New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-01-17
THE STATE PRISON INVESTIGATION

parts of the Report of the Commissioners APP
pointed by the Legislature to investigate the
affairs of the State Prisons. The document
from which these extracts are made is bulky
one of nearly thousand pages The Commits
sioners begin by the avcrment that their time
has been too limited to exhaust an examina-
ton at ether PRISON. but they do not hesitate
to say that enough has been done to show
gross mismana cement, with great losses To the
State and injustice to the convict. 10 begin
with, the prisons i Sing Sing and DannemOra
are by no means so ,l.OI.@ as they shOId be,
SO that expenses for the recapture of prisoners
have within few years amounted to an impor-
tant sum. All the prisons are Overcrowded,
greatly to the injury of the health and morals
of the inmates, requiring number OF
keepers larger than would be otherwise neces-
sary. The real cause of want of discipline in the
prisons is distinctly discovered by the Commits
sioners in political partisanship. This has ex-
ercised an evil influence in all departments.
Conyicts have been wrOngcd and the State
plnndered. Quarrels between the inspectors
and other officials have been frequent. Con-
fusion has been created, discipline lost. officials
corrupted and deficiencies increased by the
the majority in the management.
The philanthrOpic public will be specially in
terested in so much of the report as rc'ates
to punshments. The abuses in this part of
the discipline. it is stated. are not so many
nor so great as has been generally supposed.
Some of the methods, however. are bartarous
and unworthy of an enlightened peOple-the
iron cap, for instance, the paddle, raising the
convict by the thumbs, chain and bail, the
dark cell, the gag, the stratIjacket, with
some others, are liable to abuse. We are glad
to find the Commissioners abiding in terms of
proper apprehension to the practice OF making
a public exhibition of the prison and the
prisoners.
We are assured in the report that while
prisoners "haye not usually been much
"abusod," )ls have been quite too COM
mon. special privileges have been granted;
the purchase If luxuries has been allowed;
correspondence has been unchecked; and
some fortunate ones have been allowed to do
pretty much as they pleased, and to occupy
places of trust. The latter practice the Com
mlssiOners regard rs extremely reprehensible.
Convict clerks have access to prison books,
thus acquiring information which they could
use to their own advantage, as they have
charge of important accounts between the
State and parties furnishing supplies--an OPP
portunity which they have not failed to use.
Commitment papers are also altered, and con-
victs thus discharged before their term has
expired.
There is in the report very curious list of
the indulgences permitted to favored convcts-
the liberty of sleeping in the hospital when not
under medical treatment, of eating in the
warden's kitchen, of making pies out of ma
terials belonging to the State and of selling
them to the convicts, of rowing about the
prison grounds at pleasure, of rehearsing for
and taking part in theatrical performances.
All these practices are justly regarded as evil
dences of loose discipline.
Upon the matter of convict labor there is
much to say in the report. Starting with the
proposition that the prisons should be self-sus-
tanning, or nearly so, the Commissioners show
that great losses have been incurred by bad
management. The State has been defrauded
with facility and tho fraud covered with ease.
Several instances are given of the way in
which the State has been greatly cheated
through official dishonesty and imbeclity.
There has been frequent peculatiOn and blum
dcring. Inspectors have usually been ap-
pointed for political reasons, and with no re-
gard to their special fitness for the duties of
their Office, although there have been honor
able exceptions. The honest have not been
efficient, and the efficient have not been hon
est and the evidence taken by the Commits
sioners discloses many things incompatible
"with official integrity" Attention will
be specially drawn TO tho long list of causes
given in the report which have resulted in
pocuniary loss. and particularly 10 "a general
"want Of economy in everything connected