had for him and for those among whom he goes. This is a matter of the utmost importance, and should never be the subject of a compromise between the prosecuting officer and the attorney for the defendant. In a reformatory the individuality of an inmate must be learned. No two are found to be exactly alike. They must be treated according to their needs.

It is believed that most criminals are in some wise defective, and it is known that many of them are mentally deficient. It has been suggested that all criminals, except those convicted of capital offenses, be taken to a place of detention, to be studied by a competent man, or board of men, until it has been determined to what class or group they belong, and that they then be assigned accordingly; the various institutions being fitted to treat them according to their needs.

Many criminals refuse to give information concerning themselves, and sometimes judges commit men who decline to disclose their true names, even commending them for thus withholding disgrace from their families.

Experience shows that the first step toward reformation (and such steps are usually short and slow at first) is a true and candid statement by the convict of all that is to be said regarding himself, and that his unwillingness to give it is usually on his own account, and not to shield innocent persons. Concealment of identity may do in court, but it will not do in a reformatory. Candor and truth do not mark the habitual criminal, but their absence often does.

The secretary of the state board of charities and correction is responsible for the appearance of this paper, which is unworthy of its title, having been written with a stern limitation as to the number of words to be employed. With knowledge that the writer's observation was not extensive, and that his information was limited, he nevertheless continued his importunity, on ine kindly suggestion that it might provoke discussion.

It is to be hoped that the provocation may extend no farther.

DISCUSSION.

CAPT. C. E. FAULKNER (in the chair): This paper is open for discussion. I am sure it is a very interesting topic, and one in which all the members of the conference and visitors will be interested.

HON. JOHN W. WILLIS: I think Mr. Randall is to be congratulated upon the excellent manner in which he has treated the subject which was assigned to him, considering all the limitations of time and space imposed, and he has touched upon some very important phases of the subject. One is the county jail, the deplorable county jail,-which is always intensifying and increasing crime instead of being a preventative; and the efforts this conference are needed to stimulate correct thought upon that subject. In visiting the jails of this state where proper jail construction has been enforced, and where the sheriff or jailer is provided with all the facilities for jail reform, for the separation and segregation of criminals, and for the prevention of that communication between them which necessarily breeds an increase of crime, we often find the doors of these approved cells thrown open, and the prisoners allowed to mingle together for coarse, rude and lewd discourse, resulting in great detriment to their moral character rather than in its improvement. So that it is not alone necessary to lay down a rule, not alone necessary to provide ample, commodious and well-constructed jails; it is necessary that public opinion should stimulate the sheriffs and jailers to a proper observance of the principles which should govern the classifica

tion, the restraint, and the converse of the prisoners. I am of the opinion, Mr. Chairman, passing to another phase of the subject, that we need more educative influences at the state reformatory than we now have. I know that my friend Randall would enlarge the educational features of that institution if he could. Into the depraved mental constitution and moral con stitution of the prisoner who goes there we must place new elements which are normal and righteous. We must subtract some elements which are both moral and mental. This process cannot be carried on simply by supplying fit and proper industry-cannot be done by exercising the animal nature of the convicts through hard work,-but it must be supplied through what we call education. The mind must be molded-the spirit must be molded-into new conditions, and by education alone, I believe, can the reformation of the first offender be properly and effectively carried out. We need moral, relig ious and mental education at these reformatories, and that should be the chief object to be kept in view, rather than the accomplishment of industrial results. I believe in industrial training; I would not discard that feature from any reformatory; but I believe that the condition of the convict when he reaches the prison should be diagnosed carefully, as was suggested in this able paper, by a board of competent experts, and then that the instruction which is necessary to remold his mental and moral constitution should be supplied as well as the industrial training which, of course, must be provided for every convict in any penal institution. Work, work, work, is necessary, but let it be not alone the work of the hands; let it be the work of the head and the heart, and let it be that labor in intellectual and moral lines which will expand the conscience and bring it more closely in accord with the designs of its Creator.

SUPT. BROWN: I should first criticise the title of Brother Randall's paper; that is, "The Reformation of First Offenders." I fear that if our Minnesota state reformatory should detain to-day only those who are committed for the first offense they have ever committed under the law, we would not have any further use for that institution. First offenses do not place them in the state reformatory. I heartily indorse, however, all that has been said in regard to the influence of the county jail upon juvenile, or what are here termed first offenders, for even the hardened criminal is there made harder. I have known children under twelve years of age to be committed to some of our county jails, where they have come in contact with the worst influ ence with which it is possible to surround a boy or a girl, and then, perhaps, after they have been arrested a number of times and served several terms in the county jail or workhouse, they are sent to the state training school, and if they are not fully reformed and made over into reputable citizens in about a year, the training school has failed to do its duty. I want to cite a case that we have in the training school today. A little boy, perhaps thirteen years of age, who had been arrested several times, was committed to one of our county jails to await trial, and he escaped in rather a peculiar way. It was thought exceedingly smart in the boy. He was afterwards captured, and made the hero of the jail, and was given to understand even by those who had him in charge that he was considered very smart. He was cartooned in the public press, and was given such prominence that hundreds of the criminals of to-day would be willing to serve ten years in the state prison if they could only have such a reputation. Finally he was sent to the training school. The statement was made by the officials of the county that the state training school would keep him about ten days. We didn't give him to understand he was any smarter than the ordinary boy, or that he had done a very smart thing in conducting himself as he did in the county jail. He has been with us for more than a year, and is on the whole a very good boy.

