• Author: Ohio Penitentiary News
• Editor:
• Newspaper: The Umpire volume V
• Page Number:
• Date: 12 11 1918
• Tags:
• advice
• penal press
• Ohio Penitentiary News

IdlenessIdleness is the curse of mankind. When a man has nothing to do, it is impossible to breed better instincts in him. It is the cause of crime. If you give a man plenty of work to do, he has not time to brood over his confinement, or to continually plan to commit new crimes. This prison in regard to work is making a splendid showing. There are very few idle men and they are infirm. Any shop that can use these men is being sup plied. With the Board of Clemency paroling men at the rate of a hundred a month, it has. forced the prison population down below the 1800 mark. The munition factories have taken a large number of men who were given the chance by the Clemency Board and their place on honor or in the shops are being filled as rapidly as possible. This speaks good for the authorities, when you take into consideration the fact that three years ago there were over Five Hundred prisoners sitting in the idle house with nothing to do but swap lies. This was unbearable and resulted in men being transferred to the Lima State Hospital. But where men are given the chance to work—which means that by good behavior in the shops, one can earn his re lease sooner than the man who refuses to work or takes not the slightest interest in it. It is impossible to be a shiftless worker and get away with it continually for you will get caught in the end and it will be a black mark against your record. So when the time comes for you to be paroled, don't be surprised that your slip says "continued." You cannot expect the Clemency Board to parole any man who refuses to work and who would rather remain idle. -O.P. News