partment of Examiners of Accounts wtih copies of the printed statements of receipts and disbursements now required by law to be published by such courts or boards.

Reports from County Treasurers or Depositories.

The Legislature should enact a law requiring the county treasurer or depository and the county treasurer of public school funds of each county to furnish the Department of Examiners of Accounts with monthly reports of all payments into their respective treasuries by county officers. Such reports would enable the Chief Examiner of Accounts to keep constantly informed as to whether or not the various county officers were making prompt settlement of their collections.

County Depositories.

Under the County Depository Act of 1915 the county depositories cannot be compelled to keep proper accounts and it is a practical impossibility for the Judge of Probate, who is charged with the duty of keeping such accounts, to properly keep the same so long as various and sundry other officers are authorized to draw warrants or orders on the county treasury. The law is weak also in that there is no centralized responsibility for the legality of disbursements, especially where the chairman of the Court of County Commissioners or Board of Revenue is not under bond. I earnestly recommend the enactment of such legislation as will require the depositories to keep proper accounts and as may be necessary to safeguard and protect the interests of the county relative to the legality of the disbursements made through such depositories or through the acting-treasurers where there are such officers instead of depositories.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion I wish to express my appreciation of the faithful service rendered by the capable and efficient force of assistants selected by Your Excellency for this department. They have at all times given me their active and sincere co-operation and have discharged their responsible duties with fairness and impartiality and with a stern sense of fidelity to duty.

I wish also to thank Your Excellency for the courtesy and consideration shown this department and for the able advice and wise counsel with which you have directed its operations and sustained and supported the head of the department and his assistants in their efforts to faithfully and fearlessly discharge the important duties imposed upon them.

Respectfully,

(Signed) CHAS. E. McCALL, Chief Examiner of Accounts."

CONVICT DEPARTMENT

Since my incumbency in office I have made it a rule to make personal visits to the penal and eleemosynary institutions of the State. These visitations have been at frequent but irregular intervals and always without warning. In this way I have kept in close personal touch with all prison camps and conditions.

While on my first trip of inspection I realized the necessity for a thorough reorganization and overhauling of the convict system. The abolition of the turpentine camps was ordered at the first opportunity and prompt measures were taken for the improvement of conditions at other camps and prisons. This

work was begun under the supervision of Hon. C. B. Rogers, State Warden General, and continued under the supervision of State Warden General Wm. F. Feagin until, I am gratified to say, the entire convict department of the State has been brought to as high degree of efficiency as may reasonably be expected under the surrounding circumstances.

The conditions existing at the outset were undoubtedly very bad. Cruel treatment of convicts was not uncommon. The use of the leather strap was entirely too frequent and oftentimes attended with much cruelty. Food was insufficient in quantity, quality and preparation, and beds and bedding were filthy to a disgusting degree. All these things have been corrected. Humane treatment by wardens and guards is required and obtained. The use of the whipping strap has been forbidden. Iron army cots have replaced the vermin covered wooden swinging beds and the mattresses, pillows and sheets are clean and sanitary. New prisons have been built at Speigner and Number Four and the relic of barbarism at Wetumpka has been altered, thoroughly renovated and set apart for a prison and workshop for female prisoners. All State owned prisons are entirely new but one and that, as above stated, has been made suitable for its purpose.

On an early inspection visit I realized the necessity for and formed a determination to build a first class modern prison. When the time for beginning the project seemed propitious I sent the Warden General, Wm. F. Feagin, and my private secretary, Wm. A. Darden, with an architect and engineer, Martin J. Lide of Birmingham, to the Middle West for the purpose of examining the best examples of modern penitentiaries and forming plans for a new prison in Alabama. The work of building was begun in June, 1921, and completed in October, 1922. The prison was built to accommodate nine hundred inmates. In connection with this prison we have built a 10,000 spindle cotton mill and a dye works and a shirt factory. The buildings for these enterprises have been completed and machinery is now being installed. These buildings and machinery are of the latest design and thoroughly adapted to afford profitable employment to all of the inmates of the prison who are able to work.

In connection with the prison, mainly for the purpose of supplying milk and butter for the convicts, we have built a modern dairy, stocked with a fine herd of Guernsey cows.

