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EXPENSES OF COUNTY PRISONS.

↑ Included in clothing.

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Totals,.

$76,331 36 $134,512 85 $13,446 98 $31,028 11 $3,269 46 $3,589 25 $2,680 61

$847 45

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* Included in salary of Chaplain.

LABOR OF PRISONERS

TABLE I.-Showing the Expenditures at the Jails and Houses of Correction in the several Counties of Massachusetts, from October 1, 1867, to October 1, 1868-Concluded.

PART III.]

SECRETARY'S REPORT.

[CHAP. I.

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EXPENSES OF COUNTY PRISONS.

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$5 00 $42,418 09 $294,246 88 $69,624 67 $224,622 21 $1,954 83 $16,267 55

7,046 12

560 00

6,486 12

27,880 55

27,880 55

6,000 00

72,655 65

42,683 42

29,972 23

17,316 20

953 62

16,362 58

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964 50

21,092 63

2,250 90

18,841 73

* A part of this sum belongs to the earnings of last year, though paid this year. The earnings of this year amount to $1,818.46.

PART III.]

SECRETARY'S REPORT.

[CHAP. I.

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In the preceding Table, the aggregate of the sums under the different headings previous to "Total Amount Expended," will often be more than the sum under that head, for the reason that some expenses are returned more than once. The salary of Physicians is generally included under "Medicine and Medical Attendance," as well as under "Salaries;" and the salary of Chaplains, also, is often included under "Instruction of Prisoners.' In regard to this last heading, it should be observed that it seldom seems to include anything else than the pay of Chaplains, and that the instruction given is always-or nearly always-of a religious nature. No money is paid by the public in Massachusetts to give instruction to prisoners in reading, writing, or the other branches of a school education, although a majority of the prisoners are grossly ignorant; and without any special provision, there is already a portion of their time which could be well devoted to this purpose, and be a means of the best sort of prison discipline. The returns from Barnstable alone include instruction in " reading and writing," and as common school instruction began in the Old Colony, perhaps the instruction of the benighted prison class should begin there also.

The "Total Amount Expended" is intended to cover not only what appears on the prison books as the cost of the prison before deductions are made for labor, etc., but such other sums as should be added to give the true cost of the prison, whether entered on the books or not. For example, the salary of the Chaplain in the Boston Jail is not paid by the county, but by the city of Boston; but I have included it, although not set down in the return of Sheriff Clark in the aggregate of expenses. I have not also included a portion of the salary of the City Physician, who looks after the sick at this jail, because the value of his services may fairly be offset by that portion of the Chaplain's time which is not occupied at the jail.

In some of the returns the salaries of the Overseers of the House of Correction are not given, but these have been added to the total, making the amount of salaries $76,331.36.

The "Balance against the Prison" is intended to represent its actual cost to the community, after deducting the cash receipts for labor. The cost of a prison to the county is often less

PRISON LABOR.

than this, because there are receipts of money for the board of prisoners which go to reduce the balance against the county. It is to be desired that all the particulars of the prison accounts should be reported annually; but no law at present requires a return of the amount of board received.

The cash receipts for the labor of prisoners are the only ones that can be used to diminish the apparent cost of the prisons, although it frequently happens that this sum does not justly represent the labor that has been performed;-as where the convicts are employed in the prisons themselves, or other county buildings. The total estimated value of the prison labor of all kinds, according to the Table, is nearly $83,000, or not quite one-third of the whole expense. Were our prisons consolidated, I believe it would be easy to double the amount. At the same time, the amount paid for salaries could be considerably reduced. The list of officers whose salaries are given above, for each prison, will be found in the Supplement.

The balance against the prisons is over $5,000 more than last year; the expenditures being a trifle larger, and the receipts from Labor near $4,000 less. But with proper arrangements, and proper economy, there does not yet appear any good reason why our prison returns should not show a surplus of income above all expenses. This has been done elsewhere, and the financial statement of the Detroit House of Correction, the example of which may not be too often quoted, showed, in January, 1868, a balance of income above expenditures of $20,000. At the same time I would not have this important consideration overshadow what is still more important, and what should be a first object, namely, the improvement, and, if possible, the reformation, of the prisoners themselves. And it is a fact worthy of notice, that in the prison just alluded to, where there is the greatest financial success, there is also the greatest attention given to secular instruction.

Other Statistics of the County Prisons.

I have given, in the Appendix, a Table showing the aggregate cost each year of some of the more important items of expenditure in the county prisons for a series of years; and also the

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