A GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE BUILDINGS, WALLS AND YARDS.

This Prison was commenced in 1816, and is constructed upon the plan of a hollow square, enclosed by a wall 2000 feet in extent, being 500 feet on each side. The following is a simple survey or ground plan.

The exterior line is the wall which encloses the whole Prison ground and buildings.

E. Is the eastern front gate.

A. Is the front yard, about 60 feet square.

B. is the Keeper's dwelling. The basement story contains a kitchen, store-rooms, and pantries. The first story contains the Inspector's and Agent's office, and Clerk's office, with convenient adjoining rooms.

The main hall passes through the centre, between the offices, to the keeper's hall in rear. The second story has two large parlors, two bedrooms, a sitting room and an open hall. From the windows of this and the Attic story, there is a pleasant prospect of the village and adjacent country. The attio story has five well arranged rooms.

The basement, second and attic stories are exclusively appropriated to the use of the keeper.

This building is about 60 feet wide, of about the same height to the top of the battlements, and projects out from the main building, 25 feet, and cost from forty to fifty thousand dollars. The front of the prison, including the above building, is about 300 feet, and each wing extends west 240 feet.

C. Is a fruit yard and green, of about 90 feet by 100.

G. G. Is the garden, the front part of which is 216 feet by 110, and the rear part, about 100 feet square.

N. W. Is the north front and wing, containing the solitary cells and Hospital.

S. W. Is the south front and wing, divided, principally into large rooms. g. Is the guard and engine house.

D. The north, wood and lumber yard which is 3.4 feet by 111. e. The gate that leads into it, and

i, the gate that leads from it, into the interior yard.

z. The back stoop, which overlooks the whole interior yard.

Y. The space between the wings, which is a grass plat with gravel. walks.

y. The interior yard covered with gravel, and always clean, and dry walking over it, Between this and the grass plat, there is an offset of 2 or 3 feet, made of stone, on which there is a wooden railing except at the steps. Over the centre steps is hung the yard bell.

r. r. The reservoirs of water 8 feet deep-one 151-2 feet by 43, and the other 18 feet in diameter and communicate with each other. F. Cooper's yard 128 feet by 110.

p. Paint shop 84 by 26, which is the width of all the shops.

0. o. The east and west Cooper's shop.

v. The vault 26 by 30 feet.--By opening the gates of the reservoirs of water, it will rush through the common sewer and vault, and sweep: all the filth into the creek.

w. Is the weave shop

u. The shoe and Tailor's shop.

Is the Carpenter's shop.

m. The Blacksmith's shop.

These shops, besides the paint shop, form a continued range of 900 feet-They are well lighted by windows in the sides.-There is also a jog in about the centre of the roof, for a single tier of lights, which are much better than flat sky lights, which were first used.

The shops are built of Brick, and as a security against the progress of fire, there is a brick partition wall between each of them, extending above the roofs.

The outer walls, against which the shops are built, are 35 feet high, on the inside and the other walls about twenty.-They are four feet thick, and the walls of the prison three feet thick. But no adequate description of this grand and expensive pile of buildings and walls, can be given without the aid of drawings.

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The expense of the whole, without including the labour of convicts employed, after preparation was made to receive them, was above $300,000, only $ 50,800 of which was expended on the north front and wing, all the shops, guard and engine house, and various other improvements.

It has been asked, "what would be the proper size for the employment and safe keeping of sixty or seventy criminals" " This ques tion is intended, no doubt, not only to embrace the size, but form of construction, arrangements, and description of all necessary buildings, yards and walls. Without the services of a mechanick in making suitable drawings, this question cannot be answered much better than from what has already appeared from the descriptions given of this prison. This, however, is a proper occasion to remark, and it cannot be too often or too forcibly repeated, that the ease and success of prison discipline depends, vastly, upon the construction of its buildings and yards. After separation of convicts, by solitary cells, facility of inspection is almost every thing; and much of the success which has attended this institution, is to be attributed to this cause. The whole interior yard and shops can be surveyed at a glance, and there are no bye-ways and corners to screen the prisoners from the view of the keepers. It is believed, however, that improvements upon our shops may be made for shoemakers, tailors, and others, not requiring much room, by having the shops circular, the overseer stand in the centre, with the convicts facing from him towards the windows; and as a further improvement, it has been suggested, to have narrow partitions between each convict, forming a sort of stalls, with a window in each. Such an arrangement, with ordinary vigilance on the part of the keeper, would render any communication between convicts, next to an impossibility. Another great evil, in addition to the difficulty of inspection, is the want of room, in the yards and shops. That evil is already felt in this prison Instead of about five acres only, which are enclosed, there ought to have been at least ten or twelve, and the time is not distant, when more yard and shop room will be indispensable.

It is gratifying to learn, that a prison in Massachusetts, one in Connecticut, and one in the District of Columbia, are now building upon the plan of the north wing of this; and it is hoped for the cause of virtue and humanity, that many others will be built upon the same madel: but unless great attention is paid to other matters of arrangement than that of the night cells, important as they are, the work will be but half done.

