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 permanent improvement,[1] it will be seen that the income of the prison has exceeded its current expenses by a margin of over $5,000 for the biennium 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 the same period was $78,225.80. This is a remarkable showing for a prison containing on an average about 900 prisoners of all grades and classes. [1] Eighth Biennial Report of Kansas State Penitentiary, p. 7. A close inspection of the prison management will convince one that a strictly military discipline prevails within the prison.[2] It is a busy place at the penitentiary. All able-bodied men not undergoing special punishment are employed. It is not a place for idlers, for the law permits and requires service. The management of the different industries, the hospital, the library, the insane department, the kitchen and dining room all show care and system. So, also, for cell-ventilation and other forms of sanitation there is great care exercised by those in authority. While it is well to acknowledge the excellent management of the prison during the past, it is also pertinent to consider what progress may be made in the future. As there has been such great advancement in prison science in the past twenty years, it may be well to measure the Kansas penological system by ideal systems, as well as by the foremost practice in the best regulated prisons in Europe and America, to ascertain in what especial lines Kansas needs to develop her penological system. No doubt it is highly gratifying to the tax-payers of Kansas that the institution is on a self-supporting basis. Especially is this to be approved in a new state where so much must be done in a short time; where schools, churches, hospitals, asylums, and penal institutions must be built and maintained by the people almost before they have made themselves comfortable in a new country. These must be provided for, while railroads, roads, bridges and court houses must be built and the native resources be made productive for the support of all.