State of Iowa 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE 
 
 Des Moines. May 25, 1912 
 
 THE 
 
 Report of the Committee 
 
 Appointed to Investigate the Character of the Warden and the General 
 Management of the Iowa Penitentiary at Fort Madison 
 
 together with 
 
 A Report Concerning the 
 
 Jail System of Iowa 
 
 with Recommendations 
 
 GEORGE COSSON, Attorney General of Iowa, M. A. ROBERTS, 
 
 PARLEY SHELDON, Committee 
 
 DES MOINES: 
 
 EMORY H. ENGLISH, STATE PRINTER 
 1912 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 s 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ♦ 
 
 
 
 » 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
DIRECT GIFT 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 I 
 
 j ^ 
 
 Page 
 
 Introductory . 3 
 
 Nature and Extent of Investigation. 5 
 
 Part I. 
 
 The Character and Integrity of the Warden. 9 
 
 Part II. 
 
 The Physical and Sanitary Condition of the Institution.II 
 
 Part III. 
 
 The General Management of the Institution .13 
 
 Treatment of Prisoners . 15 
 
 The Guards and Subordinate Officers of the Institution.21 
 
 The Evil Effects of Contract Labor .22 
 
 Substitutes for Contract Labor.32 
 
 State Account System .32 
 
 State Use System . 34 
 
 Public Works .35 
 
 The Penal Farm .37 
 
 Co-operation of Agricultural College and Penal Farm.57 
 
 Opinion of Dean Curtiss .59 
 
 Necessity for Fundamental Change .63 
 
 Value of Prison Labor .64 
 
 Summary .76 
 
 The Jail System.78 
 
 Basis of Reform .78 
 
 Condition of our Jails .80 
 
 The Sheriff .81 
 
 The Fee System .82 
 
 The District Penal Farm .84 
 
 Indeterminate Sentence for Misdemeanants .85 
 
 Cost of Crime .86 
 
 Necessity for Women’s Colony .92 
 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 On the 7th day of August, 1911, his Excellency, Governor B. 
 F. Carroll, directed a communication to the attorney general in 
 writing in which he called attention to the management of the 
 Iowa penitentiary at Ft. Madison and said: 
 
 “I respectfully request that you make a personal investigation 
 of the conditions existing at Fort Madison and of the charges 
 against Warden Sanders and others and report to me at your con¬ 
 venience. It is my desire that you ask two reputable citizens of 
 our state to sit with you in order that you may have the benefit 
 of their judgment along with your own and I also desire that the 
 investigation be made at your earliest convenience. ’ ’ 
 
 Pursuant to that request I appointed Hon. M. A. Roberts of 
 Ottumwa, who has had a long and distinguished service upon the 
 district bench of this state, has been a student for years of social 
 problems, has taken an active interest in the civic welfare of his 
 own city and state, and was therefore especially equipped for work 
 of this nature; and Hon. Parley Sheldon of Ames, a man of large 
 and varied business experience, who has served his city for nearly 
 a generation as mayor, who has been the nominee of his party (the 
 Democratic party) for Lieutenant Governor, and whose integrity, 
 ability and sense of fairness is recognized by every one in the state. 
 
 The committee regrets the delay in making the report but no 
 apology is offered since the importance of the work and the thor¬ 
 oughness and comprehensiveness of the investigation required much 
 time. 
 
 The committee is unanimous upon all of the material findings and 
 recommendations and there is no substantial disagreement upon 
 even minor matters and details. 
 
 On behalf of the committee I desire to express our appreciation 
 for the courtesy and kindness shown the committee, or the attorney 
 general, by Prof. Charles R. Henderson of Chicago, United States 
 Commissioner of the International Prison Commission, and formerly 
 president of the International Prison Congress; 
 
 Dr. James A. Leonard, Superintendent of the Ohio Reformatory, 
 at Mansfield; 
 
Mr. Patrick J. McDonnell of the New York Reformatory at 
 Elmira; 
 
 Dr. E. Stagg Whitin, General Secretary of the National Com¬ 
 mittee on prison labor, Assistant in social legislation at Columbia 
 University, New York; 
 
 Warden R. W. McClaughry and his deputy Mr. Mackey at the 
 United States penitentiary at Leavenworth; 
 
 Mr. W. H. Whittaker, Superintendent of the District of Columbia 
 Workhouse near Occoquan, Virginia; 
 
 Prof. Franklin H. Briggs, Superintendent of the New York Agri¬ 
 cultural and Industrial School for hoys at Industry; 
 
 Mr. Calvin A. Derrick, Superintendent of the George Junior Re¬ 
 public at Freeville, New York, Mr. Wm. R. George, the founder 
 of the Republic; 
 
 Mr. John L. McDonell, Superintendent of the House of Correc¬ 
 tion of Detroit, Michigan; 
 
 E. J. Fogarty, Warden of Indiana penitentiary at Michigan City; 
 
 Everett J. Murphy, Warden of Illinois penitentiary at Joliet; 
 
 Dr. J. E. Gilmore, Superintendent of Central Prisons, Canada, 
 and penal farm at Guelph; 
 
 Frank R. McDonald, Superintendent of the Workhouse at Minn¬ 
 eapolis. 
 
 Many valuable and practical suggestions were received from these 
 men and those who are prison administrators willingly aided in an 
 examination of the inner workings of their several institutions. 
 
 Obligation is also acknowledged to the many wardens of the 
 various states in the Union who furnished the attorney general with 
 detailed information concerning the workings of their institutions, 
 and a like obligation is also acknowledged to the several county 
 attorneys of Iowa who furnished detailed information concerning 
 county and city jails in their respective counties. 
 
 The state of Iowa is under obligation to Judge Roberts and Mr. 
 Sheldon for the personal sacrifice made by them in. the giving of 
 time and energy without compensation in this examination. It 
 was a genuine pleasure to serve with men of such ability and fair¬ 
 ness in a matter of this nature which means so much to the welfare 
 of the state and so much to the unfortunate men and women who 
 find themselves in penal and reformatory institutions. 
 
 GEORGE COSSON, 
 Attorney General of Iowa. 
 
 Des Moines, Iowa, May 25, 1912. 
 
— 5 — 
 
 Honorable B. F. Carroll, governor of iowa: 
 
 At an early date after the receipt of your letter directing atten¬ 
 tion to complaints made concerning the warden and the manage¬ 
 ment of the penitentiary at Fort Madison, the committee was ap¬ 
 pointed and organized for the purpose of investigating complaints, 
 which may be grouped as follows: 
 
 First. The personal integrity and moral character of the war¬ 
 den. 
 
 Second. The physical and sanitary condition of the institution. 
 
 .Third. The general management of the institution. 
 
 A brief statement of the nature and thoroughness of the investiga¬ 
 tion may be advantageous at the outset. 
 
 NATURE AND EXTENT OF INVESTIGATION. 
 
 The committee unanimously agreed that it would be advisable to 
 take the testimony at a closed hearing, to adminster an oath to the 
 witnesses and have the testimony duly taken down by a competent 
 stenographer. This was considered advisable in order that every 
 one who desired to give testimony would feel free to giye evidence 
 before the committee in secret, who might not give testimony at a 
 public hearing. It was especially deemed advisable in the taking 
 of testimony of prisoners because no prisoner would speak his 
 mind freely if he thought it would thereafter prejudice him either 
 in his treatment at the institution, or in the matter of securing 
 a parole or pardon. Every witness, and especially every prisoner, 
 was assured that the committee desired the absolute truth, but that 
 the details of the testimony would not be given to the public nor 
 the name of the witness disclosed. The result of the investigation 
 has fully justified the method adopted by the committee. 
 
 Four different hearings were held in the city of Des Moines and 
 testimony was taken at the penitentiary at Fort Madison upon two 
 different occasions. 
 
 While at Fort Madison the committee inspected every part of 
 the institution, the warden’s office, the cell house, the individual 
 cells, the bedding and furnishing in each cell, the cell used as a 
 solitary chamber, the dining room, the kitchen, the refrigerator the 
 prison yard and grounds, the cell house in process of construction, 
 
— 6 — 
 
 the work shops, the machinery used therein, the nature of the work, 
 saw the food in the process of preparation, was in the dining room 
 at the noon hour, inspected the cells at night when the doors were 
 closed and the men locked in their cells. 
 
 We examined under oath nearly one hundred prisoners, giving 
 opportunity, in so far as possible, for all who desired to give testi¬ 
 mony and selected miscellaneously and examined a large number of 
 other prisoners. In addition to that the committee visited the 
 prison at night, and jointly and separately interrogated prisoners 
 in their cells. The same thing was done at the prison yard on 
 Saturday afternoon where the men were enjoying a half holiday 
 by indulging in a ball game. 
 
 The witness Haley was given the greatest length of time to set 
 forth his charges. The committee also examined at the hotel a 
 large number of the leading professional and business men of the 
 city of Fort Madison. 
 
 The committee then visited the Illinois penitentiary at Joliet and 
 held a conference with Warden Murphy; also the Indiana peniten¬ 
 tiary at Michigan City, and held a conference with Warden Fog¬ 
 arty, and inspected these institutions in considerable detail. 
 
 The committee also visited our Reformatory at Anamosa, the In¬ 
 dustrial School for Boys at Eldora, the Inebriate Hospital at Knox¬ 
 ville, the Industrial School for Girls at Mitchellville, 
 
 In addition to this, the attorney general on behalf of the com¬ 
 mittee visited the United States Penitentiary at Leavenworth, 
 Kansas; 
 
 The New York State Reformatory at Elmira, a pioneer in the 
 reformatory work, which perhaps has the largest appropriations 
 and best equipment of any like institution in the world, now under 
 the supervision of P. J. McDonnell, a man who has been connected 
 with penal*institutions for over thirty years; 
 
 The Ohio State Reformatory at Mansfield in charge of Dr. James 
 A. Leonard. Dr. Leonard is recognized as a prison authority of 
 high standing and his institution is evidence of his great business 
 ability combined with ability to secure a high degree of discipline 
 under a very humane system which contains the latest reformatory 
 methods, the Reformatory at Elmira and at Mansfield being per¬ 
 haps the best known in foreign countries of American penal in¬ 
 stitutions; 
 
 The* State Agricultural and Industrial School at Industry, New 
 York, a reformatory for boys, under the supervision of Prof. Frank- 
 
7 
 
 lin II. Briggs, where the cottage or group system has been carried 
 to its logical conclusion, and perhaps to a greater perfection than 
 any like institution in the country. This school and reformatory 
 is located upon a tract of land of over 1400 acres on the Erie Rail¬ 
 way in Monroe county, about twenty miles from Rochester, and 
 consists of about thirty-five cottages or groups arranged to accom¬ 
 modate not to exceed twenty-five in each group with no common 
 communication between groups, each group being carefully selected 
 and classified; 
 
 The George Junior Republic at Freeville, New York, the first 
 institution of its kind in the world, founded by William R. George; 
 a Republic whose inmates are “citizens”, although under twenty- 
 one years of age, and who make, execute and interpret their own 
 laws, the girls enjoying full franchise; a place where each “citizen” 
 receives exactly what he earns and no more, the labor being paid 
 for in the coin of the Republic but redeemable in United States 
 money at its full face value when a ‘ ‘ citizen ’ ’ leaves the Republic; 
 
 The New York penitentiary at Auburn, which has an average 
 prison population from 1,000 to 1,500; 
 
 The United States Workhouse or district farm of the District 
 of Columbia of the United States located near Occoquan, Virginia, 
 an institution where short term prisoners of the District of Colum¬ 
 bia are committed, and those not subject to be sent to the United 
 States penitentiary at Leavenworth or at Atlanta. This institu¬ 
 tion consists of a farm of 1150 acres and was established in response 
 to a recommendation made by former President Roosevelt fol¬ 
 lowing the lines suggested by an investigating committee appointed 
 by Mr. Roosevelt, consisting of Robert V. Ladow, Wendell P. Staf¬ 
 ford and John Joy Edson. This farm is operated like any large 
 farm, all kinds of agriculture being engaged in, and also stock 
 raising, dairying and poultry; in addition to this, the farm is 
 equipped with a large brick plant with the latest improved ma¬ 
 chinery and a large stone crusher. Mr. W. IT. Whittaker, Superin¬ 
 tendent, has demonstrated the practicability of employing short 
 term men at farm labor and operating a farm in connection with 
 manufacturing and other industries under one management. A 
 woman’s colony is also operated in connection with this farm; 
 
 The Detroit House of Correction at Detroit, Michigan, an in¬ 
 stitution for short term prisoners, which, under the supervision of 
 John L. McDonell, a man who considers the welfare of the prisoners 
 as the chief end to be obtained and yet has demonstrated beyond 
 
— 8 — 
 
 question the possibility of working short term prisoners, both men 
 and women, with an economic advantage to the city and state 
 under the state account system, and paying each prisoner whose 
 conduct is good a daily compensation to go to the support of the 
 family, if any; if not, to be retained for the use of the prisoner 
 upon his release. 
 
 ,The large Maryland penitentiary located at Baltimore under the 
 supervision of Warden Wyler, perhaps the most successfully man¬ 
 aged institution in the United States from a financial stand-point, 
 where the prisoners are employed almost exclusively at contract 
 labor, but where substantially none of the reformatory methods are 
 adopted ; 
 
 The New York City Workhouse at Blackwell’s Island; 
 
 Central Prisons, Canada, now located in the city of Toronto, but 
 with a large prison farm at Guelph, the buildings of which will 
 soon be completed and all of the prisoners transferred from Toronto. 
 This institution is in charge of Dr. Gilmore who, in the construction 
 of prison buildings and in the management of the prison farm at 
 Guelph, is following the modern reformatory plans and methods. 
 /The farm contains the largest dairy bam in the Province. 
 
 In addition to visiting these several institutions and holding con¬ 
 ferences with the superintendents and wardens, staying at some of 
 the institutions for a day and over, the attorney general spent a 
 day with Dr. E. Stagg Whitin, Professor in social legislation, 
 Columbia University, General Secretary of the National Committee 
 on Prison Labor, and author of the late work entitled “Penal 
 Servitude. ’ ’ Dr. Whitin has made a study for years of prison labor 
 in connection with penal institutions of every state in the Union, 
 and in substantially every civilized country in the world. 
 
 A part of a day was also spent with Dr. Charles R. Henderson, 
 Professor of Sociology in the Chicago University, now United States 
 Commissioner of the International Prison Commission and formerly 
 president of the International Prison Congress which was held at 
 Washington, D. C., and author of a number of recognized works 
 on prison reform and prison discipline, including the work entitled 
 “Outdoor Labor for Convicts,” a report made to his Excellency, 
 Governor C. S. Deneen in 1906, which contains reference to out¬ 
 door labor for convicts in every civilized country in the world. 
 
 An interview was also had with Mr. Frank R. McDonald, Super¬ 
 intendent of the Workhouse in Minneapolis, who took charge of a 
 workhouse which had been an utter failure and has made great 
 
— 9 — 
 
 success of the same notwithstanding he has been handling short 
 term prisoners. 
 
 In addition to this, inquiries were submitted to many wardens 
 throughout the United States concerning the condition and opera¬ 
 tion of their institutions, the annual and biennial reports of war¬ 
 dens generally examined, and from an examination of proceedings 
 and reports of International Prison Congresses and penal literature 
 some information was received concerning the penal institutions of 
 other countries. 
 
 The attorney general also submitted a letter of inquiry to each 
 county attorney in the state requesting detailed information with 
 reference to the condition and operation of the jails of the state of 
 Iowa. 
 
 When the committee started its work it had no intention of ex¬ 
 tending the scope of the investigation beyond the matters com¬ 
 plained of in connection with the penitentiary at Fort Madison. 
 We had not, however, examined more than fifteen or twenty wit¬ 
 nesses at the penitentiary until it was perfectly apparent that there 
 was something hack of the complaints far more fundamental than 
 a controversy between the warden and the prisoner Haley, or be¬ 
 tween any public official and private citizen, and the committee 
 came to the conclusion then, and is firmly confirmed in the opinion 
 now, that until a fundamental change is made in the system itself, 
 intermittent complaints will break out from time to time and be¬ 
 come more or less insistent as time goes on. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE CHARACTER ANO INTEGRITY OF THE WARDER. 
 
 The first complaint considered is the charges made against the 
 honesty and the moral character of the warden. A most thorough 
 investigation was made with reference to this complaint because it 
 would necessarily throw much light upon all the other charges. 
 
 The committee is unanimous in its opinion that the attack made 
 upon the warden’s moral character and his personal honesty was 
 malicious in its nature. It originated from former discharged em¬ 
 ployees of the prison, unsuccessful applicants for positions and a 
 
— 10 
 
 few prisoners and former inmates of the prison who had had some 
 difficulty with the warden. 
 
 Notwithstanding the personal motive of these men, the committee 
 considered the evidence very carefully, and after cross examining 
 witnesses and subjecting the testimony to the usual tests, we believe 
 the testimony to be unreliable and that the charges were made 
 largely from motives of spite and revenge. We also examined a 
 large number of the leading professional and business men of Fort 
 Madison and the unanimous verdict of these men is that Warden 
 Sanders is a man of good character; that they believe him to be 
 honest and entitled to the respect and confidence of the best citizens 
 , of the community. 
 
 It was charged by some that the warden had deposited money of 
 the prisoners at the banks and personally received interest upon 
 such deposits. The testimony, however, of the bank officials of Fort 
 Madison disclosed the fact that this statement was false in every 
 particular. 
 
 The charge made that the warden personally received from the 
 merchants in the city a discount upon supplies furnished to the 
 prisoners was refuted absolutely by the several merchants from 
 whom he purchased the supplies. He received a ten per cent dis¬ 
 count in the purchase of clothing but it was a discount on the cost 
 price of the clothing which was entirely proper as the prisoners 
 received the benefit of the discount. 
 
 It was claimed that an examination of the books of the institution 
 would disclose something improper upon the part of the warden. 
 The committee inquired particularly into this matter and had a 
 careful examination made of the books by F. H. Paul, State 
 Accountant, and the investigation disclosed that “ there is nothing 
 in the books or the method of keeping them that would lead one to 
 suspect any irregularities in the purchases made for the prisoners, or 
 the keeping of their respective accounts”. 
 
— 11 
 
 9 
 
 PART II. 
 
 THE PHYSICAL AND SANITARY CONDITION OF THE INSTITUTION. 
 
 In reporting upon the second complaint relating to the physical 
 and sanitary condition of the institution, the committee can only 
 speak of its condition as it was during our different visits and in¬ 
 vestigations. 
 
 THE CELL HOUSE. 
 
 It should be borne in mind that the cell house is not modern 
 having been constructed over half a century ago; the cells are small 
 and damp and so constructed as to admit of but little sunlight. 
 There is no running water or sewer system and formerly wooden 
 buckets were used for the disposal of the night soil, although these 
 were abondoned before the committee visited the institution and 
 we found metal buckets in use thoroughly cleansed and aired. 
 
 The condition of this old cell house was reported to the thirty- 
 first general assembly by an investigating committee composed of 
 Honorable C. G. Saunders, F. F. Jones and M. L. Temple. They 
 aptly described its condition at that time. On page 84 of the Senate 
 Journal, 1906, this committee stated: 
 
 ‘ ‘ The prison cell house of Ft. Madison was erected many 
 years ago, before many of the modern improvements were 
 known and has outlived its usefulness. * * * Is entirely 
 unfit to be used as such and in the judgment of your com- 
 mitee is a disgrace to the great state of Iowa, being unfit 
 for human habitation and should be replaced by a new one 
 at the earliest possible time. 
 
 We found, however, that the ventilators were in good working 
 order both day and night and the air fairly good. We found the 
 cells clean; that each cell was scrubbed about once every week, and 
 received regular sanitary treatment to prevent vermin. We found 
 the bedding, kitchen, dining room and refrigerator clean, but the 
 dining room and kitchen are small. The tables in the dining room 
 are so arranged as to require the handling of the dishes by fellow 
 prisoners in serving food to other prisoners on the opposite side of 
 the table. While this arrangement is customary in many penal 
 institutions of the United States, in modern institutions the tables 
 
— 12 
 
 are so arranged that every prisoner can be served direct by the 
 waiter without the food or dishes being handled by fellow prisoners. 
 This defect should be remedied because of sanitary conditions and 
 because one prisoner does not desire to have his food or dishes 
 handled by a fellow prisoner who he knows or suspects is unclean. 
 
 THE RE-SERVING OF UNEATEN MEAT. 
 
 Considerable complaint was lodged with the committee by pris¬ 
 oners with reference to the hash served at the institution. It was 
 stated that portions of meat uneaten by prisoners were collected 
 from the tables at the end of each meal, returned to the kitchen, 
 trimmed and washed and put into hash. We found this to be true; 
 that the custom was inaugurated by some member of the board of 
 control several years ago. 
 
 The committee is of the opinion that the practice never should 
 have been adopted at an institution of this kind, and that unless 
 already abandoned, as we are advised it is, it should be discontinued 
 at once. It should be remembered that a considerable number of 
 men confined in the penitentiary are diseased, and for this reason 
 every sanitary precaution should be taken. The condition of other 
 prisoners is better known to the prison population than to the 
 warden and outsiders, and prisoners are as averse to eating any¬ 
 thing if handled by a prisoner, who is either unclean or diseased, 
 as the average free person; that being true, a great many refuse 
 to eat the hash when mixed with new meat. It is therefore not 
 only unsanitary, but an economic waste. 
 
 / 
 
 THE FOOD. 
 
 Aside from the objections to the hash, we found the food of a 
 wholesome variety and a sufficient quantity for each prisoner, but 
 the committee believes that the standard should in no event be 
 lowered. 
 
 THE HOSPITAL. 
 
 We visited the hospital and found it clean and sanitary but it 
 lacks the necessary equipment, size and sunlight; in other words, 
 it is inadequate to the needs of the institution. 
 
— 13 — 
 
 THE WORKSHOPS. 
 
 We visited the workshops and in so far as we could discover the 
 machinery was in good condition and supplied with guards and 
 fenders, but some of the floors of the shops are in bad condition 
 and some other general repairs are needed about the building. 
 
 LABOR COMMISSIONER SHOULD MAKE INSPECTION. 
 
 We believe, however, that our laws should be so amended as to 
 expressly require the state labor commissioner to inspect all ma¬ 
 chinery in use in all of the state institutions, with authority to direct 
 that fenders and guards be supplied where needed, and that all 
 necessary changes be made. 
 
 We understand that the labor commissioner now inspects the 
 machinery in state institutions but there is no express provision in 
 the law requiring it or defining his authority. 
 
 PART III. 
 
 TNE GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF THE INSTITUTION. 
 
 An investigation into the last division of the complaint, viz: 
 the general management of the institution, was much more difficult 
 and complex than the investigation of the two previous divisions, 
 for the reason that the very foundation of penal labor, penal dis¬ 
 cipline and reform is involved. It combines at one and the same 
 time a great economic, social and moral question. 
 
 The number of complaints made to the committee in the taking of 
 the testimony were too numerous to receive separate treatment, some 
 were trivial, some were very serious. 
 