Many other improvements have been made as will be shown in the report of the Warden General covering operations of the department for the quadrennium ending September 30, 1922. I commend this report to your very careful consideration as a paper showing a remarkable reform in the handling of the State's convicts, and I ask you to give particular attention to the remarks concerning the Indeterminate Sentence Law passed by the Legis

lature of 1919, and the matter of dividing the earnings of convicts with dependent families.

I heartily recommend that authority be given for the employment of additional parole officers. I also recommend that provision be made for payment of a portion of the earnings of convicts to their dependents, especially to those who may be shown to be in destitute circumstances.

It is not always the case that the violator of the law is the chief sufferer. It is more often that distressed wives and heipless children bear the greater burden. Surely the taxpayers of Alabama will be willing to give up the necessary amount of the convict earnings for the relief of such cases. The report follows:

Montgomery, Alabama, December 20, 1922.

"In accordance with your request of the 12th ult., I hand you herewith for the State Board of Control and Economy a comprehensive report of the operations of the Convict Department for the quadrennium ending September 30th, 1922, as brief as it can be made with due regard to the provisions of section 6501 of the Code.

During this period this department was combined with the State Board of Control and Economy and the Board of Convict Inspectors abolished with a consequent change in the methods of accounting employed.

An all-time physician inspector, an all-time chaplain and welfare worker, a technically trained farm and dairy supervisor and a licensed dentist have been employed and report their activities to the department at regular intervals.

Changes have been made in the office and prison records pertaining to convicts, important among which is the installation of card index systems showing all the information in connection with each prisoner and references to the other records necessary to be kept. This system has eliminated various record books, reduced the detail work of the office to a minimum, made available all information without research and has replaced all the indexes of the office.

A record has been developed whereby the number of prisoners in the penitentiary and at each prison can be ascertained on any date since its installation. Monthly reports in detail of the money and valuables belonging to prisoners in the hands of the wardens, monthly inventories by items of equipment at each prison, and monthly statements of the operations of the prison stores are regularly received from the wardens. Daily reports showing the number of men on hand at each prison, the number employed, the number excused by reason of illness and the number of flunkeys and their duties, as well as the quantity of milk, butter and eggs produced and consumed and the amount of food required to produce them.

A system of serial numbers has been adopted and the number assigned to each prisoner upon his receipt into the penitentiary is used in all correspondence and transactions pertaining to him to definitely identify him during the whole of his prison term.

The method of computing short-time allowance for good conduct where a prisoner has more than one sentence has been changed from allowance on the aggregate sentence to allowance on each sentence separately.

In your inaugural address you recommended certain reforms in sentencing prisoners convicted for crime, the result of which was the enactment by the State Legislature of the indeterminate sentence law which discontinued the traditional system of hard and fast penalties for crimes and provided

that the penalty be adjusted not only to the offense but to the individual offender and prevented variation in temperament and attitude of judges from resulting in inequality of sentences that naturally created a feeling of injustice in the minds not only of the prisoners themselves but of the more intelligent public. This law is based on the theory that the detention of the prisoner cannot be adequately determined by the court at the time of the sentence and the detention in the prison of the prisoner should be sufficiently long to measure the probability and progress of his reformation and rehabilitation, and at the same time allow for a period of conditional release before the expiration of his maximum period of confinement. To meet the requirements of this law there was appointed an identification and parole officer of the department whose duty, in addition to finger-printing and photographing prisoners received into the penitentiary, is to keep in touch with and require reports from paroled prisoners in the post-prison period and trace the after careers of the prisoners until the expiration of the maximum time of their sentences. I believe that prosecuting attorneys and judges should be required to furnish such information as they possess relative to the offense as well as of the man himself, also their impressions of his character. I would urge the adoption of the policy of personal investigation of the offense and the circumstances under which it was committed. This information would be invaluable to the parole officer in the performance of his duties. In the scheme of rehabilitation I believe that, in addition to the parole officer already employed, two others could profitably be used whose duties would be in the nature of field work under the direction of the State Warden General, consisting principally of securing employment under moral conditions for prisoners to be paroled and make contracts for same, visit them and their employers monthly, secure reports from them and their employers, and upon revocation of their paroles by the Governor for violation of the terms thereof, or arrest and return them to the penitentiary and make monthly reports of their activities from day to day.

