Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 February 1915 — What Is to Be Done to Keep Reformatory Prisoners Busy? [ARTICLE]

What Is to Be Done to Keep Reformatory Prisoners Busy?

There are .1,140 prisoners at the Indiana. Reformatory at Jeffersonville. The number has steadily increased and the occupation for them has steadily decreased. The last of the prison labor contracts will expire next November, never to return, owing to jadverse laws and it looks as though the prisoners will be idle. It has been proposed that a farm be provided, but this is quite out of the question tor financial reasons. It has been proposed that much of the state printing be done at the reformatory, which Would be just as ipuch of an injustice as the taking of atny contracts that placed prison mechanics in competition with skilled mechanics on the outside. Evidently with the increasing number of prisoners the per capita of maintenance is to greatly increase.