RESTORATION OF CITIZENSHIP.
A convict who shall pass the entire period of his imprisonment without a violation of the rules and discipline, except such as the Warden or Board of Control shall excuse, shall upon his discharge from prison be restored to the rights and privileges forfeited by his conviction, and shall receive from the Governor a certificate under the great seal of the state as evidence of such restoration, to be issued upon presentation to the Governor of a certificate of such conduct, which shall be furnished to such convict by the Warden.
SOLITARY CONFINEMENT.
The mode of punishing infractions of the prison rules at the Stillwater penitentiary consists of standing the prisoner on the inside of a cell door; putting his hands through the bars, and handcuffed on the outside. He is kept standing in this position ten hours during the day, and then let down during the night; is allowed only a single slice of bread and a cup of water each day while undergoing punishment. There are no beds in these cells, nothing but a plank on which to sleep.
As a rule, prisoners are only kept in these punishment cells from four to six days, and it frequently occurs that he is released in one day, providing he promises to obey the rules and will try to avoid getting into trouble in the future. It is not the custom to subject the inmates of the Stillwater penitentiary to this form of punishment for trivial offenses, but it is applied to those prisoners who attempt to escape, who destroy property, or [pg 118] who indulge in fights and who display a general negligence in regard to their work.
On entering the punishment cell the prisoner is searched thoroughly and given a third-grade uniform. After the punishment is over he is kept in the third grade for thirty days, and by good conduct at the end of that time he is admitted to the second grade. While in the third grade all his privileges are cut off, such as permission to write letters, receiving visits from friends, and tobacco and newspapers.
Not very many prisoners are subjected to this form of punishment and it is resorted to only when all other means of enforcing prison discipline fails.
THE TWINE FACTORY
There is a twine factory in operation in the Minnesota State Prison having a yearly capacity of nearly eighteen million pounds of binder twine. This adjunct to the prison's industries was inaugurated about eighteen years ago, the author of the measure being the brilliant Ignatius Donnelly, known as the Sage of Nininger. At that time the farmers of this state were groaning under the iron heel of the trust, being compelled to pay eighteen cents a pound for their twine, but today the prison is manufacturing twine of superior quality and selling it to the farmers at an average price of about seven cents per pound.