In this connection I do not think it is amiss for me to express the hope that the rights of dependents to a portion of the earnings of their convicted husbands and fathers will be recognized and a way provided for an equitable division of such earnings with dependents to be made by the Convict Department. Under the present system a convict is required to give up his all and while he is at work earning for the State, his dependents are too frequently driven from place to place for lack of proper protection and are denied the bare necessities of life. Children raised under such conditions are prone to fall into error and often become criminals from force of circumstances and thereby demonstrate the weakness of the present system. I believe that a convict's earnings should be shared equitably with his innocent dependents, that it will be conducive to right thinking and right living on the part of the convict and his helpless wife who so heroically struggles to carry the load but so often fails. This condition could be taken care of to a great extent by an allowance made to each prisoner based on the time served and his conduct while in the penitentiary, a part or all of which allowance should be remitted to the dependents at regular intervals. Besides contributing to the upkeep of his dependents, it would furnish an incentive to good conduct.

The old swinging double wooden bunks equipped with thin excelsior and straw mattresses, infested with vermin, have been replaced with sanitary single iron cots furnished with adequate cotton mattresses with duck covers, two sheets each, pillows and pillow cases all of which equipment is manufactured by the Convict Department with convict labor and is changed twice each week.

Uniform individual lockers attached to the walls in each prison are in process of manufacture, replacing boxes of various shapes and dimensions,

bags and bundles kept on the floors under the beds furnishing harbors for trash and filth.

All of the clothing used by prisoners, except winter underwear and hosiery, is made in its own tailor shop with convict labor from cloth manufactured by convict labor in the State's cotton mill.

Rules have been promulgated requiring all prisoners to wear regulation clothing, as contemplated by section 6537 of the Code. Rubber mine shoes have replaced the stiff, steel-bottom brogans formerly used, thus reducing to the minimum fatalities from electric shock and greatly contributing to the comfort of the prisoners in the mines.

A system of numbering has been developed that not only returns to

each man his own clothing but his bed clothing as well.

Sanitary laundries with new kettles and furnaces have been installed at each of the prisons and men are stationed in each to mend all clothing and replace missing buttons.

The cells have been equipped with a sufficient number of tables and benches for the use of the prisoners while reading, writing, studying and playing games which relieves the cots and beds from use as lounging places while the men are in their cells.

Comfortable and convenient bath-houses in which hot and cold showers may be had have replaced the cold tub baths formerly in use and the prisoners are required to make use of these baths regularly. Facilities for bathing the face and hands have been improved and sufficient towels manufactured by the State are furnished for the use of the convicts.

Adequate fire escapes have been provided at most of the prisons. Special deputy wardens are now required to go into the mines each working day and remain until the convicts have finished their tasks, in order that the physical welfare and safety of the prisoners may be had in the mines as well as in the cells.

Sleeping quarters have been screened against flies and mosquitoes and cell boys are required to promptly dispose of any flies or other pests entering through the doors when in use.

Barber shops have been fully equipped in each prison and all of the prisoners are required to be shaved semi-weekly and hair cut semi-monthly. Dairymen, cooks and others in similar work are required to shave daily.

The all time licensed dentist cares for the teeth of the convicts and keeps a detailed record of all dental work done and all found needed. Tooth brushes have been furnished the convicts and the dentist sees that they are used regularly.

Sanitary drinking fountains have been installed and are required to be in order at all times, looking to reducing infection from the use of a common drinking vessel.

During this period one of the most important improvements made is in the quality and preparation of the food served the prisoners. Modern steel ranges of adequate capacity have been installed at each prison, replacing the syrup-kettle method heretofore used, and the kitchens are equipped with sufficient modern cooking vessels.

Substantial baking ovens have been installed at each prison and milk break of high quality is served daily in sufficient quantity. This was made possible by the inauguration of a school for training bakers from among the prisoners taught by a competent baker employed for that purpose until a competent teacher from among the prisoners could be trained.

Daily bills of fare properly balanced have been worked out by competent authorities for each day in the month and each meal is prepared and served under the constant supervision of one or more of the prison officials and assistants. Meals properly prepared served hot have replaced the poorly prepared meals served cold prior to this period. There has been only a slight additional cost attached to this improvement.