WHEREAS, Kentucky is now engaged in an effort to stamp illiteracy out of the state, and INASMUCH, as instructors and facilities for teaching are now furnished the inmates of penal institutions under the control of this Board, and all are given the opportunity to read and write, it is therefore ordered by the State Board of Control, that one of the essential prerequisites to a parole should be that a prisoner shall be able to read and write, and the Board therefore adopts the rule that hereafter all inmates shall be able to read and write, before their application for parole will be considered. This act making the prisoner’s ability to read and write a condition of parole, proved a great incentive to the illiterates to learn. Some of the prisoners when their terms expired went back home and became educational evangelists in their communities. It was said of one man who had returned from the State reformatory and joined in the illiteracy crusade, “He talks like one who had returned from a university rather than from the ‘pen.’” His conversation was all of teachers, schools, books and “everybody learning to read and write.” The Warden of the Kentucky State Reformatory in his report at the close of 1919 made the following statement: Many of our prisoners who were supposed to be able to read and write when they entered the institution were actually found to be illiterate. The total number taught to read and write during my three and a half years as Warden, is 1,300 as nearly as I can sum it up from the records. The improvement in the discipline of the men who learned to read and write was most noticeable. I gave the work my personal attention and feel that it was one of the most important duties of my office. The Warden of the State Penitentiary reported to the Illiteracy Commission as follows: It will always be a greater source of gratification to me that nearly 1,400 adults have been taught to read and write during my seven and a half years as the head of this Institution than everything else I have accomplished. I will state that every prisoner is permitted to come out to the school session and we have all illiterates attending except a few very old ones whose eyesight is too defective, possibly five or six. [Illustration: LETTER FROM A STUDENT IN PRISON] According to these wardens’ reports, 2,700 prisoners in the State Reformatory and Penitentiary had been redeemed from illiteracy during a period of seven years, an average of about 385 each year. The prisoners had been provided with free books, had been encouraged by the wardens and others in official life, even the Governor appearing on occasion to present them with the diplomas which were conferred for the completion of the course in these schools.