 There was complaint made with reference to the receiving of 
 supplies and it was charged that the warden had trafficked with 
 prisoners; it was claimed that the warden was too lax in his dis¬ 
 cipline, and it was also claimed that he was too severe in his punish¬ 
 ment; that the solitary was used by the warden and his deputy 
 upon slight provocation; it was claimed that prisoners did not re¬ 
 ceive proper dental treatment; objections were also made to the 
 prison physician; much criticism was made of the guards; it was 
 also claimed that men were compelled to work upon contract when 
 
— 14 
 
 they were not physically able; that they were denied parol because 
 of their skill and strength which made them valuable to the con¬ 
 tractor; it was charged that the warden or some member of his 
 family had a private interest in the contracts; there was complaint 
 against the foremen and private employees of the contractors; it 
 was claimed that not only the guards but that the foremen and other 
 employees of the contractors co-operated with the prisoners in pass¬ 
 ing of letters and information in and out of the institution, and 
 also in the passing of various articles including liquor, drugs and 
 dope. 
 
 The committee is of the opinion that nearly all of these com¬ 
 plaints are due to the present system which is in operation at the 
 penitentiary at Fort Madison, and that if there was an annual 
 change in wardens the same or similar complaints would follow 
 each change of administration. In making this statement we do 
 not wish to be understood that the present warden has made no 
 mistakes, but we are agreed that on the whole the complaints are 
 a result of the system in use, the condition of the old cell house and 
 a lack of other facilities which the warden is unable to secure. 
 
 THE PRISONERS’ MAIL. 
 
 With reference to the complaint of the handling of the mail of 
 prisoners a number of these complaints made by prisoners are en¬ 
 tirely unwarranted. It was found that some of the prisoners were 
 men of very bad character who were attempting to communicate 
 with other bad characters outside the institution, in some instances 
 men who were known to be professional crooks. The warden, in 
 all such instances, and in every instance where prisoners indulged in 
 the use of vulgar and obscene language in their letters, was entirely 
 justified of course in intercepting all such communications. The 
 warden, has, however, to a large extent attempted to personally 
 look after the mail, and during his absence, the same has been in¬ 
 spected by his wife. The warden of a great institution like Fort 
 Madison has too many important duties to perform to read all the 
 mail of the prisoners. He should have a mail clerk whose primary 
 business should be to read all the mail, in and out, except such mail 
 as may be communicated under seal to the governor, attorney gen¬ 
 eral and the board of control. Objectionable matters should be 
 promptly referred to the warden and all mail which is not objec¬ 
 tionable should be in the hands of the prisoners the same day it is 
 
—15 — 
 
 received and outgoing mail should be forwarded the same day it 
 is received. If objectionable matter is contained in the letter, un¬ 
 less some plot of escape or something of that nature is attempted, 
 the prisoner should be promptly notified that the letter cannot be 
 forwarded for that reason. Objectionable matter should be held 
 in the possession of the warden to be turned over to the prisoner 
 at the time of his release from the institution. 
 
 THE FOOD. 
 
 The nature of the food and the serving of hash having been re¬ 
 ferred to in Division II, need no further consideration here. 
 
 WARDEN TRAFFICKING WITH PRISONERS. 
 
 We found there was some merit to the complaint made that the 
 warden had formerly sold some supplies to the prisoners. The 
 warden admitted that for convenience he had purchased some sup¬ 
 plies and re-sold them to the prisoners, but he stated there was no 
 profit or gain accruing to liimself. It was also admitted that Mrs. 
 Sanders had furnished some milk to the prisoners. This custom, 
 however, was abandoned before we visited the institution. We 
 found that the price paid Mrs. Sanders for the milk was less than 
 the current market price, and all the testimony that* was offered 
 even by prisoners opposed to the warden was to the effect that 
 the quality was better than that secured from the dairymen,- in 
 other words, so far as the milk proposition was concerned, whatever 
 transactions took place between the prisoners and Mrs. Sanders was 
 to the prisoner’s benefit. As before stated, this custom has been 
 abandoned. 
 
 The committee finds that notwithstanding any advantages that 
 may accrue to the prisoners by purchasing articles from any of the 
 prison authorities that the practice should never prevail, for the 
 reason that the opportunities for abuse are too great, and for the 
 further reason it furnishes a means for prisoners to cast reflection 
 upon the integrity of prison officials. Therefore, as stated before, 
 such practices should be absolutely prohibited. 
 
 TREATMENT OF PRISONERS. 
 
 With reference to the treatment of prisoners it is significant that 
 the warden has been charged with being too lax in discipline and 
 at the same time it is charged that the punishment administered 
 has been too severe. 
 
16 — 
 
 The testimony, including the evidence of a large number of pris¬ 
 oners, is convincing that Warden Sanders is much more humane 
 in his treatment of prisoners than some of the former wardens. 
 Except for the use of the solitary, this committee found no evidence 
 of harsh or improper punishment. 
 
 On the whole we believe the warden to be a man of broad sym¬ 
 pathies and that he has adopted a number of changes in the interest 
 and welfare of the prisoners. This conclusion finds support by 
 such prison workers as Maud Ballington Booth, Mrs. Florence E. 
 Maybrick, Rev. Chas. Parsons, Superintendent of the Society for 
 the Friendless, and Mr. Thomas McClary, a Chautauqua lecturer, 
 who have, without solicitation, written the committee that from 
 their visits to the institution they were impressed with the kindness 
 shown by the warden to the prisoners, and Mrs. Booth was espe¬ 
 cially commendatory of Warden Sanders because of the granting to 
 the prisoners the privilege of the yard Saturday afternoons for the 
 purpose of base ball and other games.. 
 
 THE SOLITARY. 
 
 The solitary, as before stated, is still in use and we found that 
 prisoners were sometimes fastened to the door, the prisoner’s hands 
 being placed between the rods of the inner door and fastened to¬ 
 gether from the outside which prevents the prisoner from walking 
 about or from lying down. 
 
 While the solitary is in use in nearly all the penal institutions 
 of the country, many innovations have been made in its use as a 
 means of discipline. Formerly in some states the solitary chamber 
 admitted of no outside light but a dim light was kept within so that 
 the prisoner could not tell when it was day or night and he was 
 fastened by the thumbs or wrists to the ceiling. These cruel 
 methods of punishment have been generally abandoned and with 
 good results and the fastening of the prisoner to the door as a means 
 of punishment is also being discontinued by the leading institutions 
 of the country. 
 
 Dr. Leonard of Mansfield makes use of a large cell as a solitary 
 for confining unruly prisoners, but the cell admits of an abundance 
 of sunlight, plenty of fresh air and no impediments at all are 
 placed upon the prisoner. At Mansfield it is called a “Reflection 
 Chamber” and the prisoner is confined there for a sufficient length 
 of time to calmly reflect upon his unruly conduct, but never an 
 
— 17 — 
 
 unreasonable length of time. This method is followed in many in¬ 
 stitutions. 
 
 We believe that the time has arrived when it is no longer neces¬ 
 sary to fasten a prisoner to the cell door or place any other im¬ 
 pediments upon his movements, unless possibly he is insane or there 
 are some other extreme or unusual circumstances. The solitary 
 cell, when used, should be used merely as a reflection chamber as 
 is being done by Dr. Leonard and a large number of other prison 
 officials who have discovered that cruel and severe forms of pun¬ 
 ishment are entirely unnecessary, but on the contrary that harm 
 results rather than good. The cell should contain plenty of fresh 
 air and admit of sunlight. 
 
 The committee further believes that under the system which will 
 hereafter be described in detail and recommended, a radical change 
 can be made in prison discipline but under the system now in use 
 the committee has no criticism or recommendations to make other 
 than as above suggested. 
 
 PRISONER HALEY. 
 
 In this connection some reference should be made to the prisoner 
 Haley inasmuch as he has filed charges against the warden claiming 
 that the warden and his deputy were cruel to prisoners, and also 
 charging general mismanagement of the institution. He also at¬ 
 tacked the warden’s private character. Having discussed the war¬ 
 den’s character in Division I it needs no further reference. 
 
 It would not be profitable to enter into a discussion of the de¬ 
 tails of the difficulties existing between the warden and the prisoner 
 Haley. Suffice it to say that the warden offers two things which 
 he claims has had a material bearing upon his treatment of Mr. 
 Haley. Haley secured the publication of a letter by passing it out 
 of the institution not in the regular way, but clandestinely. Haley 
 also refused, and still refuses, to work upon the contract. These 
 were material considerations, if not the entire grounds of the war¬ 
 den placing Haley in a cell. He was not, however, placed in the 
 solitary but placed in a regular cell with a screen over the cell door 
 to prevent the passage of things in and out. 
 
 No just conception can be formed of the difficulties between the 
 warden and Haley without a knowledge of Haley’s character. 
 While he is a man who never received a great deal of school train- 
 2 
 
— 18 — 
 
 ing, he has a keen intellect, a very good use of the English language, 
 was formerly editor of the Prison Press at Anamosa, and in that 
 position made many influential acquaintances; he is intensely ser¬ 
 ious by nature, never smiles, has no sense of humor and excessively 
 egoistic. In addition to this he is a man of persistency and deter¬ 
 mination, suspicious by nature, but not particularly aggressive. 
 He does not, however, have any accurate conception of his proper 
 relation to his fellow prisoners, the officers of the institution, to the 
 state or society. If he and a public official, an officer of the institu¬ 
 tion, a fellow prisoner, or a sympathizing friend, who has under¬ 
 taken to assist him, has any conflict he never recognizes that it is 
 possible for him to be in error even in the slightest degree. If he 
 were a free man and was social in his nature, his seriousness and his 
 determination would make, him a martyr. Since, however, he 
 measures everything in its relation toward himself he presents a 
 problem which might baffle the ingenuity of the greatest disciplin¬ 
 arians or our leading penologists. He combines in a remarkable 
 degree seriousness, determination, keenness of perception with 
 illogical thinking. It would be hard to find either in fact or fiction 
 a man more egoistic than Haley. 
 
 It goes without saying that a man of such nature is entirely anti¬ 
 social. He refuses to conform to any rules, regulations or require¬ 
 ments unless they meet with his own approval. The warden feels 
 that Haley cannot be placed in a position of trust where he can 
 mingle and cummunicate indiscriminately with other prisoners. 
 Plaley was formerly librarian and would like to have continued in 
 that capacity. He has been transferred from his cell to the hos¬ 
 pital; but again returned to his cell. He objected to being placed in 
 the hospital* That his health is being impaired by his confinement 
 there can be no doubt. We have been informed that he has been 
 offered some of the lightest work in the shops if he would accept it, 
 with the promise that if he was unable to perform the labor that he. 
 would be transferred; and that he has refused this offer. It is cer¬ 
 tain that he could not do a hard day’s labor. He should, however, 
 be offered some light work which he is capable of doing, and if it 
 is found that he cannot work a day, let him work a half day; if 
 not a half day, let him work two or three hours in the forenoon. 
 If this offer is again made to prisoner Haley, as we believe it should 
 be, he should accept it because he cannot in reason expect that any 
 prisoner can dictate the character of labor that he will perform. 
 He should accept any light form of labor, which he is perfectly 
 
— 19 — 
 
 capable of performing without injury to his health. Any man who 
 insists on selecting his form of labor must so conduct himself as 
 not to become an inmate of the penitentiary. If Haley refuses to 
 perform any labor then he should be treated in as humane a way as 
 possible but so restricted that the discipline of the institution will 
 not be impaired and that no evil influence will result to the other 
 prisoners. The good of the many is paramount to the convenience 
 and welfare of any individual no matter who he may be. 
 
 DENTAL TREATMENT. 
 
 Complaint is made by prisoners with reference to the receiving 
 of dental treatment. There is a ruling of the board of control that 
 any one whose teeth are in such condition as to injuriously affect 
 his health shall receive dental treatment. There are, however, no 
 adequate funds and hence proper and necessary treatment is not 
 being furnished. 
 
 The committee is of the opinion that the provisions with reference 
 to the furnishing of dental treatment are not sufficient. No one 
 who is confined in the institution should be deprived of proper den¬ 
 tal treatment, if there is any real need for the same, therefore better 
 and additional provisions for the furnishing of dental treatment 
 should be provided. 
 
 THE PRISON PHYSICIAN. 
 
 Complaint is also made with reference to the institutional phy¬ 
 sician. The warden says that the physician is a conscientious, cap¬ 
 able man. This committee has no way of passing upon the profes¬ 
 sional ability of the present physician. We do know, however, that 
 it is impossible to secure the proper medical treatment for a large 
 number of men working in confinement and under the environment 
 of the institution, at least twenty per cent of whom are sub-normal, 
 a number of whom are on the border line of insanity, some afflicted 
 with private disease, others with tubercular trouble, by paying a 
 physician seventy-five dollars per month and receiving a daily visit 
 to the institution. Our state is falling far short of maintaining 
 the proper medical service and medical inspection which should 
 obtain at an institution of this nature. 
 
 At the Reformatory at Elmira there are two physicians who give 
 their entire time and attention to the work of the institution. The 
 state cannot hope to secure the services of a capable physician upon 
 
— 20 
 
 the salary now paid. A sufficient salary should be paid to secure 
 the services of a competent physician who would give his entire 
 time to the work. The physician should be something more than a 
 dispenser of pills or an operator in a case of appendicitis. He 
 should be an alienist as well as a physician. It is well known that a 
 large part of these men are abnormal. Upon their entrance into the 
 prison every man should receive the most thorough examination, 
 and further examination should be made from time to time, espe¬ 
 cially of those who are not normal, but in order to properly under¬ 
 stand the prisoner, the physician must study him from day to day. 
 He must he seen at work and during recreation hours as well as at 
 the physician’s office. The purpose of the examination is not mere¬ 
 ly to determine whether he has some offensive private disease, but 
 in order that the physician may completely understand the prisoner. 
 If he is below normal, either mentally or physically, the exact defect 
 should be known as soon as possible after his entrance. This is a 
 matter which cannot receive too much emphasis. Many a man in 
 a penal institution finds himself in the solitary when perhaps the 
 cause of the difficulty was due to some fundamental defect which 
 rendered the prisoner nervous, undermined his self-control and 
 hence caused him to be unruly and anti-social. 
 
 A number of states have already taken steps to segregate tuber¬ 
 cular prisoners. While the number seems to be small in Iowa there 
 ought to be complete segregation and isolation of all so afflicted, 
 with the latest and best methods of treatment. It is well known 
 that in nearly every penal institution there are a number who are 
 on the border line of insanity and who should therefore receive 
 special treatment. It is also true that every penal institution has 
 a large number of men with sexual diseases. These ought also to be 
 completely segregated and receive special treatment. It is, how¬ 
 ever, impossible for any physician by making a daily visit to an 
 institution to keep thoroughly advised as to all such matters and 
 furnish the proper treatment, and also keep the warden advised 
 as to the physical and mental condition of all the prisoners. If 
 there was closer co-operation among the several physicians of the 
 different state institutions it would be well. A monthly or quarterly 
 visit by the alienist of the insane hospital to our penitentiary and 
 reformatory for the purpose of consultation and co-operation with 
 the institutional physician would be highly commendatory. 
 
 
— 21 — 
 
 THE GUARDS AND SUBORDINATE OFFICERS OF THE 
 
 INSTITUTION. 
 
 Under any system in the management of a penal institution there 
 must of necessity be loyalty, fidelity and co-operation on the part 
 of the guards and subordinate officers. Their conduct is inextricably 
 connected not only with the general welfare of a prison but also 
 abuses common to penal institutions. We found this to be par¬ 
 ticularly true in our investigation at Fort Madison. 
 
 The question of the prisoners’ mail, of discipline and punish¬ 
 ments, reports with reference to the work of the prisoners, the fur¬ 
 nishing of supplies and other kindred and vital matters were affected 
 as much or more by the attitude of the guard as by the attitude 
 of the warden. We found that there were a number of guards at 
 the penitentiary who were not loyal to the warden, the board of 
 control, nor the state. They were conniving with prisoners either 
 through sympathy or for gain. 
 
 The evidence is absolutely convincing that a number of guards 
 were passing letters in and out of the institution, and not only that, 
 some of them were furnishing prisoners with morphine, cocaine 
 and other kinds of dope. It seems to be generally accepted that in 
 a number of the penal institutions of the country, the guards 
 themselves traffic in dope, and it is claimed that many a young 
 fellow who never used dope when he entered a prison left it an 
 abject dope fiend. Evidence comes to this committee that such is 
 true within this state. 
 
 We are advised that since the visit of this committee to the in¬ 
 stitution three or four guards have been discharged. The committee 
 recommends that every guard and every subordinate officer in the 
 penitentiary at Fort Madison who is either passing letters, passing 
 dope or in any way planning and conniving with prisoners should 
 be promptly discharged. Wardens in other prisons have attempted 
 to temporize with guards of this character and suspend them or 
 reprimand them. The result has always been that the warden or 
 superintendent has found that he has a far more dangerous man 
 in the institution in the person of the guard than the prisoner him¬ 
 self. In this regard there should be no expediency or temporizing. 
 Summary and absolute dismissal is the proper remedy. In this 
 connection the committee finds that the general standard of the 
 
— 22 
 
 guards at Fort Madison is not equal to the high standard found 
 at the Mansfield and Elmira Reformatories and other model penal 
 institutions. 
 
 SALARY OF GUARDS. 
 
 We also find that the wages paid to guards in Iowa are much 
 less than the wages paid the guards in a number of the leading 
 penal institutions of the country. The position of a guard is a very 
 important one and if a young man starting on his career may be 
 secured who is capable, he will not long remain upon the salary 
 paid by our state. We strongly recommend a material increase in 
 the salary of the guards and other subordinate officers of the prison 
 to the end that a higher type of men may be secured for these 
 positions. The average compensation paid the guards at Fort Madi¬ 
 son is fifty-six dollars and eighty-five cents per month, while at a 
 number of other institutions the average compensation paid the 
 guards ranges from sixty to one hundred ten dollars per month, 
 with perhaps a majority receiving from seventy-five to eighty dol¬ 
 lars per month. 
 
 It needs no argument to demonstrate that a man of sufficient 
 education, ability and character to properly fill the responsible po¬ 
 sition of guard cannot be permanently kept at a small salary of 
 fifty or fifty-five dollars per month. 
 
 No institution can be properly managed without capable, effi¬ 
 cient, honest and loyal guards. 
 
 THE EVIL EFFECTS OF CONTRACT LABOR. 
 
 It has been previously stated that a large number of the com¬ 
 plaints were due to the system in use rather than to the warden 
 or those in charge of the institution. This was impressed upon 
 the committee from time to time during the entire investigation 
 and one thing which is responsible for a great many of these com¬ 
 plaints is the contract labor system. If any member of the com¬ 
 mittee had any preconceived ideas concerning contract labor in 
 penal institutions there was no expression of the same. Indeed, the 
 objections which the committee has formed to this system were im¬ 
 pressed upon us as a result of this investigation from almost every 
 angle, from witnesses friendly and hostile to the present warden, 
 in the matter of parols, in the matter of the management by the 
 
- 23 - 
 
 board of control, regardless of the nature of the testimony, the 
 evil effects of contract labor became manifest. 
 
 We shall not attempt to set out in detail the various complaints 
 and friction resulting from this system. A few will suffice to make 
 our position clear. 
 
 HALEY REFUSES TO WORK ON CONTRACT. 
 
 The committee was anxious to see if some form of labor could 
 not be found for the prisoner Haley which he would accept. He 
 was asked if he would not accept some light form of labor on the 
 tool or chair contract. It was suggested to him that there were 
 some forms of labor with reference to these contracts which was 
 performed by old men. Mr. Haley’s reply was that he would die 
 before he would do any work under the contracts. 
 
 It is not necessary for the committee to justify Haley either in 
 making the statement or in taking such a position. The fact that 
 he has taken this position, however, is worthy of very serious con¬ 
 sideration. In view of his attitude, the merits and demerits of 
 that system cannot be ignored. 
 
 DISAGREEMENT AS TO COUNT. 
 
 We found that there had been disagreement between at least 
 one prisoner and the private employees of the contractors with 
 reference to the count. While one error was acknowledged by an 
 employee of the contractors we do not call attention to this matter 
 for the purpose of fixing the blame as to this particular item, but 
 it is mentioned merely for the purpose of showing the opportunities’ 
 for trouble. 
 
 LETTERS AND DOPE. 
 
 There was evidence to the effect that some of the employees of the 
 contractors co-operated with the prisoners in passing things in and 
 out of the prison. While our evidence is such as not to warrant 
 us in attempting to designate the particular employees of the con¬ 
 tractors, we feel certain that there is more or less truth in the testi¬ 
 mony, and that not only information and letters are conveyed from 
 prisoners to persons on the outside, k but that at least some drugs 
 and dope received by prisoners come through that avenue. That 
 abundant opportunities exist for these evils there can be no ques¬ 
 tion. 
 
24 — 
 
 THE CONTRACTOR AND PRISON OFFICIALS. 
 
 It was alleged that the warden, or members of his family, had 
 some interest in the contracts. All of the testimony offered goes 
 to show that this statement is without any foundation whatsoever. 
 That in some states, prison officials of penal institutions have re¬ 
 ceived financial benefit from the contracts is certain, and that the 
 opportunity exists in any event is beyond question. There is no 
 penal institution in which the contract labor system exists where 
 prisoners do not claim that the officers of the institution are con¬ 
 trolled by the contractors, from the superintendent, the warden, 
 the prison physician down to the most subordinate officer. That 
 many statements are made by prisoners for the sole purpose of 
 creating prejudice is undoubtedly true, but that opportunity exists 
 for an improper influence cannot be denied. Inasmuch as the 
 contractor is in the business for profit and not for philanthropy, 
 there is a great temptation on the part of the contractors to keep 
 on harmonious relations with the prison authorities. This may be 
 done in various ways without transgressing any law, and perhaps 
 without the contractors realizing that they are offending against 
 anything in the moral code. If, however, the contractor is the kind 
 of a man that believes in getting results and that the end justifies 
 the means, there is unlimited opportunity for corruption. 
 
 CLAIM OF PRISONERS. 
 
 One prisoner writes the attorney general: “I am having serious 
 
 trouble with contract foreman of Shop-who continually swears 
 
 at and nags me, and who in order to satisfy his own personal 
 grievances causes untold suffering.” He also states: “The guard’s 
 position is at stake if he speaks one word in a prisoner’s behalf, 
 for the contract rules and is the power behind the throne.” 
 
 The prisoner proceeds to say that though he was unable to work 
 he was kept on the contract because they were short of men at 
 that shop. 
 
 Another letter was received by the attorney general from an en¬ 
 tirely different character of man in which he states: “I have been 
 deprived of my liberty and robbed of my labor for years. My 
 health and nervous system is broken down. I am not a criminal 
 and feel that I am held a slave to the contract system.” 
 
 As to whether any one is compelled to work on the contract 
 when he is physically unable to work, this committee has no evi- 
 
— 25 — 
 
 dence sufficient to form or express an opinion; in other words, 
 we have not sufficient corroboration of prisoners’ testimony to 
 satisfy us of the truth of the charges. It is sufficient that under 
 such a system the opportunities are there and that the charges are 
 constantly being made. 
 
 CONTRACTS AND PAROL. 
 
 The charges made that prisoners are not paroled because of the 
 fact that they are strong, efficient workers and therefore valuable 
 to the contractors are utterly without support so far as the evi¬ 
 dence discloses. On the contrary, the records show that the num¬ 
 ber of paroles given to men who are laboring under the contract 
 system is in a greater ratio than the men not so engaged. 
 
 This is easily accounted for because it is well known that a man 
 who is engaged at productive labor, even if he is engaged under 
 a bad form of slavery, will conduct himself much better than a 
 man who is spending a part or all of his time in idleness. 
 
