PART III.] SECRETARY'S REPORT. [CHAP. I. average weekly cost for all expenses of each prisoner. It will be noticed that the highest aggregate cost is less than that of last year, while the general average by the week is less also. Certain other facts communicated in the Sheriffs' Returns may be exhibited in the following Table, as showing the movement of the prison population, and the amount of fines and costs collected in the county prisons. How far the law in respect to vaccination is complied with, will also appear from Table II. : TABLE II.-Showing the Number in Prison at Certain Dates, in the several Counties of Massachusetts, with other Statistics. It appears, therefore, that the number in confinement October 1, 1868, was greater by 158 than the year before-the increase being about equally divided between the Jails and Houses of Correction, the number in the latter going up from 1,136 to 1,220, and that of the Jails increasing from 391 to 465, while the average number in the Houses of Correction has been 1,127. A slight increase in the State Prison and PART III.] SECRETARY'S REPORT. [CHAP. I. the Boston House of Industry is indicated by the following figures: An examination of the books at the Prison shows this year as well as last, a surplus of income over all expenses, amounting now to a little more than $25,000, against $21,000 last year. The Warden's statement gives the current expenses for the year ending September 30, 1867, as $108,993.30, the amount from prison labor $126,151.18, and that from other sources $8,957.04, giving $135,108.22 for the total receipts, and the balance in favor of the Prison as above. The increased earnings are due in part to the increased average number of convicts, (546, against 537 the year before,) the rate of contract wages standing as before-the lowest being not less than 77 cents and the highest $1.07. These prices are nearer what they should be, and should long ago have been; but further improvement in the same direction is not impossible, it is thought, whenever the contractors shall become sufficiently interested or disinterested. The hope expressed in the last Report, that the average number here would continue to decrease, as during the year previous, has been disappointed, and the commitments during the past year have been 180, to 128 the year before. But this was written before the breaking down of the barriers against the sale of intoxicating drinks; and it is to this cause, that the THE CHARLESTOWN PRISON. prison authorities ascribe the increase of their convicts—a conclusion which the Registers of this Bureau would seem to confirm. The Prison Labor. The number in prison on the first of October being 558, the number at work for contractors was 460, of whom 350 were employed by a single firm, the Tucker Manufacturing Company. 150 of these men were paid for at the rate of $1.07, and 200 at 83 cents per day. Of the 110 remaining, 35 were paid for at $1.00, and 75 at 77 cents per day. These figures show that the contract labor of the prison was never so highly paid as within the last two years, the average rate being upwards of 93 cents per day. Even at this rate, there is no doubt the contractors are making large profits, nor that the State would make still larger profits than now by employing the convicts directly for the benefit of the Prison. A small number have been so employed during the past summer, on the improvements in the Prison, and have earned the sum of $3,039.50. The gratuities sometimes given by contractors, to which allusion was made last year, have been mostly discontinued, or have assumed the form of a bonus, for extra effort, upon the convict's discharge. In the latest instance some $300 were paid, in this way, to one laborer. Discipline. The ambition of its officers to place this institution in the front rank, if not at the head, of all prisons of its class, keeps to a high point their standard of discipline. But this by no means includes what is coming to be held as the best element of all discipline, namely, good school instruction. Some ten or twelve lectures were given last winter, but nothing farther, save the modicum of instruction in reading, in connection with the Sabbath exercises; while the year round, as especially in winter, there could, with no difficulty, be from one to three hours of secular teaching, and with the greatest profit to all concerned. In winter, the convicts "come in" at sundown, and the gas is not turned off till eight,-nearly all of which interval could be spent in school instruction, or kindred exercises; instead of, as now, in profitless, or worse than profitless, vacancy. And in PART III.] SECRETARY'S REPORT. [CHAP. I. summer there would be the same time for the same purpose after six; and it might well be considered whether it would not "pay," in the long run, to set apart even other hours for such exercises. Either there might be a teacher employed who should give his whole time to the work, as in Canada, or it might be a part of the Chaplain's official duty, as in Ohio, or that good officer might make it his duty, as in the Albany Penitentiary. For this truly great work, a Chaplain, if dead-inearnest, to achieve something, should be adequately compensated. And, employing not only the usual course of devotional exercises, an excellent agency when wisely and ably applied, though not sufficient of itself,-but giving his whole time, his whole self, body and mind, to his work, at the cells, in his class-rooms, he would soon have the satisfaction to become the blessed means of lightening the burden both of prison discipline, and of many hearts. Under this influence, encouraging and fostering good conduct, there would probably be more room for the exercise of the Ticketof Leave system. I indulged the hope last year that under the Conditional Pardon Act of 1867, embodying this feature, a number of names, perhaps fifty or one hundred, might be submitted to the Governor and Council. The reason given by the Warden why none have been thus submitted is, that the Act is faulty. In the case of a convict's being remanded under it for violating the conditions of his discharge, "the time between the conditional pardon and subsequent arrest, shall be taken to be part of the term of sentence." Suppose, it is urged, a party, with three years of his sentence yet unexpired, is discharged on condition that he will leave the country not to return, and at the end of three years is back again. He has violated his condition, and should be re-arrested; but, under the Act itself providing for such arrest, his sentence has expired. This consideration is certainly not without force, and perhaps requires the attention of legislators. At the same time, Mr. Haynes assures me this year that he has from one to two hundred, who, if discharged, would never, he feels sure, be guilty of crime again. If this is so, there would be no great harm, perhaps, in risking the loophole in the Act. Besides, while the |