upon the funds of our state hospitals needed for other purposes, first, to receive such persons and then to remove them to their respective states, and pay the cost of so doing out of the hospital funds. Whether the cost of the removals ordered by this Board can be paid under the authority given by Section four, of Chapter 118, already cited, has not been determined, and may be questioned.

Our knowledge of causes which frequently operate to send non-resident insane persons into this state, and of the practical working of existing statutes when such persons are found here, leads us to recommend the following legislation:

First-That it be made a penal offense to bring into this state and there abandon any insane person who is not a resident of this state.

Second-That all proper expenses of keeping non-residents and others whose residence cannot be ascertained, who are found by commissioners of insanity to be insane, from the time they are so found, and of transferring them to state hospitals or to the states of their legal residence, be audited and paid from the state treasury.

We renew our recommendation that the hospitals for the insane be hereafter designated as state hospitals.

EPILEPTIC COLONY.

In our last biennial report we urged the establishment of an epileptic colony, and gave reasons in support of the plan. Our opinion as to the importance of such an institution has been confirmed by further investigation. Among the inmates of the Institution for Feeble-Minded Children at Glenwood are about 225 epileptics. If they are to be retained in that institution, then additional and special provision should be made for them at once, as the capacity of the institution is already overtaxed, and they should be segregated, and treated as a separate class.

Reports show that there were on the thirtieth day of last June, eighty-five epileptics in county institutions, and Superintendent Powell, after a careful investigation, estimates the total number of epileptics in the state at from 3,300 to 4,000. We do not know that this estimate is correct, but the number of that unfortunate class in the state is undoubtedly large.

The difficulties to be overcome in order to give the epileptics in the institution at Glenwood proper care, and the special treatment which they need, and at the same time to protect other

inmates from all possible harm which may result from direct contact with the epileptics, are very great, and in some respects cannot be surmounted. In view of these facts, and the great need of many epileptics throughout the state for skilled care and treatment, we most earnestly recommend that provision be made for all of this unfortunate class who need the help of the state, in a separate institution, which shall be exclusively devoted to their welfare and to the study of the various forms of their disease.

INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS.

Section 2711 of the code, as amended, provides that "No one shall be committed to the industrial school for a longer term than until he or she attains the age of eighteen, if a girl, and twenty-one, if a boy," and that this Board "may at any time after one year's service order the discharge or parole of any inmate as a reward for good conduct." No other authority is given us to parole or discharge inmates of the schools, unless they prove to be unruly or incorrigible or their presence shall be dangerous or detrimental to the school. Yet, it has happened frequently that it would have been to the advantage of inmates who were not unruly or incorrigible and whose presence was not dangerous or detrimental, to their parents and the state to have released them before the end of the first year's service or after that time but before they had become entitled to release as a reward for good conduct. In some of these cases the inmates could have been sent to new and excellent homes free from the evils of their former environments; in others the parents were about to remove permanently from the state and desired to take their children. with them; and in others the parents and the children were nonresidents of this state. In some cases also it has been desirable to discharge inmates who had become affected by a fatal malady, not necessarily dangerous to others.

For these and other reasons, we recommend that legislation with proper safeguards be enacted giving authority to grant paroles and discharges in all cases where the welfare of the inmates and all parties in interest seem to demand them.

INDUSTRIAL REFORMATORY FOR FEMALES.

Chapter 102 of the Acts of the Twenty-Eighth General Assembly established at Anamosa an industrial reformatory for females and authorized this Board to open it.

The females who can be received under the statute are girls under sixteen and not under nine years of age, who might be

committed to the Industrial School for Girls at Mitchellville, and inmates of that school over the age of fourteen years who are unruly and incorrigible and whose presence is dangerous and detrimental to the welfare of the school.

This Board is to determine what officers in addition to the superintendent are necessary for the reformatory and fix their salaries. We assume that the salaries of officers are to be paid from the fund to be made up from the monthly allowance of $15.00 for each inmate, although there is some obscurity in the statute on that point. An estimate for all supplies for the operation of the reformatory for one month, on the basis of fifty inmates, is authorized to be made one month in advance of the opening.

