The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-03-08
CITY INTELLIGE NC X.
HOYAMENSING.


The Twenty-third Annual Report Of tn, Ire
spectors Of the County Operations OF
the Institution during the Year 1880.
We have been favored with an advance copy
OF the twenty-third annual report of the Inspec-
tors Of the County Prison, addressed TO the State
Legislature, showing the operations Of the insti-
tuition during the year 1859.
Constituents During 1869.
From the report it appears that ''the
whole number of commitments for the
year 1869 was 1896, against 1890 lor
1863 an increase of 6S5. This increase,
however, is only in the number of COM
mitments; the number of persons actually com
mitted being less than those of last year. This
apparent increase has been the result OF
change in the character of the commitments.
1t was till lately the practice of the committing
magistrates to include in the charge of drunken
ness also dsorderly conduct by which
offenders were committed TO prl-
son for q period of thirty days, to be
held for the whole or part of this sentence at
the discretion of the Inspectors. Nagrants Oh
this class are now committed for anto6tcdtton
only, for period of twenty-tour hours, ana not
unfreduently return half dozen times during
month. Also under recent construction of the
law, the power formerly exercised by the In
spectors, of discharging cases OF breach OF the
peace" has been abandoned. The committing
magistrates have much increased commit
ments for this charge, retaining control
of them in their own hands, and usually
discharging them by arrangement after
few days, with the result of repeated recon-
mitments of the same offenders. II may be that
more exact compliance with the precise letter
of the law now obtains, but the old practice
was attended with better results. The board
fSels however that SO long as 1t fails to secure,
on the part of the committing magistrates of
our city, hearty and earnest cooperation in
efforts to improve the criminal department,
little real good can be accomplished by attempts
within the prison. The great and foremost evil
in the criminal department of Philadelphia is
the system of police magistracy; and no reform
is so much needed as change, at least in the
nAn nf cofi nf nVnIt I'M
magistrates. So long as their receipts are di-
rectly dependent upon and swollen by what
must be stated to be simply traffic in the
manipulation of petty crime, 1t is idle to antici-
pate radical provement in the treatment of this
class of criminals. 1t is difficult to believe that
such a system of magistracy can be tolerated
in city like Philadelphia, and that her citizens
can sit quietly under so great reproach. If
our police magistrates were removed from the
sphere of politics by change in the mode of
selection; if they held their offices by good
behavior tenure; were required to be learned in
the law; and were compensated by adequate
fixed salaries, in place of fees, reform would
be accomplished the effects of which upon social
improvement can scarcely be estimated.
"The commitments for 1869 show small de-
crease (270) compared with those of 1861
which were 1855; those for 1866 reached
19,46S. In 1860, the year preceding the
war, the commitments were 20,S01. For the
first half of the year 1885, from January to
July 1, the commitments were S947; for the
second half of the year, from July 1, 1869, to
January 1, 1870, they we're 935S. This excess in
the commitments for the second over the first
half of the year is usual; thus, in 1861 the COM
mitments from January to July were S032;
from July !, 1868, to January l, 1869, they were
958S.
Sex and Color of the Prisoners.
''Of the commitments for the past year, there
were black males, 1888, against 979 for 1868,
and 1925 for 1867; of black females 574 against
494 for 1868, and $40 for 1867. There were
white males, 12, 22S against 1906 for 1868, and
12361 for 1861 and 1868 for 1866. The
number of white females for 1869 was
1920 a slight increase over those for 1868,
4051 but q marked diminution over those
for 1867, which reached 1919 1t is to be borne
in mind, too, that while the number of COM
mitments was more than last year, the number
of females committed was less. We have thus
the experience of another year confrmatory OF
the good results of the increased accommoda-
tion for female prisoners which was obtained by
the transfer of the old debtors apartment, few
years since, to the female department of the
prison. The separation of female prisoners,
which was thus secured, and the greater facili-
ties for the enforcement of prison rules and
discipline, which were made attainable, have
resulted in marked diminution of va.
laton of our city. Nor has the sani
tary department of the female depart
ment of the prison been less conspicuous; the
cases reported to the physician for treatment IL
this department for the past year having beer
only IT'S, more than a thousand less than the
sick list of 1867. These results show the ex
pendture required in the extension of the fe
male department to have been true economy
and strongly support the more weighty mora
arguments which are urged in favor of an eY
tension of the more important and over-crowde
male department of the prison. ...
Necessity for Extending the Prison.
'The board would here repeat the views ex
pressed in the last report upon the subject of a
extension of the prison, and again call tn
attention of the Legislature to the incapacity
the prison for the proper, confinement and en-
ployment of its large male popr
and economical the injurious effects of its owe
crowded condition are manifest. The results
improved accommodation in the female depar
ment, previously cited, have shown that tn
growth of crime and vagrancy is directly stint
lated by the undue congregation of prisoner
1t can scarcely be doubted that the collection c
number of prisoners in single cell soon RI
duces all to the moral level of the worst pr
soner; and the unceasng intercourse whic
results from the original construction of th
prison with a view to the separate system, fo
ters the moral contagion more actively than
prisons not designed for this system. TIL
separate system, once the especial pride
Pennsylvania. has been long. abandone
in every department of the prisol
and even in the convict corridors, tw
three, and even four prisoners are place
together in single cell. The board feels tn
this subject can be no longer overlooked, al
that either the extension of the convict block
or the construction of a new prison has becon
"a necessity. The establishment of a House
Correction, however desirable would not relic
the crowded state of the convict cells And u
board feels confirmed in the opinion express
in many previous reports, that a House of Co
rection for vagrants and drunkards should co
stitute q department of the prison. Its co
truction might go hand in hand with the exte