MR. JONES: Never has run away?

MR. BROWN: Never has run away,-no, sir; and I don't know as he has ever tried to run away. I am frequently asked, "What percentage of your boys turn out well?" That is an exceedingly difficult question to answer. It sometimes takes years to realize fully the benefits of early education. We try to instruct our boys and girls in the right. We give them the benefit of as good a school as can be found in the State of Minnesota, a well

graded school, taught by competent teachers. We give them the benefit of a very complete system of manual training, and we endeavor to place them in a position that is best suited to their needs. Many of them work in the garden and in the cultivation of a farm. It is true, as Mr. Randall has said, that sometimes they escape. Very few, however, remain away permanently; they are returned, and try the thing over again. They are also instructed in religious matters. Services are held every Sunday, both for the Catholics and the Protestants, and some simple service is held every evening. We do what we can and we must leave the results with One who knows the end from the beginning. Oft times I receive letters from boys and girls who have, for years, been out from the school, acknowledging the good that they have received, and wishing that they might, with their present knowledge, have remained longer under the instruction of the school.

We endeavor to make life as agreeable as possible while in the school. We realize that school life 365 days in the year is rather monotonous, and we try in every way to break up the monotony. So we have in the last six years established a camp on Lake Pepin, where the children enjoy an outing for about ten days every season,-all the boys in camp at the same time. This season more than 300 were in camp at the same time. The girls also enjoy their outing. So in every way we try to make life at school as home-like as possible. I believe that in order to secure the best results we should make our school approach as near as possible the conditions of a well-regulated home.

PRESIDENT FOLWELL: I want to use this opportunity to say a few words of a somewhat practical end. It was my pleasure to attend the first meeting held in this state, at the capitol in St. Paul, which resulted in the establishment of the reformatory at St. Cloud. Gordon E. Cole of Faribault read the paper of the day-an admirable argument in favor of the reformatory method. I had the pleasure of moving that the word "prison" be stricken out of the proposed bill and the word "reformatory" introduced in its stead. A few years later I visited the reformatory at St. Cloud, and I must say I was very much disappointed in what I saw there. Not that the discipline was not in every respect admirable—I had nothing to complain of in that respect; but what I saw was this: The great majority of the boys in that institution occupied ten hours a day in quarrying and dressing granite; a few were also employed on the farm. Those boys marched from their cellhouses to their meals, from their meals to their work, and back again to the cellhouse. I didn't see any difference between that and a prison. There was an evening school, but there was nothing more in the nature of a reformatory than was to be seen in the state prison. Well, at the Red Wing conference, soon after that visit to St. Cloud, I made use of some strong language in regard to the St. Cloud reformatory, stronger, I think, than the circumstances justified.. I had been disappointed in regard to the reformatory in this state, and in spite of all the good things that may be justly said in regard to the past and present management of the reformatory at St. Cloud, I am still of the opinion that we need a revolution in that institution. It is still a prison, with most of the boys employed in quarrying and in dressing stone many hours a day. I am glad to say that a considerable body is employed on the land when the season will allow it, and I wish that there were larger opportunities for work upon the land. I would like to see a finer classification of all our young offenders. It is a mistake, I think, to send to St. Cloud men as old as thirty years. I would like to see two or three institutions receiving young men of different ages, or one institution with different departments, considerably separated, and I would not care if that separation went down to about twenty men to a place under the charge of judicious persons. We shall not do the best work in reformatories until we get that fine classification. Of course, that is rather Utopian talk now; the legislature wouldn't listen to it; but I think it is a matter which should be kept in mind and adopted when possible. I believe that the cellhouse at St. Cloud should be torn down. It is not necessary in a reformatory proper. It ought not to exist except on a small scale, for the incarceration of incorrigibles. The experiment which Mr. Brown has made at Red Wing

proves that cellhouses for boys of the age of those who are sent there are not necessary. So long as young men are marched to and from cellhouses, like prisoners, the main object of the reformatory will not be reached. Then the work should be reduced. I agree with my friend Judge Willis, that work should not be entirely abandoned in the reformatory, as has been done in Elmira, for instance. There is now no work done in Elmira. That is in consequence of a fool law passed by the legislature of New York. There is nothing which is so educative as good, honest work,-that which is exerted with a view to producing results. I would, however, enlarge the educative feature, as Judge Willis has suggested, but that is a difficult problem. In the Elmira reformatory school they carry on instruction in thirty-eight dif ferent trades, in New Hampshire the same number, and it is comparatively easy in those large institutions to diversify trade schools; but we ought immediately to begin at St. Cloud the institution of trade schools on a greater scale. We might start three or four or five, if the legislature will appropriate the money. The results of the instruction in the trades schools at Elmira and Concord are admirable. Boys learn trades, and learn them thoroughly. There are some trades which cannot be learned, on account of the minute division of labor. You can make tailors, and jewelers, and so on, but you cannot teach some trades completely; but there are enough of them which you can teach, and these interest the young men very much.

