Detention, humane discipline and instruction are to be the functions of the colony. Any court may, in lieu of other lawful commitment, commit to the colony any male over twenty years of age who shall have been adjudged by such court to be a tramp or vagrant, or a deserter of a wife or child in necessitious circumstances. The sentence must be indefinite in length and parole or discharge may be made at any time after commitment, except that in no case may detention exceed two years. The colony is to be under the supervision and management of the state board of control. Its buildings are to be designed for not less than three hundred inhabitants, and $100,000 is appropriated for the purchase of a site and the erection of buildings. Educational and industrial training are to be provided for. The problem of wife desertion is declared to be an extremely serious one in Minnesota. The new bill aimed at this evil is based largely on the “model law of the District of Columbia,” as well as upon a study of every desertion law in the United States. It follows also recommendations of the commission on uniform state laws. The bill makes a misdemeanor of any desertion of, wilful neglect of, or refusal to provide for, a wife or a legitimate or illegitimate child under 16 years of age, in necessitous circumstances. In case of conviction it provides for a fine of not more than $100, or imprisonment at hard labor for not more than ninety days, or for both. The court may direct the fine to be used for the support of the wife or child. Some prominent features of the law, which are declared to be advantages over the present law, are as follows: It provides specifically that when a deserter of a destitute family is sentenced to confinement, he shall be employed at hard labor. This tends to prevent desertion, saves the value of the man’s labor to the community, braces him up and makes him a more useful citizen who is more likely to support his family after release. It requires the payment of the proceeds of the man’s labor where it most sorely is needed, to his deserted wife and children. Under the present law, the convicted deserter is supported in jail, while his family often become paupers. It specifically allows any person to make the complaint and makes both husband and wife compellable witnesses in all relevant matters. Members of the family are reluctant to complain in the most flagrant cases of neglect and desertion, or else withdraw their complaint before conviction and then the desertion is repeated. If convicted upon complaint of members of his own family, the man is very apt “to take it out on them” when released. It applies to the non-support of illegitimate as well as legitimate children. A STATE PRISONER ON PRISON REFORM