The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1932-12-08
New Penal
Institution Is
Great Need
Would Make the st. Cloud Re-
formatory a Second State
Prison
POPULATION GROWING
Inmates in All State Insti-
buttons June 80, 1882,
Numbered Is, 1898
POPULATION GROWING

st. Paul, Dec. Minnesota
should have a new reformatory for
first offenders, permitting CONVEX
sion of st. Cloud reformatory into
second prison, the state board of
control informed the governor and
the legislature today.
The control boards biennial re-
port, revealing what various state
institutions and agencies under its
jurisdiction have done the last two
years, places changes in the penal
facilities at the state prison and
the state reformatory are more
overcrowded than ever, the board
reports.
The prison at Saltwater has 1853
inmates whereas it's capacity is only
1,244, the board reported. The St.
Cloud reformatory is even more
overcrowded, with 1,108 inmates in
an institution designed to care for
1853. An additional cellblock has
been authorized at Saltwater, but
the only. available space for it is
on ground now used for recreation,
and the board hesitates to use it
that way, the report said.
After carefully considering the
problem of the rehabilitation and
reformation of young offenders and
what is for the best interests of the
state, it is the recommendation of
this board that a new reformatory
for first offenders between the ages
OF Is and Is be created; that this
new institution be of a strictly
modern and reformatory character;
and that the present st. Cloud re-
formatory be used as a second pri-
SON.
The board asks that the legisla-
ture authorize 1t to select a site of
at least $40 acres for such an in
stitution.
Newly constructed buildings have
taken care of crowded conditions
in most institutions, with the result
that total inmate population is at
a new peak, the report said. Prin-
cipal needs as far as new facilities
are concerned are three more cot
tages at the colony for epileptics at
Cambridge, and a new building at
the state school at Owatonna, the
board said.
The state needs a probation sys-
tenn the report declares.
"A study of the commitments to
the correctional and penal institu-
tons of the state shows that many
cases are distinctly probationary,
yet not SO treated because of lack
of facilities for probation through
out practically the entire state,
with the exception of Hennepin,
Ramsey and st. Louis counties"
the board said.
"A probation system properly adj
ministered would not only relieve
the overcrowding in state institu-
tons and be more economical, but
would save many first offenders
from the stigma of incarceration
In a correctional or penal institu-
ton and possible life of crime"
June 80, 1882, the board reported,
there were 5,993 inmates in state
institutions, an increase of LOO in
two years. This is a record break
ing increase. The board spent $751;
WV ASoS 1Oi OpcIdllu expenses,
however, due to lower costs and to
economy. Forty per cent of the new
inmates received in all institutions
were from the three largest coun-
ties, Hennepin, Ramsey and st.
Louis.
Two year disbursements for all
activities under the board of control
are placed at $19,697,747. The fiscal
year ended with a balance of ST.
100000, of which $295, 900 went into
the state treasury and the balance
carried over.
The report recites in some detail
what each division under the board
has done in the last two years-its
operation of institutions of all
kinds, its children's bureau, its di-
visions for the blind, the insane,
the tubercuiar, the work for SOL
diers' welfare and for prevention of
cruelty, and its research activities.