 The statement then of prisoners that the board of parol is in 
 any way influenced by the contractors is wholly unwarranted and 
 is made either with a reckless disregard for the truth, or for the 
 purpose of creating prejudice. The fact remains that the charges 
 are frequently made, and they will continue to be made just so 
 long as the contract system is in vogue, and this would be true 
 if the personnel of the parole board should change every month. 
 
 “WHENEVER THE CONTRACTOR COMES IN, THE WARDEN GOES 
 
 OUT.” 
 
 The saying that “ Whenever the contractor comes in, the warden 
 goes out” contains a sufficient amount of truth to prevent it ever 
 becoming obsolete so long as the contract system is in use. As 
 before stated, the contractor is in the business for what profit he 
 can get out of it. He does not pretend to be an educator, a re¬ 
 former or philanthropist. He cannot be blamed if he makes long 
 term contracts for the prisoners’ labor at from twenty-five to 
 eighty cents a day—at the penitentiary at Fort Madison twenty- 
 five and sixty cents per day—nor can he be blamed if he receives 
 as much control over the prisoners as possible ; that is his end of 
 the bargain. 
 
— 26 
 
 RESPONSIBILITY OF THE STATE. 
 
 The blame should primarily be lodged against the state. It is 
 fundamentally wrong for a state to exploit prisoners for profit. 
 It is not only wrong but foolish when this exploitation is dele¬ 
 gated to some private corporation. If any one is to receive a profit 
 it should be the state. If a profit can be made by a corporation 
 it can be made by the state under efficient management. When 
 the state assumes control over an individual it is responsible for 
 his physical well-being and his social and moral welfare, but no 
 one pretends that a contractor is concerned in any way with the 
 social, moral or physical welfare of the prisoner. With the state, 
 the primary object in view should be the protection of society and 
 the reformation of the individual; with the contractor the primary 
 object is and always will be the maximum amount of dividends, 
 and it is no answer to say that the Thirteenth Amendment to the 
 federal constitution of the United States, in which it is provided 
 that “ Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a pun¬ 
 ishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly con¬ 
 victed, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject 
 to their jurisdiction 7 ’ at least indirectly recognizes that each state 
 may .impose a form of slavery upon its convicts. 
 
 THE WORST FORM OF SLAVERY. 
 
 The contract system is the ivorst form of slavery because it is 
 a delegated form of slavery. Authority and responsibility should 
 go hand in hand but this cannot be with the contract system. 
 
 The Outlook, May 4, 1912, editorially in describing the difference 
 between the contract labor system and slavery as it formerly existed, 
 states: “There is, however, this important difference between the 
 contractor’s relation to the convict and that of a master to his 
 servant. The master owns his slave and hence has a selfish interest 
 in his life, health and efficiency. The contractor does not own the 
 convict, and hence has no selfish interest in his physical well-being. 
 If the convict dies, it costs the contractor nothing, and there are 
 plenty more to take his place. Is it any wonder that a leading 
 prison contractor once exclaimed, -‘This beats having slaves all 
 hollow! 7 Yes, this modern survival of slavery has a great ad¬ 
 vantage, from the dollars and cents point of view, over the old 
 form. 77 
 
27 — 
 
 In the objections thus far made no reference lias been made 
 to the evil effects of the contract system upon free labor or manu¬ 
 facturers not employing convict labor. The objections have dealt 
 entirely with observations which came directly to the attention 
 of the committee uninvited and unsolicited, and the committee 
 is of the opinion that without regard to the effect upon free labor 
 and the effect upon the manufacturer who does not employ contract 
 labor, the system is fundamentally wrong and should be abandoned 
 as soon as the contracts expire. 
 
 Free labor has no right to object to the competition of convict 
 labor. A person does not cease to be a human being because he 
 is transferred from the outside world to a place inside the prison 
 walls. His sentence may be short or long. If he is a man with a 
 family, or some one dependent upon him, the necessity of their 
 existence is just as great in the one case as in the other. The 
 man himself, if his sentence is short, will soon be released and will 
 probably enter the ranks of the toilers, or what is worse for both 
 labor and capital, attempt to secure a livelihood by dishonest 
 means.- We insist then that a man does not lose his rights as a 
 citizen, and especially as a human being, except such rights as are 
 necessary to the protection of society, because of the fact that he is 
 convicted of a crime. 
 
 CONTRACT LABOR UNFAIR COMPETITION. 
 
 Our objection then to the contract system in so far as it affects 
 free labor is not because there is competition with free labor, but 
 because there is unfair competition. Enlightened, fair-minded 
 men of whatever calling or profession have commenced to realize 
 that every man is entitled to the opportunity to work and to re¬ 
 ceive therefor a living wage. It goes without saying that if the 
 labor of the inmates of penal and reformatory institutions is con¬ 
 tracted for at a rate of from twenty-five to eighty cents per day; 
 that if a part of that labor consists of minors and defectives, who 
 should be spending at least a part of the day in school; that if the 
 hours of labor are unduly long, and that in addition thereto the con¬ 
 tractors are given a further subsidy by the state furnishing the 
 grounds, buildings, machinery, heat and light that the state is not 
 only depriving free labor of a living wage, but even the right to labor. 
 The state cannot afford to continue to be the chief offender agdinst 
 a fundamental principle ivhicli so vitally affects the welfare of 
 our present civilization. 
 
— 28 — 
 
 Dr. Whitin in his book entitled “Penal Servitude” points out 
 very clearly that a subsidized institution employing cheap convict 
 labor may have a very great effect upon both the price of labor and 
 the price of the commodity even though the output of the com¬ 
 modity in question is relatively small. 
 
 SUMMARY OF OBJECTIONS. 
 
 Briefly summarized, the objection then to contract labor is that 
 it is not only a form of slavery but an unjustifiable form of slavery 
 because it is a delegated form in which responsibility and author¬ 
 ity are divorced. It is the exploitation of the helpless convict, not 
 for the profit of the state, but for the profit of a private corpora¬ 
 tion. It is the wrongful surrender and abandonment of the con¬ 
 trol and jurisdiction over the person of a prisoner either to a 
 greater or less degree. It furnishes opportunity for convicts to 
 communicate with the outside world in violation of the rules of the 
 institution and to receive opium, morphine, cocaine and other forms 
 of dope if the employees of the contractors are subject to improper 
 influence, or even unduly sympathetic. It furnishes opportunity 
 for corruption between the contractors and prison officials and offi¬ 
 cers of the law and subjects prison officials to criticism regardless 
 of whether there is any foundation in fact for the charges, sit 
 tends to destroy discipline, it impairs reformation and destroys 
 hope on the part of the prisoner; it is injurious to the manufacturer 
 employing free labor; it is unfair competition to free labor be¬ 
 cause it tends to destroy the living wage, and lessens the oppor¬ 
 tunity for labor, and on the whole it is economically unsound. 
 
 STATE USE SYSTEM SUBSTITUTED FOR CONTRACT LABOR AT 
 THE REFORMATORY AT MANSFIELD. 
 
 \ ) # . 
 
 The contract labor system prevailed in all of the institutions of 
 Ohio until a comparatively short time ago. Dr. Leonard of Mans¬ 
 field was strongly opposed to the system because of the evils which 
 he constantly observed from time to time in connection with the 
 system, and this in spite of the fact that the contractors he had 
 to deal with were men of more than ordinary fairness and hon¬ 
 esty. Through his influence and the influence of organized labor 
 and other public spirited citizens, the state of Ohio abandoned 
 the contract system, and adopted the state use system. 
 
29 
 
 Dr. Leonard in a conversation with the attorney general of this 
 state a short time ago said that the results had more than ex¬ 
 ceeded his expectations. From every standpoint he said that a 
 substantial gain had been made by going from the contract system 
 to the state use system. He was told that he could not manufacture 
 shoes to advantage in the institution, and many other articles, but 
 under a wise supervision he has been enabled to do successfully 
 everything which he has attempted to do. Some of the furniture 
 for use at the state capitol was manufactured by the convicts and 
 the demand for the products has far exceeded the output. 
 
 The experience of Ohio is not exceptional but is used merely as 
 typical of what may he done and what is being done by a large 
 number of states which have abandoned the contract system. 
 
 THE EVILS OF SOLITARY CONFINEMENT AND EN¬ 
 FORCED IDLENESS. 
 
 In some of the states, however, we found large bodies of men in 
 enforced idleness partly due to the fact that the state in question 
 had abolished the contract system, and had substituted no form 
 of labor in its place. While we are unanimous in saying that from 
 every standpoint the contract system should be abandoned we freely 
 concede that contract labor is preferable to no labor. Whatever 
 the evils may be in connection with the contract system, they are 
 humane so far as the prisoners are concerned in comparison with 
 enforced idleness. 
 
 The God given right to labor should not be denied permanently 
 or for any considerable period to any human being. Numberless 
 instances could be given of the evil effects of enforced idleness and 
 of solitary confinement. 
 
 The “Pennsylvania Plan” received an experiment in New York 
 which convinced the most doubtful of its evil effects. The result 
 is reported by Frederick G. Pettigrove, Chairman of the Massa¬ 
 chusetts Prison Commission, in chapter 3 of the Russell Sage Found¬ 
 ation Series of “Penal and Reformatory Institutions.” On page 
 33 Mr. Pettigrove says: 
 
 “Under an act of 1821, following an. experiment in Pennsyl¬ 
 vania, New York adopted a scheme of grading which proposed three 
 classes. The most dangerous and impenitent composed the first 
 class, which w r as doomed to constant confinement in solitary cells 
 with no companion but their own thoughts and, if the keeper saw 
 
— 30 — 
 
 » 
 
 fit, a Bible. The second class, to be the less incorrigible, should 
 alternate between solitary confinement and labor as a recreation. 
 The third, being the most hopeful, were to work in association by 
 day and to be in seclusion by night. The first class was separated 
 from the others on Christmas, 1821, and consisted of eighty-three 
 of the most hardened prisoners who were committed to silence and 
 solitude. In less than a year five of the eighty-three had died, one 
 became an idiot, another when his door was opened dashed him¬ 
 self from the gallery, and the rest with haggard looks and despair¬ 
 ing voices begged to be set to work 
 
 A prison warden of one of the eastern institutions who has held 
 his present position for over twenty-five years told the attorney 
 general of this state that he could distinguish a prisoner who had 
 formerly served time in the Pennsylvania penitentiary by the looks 
 and actions of the prisoner without any other evidence. This ex¬ 
 perience, however, is not confined to our own country. 
 
 Mr. Baillie-Cochrane says: “The officers at the Dartmoor prison 
 inform me that the prisoners who arrive there even after one year’s 
 confinement at Pentonville, may be distinguished from the others 
 by their miserable downcast look. In most instances the brain is 
 affected, and they are unable to give satisfactory replies to the 
 simplest questions. ” 
 
 HERBERT SPENCER CONDEMNS THE SOLITARY SYSTEM. 
 
 The evils of solitary confinement and enforced idleness as de¬ 
 scribed by prison officials are clearly recognized by the greatest 
 psychologists and philosophers. Herbert Spencer in his unusually 
 able and prophetic essay on “Prison Ethics’’ after condemning the 
 solitary system, said: 
 
 “Our own objection to such methods, however, has always been, 
 that their effect on the moral nature is the very reverse of that 
 required. Crime is anti-social—is prompted by self-regarding feel¬ 
 ings, and checked by social feelings. The natural prompter of right 
 conduct to others, and the natural opponent of misconduct to others, 
 is sympathy; for out of sympathy grow both the kindly emotions, 
 and that sentiment of justice which restrains us from aggressions. 
 Well, this sympathy, which makes society possible, is cultivated 
 by social intercourse. By habitual participation in the pleasures 
 of others, the faculty is strengthened; and whatever prevents this 
 participation, weakens it—an effect commonly illustrated in the 
 
— 31 — 
 
 selfishness of old bachelors. Hence, therefore, we contend that 
 shutting up prisoners within themselves, or forbidding all inter¬ 
 change of feeling, inevitably deadens such sympathies as they have; 
 and so tends rather to diminish than to increase the moral check 
 to transgression. This a priori conviction, which we have long en¬ 
 tertained, we now find confirmed by facts. Captain Maconcochie 
 states, as a result of observation, that a long course of separation 
 so fosters the self-regarding desires, and so weakens the sympathies, 
 as to make even well-disposed men very unfit to bear the little 
 trials of domestic life on their return to their homes. Thus there 
 is good reason to think that, while silence and solitude may coiv 
 the spirit or undermine the energies, it cannot produce true refor¬ 
 mation.” 
 
 OPINION OF PROF. WILLIAM JAMES. 
 
 This is precisely in accordance with the conclusions of the late 
 Prof. William James of Harvard set forth in his psychology on 
 page 179 in which he speaks of the effect of depriving a human 
 being of his social relation with his fellow man, and says: 
 
 “No more fiendish punishment could be devised, were such a 
 thing physically possible, than that one should be turned loose 
 in society and remain absolutely unnoticed by all the members 
 thereof. If no one turned round when we entered, answered when 
 we spoke, or minded what we did, but if every person we met ‘cut 
 us dead,’ and acted as if we were non-existing things, a kind of 
 rage and impotent despair would ere long well up in us, from which 
 the cruellest bodily tortures would be relief; for these would make 
 us feel that, however bad might be our plight, we had not sunk 
 to such a depth as to be unworthy of attention at all.” 
 
 ENFORCED IDLENESS A PART OF OUR PENAL SYSTEM. 
 
 Emphasis has been placed upon the evil effect of both the soli¬ 
 tary confinement and enforced idleness because it even now forms 
 so large a part of our penal system. Especially is this true with 
 the punishment meted out to misdemeanants. The state in elim¬ 
 inating one evil should not cause a still greater evil. There is con¬ 
 clusive evidence, however, that a substitute or substitutes for con¬ 
 tract labor can be found which is superior from every view point 
 to that of contract labor. In other words, we believe' that con¬ 
 tract labor can be entirely abolished from our penal institutions 
 
— 32 — 
 
 and that our institutions can be so managed that every person con¬ 
 fined may be profitably employed at productive labor during each 
 working day, and we believe there is something radically wrong 
 in any institution where any considerable number of able bodied 
 men are in idleness or where any individual capable of labor is 
 kept in idleness for any considerable period of time. 
 
 ENFORCED IDLENESS ECONOMIC IDIOCY. 
 
 Enforced idleness is not only a crime against the prisoner and 
 his family, but it is economic idiocy, and this is true whether the 
 idleness is a part of our system of punishment of felons or mis¬ 
 demeanants; in other words, whether it is a part of the peniten¬ 
 tiary system or a part of the jail system, except where the jail is 
 used merely as a place of detention. Enforced idleness, however, 
 in connection with the jail system will be separately discussed 
 hereafter. 
 
 SUBSTITUTES FOR CONTRACT LABOR. 
 
 The substitutes for contract labor are state account, state use, 
 public works and prison farms or penal colonies, the penal farm 
 often combining elements in both the state account and state use 
 system. Each of these has its enthusiastic advocates, while some 
 states have adopted to some extent all three of the systems. Per¬ 
 haps the greatest and most enthusiastic advocate of the state ac¬ 
 count system is Warden Wolfer of the Minnesota penitentiary 
 at Stillwater. 
 
 WARDEN WOLFER ON STATE ACCOUNT SYSTEM. 
 
 Mr. Wolfer states that prison labor must be productive. There 
 should be no private interest in the product of prison labor. The 
 prisoner should share in his earning power and be made to feel 
 that he is not a pauper while in prison and the institution should 
 be self-supporting; that to this end the industries should be se¬ 
 lected with a view of reaching the following results as near as 
 possible: 
 
 (a) To make competition as nearly equal as possible; 
 
 (b) Such as will give mechanical employment to the inmate 
 and will best lit him to go out and earn an honest living upon his 
 release; 
 
— 33 — 
 
 (c) Such industries as can and will make the institution self- 
 supporting. 
 
 After condemning the contract system as violative of the prin¬ 
 ciples enunciated, his objection to the state use system is that it 
 requires too many industries in a single institution to keep the in¬ 
 mates steadily employed, and hence danger of financial loss. lie 
 states that the state use system minimizes competition only to the 
 extent that it minimizes productiveness and that there is compe¬ 
 tition with free labor whether it is manufactured for use in other 
 institutions or whether it is sold in the open market. He states 
 that as labor is one of the most, if not the most, active agent in the 
 reformation of the criminal, there must be a well organized in¬ 
 dustry with a high degree of efficiency so that the convict may 
 appreciate the value of labor and be allowed a proportionate share 
 in his increased earning power, and he states as his opinion that 
 the state account system where but few industries are required 
 most completely meets the requirements. He says: 
 
 “The industries should be such as are not represented within the 
 state by free labor, if possible, as this will provide a happy solu¬ 
 tion of the competitive feature of prison labor. The products 
 should be such as are used by a large portion of the population, 
 in order that the benefits may be as widely and equitably distri¬ 
 buted as possible.” 
 
 He says that: 
 
 “The state account system has been very successful in Minne¬ 
 sota, where a binder twine plant has been in operation for nearly 
 twenty years and a farm machinery plant is now in its fourth 
 year of actual operation.” 
 
 He quotes the United States commissioner of labor to the effect 
 that there has been a saving to the farmers of three cents a pound 
 on binder twine, which saving in view of the amount manufactured 
 and sold to the farmers of his state amounts to $5,081,190. (See 
 the Review for February, 1912, page 3.) 
 
 In his Sixteenth Biennial Report for 1909 and 1910, page 3, in 
 referring to the twine plant, he states: 
 
 “Our annual manufacturing capacity is now approximately 
 eighteen million pounds. Our mills were operated at full capacity 
 as usual during the past two years. I hope it will not be considered 
 3 
 
— 34 
 
 out of place here to call the attention of the state hoard of control 
 to the fact that our financial statements show that we could now 
 pay back into the state treasury all the money it ever appropriated 
 for the purchase of twine machinery and for a revolving fund to 
 carry on the business, and still have left a net clear profit of 
 $1,570,992.” 
 
 He also calls attention to the farm machinery plant and states 
 that “After taking a careful, conservative inventory of our assets, 
 we show under the head of profit and loss, a developing expense of 
 $42,057.42.” 
 
 STATE ACCOUNT IN ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN. 
 
 The state account system is followed to a large extent at Joliet, 
 Illinois, and at the House of Correction at Detroit, Michigan. If 
 the state manufactures only such articles as are sold or manu¬ 
 factured by trusts, and if. a standardization of prices is fixed, and 
 the state does not deviate from these prices, the evil influence of 
 the competition of prison labor with free labor may be reduced 
 to a comparative minimum. 
 
 It is also true, however, that if the plan was generally adopted 
 of manufacturing goods to be sold upon the open market, it would 
 be exceedingly difficult to so control the manner of distribution and 
 price of the goods as not to injure free labor and the manufacturer 
 employing free labor. For that reason the tendency of the times 
 is to adopt the state use system. Whatever failures have been 
 made with reference to the state use system are due to the incom¬ 
 pleteness of the law governing the same, or the inefficiency of the 
 management, rather than the system itself. 
 
 STATE USE SYSTEM. 
 
 Dr. Leonard, of Mansfield, Ohio, has demonstrated beyond per- 
 adventure the success of the state use system. He has been enabled 
 to keep all of the inmates employed that it is desirable to employ 
 in industrial pursuits, rather than outdoor labor at various forms 
 of productive labor. He has demonstrated that prison labor can 
 make a high grade article; indeed, his work has been so successful 
 that the demand for the goods by the state far exceeds his pos¬ 
 sibility of output. As an instance of some of the high grade work, 
 some of the furniture used at the Capitol was manufactured at 
 Mansfield. 
 
85 
 
 New York was one of the pioneers to adopt the state use sys¬ 
 tem and undoubtedly on the whole the system has proved a success. 
 
 The experience in the manufacturing business of Superintend¬ 
 ent McDonell at the House of Correction, Detroit, Michigan, with 
 his short term prisoners, the experience- of Warden Wolfer at the 
 Minnesota penitentiary at Stillwater, and Dr. Leonard at the Re¬ 
 formatory at Mansfield, demonstrates beyond doubt that whatever 
 may be done by private corporations and individuals under the 
 contract system may be done equally as well or better by the state, 
 and this efficiency is possible with short term prisoners as well as 
 long term prisoners. 
 
 For a more complete and exhaustive discussion of the relative 
 merits between the state use and the state account system, and the 
 effect upon free labor and free manufactures, see the recent work 
 of Dr. E. Stagg Whitin entitled “Penal Servitude.” 
 
 PUBLIC WORKS. 
 
 Because of the advantages of open air and sunshine upon the 
 prisoner’s health, much advocacy has been recently made concern¬ 
 ing the public works system or the employment of prisoners upon 
 public roads and highways and other public enterprises. 
 
 PRISON LABOR UPON HIGHWAYS. 
 
 The results in Oregon and Colorado are constantly being given 
 as a reason why prisoners' should be employed in the construction 
 and improvement of highways. Every one who has given careful 
 study to this question knows that generalizations from a particu¬ 
 lar state cannot be made w r ith reference to other states. What 
 might be successfully done in a western mountainous state where 
 there are large stretches of country with but slight population 
 might be entirely impracticable and inadvisable in a state of dense 
 population where there w T as much traffic upon all of the highways 
 and where children would be going to and from school. 
 
 NO NEW EXPERIMENT. 
 
 Warden Cleghorn of the penitentiary at Colorado in one of his 
 reports states that: “The establishment of this camp (prison camp) 
 is unique in the history of penal and reformatory institutions and 
 marks the dawn of a new era in criminal reform,” and a number 
 
36 — 
 
 of uninformed people seem to share that belief. As a matter of fact 
 prison labor upon the highways was abandoned in some of the 
 eastern states at an early day because of the strong public senti¬ 
 ment against it. The effect of seeing a large number of men dressed 
 in striped or pari-colored uniforms under the control of armed 
 guards was considered demoralizing upon free citizens and espe¬ 
 cially the youth who were in close proximity to the work, and the 
 humiliation caused to the prisoner by being exhibited upon the 
 public highway in a striped uniform conscious that he was compelled 
 to work at the point of a gun was degrading to his own character 
 and caused him to lose what self-respect he might have retained 
 after his conviction, and to become further removed from the whole¬ 
 some effect of public sentiment; and the suggestion of Simon E. 
 Baldwin in his report to the Prison Congress that by permission a 
 convict might wear a domino would increase rather than lessen 
 the objection. 
 
 PRACTICAL OBJECTIONS. 
 
 Many of these objectionable features do not now obtain as the 
 striped uniform has been abandoned except as a matter of pun¬ 
 ishment for third grade prisoners, but the committee is of the 
 opinion that it would neither he advisable nor profitable to em¬ 
 ploy the major or even a considerable, part of the prisoners in 
 our penal institutions upon highways. The evil effect upon the 
 public and especially the youth in witnessing a body of convicts 
 under armed guards; the access which they would have for com¬ 
 munication with the outside world; the opportunity for receiving 
 intoxicating liquor, drugs and dope; and the cost of guards, if 
 prisoners are to be employed indiscriminately, would make it both 
 inadvisable and unprofitable. 
 
 Wherever the prisoners have been turned over to county author¬ 
 ities and other local officials for work upon highways, or to pri¬ 
 vate contractors, abuses have grown up which have been sufficient 
 to condemn the system and cause its abandonment. This committee 
 therefore believes that under no circumstances should prisoners be 
 transferred to the jurisdiction of private parties or local public 
 officials for employment upon the highway or other labor. 
 
— 37 
 
 LIMITED NUMBER MAY BE EMPLOYED. 
 
