Fifteen of the original party of forty-five men have been released by pardon or otherwise. One convict was returned to Joliet because of his failure to make good.
Another Step in the Honor System.—Warden Tynan, of Colorado, who has been a prominent user of the honor system, plans now a six-acre baseball and athletic field, built for and by convicts, with accommodations for the general public as well as convicts as spectators, to be opened this spring.
“To build up a man mentally and morally,” said Tynan in announcing the innovation, “I know from experience you have to build him up physically.”
The ballplayers and athletes who are to be allowed to use the field are those who cannot be trusted to work in the road gangs, at the prison ranches, or to join the fishing parties the warden allows his honor men.
Permission to use the field must be earned by good conduct, which will be marked by the presentation of an honor button. The button admits the bearer to the field or to the grandstand.
The public will be admitted through one gate and the convict-spectators through another. Provision will be made to prevent breaks for liberty.
After the baseball season closes, a football team will use the field, and a basketball season will follow.
The “Movies” and Portland Prison.—A London (Eng.) dispatch to the Washington (D. C.) Post on January 16 states that the English Government has, in the opinion of most observers, gone to ridiculous lengths in its opposition to certain moving picture films, showing a thrilling escape from Portland prison. “The film has been banned by the Home Office after the board had passed it. The company producing the film, which is called ‘Five Hundred Pounds Reward,’ has been curtly informed that it must not be shown publicly. The pictures were taken in a private quarry at Portland.