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Show STATE PRISONS REPORT FEWER M CONFINED t I Several Reasons Given for Falling Off in Number of Convicts DRY LAW CREDITED High Wages, Merit System and Indeterminate Sentence Sen-tence Listed ' I CHICAGO, March 21. Decrease in 'the total population of state prisons in the middle and southwestern states la attributed in part to prohibition by a number of state prison authoritle" 'Other reason noted included high .wages and shortage of labor, the indeterminate in-determinate sentence and the merit system The falling off for 16 states, las noted In reports collected here by The Associated Press, amounted on ! December 1. 1920. to nearly an eighth I of the total on December I, 1914. In commenting on the decrease in 'states where It occurred, more prison 'officials named prohibition than any other single reason. Several citing in-jdustrlal in-jdustrlal conditions, gave this cause , greater weight than prohibition. From one of the states thai reported' report-ed' an increase, 1 h!o. the warden of the state penitentiary reported ho did not believe that prohibition had decreased de-creased crime ; The decrease in prisoners was not uniform, but took place in nine .state?, where the t ot - 1 decrease wiped ou. an I Increase in six states and showed a jnet decrease for tho entire sixteen, orjc remaining statlonay N i w 1 r vn iu s New features m the character of etimo and criminals were notej by several state officials. "I believe that there has been a general gen-eral decrease in the prison population ot the country." said Henry Town, warden of the Wisconsin state prison nt Waupun. "This can be attributed in part to the restricted sale of intoxicating in-toxicating liquor and also to the fact that labor hop been scarce and high wnic-s have been paid. "We do not got as many petit offenders of-fenders as formerly but the crimes committed are of a much more serious nature. I bellevo it is also true that a great many of these serious crimes are being committed and the offenders offend-ers are not being caught. 1 think you can sum up the situation by saying that petit crime has decreased and a more serious form of crime has taken Its place and greatly increased, and that the percentage of arrests for the more serious crimes Is much less thun the arrests formerly for petit crimes." CREDITS PROHIBITION. Prohibition was aald by Downer Mullen, secretary of the Minnesota stat board of control, to be one of the principal reasons for the decrease In number of Inmatea in the Minnesota Minneso-ta state prison at Stillwater. John T. Burkott. secretary of the Arkansas penitentiary commission, gave the I passage and enforcement oj prohibition prohibi-tion laws credit for the decrease there in the number of state convicta. Officials of the Kentucky prisons, where the greatest drop in the sixteen states was noted said that the decline there was due In largo part to the unprecedented un-precedented period of employment and high wages probably more than to prohibition. They said thev did not expect ther prison population to stay at its low point for long. In Ohio, Warden Thomas said that the main reason why the statl penitentiary peni-tentiary population had not decreased In the last few years was the Inde terminate sentence. 11 holds prisoners prison-ers longer, he said. Another reason given by Warden Thomas was that Ohio police were more active than those In sonic other StOtea and were bringing in more criminals. "PEOPLE FOOLED." "The reformer claims It is prohibition prohibi-tion that reduces our prison population," popula-tion," wrote J. R. Jordan, chief clerk, criminal record department, Texas state penitentiary "They also claim that since prohibition has been in effect ef-fect Crime haa decreased G8 per cent. Of course, they do not expect any one 1 that Is Informed to believe them, but it serves (heir purpose to fool the people a part of the time." In Missouri. William R, Painter, chairman of the state prison board, said thai prohibition was one cause of the decrease In number of pri .Tiers .Ti-ers and that crime had diminished nollceablv along with prohibition. Mr. Painter naid that the merit system, under un-der which prisoners are given a chance to reduce their sentences by good be-ha be-ha lor. had operated likew ise to cut down the state prison population |