 The committee believes, however, that if the state amends its laws 
 so that the state itself gives more material aid to the various coun¬ 
 ties in the state in the matter of highway construction that a lim¬ 
 ited number of prisoners carefully selected by the warden could 
 be profitably employed upon the highways of the state under state 
 authority, possibly fifty but not to exceed seventy-five. These 
 should be men who have served the maximum part of their term 
 and who have shown such evidence of good conduct that they can 
 be placed upon the honor system; they should be men who have 
 demonstrated habits of industry so that it will not be necessary to 
 resort to any severe forms of punishment, and what would further 
 seem to be both a humane provision and one which would tend to 
 insure the success of the experiment would be to make it optional 
 with the prisoner as to whether or not he should labor upon the 
 highway. This optional provision is given to the prisoner in Prus¬ 
 sia, (see the Prussian Penal Code, section 16) and open air work 
 is given as a reward to prisoners in Italy for good behavior who 
 have served a maximum part of their sentence. (See the Penal Code 
 of Italy, section 14.) 
 
 SHOULD WORK UNDER NORMAL CONDITIONS. 
 
 If these conditions were carried out there is no reason why the 
 men employed upon the highways should not work under sub¬ 
 stantially normal conditions. They should be permitted to dress 
 in ordinary citizens clothes; they should receive substantial com¬ 
 pensation for their labor less the cost of their maintenance and be 
 permitted, as before stated, to live substantially the normal life, 
 except that they should not be permitted to buy or receive any in¬ 
 toxicating liquors or narcotics, nor should they be permitted to 
 spend their unemployed time in association with free citizens. 
 
 THE PENAL FARM. 
 
 Having discussed briefly the state use system and the public 
 works or use of prisoners upon the public highways, there yet re¬ 
 mains for consideration as a substitute for contract labor the em¬ 
 ployment of prisoners upon a state farm. As previously stated, in 
 the work done in Colorado and Oregon in referring to outside la¬ 
 bor for convicts upon highways, there is nothing unique or ex- 
 
— 38 — 
 
 ceptional about outdoor employment of prisoners, although one 
 would receive a contrary impression from magazine articles re¬ 
 ferring to the work done at these institutions and to the employ¬ 
 ment of prisoners in Switzerland on the Witzwil farm. 
 
 After an exhaustive investigation, we agree entirely with the 
 report presented to the International Prison Congress by Simon E. 
 Baldwin in which he says: “If we consider the history of the sys¬ 
 tem of compulsory labor in the open air, it is seen that it origin¬ 
 ated at a very early period and that to this day it has been prac¬ 
 ticed constantly, even if not always for the same aim, by one na¬ 
 tion or another.” (Page 65, Outdoor Labor for Convicts.) 
 
 Notwithstanding, however, that there is nothing unique or ex¬ 
 ceptional about the employment of outdoor jjrisoners, and that out¬ 
 door labor for convicts is now being so generally adopted as to be 
 almost commonplace, it is true that a very large percentage of 
 prisoners are still confined within the prison walls, and that the 
 importance of outdoor labor, and especially the peculiar value of 
 agricultural labor for convicts, is just now being fully appreciated. 
 
 The length of this article forbids that any large number of in¬ 
 stances be given relative to the successful operation of state farms 
 and penal colonies, but a sufficient number of instances should be 
 cited to the end that members of the general assembly and others 
 who have not had the time to investigate the matter may be in¬ 
 formed as to what is and can be done in this regard. 
 
 SMALL PENAL FARM AT FORT MADISON. 
 
 As you well know our state purchased 211 acres of land at ap¬ 
 proximately $77 per acre or $16,000 and the same has now been 
 operated two years. Warden Sanders states that by conservative 
 estimate the amount realized from the farm, not counting the value 
 of prison labor, is equal to the price paid for the land or $16,000. 
 As the state has received a bona fide offer of $125 per acre for the 
 land there is a net gain in this investment during the period men¬ 
 tioned, not counting the value of the labor, of $10,000. The men 
 who have been employed during the crop season on the farm are 
 not capable of doing heavy manual labor or work in the shops. 
 AVhile the showing is very creditable owing to conditions under 
 which the farm has been operated, its possibilities have barely 
 begun to be realized. It does, however, furnish evidence of what 
 can be done on a large penal farm under favorable conditions by 
 
-39- 
 
 following the methods of scientific farming-. The present farm 
 is not sufficiently large to employ more than a very small part of 
 the prisoners. We shall offer evidence to show that a much larger 
 per cent of the prisoners could profitably be employed upon a state 
 farm. 
 
 THE LARGE PENAL FARM OF MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 The state of Mississippi has already demonstrated beyond con¬ 
 troversy the success of a large prison farm for convicts if operated 
 under reasonably favorable conditions. The farm has consisted of 
 several thousand acres and it was so successful that a recent ses¬ 
 sion of the General Assembly directed the board of trustees to pur¬ 
 chase two thousand acres of additional land. Pursuant to the 
 authority granted the two thousand acres were purchased adjacent 
 to the existing state farms and the trustees say in their biennial 
 report under date of June 30, 1911: 
 
 “We are pleased to report that the greater portion of this newly 
 purchased land is now under cultivation and will add materially 
 towards increasing the crop of this season.” 
 
 THE NET PROFITS. 
 
 This report shows that a cash profit was realized on the state 
 farms of over five hundred thousand dollars, ($500,000.00) dur¬ 
 ing the twenty-one months just preceding the making of the re¬ 
 port. The trustees say, commencing on page 4 of the report: 
 
 “As Will be seen from the secretary’s report and the summing up 
 of the various tables, the farms have netted the state the handsome 
 cash profit of $519,159.74 during the past twenty-one months. This 
 is a most gratifying result, considering that a large part of the 
 Support Fund drawn out went towards permanent improvements, 
 such as buildings, draining and redeeming low lands, etc., all of 
 which enhanced the value of the state’s property. 
 
 CARE OF THE INMATES. 
 
 ‘ ‘ While endeavoring to run the system so it will be not only self- 
 sustaining, but a source of revenue to the state, we have not lost 
 sight of the fact that the unfortunate inmates of the institution 
 are human beings and should be given proper food, clothing and hu¬ 
 mane treatment. Their health and comfort has been carefully look- 
 
— 40 
 
 ed after, as the small death ratio, less than 2 1-2 per cent, will 
 testify. Plenty of warm woolen clothing is furnished in the winter 
 months, and a sufficiency of lighter garments for the summer. Each 
 convict has a bed to himself, with a mattress and sufficient number 
 of blankets. They are required to take a nightly shower bath, after 
 which a clean nightshirt is furnished for sleeping purposes. 
 
 “The food of the convicts consists of bacon, the best cured side 
 meat that can be bought from the packing houses, corn and flour 
 bread, coffee, rice, vegetables in season, butter and sweet milk, and 
 an abundance of the best Louisiana cane-molasses and sorghum. 
 Beef are killed at regular intervals and served, also fresh pork. 
 
 RAISING OF COMMON STOCK. 
 
 “We are pleased to report that our efforts toward raising our 
 own working stock are proving successful. As previously reported, 
 we purchased forty brood mares, twenty for Rankin farm and twenty 
 for Oakley. We also purchased two fine jacks, one for each of 
 the above mentioned farms. As the result of our efforts, we have 
 at present on Rankin farm nine mule colts, and on Oakley eleven. 
 All of the mares are looking well and in good condition, and in 
 the next two years we confidently expect quite an addition to the 
 above number of colts. 
 
 HOG INDUSTRY. 
 
 “We have also given especial attention to the hog industry, hav¬ 
 ing purchased two car loads of hog fencing and distributing it 
 over the farms. Several registered boars and sows have also been 
 added to each farm. At the beginning of this board’s administra¬ 
 tion the number of head of hogs amounted to 1,233. At present 
 the total number of head amount to 2,463, an increase of 1,231 
 head, notwithstanding the large drain made on the supply for fur¬ 
 nishing fresh pork to the men and curing a portion for the sum¬ 
 mer months. It requires a considerable amount of cured meat to 
 supply the farms the year around, but with close attention to this 
 department, and the superintendent is giving such close attention, 
 we feel sure that within a few years we will not have to go to out¬ 
 side markets for but a small portion of our requirements. 
 
— 41 
 
 CATTLE INDUSTRY. 
 
 “Especial attention is also being given to the cattle industry. 
 With a view to grading up our stock, we purchased several reg¬ 
 istered Red Poled bulls, also one registered Hereford bull. At 
 present the number of head of cattle amounts to 997, an increase 
 of 346 head during the administration of the present board. This 
 increase is also very gratifying, as the board passed an order two 
 years ago that more fresh beef should be furnished the men, and at 
 shorter intervals. 
 
 RAISING OF GRAIN. 
 
 ‘ ‘ Two years ago we began the planting of wheat and found that 
 as good a yield could be had from our delta land as from anywhere. 
 Most of that season’s yield was sold to the farmers for seed. A por¬ 
 tion of it, however, was threshed, and made an excellent article of 
 graham flour. We doubled the crop this year and, while the dry 
 weather damaged it some, we are sure of a paying yield per acre. 
 We recently purchased a thresher and are now comtemplating the 
 purchase of a small mill with sufficient capacity to supply the farms 
 with flour.” 
 
 SUMMARY. 
 
 The report further shows that in addition to the raising of all 
 kinds of live stock, both common and registered, the raising of 
 wheat, cotton, peas, corn, oats, hay, potatoes, tobacco, the raising 
 of cane and the manufacture of molasses are also important in¬ 
 dustries of the institution. 
 
 Lest the amount of the profit seems to be so large as to be in¬ 
 credible, we again direct attention to the secretary’s report on page 
 7, which says: 
 
 “As ivill be seen from the cash statement, the penitentiary 
 farms have turned into the treasury during the past twenty-one 
 months the sum of $519,159.74, over and above the amount drawn 
 out for support 
 
 NUMBER OF FARMS AND DISTRIBUTION OF PRISONERS. 
 
 It should be noticed that this unusual profit was not realized from 
 the use of any of the two thousand acres recently purchased as 
 no crops had then been sold from the newly purchased land. The re- 
 
— 42 — 
 
 port shows that there were 1843 convicts at the penitentiary, 
 located as follows: 
 
 Sunflower farm. 
 
 Belmont farm . 
 
 Rankin farm. 
 
 Oakley farm. 
 
 Oakley Walls (women) 
 Insane asylum . 
 
 1,333 
 . .132 
 148 
 185 
 40 
 
 Total.1,843 
 
 PENAL FARM OF NORTH CAROLINA. 
 
 North Carolina is another excellent example of successful out¬ 
 door labor for prisoners. In a letter from Warden T. P. Sale from 
 Raleigh, North Carolina, under date of February 11, 1912, he 
 states: 
 
 NET EARNINGS PRISON. 
 
 ‘‘The report will show the net earnings of the prison for 1909-10 
 to have been $213,000. over and above every expense with an aver¬ 
 age prison population of 800. We have 425 men employed on a 
 farm owned by the state. The operations of this farm have been 
 very successful and pay well. The crop for 1911 was 1,600 hales 
 of cotton, 30,000 bushels of corn, 15,000 bushels peanuts; and hay, 
 fodder, etc., enough to feed the stock on the place for two. years. 
 
 PENAL FARM THE SOLUTION OF CONVICT LABOR. 
 
 '‘In my opinion the farm is the solution of the labor proposition 
 in the employment of convicts. It is out in the open, gives recrea¬ 
 tion and the work is varied. You can always find something to do 
 for most any prisoner on the farm whether he be weak or strong. 
 The farm contains 7,000 acres, is divided into two Gamps or stations 
 and each is well equipped with dwellings for supervisors and 
 guards. Good cell houses and splendid hospitals. We have a 
 large brick plant on the grounds, but it is not being operated now. 
 Of course when we operate this our population will average about 
 two hundred. There seems to be nothing that would especially 
 distinguish it from other prison management, except possibly the 
 farm feature, which has been a part of our ivork for about twenty 
 
43 — 
 
 years. However, I have observed recently that prison management 
 generally are turning to the farm the employment of prisoners and 
 no doubt will find it wholesome occupation and profitable to pris¬ 
 oner as well as to management.” 
 
 It should not be understood that the net profit is due entirely to 
 the farm. In North Carolina there are 325 prisoners engaged in 
 railroad construction under contract, the prison management re¬ 
 ceiving $1.50 a day per man, retaining control over the prisoners 
 and paying for their keep and guards. 
 
 SUCCESS OF PENAL FARM IN ARKANSAS. 
 
 Governor George W. Donaghey of Arkansas, referring to the 
 success of the state penal farm in his message to the legislature in 
 1911, said: 
 
 “We have on the state farm 2,700 acres of open land. AVhen 
 we took charge of the penitentiary two years ago, and before we 
 could make a move to earn anything for its maintenance, we found 
 it was in debt in the sum of about $130,000. $99,000 was appro¬ 
 
 priated by the legislature out of the general revenue fund for the 
 payment in part of that debt. The balance remaining unpaid was 
 left to the board to work out. The first year, 1909, we bought sup¬ 
 plies on credit, paying what our creditors chose to charge us, and 
 we not only paid the debt to which we fell heir, but made enough 
 money over and above all expenses to pay $30,000 of the state’s farm 
 debt, and turned back into the general revenue fund $50,000. For 
 the past year we will do equally as well if not better. The greater 
 part of this money was earned on the state’s farm.” 
 
 Governor Donaghey states that less than one-third of the convicts 
 were used upon the state farm. 
 
 PROFITS OF PENAL FARM IN LOUISIANA. 
 
 The state of Louisiana has purchased for its penal institutions 
 fifteen thousand acres of land at a cost of $409,000, there being 
 six separate penal farms ranging from 400 to 800 acres in each 
 farm. The recent report for the calendar year ending 1911 shows 
 that they have constructed on one of the farms a sugar refinery 
 at a cost of nearly $420,000 “all of which has been paid for out of 
 the earnings of the penitentiary during the fiscal period, except 
 $170,671.00.” 
 
44 
 
 During the year 1911 the report shows an excess of receipts over 
 current expenses $149,308.18. 
 
 A large number of the most able-bodied men are worked on 
 levees and not on the farm. For 1912 the report shows they will 
 have 2,460 acres of corn and 3,160 acres of cane, besides the other 
 miscellaneous crops and vegetables sufficient for their own use and 
 also for sale. 
 
 WEST VIRGINIA. 
 
 The letter of M. L. Brown, Warden of the penitentiary at Mounds- 
 ville, West Virginia, under date of February 15, 1912, to the attor¬ 
 ney general is also instructive. The warden states that part of the 
 prisoners are employed on contract labor and says that ‘ ‘ The earn¬ 
 ings of the prisoners are given to them and they are permitted to 
 send the same to their family, or they may spend 75 per cent of 
 it for food or extra clothing.” 
 
 NET PROFITS OF THE INSTITUTION. 
 
 ‘ 1 This institution is self-supporting and makes for the state about 
 $35,000. per year net. Our cell house is modern and is equipped 
 with electric lights, toilet and running water. Farming is carried 
 on in connection with the penitentiary. We have about 240 acres, 
 140 of which is splendid river bottom land and is cultivated in¬ 
 tensively for farming and gardening purposes. The remainder is 
 used for pasturage for the dairy herd and other stock. ’ ’ 
 
 PROFITS OF THE FARM. 
 
 “Figuring our products from the farm at wholesale rates prev¬ 
 alent at the time same were gathered, our net profit on the farm 
 for the last year was a little over $8,000., figuring the labor at the 
 price paid by the contractors inside the prison. From 15 to 30 
 men are used in cultivating the farm , including the teamsters—none 
 of whom have attempted escape for the past four years. The dis¬ 
 cipline here is first class. The prisoners are well fed and well 
 clothed and are apparently as well satisfied as men could be under 
 such circumstances 
 
 This is certainly a splendid showing considering that only 15 to 
 30 men are engaged in farming. 
 
— 45 — 
 
 THE FARM AT MANSFIELD. 
 
 The successful operation of the prison farm at Mansfield, Ohio, 
 under the supervision of Dr. Leonard, the men working entirely 
 under the honor system, has received so much favorable comment 
 from, time to time in magazines and other publications that no 
 additional comment is needed. 
 
 PURCHASE OF TWO THOUSAND ACRES IN ILLINOIS FOR PRISON 
 
 FARM. 
 
 The attitude of the state of Illinois in abandoning its present 
 prison grounds and buildings with an original cost of $17,000,000. 
 and a present valuation of perhaps $3,000,000. and over, and the 
 purchasing of 2,000 acres of land for the purpose of establishing 
 a prison farm and constructing new buildings is of unusual signif¬ 
 icance. The legislature of Illinois appropriated $600,000 to pur¬ 
 chase the land and this notwithstanding that there is already a farm 
 of over 200 acres in connection with the present prison, 11 acres of 
 which are in grounds and 200 acres of which is used in cultivation. 
 In other words, Illinois is now abandoning much more valuable 
 buildings and grounds than the state of Iowa will possess after its 
 new cell house at Fort Madison is entirely completed. 
 
 THE PENAL FARM OF DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 
 
 The action of the federal government in the purchase of over 
 1,100 acres of land at Occoquan and the establishment of a prison 
 farm there for short term prisoners received unusual attention by 
 the delegates at the last International Prison Congress. The attorney 
 general of this state visited this farm and spent a day with the 
 superintendent Mr. J. F. Whittaker at the institution. The build¬ 
 ings are as yet temporary in their nature. The land needed a great 
 deal of preliminary work before cultivation could be commenced, 
 as a considerable part of it was covered with an underbrush. There 
 are no cells, no stone walls and no armed guards patrolling the 
 buildings. There is, however, a barbed wire fence around the men’s 
 department about ten feet high, but it would of course afford but 
 little obstruction if any one desired to escape. The number of 
 escapes are becoming less as the institution is becoming established 
 and an institutional spirit is growing up. A fine large cement 
 barn was in the process of construction; all kinds of live stock were 
 being raised; considerable attention was given to poultry; various 
 
46 — 
 
 forms of agriculture were being carried on. The institution is 
 equipped with an excellent brick plant, a good stone crusher and 
 the warden has every confidence in the permanent success of the 
 plan, and everything about the farm gave evidence that his con¬ 
 fidence was well founded. 
 
 THE CANADIAN PENAL FARM AT GUELPH. 
 
 The Central Prisons of Canada which is now located at Toronto 
 is being abandoned and the prisoners transferred to the large farm 
 at Guelph. On this farm there is one of the finest dairy barns 
 in the entire Province. The honor system is largely in use and 
 Dr. Gilmore, the superintendent, is not only a believer in outdoor 
 labor for convicts but he is an enthusiast upon the subject. Can¬ 
 ada is not permitting the value of the buildings in Toronto, where 
 Central Prisons is now located, to deter that country from adopting 
 the latest and best reformatory methods by establishing the large 
 penal farm at Guelph. 
 
 THE NEW YORK REFORMATORY. 
 
 The result of Prof. Franklin H. Briggs, Superintendent of the 
 Agricultural and Industrial school at Industry, Monroe county, 
 New York, is of special significance. This reformatory for boys 
 was formerly located in the city of Rochester. 
 
 THE TRADES SCHOOL A FAILURE. 
 
 The trades school had been developed until the institution con¬ 
 tained one of the best trades schools in the United States. Prof. 
 Briggs in a conversation told the attorney general of Iowa that in 
 spite of the excellent equipment for industrial training he had 
 witnessed boy after boy come into his institution a comparatively 
 good boy and not in any ivay a criminal by nature and adopt evil 
 habits and constantly groiv worse in spite of every effort which he 
 could put forth. Prof. Briggs said that it was this experience which 
 caused him to turn to the farm as a means of reformation of the 
 boys. 
 
 Prof. Briggs also said that he found under the old system that 
 the conduct of the worst boys in the school determined the rules 
 that were made for all, so that a large number of good boys were 
 denied privileges because of a few bad boys. 
 
— 47 
 
 THE MERITS OF THE FARM. 
 
 The Industrial School at Industry consists of thirty-six cottages 
 with twenty-five in each cottage or group. These cottages are 
 scattered over 1,432 acres of ground. When asked by a member 
 of our committee if he felt there were that many different grades 
 in the moral character of the inmates, he said he would not exactly 
 want to say that but he said he had a reason for each separate 
 classification. Prof. Briggs has carried the matter of segregation and 
 classification to its logical conclusion. This school is certainly one 
 of the greatest of its kind in the world. The groups are so far 
 separated that there is no intermingling of the groups except upon 
 special days when they are in group games. When asked if he 
 believed there was any special merit in agriculture and outdoor 
 labor his reply was: “I do not believe it; I know it absolutely; 
 it is no longer an opinion.” Then he told of the attachment of the 
 boys to the animals and of the interest which they had in their work. 
 
 THE TAD’S COLONY. 
 
 lie called attention to the work done at the “Tad’s” Colony, 
 as he termed it, a group of boys eleven years of age and under. 
 These youngsters produced agricultural products last year which 
 sold for fifteen hundred dollars. 
 
 THE BOYS’ COLONY. 
 
 Another boys’ colony a little older than the “Tad’s,” produced 
 agricultural products last year to the value of twenty-five hundred 
 dollars. 
 
 OHIO MAKES SUCCESS OF PENAL FARM. 
 
 The report of Warden T. H. B. Jones of Ohio under date of 
 November 1, 1910, concerning the work done by the prisoners on the 
 state farm in Ohio is further evidence of the possibilities in this 
 direction. On page 13 of the annual report to the governor, the 
 warden states: 
 
 “The Knitting Factory and the Custodial Farm at Morgan's 
 Station have made a particularly good showing. I refer in a spe¬ 
 cial manner to these two for the reason that they are both innova¬ 
 tions in connection with this institution. Despite the fact that it 
 was late in the season before our appropriation for farm equipment 
 
— 48 — 
 
 was available, the 400 acre Custodial Farm at Morgan’s Station 
 has, in my estimation, made an excellent showing. 
 
 PRISONERS’ EARNINGS PER DAY. 
 
 The warden then described in detail the operations of the farm 
 and states that the earnings for each man engaged upon the farm 
 was $1.63 per day for the season, making no allowance for the erec¬ 
 tion of a new cottage, 200 rods of fence, the construction of 160 
 rods of gravel road, besides other improvements shown in detail in 
 the farm report. He anticipated a large increase of earnings the 
 coming year and recommended the purchase of a number of stock 
 cattle. 
 
 WARDENS RECOMMEND PENAL FARMS. 
 
 Superintendent Moore of the Reformatory of New Jersey at Rah¬ 
 way states that his purpose is to make the institution as nearly as 
 possible like the normal world since they were fitting men for a 
 normal society, and says: “What the institution needs is a large 
 farm.* * * * There are twice as many requests for young men 
 
 to ivorh on farms as can he supplied; more farm land should be 
 secured.” 
 
 The board of control of the State of Michigan in its biennial re¬ 
 port on page 6 strongly urges the purchase of a large penal farm 
 as a substitute for contract labor, saying:- “We know of no labor 
 better calculated to assist in their (the prisoners) reformation than 
 work on the farm.” 
 
 Warden Simpson of Jackson, Michigan, writes the attorney gen¬ 
 eral that he will perhaps cultivate about 500 acres this year. 
 
 Warden Wolfer of Minnesota writes the attorney general: “We 
 expect to procure at least another half section of land very soon 
 after we move down to the new prison.” 
 
 Warden Randall of St. Cloud, Minnesota, states that farming 
 and gardening is carried on; that he has about 400 acres of land 
 in cultivation; 20 acres of garden, and that he has also 400 acres 
 of meadow land and a fine dairy herd. 
 
