Statement of the cost of subsistence from April 1st to Sept. 30, "74. Cash paid for subsistence.. Cash paid for freight.... Subsistence on hand April 1, 1874. $7,674 35 89 01 464-20 318 84 $8,546 40 $363 33 415 33 $8, 131 07 Value of products derived from the garden, consumed up to this time.... Less subsistence on hand Oct. 1, 1874, not including products from garden ..... Received from matron for boarding of children.. Totai...... $5,927 82 29 Prisoners' subsistence Number of days of prisoners subsisted, 39,146 days, at $1.06 per week. Officers' subsistence— Whole number of officers subsisted by the state......... At $2.11 per week RAILROAD TRACK. 1 40 2,203 25 $8,131 07 On the 10th day of May last, with your consent and approval, I called on S. S. Merrill, General Manager Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad, in relation to the construction of a side track from the M. & St. Paul R. R. to the prison grounds. Upon learning the amount of business this institution could furnish if the proper facilities were afforded, Mr. Merrill, without a moment's hesitation, agreed to furnish the iron and ties and lay the track if the state would procure right of way and grade the track. On the 18th day of May, I made a contract with I. R. Matthews for four and a half acres of land lying between the railroad and the prison grounds, for $900. On the 16th day of June, the first car of lumber was received, and on the first day of October, 1,400,000 feet had been received. The track is now laid to the prison wall, at a cost to the state as follows: For 4 acres of land..... $900 00 right of way and damage 250 00 grading and culverts, including in last item, $140 of convicts' labor 208 50 Total. $1,358 50 The iron is on hand for extending the track through the shops into the yard about 300 feet. I estimate the cost of opening the wall and making the necessary protection and extending the track to be about $300, of which about $225 would be convicts' labor, making the Entire cost.. Less convicts' labo r. Cash payments to be made..... $1,658 50 365 00 $1,293 50 Several good judges estimate the land purchased to be now worth the whole cost of the improvement. I estimate that the saving to the state will be equal to or greater than the entire cost every year, so long as the present business is continued. The saving is not only in teaming, but full one half the cost of unloading and piling is saved by being done on the prison grounds, under reach of the guns on the wall. A special appropriation ought to be made to cover the cost of this improvement. TEAMING. I found, on the 1st day of April, but one pair of horses here, belonging to the state, which was entirely inadequate to the wants of this institution. It was therefore necessary to provide for this branch of the work and to avoid the cost of supplying teams by purchasing. I first hired for the season one pair of horses, wagon and harness at $1.25 per day, with subsistence. These two proving insufficient, I bought a heavy yoke of oxen. With them and the horse teams, the whole work of the prison has been done, viz., the delivery of all the chairs and furniture sold, the opening of and getting out a large quantity of stone from the quarry, delivery of the stone sold, hauling lumber from the yards to the shops as wanted, hauling supplies, including the hauling of 525,000 feet of lumber from Chester, about 100,000 feet from Waupun depot, and over 100,000 feet from new side track. In addition to the above, two single horses have been kept, one of my own and one of other parties kept for the use of it, so that one horse would be in the barn at all times for emergencies. The amount paid for teaming to this date is $183.12; the amount for forage is $249.55, which does not exceed the amount paid in former years. Chapter 55 of the general laws of 1867, provides "that the dif ferent state institutions shall order and purchase from the state prison any article or articles of furniture, boots, shoes or brooms required for their several institutions or their inmates." Not having received any orders from those institutions, I conclude the law must have been repealed. INSANE CONVICTS. Chapter 75 of the general laws of 1858 provides for the removal of the insane from the prison to the asylum. I cannot too strongly urge immediate action in this matter. Five are now confined in their cells, being unsafe to associate with other convicts, four of whom have become insane since their confinement. One, from Grant county, was insane when he came here last March, and has never been out of his cell. It was not considered safe to allow a man to go to the shops who had just killed two men, and still expressed a desire to kill more. Six more, who are partially insane, are permitted to be out, some of whom do a little light work. It may not be too late for their improvement or recovery with proper care and treatment, which they cannot have here. Some of those who are confined are, no doubt, hopeless, and should be placed where their hideous howling could not disturb the rest and prevent the sleep of 240 men, who are compelled to perform their tasks of hard labor. It has been recommended that a portion of the north wing be finished and furnished for the confinement of this class of convicts. This, I think, would be a very unwise measure. It would necessitate as much expense for day and night watching for six persons, as it would for forty or fifty; whereas, a few persons of this class could be absorbed in the asylums without materially adding to the care or cost, and where they could be