thousands of dollars an
nually."
I'm the state prisons of the country
there are today 10000 ablebodied
male prisoners with an earning ca
pacity of at least $150,000,00O annu-
ally. They are actually earning only
$25, 100000; the taxpayers make up
the difference
Here are strong, able. vigorous
men, anyone of them able to COM
mand 81 to So per day on the outside
anyone of them able to earn that
sum for the state; but we shut them
away and forbid them to earn more
than from two cents to ninety-five
cents per day; we require them to be
a charity charge upon our purses"
To Be Self Supporting.
The Prison Development league ad-
vocates that the legislature permit the
state prisoners to become completely
self-supporting. said Mr.. Booth 1t
also proposes that the man convicted
of a crime shall make complete resti-
tuition to his victim, and shall be re-
quired to contribute to the support of
his wife and children, thousands of
whom are now destitute and depend
ent upon charity for a livelihood a
I'VE are weary of ameliorative
measures" declared Booth. 1.-The or
CARNATIONS which are now admins
tering aid to the needy families of
men who go wrong deserve the high
est praise and their work will be
necessary until we wake up to the
fact that it is very simple matter
to let the prisoners themselves assume
this borden"
Unless ambitious measures as fund
amental and comprehensive as these
are undertaken at once. the so-called
crime wave" will sweep our prisons
full. said Booth. In the last four
years the prison population of the ma
tion has increased 33 1-S per cent
and it will have doubled before the
decade is finished. He finds state
prisons with two and oftentimes three
men in a single cell intended for one.
No Crime Wave, He Says.
81 do not believe that there is a
crime wave however" said Booth
Instead of a wave, we have a steady
stream o. boys and girls and men and
women into our penal institutions. 1t
is the children who make the bulk of
this stream-the hungry children of
the prisoner fathers whom we refuse
the right to do productive and profit |
able work. There are 10000 of i
these little folks in this nation now. |
Is Kansas going to permit her quota |
Lansing, when it is SO easy to save
them to a decent 1ife?'
Our ignorance and neglect of the !
problem in this country, said |
Booth, is making that problem cost !
$500, ,00O.000 per year more than the |
total cost of all the corrective and |
constructive institutions - churches, |
schools and charities we main |
tain.