The population of the State is approximately 6,600,000. It thus appears that 1 1-2 per cent. of its population are living in charitable or correctional institutions. There appears to have been a decrease in pauperism and crime, and an increase in insanity during the past year.

At the session of 1897 the following enactments were made affecting the charities and corrections of the State.

For the first time in the history of the State, provision was made for the criminal insane as a separate class, including those who committed a crime while insane, or were insane at the time assigned for trial and have been confined in any of the institutions for the insane. A suitable structure has been authorized within the grounds of the State Penitentiary at Raleigh.

The treatment is to be under the supervision of the superintendent of the North Carolina Insane Asylum, who may delegate the charge to one of his assistants or to one or more of the physicians of the Penitentiary. It is provided that they shall not wear convict garb, and shall be kept entirely separate from convicts. When cured, if they have not been tried, they shall be returned for trial.

Acts were passed changing the names of the three institutions for the insane, providing that trustees should take the place of the present directors, with a provision for the election of new superintendents and other officers. The constitutionality of this action was denied by officers affected, and it was decided by the Supreme Court that the act was inoperative as to the rights of officers holding terms for which they had been duly elected. No change has therefore as yet taken place in the positions of the superintendents.

The buildings at the Institution for the Blind include a chapel and dormitory, which have been reported as unsafe; while the bathing, lavatory, and water-closet system for boys has been condemned as unsatisfactory. For heating plant, machinery, and the necessary additional building for boys, $34,500 has been appropriated.

For the colored department of the deaf-mutes and blind, which is conducted at a separate site, $23,000 additional was provided for purchasing land, erecting additional wing for boys' dormitory, and a

1

building for industrial education, including heating plant and necessary furniture. A colored physician was also provided.

For the School for the Deaf-mutes (white) at Morganton $20,000 was appropriated for the erection and equipment of a school building in addition to its extensive accommodations.

The Penitentiary is hereafter to be governed by nine directors, with a superintendent of State prison, holding office four years. With the consent of the directors, the superintendent is to appoint wardens, physicians, etc., of the several convict camps under his general supervision.

Tramps and vagrants are hereafter punishable by a fine not exceeding $50 or by imprisonment not to exceed thirty days.

It has been made unlawful to employ female convicts on the public roads or to work them in a chain gang, and it is made a misdemeanor. Minors are not to enter a bar-room, billiard-room, or bowling alley; and, if notified by the parent of guardian or said minor, the person violating the act shall pay $50, or be imprisoned thirty days, for permitting said minor to remain upon his premises.

The dispensary system of South Carolina has been extended to four localities in this State.

NORTH DAKOTA.

BY MRS. J. G. HAMILTON, CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

There was nothing done by our last legislature in the field of charities and corrections, except making appropriations for the expenses of the State institutions already founded. No important charitable organization or institution has been established in the State since the last report, though some attempt to reorganize the State Children's Aid Society was made during the winter.

A. GROUP OF DELINQUENTS.

Class 1. Our Criminals are nearly all kept in the Penitentiary at Bismarck. The daily average population for the eight months ending June 30, 1896, was 118, showing an increase for the eight months ending Oct. 31, 1895.

Class 2. The Vicious (including tramps, etc.), who usually have short sentences to serve, are placed in the county jails.

Class 3.- Insubordinates.

There are at present 14 in the Reform

School at Plankinton, So. Dak. An appropriation has been made for a reform school at Mandan, but nothing has yet been done toward building it.

B. GROUP OF DESTITUTES.

Class 1. The Aged Poor. Are cared for mainly in the county poorhouses and by charitable societies.

Class 2.

-Destitute Children. The counties make small appropriations in specially needy cases, but generally the charitable societies look after such children.

Class 3.— The Sick and Injured. The State makes no other provision for this class than the Soldiers' Home at Lisbon. Numerous private hospitals are maintained in the State, and the whole care of the destitute is largely a matter of private benevolence.

C. GROUP OF DEFECTIVES.

Class 1.— There is no provision whatever for the blind.

Class 2.

in all, 31.
There are on file
This number probably in-

Deaf-mutes. Are cared for in the Deaf and Dumb Asylum at Devil's Lake, where last year 29 children were enrolled from North Dakota, and 2 from Montana, 18 applications for admittance this fall. cludes two-thirds of all the deaf children of school age in the State. Class 3.- Feeble-minded Children. Are still cared for at the Jamestown Insane Hospital; but, owing to the crowded condition, new means must soon be provided for their care.

Class 4- The Insane. At Jamestown, June 30, 1896, were 328. The annual cost per capita was $183. The number is now larger.

OHIO.

BY JOSEPH P. BYERS, CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

There is a steady and apparently increasing demand for the Board of Charities to approve plans for jails and infirmaries. As a rule, the county commissioners, before making definite arrangements or contracting for new buildings, write here, with a view of learning what the board's requirements are for such buildings; and they

usually adopt the suggestion (invariably offered) that they visit a number of similar institutions before proceeding with their own. As

a rule, the criticisms and suggestions of the board have large influ

ence.

The change in the law for the distribution of outside relief, which went into effect March 1, will nearly double the work of this office. Blanks have been prepared specially to assist township clerks in providing and maintaining a proper record. We anticipate good results from the change in the law.

Work has been resumed on our new hospital at Massillon. We' shall doubtless be receiving inmates at that institution within a year from this date.

During the coming season this board will endeavor to present the question of "Custodial Care of Adult Idiots by the State" to the people, so that the next session of our legislature can make provision for the State to assume this burden. The boards of county visitors, which are generally active, will be of great assistance to us, as will also the superintendents and directors of county infirmaries.

The Ohio Masonic Home, Springfield, Ohio, opened April 1, 1897. Number of inmates, about 30.

A. GROUP OF DELINQUENTS.

Class 1.- Criminals.

·Criminals. (a) In State prison, 2,035; (c) in county

jails, 10,091; totals, 12, 126.

Class 2.

The Vicious.

In city workhouses or houses of correc

tion. Total number for year, 12,850.

Class 3.— Iusubordinates. (a) In Boys' Reform Schools, 821; (b) in Girls' Reform School, 347.

B. GROUP OF DESTITUTES.

Class 1. The Indoor Poor. (a) In infirmaries, 23,842.

Class 3.- Destitute Children (not "insubordinate"). In county homes boys, 2,163; girls, 1,385; total, 3,548.

Class 1.
Class 2.-

C. GROUP OF DEFECTIVES.

The Blind. In School for the Blind, 285.
Deaf-mutes. In School for the Deaf, 415.

Class 3.- The Feeble-minded. In schools for feeble-minded, 1,031. Class 4.— The Insane. (a) In State hospitals and hospital for epileptics: males, 3,560; females, 3,387; total, 6,947. (b) In county infirmaries, 1,458; total, 8407.

OKLAHOMA.

BY MRS. R. W. RAMSEY, CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

The Territorial legislature made provision for a school for the blind at Norman, to be connected with the Territorial University. An attempt to establish a penitentiary in the Territory failed.

The legislature of two years ago provided for an insane asylum at Norman, which is now caring for all our insane, who were formerly at Jacksonville, Ill.

A. GROUP OF DELINQUENTS.

Class 1.There are two classes of criminals, State and federal. The former are at Lansing Penitentiary, near Leavenworth, Kan. The others are in various prisons designated by the government. There is no place provided for the vicious save the

Class 2.

county jails.

Class 3.- The insubordinates under federal sentence are cared for in the Reformatory at Boston. There is no provision for others.

B. GROUP OF DESTITUTES.

All our poor are cared for by the county commissioners or private individuals. We have no almshouses or other institution for their