 Superintendent James of the state penitentiary at Salem, Ore¬ 
 gon, in his 1911 report makes a most insistent demand for additional 
 land, notwithstanding that they now have a farm of good tillable 
 land. 
 
49 — 
 
 Many oilier wardens in their reports and in their letters to our 
 committee strongly recommend the penal farm as the best method 
 of employment for prisoners. 
 
 THE PENAL FARM IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 
 
 No extended mention will be made of the success of penal farms 
 in other countries as this ground is covered so thoroughly and com¬ 
 pletely by Prof. Henderson in his work, already referred to, en¬ 
 titled “Outdoor Labor for Convicts”. 
 
 A few references and excerpts from these reports might be of ad¬ 
 vantage to those who do not have access to the work in question. 
 
 THE WITZWIL FARM OF BERNE. 
 
 The Witzwil farm of Berne, Switzerland, contains 2000 acres. 
 
 Otto Kellerhals the director of the colony in his report of 1904, 
 states: 
 
 “The land upon which the colony is located, with improvements 
 that had been made up to the time of purchase—including 4 dwell¬ 
 ings, 6 barns, 4 sheds, and a schoolhouse, with a stock inventoried 
 at $11,000—cost $148,552. By the end of 1903 the inventory had 
 risen to $86,924.55, and the estimate upon the buildings alone had 
 increased tc more than the purchase price of the entire estate, as 
 is shown by the amount of insurance carried. Besides these new 
 buildings and improvements, the land has risen ATry considerably 
 in value because of drainage and cultivation, the expense in recent 
 years upon these items amounting to $10,000 or $14,000. All these 
 improvements, by which the entire estate has so much increased in 
 value, have cost the government nothing. 
 
 “The value of the stock upon the farm at the end of 1903 was 
 $35,526., and the net profits from agriculture were $19,326. Not 
 only are all the needs of the institution met, but it is able to put 
 some of its produce upon the market, although avoiding any com¬ 
 petition with free labor.” 
 
 A GOOD BUSINESS INVESTMENT. 
 
 Mr. Frank A. Fetter in the Survey for February 4, 1911, re¬ 
 ferring to the Witzwil farm states: 
 
 4 
 
— 50 
 
 “This farming enterprise in which most of the work is done by 
 prisoners has proved to be a good investment for the canton. There 
 has been expended by the canton, all told, for land $200,000. for 
 building material $100,000. and other cash advances (net, after de¬ 
 ducting the so-called rent paid to the canton), $50,000. a total of 
 $350,000. The present worth of the whole plant (land, buildings, 
 stock, cash fund) is at a low estimate $550,000., an average gain for 
 the time the institution has been in full operation of over $13,000 
 a year. While the care of the 200 (sometimes over 250) prisoners 
 is without cost to the public, the actual outlay on new buildings and 
 equipment has amounted to a good return on the investment in 
 grounds and buildings. Yet this has been done without the lease 
 or the contract systems of labor, and with no injurious competition 
 with, or protests from, free labor. Within the last year the land 
 has at length been brought fairly under cultivation, so that it would 
 seem that the results in the future would be still more favorable.” 
 
 THE EFFECT UPON THE PRISONER. 
 
 Director Kellerhals in his report states that the open air employ¬ 
 ment has a peculiar value both upon the health and the reformation 
 of the individual. He states that much of the work done in closed 
 prisons is of no value to the prisoner upon his return to society, 
 but that “The conditions are quite otherwise in an ‘establishment in 
 the open air’, as Dr. Goos of Copenhagen, calls ours. Not only can 
 a debilitated young man recuperate better and much more rapidly 
 than in the unhealthy atmosphere of the workshop, but he can there 
 acquire in less time the practical knowledge which is demanded of 
 a 'well-paid workman. Agriculture always needs labor, and a work¬ 
 man of good will is sure of finding a way of earning his living. 
 Agricultural establishments are especially helpf ul to those prisoners 
 who, after having undergone a long sentence, approach the end of 
 their term.” 
 
 The reason given for this is because of the mechanical routine of 
 the ordinary prison. He therefore states : 
 
 “We cannot do better than to re-awaken this interest in them and 
 prepare them for the struggle for existence which awaits them, than 
 to make them pass the last period of their imprisonment in a penal 
 agricultural colony. Agricultural w^ork more than any other oc¬ 
 cupation makes' it possible to keep an eye on lazy men. They are 
 placed in a work group and they must keep up with their cofnrades. 
 
51 
 
 That is why the agricultural colonies are a horror to vagabonds and 
 notorious sluggards, while the good workers find themselves relative¬ 
 ly happy there.” 
 
 PROFITS MAY BE REALIZED. 
 
 ‘‘Experience has demonstrated besides that penitentiary colonies 
 well administered may not only dispense with state subsidies, but 
 can even realize profits which permit them to increase their invest¬ 
 ment, to aid the near relatives of prisoners, and help discharged 
 prisoners. We succeed better in improving men by education, per¬ 
 suasion, and goodness, than by fear of punishment, and it is in con¬ 
 sideration of this fact that we seek to-day by means of occupation 
 in the open air to make apparent to the prisoner the blessing of 
 work, of duty conscientiously performed. 
 
 PRISONERS BECOME INTERESTED. 
 
 “He never fails to become interested in his task when he sees the 
 products of his own labor grown and bearing fruit. lie learns to 
 love the work that he feared, and it later becomes a daily necessity 
 for him. He does not feel that incessant surveillance resting upon 
 
 him and controlling each of his steps, each of his movements, and 
 repeating to him continually, ‘You are in the penitentiary.’ This 
 relative freedom that he enjoys reconciles him with his surroundings 
 and with his fate. 
 
 VARIETY OF OCCUPATION. 
 
 “The great diversity of occupation that an agricultural peniten¬ 
 tiary colony offers permits the director to treat his prisoners as 
 individuals, to punish some by imposing upon them a disagreeable 
 task, and to reward others by agreeable work. The task of the 
 prisoners can be varied each day, a thing almost impossible in the 
 penitentiary shops where work is done as in a factory. Educational 
 efforts, which should always be first of all in a good example, differ 
 from those hitherto in vogue. It is necessary to have a numerous 
 staff in agricultural work, but the overseers should work like the 
 prisoners, setting them the example of courage and persistence, and 
 during the harvesting, when work is most pressing, all the officials, 
 including the director, should take an active part in the work. 
 
— 52 — 
 
 A further reason given by director Kellerhals for the farm colony 
 is that it is productive and useful, does not compete with free labor 
 and is best suited to restore the health of the prisoner. He adds: 
 
 “ The ravages of tuberculosis, found in certain prisons, are not to 
 be feared in the agricultural colonies. On the contrary, the physi¬ 
 cian at Witzwil remarks that the condition of the prisoners affected 
 with pulmonary tuberculosis, emphyseman, and chronic bronchitis 
 improves perceptibly during their long stay in our establishment. 
 He attributes it to their regular life, their work in the open, and 
 the healthful and strengthening food.” 
 
 REPORT FROM AUSTRIA. 
 
 This testimony from the prison farm which is considered the 
 model of the world is in exact accord with the Director General of 
 Austria, Anton Marcovich, who states: 
 
 ‘ 1 It has always been clear that the employment of convicts in the 
 open air tended to their moral improvement and preparation for 
 free life.” 
 
 OUTDOOR WORK IN SIBERIA. 
 
 Dr. Jules Fekete De Nagyivany, Councilor of the Criminal Court 
 of Budapest, reports that in 1893 the 180 convicts under the direc¬ 
 tion of 16 overseers near Weitelsdorf in a Siberian winter accom¬ 
 plished an extraordinarily difficult but very valuable work in im¬ 
 proving the Drave. He states that: 
 
 “The free laborers were unable to accomplish that difficult task 
 which the convicts, housed in a wooden penitentiary, executed with 
 remarkable courage. The work was accomplished in nine years by 
 3,477 convicts, and the net profit amounted to 174,932 crowns. But 
 far more precious was the moral improvement of the convicts by 
 reason of their heroic efforts at the time of the fires and inundations 
 —a success of which they were proud because they were guided by 
 noble sentiments. Though long term convicts are thus used, only 
 five escapes in the course of eight years have occurred. It has even 
 happened that one group was placed, during a year and a half, far 
 from the central penitentiary, and the honest execution of the work 
 did not suffer on that account.” (Page 7, Outdoor Labor for 
 Convicts.) 
 
— 53 — 
 
 SUCCESS IN HUNGARY. 
 
 Dr. Fekete also reports that the agricultural work of prisoners 
 was inaugurated in Hungary in 1884 and that the first experiment, 
 the largest, was made by the improvement of marshy lands in the 
 penitentiary of Lipotvar where the convicts by many years’ hard 
 labor have given to cultivation a tract of 77 jochs and constructed 
 the intermediate establishment. He reports that in Hungary the 
 privilege of outdoor labor is a reward for good conduct to prisoners. 
 He reports that at the prison of Sartoralja-Ujhely outdoor work has 
 been crowned with great success; that in this prison the inmates are 
 intrusted with the cultivation of vineyards; that the pay is from 80 
 heller to a crown per day for each convict. He states that: 
 
 ‘ ‘ In general their conduct is excellent. They work with pleasure, 
 because they carry with them on leaving the prison a considerable 
 sum, considering that they spend the greater part of their wages 
 for better food. During the last two years disciplinary punishment 
 has been inflicted in only two cases and that for smoking. Because 
 the institute gives the most attention to the moral amelioration of 
 the convicts, which it truly accomplishes, we should not ignore the 
 material profit obtained; for not only do individuals profit by the 
 good work of the prisoners, but the treasury also has a profit, proved 
 by the fact that in 1903 there was realized a net profit of 13,332.34 
 crowns for that work, which is poorly paid. The prisoners are com¬ 
 pletely separated from the free laborers, and the management en¬ 
 forces rigorous rules. In Hungary they have already commenced 
 to introduce the new system, and since all the essential conditions of 
 its introduction are present, the time is approaching when the penal 
 agricultural colony will become one of the valued means of great 
 national enterprises.” (Page 9 Outdoor Labor for Convicts.) 
 
 ADVANTAGES OF THE PENAL FARM. 
 
 Dr. Fekete further states, what every one who has considered the 
 matter knows to be true, that an idle life is the principal source 
 of recidivism; that the prison has a most depressing influence upon 
 the prisoner and that as a general rule the prisoner cannot acquire 
 a sufficient amount of skill in any one line of work in the cellular 
 prison to enable him to secure a job upon his release and cope with 
 free labor, and he states what is peculiarly applicable not only to 
 our country but our own state that since there is such large immigi a- 
 
— 54 — 
 
 tion from rural districts to cities that the farmers are suffering for 
 lack of help, and that it would therefore he much better to fit the 
 men for a useful life upon the farm than to send them out broken 
 in body and spirit to increase the number of toilers in the city. 
 
 RECOMMENDATIONS FROM FRANCE. 
 
 This testimony is in exact harmony with the report of the Direc¬ 
 tor of the Central House and of the penitentiary in the Circon- 
 scription of Poissy (Seine-et-oise) France. Dr. M. Laguesse states 
 that “It is important, on the contrary, that the prisoner of rural 
 origin return to his agricultural occupation, tfncl it is fitting that he 
 should be trained in his calling during his detention, for the sake 
 of his moral welfare, his health, and his future. # # To trans¬ 
 
 port him abruptly from the free air to the confined atmosphere of 
 the cell or the thronged factory is to start him on the road to 
 anemia and tuberculosis. It is to take the responsibility of remov¬ 
 ing a strong unit from national production, and of transforming it 
 into a social parasite destined to die in prison or in hospital. * * * 
 ■ It is not absolutely necessary to put people in a cage in order to 
 restrict liberty.” (Outdoor Labor for Convicts page 27). 
 
 After reporting then in detail upon outdoor labor for convicts, 
 including the agricultural penitentiaries on the island of Corsica, 
 Dr.-Laguesse states that: “The conduct of the prisoners was ex¬ 
 cellent, and the originality of their situation kept them obedient, 
 because they enjoyed a relative liberty which they feared to lose by 
 misconduct. 
 
 EFFECT OF SECLUSION UPON THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
 
 We noticed then that the penitentiary seclusion sours the pris¬ 
 oners because of the nervous depression that it causes. In the cen¬ 
 tral prison of Melum I have known the worst subjects to become 
 docile and tractable when once employed in the penitentiaries of 
 Corsica. With regard to most of the men, I recall the evil conduct 
 in the central prison and on the other hand their good conduct in 
 the agricultural prison. Most of them declared to me that confine¬ 
 ment in the shop, the absence of fresh air, brought on a state of 
 irritability that they could not overcome. * * * A legal arrange¬ 
 ment should be made to punish severely both the attempt to escape 
 and the successful attempt; if it is aided by persons outside, the 
 penalty should equal that inflicted on the fugitives. Habitual bad 
 
— 55 — 
 
 conduct and idleness should result in the guilty convict being sent 
 from the outside establishment to an establishment for close con¬ 
 finement.” (Outdoor Labor for Convicts', pages 27 to 30.) 
 
 SUCCESS OF PENAL FARM NOT CONFINED TO ANY COUNTRY, 
 
 RACE OR CLASS. 
 
 The penal and reformatory institutions mentioned in which farm¬ 
 ing operations have been carried on successfully in this country 
 represent but a small part of such institutions in the United States. 
 The particular ones selected are sufficient to demonstrate that the 
 success of a prison farm is not confined to any geographical loca¬ 
 tion of our country, nor to any age, race or class of prisoners, nor 
 upon the length of time the prisoners are confined, and the refer¬ 
 ences to penal colonies in foreign countries are sufficient to demon¬ 
 strate that the agricultural farm may be successfully operated in any 
 country in the world where there is suitable land for cultivation. 
 
 HAS PASSED EXPERIMENTAL STAGE. 
 
 We feel then that from the success at our penitentiary at Fort 
 Madison, with the limited amount of land in cultivation, from the 
 personal investigation made by members of this committee, from 
 the reports of prison officials from other states in the Union, and 
 from other countries that the employment of prisoners on penal 
 farms has passed the experimental stage and that the success and 
 advantage of such employment is absolutely certain if the proper 
 kind and amount of land is secured, and if the management is 
 honest and efficient, and care is taken in the classification and selec¬ 
 tion of prisoners to engage in this work. There will be a certain 
 percentage of prisoners who cannot be trusted beyond the prison 
 walls and who will not respond readily to reformatory treatment, 
 but these men are the exception and one of the strongest reasons 
 for the establishment of a prison farm is for the purpose of better 
 classification and segregation to the end that men who are not crim¬ 
 inal by nature or inherently corrupt may not be compelled to live 
 in the same environment with men who are. It is unfair for the 
 men who wish to comport themselves with decency and who give 
 evidence of good conduct and industry to be subject to the discipline 
 necessary to control the professional crook and the most hardened 
 criminals but this is unavoidable where a large number of prisoners 
 
— 56 — 
 
 are all housed in the same building or confined within the same 
 prison walls. 
 
 NECESSITY FOR CLASSIFICATION, SEGREGATION AND THE INDI¬ 
 VIDUALIZATION OF PUNISHMENT. 
 
 Practical prison officials, from the warden of our own peniten¬ 
 tiary to the wardens and superintendents of the large penal insti¬ 
 tutions of this country and the directors and governors of the large 
 penal institutions of Europe, and the leading authorities on penol¬ 
 ogy in this and other countries, recognize three things as funda¬ 
 mental to any great prison reform, viz: (a) classification; (b) dif¬ 
 
 ferentiation and segregation; and (c) to use a French phrase, “the 
 individualization of punishment;” that is, the treatment of men as 
 individual beings rather than the treatment of crime in the abstract 
 or the convict as a type or class. 
 
 Sir Evelyn Ruggles Brise, who, at the last International Prison 
 Congress at Washington, D. C., was elected to succeed Prof. Chas. R. 
 Henderson as president of the Congress, in his address to the Con¬ 
 gress, said: “Of all the prison systems of the world, that will be 
 the best where the arrangements admit of the greatest individual 
 attention being given to each individual case.” 
 
 There is substantially no difference of opinion on this point be¬ 
 tween the great penologists and the leading prison officials. 
 Many similar statements might be quoted which were made by sup¬ 
 erintendents and wardens of large penal institutions to one of the 
 members of this committee, and it is the actual carrying out to its 
 logical result of this idea which so signally characterizes the success 
 of Prof. Briggs in his Agricultural and Industrial School for boys 
 at Industry, New York. 
 
 SEGREGATION IMPOSSIBLE AT FORT MADISON. 
 
 Your excellency is well aware of the fact that this classification, 
 this segregation and this individualization of treatment and punish¬ 
 ment is not possible with the large number of offenders at Fort 
 Madison, guilty of all forms and degrees of crime. 
 
 A NEW PRISON FARM THE SOLUTION. 
 
 The only proper solution of the problem is, in the opinion of 
 the committee, the establishment of a new prison farm. This 
 farm should be established upon the colony system so as to 
 
57 
 
 afford opportunity for complete classification, segregation and in¬ 
 dividual treatment of prisoners. There should be confined to this 
 farm first offenders, who were not shown to be depraved and vicious 
 by nature except those who should receive special manual training, 
 and these should be sent to Anamosa, and the board of parol should 
 have authority to transfer such recidivists and long term offenders 
 who had served a substanial part of their sentences at Fort Madison 
 and had also given such evidence of good conduct as to make it com¬ 
 paratively certain that if transferred to the farm no injury would 
 result therefrom. 
 
 SIZE AND LOCATION OF FARM. 
 
 The farm should contain at least 2000 acres. It should be 
 located so as to be reasonably accessible to the capital city. This 
 would afford opportunity for more frequent inspection by the 
 governor, the board of control, the board of parol, the attorney 
 general and members of the general assembly. The farm should 
 be isolated and hence should not be in the immediate proximity of 
 any city or town. It should, however, be located near a steam or 
 interurban railway with arrangements for station stop and side 
 tracks. 
 
 CO-OPERATION OF AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE AND PENAL FARM. 
 
 There should be intensive farming following the scientific prin¬ 
 ciples of agriculture. The farm should therefore be located reason¬ 
 ably accessible to our State Agricultural College at Ames, and the 
 professors of our Agricultural College, post-graduates and under¬ 
 graduate students of sufficient training should give instruction at 
 the penal farm in scientific agriculture, including instruction in 
 dairying, poultry and stock raising; in short, there should be that 
 co-operation and assistance given by the Agricultural College as 
 to furnish the prisoners with a knowledge of every branch neces¬ 
 sary to practical farming, under the most improved and scientific 
 methods. This farm should not be sufficiently close to the Agri¬ 
 cultural College as to make it easy for students to visit out of 
 idle curiosity, and it goes without saying that the function of the 
 Agricultural College should be to furnish instruction and nothing 
 more. Under this system, instead of using military guards on 
 dress parade, graduates of the Agricultural College could be used 
 as instructors and co-laborers. 
 
— 58 — 
 
 ADVANTAGE TO BOTH INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 Co-operation of the Agricultural College with a large penal farm 
 would he of very great value to both institutions. It would fur¬ 
 nish for the College a means of experimentation and demonstra¬ 
 tion ; it would furnish additional opportunity for students to put 
 their theoretical knowledge into actual practice and it would fur¬ 
 nish the most healthful employment possible for the prisoners. 
 It would be the highest kind of productive labor; it would give 
 the prisoners that kind of practical knowledge which would he of 
 the most value to them upon their release. The labor would not 
 be injurious to free labor, nor would the prisoners be performing 
 a woman’s work or the work of the blind. Every branch of farm¬ 
 ing should and could be carried on and dairying and poultry and 
 stock raising should all receive special attention. 
 
 DEMAND FOR FARM LABOR. 
 
 Our board of parol says that they can always secure a position 
 for a prisoner upon the farm if he is capable. The demand for 
 farm laborers is always in excess of the supply, but the reverse of 
 this is true with men engaged in other occupations. Many a man 
 is kept at our penitentiaries and reformatories for a considerable 
 period of time after he is subject to parol until a position for him 
 may be secured. 
 
 THE VALUE TO SOCIETY. 
 
 The value to the state and to society in transforming a large 
 number of debilitated and shiftless men from cities and towns who 
 previously spent their time in idleness into useful, healthy citizens 
 to go into every part of the state upon their release and engage 
 in the highest form of productive labor, viz: scientific agriculture, 
 scientific dairying and poultry and stock raising, is beyond esti¬ 
 mate ; but to even return to the farm those who have previously 
 been engaged in farming, instead of transferring them to cities 
 and towns upon their release, at best only partly equipped to earn 
 a livelihood, will be of untold value, provided that during their 
 confinement on the penal farm they receive that knowledge and 
 training in farming and that degree of efficiency which they un¬ 
 doubtedly should receive. 
 
— 59 — 
 
 INCREASE OF FOOD SUPPLY. 
 
 George E. Roberts in his address at the annual dinner of the Iowa 
 Society of New York directed particular attention to the necessity 
 of the increase of food supply and the increase of the efficiency 
 of the agricultural classes. That Mr. Roberts is correct in his 
 conclusions is generally recognized. If this be true, what more 
 practical method can be adopted to contribute to this end than 
 the suggestions herein made. 
 
 CO-OPERATION PRACTICAL. 
 
 In recommending this co-operation of the. agricultural college 
 with a large penal farm we are not recommending something theo¬ 
 retical but something intensely practical. We found that this 
 assistance and co-operation which we are contending for is now 
 being given by the agricultural department of Cornell University 
 of New York to the George Junior Republic of Freeville. Mr. 
 Calvin Derrick, Superintendent, advised the attorney general that 
 great good had resulted therefrom. 
 
 Prof. Briggs at Industry, New York, is also teaching his boys 
 the principles of scientific agriculture and scientific farming. They 
 have their annual fair and prizes are offered for those showing the 
 greatest skill in raising stock of various kinds, poultry, corn, small 
 grain and vegetables; in short, the skill and science displayed in 
 every form of practical farming is rewarded at these annual fairs. 
 
 We then have practical demonstrations of what we are recom¬ 
 mending. If it is profitable, practicable and advisable to teach 
 scientific agriculture and scientific farming to youthful offenders, 
 is it not equally as advisable and practicable to teach it to adult 
 offenders? We believe that every reason for teaching scientific 
 farming and scientific agriculture to youthful offenders applies 
 even to a greater degree to adult offenders if they are men who will 
 likely engage in farming as an occupation upon their release. 
 
 OPINION OF DEAN CURTISS. 
 
 The attorney general submitted to Dean Curtiss of our Agricul¬ 
 tural College the possibility and advisability of our Agricultural 
 College furnishing this co-operation and in reply thereto Prof. 
 Curtiss under date of May 2, 1912, states: 
 
 “I am interested in the suggestion which you make concerning 
 a state farm for first and short term prisoners. I am heartily in 
 
— 60 — 
 
 accord with the plan of furnishing useful and instructive employ¬ 
 ment of that kind to prisoners, and I believe that the farm method 
 offers a good solution of the problem. I have consulted with some 
 of our people here and we are of the opinion that the college could 
 co-operate in some such manner as you suggest. * * * I believe that 
 co-operation in this way would be of mutual advantage to both 
 institutions, and of service to the citizens of Iowa.” 
 
 Prof. Curtiss further states in his letter that which is obviously 
 true that the farm should not be located in the immediate vicinity 
 of the college, and that the College should have no responsibility 
 except in instruction and demonstration work. 
 
 CONDITIONS FAVORABLE IN IOWA. 
 
