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State of Prisons." It is the inhuman "lease system," which prevails almost universally in the Southern States.

CALIFORNIA.

First. California has no " organized public charities," as State institutions. It has provided, however, that all orphan asylums having more than twenty inmates shall be allowed $100 a year for whole orphans, and $75 each for half orphans; and for abandoned children, after being one year in an asylum, and not reclaimed, the sum of $75 each, per annum. The asylums are private, and are under the charge of their respective denominations. The total number of inmates is about 2,000, and the annual amount contributed by the State about $150,000.

Second. As there are no asylums, there are no terms of admission.

Third. No changes in legislation reported.

Fourth. There is one penitentiary, with 1,475 convicts, and a branch prison in process of construction, and each county has its jail. Fifth. The poor are taken care of by the counties, through almshouses and hospitals maintained by taxation.

Since this report was made, there has doubtless been some legislation enacted to carry into effect the penal administration provided for by the new Constitution. Strange as it may seem, this new Constitution has some very wise provisions, and among these are the sections in regard to prisons, which fully warrant Dr. Wines in saying that they place California "in the front of all the States on the North American Continent, in the matter of prison reform." The most important of these provisions are:

First. The creation of a board of five prison directors, to be appointed jointly by the Governor and the Senate, and to hold office for ten years.

Second. The placing of the State prisons in the hands of this board, and authorizing the Legislature to invest it with such powers and charge it with such duties as it may see fit, as regards the other penal, reformatory and preventive institutions of the State. It thus provides for the unification, whenever the Legislature thinks proper, of the whole system and series of institutions, looking to the repression and prevention of crime, and the centralization of the powers of government and administration in the hands of the board.

Third. After the first day of January, 1882, the labor of convicts shall not be let out by contract to any person, copartnership, company or corporation; and that the Legislature shall provide by law for the working of convicts for the benefit of the State.

This California system, in all its details, is worthy of consideration, and if carried out in legislation with wisdom equal to its creation, it will afford a model for the nation.

CONNECTICUT.

No report rendered, except a letter from Professor Wayland, in regard to appropriations made by the Legislature during its late session. In its charitable and child-saving institutions, Connecticut has done some very excellent work, about which we expect information during our Conference. In regard to its penal institutions, I have only a single remark to make, and that is, that the Wethersfield Prison is the only place I have ever visited where that typical instrument of torture from the dark ages, the "cat," is retained and justified, and that, too, within sight of the marble magnificence of the legislative palace at Hartford, and almost within the shadow of the classic elms of New Haven.

COLORADO.

First. A school for deaf mutes at Colorado Springs; an asylum for the insane, established in 1879, at Pueblo, and now so full that a portion of the insane of the State are sent to institutions of other States; a large public hospital and two private ones; a ladies' relief and sisters' hospital at Denver.

Second. Free alike to all classes.
Third. No new legislation.

Fourth. Several county poorhouses under a provisional law authorizing one in every county whose commissioners deem it necessary, and supported by direct tax and fines upon delinquent relatives who are able but neglect to provide for their poor friends properly dependent upon them.

Fifth. The city prison and the State penitentiary, in none of which unless recently provided are there chaplains or halls of worship. The city calaboose is occupied mainly by what the police call "vags" and "drunks," that is, by persons arrested for vagrancy and drunkenness.

DELAWARE.

First. The State provides no public charities; all are under the direction of incorporated companies.

Second. Those it has are free to all classes.

Third. No changes in legislation.

Fourth. The poor are provided for as follows: The counties are laid off into districts, and each district is under the supervision of an overseer of the poor. It is his duty to assist destitute persons in getting employment, and, if that is impossible, to see that they are admitted to the almshouse of the county in which they live. The almshouses are under the charge of superintendents of the poor. Assessments are made to cover all expenses incurred in running the poorhouses, and levied upon the property of every citizen at a certain rate per hundred dollars.

Fifth. We have no other than county prisons.

FLORIDA.

Governor George H. Drew answered, in person, with promptness, clearness and intelligence.

