NOTES AND ERRATA. NOTE. General Brinkerhoff, Chairman of the Committee upon the Work of Boards of State Charities, writes as follows:"During the preparation of my Report (pp. 37-50), I was under the impression that there were only nine State Boards in existence, but I have since learned that in January last the old Connecticut Board was revived, so that the total number of such Boards is ten instead of nine. The law authorizing the Board of State Charities in Connecticut was passed in 1873, and at that time a Board was appointed, which existed until 1878, when the members resigned. Governor Andrews during his term of office (1879 and 1880) made no appointments on the Board. Governor Bigelow, however, revived the Board last January (1881), at the beginning of his term of office, by making appointments of five members of the Board as authorized by the statute of 1873. Therefore the present is a new Board under the old law. The reports of the former Board were not printed, but it is to be hoped the new Board will receive better treatment. The law under which this Board is organized is as follows: SEC. 1. There shall be a Board of Charities, consisting of three men and two women, appointed by the Governor, and removable at his pleasure, who may inspect all incorporated hospitals, and shall inspect all institutions in which persons are detained by compulsion, to ascertain whether their inmates are properly treated, and (except in cases of detention upon legal process) to ascertain whether any have been unjustly placed, or are improperly held therein; and may examine witnesses, and send for persons and papers, and correct any abuses found to exist in such a manner as not to conflict with any personal, corporate, or statutory rights; acting, so far as practicable, through the persons in charge of such institutions, and with a view to sustain and strengthen their rightful authority; and no measures shall be adopted without the assent of the persons so in charge, except at the meeting of the Board, at which at least four members shall be present, or by a written order, signed by a majority of the Board. An appeal may be taken to the Governor from any action of the Board by the persons in charge of such institutions. SEC. 2. Every institution which the Board is required to inspect shall be visited by one or more members frequently, and the State prison, reformatory schools, and insane asylums as often as once a month, and by at least one member of each sex; no previous notice of such visits shall be given to the persons in charge of the institutions visited, and at every such visit, an opportunity shall be offered to each inmate for private conversation with some member of the Board. Any communication directed to any member of said Board, by any inmate of said institutions, shall be immediately forwarded to the post-office by the persons in charge, without inspection. SEC. 3. Said Board shall make an annual report to the Governor, containing such suggestions and statements as it shall think proper. In printing so many pages without being able to receive in all cases the author's corrections on the proof, typographical errors are unavoidable, and these will not all be corrected, perhaps, in the following list of errata: Page 6, line fifteen from bottom, for of, read for. Page 27, in the speech of Dr. Cleaves, the sentence beginning "in some cases," near the end, should read, “they would not have recovered without the special treatment; and in others there has been a marked improvement." This takes the place of the sentence commencing "In other persons." Page 51, eighteenth line from the top, for "other respective homes" read "their respective homes." And in the tenth line from the bottom, for "finally" read "also." Page 74, second line from top, for "rented" read "erected." In the list of delegates and members of the Conference there are undoubtedly errors and omissions, and the Publishing Committee would be glad to receive any corrections. The Debates of the Conference were reported with great accuracy by Mrs. B. C. Barrows, of Boston, and are therefore given much more fully than in any previous year's Proceedings. Errors and omissions will be found here, however, no doubt; it not having been possible to submit to each speaker his remarks as reported. The names of the speakers and writers, nearly ninety in all, who addressed the Conference, will be found on the next page. |