 We believe that in Iowa the conditions are more favorable to the 
 establishment of a large penal farm than in any state in the Union. 
 We are and probably always will be primarily an agricultural state 
 and perhaps as great a variety of grain, fruit and vegetables can 
 be raised in Iowa as in any other part of the country. 
 
 WOULD FURNISH MEANS OF SEGREGATION. 
 
 A penal farm would furnish a means of properly segregating 
 the criminal insane and those on the border line of insanity. Ana- 
 mosa has not now a sufficient amount of ground and equipment 
 to properly care for such prisoners. Anamosa could then devote 
 particular attention to the trades school and develop and strengthen 
 a general school system. The state would then send the men under 
 thirty, who had not previously been convicted of a felony and who 
 had lived a city life and engaged in a trade, and who would likely 
 return to the city, to Anamosa to become skilled apprentices if 
 not tradesmen; and young men now eligible for Anamosa, who 
 were especially deficient in school training, could be sent there; 
 and all the young men who would likely engage in farming as 
 an occupation would be sent to the farm instead of Anamosa. 
 
 It would also offer the proper means of segregating the tuber¬ 
 cular, syphilitic, and all other persons either physically or men¬ 
 tally unfit to associate with the general mass, and it would afford 
 the only proper means of so classifying prisoners into groups as 
 that the discipline could be entirely adapted to the character and 
 conduct of the prisoners, and it would furnish an opprotunity for 
 a fundamental change in our prison ^management. 
 
-61 
 
 CONTRAST OF SYSTEMS. 
 
 The attorney general asked the warden of a large penal insti¬ 
 tution what objection he had to the men being permitted to talk 
 and hold social intercourse at meal time. His reply was this: 
 “When the merchants get together they talk trade; when lawyers 
 and doctors get together, they talk their professions; the farmer 
 talks his, and the criminal and crook would necessarily indulge 
 in conversation concerning crime and criminals.” 
 
 At another large penal institution where the men were permitted 
 to talk at the table, the statement of the former warden was quoted 
 to the superintendent of that institution. The reply of the super¬ 
 intendent of the modern institution was this: “The statement is 
 probably true if the men are working under the contract system 
 without any compensation, incentive and apparently without hope, 
 but the men in my institution who are engaged in outdoor labor, 
 who are put upon their honor, who have taken a keen interest 
 in their work, who have become attached to the stock and the ani¬ 
 mals, are not interested in crime and crooks, and when they come 
 to the table and are permitted to talk, they talk about their work, 
 they talk about the things they are interested in.” 
 
 The replies of these two wardens go to the very heart of the 
 proposition. Under a contract system where the men can see no 
 correspondence between their efforts and the time of their libera¬ 
 tion, and but little correspondence between their conduct and their 
 treatment and welfare, when they feel that they are being exploited 
 for the benefit of a private contractor, when they know that the 
 family dependent upon them is at the point of starvation or a 
 county charge, and when they are further depressed by the lack 
 of sunshine and fresh air until they become embittered in their 
 nature and almost abandon hope, it is undoubtedly true that if 
 they are permitted social intercourse with each other and granted 
 many privileges evil results will necessarily follow. Under such a 
 system discipline must be severe though never brutal. The men 
 must be kept constantly under surveillance and control. If, how¬ 
 ever, the men are permitted to work in outdoor employment, breathe 
 pure oxygen and receive God’s sunshine and be made to feel that 
 they will be required to undo the wrong which they have com¬ 
 mitted as nearly as possible and no more, that their welfare and 
 treatment will be in exact correspondence with their conduct and 
 effort, that they will be fully compensated for their efforts less 
 the cost of their own maintenance and the expense they have en- 
 
— 62 — 
 
 tailed, if by this method of compensation they can feel some 
 economic independence, secure proper supplies at their own option 
 and earn a sufficient wage to support members of their family, if 
 they have any, if not accumulate a bank account to be used upon 
 their release; then inspiration, hope and reward will take the place 
 of physical force and fear. 
 
 THE VALUE OF AN INCENTIVE. 
 
 Where there is little or no relationship or correspondence be¬ 
 tween effort and reward the most severe form of discipline is re¬ 
 quired, and the least working efficiency of the prisoner is reported. 
 Wherever the correspondence between good conduct, effort and in¬ 
 dustry on the one hand and reward on the other is the greatest, 
 the least discipline is required, and the maximum of efficiency 
 of prison labor is reported. 
 
 THE DEFECT IN PRISON SYSTEMS. 
 
 This being true, there can be neither reform nor efficiency under 
 any system that deprives a prisoner of incentive and hope; hence 
 the committee is of the opinion that the fundamental defect in 
 nearly all prison systems consists in this: that the prisoner is 
 unable to see and realize any direct connection between his con¬ 
 duct, his efforts and industry on the one hand, and the kind of 
 his maintenance, his reward and time of liberation on the other 
 hand. 
 
 We believe then that the statement of Sir Evelyn Brise should be 
 amended so as to read that that system is best which permits of 
 the greatest “individualization of punishment” and which con¬ 
 tains the greatest correspondence between effort and reward, and 
 by effort we mean to include the whole conduct of the man includ¬ 
 ing his efforts for moral and mental improvement, as well as his 
 efforts to become a skilled workman. These elements of the re¬ 
 formatory feature were also referred to by Sir Evelyn Brise in 
 his address when lie mentioned with approval the European formula 
 which we described as retributory, deterrent and reformatory, and 
 stated that any system which did not contain all three elements 
 was in his opinion defective. 
 
— 63 — 
 
 NECESSITY FOR FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE. 
 
 In order then that these conditions may be completely carried 
 out a fundamental change must be made in our prison system. 
 We believe that the time is at hand not only when the contract 
 system should be completely abolished, but that the men should 
 be paid for the labor performed at the penitentiary at the standard 
 or union rate of wages paid for the equivalent of free labor of a 
 like character. That from the wages received the prisoner should 
 be compelled to pay for the cost of his maintenance and in addition 
 thereto the entire loss which society has suffered in his ^capture, 
 trial and commitment. There would then not only he corre¬ 
 spondence between effort and reward after ids conviction, hut 
 there would he correspondence between the injury inflicted and 
 the punishment meted out to the prisoner. 
 
 The suggestion of compensation to prisoners or the giving of a 
 part of the earnings of a prisoner to his family to aid in the sup¬ 
 port of the family during his confinement is of course no new idea. 
 
 Your Excellency suggested this in your last message to the leg¬ 
 islature. Rev. Pickworth, the chaplain of our Reformatory at Ana- 
 mosa advocated it in an address made before the conference of 
 the heads of the institutions in June, 1909, and in several states 
 a small part of the earnings of prisoners is now being used in the 
 support of the families of prisoners. 
 
 The compensation of prisoners and the restitution theory was 
 suggested by Herbert Spencer as early as 1860. 
 
 It was suggested by W. D. Howells in the North American Re¬ 
 view of August, 1908, that the prisoners be paid the union rate of 
 wages. 
 
 PRACTICAL DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 It must, however, be perfectly apparent to anyone that an amount 
 equivalent to the union wages could not be paid to the support 
 of the family of a prisoner or held for him until his release if he 
 was contracted for to a private corporation at the rate of twenty- 
 five, or sixty, or even eighty cents per day, and it is also apparent 
 that on such wages there would be a negligible amount if any, 
 to go to the support of the prisoner’s family over and above his cost 
 of maintenance, hence in a large majority of the states the actual 
 amount received for -prison labor has furnished the practical ob¬ 
 jection to any reform of this nature, because it will readily be 
 
— 64 — 
 
 agreed that in addition to the enormous cost of the capture, con¬ 
 viction and commitment of prisoners, legislatures would not appro¬ 
 priate thousands of dollars annually in order to determine the re¬ 
 formatory value of a theory. 
 
 THE ECONOMIC CONSIDERATION. 
 
 .The first question for consideration then is whether the plan 
 proposed is possible from an economic standpoint. This does not 
 depend upon the amount the state of Iowa is now realizing for its 
 prison labor, but rather the actual value and efficiency of prison 
 labor as compared with free labor under proper management. It 
 is often stated that the value of prison labor is not to exceed one- 
 third that of free labor. Evidently that theory prevailed in Iowa 
 when the prison contracts at Fort Madison were entered into be¬ 
 cause it is doubtful if our state is receiving one-third of the scale 
 of wages paid free labor, and it would also be admitted that prison¬ 
 ers at the New York jail at Blackwell’s Island do not earn a 
 sufficient amount to pay for their food and clothing. 
 
 CONCLUSIONS OF COMMITTEE. 
 
 This committee, however, after a most thorough investigation 
 into this question is of the opinion that a man of approximately 
 normal health, who is serving a sentence at a penal institution, 
 is capable of doing as much or even more physical labor than a like 
 free individual, and that this labor may be made just as valuable 
 to the state as to a private contractor. The man in the penitentiary 
 under normal conditions is enabled to do as much or more because 
 under a good environment and well regulated system his energies 
 would be greatly conserved. The regular long hours for sleep and 
 rest, a wdiolesome, healthful diet with a sufficient amount of recre¬ 
 ation, plenty of fresh air and the freedom from any narcotics and 
 the impossibility of dissipation are all conducive to the highest 
 efficiency in industrial and manual labor. 
 
 We agree with Dr. Whitin that “the efficiency of this labor 
 (prison labor) varies according to the efficiency of the management 
 * * * and it has been ably demonstrated that the convict can be 
 made as efficient as the free man.” 
 
 AYarden Sanders states “There is not a mechanical industry in 
 Iowa that could not be transplanted body and soul into the Fort 
 Madison penitentiary and carried on uninterruptedly without de¬ 
 crease either in quantity or quality.” 
 
— 65 — 
 
 lie further states that lie has a few men now in the institution 
 who are being employed at the rate of $1.50 per day, and that the 
 men employing these prisoners report that the. efficiency of these 
 men is equal to and even greater than that of free labor. 
 
 Dr. Donohoe, Superintendent of the Inebriate Hospital, reports 
 that he has a number of men in that institution who are capable of 
 doing as much work as a like number of free, unskilled laborers. 
 
 DEMONSTRABLE PROOF. 
 
 But we need not rely upon opinions in this matter. We have 
 previously called attention to the fact that the Minnesota state pris¬ 
 on at Stillwater was so efficiently managed by Warden Wolfer that 
 the institution could return to the state the entire amount of money 
 appropriated for the purchase of twine machinery and for the 
 revolving fund to carry on the business and still have left a net 
 clear profit of $1,570,992, and we called attention to the fact that 
 the report of the penitentiary at Mississippi shows that for the 
 twenty-one months preceding the report (June 30, 1911) that a net 
 cash profit was realized on the state farms of $519,159.74; and we 
 called attention that in North Carolina the net earnings from the 
 prison in 1909 and 1910 were $213,000 over and above every ex¬ 
 pense with an average prison population of 800; that in Louisiana 
 the penitentiary constructed a sugar refinery on its state farm at 
 a cost of $420,000 all of which was paid for out of the earnings 
 of the penitentiary except $170,671 and that during the year 1911 
 the report shows an excess of receipts over current expenses of 
 $149,308.18; that in Arkansas, according to the message of Gov¬ 
 ernor Donaghey, during the first year, 1909, the state farm was op¬ 
 erated they were enabled to make enough money over and above 
 all expenses to pay $30,000 of a previous debt and turn back into 
 the general revenue fund $50,000; that in West Virginia the pen¬ 
 itentiary was self supporting and made for the state about $35,000 
 per year net, and that the farming operations netted over $8,000 
 with only from fifteen to thirty men employed at farm labor; that 
 according to the report of Warden Jones of the penitentiary of 
 Ohio, the net value of the labor for each man engaged upon the 
 farm was $1.63 per day for the season; that the Maryland pen¬ 
 itentiary at Baltimore, which is generally known as typical of the 
 contract labor system under the efficient business management of 
 Warden Wyler, was enabled to make an actual net surplus from 
 5 
 
66 — 
 
 1889 to 1911 of $547,918.70, and that in addition thereto the prison¬ 
 ers earned and were paid as overtime the sum of $547,503.75, mak¬ 
 ing an aggregate earning over expenses of $1,095,422.45, notwith¬ 
 standing that the running expenses of the institution during the first 
 seventy-eight years resulted in a deficit of $350,629.07. 
 
 A letter to the attorney general from the warden at Lansing, 
 Kansas, shows that there is no contract labor used there; that the 
 return to the state penitentiary per year over and above all ex¬ 
 penses is about $40,000. 
 
 In a letter to the attorney general from John L. McDonell, Super¬ 
 intendent of the Detroit House of Correction, he states that the 
 city of Detroit appropriated to the House of Correction from 1860 
 to 1875 a total of $189,841.36 to cover grounds, buildings and op¬ 
 erating expenses; that from 1875 to 1880 the institution was self- 
 supporting, and that since 1880 the institution has made a net sur¬ 
 plus of $985,578.36 which has been paid to the city in cash; that the 
 inventory of January 1, 1912, showed personal property of various 
 kinds amounting to $231,543.93 and that the estimated value of 
 buildings and grounds was from $200,000 to $250,000 and that the 
 prisoners have been paid up to January 1, 1912, a total of $78,839.19 
 and this in spite of the fact that about one-tenth of the prison pop¬ 
 ulation is women; that the daily average for the year was 455; 
 that more than sixteen per cent received during 1911 was committed 
 for periods of ten days and less; that 59 per cent for periods of 30 
 days and less; and 94 per cent for periods of 90 days and less. See 
 the 50th annual report for the year 1911 of the Detroit House of 
 Correction. 
 
 In the states where the profits of penal institutions are so large 
 as to challenge belief, the legislatures made sufficient appropriations 
 to start the work under favorable conditions, but we have evidence 
 of the economic value of prison labor where the labor is employed 
 on a small scale and without costly equipment. 
 
 EXPERIENCE OF SHERIFF TRACY. 
 
 The experience of F. H. Tracy, sheriff of Washington county, 
 Vermont, is conclusive evidence that while prison labor under a 
 bad system may not exceed one-third the value of free labor, yet 
 under a system where there is correspondence between effort and 
 reward, that is to say, where the prisoner profits just according to 
 his industry and good conduct, the value of this prison labor is 
 equal to that of free labor. Mr. Tracy writes the attorney general 
 
t— 67 
 
 of this state under date of February 11, 1912, in response to an 
 inquiry as to what had been done in his county, as follows: 
 
 “I would say that the work commenced under a prison labor 
 law passed by the legislature of this state in 1906, the intent of 
 the law being to work men under guards. We tried this method 
 for some months hut with poor success, the men doing as little as 
 possible and with poor results. Finally in the spring of that year 
 I commenced the plan of giving the men a part of their earnings, 
 in other words, I gave them all they earned above one dollar per 
 day , and the result has been wonderful. The men all have to work 
 as laborers no matter what has been their calling. * * * We have 
 had many a man support his family from his earnings while serving 
 time. The men go to their day’s work like any ordinary laborer, 
 sometimes five or six together and sometimes alone, working cheer¬ 
 fully and saving their wages and contented. * * # Surely the time 
 is fully ripe when every state should give those confined a part 
 of their earnings. . This means better work and relieves many in¬ 
 nocent people of the disgrace of charity.” 
 
 Mr. Tracy also says: ‘ ‘ Our great trouble is that during the win¬ 
 ter we have no work, and the state has no law whereby work can be 
 provided. Persons awaiting trial cannot be worked. # * * I am at 
 this time trying to get a state farm where this class of men can 
 be employed and believe this will be a better solution of this prob¬ 
 lem.” 
 
 This evidence then conclusively shows the efficiency of prison 
 labor whether that labor is engaged in manufacturing or farming; 
 whether the men are long or short term men, felons or misdemean¬ 
 ants, and regardless of any geographical location, and regardless 
 of the color or nationality of the prisoners. 
 
 A MANAGERIAL QUESTION. 
 
 It is simply a question of efficient management and what can be 
 done in these institutions, in some of which the correspondence 
 between reward and effort was very small, can without doubt be 
 done in the state of Iowa under efficient management if the legis¬ 
 lature will appropriate the initial cost to place the state farm in 
 operation and a sufficient number of industries to furnish employ¬ 
 ment for every individual who is capable of working during every 
 working day in the year. 
 
 The fact that Sheriff Tracy of Washington county, Vermont, 
 can with little or no equipment receive almost twice tbe amount 
 
— 68 — 
 
 for prison labor realized in tlie state of Iowa, and still let the men 
 earn enough for themselves to support their families, ought to con¬ 
 vince anyone that there is abundant opportunity for improvement 
 in the matter of employment of penal labor in the state of Iowa, and 
 that the state of Iowa is now suffering a very great economic loss 
 by reason of the present system. In addition thereto great injury 
 is inflicted upon the families of the prisoners, and what is of par¬ 
 amount consideration the present system does not contain the 
 proper reformatory elements. 
 
 CONTRARY OPINION. 
 
 We are aware that our conclusions herein are not generally ac¬ 
 cepted, and that so eminent an authority as the late Hon. Carroll D. 
 Wright, at the time he was United States Commissioner of Labor 
 in a paper read before the National Press Association in 1899, al¬ 
 though condemning the contract system as lacking the elements for 
 reform, stated that it was probably the best for the treasury, and 
 further stated that “without regard to systems, all prisons are 
 run at a loss to the state.” 
 
 While Mr. Wright at that time made an exhaustive investigation, 
 prisons then were being politically managed. We readily con¬ 
 cede that if penal institutions are to be politically managed that 
 there can be neither efficiency nor reform. We are now however, 
 contending for a management wholly in the interest of the prison¬ 
 ers, their families and the public—the protection to the public, 
 the welfare of the prisoners and their families being the primary 
 considerations, and the opinion of Mr. Wright based upon the infor¬ 
 mation received from institutions which were not managed in a busi¬ 
 ness and scientific way is of no value in the face of the overwhelm¬ 
 ing testimony herein set forth. 
 
 BASIS FOR REFORM. 
 
 Conditions are as favorable in Iowa for the highest degree of 
 prison management and prison reform as in any state in the Union. 
 Go into any state in the Union and inquire into the cause of poorly 
 managed penal institutions, and almost invariably you receive the 
 reply, “It is due to politics.” Iowa, however, was one of the early 
 states to adopt the non-partisan board of control system thereby 
 legally eliminating politics from penal management and furnishing 
 a basis for both a business and scientific management. 
 
— 69 — 
 
 ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE BOARD OF CONTROL. 
 
 We believe that much has been accomplished by our board of 
 control in placing the outside management of our institutions upon 
 a business basis and that.this outside management compares favor¬ 
 ably with the management of any of the penal institutions of the 
 country, and by outside management we refer to such matters as 
 the purchasing of supplies, construction of new buildings and mat¬ 
 ters of that nature. But we are also of the opinion that very 
 little has been accomplished in so far as the inside management 
 of our penal institutions is concerned, and by inside management 
 we refer to penal labor, penal discipline and penal reform, and the 
 question of penal labor is as important as that of purchasing of 
 supplies, and the construction of new buildings. 
 
 We have called attention to the fact and furnished evidence to 
 show that under a system giving the prisoner incentive and hope 
 by rewarding him in exact proportion to his efforts, that he would 
 become twice as efficient and even more than if he were employed 
 under a system by which he receives no compensation and had no 
 interest in the work; and we have also called attention to the fact 
 that at the present time at Fort Madison it is doubtful if our 
 state is realizing more than one-third of the actual value of our 
 prison labor. 
 
 These are economic considerations of sufficient importance to 
 make possible the plan herein suggested, but the feasibility of the 
 plan becomes the more apparent when we consider that although 
 the prisoner is to receive the standard rate of wages for the equiva¬ 
 lent of like free labor, from the wages received he must pay for his 
 own maintenance and that a sufficient deduction must be made from 
 his earnings during the term of his confinement to equal the amount 
 of the entire expenses of his capture, conviction and commitment. 
 This item alone is a matter of very great consideration. The report 
 of the board of parol shows that for the year ending June 30, 
 1910, the expenses in Iowa of criminal prosecutions exclusive of the 
 salary of the county attorneys, their assistants, and the expenses of 
 their offices and the proportional salary of judges of the district 
 court for the time spent while presiding in criminal trials amounted 
 to $531,505.04. 
 
 From the economic standpoint then under the system suggested 
 of employing the men upon a large penal farm and in the manu¬ 
 facture of articles under the state use system and paying the 
 prisoners the standard or union rate of wages for the equivalent 
 
— 70 — 
 
 of a like amount of free labor, the state would receive for such 
 labor under proper and efficient management the actual value of 
 the labor. The prisoners would very greatly increase their ability 
 and efficiency; and during their confinement their families would be 
 provided for, and the state would save a very large part of the loss 
 which it now suffers by reason of the expense of criminal prosecu¬ 
 tions. 
 
 In 1860 Herbert Spencer proposed the indeterminate sentence, 
 the parol, the compensation and restitution theory. It has re¬ 
 quired a half century for the world to become sufficiently civilized 
 to adopt the indeterminate sentence and the parol, and the ques¬ 
 tion of compensating the prisoner and requiring him to pay for 
 his own maintenance and in a measure make restitution is just now 
 receiving consideration. 
 
 Practical objections have been made to any law or any system 
 compelling a prisoner to make absolute restitution to the person 
 injured. It would, however, be entirely proper for the board of 
 parol to consider the ability and the disposition of a prisoner to 
 make restitution as one of the elements in determining whether the 
 prisoner was then entitled to a parol; but the requiring of a pris¬ 
 oner to pay for his own maintenance while at the institution and 
 requiring him to pay also for the cost of his capture, conviction and 
 commitment is founded upon such absolute justice that there can 
 be no real objections, assuming that the prisoner is approximately 
 normal physically and mentally. 
 
 The costs are now taxed to the prisoner but they are seldom, if 
 ever, paid, although it occasionally happens that after the pris¬ 
 oner is released he is sometimes harassed by the levying of an 
 execution for the costs in question. A very great gain, however, 
 would result both to the prisoner and to society by reason of the 
 state deducting a sufficient amount from the prisoner’s wages 
 during the term of his confinement to equal the cost of his prose¬ 
 cution. Under the present system where the prisoner sees no 
 relation between the amount of costs he incurs and the character 
 of his punishment and the length of time served, it is common 
 knowledge that, in a large majority of cases, no matter how 
 guilty an offender may be, and seemingly without regard to the 
 amount of evidence of his guilt, he secures a lawyer, pleads not 
 guilty and takes advantage of. every opportunity and every tech¬ 
 nicality which a resourceful lawyer can suggest, in order to defeat 
 the ends of justice; but at the end of litigation, which is sometimes 
 
— 71 
 
 carried on for a period of years, after the supreme court has final¬ 
 ly spoken the last word and denied a rehearing, the defendant 
 then immediately confesses his guilt, expresses deep regret for his 
 offense, promises immediate reformation, secures the best lawyer 
 that he can employ, and in addition thereto puts in motion as 
 much political influence as he can command in order to secure an 
 immediate pardon or parol, and the county and state pay the 
 cost of his capture, conviction and commitment, including all 
 the costs of the litigation. 
 
