The excellent reformatory systems now in use have one grave fault. Criminals of an Intellectual type who endanger society not by their passions but by subtle knaveries. when brought to punishment in prisons, have no difficulty in at once making all possible progress in marks that will give them credits toward freedom. With no abnormal passions. or tendencies to physical crimes, it requires no meritorious effort of the will, no self restraint, perhaps no change of all the knavish habits cif a life, to be found worthy of the highest markings. There is a recent case of a man Who made great gain by falsify ing the entry books of a grain elevator, and then committing arson upon the building. Not for the main crimes which were mysteriously sheltered by some conflicting interests, but for some subordinate part of the crime she was sentenced to three years in the peni tentiary. His conduct was excellent, and in considerably less than three years he leaves the prison to enter into the peaceful possession of an ample fortune secured by theft, forgery, and arson.
William Tallack in an essay on humanity and humanitarianism takes ground that in some directions humanity may defeat the object of reform by making the prisons so pleasant for those who occupy them, and the enforced labor so much more agreeable in its surroundings than that of the laborious and virtuous poor, as to 'make it an object with the latter to do some misdemeanor, in order to enter the reformatories. He cites the house of refuge in Philadelphia as an example of a condition of comfort forthe-inmates, far above that of the homes of ordinary laborers. But this is rather a commentary on the deficient pay for common honest labor than a fault of the prison system. Still Mr. Tallack makes a strong case against those conditions of prison life which deprive it of the character of punishment, and he believes that American prisons may be going too far in the opposite direction from the English tendency to extreme harshness.
There are 45 state prisons in the United States with an aggregate of value of $16, 000,000. New York and Indiana each have three, Pennsylvania and Iowa two. Altogether they contain 17,000 cells and sleeping rooms, which is 3,000 less than the num ber of prisoners. Many of the cells, however, are for two to four persons, and occasion ally domitories serve for many. The average size of the cells is S ft. length, ft. width, 71 ft. height; cubic contents 240 feet. The smallest are those of Sing Sing, N. Y., whose cubic contents are but 147 feet. The whole number of officers and employees in these 45 prisons does not vary much from 1500, or one to 131 prisoners; their aggregate annual salaries $1,015,000, making their average $677. To this must be added the board of a considerable part of them, and in some cases lodgings for themselves and families-, The total annual cost of all these prisons including pay of officers is about $3,000,000, making the average cost of prisoners without credit their work $150 each; and an average to each prison of $G50,000. The aggregate earnings of the labor of the prisoners
is about *1,500,000; thus meeting half the cost. But it must be observed that the prin cipal earnings are from a part only of the prisons. Seventeen state prisons are reported as self sustaining, and among these are a few whose receipts considerably exceed the expenses. Seven correctional prisons in which minor misdemeanors are punished with short sentences, more than pay their way by the labor of their inmates. In many of the southern states the lease system prevails—a ideal form of the coolie trade. Five-sixths of the inmates of the prisons are men; one-sixth women. In the county jails and houses of correction the proportion of women is greater. " The ratio of foreigners to Ameri cans in the state's prisons is out of all proportion to that which exists between the total pop. of foreign-born and native-born inhabitants." Estimating foreign-born population at 12 per cent of the whole we find the foreign born in the prisons to he 25 per cent of the whole prison population. In the eastern, middle, and western states the foreign born in the prisons is nearly and in some states fully one-half the whole number. In the south •ern states nearly all are natives, and the blacks the most numerous, often being imprisoned for trivial crimes. Prison officers (or a head officer) are appointed in some states by the .governors, in some by the legislatures; and in others a state superintendent of prisons is •elected. The system of contracting prisoners' labor obtains in 19 states, leasing it in 0, exclusive state management in 9, and a mixed system in 10. The contract system. is regarded by the friends of prison reform as open to very grave objections, and is toler ated as a compromise between the desire to make the prisons pay their way and the •danger• of something more objectionable. It is a dangerous system. Leasing is undoubt edly worse, and has already been alluded to as making the state a slave trader.
The literature pertaining to prison reforms is profuse. The work of the late rev. Dr. E. C. Wines entitled The State of Prisons and of Chad-saving institutions in the Civ ilized World, 1880, is -the latest and fullest compendium. Prisons and Aformatorics at Home and Abroad is the title of the transactions of the international penitentiary congress of London, held in 1872, edited by Edwin Pears, its secretary. Humantty and Humani tarianism is h very suggestive essay prepared for the New York prison association by William Tallack, published in London 1871; and Woman in Prison, by Caroline II. Woods, is also extremely suggestive of the need of women's attention to prisons for women. State reports and reports of the American prison congresses give very fully the present condition of American prisons.