treated according to the requirements in each case. Superintendents and physicians skilled in the treatment of the insane are not expected to be found among the officers of the State Prison. In my opinion, the most serious objection against providing quarters for the insane in the north wing is, that it would be only an entering wedge, which would probably result in removing all the incurable insane in the state to the State Prison, a most deplorable result for the management and labor of the prison. Much has been said and written in relation to this institution being self-supporting, mostly by those who have little if any knowledge of its necessities. It is assumed that 200 men ought to earn enough to support themselves, overlooking the fact that the insane, sick and crippled, with cooks and choremen comprise nearly onehalf of the number, thus requiring the labor of 100 men to board and clothe 200, to which should be added the cost of subsistence and salaries of officers, guards and keepers, not less than $25,000 a year. It is not often that 100 men can, in any business, earn enough to feed, clothe and doctor 200, and make $25,000 besides, with voluntary labor; much more difficult will it be to produce that result here with compulsory labor. It should also be remembered that most of the men who come here are entirely unskilled in any mechanical employment; many of them badly diseased, and whose terms of confinement expire as soon as, or before, they become competent workmen; and, in addition, each must be furnished with a respectable suit of clothes. and $5 in money on his discharge. More than one-third of the sentences are for one year or lessa large number for only six months-each to be provided with their incoming and outgoing suits of clothes. One convict is now serving on his sixth term, whose aggregate time of service is only four years and eight months, thus requiring six prison suits and six respectable going out suits with $5 each time, all in four years and eight months. It will readily be seen, that, he cannot be self-sustaining. The terms of sentences are very unequal for the same crimes, ranging from one to twelve years for the crime of horse stealing; the long term men, naturally feeling that injustice has been done them, which causes discontent and uneasiness-consequently less efficiency in their work. It will be impossible to make this institution, located at inconvenient distances from all the great markets where labor is most valuable, self-sustaining at once, with the most rigid economy and closest business management. It will take time and experience to introduce new and more profitable branches of business, and it will require appropriations sufficient to have funds at all times on hand. to purchase supplies and material whenever it can be done to the best advantage. Also, sufficient to enable it to hold the manufactured goods, when sales are dull and prices are depressed, until the markets are favorable for making sales. A more equal and uniform practice on the part of the courts in the terms of sentences would also aid in producing the desired result. If the labor of the prison could be contracted at reasonable rates, thus doing away with the large investments now required in stock, and with nearly 25 per cent. of the cost for keepers and overseers, the desirable result would, in my opinion, be more nearly realized than in any other way. In the early part of my administration, a manuscript came into my hands, written by a convict, a Frenchman, since discharged, which contains some valuable suggestions in relation to prison discipline and management. The following is an extract, in his own words: "There is another stumbling block against which convicts are forced to come in contact with, as soon as liberated; which, as long as it remains unmoved, will furnish occupants to your jails and state prisons, as well as fees and occupations for your constables, jailors, sheriffs, justices of the peace, judges, prosecuting attorneys, clerks, jurors, etc., expenses for transporting the culprits, feeding, washing, doctoring, Christianizing, and endless miscellaneous disbursements from the people's purse and national honor, which could be immensely lessened if more attention was paid to a question frequently agitated and as often put aside or ad infinitum adjourned, as a tedious topic to converse upon. This question is the complete destitution with which convicts are sent back to society. I have satisfactorily ascertained the fact, that many convicts serving a second, third and fourth term, have first tried to be honest It would be well to keep in sight, that men sentenced and brought to state prison, with but few exceptions, belong to the poorest element of society, and if exceptions exist, they would be found in capital cases, where money and influential protection have failed to secure an acquittal, the crime being too prominent to be kept from public interest, and justice in such cases has to be done, until time, with its reactive power, acts upon public's unstable minds with sufficient efficiency, to allow the chief executive to absolve him by the right of his pardoning power. Poverty is evidently the greatest wrong, that ignorant criminals (for ignorance brings criminals to punishment, and learning serves to make them avoid it) have to suffer for. Thus it cannot be expected, that being released under such unfavorable auspices, provided only with the only shirt displayed on their back, and the sum of five dollars, that they can pay their tare to put a courteous distance 3-ST. PR. (Doc. 12.) |