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chaplain trembles at the very magnitude of his work. He looks up at the ideal man, Christ Jesus the Righteous, then down at these wrecks of humanity. The bridging of the awful gulf that separates the two-there lies the burden.

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VISIT TO THE PRISON.

DR. SMITH, St. Paul: I don't know whether Warden Wolfer intends to make an address at this point in the meeting, but I think it will be a great mistake for Warden Wolfer not to do so before we go out and visit the institution, and I therefore move that he be invited at this point to make an address describing the prison. I think the best warden of the United States ought to be honored in this way, and we ought to be helped by what he has to say.

PRESIDENT MERRILL: That will be taken as the sense of the conference, and we invite Warden Wolfer to give us an address at this time, and I have pleasure in turning the conference over to him. It will be under his direction the rest of this afternoon.

WARDEN WOLFER: Ladies and Gentlemen: We must have plenty of time to go over the institution and see it thoroughly, and in order to do that, and get back in time to meet the requirements of the program this evening, I must not occupy much time. What few words I have to say I desire to use in explaining some of the features that I hope you will be able to see while passing through the institution.

To commence with, I will explain that the system of labor in vogue here is what is known as the "State Account" and the "Piece Price" system. We have three industries, one of which is conducted under the "Piece Price" system in the manufacture of boots and shoes, in which the state receives a stated amount per piece for all of the boots and shoes manufactured. The contractor or person that contracts to take the product of this factory furnishes the raw material, equipment and machinery to carry on the factory, and accepts the finished product at so much per piece, classified according to the work produced. The other two industries are conducted under the "State Account" system, under which we manufacture cordage and binding twine and high school scientific apparatus. We employ about one-half of the population of the prison on the two last named industries, the balance are êmployed on prison duties and in the manufacture of boots and shoes. A word of explanation as to the "State Account" system. Under it the state assumes the entire responsibility and management of the industries. Its officers purchase the raw material, superintend its manufacture, and dispose of the manufactured articles in the open market, the state providing the necessary funds to establish the industries and carry them on. Under this system we manufacture binding twine and cordage and high school scientific apparatus. I desire to call your special attention to our infant industry, the manufacture of high school scientific apparatus. Although young in age, it is developing into a very satisfactory industry from a financial standpoint. At the same time it is furnishing a diversified manual training for the prisoners that is very satisfactory, and it does not compete with other manufacturers in the state, as nothing of the kind exists in the Northwest. It provides diversified mechanical training of a high order, which we find very useful for our young and more intelligent prisoners.

The manufacture of binding twine is not so good as regards its effect upon the prisoner, for the reason that it does not provide mechanical training that will be specially useful to him after his discharge from prison, although this industry has been a financial success both to the consumer and the taxpayers of the state, and has enabled the institution to become more than self-sustaining during the past two years. We manufacture about five million (5,000,000) pounds of twine per annum. The manila and sisal fibre used in its manufacture is shipped direct, the former from the Philippine

Islands and the latter from Yucatan, Mexico. We purchase these fibres through brokers in New York and Boston. The twine is sold in the open market. Our present reorganized industrial arrangement has proven very satisfactorily, financially and otherwise, and our earnings during the past two years has been $43,647.40 more than our total expenditures.

The party then visited in succession the five-story cellhouse, the prison library and Mirror office, the building containing the "solitary" (where all punishments are inflicted) and the deputy warden's office. The hospital was also visited, which at the time contained four inmates.

The party then inspected the shoe shops, the central power house (where power is furnished for the différent departments of the prison) and the shop where high school apparatus is manufactured. The twine shop was next visited. All steps of the process of twine-making, from the raw material to the finished product, were examined and carefully explained by the warden and assistants. The visitors then inspected different squads of convicts who were quitting work and marching into the cellhouse.

It was then explained that on first admission prisoners are assigned to the second grade and provided with a checked or plaid suit. Under favorable conditions, or the earning of fifty out of a possible fifty-four credit marks, extending over a period of six months, nine marks per month, they may be advanced from second to first grade; but if more than two credit marks are lost in one month they fall to the next grade below. First grade prisoners are dressed in gray and third grade in stripes. It was further explained that prisoners sentenced on the reformatory plan were eligible for parole after being six months in the first grade, and that prisoners under a fixed sentence and previously unconvicted of a felony might be paroled after serving half the sentence (good time not included) and being in the first grade at least six months preceding application for parole. It was also explained that, where a prisoner broke the rules and was punished in the "solitary," he was lowered to third grade, whatever his previous grade standing. Solitary confinement, reduced diet and deprivation of privileges are the only punishments.

DR. FOLWELL, State University: I have a motion to offer on behalf of the conference, which I am sure we will heartily agree to. It is this, that the thanks of the conference are due and tendered to Warden Wolfer and his as sociates for the hospitality they have shown us in the use of the room for the visit to the prison, and for this splendid repast which we have just enjoyed.

The resolution was seconded and carried with great applause.

PRESIDENT MERRILL: I now take pleasure in turning the meeting over to Warden Wolfer, who will have charge of the exercises the rest of the evening.

THE BERTILLON SYSTEM OF IDENTIFYING CRIMINALS.