There are three gentlemen in this village, master builders (Samuel C. Dunham, Lawrence White, and Elias Miller) who have been employed in building this Prison.

They are familiar with every mechanical part of it and capable of drawing the best designs, which their experience here, and that of the officers of this institution can suggest, and of superintending any building operations. Wherever the improvements of this Prison are considered valuable, the services of those men would be important.

To the knowledge and experience of the former, as a builder, he

unites a thorough knowledge of the discipline of this Prison and is a capable officer.

Some of our Assistant Keepers are first rate Mechanicks, as well as officers, who will not remain in this institution much longer, with their present salaries, as they can employ their talents to much greater advantage. If this Prison must lose their services for want of a just compensation, which would be a great loss, they would be valuable men in other institutions, where they might be more liberally rewarded.

In building a new Prison, the overseer of the blacksmith's depart、 ment, Herman Eldridge, would be a valuable officer and machanick. GENERAL AND PRESENT HEALTH OF THE CONVICTS. This prison has been distinguished for the general good health of the convicts.

During the year 1822, there was an average number of between 7, and eight, confined to the hospital, out of 220 convicts, and 10 deaths. In the year 1823, an average of nine, out of 260, and nine deaths.In 1824, an average of 10, out of 328, and two deaths, both by consumption. The physician's report of that year, states:

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That though there has been an increased number of convicts reported sick, the number of deaths is smaller than any year preceding, & that the reason is obvious.-That there has been an abandonment of continued solitary confinement-that those in the cells who were pardoned the last spring and summer, were most of them enfeebled, and sickening with a consumptive diathesis, that would have become incurable.

"That diseases are characterized by the same symptoms as those in the adjacent country, and that as long as the regulations for cleansing are rigidly enforced, there cannot exist in or about the prison, any local or pestilential cause of disease.",

During the year 1825, there was an average of six, confined to the hospital, out of an average of 386 convicts, and six deaths.-From January 1826, to the first of October following, there was an average number of 432 convicts, five in the hospital, and six deaths.

The proportion of deaths in this prison, has been about one to twenty-sight convicts received; in Vermont about the same; in Massachusetts, one to eighteen; and in the prison at New-York, one to eight.The proportion in other prisons is not known.

The resident physician of the New-York prison, stated to the Agent of this, a few weeks since, that there were 380 convicts in that prison, that he left 30 in the hospital, and that 25 was the average number of hospital cases.

The convicts here, are strictly prohibited the use of ardent spirits and tobacco, except as medicine: and contrary to a very common, but fallacious notion, that the confirmed drunkard cannot break off, at once, from the use of spirits, without danger to his health, it has been found invariably, that the most besotted drunkards have never suffered in their health, from that cause, but almost as uniformly, their health has been improved. They appear to be very uneasy, and somewhat

lost, for a few days, and with rather poor appetites, after which, they eat heartily, and improve in health and appearance. Being deprived of tobacco, occasions much more suffering to those who have been in the habit of using it, than the loss of ardent spirits to the drunkard.

There are many who have been confined for years, that would cheerfully exchange half their rations of food, for a moderate allowance of tobacco; yet the want of it rarely affects their health or appetites.

REFORMATION OF CONVICTS.

It is believed that very erroneous opinions are entertained on this subject; but they have arisen chiefly from the failure of success with the old mode of discipline, which has been practised in prisons, without the separation of convicts.

The frequency, and one great cause of re-convictions in other prisons, will very forcibly appear, from the following extracts from the report to the prison discipline society before quoted.

"The correctness of these opinions, in relation to the evils arising from a crowded state of the night rooms, is supported by a comparative view of the penitentiaries in the United States, in regard to the re-commitment of convicts, where the night rooms are crowded, and where they are not.

In the New-Hampshire penitentiary, the whole number of prisoners received from November 23, 1812, to September 28, 1825, was two hundred and fifty-seven; of whom eleven only were committed a second time.

Twenty-one have been pardoned; of whom only one has been guilty of a second offence.

The number of prisoners, September 22, 1825, was sixty-six; of whom only three were for a second offence, and none for a third.

In this prison, from two to six are lodged together; generally, hoyever, not more than two..

In Connecticut, of 117 convicts in prison Feb. 1825, 26 were committed for second, third, and fourth offences.

In the penitentiary, in New-York city, the number of females, in November, 1825, was sixty-six; of whom twenty were committed a second time; six, a third; two, a fourth; and one, a fifth.

Here they are lodged ten and twelve in a room.

In the state prison, in New-York city, in 1802, out of one hundred and ninety-one convicts received, forty-four were committed a second time, and two, a third.

The whole number of re-commitments to that prison, for a second offence, is four hundred and ninety-four; for a third or more offences, sixty-one; and the number pardoned, after having been convicted two, three, or more times, is one hundred and eight.

In this prison, the average number in the night rooms, is twelve. In the Philadelphia penitentiary, the number of prisoners, August 24, 1819, was four hundred and sixteen; of whom seventy-three had been twice convicted; twenty-five, three times; seven, four times; and two, five times.