Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1870-05-11
Something about St,te Prisons,
from the Madison Journal.

EDS. STATE JoURNAI:-It may be
safely assumed that aiming those who
have given the subject attention and
whose opinions are the result OF care
ful examination, there is settled con-
viction that the location of the State
Prison at Waupun was a sad blunder.
The legislature that enacted the law,
we're made to belive that remarkable
fine quality of stone abDunded there,
and that convict labor might be profit
ably employed in dressing it and pre-
pairing it for, market, though practic
ally nothing has been done in that line
beyond the construction of the prison
buildings.
Within the last nine years more than
s35O,OO0 have been appropriated by
law for the maintenance of the prison,
approxlmating an average of $4,000 a
wear, and if the location shall remain
unchanged, it will be safe to assume
that after expanding 100000 to re-
build the shops and replace the tools
and stock recently destroyed by fire,
the same annual deficiency of $40 900
| will occur and be increased in proper
tiou to the increase of the number of
convicts, in all coming time.
In order to utilize the muscle and
brain Of a couple of hundred convicts,
they should be employed in remuner-
alive labor, at or near large comm er-
cial and manufacturing town, where
raw materials, provisions and fuel may
be produced at the lowest figures, and
where manufactured articles, the pro
duct Of prison labor, may find a ready
market.
It is understood that convict labor
at Waupun is chiefly employed in the
manufacture of wood, the lumber being
transported to the prison at heavy
expense, without home market for
the articles manufacture. In common
parlance, it is a losing game, nor can
the evil be remedied but by removal
of the prison while the plainest COM
mon sense indicates Milwaukee as the
proper point of location, where propri-
etors of large manufacturing establish
ments would at once contract for all the
Prison labor at prices that would at
once contract for all the Prison, includ-
ing the pay Of Keepers, and perhaps,
leave margin to be paid into the
State Treasury.
But what in that case shall be done
with the Prison building at Waupun :?
Sell it, or convert it into Lunatic
Asylum, or, after appro priating SO
much of the materials of the building
as will bear transportation to the con-
struction of new Prison at Milwaukee,
donate heremainder, with the grounds,
to the good people of Waupun.
From colonial days up to the year
1877, or thereabouts, the only stat e
prison of the state of New York, wa IS
located in the City of New York, and
convict labor was contracted for by
leading manufacturers at rates that
met the expenses of the prison or
nearly so. About that time law was
passedsproviding for the construction
of new prison at the village OF
Auburn, then corresponding to the
present size of Waupun. Canals had
not then been constructed, nor had
railroads been thought of. Auburn
was a quiet village without commerce
or manufactures, and the prison
became dead weight upon the State
Treasury, according to my recollection
of about the same magnitude of the
one the tax payers of Wisconsin ow
carry in connection with the prison at
Waupun, and for the same reason. [
need not add that the Auburn of 1870
is quite another thing.
In A. d., 1855, provision was made
by law for the construction of new
prison at Sing Sing, suburb of New
York. One hundred convicts were
transported from the Auburn prison to
Sing Sing, and under the supervision
of the celebrated Elan Lyndes, assis-
ted by, ten armed guards, these convicts
constructed shanties, quarried and
dressed the stone, laid up the walls,
and, in short, constructed the prison
and surrounding walls. The whole
was accomplished by convict labor at
small expense, though possibly the
iron work may have been an except
| ion.
/ UGder good management, by convict
labor, it is believed that new prison
complete, may be erected at or near
the city of Milwaukee at cost not
greatly beyond the cost of rebuilding
and refurnishing the shops recently
destroyed by fires at Waupun. Let
the taxpayers speak. W. W. 7.