Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/439

 NOTES AND ABSTRACTS 425

Hudson : The hospital building should be replaced with a new fireproof building. There is a good system of industrial classes and the parole is working well. The pay of matrons and especially of assistant matrons should be increased so as to attract to this service the highest grade of applicants, (c) At Albion : This institution is in its usual good condition. The magistrates at Buffalo do not appre- ciate the institution and continue to send young women of that city to the peniten- tiary for short terms. There is much unused room. The girls are employed in laundering, cooking, sewing, studying, and gardening.

4. As to penitentiaries. (a) The Albany county penitentiary : On Octo- ber i, 1902, 130 prisoners were employed, working around the institution, while 147 were idle. The short-term men spent most of their time in the vacant shops, sitting idle or reading, except that they are all exercised from an hour to an hour and a half twice a day in the yard. There is a school for men desiring to learn to read and write, but only a few avail themselves of the privilege. t (b) Erie county penitentiary : All buildings were found to be in excellent order, and the health of the inmates was good. Of the 294 inmates of the institution on October i, 1902, 215 were reported as employed, 9 sick, and 70 idle, (c) Onandago county penitentiary : This prison has one of the finest plants in the United States, modern in construction and arrangement, and in splendid condition. Of a total prison population of 155 on October i, 1902, all were employed, (d) Monroe county peni- tentiary : The prison buildings are in excellent condition and clean. The number reported employed on October i, 1902, was 115 and 82 were idle. The only work done by the prisoners is prison and farm work. Much difficulty is being experi- enced in finding a market for the farm products, (e) Kings county penitentiary : The buildings and grounds were in good condition. Of a population of 525 on October i, 1902, 511 were employed in seventeen different occupations. All the industries were found in a flourishing condition, save the shoe industry. (/) New York county penitentiary : The buildings were in good condition. Two patients were suffering from tuberculosis ; these should be isolated. All the inmates were employed except seven. The commissioner of correction states that he found such a tremendous waste of bread by the convicts that he has had the bread cut into smaller pieces, at a saving of over 20 per cent in the amount of bread used.

5. As to county jails. Some are too small properly to care for the number of inmates committed to them ; some are unsanitary ; some are so badly arranged that they do not afford the necessary facilities for the classification of prisoners. In many of them practically all the inmates associate with each other in the com- mon corridors, no classification being observed except that of sex. Very few of the keepers appreciate the wisdom or necessity of keeping prisoners separate, one from another. In many of the jails there is only one room for women, and all the women prisoners, old and young, convicted and unconvicted, are kept together, day and night, in this common dormitory. The state prisons and penitentiaries are filled with the graduates of these jails. All persons convicted of misdemeanors, who may now be sentenced to a county jail, should be at once sent to a peniten- tiary, and no person kept in a jail except civil prisoners and those awaiting trial or examination. Reform in the method of caring for jail inmates who are await- ing trial or examination is quite as essential as reform in the care of jail convicts.

The commission has persistently recommended the employment of jail convicts on highway improvements within the counties where they are convicted. They have been employed with varying degrees of success in the counties of St. Lawrence, Schuyler, Tioga, Broome, Niagara, Orange, Chemung, Steuben, Suffolk, Ontario, Oneida, and a few others. Briefly stated, the working of jail convicts benefits the prisoners, tends to diminish the jail population, and thereby directly benefits the taxpayers of the county, and by the improvement of the public highways benefits the community. Attempts to escape are not more frequent by men so employed than by prisoners who are kept idle in jail.

The present law of the state requiring the election of new sheriffs every three years increases the difficulty of reforming the management of jails.

Of the 61 county jails visited, 8 were reported as overcrowded ; 6 needed epairs ; 15 needed rebuilding, or new buildings or apartments added; 22 were