Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1871.djvu/34

32 The detective force made 296 arrests, recovered lost or stolen property to the amount of $13,948 78, and rendered other valuable and important service.

The sanitary company have been actively employed in the abatement of nuisances and the enforcement of the police regulations for promoting the cleanliness and health of the city. Several important amendments to the law governing the company are submitted for the consideration of Congress.

The penitentiary at Boise City, Idaho Territory, was completed on the 14th of January last, and, on the 13th of May following was pursuant to the act of Congress approved January 10, 1871, placed in the custody of the marshal of the United States for that Territory.

The commissioners appointed by the legislative assembly of Washington to select a site for a penitentiary in that Territory selected a tract of land, situate on McNeill's Island, near the city of Steilacoom, and the deed by which the property was conveyed to the United States was submitted to and approved by, the Attorney General of the United States. The site was approved by this Department, and proposals were invited for the erection of one wing of the building, in accordance with plans and specifications prepared by the Architect of the Capitol Extension. Three proposals were received but as neither of them came within the amount of the appropriation made for that purpose by the act of Congress approved January 22, 1867, I was compelled to reject them all. Congress appropriated the sum of $40,000 for the erection of penitentiaries in each of the Territories of Colorado, Idaho, Montana Arizona, and Dakota, and but $20 for that in Washington Territory. I am reliably informed that a suitable building for the reception and safe-keeping of convicts cannot be erected for a much less sum in Washington than in any of the other Territories, and therefore recommend that an additional appropriation of $20,000, to be set apart from the proceeds of collections of internal revenue in that Territory be made by Congress for that purpose.

Commissioners were appointed by the Governor of Wyoming to select a site for a penitentiary in that Terrritory, and fixed upon a tract of land, one mile square, situate within the Fort Saunders military reservation, near Laramie City. The Commissioner of the General Land Office certified that the location was on land owned by the United States, and the Secretary of War seeing no objection to a penitentiary being located upon said reservation, I approved the site, and caused proposals to be invited for the erection of one wing of the building. Several bids have been received, but none accepted, and, owing to the lateness of the season, it is probable that no active measures looking toward the erection of the building will be taken until the opening of the ensuing spring.

Inasmuch as the fund for defraying the expenses of the courts of the