ectors of the Kansas prison should discard it at once.
Imagine the condition of a prisoner who has been in confinement for ten
years, having no access to the daily or weekly newspapers. He would be
an ignoramus of the worst type. Our penal institutions should try and
improve their prisoners, instead of rendering them more ignorant and
debased. We are glad to note that the Missouri penitentiary is in
advance of the Kansas prison in this respect. If the prisoner can take a
little pleasure in reading, daily or weekly, what takes place at his own
home, why not give him the privilege, since it is evident that such
a permission will not be detrimental to prison discipline? There are
school books to be found in the prison library, and the prisoners, if
they desire, can get these books and study them. A great many do improve
these opportunities, and a number have made great advancement in their
studies. They are also permitted to have writing materials in their
cells, a privilege which is considered very dangerous, and which but few
similar institutions grant. Many of the convicts who could not read
or write on entering the prison make considerable progress in these
studies.

The Missouri prison does not go far enough in matters of education. It
should be provided with a school. In this matter the Kansas and Iowa
penitentiaries are far in advance. They have regular graded schools, and
many convicts have acquired an education sufficient to enable them to
teach when they went out again into the free world. It is to be hoped
when the Legislature meets again the members will see to it that ample
provision is made for a first-class school at the prison, with a corps
of good teachers. The State will lose nothing by this movement.

In the Iowa prison at Ft. Madison the convicts are taught in the
evening, after the work of the day is over. In the Kansas prison,
instruction is given Sunday afternoon. These schools are accomplishing
great good. The chief object of imprisonment should be reformation.
Ignorance and reformation do not affiliate. Some will argue that if
prisoners are educated and treated so humanely they will have a desire
to return to the prison, in fact, make it their home. Experience
teaches us that, treat a human being as a prince, and deprive him of his
liberty, and the greatest burden of life is placed upon him, and he is
rendered a pitiable object of abject misery. There is no punishment to
which a human being can be