State at large or to the prisoners by such a mode of discharging it. A striking illustration of this truth is shown in one of his answers to the inquiries of the committee. Sections 44 and 45 of the act of 1848, direct the erection in each prison of separate cells for the purposes of punishment; and when this Inspector was asked by us, if such cells had been erected in the prison, under his particular charge, he answered "I am not able to say."

This absence of salutary supervision soon becomes known to every one connected with the prisons. Officers, contractors and prisoners all know it and are ready to take advantage of it. This Inspector was not able to tell of the difficulties or disorders at his prison which others described and for a very good reason. He had never taught the prisoners that they had in him a protector against the exactions of contractors and the abuses of the officers-never taught the contractors that there was any one to curb or regulate their cupidity, or the officers that they had a jealous master, carefully guarding against their oppression or tyranny. And while other persons were able to give us accounts of various violations of the law in his prison, he seemed to be utterly unconscious of their existence.

The duty of the chief officer of the prison in respect to contractors, officers and prisoners, must necessarily be imperfectly discharged under such a state of things.

The interest of the contractors is in direct conflict with that of the State and the welfare of the prisoners. The contract system, though it is beneficial in regard to the finances is in every other respect injurious, and its operation must be watched with the utmost vigilance, to prevent very disastrous consequences. Their interest is to get as much labor out of the convicts as possible and at as low a price as possible, and to get from the officers as many gratuitous privileges as they can. And it appears that the contractors are allowed to fix the amount of work which each convict shall perform, that complaints are made by the prisoners that they are overworked sometimes to an injurious extent-that these complaints have been sometimes attended to by the subordinate officers but by the Inspectors never! It also appears, in two cases, one at Auburn and one at Sing Sing, that contractors have

been allowed to have the labor at less than the contract price, and in one of the cases, under circumstances which create some distrust as to the integrity of some of the officers. It also appears that the contractors are allowed to have many of what are called half-pay men, under the pretence of their being disabled. In Sing Sing that has been carried so far that of the men let to contractors are half-pay men. At Auburn it is yet worse, for out of 636 let to contractors 184 are charged at half-pay, 15 at pay, 3 at 1, 6 given as invalids, for whom no charge is made, and 11 at a reduction of 6 cents from 46, the contract price, or more than one-third of the whole number given to the contractors at prices less than they have agreed to give for them.

This is an old trick of the contractors, and it arises sometimes in this manner : A convict becomes sick and goes into the hospital. In time he becomes better and is convalescent. It is better for him to be in the shop than in the hospital, and he is returned to it with instructions to work only a little,,, or of an ordinary stint. He is entered upon the roll of the shopkeeper accordingly and remains so for months and years, though his health has been restored in a few days, and he all the time doing a full days' work. It is in a thousand ways, the interest of the keeper to be on good terms with the contractors, and he can always plead, "I was ordered to put him on half-pay and have never been ordered otherwise," or "I found him on half-pay when I took the shop, and have had no orders to alter it," and thus the matter goes on, the number constantly augmenting, to the great advantage of the contractor, until it includes one-third of all the men, as in Auburn, or as at Sing Sing.

Six or seven years ago, as we are informed, this contrivance was detected at Sing Sing, and the convicts who were put down as half-pay men, on the ground of being invalids, and had been rated as such for months, were surprised at it, they doing full work, and being rated as invalids merely for the purpose of benefiting the contractors, but without conferring upon them any exemption from labor.

Hence probably it is that there is so great a disparity between the number of half-pay men at Auburn and Sing Sing at the pre

sent time. It is a work of time to get the number very large. At Sing Sing, it has been the work of six or seven years only. How long it has been going on at Auburn we do not know.

This must be the explanation of this matter, or the Auburn prison must be very unhealthy as compared with Sing Sing; for at Auburn, out of 636 men let to contractors, 219 are rated as invalids; while at Sing Sing, out of 592 on contract, 47 only are so rated.

The remedy for this evil is very simple. If one of the Inspectors would but spend a few hours in going round to the shops, and himself personally examining the men who are thus under rated, the whole thing would be remedied. But while the remedy is thus simple, it is most apparent that there has not been that rigid inspection of the prisons which the interest of the State demands.

But these are not all the evils which spring from the contract system when there is not a rigid inspection. There are numerous modes in which an experienced contractor can make the property and interest of the State available to the advancement of his own interest. In shop-room, in shop-furniture, in fuel, in waiters, in numerous little jobs done for them, in giving time for their payments, in making extra allowances or deductions, and various ways that may be constantly aggressing upon the State unless very closely watched. Some instances of this are disclosed in the accompanying testimony, one where the railroad contractors, one of whom was a nephew to the warden of the prison, was charged with his men at a reduction of 33 per cent on the contract price. Another where a contractor was charged at a reduction of 163 per cent. Another where a keeper took out men on Sunday to work for a contractor, the keeper expecting pay therefor from the contractor. And another, where the contract was so altered as to be "worth to the contractor from $5,000 to $8,000 more than if let according to the bid."

These are some of the considerations which show the necessity of greater vigilance in respect to the contractors than can be expected under the present practice of the Inspectors.

In regard to the deportment of the officers, equal vigilance is required. The present system of supplying the prisons by purchases made by the agent, is liable to great abuses. Do the Inspectors carefully examine whether the agent purchases on as favorable terms as he can? Do they investigate whether all the articles paid for are actually delivered? Or whether if delivered, they are of the quality or quantity they profess to be? All these are inquiries which any prudent man would make in his own business, and the committee cannot conceive how they can be satisfactorily made by such inspections as are now prevalent.

The pertinency of these inquiries is manifest from this fact among others. In Sing Sing in 1844 there were 935 prisoners, and the monthly cost of support was $2,338.17, or $2.50 a month for each prisoner. In 1850, the number of prisoners was 765, and the monthly cost of support was $2,984.54, or $3.90 a month for each prisoner.

Are the Inspectors aware of this, or can they give any good reason for this increase of near 60 per cent. in the cost of supporting the prisoners?

To carry the inquiry a step farther, to show the insufficiency of such an inspection, the committee call attention to the total expenditures of that prison for those years..

In 1844, the number of prisoners was 935. The expenses were as follows:

In 1850, the number of prisoners was 765. The expenses were

Or $123.93 per year for each prisoner; or an increase of about

80 per cent.

By descending to particulars, it will be seen in some measure how this extraordinary increase has arisen.

Thus while the number of prisoners has diminished some 18 per cent., the expense of guarding them has increased some 25 per cent.

And in the same manner, the total expenses

Of provisions, have increased, ....

hospital stores,

clothing and bedding,

$7,652 74

929 33

685 51

At the rate at which the prison was supported in 1844, the sum total of its expenses in 1850 ought to have been $52,563.15, whereas it was $95, 828.64; and then the draft upon the State Treasury which was made in 1850, for $41,587.50, might have been dispensed with.

Another item deserves a moment's consideration.

During the four years the present system of inspection has been in existence, the sum expended in "Building and Repairs" in that prison has been $26,296.32, but during the preceding four years it was $7,632.76, or a little more than a quarter as much.

While such has been the effect upon the finances in the absence of a proper supervision, its influence upon the government of the prisons has been equally injurious.