Then, again, gymnastic training is very admirable, and all of the inmates in an institution ought to be compelled to take gymnastic training for some time. I wish there was time to give an account of Dr. Wey's experiments at Elmira, as to the effect of gymnastic training upon the physical, moral and Intellectual condition of the inmates. It was found, by experiment, that young men subjected to a system of gymnastics for a time accompanied with a scientific diet, not only improved physically, but intellectually and morally.

And another thing. Military instruction should be given systematically, at Elmira, several years ago, the whole prison population was idle on account of the operation of one of those fool laws of which I have spoken, and there was no other resort except to manufacture a lot of wooden guns and set the men to work at military drill. The result was so admirable upon the conduct and the character of those young men that they have never set it aside. They have an immense armory there, 300 feet, or something like that, and when the weather is not fair the exercises are held in that building. It is a splendid discipline for those fellows. It straightens them up everywhere. They become skillful in the drill, and, in fact, they boast that West Point is the only institution in the United States in which military drill is carried to higher perfection than at Elmira. It works in admirably with their discipline. The last count of the day is made at the time when the battalion is assembled, and if a man is missing the battalion waits until the man is accounted for.

you can.

Now, in brief, what I want to see done at St. Cloud is this: A minuter assortment of inmates as soon as possible; the prison features of the institution subordinated, and the institution converted into a trades and military school, and not conducted as a prison. George D. Holt tells me that old prisoners in Hennepin county and elsewhere say: "You go to Stillwater if You keep out of St. Cloud; they make it rough for you up there." I don't believe that an institution which has that reputation ought to be conducted in the name of a reformatory; and in saying what I have said I wish to be understood that I have the greatest admiration for the men who have been, and are still, in charge of that institution. They are doing the best they can under the existing law and the state of public sentiment.

CAPTAIN FAULKNER: I think we would all like to hear from Mr. Whittier. He has had large experience in visiting prisons, and it is an important subject.

MR. WHITTIER, St. Paul: I agree with Mr. Brown in saying that first offenders are not found in prisons or reformatories. I doubt if Mr. Randall has at St. Cloud a first offender,-for a crime against property, at least. There may be some who were convicted for impulsive crimes (like crimes

against the person), which were their first offenses. But he will not find a first offender at St. Cloud for a crime committed against property. I serlously doubt if Mr. Brown has many at Red Wing who are first offenders-I mean genuine first offenders. The men who come in contact with first offenders, and know something about them, are such men as Mr. Wellington and Mr. Bingham, the probation officers, and truant officers-the men who deal with little boys and girls upon the streets at night and during the day,the little girls and boys from four to eight years of age. There you will find first offenders. The criminal comes into existence the same as the successful man. He does not jump at once to the height of crime any more than business men jump at once to the heights of success. He commences in a small way. It is to this class that attention should be directed,-the attention of the fathers and the mothers, the brothers and the sisters, and wellmeaning people. Their attention should be directed to the streets of our cities, for there they will find those who are deserving of their care. Let it be understood that after men have been committed to an institution they will be generally well taken care of. But as a preventative for crime, and where men and women can do the most good, is in interesting themselves in the men and boys after they have passed through one of our institutions. The work of reformation does not stop when the prison door is opened; it has just begun. The good people of this state should interest themselves in the discharged convicts, and particularly when they first come back into the world.

THE PURPOSE OF THE STATE PRISON.

BY WARDEN C. McC. REEVE, STILLWATER.

I desire at the outset to disclaim any particular knowledge of the subject I am called on to discuss. I am like the colored preacher, who, after announcing his text, said: "Bredren, in cussin' and discussin' dis subjek, I shall in de fust place speak at de text, in de second place I shall speak ob de text, and in de lass place and principally, I shall scatter." So if my remarks savor largely of the third division of the Senegambian's sermon, I shall hope, in this charitable assemblage, for a modicum of charity for myself; and I promise at the outset not to offend your intelligence by the constant use of those hackneyed trade-marks of the profession, "penology," "along these lines," "environment," "heredity," et id genus omne.

The purpose of the state prison has changed so radically during the past quarter of a century that we may well pause to consider whether those to whose desire to protect society and punish offenders is due the credit for the establishment of state prisons were justified in their harsh treatment of criminals, or whether the so-called more enlightened modern methods are those which produce the most desirable results. If the pathway to hell is paved with good intentions the road to the modern prison is marked in an entirely different way. Defiance of the law, which has at last outwitted and trapped the evil-doer; contempt for the personal recklessness which has rendered such success possible; hatred for the selfish and cowardly confederates who have purchased immunity by the betrayal of their partners in crime; a bitter cursing on the Almighty for punishment oftentimes unjustly inflicted— these are the sentiments which actuate the great majority of those upon whom the prison gates close for a longer or shorter term. I make no mention of those who, influenced temporarily by a sickly sentimentality, an

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