contract, the contractors take the shop, tools and apparatus as they now are, and return them as good, at the expiration of contract; all additions to be made at their expense-pay monthly, with a credit of three months, on each month's work.

The earnings of the Shop, for the year ending the 31st October, 1825, were $3542 28. An average of sixty Weavers and fifty-nine Warpers, Spoolers, &c. &c., allowing 300 working days in the year, exhibits 10 cents per day for each man.

It is proper to remark, that the Spoolers and Bobbin-winders in this shop, (being beween thirty and forty,) are all invalids, by reason of age, ruptures and other bodily infirmities, and that nearly all were such, when they came into Prison.

This class is only employed on a temporary contract, but it is presumed it may continue, unless the Agent can do better with them.

BLACKSMITHS' SHOP.

Hugh Mc Clallen's contract commenced the 1st February, 1826, for one year. Four convicts employed at 50 cents per day-pay monthly, with a credit of three months, on each month's work.

There are twenty-nine convicts now employed in this shop, including apprentices. Besides those employed on the above contract, the same number are now employed, at the same price, in making chases and some other printing apparatus, by a gentleman who has some connexion with a Company in New-York, which is under a large contract to send those materials to some parts of South America. There is a prospect of very considerably extending this business. The remainder of the convicts, in this shop, are employed in making na hammers, carving knives and forks, and a few other articles for sale, and others in doing work for out-door customers, (they furnishing stock,) at the following prices :

Ironing two-horse Wagon, iron axletrees,
do.

$15.00

do.

Wood

do.

8.00

Lumber do.

Cutter do.
Carts

do.

5.00

Sawmill Irons, $4 00 per cwt.-Chains, 6 cents per lb.-Drag-teeth, 2 cents per lb.-six-inch Boat Spikes, 2 3-4 cents, five-inch 3 1-2 cents, four-inch 4 cents, three and a half inch 4 1-2 cents per lb.broad Axe, $3 00-narrow Axe, $1 50-Carpenters' Adze, $1 75Coopers' Adze, 75 cents, board Axe, 75 cents-large Compasses, 75 cents-inside Shaves, 75 cents-drawing Knives, 75 cents--Carpenters' Chissels, 37 1-2 cents-common nail Hammer, 50 cents, finished Hammer, $125-kitchen Tongs, $1 25-Shovels, $100-Screw-plates, with taps and dies to cut one inch and one quarter down, $12 00-smaller sizes in proportion.-Bracer for Joiners or Blacksmiths, $175-Roy Drill-stocks, $1 00.

The business, in this shop, has been considered, until lately, as deserving very little encouragement; but the present agent is of opinion, that it may be made one of the most profitable branches of business pursued here, and especially after water power is brought into the Prison, in doing which, the Agent is now engaged. It is also proper to observe, that whatever articles are made in this Prison, are of the first rate workmanship of their kinds, The expense of tools, and also some other shop expenses, are to be deducted from the above stated earnings.

RATIONS.

The contracts for the supply of rations, are repuired, by law, to be advertised, sealed proposals to be received, and the lowest to be accepted, provided good security be given. The quality and quantity are stated under the head of kitchen department.

Nathaniel Garrow has the present contract at 5 3-4 cents a ration, making the annual expense of a convict's provisions $20,98.

CONVICTS CLOTHING AND BEDDING.

All the convicts clothing, shoes and blankets, are now manufactured by them, from materials purchased by the Agent, except, that cotton is purchased in the yarn.

Their usual dress is a round-about coat, vest and trowsers, made of cotton warp and woolen filling, with the stripes running round the body and limbs, a cap and socks of the same cloth, and leather shoes. Their shirts are of cotton and not coloured. They have heretofore, ge erally, had from two to three imported blankets. But the Agent is now having them manufactured in prison, by having the wool spun into coarse yarn, on spinning jennies, wove a yard and a half wide, and after being slightly fulled, are cut two yards long, and weigh between 5 and 6 pounds.

