$20,000 ASKED FOR CURRENT EXPENSES FOR YEAR ENDING ON APRIL 1, 1876.

The board of directors ask the legislature to appropriate the sum of $20,000 to defray the current expenses of the prison for the year ending April 1, 1876. Making in all to be appropriated for the prison, by the next legislature, $33,985.80. We endorse the recommendation of the directors, as we are fully satisfied that the whole amount asked will be required for the operation of the prison.

THE PRISON NOT SELF-SUSTAINING.

The Directors conclude their recommendation for appropriations, by expressing the belief "that the prison labor may be gradually brought to a point of self-sustaining, but it can only be done by systematizing and economizing the work and labor of the prison.”

It is

Upon this subject the Warden says: "Much has been said and written in relation to this institution being self-sustaining, mostly by those who have little if any knowledge of its necessities. 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 one-half 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 deceased, 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 his incoming and out-going suit of clothes."

"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 at the best advantage; also, sufficient to enable it to hold the manufac tured 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."

We are gratified to find our own views expressed in the fore part of this report so strongly and ably endorsed by both the directors and warden of the Prison. Our opinions were based upon a somewhat thorough and careful examination of the business transactions of the Prison for several years past. The director and warden express the hope that eventually the labor of the Prison may be made self-sustaining. We cannot share with them in the expression of that hope, while the state Prison is located at Waupun, unless a very radical change is made in the inauguration of a very different branch of business. Indeed, we do doubt whether the state prison can be made self-supporting at Waupun with the labor employed at any other business whatever. It certainly cannot while engaged at the present business, which is over-done and sorely depressed by excessive competition everywhere.

The reasons that have led us to the belief that the state ought to change the location of the prison, are briefly stated elsewhere, and the propriety of such action may be inferred in the remarks of warden Smith, from which we have quoted above.

In the manufacture of chairs, the amount of new material required is very great, and Waupun is situated at too inconvenient a distance from the sources of supply, and at equally as inconvenient a distance from an available market. The question of removing the State Prison to some commercial center, is one that demands the immediate consideration and serious attention of the legislature. The State Prison has now been in operation twenty-four years, during which time the tax payers of Wisconsin have paid for its maintenance the sum of $1,004,000, and during nearly all this time there have been at the Prison from 150 to 200 prisoners confined at hard labor.

The Warden, in his report, estimates that only 53 per cent. of

the time spent in prison by convicts, for the six months ending Sept. 30, 1874, was devoted to productive labor, as follows:

PRISON POPULATION.

Showing the whole number of days spent in prison, the number of days lost time and the number of days given to productive and unproductive labor.

Percentage of productive labor to average population, 53.63.

It appears to us incorrect to say that the labor referred to above as indispensable is not productive. This labor is produtive to the extent of its value. Further, we can see no reason, and believe none exists why there is a greater proportion of so called unproductive labor among the convicts of a Wisconsin prison than among those of many other prisons that yield an income to the

state. The number of able bodied convicts in our prison will certainly compare favorably with that of other prisons. The proportion of the convicts who are unskilled at mechanical labor is undoubtedly less than in the prisons of the New England states. According to the best authorities upon the subject of prison labor the average number of convicts in our State Prison is not unfavorably small for its successful operation with a view of making it selfsupporting.

For a number of years past, the prisons of all the New England States are reported as yielding a profit to the state.

For the year 1871, the prison of New Hampshire yielded a revenue to the state over and above all expenses of $5,715.62, with an average of about 100 convicts.

For the year 1872, the prison of Rhode Island, with an average of 165 convicts, brought a revenue to the state treasury of $4,518.90.

With an average number of convicts, of 168, the state of Maine prison earned, over and above expenses, $6,591.64 during the year 1871. And has been more successful in its operations since.

The Vermont prison, with only 95 prisoners, for the year 1872, yielded a revenue of $1,500.

The Connecticut prison, with 190 convicts, returned a revenue of $1,202.10 for 1872.

The following table will exhibit the profits of the Massachusetts state prison for the years named:

The inspectors of this prison estimate in their report of 1873, a handsome profit for the year 1874. The average number of convicts in the Massachusetts prison has been about 500 for a number of years past.

its

The Michigan State Prison, with nearly 600 prisoners about pays and occasionally returns a small revenue.

way, We have not the official reports before us, but it is stated on good

authority, that the Ohio State Prison averages a yearly profit of from $25,000 to $40,000.

The New Jersey prison returns a profit this year over expenses of about $45,000.

We have stated the above facts to show that many of the prisons of other states, some with a greater and some with a less average number of convicts than our own, are self-supporting. To make our own prison self-sustaining, is certainly a thing within the range of possibility. The recent change in the manner of its government and a consequent greater economy in the management of its internal affairs, will doubtless contribute to this end, and thus may tend to lessen the annual state appropriation, but we have no hope. that this change and this increased economy will do away with the necessity of state aid altogether, so long as the present business of chair making continues to be the main dependence of the prison located at Waupun.

We have no desire to argue further

THE QUESTION OF THE REMOVAL OF THE PRISON.

This is a matter which belongs to the representatives of the people to determine. We have already said sufficient to indicate what we believe the best interests of the tax payers demand. And with the suggestions already thrown out, prefer to leave this branch of the subject. However

IN CASE OF ITS REMOVAL.

We desire to offer a few suggestions, with reference to the question of utilizing the present prison buildings. There is a pressing demand from every quarter that some provision be made for the better care of the incurable insane of the state. Both of the insane hospitals, the state prison, the jails and poor-houses of the state are crowded with a number of incurable insane. None of these institutions are suitable places for the reception and retention of this class of infortunates. The question of

FURTHER PROVISIONS FOR THE INSANE.

is discussed by Dr. Kempster, of the Northern Hospital, in his recent report. He says:

"At this point, a pertinent question presents itself. How far is