The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1882-12-28
The Female. ReformatOry.

The annual report of the Board of
Managers OF the Indiana Reformatory
for Women and Girls, was submitted to
the governor recently. It states that
there are 55 convicts in the penal depart
ment, and 33 have been received during
til. year. Twenty-Five have been dis
charged upon the expiration of their
terms, and one released for new trial.
The number of girls in the reformatory
department is IA. During the year 81
have been committed and seven returned
from tickets-of- leave. Twenty one were
discharged, 40 released on tickets Of
leave and one died. The average num-
her of inmates during the year has been
1872, five more than in any previous year.
The expenditures, including salaries, re-
pairs and improvements, amounted to
SOS, 900, which exhausts the appropria-
ton. The net earnings OF the inmates
amounted to $4,000, and the amount
paid into the State treasury by counties,
for the subsistence and clothing of chill
dren committed to the institution is
$S178.92 The cost of maintaining and
educating the inmates of the institution
is 50. 80 a week each. In giving state
ment of the condition of affairs. the re-
port says: "Many of the inmates are per-
verse, obstinate and wicked, and their
proper government requires an occasional
resort to individual punishment. Suita-
BILE and remunerative employment, the
report says, which may be introduced
without interfering with the moral train
ing, has been hard to find, and hence the
industries are far less profitable than if
conducted solely for the pecuniary bene-
fit. The custom laundry work, employ
ing 80 prisoners and from 40 to 80 girls,
does not bring any net prt fit The over.
all and shirt manufacturing is somewhat
profitable. In the reformatory depart
ment 40 children are employed in cane
seating chairs. The entire care of the
house and grounds is entrusted to the
girls. Their proficiency in one branch
of work gives them transfer to another
The girls are instructed in the rudimen-
tary branches, and, where practicable,
the illiterate prisoners are taught to read
and write. The health of the inmates
has been only fair, one death having oc
CURED in the reformatory department.
It is thought that there would be a better
state of health if they had suitable
grounds, enclosed safely so as to permit
exercise. The facilities for caring for
the sick are limited. The rooms used
for hospital purposes are small, and con-
tagious diseases would become cpl
demic in the institution. A
"modest appropriation" for this
purpose asked. the building need re-
pairs and repainting. The managers re-
commend that the next Legislature make
appropriations as follows: For general
expenses, $50, 900; wall enclosing exer-
else ground, $4,000. and hospital $1,000.
The superintendent reports that out OF
the number of inmates who have been
discharged during the last year SS per
cent are doing we'll. The average cost
of maintaining infants committed to the
institution is estimated at $136 a year.
The average sentence of the convicts
received during the fiscal year Is one
year and six months. The oldest life
prisoner is now 76 years of age, and has
served twenty-six years of the sentence.
In summing up the condition OF affairs
the managers state that the "results of
the work of the six years since the
institution has been entirely controlled
by women will, we think, compare ia
vorably with the initial years of the
movement when under the control OF
| men,"