 We do not wish to cast reflection upon the eleventh hour ref¬ 
 ormation or repentance of any offender, but we do believe that 
 if the offender knew that in the event he was finally convicted he 
 would be compelled to pay all the costs which he had incurred 
 that his reformation would come at the first hour instead of at the 
 eleventh hour. Undoubtedly a very large number of persons com¬ 
 mitting crime who contest the matter as long as there is a possi¬ 
 bility of escape, would plead guilty at the outset, which would 
 in itself result in a very great saving to the state, and it would 
 also relieve the courts from being overburdened with litigation 
 and leave ample opportunity for the disposal and consideration 
 of civil matters. It must be borne in mind that criminal matters 
 have the preference in courts over all civil matters, no matter how 
 great the importance of a civil suit may be, and this of course is 
 clearly correct because the law regards human rights above prop¬ 
 erty rights, but under the system proposed no injury would be 
 done to an offender by requiring him to pay the actual costs which, 
 he had incurred and incidentally a very great good would result 
 to society by so doing. 
 
 THE RELATION BETWEEN CONVICTIONS AND PUNISHMENT. 
 
 We believe there is another vital connection between the admin¬ 
 istration of punishment meted out to criminals and court procedure 
 which is of great importance, viz: that the character and degree 
 of punishment to be administered bears a close relation to the num¬ 
 ber of convictions. Some judges in instructing the jury set forth 
 the nature of the punishment which will follow as a result of con¬ 
 viction. Other judges avoid doing this especially if the punish¬ 
 ment seems harsh and severe because of the effect it would have 
 upon the jury. It is well known that the jurors in their jury room 
 discuss the length and character of the punishment to be meted 
 out to an offender in case of a conviction, and that they also con- 
 
— 72 — 
 
 sider the effect a conviction will have upon the family of a de¬ 
 fendant especially if a wife or children will be left without means 
 of support. 
 
 ACQUITTALS DUE TO SYMPATHY. 
 
 Jurors are supposed to follow the instructions of the court and 
 consider alone the guilt or innocence of the defendant leaving 
 it to the court to prescribe the punishment as by law provided, 
 but every prosecuting attorney knows that the majority of verdicts 
 are determined by the sympathies of the jurors. Therefore they 
 know that unless they can adduce sufficient evidence to remove the 
 natural sympathy, which some jurors always have, there is but 
 little probability of conviction. The criminal lawyer understands 
 this when he has the wife, the little children or the gray-haired 
 mother in the court room and as close to the jurors as possible, 
 and these methods are followed today because of the fact that the 
 old theory of vindictive punishment is still prevalent in the minds 
 of the people and because jurors feel that our penal institutions 
 are at least to some extent torture chambers. The very large num¬ 
 ber of acquittals in this country due to verdicts based on sympathy 
 and the technicalities of the law furnished the basis for President 
 Taft to say: “The administration of criminal law in this country 
 is a disgrace to our civilization.” 
 
 EFFECT ON JURORS. 
 
 If, however, it was known by our people that we could do for 
 young men who were committed to Anamosa what is being done 
 at the reformatories at Mansfield and Elmira, or that an offender, 
 in the event of conviction, would be sentenced to a penal farm 
 where he would be taught the principles of scientific farming, where 
 he would be paid for his labor in accordance with its value, be 
 compelled to support himself, pay the costs resulting from his 
 offense, and have sufficient to support those dependent upon him, 
 if any; if not, to lay by a bank account to be used upon his release, 
 and receive moral and mental training, we believe that the ver¬ 
 dict founded upon sympathy would be the exception instead of the 
 rule and that jurors would then do what they now agree but fail 
 to do, viz: pass upon the one question of the guilt or innocence 
 of the defendant. 
 
— 73 — 
 
 INCEPTION OF TECHNICALITIES. 
 
 But the beneficial results would not be confined alone to jurors. 
 The influence upon the courts would be equally as great. The tech¬ 
 nicalities of the law which are now being so universally condemned 
 were conceived by judges and courts at a time when it was neces¬ 
 sary to protect the individual against the state, and at a time when 
 over 150 offenses were punishable by death. Their inception was 
 prompted by humanity and we believe there has always been a 
 substantial relation between the technicalities of court procedure 
 and the kind and character of the punishment inflicted, but we 
 cannot believe that under a just, humane and reformatory system 
 of punishment, any court in Christendom could be found to make 
 a pronouncement so astounding as that made by the supreme court 
 of Missouri in the case of State vs. Campbell, decided in 1908, 210 
 Mo. page 202, in which the supreme court reversed a decision of 
 the lower court resulting in the discharge of the defendant charged 
 with a serious offense, because the indictment failed to allege that 
 the offense was committed against “the peace and dignity of the 
 state of Missouri” but only alleged that it was committed against 
 “the peace and dignity of state of Missouri.” 
 
 EFFECT UPON COURTS. 
 
 While such a decision as the one in question is preposterous and 
 capable of absolutely no defense, it is important to realize that 
 such decisions in the beginning were founded on sympathy, and 
 that under a reformatory system of punishment the strong public 
 condemnation w T hich will follow a decision of this nature will in 
 itself go far to prevent a recurrence of such a decision. 
 
 DETERRENT EFFECT. 
 
 But a still further benefit would ensue because one of the pur¬ 
 poses of punishment is its deterrent effect upon others. The deter¬ 
 rent effect, however, is governed very largely by the certainty of 
 punishment which follows the commission of a crime. Therefore 
 the reducing the number of verdicts based upon sympathy and the 
 lessening the number of acquittals due to technicalities of the law 
 would necessarily increase the certainty of punishment and cor¬ 
 respondingly increase its deterrent effect and this certainty of pun¬ 
 ishment coupled with promptness of administration will have a far 
 greater restraining influence than the fear of cruel treatment. 
 
74 
 
 EFFECT UPON THE PRISONER. 
 
 Important as these considerations may be, the effect upon the 
 prisoner himself would be even greater. The strong disciplinary 
 and reformatory benefits to be derived from a system of this kind 
 cannot be denied. 
 
 Prison officials of long experience, where prisoners are compen¬ 
 sated for their work, report the highest disciplinary value by the 
 giving and withholding of benefits and rewards to prisoners. 
 
 The head of a large penal institution told the attorney general 
 that he did not govern the inmates by indicting punishment but 
 by giving and withholding favors and rewards, and that he ob¬ 
 tained the very best results by following this method; but as pre¬ 
 viously pointed out, this method could not be followed under the 
 conditions which now obtain at Ft. Madison. 
 
 PAYMENT OF PRISONERS. 
 
 It has been urgd that prisoners should not be paid compensa¬ 
 tion as wages, but that a part of their earnings should be given 
 to them or their families wholly as a gratuity; that a prisoner 
 should not be permitted to feel that he had a claim against the 
 state. It matters but little what term is used if the prisoner is 
 to be rewarded for his efforts. While it is well known that no 
 individual could sue the state, it is not proposed that a law be 
 passed definitely fixing the amount of the compensation or gratuity 
 to be given to the prisoner. We are merely suggesting a plan or 
 rule for guidance which should be approximated as nearly as cir¬ 
 cumstances will permit. 
 
 In order that the matter of compensating prisoners in some form 
 may be of the highest disciplinary and reformatory value, the- be¬ 
 stowing of the same must be left to the warden and the board of 
 parol, the amount to depend upon the skill, efficiency and good 
 conduct of the prisoner. 
 
 THE LEGISLATIVE PART. 
 
 What the legislature should do is to make an appropriation for 
 the purchase of a farm and the establishment of a sufficient num¬ 
 ber of industries so that every prisoner could be employed at prof¬ 
 itable, productive labor during each working day of the year and 
 do the full amount of work which he is capable of doing, and at 
 the same time preserve his health and give such attention to the 
 
— 75 — 
 
 training of his mind as is conducive to his reformation. This would 
 enable the institution to be operated under favorable economic 
 conditions. The legislature should also authorize the payment to 
 the prisoner either as wages or gratuity an amount not to exceed 
 the compensation paid for the equivalent of like service for free 
 labor, leaving it to the warden and board of parol to determine 
 the exact amount to be paid to each individual. The board of 
 parol and the warden would then require the prisoner to pay for 
 the cost of his maintenance and would also in so far as practicable 
 deduct a certain amount from the wages of each prisoner during 
 the time of his confinement to pay for the entire costs incurred 
 by reason of the commission of the offense. 
 
 AN ADMINISTRATIVE MATTER. 
 
 The rewarding of prisoners for their efforts is not a legislative 
 matter to be definitely fixed by law, but it is an administrative 
 matter to be handled by administrative officers within certain 
 definite limits prescribed by the legislature. 
 
 Precisely the same reasons which induced congress to leave to 
 the Interstate Commerce Commission the function of fixing rates 
 should govern in this case, because of the necessity for elasticity 
 and the need of taking into consideration the peculiar circum¬ 
 stances and conditions in each case. The disciplinary and reform¬ 
 atory elements require that it be considered an administrative mat¬ 
 ter, the economic side of the question would further require it, 
 and there is the additional reason due to the fact that a consider¬ 
 able number of the prisoners are physically and morally defective, 
 and hence due allowance must be made in each case after the exact 
 condition and ability of the prisoner in question is determined. 
 
 THE RECORDS OF THE INSTITUTION. 
 
 We have previously called attention to the necessity of so keep¬ 
 ing the records as to know the exact physical and mental condi¬ 
 tion of every prisoner, and these records should also show the ca¬ 
 pacity and ability of the prisoner for labor and the kind and char¬ 
 acter best suited to the prisoner. The records should show the 
 aggregate labor efficiency of the institution using as a basis the 
 standard amount of labor performed during a working day by 
 free labor. 
 
— 76 — 
 
 DIVISION OF EXPENSE. 
 
 The amount of expense incurred by reason of a given per cent of 
 the total number of prisoners being below normal should be charged 
 to the state under a separate account. There is no more reason 
 for a normal man in the penitentiary being required to sup¬ 
 port a defective in the institution incapable of labor than there 
 is to require him to support a defective incapable of labor outside 
 the institution, hence the necessity of the prison records showing 
 the aggregate number of men capable of performing a full day’s 
 labor and the exact percentage of the total number of prisoners 
 incapable of performing labor. 
 
 The expense incident to mental and moral training, including 
 the cost of teachers, books, chaplain and matters of that nature 
 should likewise be charged to the state. The governor, the board 
 of parol, the general assembly and the public would then know 
 whether the institution was being efficiently managed, whether 
 the prisoners were performing the proper amount of labor, and 
 whether matters of education and moral training were being neg¬ 
 lected. There would then be no temptation for the board of con¬ 
 trol and the warden to sacrifice the welfare of the men in order 
 to make a good financial showing. There is no large, well managed 
 business concern but what has a system of cost accounting and 
 bookkeeping along the lines herein suggested. 
 
 SUMMARY. 
 
 We know the natural hesitancy there will be in establishing 
 a new penal farm with allied industries, but considering that a 
 worse site for the location of a state institution could not have 
 been selected than the particular spot chosen at Ft. Madison, and 
 considering the impossibility of ever furnishing the proper means 
 of classification and segregation necessary to any highly reforma¬ 
 tory methods, and the unquestioned evil effects which result from 
 confining prisoners of all classes in one building, and considering 
 that other states are now operating as many as six and seven 
 penal farms and actually making a net profit of- over a half million 
 dollars within a period of less than two years, and the overwhelm¬ 
 ing testimony of the economic value of penal labor used under 
 favorable conditions and under a system which gives the prisoner 
 incentive and hope, and considering the undoubted benefits which 
 would follow as a result of proper co-operation given to a penal 
 
 * 
 
— 77 — 
 
 farm by our Agricultural College, and the far-reaching effect upon 
 society by adopting the most scientific and reformatory methods 
 as a punishment for crime, we believe that our state cannot af¬ 
 ford to continue a policy of indifference, ignore what other states 
 are doing and wait until the price of land becomes so high as to 
 make the proposal prohibitive and thus permanently commit our¬ 
 selves to a policy of reaction which casts reflection upon the char¬ 
 acter and culture of our citizenship. 
 
THE JAIL SYSTEM 
 
 NECESSITY FOR CONSIDERATION. 
 
 While your letter requesting an investigation directed attention 
 alone to conditions at Ft. Madison, and while the report has al¬ 
 ready been unduly extended, we feel that the general conditions 
 surrounding our jail system in this state should be called to your 
 attention to the end that you may give the matter due consid¬ 
 eration before the convening of the next general assembly and make 
 such recommendations to the legislature as seem to you necessary 
 and proper. 
 
 Social workers and penologists are now realizing that it is more 
 important to keep people out of the penitentiary than to provide 
 a reformatory method of treatment in the event that they are 
 confined to the penitentiary, and lienee the recent spread of ju¬ 
 venile laws, the suspended sentence, and probation, the parol, the 
 conditional pardon, the opportunities for paying fines on the install¬ 
 ment plan, the agricultural and industrial schools for youthful of¬ 
 fenders, and a complete change in the method of dealing with even 
 adult misdemeanants. 
 
 BASIS OF REFORM. 
 
 We have commenced to realize that for a number of years we 
 were reforming at the wrong end, that the reform should commence 
 at the bottom, and the District of Columbia, the federal government 
 and Superintendent Whittaker have this object in view in the oper¬ 
 ation of the federal farm at Occoquan as a means of punishment for 
 persons convicted of offenses less than felony; hence we believe that 
 the necessity for a radical change in the method of punishing misde¬ 
 meanants, or those convicted of crime who may not be committed to 
 the penitentiary or reformatory, is of even greater importance than 
 the necessity for a change in our penal system at our penitentiary 
 and reformatory. 
 
— 79 - 
 
 DISGRACE OF OUR JAIL SYSTEM. 
 
 Whereas the management of our penitentiary and reformatory 
 is not up to the standard of some of the leading penal in¬ 
 stitutions of the country, our jail system is a disgrace to the 
 state, and except as a place of detention for persons awaiting trial, 
 there is not a single excuse or justification for its existence. What 
 is true of Iowa is generally true over the United States. Represen¬ 
 tatives from every country in the world have journeyed to America 
 to study the reformatory systems in use at Elmira, Mansfield, 
 Pontiac, the George Junior Republic, and the Agricultural and In¬ 
 dustrial School at Industry, New York, but the jail system in 
 America is everywhere looked upon as an inexcusable relic of 
 barbarism. 
 
 COMPARISON OF IOWA WITH GEORGE JUNIOR REPUBLIC. 
 
 When the attorney general visited the George Junior Republic, 
 he found that the “citizens” or inmates who were under twenty- 
 one years of age, ninety per cent of whom were incorrigibles, were 
 living under a self government. He found that they not only 
 made their own laws, but that they elected their own officers, ex¬ 
 ecutive, legislative and judicial, and imposed their own punish¬ 
 ments. They had their judges, their attorney general, courts and 
 jurors and their jail; but he found that there was not a person 
 committed to jail for an offense even if only committed for a day 
 ivlio was not profitably engaged in productive labor. At the same 
 time in the state of Iowa, there was not a person who was com¬ 
 mitted to our county jails as a punishment for crime who was 
 engaged in any real productive labor. 
 
 The significance of the comparison of our jail system with that 
 of youthful incorrigibles becomes greater when we consider that 
 enforced idleness and solitary confinement tends to depravity, 
 imbecility and insanity, as was previously pointed out, and when 
 we further consider the economic loss due to such a system, and 
 the further wrong against the'prisoner’s family by reason of be¬ 
 ing deprived of any means of support. 
 
 ADMONITION OF PRESIDENT OF INTERNATIONAL PRISON 
 
 CONGRESS. 
 
 The last admonition given to America by the new president 
 of the International Prison Congress before leaving for Europe 
 was put in the form of a request. He said: ‘ ‘ Let me ask that 
 
— 80 — 
 
 from your great fund of heart and self-sacrifice you give consid¬ 
 eration to the thousands of petty offenders now passing through 
 your city and county jails in such appalling numbers.” 
 
 MOST VICIOUS AGENCY. 
 
 Dr. Henderson, from whom we have quoted so often, says in his 
 introduction to Outdoor Labor for Convicts: ‘‘The whole ques¬ 
 tion of occupation of convicts is connected with that of the re¬ 
 form of our jail system, which, by the unanimous consent of all 
 competent students is the most vicious and corrupt agency con¬ 
 nected with our penal system. The essential evil of the ordinary 
 county jail does not lie merely in its unsanitary condition, bad 
 as that often is, for this can he corrected by health authorities. 
 The worst of the jail method is that it involves idleness and base 
 companionship. It is idleness which' corrupts young men especial¬ 
 ly when the unoccupied time is spent with depraved company. # * * 
 There is a large class of low bred, degenerate, alcoholic rounders 
 who are now required to serve short sentences for drunkenness 
 or disorder and who are made) worse by the treatment given them 
 under present laws.” 
 
 CONDITION OF OUR JAILS. 
 
 It is true as Dr. Henderson says that the unsanitary condition 
 can be corrected, hut it is also true that up to this date in a 
 very large number of cities and counties in this state it has not 
 been corrected. The committee has received reports concerning 
 the city and county jails over the entire state and in none of them 
 is there provided any real form of productive labor, and the jail 
 which is sanitary, admits plenty of sunshine and in which there 
 is any proper segregation of prisoners, is the rare exception and 
 not the rule. 
 
 LACK OF SEGREGATION. 
 
 In one county we find the jail to be “small, poor and dirty.” 
 In another county it is reported that “The jail is in a basement 
 and damp, although the sheriff does the best he can.” In another 
 county it is reported that the jail is not even a safe place for keeping 
 prisoners, and in a very large number of counties it is reported 
 that there is no separate apartment for women and no means of 
 segregation between first offenders and the most hardened crim- 
 
— 81 — 
 
 inals except such as is afforded by confinement in the cell, and 
 this admits of course of constant communication. One county at- 
 tornej^ reports “The only means of separating ivomen and minors 
 from hardened criminals is a steel lattice icorh partition.” 
 
 One county attorney reports that the sewerage is in had condition. 
 
 THE SHERIFF. 
 
 In addtion to the evidence that a number of jails are dirty, 
 unsanitary, unsafe, and that there is no proper means of segrega¬ 
 tion of minors, first offenders and even women, this committee 
 lias convincing evidence that in some counties intoxicating liquors 
 and various forms of dope are permitted to be passed to the pris¬ 
 oners. 
 
 The report comes from one county within the past two years 
 that one sheriff permitted prisoners to go outside the prison walls 
 and secure whisky and become intoxicated. In at least two other 
 counties of the state we have conclusive evidence that the sheriffs 
 were themselves guilty of intoxication, gambling and visiting as¬ 
 signation houses, and to the personal knowledge of members of 
 the committee, one sheriff permitted prisoners to spend a night 
 of enjoyment if not criminal dissipation in another state. 
 
 In still another county of the state where a husband and wife 
 were confined charged with the commission of a felony, the sheriff 
 permitted the husband to enter his wife’s apartment. Both pris¬ 
 oners were convicted and given a fifteen year sentence and are 
 now in confinement, but according to the testimony of both pris¬ 
 oners as a result of the improper permission of their being together, 
 the woman is now pregnant, and unless released will give birth 
 to a child within the prison walls. 
 
 A prisoner gives evidence that in still another county the sheriff 
 and jailer permitted sporting women to enter his cell for his grat¬ 
 ification. 
 
 In addition to this we have it from the warden of the peniten¬ 
 tiary that prisoners are sometimes brought to the penitentiary in 
 an intoxicated condition by the sheriffs or deputies in charge. 
 
 THE FINDINGS OF THE COURT. 
 
 This testimony is in exact accord with the conclusions of our 
 supreme court, 
 fi 
 
— 82 — 
 
 In the case of State v. "Wialsh, 109 Iowa, on page 24 our supreme 
 court made the following finding: 
 
 “The evidence tended to show that the defendant (sheriff) while 
 in Cedar Rapids, having in his custody a prisoner sentenced to 
 serve a term of seven and a half years in the penitentiary at Ana- 
 mosa, and on the way to that place, became intoxicated, and al¬ 
 lowed the prisoner his liberty for about thirty hours. If witnesses 
 are to be believed, he drank whisky from the prisoner’s bottle, 
 and partook of beer with him at four different saloons in succession, 
 
 leaving him at the last one while he (the sheriff ) visited the res- 
 
 * 
 
 idence of a woman ivho has since, at the suggestion of th& police, 
 departed the city.” 
 
 We do not wish to cast reflection upon the sheriffs of the state 
 as a class. Edmund Burke said that “You cannot indict a whole 
 race.” It is equally true that you cannot indict a whole class. 
 
 The committee knows that there are a large number of sheriffs 
 in the state who are deserving of the very highest commendation, 
 who are rendering excellent service to the state, who have a high 
 sense of their duty and who are honest, capable and efficient, but 
 truth requires us to say that there are also sheriffs in the state 
 who are neither capable nor efficient and who are utterly unfit 
 to have charge of the reformation of anyone, much less minors, 
 first offenders and women. It must be perfectly obvious to anyone 
 who has given the matter any consideration whatever that more 
 than one sheriff is elected without any other qualification or recom¬ 
 mendation except that he is a “good fellow.” Even people who 
 believe in civic decency usually give but little consideration to 
 the office of sheriff and generally vote the party ticket or often per¬ 
 mit their votes to be controlled by social and business reasons, 
 whereas the people who are evil-minded, or who for any reason 
 do not want the law enforced or have any special interest to serve, 
 disregard political considerations entirely and vote for the man 
 who “minds his own business” and who is a “good fellow.” 
 
 THE FEE SYSTEM. 
 
 But aside from this obvious fact, the fee system connected with 
 our jail system is absolutely indefensible and should be abolished 
 by the next general assembly. 
 
 Mr. Paul U. Kellogg, in reporting the proceedings of the In¬ 
 ternational Prison Congress at Washington, in the Survey of No- 
 
— 83 — 
 
 vember 5, 1910, in speaking of this question states that the im¬ 
 prisonment of all persons awaiting trial and those under sentence 
 for minor offenses has been left in the hands of counties and states, 
 and says: ‘ ‘ The fees to be gained by their arrest, detention, feeding 
 and incarceration during the period of sentence, have made the 
 sheriff’s office the center of county politics and in some localities, 
 a more lucrative post than that of president of the United States.” 
 
 At least one paper in this city set forth in detail the profit in¬ 
 curring to the sheriff by reason of feeding prisoners. A system 
 whereby a sheriff has a distinct, personal, financial gain in the 
 arrest and confinement of prisoners, and no interest whatsoever 
 in their reformation is vicious and capable of no defense. 
 
 THE STATE’S BUSINESS. 
 
 That being true, we agree with Prof. Henderson that mere <( petty 
 tinkering with the present methods is absurd and is waste of time, 
 money and manhood,” and that (( this evil cannot be corrected 
 so long as the ordinary place for serving short sentences is a county 
 institute. The jail should be reserved simply for prisoners pre¬ 
 sumably innocent, but held for trial. A convicted person should at 
 once be sent to a district prison of some kind and placed under 
 state control until he is restored to freedom.” 
 
 And we also agree with Sir Evelyn Ruggles Brise that “Amer¬ 
 ica cannot help Europe solve the problem of dealing with mis- 
 demeants until w^e recognize that the petty offender is as much 
 a matter for state concern and control as the man under long and 
 indeterminate sentence. ’’ 
 
 Abundance of evidence from our own state which is within the 
 possession and knowledge of this committee makes it absolutely 
 imperative that ive should entirely eliminate the county jail in 
 so far as it is used as a place of confinement or punishment of a 
 person convicted of crime, and that in all such instances the of¬ 
 fender should, in the event that ho has violated a state law and 
 se?itenced to confinement, be sent to some district penal institu¬ 
 tion under the absolute jurisdiction and control of the state. 
 