These, it is believed, will be cheaper, and certainly much better, than those imported. Their hammocks are made of imported canvass, stretched by cords and hung by the corners upon hooks rather loosely, or stretched tight on long and narrow wooden frames, which lie flat at night, and are turned up edgewise during the day. The latter allow the body and limbs more freedom, but are more cold, and liable to bed bugs. Some complain that the loose hammocks give pain in the limbs and breast, but perhaps a majority would prefer them in winter.

The framed hammocks are much the most expensive, of which kind there are now 388, and made principally during the present year. The stoves, in the department of solitary cells, are placed on the ground floors, and the pipes extending along the area around them, and the warm air rising, makes the cells, in the upper or 5th story, from six to eight degrees warmer, than those in the lower.

No measures have been taken to ascertain, with accuracy, the an nual expenses of materials for clothing and bedding, but it cannot vary much from $12 per man.

The clothing worn in by convicts, after being cleansed, is carefully kept in a room for that purpose, to clothe them when they go out; but there are few whose clothes are sufficient for them when discharged, and many that are scarcely worth preserving.

SOLITARY CELLS, CONFINEMENT, &c.

The south half of this Prison was built, much upon the old plan, with halls on one side and large rooms adjoining, on the other.

The attic story was thrown into one room, and also the upper story at the west end, now used as a chapel. The wash-room, kitchen and mess-room, were made in the basement story. There were a few small rooms calculated for two convicts.

In April 1819, and before the building of the other half of the Prison was commenced, the Legislature authorized the Inspectors "to alter or change the interior plan, originally adopted, so far as to render the same more suitable for confining each prisoner in a separate cell."

In pursuance of this authority, the then Agent commenced building and nearly completed the north front, upon the new plan of solitary cells, but before finished, it was fired by some of the convicts and pretty much destroyed; for the rebuilding of which an appropriation of $25,000 was granted by the Legislature.

Such was the state of the Prison, when, in 1821, the present board of Inspectors (the present Agent being a member) was appointed. This board appointed a new Agent.

The following extract of our report to the Legislature, in January 1822, will show the progress of building and the description of the solitary cells.

"The said act of appropriation for building, directed that the said $25,000 should be applied to the completion of the east part of the north wing of the said Prison, and if there should remain any surplus, it should be applied to the finishing the north rear part of the said wing.

The part, first mentioned, had been, previously, partly built, and destroyed by fire; except a part of the outer walls and so much of the walls of the centre block, at the south end, as contained about 25 cells. This east part of the north wing is 103 feet in length, by 45 in width; and is composed of outer walls, enclosing a separate block in the centre, five stories high, leaving a space between it and the outer walls, on every side, of nine feet. From the top of the outer walls, there is a brick arch, sprung across the 9 feet space, to the top of the block, and the whole surface, on the block and arches under the roof, covered over, 20 inches deep, with pounded stone and cement, (except passages for ventilators) which forms a safe barrier against fires extending to the roof.

This block is 42 feet high, and has on each side, five tiers of cells, 7 1-2 feet by 3 2-3, and 7 feet high, over each other, amounting to 165, made accessible by strong wooden galleries, of three feet width, surrounding and attached to the block; still leaving a space, in width, six feet, between them and the outer walls of the building, from the ground floor to the arch under the roof.

The block is built with stone walls on the outside, 2 2-3 feet thick.

A wall of stone, 2 feet thick, in the centre, separating the cells on the east side of the block, from those on the west; and the side partitions, between the cells are of brick, one foot thick.-These cells, before the fire above mentioned, were constructed of wood at the top and bottom, so that a fire, commencing in the lower story, would meet no obstruction to the roof--to avoid that danger, all the new cells are now so arched over with brick and mortar, that the oak plank, with which all are firmly lined, might burn out, in any one of them, with very little danger to the cells adjoining; so that if a convict could succeed in setting fire to his own cell, he would have the prospect of self immolation only, without producing any other serious injury. These cells are secured by heavy doors, of oak plank and iron, with strong grates, weighing from 30 to 40 pounds, and fastened in the safest manner.

