The first floor will contain the office of the deputy warden and observation room. The second floor will contain cell rooms and the electrocution chamber. Such an arrangement will prevent tampering with the wires from the outside of the building. The concrete walls will be two feet thick with an imbedded network of one-inch iron bars.
This is the first building to be erected within the acreage allotted for the prison proper. The entire group of buildings will be enclosed with a 30-foot high concrete wall. The enclosed area will be about 50 acres, or five times the acreage now enclosed on the North Side in Pittsburg. Inside this inclosure will be the complete prison, including the big cell room where the prisoners will sleep, workshop and hospital, which occupies a site on the hill, half a mile from the railroad and facing the beautiful gap in the Nittany Mountains known as McBrides Water Gap.
The site presents marvelous natural advantages. Spring Creek will be harnessed and experts declare it will flow even during the dryest season at the rate of 100,000,000 gallons during each 24 hours. The riparian right to the State of this stream has been estimated to be worth no less than $1,000,000, just 80 per cent. of the total cost of the entire farm. This trout-filled mountain creek will furnish the power that will turn the wheels of industry on Rockview farm, provide the electric light and fill other wants and still leave a surplus in reserve power. For three miles up the beautiful valley its waters will be held back in check until the time arrives for its use. A dam 55 feet high at the breast will be constructed. More than six miles across the farm and up in the mountain is a stream which will furnish 1,000,000 gallons of pure mountain water.
The question may be asked, in what relation does the warden of the Western Penitentiary stand with his convict farm hands? He is one of the boys. Could you but see him in the evening on the top of one of the great hills near the merit house during the baseball game you would be convinced of the statement. He jumps from his automobile, flings his coat on the ground and takes a seat on the grass among the prisoner spectators and is prepared to enjoy the game.
In the working out of this undertaking the welfare and future of the prisoner after he has served his sentence has not been lost sight of. This is best illustrated in the words of Warden Francies.
“Our mission is to turn out not worse men, but better men.”
THE TREATMENT OF THE MISDEMEANANT
[This excellent summary of the present correctional treatment of the misdemeanant was read by Amos W Butler, chairman of the Committee on Corrections, at the National Conference of Charities and Corrections in Memphis, in May, 1914.]
Who knows how many persons are confined in local jails in the United States? Who comprehends the magnitude of the problem involved? How many appreciate its relation to the individual, to his family, to society?
The Bureau of the Census tells us that 452,055 persons were committed to county and municipal prisons in 1910, under sentence or for non-payment of fine. We call them misdemeanants. It is the name ordinarily given one whose offense the law does not deem sufficiently serious to warrant a State prison sentence. If the ratio of commitments to the whole number received is the same throughout the United States as in Indiana, it is probable that one and one-half million people annually come under the influence of these local prisons.