“This is a very serious situation. According to the records all these persons were paroled. The terms of the parole in each and every case was a regular report every month, that the prison officials, representative of the power and supervision of the State, might know exactly the situation of each convicted person who has been liberated upon obligation to keep the State informed of his movements. “Some of these persons have never rendered a single report. Others have reported for a time, and then ceased to trouble themselves about the matter. In very many cases their whereabouts is unknown. “Now the sentences of these persons have not expired. They are still nominally in the charge of the State, which has granted them their liberty upon conditions. There ought not to be a single such case. In no instance should the State be ignorant of the whereabouts of a prisoner unless he is a fugitive from justice. These persons may not be classed as fugitives, and their sentences have not expired, yet the State has no trace of them. “This situation certainly shows a flaw in our system and a serious one. “I am strongly of the opinion that the prison industries of the State ought to be differently managed. “Our boards now are primarily concerned with the welfare of the prisoners, and properly so. The welfare of the inmate of a penal institution must come first. But there is a service to the State which he is rendering, and it is the part of business efficiency to make that service as large and of as good quality as possible. “The industries of the penal institutions of the State are not managed in a business way. Here are hundreds of workers making thousands of dollars’ worth of goods, and no one who is expert in business affairs is held responsible for the administration of this industrial system. The wardens and the superintendents look after these details as one of their duties. But neither they nor any other official can devote the time and attention to these industries which they ought to have in order that the State may get from them the largest return and the workers themselves derive from them the greatest benefit for themselves. “The one officer who now gives all his time to the concerns of the penal system is the chairman of the board, and he has a multitude of matters to occupy every moment. There ought to be some person of commercial ability, a trained business man, who should give his whole time to the dollars and cents of the penal establishment of the State. Let the commissioner give his attention predominantly to the humanitarian side of the work. But let us have a trained expert who shall develop new industries, improve the system of marketing the product, and look in general after the business side of the prisons just as the superintendent looks after these matters in any private enterprise. It will pay the State to consider this matter.”