The method of carrying the water from the roof of the old part of the Prison proves injurious, as the conductors are carried down on the outside and freeze up, together with the gutters, and when a thaw comes, the water sets back through the shingles and runs down the inside of the building. To avoid that difficulty, the new part has been made with large substantial copper gutters, with conductors from them down the inside of the outer wall of the building, into drains underneath. The caps, at the top of the conductors, are left open, so that the warm air in the halls, between the block and the outer walls, can escape through the passages into the eve gutters, and prevent the water in them as well as in the conductors, from freezing. The roof is also made water tight with plank, so far up from the gutters, as to throw the water over the outside, should not the above precaution prevent its freezing in the gutters, which has not yet been the case.

The ground floor of the hails surrounding the block, is formed by pounded stone and cement of the water lime, covered over with sand and flagged with hard brick.

These halls are lighted by windows in the outer walls, strongly barr'd, from which, through the door grates of the cells, the convicts receive light sufficient to read.

Thus completed is that part of the building denominated in the act, "the east part of the North wing." In addition to this, the angle of the west wing is turned, and extended west 94 feet; and built on the same plan, containing 120 cells and entirely finished, except between 30 and 40 cells which want doors and lining. The foundation of the remainder of the block of that wing, being 148 feet in length, has been raised to the top of the basement story, making 54 ground cells. This part, when completed, including an attic story,* to correspond with the opposite wing, will contain 290 cells, making in the whole 575 in the new part of the prison.

*The attic story, instead of being made into cells, was prepared for and is now used as a Hospital, leaving 550 cells in the north front and wing. A considerable number of the cells last made, were not lined with plank. These are sufficiently secure, more cleanly, but colder in winter; and the mode of ventilating them enables the convicts sometimes to hear from each others cells.

To preserve pure air and health, in the new part of the prison, the following precautions have been adopted. Each cell has a pipe or ventilator, of 2 1-2 inches diameter, running from near the top, on the back side of the cell, into conductors, four inches square, fixed in the middle of the centre wall of the block, which extend from the bottom up through the wall, and come out above the stone and mortar which covers the block and arches over the halls, so that a current of air is created, running from the warm air in the halls, through the cells and ventilators, which brings into the cells a constant succession of fresh air, and carries off the effluvia generated in each. In addition to this, large ventilators are constructed from the top of the halls through the arch and roof, which can be opened and closed at pleasure: these however, are less used, on account of the passages into the eve-gutters above described, than would otherwise be necessary."

At

The legislature passed an act, April 2d, 1821, directing the Inspectors to select a class of convicts. to be composed ofthe oldest and most heinous offenders, and to confine them constantly in solitary cells this period, the legislature and public at large had become so dissatisfied and discouraged with the existing mode and effects of penitentiary punishments, that it was generally believed, that unless a severer system was adopted, the old sanguinary criminal code must be restored.-In dread of such a result, the legislature ordered the experiment of exclusive solitude, without labor, and it is now believed, that in avoid ing one extreme, another was fallen into.

In pursuance of this law, on the 25th day of December, 1821. there were selected eighty convicts and put into solitary cells.

These convicts were kept remote from the rest, and where visitors were not allowed to go: but where an officer remained, day and night, as well to guard against the possibility of mischief or accident, as to en force a perfect silence in the cells.

They were not allowed to speak, except to the chaplain and to in form the officer they were sick, on which the Physician was sent to examine them, and if necessary, they were removed to the hospital: other convicts brought their food to their cell doors, under the eye of an officer, and carried away what was necessary. Great care was taken, by whitewashing and cleansing, to keep their cells and clothing pure and wholesome; and they were prevented from lying down in the day time.

For a considerable time, we had the most entire confidence in the success of this experiment.

In April 1822, an act was passed, directing the Inspectors to report to the Justices of the Supreme Court a list of all the convicts, then in solitary confinement, with their crimes, character and conduct, and to state the duration and extent of such confinement.

The same act required the said Justices to examine said report, and from their own notes of trial and other information, to be furnished, to - certify their opinion to the executive, as to the propriety of, from time to time, pardoning said convicts,

This act referred to the act of April 2d, 1821, and recited, that the