Litchfield enquirer., 1877-10-25

-tta Y tttS lS3A1os9ts
 The prisoners board is paid by the state at the end of eacE of the four terms of the Superior court held in this county, each year; and the foregoing table begins with the payment at the end of the Sept. Term 1868. thus showing the last year of Sheriff Botsford's term and the subse- quent eight years of Sheriff Baldwin. The amount allowed for each prisoner board during all that time was $$3 a week, or $156 year. The average number of prisoners each year can be readily found by divid- ing the total amount paid, by $156. the price allowed for boarding each prisoner one year. It will be seen at once that while the average number of prisoners when the present sheriff went into office was only 13, it has risen rapidly of late years, andin the last C'76-O was tsOenty- seven, or more than double the average of the first years From these data 1t is easy to see that the sheriff (who, since the summer of 1871, has himself boarded the prisoners and received the avails of their labor must have made a large profit out of the board money and labor of the pris- oners. This profit must have increased in greater proportion than the number of prisoners, for single jailer can oversee thirty prisoners, at no greater cost to his employer than smaller number.
 | We do not pretend to say accurately how greats yearly. source of profit the prisoners have been to the sheriff, If an average of 13 was worth $4O0 to the jailer in 1868 S-9. we believe that the average of 27 could not have been worth less than $1 200 to the jailer in the year ending with the last April Term. People who have looked into the matter closely con- slider this a very low estimate. There is no doubt, on the one hand. that hias sherif9's large farm has been greatly and perma- nently improved by the. prisoners labor, besides raising therefrom an important share of the provisions consumed. by them On the other hand, the prisoners have been we'll fed-better, we judge, than in most other jaiIs in the state. It must not be forgotten, also, that the great increase in the number of prisoners has largely increased the county expenses. The amount now required for fuel is double that of the years preceding 1869. The amount required for prisoners cloth ing has trebled or quadrupled. Indeed. | not only has the refusal of the sheriff to pay rent left the county entirely bare of income. except from direct taxatlon, but the increase of prisoners, which has so largely increased the profits of the sher. l if, has made a corresponding increase in the expenses of the county. The present system is ons. in short, under which the gain is all the sheriff s; the loss, all the county's.
 That the jail will be as great source of income m future years as it has been in the past, cannot be expected. The last legislature lowered tbe price of pris- oners' board to $2.25 week. With a I yearly average of 27 prisoners this bit of economical legislation will reduce the sheriff's profit $l. O5S year, though there is evidently money in it" even at these reduced rates. The payment to the sheriff for prisoners board for the g weeks end l ing with the 14th of the present month, was $l625. 88. showing an average of thsrty-one prisoners during that time. |
 The number is nov reduced. we hear, to twenty; and the average tor the year may be no greater than that of 76-7,
 A system that allows common jail to be conducted as source of profit to the high sheriff, is one that finds no open defenders. Everybody says it is totally wrong in principle, and that the burden thus thrown oa the taxpayers of the county should be removed. Yet they see no way of relief. The sheriff is by law chlef.jailer and has the appointments of deputy -jsiiers subject to the approval of the county commissioners, There, is no law compelling him to pay rent for the Hail. and unless he and his jailers hearti- ly cooperate, it is by no means certain that the county seonmissioners can run the isil at a profit at the present reduced | rate of board. We believe that the l present sheriff is legally liable to the county for the vslpe of the labor here .tofore done on his land by prisoners. but that could only be pbtaaned by a lawsuit. ga .,.a..rs, ..t...9 e-s, es ,.. ' I To make, any proper system of fail management successful the sheriff and the county commissioners must pull to. getheE and not in opposite directions. The county should have land oi 1 it's own and should work the pris. oners on tbat h,pd just as shef. if Baldwin now works them ap his farm There should be new jail built. and the prisoners should do all the un- skilled labor necessary for building that ] jail The county should pay the iailers a fair salary, furnish the provisions for the support of the prisoners. and receive their board money frQm the State. To \ sdch an arrangement the oosqperation of jI the sasriff is q necessity. and to such ce- \ operatiop tue sheriff should be bound by positive provision of tbe platform of each of the conventions, soon to meet and nom