Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1880-01-22

| undertaken IN Wisconsin should be a
school for dependent children, separate
I'd distinct from the industrial schools.
STATE PRISON.
The number of ,convicts confined in
The state prison, September 80, 1879,
was 309-thirty-seven less than were.
there the year previous. The average
number In confinement was 52S-nine
less than the average for the preceding
| year. There were only $50 commit
ments during the year, as against 213
for the year ending September 80. 1878.
It does no. follow, however, that there
has been decrease in crime, as under
the change In the law relating to larce
ny, many are now sentenced to county
jails who were formerly sent to state
prison. | am very reluctant to recon-
mend return to the law as it was pri-
or 10 the revision of the statutes,
and yet it must be conced-
ed that incarceration in the
average jail is not conducive to refor-
nation of character. However unfor-
tunate it may be for this class of offend
ors, it certainly is creditable to the state,
that our criminal population is not nu-
merous enough to justify the erection Of
sn intermediate prison. A temporary
and tentative solution of the problem
may possibly be found in utilizing the
north wing Of the prison at Waupun as
an intermediate prison, under some ap-
propriate name other than State Pris-
on. This would obviate the necessity
of erecting new and expensive buildings,
and providing an extra corps of superin-
tendents and officers, and measurably
remove the odium attaching to SEN
tence to State Prison.
OF the $50 convicts committed to the
State Prison during the last fiscal yesr,
only twenty had Heretofore been 10
prison and but seventeen were without
the rudiments OF an education. The
total cost to feed, warm, clothe, guard,
instruct and discharge the prisoners was
$40, ,270.OS, or 81 36 each per week. The
principal items of disbursements were,
for salaries and wages SIS, ,535.75, and
for subsistence, $14,367.02. The total
receipts from all sources were SAC, 619 %,
the disbursem ents $47, 1892 and the
cash balance at the close of the year
was $11 ,O90.44. The expenses for the
current fiscal year are estimated at
S42, $500, of which the prisoners
elrnings are not expected to pay to ex-
ceed three-fourths. It seems almost
impossible to correct the false impress
ion, that because the prison authorities
do not ask for appropriations the pris-
on has become self.supporting. The
time is apparently not far distant when
the accumulated capital will be ex-
hausted, and moderate appropriations
be required to meet deficiencies; and IN
justice to all concerned this fact should
not be forgotten. 1t has been the aim
of the directors and warden, first of all,
to place the prison upon the highest
ground as a relornlatory, and this, from
considerations of wise economy as we'll
as utility. The great cost of crime is
not in prison expenses, but in the ex-
penditures looking to the protection Of
life and property, and the arrest, de-
tention and conviction of criminals.
The directors renew their recon-,
mendations of last year in regard to
the good time law and extra provision
in extreme cases for discharged prison
crs, and / commend these recommends
tons to your favorable consideration.
/ also renew the recommendation con-
tanned in my previous message in re-
gard to the substitution Of indetermin-
ate for fixed sentences.
BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS.
The trustees of the Wisconsin Sol
diers' Orphans Home have submitted
their fourteenth annual report, and
therein give brief resume of the work
done and the expenses incurred in the
prosecution of this charity since the
31st day of March, 1866, when the
Home was adopted by the state. Six
shared In tho benefits of the Home.
and the total cost to the state has been
$342 800. From the Ward and Smith
fund, originally amounting to $25, ,554.-
81, and It's accumulations, there has
been paid to former inmates Of the
Home the SUM of $18,716.99, and there
remains on hand, in cash and bonds,
the sum of $15, ,552N.
At the Northern Hospital for the In
sane 757 patients have receiv ed treat
ment, of whom G5 were discharged re.
covered and s8 improved. The daily
average of patients was 553. The total
expenditures were 1882, 352 go, Of which
| $21, ,9S5.56 were for additions, repairs
and improvements, leaving as currel t
exr, nscs the sum of $110, ,467.06, or at
the rate of 5000 for each patient. The
current expenses for the next hospital
| year are estimated at $125, ,991 96, re-
| quiring an appropriation, in addition
to ether sources of revenue, of $72-,
$50 IS The superintendent and trus-
tees think it expedient to construct a
tunnel from Lake Winnebago to the
hospital in order to secure an adequate
and unfailing supply of water, and rot
rely, as now, exclusively upon the ar
tcsian well. which may fail. The esti-
mated cost of improvement is $15, ,000-
co. They also ask appropriations for
cam fire engine, $5 100000, and sundry'
,.,her purposes So. 10000.
The Wisconsin State Hospital for the
Insane has given treatment to COZ pa
tients during the year, and reports 81
discharged cured, and 50 discharged
improved. The average number un-
der treatment was 425, and the total
expenditures were $135. 555. 50, of which
| $50 .951 S3 were for additions, repairs
anu improvements, by which, among
0ther points gained, the capacity OF
the hospital has been increased to &C
commodate $50 additional patients.
Some of these additions have not been
authorized by the legislature, but it was
practicable to secure so much addition
| al room for such comparatively trifing
expense, altogether unprecedented in
the history of hospital construction,