First. A State asylum for indigent lunatics and idiots, and a poorhouse at Jacksonville.

Second.

These institutions are free to all classes alike. Third. No material changes in legislation during the past year. Fourth. Each county is required to provide for its own poor, under the supervision of county commissioners.

Fifth. The State prison and the county jails constitute the prison system of the State. The State convicts are working upon farms, and engaged in getting out turpentine under contract, at no cost to the State.

The county convicts are farmed out to contractors by the county commissioners of each county.

The State asylums and State prison are under the superintendence of the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor and Cabinet, who constitute a board called the Board of Commissioners of State Institutions.

GEORGIA.

First. The only organized charities supported by the State are, an academy for the blind and an academy for the deaf and dumb, and a lunatic asylum.

Second.
Third. No answer.

No answer.

Fourth. The poor of the counties are looked after by the ordinaries. In some of the counties they have poorhouses, with some person employed to take charge of the inmates. In other counties there are no homes of this kind, but the poor are left in the hands of such persons as are most interested in them, from the ties of relationship or otherwise.

Fifth. John W. Nelms, principal keeper of the penitentiary at Atlanta, can give information as to the disposition made of convicts. Upon application to Mr. Nelms, I received, in reply, his biennial report, closing October 20th, 1878. From this report I judge the Atlanta penitentiary building is the only one in the State, and is simply a receptacle for convicts preparatory to their distribution under the Georgia system of farming out. This system went into operation in 1868, under five-year leases. These were renewed, and again expired April 1st, 1879. The leases now are for twenty years, and are made to three companies, known, respectively, as Penitentiary Companies Nos. 1, 2 and 3.

No. 1 is to have 300 able-bodied long-term men, and the remainder of all on hand and all that come in are to be equally divided between Nos. 2 and 3 after keeping No. 1 to 300.

How these companies employ the convicts does not appear, but the report says "there are at this time fourteen camps in different portions of the State." Apparently they are for the most part employed in railroad construction. The report says: "When the time comes, and I look forward to it at no distant day, when all the railroads and other public works in the State shall have been completed, then the convicts will be employed upon farms and in the mines."

There are other glimpses of the system given, but it is very evident that anything worse is not likely to be found in any civilized or semi-civilized nationality.

The summing up, for the twelve years the system has been in operation, is as follows:

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That nearly one-third of all the convicts received, die or escape, is not to be wondered at.

ILLINOIS.

First. Illinois has three hospitals for the insane, an institution for deaf and dumb, an institution for the blind, an asylum for feebleminded children, a soldiers' orphans' home, an eye and ear infirmary, and a State reform school.

Second. No charge is made to any inmate of any institution of the State, under the care of the State, except for clothing and incidental expenses.

Third. No changes in legislation during the past year.

Fourth. In the care of the poor each county is pretty much a law to itself, and each county has its own poorhouse.

Fifth. There are two State penitentiaries-one at Joliet and one at Chester a county jail in every county, and a large number of city prisons; a house of correction at Chicago, and a workhouse at Peoria.

All these institutions are under the supervision of an efficient Board of State Charities, whose reports furnish all necessary information.

INDIANA.

First. In Indiana provision is made for insane, deaf and dumb, blind, soldiers' orphans, and feeble-minded children.

Second. The limitation is mostly as to age.

Fourth. From the volume of laws for 1879, sent me, it appears that a good deal of new legislation has gone into operation. The most important is that which provides for the government of the insane, deaf and dumb and blind asylums. The Governor, with the consent of the Senate, appoints two trustees of these institutions. The Governor also appoints a president of the boards of trustees of said institutions. The president and the two trustees of each of these institutions constitute the board of trustees for the government thereof. These trustees hold office for two years, and the president four years. These officials are removable for cause by the Governor. These boards appoint the superintendents, and each superintendent appoints all subordinates, subject to the approval of the board.

The president of the board receives a salary of $900 a year; the trustees of insane asylums $600 a year; the trustees of the deaf and

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