BY WARDEN HENRY WOLFER.

WARDEN WOLFER: Ladies and Gentlemen: I have been requested to make a few remarks explanatory of the Bertillon system of measurement for the registration and identification of criminals. Most of you, doubtless, have heard something of the system, and I assume some of you understand it quite well, but in order that it may be better understood by those having only a slight knowledge of the principles involved, I will try to explain it briefly, and give something of the history connected with its adoption in this country. The metric system of measurements is used. The system is of French origin, and has been in operation in France a good many years, and has been thor oughy tested in that country, and is pronounced most thorough and practical in its operation. The central bureau of registration is located in Paris, under the immediate supervision of its originator, M. Bertillon. It has been so successfully operated throughout France and the central bureau so perfectly equipped that a criminal arrested anywhere it: France may be identified with

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in a few hours after his apprehension. The system provides for twelve measurements (the bone measurements, so called) taken under this system least liable to natural change or the least susceptible to change by manipula tion. The instruments used for taking these measurements are manufactured in France, and are made with great care and accuracy. The most reliable measurements (the bone measurements, so called) taken under this system are the head (length and width), left forearm, left middle and little finger and left foot. The ear is also one of the most reliable measurements. These calipers which I hold in my hand are used for taking the head measurements, length and width, and are the two principal measurements. This instrument is used for taking the measurements of the left forearm, left middle and little finger and left foot, and this to measure the length and width of the ear. This is used to measure and locate the scars, moles and marks upon the body, all of which are fixed from two locating points. Scales are also provided for measuring the height, outstretched arms and length of trunk. These measurements are recorded on this card. The measurements above and below the photographs, front face and profile, as you notice, and the description of marks, scars or moles on the body, are recorded on the back part of the card. These cards are to be filed in the central bureau. They are classified according to the measurements, starting, for instance, with the length and width of the head, and reclassified and subdivided along down the line as the other measurements are taken, in order, so that it makes it possible to file them in a cabinet something after the principles involved in classifying the words in the dictionary by letters. It is claimed, and has been fully proven, that no two persons out of fifty thousand will give exactly the same results in all of these measurements. Once recorded in the central bureau, if he is afterwards arrested for crime again and the measurements taken, they return to the central bureau, or clearing house, and hence he is reported back to the central bureau every time he is arrested for crime, no matter where in the United States. The principles involved in classifying these records at the ceutral bureau are simple, and divisions and subdivisions are made quite similar to letters in the English alphabet.

The Bertillon system was introduced into this country about twelve years ago, and our experience with it has been most gratifying. It is modern, upto-date, and has been fully tested by some of the most enlightened European nations with perfect success. It has not as yet become complete in its opera tion in the United States, and cannot become so until it is put in general use and a central bureau or clearing house established into and through which all measurements shall pass for filing and registration and to which all penal institutions and police departments using the system may have free access. In our penal system we have made some progress, but we lack in uniformity of administration, and we have no such definite policy in our penal administration as may be found in England. It is claimed that there has been a marked diminution of crime in Great Britain of late years, owing to superior administration. It is true we have worked out some important problems in penal management which are yielding good results so far as we are able to determine without better statistical facilities, and they promise well. I refer to the Elmira system, now in successful operation in many of our state reformatories, and in a somewhat modified form in our state prisons, which includes the indeterminate sentence; but what substantial progress can be made without an efficient system of criminal identification? The purpose is to accomplish two objects, namely, the reformation of the criminal and the protection of society. It proposes, first, to reform the prisoner and return him to the responsibilities of citizenship, and, second, if he cannot be reformed, to hold the prisoner as a permanent ward of the state; but we cannot do either without the Bertillon system to assist in weeding out the tares from the wheat. However wisely our prisons are run, we cannot make certain of our position unless we can demonstrate by reliable statistics what we are doing. We have no right to expect the public to have faith in the good results of our work if we cannot demonstrate them by reliable figures. But the Bertillon system is of still greater importance as a preventive and repressive measure. The average criminal is possessed of a migratory nature, and when released from prison he may drop out of sight. He may go to some other part of the same state, or into another state. where he may commit crime with

Records of all cases should be kept, as the information gathered by such officers would be very valuable to the courts and to those into whose care he might later come. These officers should be closely in touch with the teachers of the schools, and, unless other agencies are established, might profitably be charged with the enforcement of the truancy laws. Their ef forts, however, should be, not to fill up our institutions and break up family relationships, but to ever keep in mind that in the well conducted, trious home, surrounded by loving friends, and with only such restraint as is absolutely necessary, the wayward and criminally inclined are then in the best reformatory the world has yet produced.

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DISCUSSION.

MR. MORGAN, St. Paul: I would like to ask how many of the inmates of this institution were skilled laborers before they came into the institution the first time. I have been informed that about twenty per cent of the prisoners in the United States had trades when first convicted. But one of our county judges in St. Paul said that, of those who came before him and were convicted and sentenced to the reformatory or to this prison, only about five per cent had trades. I would like to know what the fact is. And I would also like to know how many of the prisoners in this institution could not read or write before they came in here.

