the state; or give them
a decent suit of clothes, a ticket to their home, and ten dollars in cash?" Believe
me, the latter is the cheapest to the tax payers in the long run. Now
all of this refers to the discharged convict only, not to those paroled,
for they get-nothing at all. Sometimes his employer brings him clothes,
sometimes the prison officials or his friends get clothes for him;
and sometimes the suit of an incoming prisoner is given to him; sometimes
he is turned out into the world in his convict garb. That is what
I call Nebraska's disgrace. Think of it my reader - to turn a man
out in the gray prison suits worn at Lancaster! Certainly steps ought
to be taken to prevent this. All the friends of the boys in gray
should come to the state house and do all they can to have such a
law enacted, and see that funds are appropriated for this purpose.
To properly equip the outgoing prisoners, I refer to the legislative
recommendation of Warden Melick - to furnish
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them with ten dollars in money, a ticket to where
they were sent from or any other place of equal distance, an overcoat
during the fall and winter months, and decent clothes such as will
not advertise him to all citizens of Lincoln and to every officer
throughout the state.
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