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ANNUAL REPORT STATE COMMISSION OF PRISONS.

Third. An amendment to chapter 931, Laws of 1896, to be known as section 7, providing that said act does not apply to goods, wares and merchandise furnished or sold to the State, or any political division thereof, or for or to any public institution owned or managed and controlled by the State, or any political division thereof. All of which is respectfully submitted.

Albany, N. Y., January 20, 1897.

LISPENARD STEWART,

AUGUSTUS SHERMAN,

Secretary.

President.

Reports of Visitation and Inspection.

PRISONS.

SING SING PRISON.

Sing Sing Prison was visited and inspected November 11, 1896. The administration building containing the mess hall, the Catholic and Protestant chapels and the hospital is nearing completion. The warden expects to use the mess hall by February 1st. The appropriation of $300,000, given last year by the Legislature, has been almost all expended, and another small appropriation will be needed to complete this building.

The present cell accommodation is a disgrace to the State. The floor in the cell building should be taken up at once. The flags are most uneven and it is almost impossible to keep it either dry or clean. The corridors surrounding the tiers of cells are only about 8 feet wide, and there are six tiers, when all modern thought says that there should be but four.

New cell accommodation should be granted to Sing Sing Prison this winter by the Legislature, and any new building for such accommodation should be built of granite and the cells in the interior should be constructed of steel. When such new cell accommodation is built, by a temporary removal of the prisoners, the present cell building can be altered in accordance with modern ideas and improvements. There were but two United States prisoners in the institution. The warden has undertaken, as far as possible, to put into operation a certain classification of prisoners; those who are

worst in conduct are placed at menial employment, such as rag picking, etc., and those who deserve better employment, through their good conduct, are given office work or appointed to positions known in the institution as State waiters and State runners.

The Commission would recommend that the State take into the institution the land both north and south of the present prison. walls, lying between the railroad track and the Hudson river. It especially recommends the removal of the shed belonging to the Bay State Company, which virtually overhangs the north wall of the prison. All the buildings in the institution, save the new one under course of erection, have outlived their usefulness, and, as speedily as possible, should be removed and new ones built.

On the date of visitation there were 1,220 prisoners, of whom 606 were employed on industries.

This institution was inspected July 22, 1896. The whole forenoon. was spent at the main prison the prison for men and every part of it was inspected.

A new bathroom has been established during the last year, and is a great and needed improvement. A new execution room has also been provided, with new cells adjoining for condemned prisoners, and dynamo in another adjoining room. This arrangement makes the executions as secluded and private as is possible upon the same premises occupied by a large prison. In fact it is so separate and apart that there will be nothing to indicate to other convicts or inhabitants of the prison that any execution is occurring, except, perhaps, seeing the strange faces of the witnesses passing to that part of the prison. A new building for kitchen and store

rooms is being erected under a law enacted last winter, appropriating $35,000 for the purpose. The intention was to have the work done mainly by convict labor, but it is being done mostly by citizen labor, only a few convicts being employed to attend upon the masons or as hod-carriers. This building is upon the same site as was formerly occupied by a kitchen, but will be a great and needed improvement. At present an annex to the dining room, formerly used as a dining room for upper grade convicts, is being used for a kitchen.

The hospital is well located, well ventilated, roomy and with excellent appointments, and Dr. Sawyer, the prison physician, seems to be an excellent appointee. The death rate for the present year will be much below that of previous years, and has been decreasing for three or four years as the records show, owing to the improvement in ventilation, sanitation and general improvement in buildings. The dispensary is a large one, with a well assorted stock of drugs and medicines. The cots and beds in the hospital look neater and cleaner than formerly, owing to the contributions of pillow cases and shams, sheets and spreads and improved laundry work from the adjoining prison for women, under the direc tion of Mrs. Welshe, the lady superintendent, acting on the suggestion of Mrs. Commissioner Davenport, made on a former occasion.

The condition of the prison, including cells, corridors, shops and grounds is good, and Warden Stout and his excellent deputy, Mr. James Shaw, are entitled to much credit for this satisfactory condition.

The idea of reformation does not enter into the treatment of the convicts however. There are schools under the direction of Chaplain Yates for those who desire to learn, and a religious service

is held on Sunday. Education is not compulsory, however, nor is religious teaching. There is a fair sized library for the use of those who desire it, consisting of a well selected assortment of books besides the leading magazines. There are no trade schools nor school of letters, lectures or debates, and no physical training or drills, as at Elmira. The only work or trades the convicts learn are such as they may learn at hard labor in the industries, nearly all of which are by piece work under contracts. All the contracts expire by April next, and nearly all before January, so that provision for the employment of convicts must be made. As the terms usually expire in the spring, and courts are not in session in the summer, the convict population is less than at other seasons, being less than 1,100.

The afternoon of July 22d was spent by the commissioners in the women's prison. This is upon the premises adjoining the main prison, from which it is separated by a high, thick wall, with only a wicket for passage between the two. It fronts upon Wall street, which runs at right angles with State street, upon which the main prison fronts. The grounds and buildings are the same formerly used as the hospital for the criminal insane, and are large, commodious and very pleasant. There are no cells, but instead are rooms opening upon wide halls, with large windows in each room. The kitchen is one of the best in the State, well furnished and being under the management of women, is kept in better order than the kitchen at any other prison. All the rooms are in fine order, the women are taught womanly ways, and are greatly reformed and lifted up by their treatment. The lady superintendent, Mrs. Annie M. Welshe, has held her position since the prison was started as a prison for women in 1893, and her work is highly commendable. There are rooms for over two hundred prisoners in this