 In the thirty-third general assembly, the legislature of Iowa rec¬ 
 ognized this fundamental principle: that the state which enacted 
 a law was responsible for its enforcement, and that there could 
 never be any uniformity or substantial law enforcement in the state 
 of Iowa until legislation was passed recognizing this principle, and 
 to that end a series of acts was passed by the thirty-third general 
 
— 84 — 
 
 assembly embodying these principles and placing it within the power 
 of the attorney general and governor to see that the law is enforced 
 in every part of the state. 
 
 The next step is equally imperative. The state that enacts a law 
 is not only responsible for its enforcement but it is responsible for 
 its administration. If it is the duty of the state to enforce the law, 
 it is equally the duty of the state to administer the punishment to be 
 meted out for persons who violate the state law, and so long as 
 the punishment is inflicted by local authorities, the nature of the 
 punishment will bei as varying as the number and character of the 
 jailers and sheriffs in charge of the prisoners. 
 
 When a state in the passage of a law causes a man to be deprived 
 of his liberty, it is responsible for the man’s phyical and moral 
 welfare, and therefore the state should never surrender jurisdiction 
 over one of its subjects whether he be convicted of a felony or a 
 misdemeanor. 
 
 For a very able and detailed account of the abuse of the system 
 of delegating the punishment to county authorities, see the article of 
 A. J. McKelloway, entitled “The Prison Systems of the Southern 
 States of America,” in Penal and Reformatory Institutions, the 
 Russell Sage Foundation Series. 
 
 All prison authorities, penologists and prison administrators are 
 agreed that the state alone should administer punishment for the 
 violation of state laws. 
 
 THE DISTRICT PENAL FARM. 
 
 Your committee then recommends the establishment of at least 
 three district penal farms to be located in various parts of the 
 state, the most accessible to the communities whence would come 
 the largest number of prisoners, and a sufficient distance from 
 any city or town as to prevent the mingling of prisoners with free 
 citizens, but with reasonable railroad facilities, each penal farm 
 or colony to comprise at least a section of land. The law should then 
 be so amended'as to compel the sending of any prisoner to any 
 one of these penal farms when convicted of the violation of a state 
 law if the crime is less than a felony, and he was not released 
 under pardon, parol, or suspended sentence. No person, ex¬ 
 cept for contempt or some special circumstance, should be committed 
 for a period shorter than thirty days. If the offense committed is 
 not sufficiently serious to warrant his commitment for a period 
 of thirty days, then he should either be paroled or given some fine, 
 
if necessary, with the right to pay the fine upon the installment 
 plan. 
 
 INDETERMINATE SENTENCE FOR MISDEMEANANTS. 
 
 We believe that the time has arrived when the indeterminate 
 sentence law should also be applied to misdemeanants. The short 
 term sentence of from two days to two weeks is as wrong as it is 
 foolish. 
 
 THE REPEATER. 
 
 Hugh C. Weir in the World Today for January, 1910, states that 
 a man was sentenced to the Philadelphia city prison 201 times 
 for the same offense. 
 
 The records of the Detroit House of Correction show one man 
 to have been committed 112 times; another, 59 times; another, 58 
 times; another, 57; another, 40; and so on down. See the Annual 
 Report for the year 1911. 
 
 We are informed by police officers in the city of Des Moines 
 that Polk county has one citizen who has been sentenced on an 
 average of from five to ten times a year during the past fifteen 
 years; and one year this individual was committed to the city or 
 county jail seventeen times. 
 
 A great deal of testimony in our own state could be offered to 
 show the large number of sentences imposed upon rounders and 
 repeaters, but this is sufficient to demonstrate that the * indeter¬ 
 minate sentence law is just as necessary in the punishment of mis¬ 
 demeanants as felons. It goes without saying that any law under 
 which it is possible for a man to serve 17 sentences in a year, and 
 an average of from five to ten every year, and from 100 to 200 in 
 a life time is both archaic and vicious. 
 
 ARRESTS FOR INTOXICATION. 
 
 The number of men annually arrested in our state for intoxi¬ 
 cation alone is sufficient to warrant the establishment of the dis¬ 
 trict farms or penal colonies, and this regardless of the fact that 
 we now have an inebriate hospital at Knoxville. 
 
 The amount of money annually spent in punishing intoxication 
 and inebriety and the resultant evils inflicted upon the offenders’ 
 families by reason of the present foolish and vicious form of. 
 punishment, is far greater than the public generally realizes. 
 
86 — 
 
 The statistics of one writer show that one-half of all the arrests 
 in .a dozen of the largest cities of the United States during the 
 year 1909 was for intoxication, and he states that during that 
 year there were approximately 786,000 arrests in the country, and 
 that over 350,000 of these were for drunken men. During the same 
 year the report for England shows that of 90,000 persons who were 
 committed to prison in default of payment of tines, over half were 
 convicted of drunkenness. 
 
 Reports from every county in the state of Iowa, and special inves¬ 
 tigations which have been made by one of the members of this com¬ 
 mittee in some of the larger cities, show that the ratio of arrests 
 for intoxication as to the whole number of arrests is about the 
 same in Iowa as the reports for the United States and for England, 
 that is to say, our report shows.that the arrests in Iowa for intoxi¬ 
 cation average from 46 to 52 per cent of the total number of 
 arrests, and in some communities arrests for intoxication are 60 
 or 65 per cent of the total number of arrests. 
 
 In an evening Des Moines paper, April 15, 1912, a news item 
 says: ‘ ‘ The police court room was crowded and almost overflowing 
 
 this morning with drunks picked up since Saturday morning. 
 Police Judge Utterback disposed of fifty cases during the morning.” 
 
 Since approximately 50 per cent of all arrests is for intoxi¬ 
 cation in Iowa, as well as in other parts of the United States, the 
 significance of the present method of punishment from a financial 
 standpoint will become apparent when we consider the cost of 
 prosecuting crimes both in our own state and throughout the United 
 States. 
 
 THE COST OF CRIME. 
 
 We have called attention to the fact that the report of our board 
 of parol for the year ending June 30, 1910, shows that the expen¬ 
 ses of criminal prosecution for that year amounted to $531,505.04, 
 but this did not include the expenses incident to the county 
 attorneys’ office which was $128,569.81, nor did it include the 
 judge’s salary for the time spent in presiding at criminal trials, 
 so that the item of expense including the expense of the county 
 attorney amounting to over $600,000 is but a limited part of the 
 cost of crime in the state of Iowa for one year. 
 
 During nine months of the previous year, the cost of prose- 
 cution, including the expense incident to the county attorney’s 
 salary, aggregate over a half million dollars. 
 
— 87 — 
 
 Mr. Weir, in the World of Today for January, 1910, states that 
 our crimes cost us $3,500,000 per day and that the cost of crime in 
 this country for 1909 equalled the amount realized from the wheat 
 crop, the coal and the wool, aggregating approximately about 
 $1,373,000,000. 
 
 NECESSITY FOR SCIENTIFIC TREATMENT. 
 
 Without vouching for the figures given by Mr. Weir, it is cer¬ 
 tain that the cost of crime in this country is appalling, and we 
 have such reliable data in the state of Iowa as to convince us of the 
 absolute necessity of dealing in a more scientific way with intoxi¬ 
 cation and inebriety. 
 
 We have previously referred to the economic value of prison 
 labor. There is at the present time in the Inebriate Hospital at 
 Knoxville about 195 inmates. Dr. Donohoe, the superintendent, 
 advises that at least 100 of these men are capable of doing as much 
 manual labor as a like number of free, unskilled laborers, and 
 that he would have sufficient men left of the 94 to perform all of 
 the customary work in connection with the operation of the 
 institution. 
 
 If that is true with men who have been convicted or who pleaded 
 guilty to inebriety and habitual drunkenness, it is undoubtedly 
 true of men who become intoxicated to such an extent as to cause 
 their arrest but who have not yet reached the stage of an inebriate 
 or habitual drunkard. 
 
 We have previously pointed out the value of this labor with 
 reference to short term prisoners and referred to what was actu¬ 
 ally being done at the House of Correction at Detroit, Michigan, 
 where the prisoners are employd largely at manufacturing under 
 the state account system. 
 
 FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FURNISHES THE PLAN. 
 
 The federal government, however, has furnished for the entire 
 country the plan of successfully and scientifically dealing with 
 intoxication and other forms of misdemeanor in the establishment 
 of the district farm at Occoquan, Virginia, where all the short 
 term prisoners for the district of Columbia are committed after 
 conviction, and the men are employed upon a large penal farm 
 consisting of over 1100 acres; all kinds of farming, including 
 poultry raising, dairying, raising of stock is carried on and where 
 there is also in connection with the farm a sufficient number of in- 
 
— 88 — 
 
 dustries to keep the men profitably employed at productive labor 
 during every part of the year. 
 
 Aside from the immediate value of the labor and the far-reach¬ 
 ing value of furnishing an opportunity for the men to earn a 
 sufficient amount to support their families during confinement, 
 following the plan in so far as possible previously recommended in 
 this report, the importance to the state of giving these men the 
 best scientific training in agriculture can hardly be estimated, and 
 undoubtedly this scientific knowledge of agriculture could be ob¬ 
 tained if the state will provide for the co-operation between the 
 Agricultural College and the penal farms as before recommended. 
 
 That this recommendation is not merely a matter of theory, 
 we have already furnished evidence by calling attention to the co¬ 
 operation given to the George Junior Republic by the professors 
 of agriculture at Cornell University, and the instruction being 
 given in every branch of scientific farming at Industry, New 
 York, and we have called attention to the fact that Dean Curtiss of 
 our Agricultural College believes that the instruction can be given 
 by the college and that it will be to the advantage of the prisoners, 
 the college and to the state. 
 
 But important as we believe the economic side of the question 
 to be, independent of this and independent of the fact that these 
 penal farms would be constantly educating men to become farmers 
 and thus at least partially relieve the demand for farm laborers, 
 it is because of the superior value to the men themselves that we 
 urge the recommendation. 
 
 AN ESTABLISHMENT OF INDUSTRIES. 
 
 It should not be understood that we believe that all persons could 
 be employed at outdoor labor. Classification is necessary to the 
 success of any penal reform and it is no less necessary in the 
 operation of a penal farm, although Mr. Whittaker, Superintendent 
 of the District of Columbia Farm at Occoquan, employs all of 
 the prisoners at outdoor labor. 
 
 There should be district penal farms with allied industries, dairy¬ 
 ing, poultry, stock raising, and blacksmithing, etc., which will fur¬ 
 nish employment for the major part of all the prisoners, and there 
 should in addition be sufficient industries so that every person 
 committed to the institution can find employment every day in the 
 year, and it goes without saying that the character of these indus¬ 
 tries should be such that the men upon their release may find some 
 
— 89 — 
 
 employment at profitable wages, and that the character oi* the 
 employment should qiot be distinctly a woman’s work or work for 
 the blind. If at least three of these district farms were established, 
 we believe that one of the institutions should be especially equipped 
 to treat men with sexual diseases, and that the proper means of 
 segregation should be made; and that another institution should be 
 equipped for caring for men not fit subjects for the insane asylum, 
 but who are on the border line of insanity, and that another should 
 be especially equipped for caring for men of tubercular tendencies, 
 or perhaps special treatment could be arranged for the segregation 
 of these three classes at one institution under the colony system. 
 In any event, the important thing is that there be special treatment 
 for these several classes and that there be segregation; in fact, it 
 will be found that classification and segregation is absolutely neces¬ 
 sary in order to eliminate the “institutional” method of treatment 
 and substitute therefor as far as possible the method of “individu¬ 
 alization” of punishment. 
 
 METHOD OF PUNISHMENT. 
 
 In dealing with ordinary intoxication, we believe that the 
 offender should not be committed for the first offense but that 
 if a person is found intoxicated upon the public streets, he should 
 be taken to the police station or before a magistrate and a history 
 made of his case, and that in addition to this a finger print record 
 be taken of the man and that he should be warned that for the 
 second arrest he would be committed to a district farm; that if he 
 were again found upon the streets intoxicated and were convicted 
 or pleaded guilty that he should be sentenced to a district farm 
 for a period of not less than thirty days, and not to exceed ninety 
 days, or what would be better, the indeterminate sentence of not less 
 than thirty and not to exceed six months; and that if again found 
 guilty of intoxication he should be sentenced for a period of not 
 less than six months and not to exceed three years. 
 
 We believe that it would be well for the board of parol to have 
 authority to transfer prisoners from one district farm to another 
 district farm or to the Inebriate Hospital at Knoxville. 
 
 At these district farms a number of men should no doubt be 
 placed on the honor system, and there should be upon each farm 
 the necessary custodial buildings sufficiently safe to handle even 
 hardened criminals. The law should further provide that all cities 
 and towns should commit all persons convicted of misdemeanors 
 
— 90 
 
 and for violation of city ordinances to one of these farms, unless 
 proper arrangements were made by such city or town for employing 
 the prisoner at some form of productive labor; in other words, 
 the law should provide that no city or town in the state, after the 
 establishment of these district farms, should be permitted to con¬ 
 fine a prisoner after conviction to a city or county jail as a means 
 of punishment. 
 
 That this co-operation is entirely practical is evidenced by the 
 experience of the federal government in committing prisoners 
 to state institutions and by the reciprocity existing between the 
 city of Detroit and the state of Michigan. 
 
 While we have pointed out clearly that the state should not 
 delegate to any local officials punishment for a state law, we do 
 not believe the same objection would exist if arrangements were 
 made for a municipality to confine a person for violating a city 
 ordinance in one of the state institutions. On the contrary, 
 we think distinct advantages would result from such an ar¬ 
 rangement. As the population of the state becomes more urban 
 it is found necessary to grant the larger cities more power, 
 and it has already become apparent that if cities and towns are 
 to deal effectively with the matter of intoxication, our con¬ 
 stitution should be so amended as to permit the police judge to 
 impose a sentence in excess of thirty days and to this end we 
 believe that the next legislature should pass the necessary reso¬ 
 lution looking to the submission to the people of an amendment 
 to the constitution authorizing police judges to sentence repeaters 
 and recidivists to an indeterminate sentence of not to exceed 
 ninety days or one year according to the character of the offense 
 and the number of times previously convicted; otherwise, these 
 questions must be dealt with under the state law and by county 
 officials if they are to be dealt with scientifically and intelligently. 
 
 But there are a sufficient number of commitments to the county 
 jail for misdemeanors under the state law to warrant the establish¬ 
 ment of at least three district farms independent of the number 
 of persons sentenced to town and city jails under city and town 
 ordinances. 
 
 A reference to the records of Polk county, without setting out 
 testimony in other cities and towns in the state will make the 
 position clear. 
 
— 91 
 
 In 1909 the least number of persons committed for one month to 
 the Polk county jail was 216; and the highest number during any 
 one month in that year was 334. In 1910 in Polk county the least 
 number of persons committed to the county jail for any month was 
 198; and the highest number was 409. In 1911 the least number of 
 persons committed to the Polk county jail for any one month was 
 236; and the highest number was 445. 
 
 It will readily be seen that without reference to the persons com¬ 
 mitted under city ordinance that in Polk county alone there are 
 enough idle men confined in the county jail to operate a penal 
 farm of a section of land and follow intensive farming, but we 
 have abundance of evidence in our possession to show that the 
 number of convictions from all parts of the state would more than 
 warrant the establishment of these district farms herein recom¬ 
 mended. 
 
 NO INDUSTRIES AT KNOXVILLE. 
 
 The committee visited Knoxville and found the institution clean 
 and sanitary, but we were surprised to find that there was not a 
 single industry connected with the institution; that there were 
 approximately 195 men in the institution at the time; that there 
 were about twenty in the sick ward; 15 to 20 cripples or invalids 
 who were not capable of doing ordinary labor, and 30 or so engaged 
 in work in connection with the general duties of the institution. 
 There were remaining about 100 or more able-bodied men who 
 were capable of performing as much labor as an equal number of 
 unskilled free laborers; that there was absolutely nothing at all for 
 these men to do. 
 
 From what has heretofore been said it follows that this is abso¬ 
 lutely inexcusable, and the fact that there is employment for 
 men during the crop season on the small farm does not alter the 
 situation. The fault, however, is not due to Dr. Donohoe, the 
 superintendent, and without attempting to determine who is re¬ 
 sponsible, we recommend that sufficient industries be carried on in 
 connection with the institution as that every man capable of labor 
 may be employed at productive labor during such time each day 
 as is consistent with his physical and moral welfare. 
 
 NECESSITY FOR DISCIPLINE. 
 
 This institution should have a custodial colony. Since the 
 institution was established, upon nine different occasions the 
 
92 — 
 
 doors have been sawed or cut and each time a number of men 
 have escaped. During June of last year a fire was set in the 
 chapel by a number of the men who evidently resented being 
 longer confined, and under the administration of a previous super¬ 
 intendent it was common knowledge that the men proceeded to 
 walk away and leave the institution when they desired. 
 
 THE CHANGE IN THE LAW. 
 
 The means for the same effective discipline should be furnished 
 for the inebriate hospital as for an ordinary penal colony, and the 
 law should be so changed as to provide for the commitment of 
 men to this institution if found guilty regardless of their desires 
 and without balancing probabilities as to whether they would be 
 completely cured. 
 
 An habitual drunkard and inebriate ought not to be left at his 
 home for his wife to support and to set an evil example to his own 
 off-spring, if any, and the youth of the community. He should be 
 committed with or without his consent to the district farm or the 
 Inebriate Hospital, and after receiving the regular hospital treat¬ 
 ment he should be put to work at productive labor. 
 
 We do not recommend that the hospital treatment be lessened 
 or denied any one, but we do recommend that after the hospital 
 treatment is received, every man be required to perform as much 
 productive labor as he is capable of doing and at the same time 
 build him up physically and morally, not, however, exceeding the 
 standard hours fixed by free laborers for like employment. 
 
 We believe that in so far as practical and workable, the sugges¬ 
 tions with reference to the payment of the inmates, or the giving of 
 their earnings in the support of their families, should be followed. 
 But the records should be so kept as to show the exact physical 
 and mental condition of the inmates and the working efficiency 
 of the men, and while efficiency at productive labor should be 
 required, in no event should the financial side of the institution be 
 considered paramount to the welfare of the men or interfere in the 
 least degree with their physical, mental or moral training. 
 
 NECESSITY FOB/ A AVOMEN’S COLONY. 
 
 All of the reasons urged in support of the necessity of the elim¬ 
 ination of the county jail as a means of punishment for men com¬ 
 mitting misdemeanors makes it equally necessary to provide some 
 
93 — 
 
 isolated colony for the purpose of caring for women offenders who 
 are arrested and convicted of offenses less than a felony; the keep¬ 
 ing and being an inmate of a disorderly house, vagrancy, petty 
 larceny and intoxication comprising the largest part of these of¬ 
 fenses. 
 
 Reports of chiefs of police from ten of the largest cities in Iowa 
 show that over 1,000 women were arrested and convicted of im¬ 
 morality and other misdemeanors during the year 1911. It is cer¬ 
 tain that if there were over a thousand convictions of women in one 
 year for misdemeanor in ten of our cities, that the number of 
 women convicted of misdemeanor in our entire state make im¬ 
 perative the necessity for at least one custodial colony for women 
 in Iowa. 
 
 Chiefs of police and police officials advise the committee that 
 there is' no proper way of dealing with these offenders. A woman 
 convicted of a misdemeanor must either be discharged, committed 
 to the county jail or fined. The effect of merely arresting the 
 persons and discharging them needs no comment. If they are 
 confined to a jail they are kept in idleness, probably with base 
 companions at the expense of the state or municipality and un¬ 
 doubtedly the woman leaves the jail with less respect for herself 
 and others than when she entered it. If a fine is assessed against 
 her it is usually paid by some one who has participated in her 
 crime, and who therefore feels that he has a mortgage on her body, 
 or a right to share in her nefarious business until he is repaid, 
 and hence one wrong is added to another. 
 
 WORTH SAVING. 
 
 Jane Addams and Katherine Bement Davis, Superintendent of 
 the New York State Reformatory for Women, have taught us that 
 the scarlet letter may be removed, that the women of the street 
 convicted of immorality are worth saving, and that it is possible 
 to save them. 
 
 In an address before the National Prison Association Dr. Davis 
 told of her work at the Reformatory for girls and women and how 
 she had taken these women who were sentenced from the city of 
 New York, from the crowded tenement side, from China-town, from 
 the “tenderloin” and Coney Island, and by giving them employ¬ 
 ment a half day at productive labor, a great part of that labor be¬ 
 ing outdoors, and devoting the other half of each day to school, 
 she had been enabled to make them over body and soul. 
 
— 94 — 
 
 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 
 
 The District of Columbia operates a woman’s colony at Occoquan 
 in connection with the district farm for misdemeanants where 
 women convicted of offenses less than felony are committed for 
 punishment, the women’s colony being a considerable distance from 
 the men’s colony, and under direct charge of a matron and women 
 guards. What can be done at Occoquan can be done in Iowa. 
 
 If it were thought that an entirely separate colony for women 
 would entail too much expense there could be one colony for women 
 operated in connection with one of the district farms but a suffi¬ 
 cient distance from the quarters for the men to make it completely 
 isolated. If placed under the charge of a woman matron with 
 women guards, all the necessary conditions could be met and un¬ 
 doubtedly a sufficient amount of productive labor could be provided 
 to occupy as much of their time as should be spent in labor. Such 
 work as laundering, garment making and matters of that nature 
 which are performed by men at all penal institutions could be per¬ 
 formed by women with economy and according to the experience 
 of Dr. Davis not only gardening but many other forms of outdoor 
 labor can be profitably engaged in by women. And it 
 follows that a part of each day should be spent in mental and moral 
 training. 
 
 INDETERMINATE SENTENCE. 
 
 It is especially important that the indeterminate sentence be ap¬ 
 plied to this class of women as it is impossible to accomplish any- 
 fhing by a ten day sentence. 
 
 A short time ago a woman taken to the police station in Des 
 Moines attempted suicide. This is not strange when we consider 
 our method of punishment and the gloomy prospect for a woman 
 of this kind even if she desires to reform. 
 
 THE JAIL SYSTEM CONDEMNED. 
 
 Summing up the evils of the jail system now existing in Iowa, 
 we cannot do better than to adopt the language of the commissioners 
 appointed by President Roosevelt to investigate the jail system 
 in the District of Columbia. They say: 
 
 “The evils of such a state of things are too obvious to call for 
 or even justify extended comment. That men and women should be 
 sent to these narrow and crowded cells, the innocent with the guil- 
 
— 95 
 
 ty,-the first offender with the hardened criminal, in one promis¬ 
 cuous assembly, to corrupt and be corrupted by each other, the 
 lazy to be humored and fostered in their laziness, the industrious 
 to be deprived of every form of employment, to he fed like beasts 
 and maintained at the public charge, not only with no prospect 
 of improvement in their condition, but wdth the moral certainty 
 that they will come out far worse than they went in, is a fact that 
 has become a stench in the nostrils of the whole community and 
 ought to he felt as a shame and disgrace to the whole nation, 
 whose representatives are responsible for its existence.” 
 
 Senate Document 648 p. 8. 
 
 In view of these conditions and the general defects in our penal 
 system previously referred to, the question confronting our state 
 is whether we will continue to cling to a false economy and blindly 
 follow precedent in our method of dealing with the large number 
 of persons annually convicted of crime, or whether we will have 
 the larger vision and adopt a plan both humane and scientific, in 
 consonance with the heart, the character and the culture of our 
 people. 
 
 Respectfully submitted, 
 
 George Cosson, 
 
 M. A. Roberts, 
 
 Parley Sheldon, 
 
 Committee.