Kansas University Quarterly. 



Vol. I. APRIL, 1893. No. 4. 



PENOLOGY IN KANSAS. 



BY F. W. BLACKMAR. 



The Kansas State Penitentiary at Lansing has been noted as one of 

 the best prisons in the far west. And indeed in some particular 

 features it is quite remarkable. Among its especially good qualities, 

 as compared with other prisons of similar nature, are its financial and 

 economic management and its thorough discipline. Its financial 

 management shows it to be practically a self-supporting institution. 

 The institution has been fortunate in securing good management and 

 in the utilization of the labor of the prisoners, by means of the con- 

 tract system of labor, as well as in performing nearly all of the work 

 in connection with repairs, improvements, etc. But especially has it 

 been fortunate in its location immediately above a rich vein of coal, 

 so that a shaft could be sunk within the prison walls for the working 

 of the mine. (See figure 4.) 



The mine has thus been made to yield a handsome income for the 

 benefit of the State. The running expenses of the penitentiary for the 

 biennial period of 1891 and 1892 were ^297,409.47, while the receipts 

 from contract labor, coal sales and other sources were $215,190.35. 

 Thus making an expenditure over and above cash receipts of $81,- 

 939.94. But if it be considered, as it ought to be, that coal to the 

 value of $4,420.78 was furnished the western sufferers, and that coal 

 to the value of $42,533.68 was furnished to State institutions by the 

 prison management, and also that $50, 106.46 were spent in perma- 

 nent improvement,* it will be seen that the income of the prison has 

 exceeded its current expenses by a margin of over $5,000 for the bien- 

 nium of 1891 and '92. The total income from the coal mines for two 

 years was $168,993.57 and the total income from contract labor in 



* Eighth Biennial Report of Kansas State Penitentiary, p. 7. 



(155; KAN. UNIV. QUAR., VOL. I., NO. 4, APR., 1893. 