Reports from the judges of the police and district courts of the state, made at our request, indicate that had the reformatory been in operation during the year ending August 31, 1900, not more than thirty females would have been committed to it during the entire year. Superintendent Fitzgerald, of the Industrial School at Mitchellville, reported that none of the inmates of that school were of a character to be transferred to the proposed reformatory. It thus appeared that it was uncertain whether there would be any inmates of the reformatory during the first month it should be opened and that it was probable there would be not more than thirty inmates at the end of the first year, and an average of not more than fifteen during the year. Hence the monthly per capita allowance would average but $225 or a sum wholly insufficient to pay the salaries of the necessary officers and the expense of supporting the inmates.

In view of the reasonable certainty that the reformatory could not be operated during the first year of its existence on the funds. available, we decided not to attempt to open it until further action should be taken by the general assembly.

It is proper for us to say in this connection that in our opinion the law should permit the sending to the reformatory by the proper authority of girls and women over the age of fifteen years. Cases are numerous of women over that age whose con duct is so vile that they should not be permitted to be at large, but who are not so hardened as to require that they be punished by imprisonment in jails or penitentiaries. We are also of the opinion that girls under the age of twelve years should not be sent to the reformatory, whatever their offense may be.

Under existing statutes, girls who shall be transferred to the

reformatory from the Industrial School at Mitchellville are to be discharged when they reach the age of eighteen years, but there is no fixed time for the discharge of females who are committed directly to the reformatory. Their term of confinement and service is to be fixed by this Board, and they are to be paroled or discharged as a reward for good conduct, proficiency in studies and excellent work in the industrial department.

We believe the establishment of the reformatory to be a step in the right direction but are of the opinion that further legislation is necessary to make it thoroughly efficient. We therefore recommend the following:

First. That the law be so changed as to permit the commitment to the reformatory of girls and women who are not less than twelve nor more than twenty-two years of age.

Second. That provision be made for paying the necessary expenses of the reformatory until the per capita allowance shall be sufficient for that purpose.

Third-That the fund from which the officers and employes of the reformatory are to be paid be made clear.

REFORMATORY FOR MEN.

We repeat our recommendation of two years ago that a reformatory for males convicted of felonies who are not less than sixteen nor more than thirty years of age be established, and that a law providing for indeterminate sentences with proper limitations and safeguards, and for paroles be enacted. The experience of states which have tried that system is ample warrant for this recommendation.

What is known as the Elmira plan was inaugurated at Elmira in the state of New York in the year 1876, and has proven to be a success. It my be briefly stated as follows:

Male persons between sixteen and thirty years of age, who are convicted of crime for the first time, are sent to the reformatory. The term of imprisonment is not fixed by the judgment of the court but no person can be kept after the expiration of the longest term provided by law for the offense of which he was convicted. Subject to that limitation which is disapproved by some penologists, the sentence is indeterminate and the time of discharge of a prisoner is fixed by the managers of the reformatory. When a prisoner is received, he is placed in the lower first (or intermediate) grade. If his conduct is bad, he is reduced

to the second grade, but if it is good he is promoted to the upper first grade.

The conditions of his release are: (1) That he earn twelve months of sustained good record and have a balance of money to his credit sufficient to pay his way to employment provided for him and to meet his necessary expenses until he can draw his first wages. (2) That he gain the confidence of the head of the reformatory and of the managers. (3) That some suitable, definite and permanent employment be arranged for by the managers of the reformatory or by friends of the prisoner.

While out on parole, he remains in the legal custody of the reformatory until the end of the longest term of imprisonment authorized for his offense, and may be retaken if he violate the conditions of his parole.

When a prisoner by his conduct satisfies the managers that there is good reason to believe he is reformed and that if released he will not return to a criminal life but will be likely to obey the law and earn a living by honest means, he is released on parole, on condition that he conduct himself properly.

If, while on parole, the probability of his complete reformation is great, he is fully discharged.

If a prisoner proves to be incorrigible, he may be transferred to a state penitentiary.

The great purpose of the reformatory is the complete reformation of its inmates. To that end they are given instruction in school when that is desirable, are subjected to military drill and strict discipline, are given instruction in trades of which twentysix have been taaght in the reformatory at Elmira, and so far as the officials of the reformatory are able to do so, are made industrious, self-supporting, independent, self-respecting and law abiding members of society.

The managers of the Elmira reformatory estimated in the year 1898 that of the thousands of prisoners who had been committed to that institution and paroled during the first twenty years of its existence, not less than eighty per cent had been reformed and thus rescued from criminal lives.

It would be entirely feasible to convert the penitentiary at Anamosa into a reformatory similar to that at Elmira, and we recommend that it be done.

Guards-The statute provides that each of the guards at the