Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1933-08-31
SUPT. THOS. G.. JENKINS
ADDRESSES ROTARY CLUB
(By R. M. Winegardner)

ent of the Ohio State Reformatory
at Mansfield, O., and former Morgan
county resident, was the gues'
speaker at the local Rotary cluD
meeting held at the Malta hotel,
Friday evening.
Accompanying supt jenkins
from the Mansfield institution was
Chaplain VIM. X. Mackey VINO also
spoke for few minutes at the
special request of Supt. Jenkins, to
the members of the club. In MS
own natural, straight-from+ne
shoulder way "Tom" jenkins, as
his former boyhood friends knew
him, launched out in a dramatic and
convincing way to tell his listeners
something about the inside work
ings of the largest institution OF It's
kind in the United States.
"Tom'' jenkins left Morgan
county in 1905, to become a guard
at the Ohio State Reformat0ry at
Mansfield which was then an instl-
tuition almost in its infancy, having
been opened in 1896 for receiving
of it's first prisoners. From posltion
of guard. Jenkins climbed his way
through successive positions oftrust'
in the institution, until in 1918
he was selected to become superln-
tendent of this greal penal and cor
rective institution. From a total OF
600 prisoners in 1905, when he first
went there. Jenkins said that he had
seen the reformatory grow until 1t
now houses a fraction over 3,6OO
inmates. There has been steady
annual increase, each year, IN the
prison population, Jenkins SAID.
which, If the present rate continues,
will mean that the Mansfield re-
formatory will have between 4,60O
and 4,So0 prisoners within its walls
by 1910.
"Some idea of how overcrowded
the reformatory is at present can be
gained by knowing" Mr.. jenkins
said, 'that 2,1O0 is the normal
maximum capacity of the institution.
Very little effort has been made
during the past several years to
remedy this overcrowded condition. :
Some of the interesting statistics
the speaker gave concerning the
Mansfield reformatory and its work.
ings, are as follows: Twenty per-
cent of the inmates are transients
who have gotten into trouble OF
some kind while temporarily re-
siding in Ohio or going through the
state; 40 of the inmates are foreign
born; 300 are born of foreign par
entage; 20 to 800 are colored;
1870 have at some previous time
been in the Boys Industrial School
at Lancaster; $50 are boys and
young men who have come from
homes that have been broken up for
some reason, either by death, dl-
vorce or separation of the parents;
6 to 7% of the inmates are Hitter
ate and cannot either read or write;
to TO have at some time been
matriculated in some college, and
16 2-3@o of all the inmates have at
some time been in high school. The
average intelligence of the inmates
is equal to that of child in the
fifth to sixth grades in our common
schools; the average age of the in
mates of the institution is 22, and
no prisoner can be sentenced by the
courts of Ohio, to the institution
except those between the ages OF Is
and 80; the sentencing OF prison.
er to the reformatory or the Ohio
penitentiary is optional with the
court, if the age is between 21 and
80 years; and 1900 inmates are in
school at the institution, with $50
being in classes each half day.
The Mansfield reformatory has
furniture, shoe and clothing fac
tories, and is the owner of a 932
acre farm, all of which are operated
by inmates of the institution;
100000 in products will be sold
by the institution this year, in
comparison with 100000 of prod
ucts from the factories and farm
in normal times; the institution has
700 prisoners who are classified as
TRUSTEES and who work on the farm
or are at other "honor camps" that
are established at other state insti-
tutions for the purpose of taking
care of, cleaning grounds, farm
work, etc. The 932 acre farm be-
longing to the reformatory has 500
tillable acres; 90 acres Of orchards;
200 dairy cows, with $50 to IT'S be-
ing MIXED most of the time; 1,1OO
to 1900 hogs that are raised and
slaughtered each year; $4,000
chickens as an average annual
poultry crop, and $50 to 260 boys
at work on the farm at all times.
Sixteen months is averag ength
of time an inmate stays the
institution before being rele I'd by
the state board of parole, aA-4ough
some are held as long as eight
years; all sentences by the court
where the prisoner is sent to Mans
field, are indeterminate; 25% of all
prisoners paroled will either come
back to the reformatory for some
other law violation, or will be
sentenced TO some other penal insti-
tuition; 1870 of the prisoners re-
leased will never again enter penal
institution as an inmate, and one
third of all the present inmates in
the reformatory at Mansfell are
serving out sentences that have
been imposed for robbery
One of the statements made by
Supt. Jenkins was that "there are
no Boy Scouts in the Mansfield re-
formatory, among all of the prison