Mrs. Booth on Prisoners’ Earnings.—“Every man who works in prison should work for the support of his family or those depending upon him, after his board and clothing have been paid for,” declared Mrs. Maud Ballington Booth in a lecture at Omaha. “Some officials and law makers seem not to know that a convict may have a family, yet there is always this heart-saddened, home-broken circle of gloom, the mothers, wives and children of convicts, about every penal institution. Wherewith are they to be fed and clothed? What recognition does the state give to them, from whom it has taken their only source of support? When this wife married the man he promised to support her. Then if the state takes him in hand, why should it not make provision for his carrying out the promise?
“I know of one case where the state gets $500,000 a year for its convict labor. A nice little source of revenue! What of the army of helpless and hopeless wives and children who are being deprived of the support of these laborers who are their husbands and fathers.
“The helping hand extended to the family frequently has a reflex action on the man in prison. He decides that if there are people outside who think enough of his babies to care for them they are worth his efforts too.”
Shackling Chain Gangs.—At Omaha, during the American Prison Association meeting, some plain talk was printed in one of the newspapers, quoted from the lips of some delegates who saw the Omaha chain gang going through the streets, and who pronounced the shackling system bad and unnecessary. Word comes now from Columbus, S. C., that the convicts on the city chain gang who are not disorderly or those who have not attempted to run away are no longer required to wear the iron shackles about their ankles. When a prisoner is convicted before the recorder and given a sentence on the gang he is told that the shackles will not be put on him if he promises not to give the guards trouble.
BUILDING NEW PRISONS
According to the Kansas City Star, the United States government is building at Fort Leavenworth a $2,000,000 military prison which is costing the government only $617,000.
It is building the new prison with convict labor. And when it is finished about two years from now, it will be the biggest military prison in this country. With the old buildings, which are to be remodeled, the completed military prison and accessory buildings will represent a value of $3,000,000. It will be a model prison as well. Every improvement that has been incorporated in all the prisons that have been built hitherto will be found in this one.
Several hundred convicts at the United States military reservation at Fort Leavenworth are building the new military prison around themselves. It was two years ago that congress made the initial appropriation for the new military prison. Practically everything needed except steel and cement was found within less than a mile of the building site or the military reservation. So Colonel Slavens began the monumental work of building a $2,000,000 military prison for $647,000.