New Cell House at Iowa Penitentiary.—The new cell house, built by convict labor at the Fort Madison penitentiary, will be completed in May. The structure has been six years under construction, and its value is said to be more than $200,000. It probably will be sixty days before the board will have everything completed so that the new prison house can be used. The structure is of stone and concrete, and the cells are considerably larger than the rooms in the old cell house. There will be room in each cell for a single iron bed, a rocking chair, hot and cold water and toilet conveniences. The rooms formerly provided for prisoners held but a cot.
The board of control has not yet decided what it will do with the old cell house when the new one is occupied. It is probable that prison labor will be used in the remodeling of the walls so that one fair-sized cell may be made out of two cells.
There are 590 prisoners now in the Fort Madison penitentiary. The new cell house will provide for 400 of them. The remainder will have to remain in the old structure.
The board has received samples of hollow building blocks manufactured at the State clay works at the hospital for inebriates at Knoxville. This is the first of the output of the new industry and, according to experts, the tile is as perfectly made as that of other institutions. It is the intention to have the hollow building blocks needed in the new building at Oakdale sanitarium made at Knoxville.
The State institution at Knoxville is also ready to turn out tile and brick. Orders have been sent to all State institutions to order from Knoxville whatever material of this kind is needed.
Training For Prison Warden.—Warden Clancy, of Sing Sing Prison, recently resigned. Eugene Smith, president of the Prison Association of New York, has written an open letter to the New York city papers, as follows:
“The resignation of Mr. Clancy is an event that has, for several reasons, unusual significance. Mr. Clancy has stated with great candor the reasons that induced him to resign. The principal reason, as alleged by him in an interview, was his lack of experience and consequent ignorance of the work to be done. He says, ‘The warden should be selected from among the keepers or others who have had a large amount of experience. There is nothing more ridiculous than the selection of a man like myself who has no such experience.’
“These statements, so frankly made, do honor to Mr. Clancy and they convey a valuable message to the public. A warm heart and a large brain alone do not qualify a man to fill the wardenship of a prison. The administration of a prison must be governed, in this modern age, upon the principles established by the science of penology. The proper treatment of prisoners requires an acquaintance with those methods and agencies which have been proved by scientific experiments to be most effectual in reforming and rehabilitating the prisoners.
“No warden can administer a prison with success unless he has a scientific knowledge of what has been developed and accomplished through the studies and experience of the great leaders in prison reform and such scientific knowledge can only be acquired and practically applied by personal experience in dealing with prisoners. There are to-day, in the prisons of this State, men who have had long experience, as guards or in other subordinate posts, who possess both the scientific knowledge and executive ability qualifying them to fill with success the office of warden of Sing Sing Prison. It is earnestly hoped that the candidates for the vacancy may be selected from some such competent source.