WARDEN WOLFER: I think it will average about ten per cent. It is about an even percentage with both propositions-about ten per cent of those committed cannot read nor write, and about ten per cent have trades.

MR. SAVAGE, St. Paul: How many have been in other institutions, com

mitted before?

WARDEN WOLFER: We know definitely of about fifteen per cent, but that by no means covers the number. A large number pass through the institution, and we do not learn of their previous convictions and service in prison. One great reason why this is so is because of our lack of a proper system of identification. We never have had a proper system of identification, and until the present time no effort has been made to adopt a system of identification that will make it possible to discover positively those who have served time in prison before.

REV. D. B. JACKSON: I would like to inquire of the gentleman who read the paper, or of someone else, a little further in regard to the endeavors put forth or the provisions made for insuring good conduct on the part of prisoners after they have been released. It was touched upon in the paper, but very slightly.

WARDEN WOLFER (Mr. Whittier having left the room): The supervision of all prisoners released on parole from the institution is in the hands of State Agent Whittier. He puts in his entire time looking after prisoners who are released on parole, in obtaining employment for them, and for those whose terms are about to expire. He also visits those who are out on parole and those who have been permanently released, investigates their conditions, and whether their environments are of the right sort. His entire time is used in the performance of these duties. And while it is a large amount of work for one man, the results of his supervision have been very satisfactory, and, with very few exceptions, the conduct of parole prisoners has been gratifying. Very few paroles have been broken. In the last five years we have paroled something like 330 prisoners. Out of that number about thirty have broken their paroles and been returned to prison. Only two of the whole number of those who have broken their paroles are now at large, that is, have left the state and are now fugitives from justice. All the others have served or are serving the maximum time provided by law.

MR. MORGAN, St. Paul: This is a subject of great importance-the fact in regard to the educational standing of the prisoners of this country. It is a terrible reflection upon our public schools and their methods. The same is true of the tramp element. Over five thousand of them have gone through my hands, and eighty per cent of them are unskilled laborers. Only four have I discovered that could not read or write-two of them colored men and two of them men from the South. Some are college graduates. The twenty per cent of skilled laborers are made tramps largely by drunkenness. I used to think the saloon produced about eighty per cent. It isn't true. It is true every tramp drinks, but all tramps are not drunkards, and they are not produced by the saloons, as we had supposed. There are other conditions. We ought to consider whether the time has not come to teach every boy and girl to earn a living by a trade, in case of emergency.

I am gratified at the result of Mr. Whittier's work. I know something of it. But I want to call attention to one thing that I do not think is right. Eight or ten of the men from this prison and from the Wisconsin prison pass through my hands every year. It is most unfortunate that after a man has been confined here for five or six years there should be put into his hands fifty or sixty dollars in money when he has never learned how to use it. With that money in his pocket, the first thing you know he is perfectly crazy. The first place he goes to when he leaves the prison is a saloon, and all the rest follows. He is just wild for a while, and then the money is gone, and he don't know what to do. It is a sad fact. It seems to me we should adopt the system--and I hope it will soon be done-of paroling every prisoner, if possible. I believe we ought to adopt that principle-put every man that comes out of prison on parole, and for a certain length of time let the money that he is to receive be placed in the hands of the state agent, and let him give it to the man as he needs it. The parole prisoners, I tell you, are on their guard. They know if they don't behave themselves they are liable to be brought back, and they are anxious to get some place to work where they can make an honest living. But when a man is unconditionally released, and comes to Stillwater, or St. Paul, or Minneapolis, with fifty or sixty dollars in his pocket, he is in pretty bad shape-with all the different kinds of suckers that hang around our depots. He needs an arm of love about him. Don't put into his hands that which will destroy him within a week or two. But it seems to me that if we could parole every prisoner that comes out, for a short time, at least a year, under the care of such a man as the present state agent, who has a loving interest in these men, whose heart is touched with sympathy, it would be a wonderful help to these unfortunate men. They would then get a right start. When they come out into the world after five or six years of confinement they are just like children, and need to be watched tenderly and advised. In this way I think there would be a greater amount of reform, and fewer of them would go back than in the past.

DR. HENDERSON, Chicago: Mr. President: I have had some interest in this. I want to say that I have not come to Minnesota to tell you what to do. But we are all learning; we are all trying to apply our knowledge as we go along. Many years ago, in the city of Detroit, I had a little experience in this matter which opened my eyes. I found that I was dealing, directly and through my friends, with a certain number of discharged criminals. There were some pitiful cases, some of them honest and trying to help themselves, and some of them perfectly dishonest,-all kinds. I felt that something had to be done. I tried to get them situations; tried all sorts of ways to help them, in the congregation and with my fellow citizens. It seemed necessary for us to try, at least, in Detroit, to give them some institutional help. I went in with some citizens, and we raised some money, and provided a sort of temporary home, as I thought it then. We tried through this institution to help some of these men. Some of them turned out well; some of them took advantage of us; some of them right in that home planned escapades and crimes, and went away, no doubt, to carry them out. As the years went on,-business men naturally suspecting the thing, prison men still more doubtful about it, but kindly giving their consent and giving material aid, too, although a good deal of it was against their judgment.-I came more

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