n say these boys are vicious and hardened criminals?
Then follow the young men of from twenty-five to thirty. Three hundred
and fourty-four of this age find a home in felon cells. Are these boys
and young men not worth saving? What can be done to snatch them from
a career of crime, and to save them from becoming miserable wrecks?
Father, if one of these boys was a son of yours, you would think
seriously over this important question.

Something should be done to save this large army of youth who are
annually finding their way into felon cells.

Is the penitentiary the proper place to send those youthful offenders?
If so, then they should not come in contact with the older and hardened
criminals. One of the most essential things to be done in a prison is
the classification of the inmates. This is not done in the Missouri
penitentiary. Here the mere youth often cells with a hardened old
criminal of the worst description. I would rather a child of mine would
be boxed up with a rattlesnake. In this institution there are nearly
2,000 criminals huddled up together--an indiscriminate mass. The
officials are not to blame for this. They realize the terrible
condition of things at the prison. They have not sufficient room for the
classification and proper arrangement of the inmates. They know, perhaps
better than anyone else, that the prison is not what it should be.
Warden Marmaduke says, in his last report to the prison directors, "This
prison is now too much crowded and it becomes a serious question at
once, as to what disposition will be made of them in the future. If this
prison is to accommodate them, another cell building should be built at
once. If another prison is to be the solution, it should be commenced.
If a reconstruction of our criminal laws, looking to the reduction of
crime, it should be done now. And in any event, and whatever may be
done, certainly our management of prisons should be so modified or
changed that the practical, not the sentimental system of reform,
should be adopted. I believe that our present system is making criminals
instead of reforming them, and I believe that it is practicable to so
classify, treat, feed, work and uniform these people, as to make better
men instead of worse men out of them. I have profound respect for the
good purposes of the benevolently disposed men and women, and they
are numerous, who are devoting themselves to the effort of reforming
criminals. Yet their efforts must