River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1883-03-01
CHARITIES AND REFORM.
Annual Report of the Wisconsin Board.
with Interesting Satisfied

Especial from the Sunday Pioneer Press.l
MADISON, Feb 23-The twelfth annual re-
port of the Wisconsin State board OF charities
and refos ms. which will be issued from the
pr sss in about ten days from this date, will
contain a complete and instructive statistical
review Of the status Of rauperism and crime
in the Badger commonwealth. The reporter
was enabled to-day to CLEAN come interesting
facts from the advance proofs of the report
The board of charities and reform has charge
only OF the lower order OF prisons in the
Sia'e-the house of correction at Milwaukee,
sixty two county jails there are three counties
without any, and eighty police stations and
lockups III cities ana vi ages tineluding three
n milwaukee and two in Eau Clairal Tho
State prison is Under charge Of the safe board
az siipe rvisors On the Both 30 September
last, the places of detention in the Stare, exclp-
siye of tie State prison, held prisoners as fol-
lows:
Males, Females. Total.
House Of correction........ 20S 90 22s
County jails............-.. <5s 10 20
Police stations. .....s...... Is is
Total. ..... 405 SO sol
Aud during the year there had been the fol-
lowing prisoners;
County jails. ............ T,Ta5 20l 1886
Police stations. ..-...... 1857 ~ I4O4
Total ............... I6,s29 34i 1875
There Is continued increase Of vagrancy
in the State; mainly il the southern ror-
ton, where, last year, niue counties return-
2,9So commitments for tins offense which is
about 90 ger ceBt OF the whole while Ia thirty
five counles, more tnfn one-haif the number,
there were no canviuiGns wha ever, fer va
grancy The bond reporis that the ragrancy
laws Of the State are amp g in their scope, hut
IN several counties4-notab,y kenosha Racine
MFss,t,f lar hs.tf
vas aney has been openly encouraged by tho
officials in order 10 swell the latters fee bills
the jail being made the favorite resort OF
tramps espec u " in winter, ali severity being
removed and the inlnaits c0mfOi tally
G othed and fed. The report sharply
reprimands the officials engaged in this prac-
tice which is denamil ated "a fraud npon tho
public under the forms of law Tho board
suggests t ut tramps be sentenced for long
terms to the State pr son, whore hard labor
will actually be enforced upnn them. This
same treatment is proposed, also, for habilual
drunkar1s
The number of youthful prisoners is still
large As reported by the sheriifs, there were
during the year, 4l4 male and iwenty-one
tema prisoners, between sixteen and twenty
one years of age, and IFS male and ten female
prisoners under sixteen The State has REFORM
Il ores for criminal children, the BOYS indus
trial school at Waukesha, and the girls
industrial school at Milwaukee,, yet
comm ments of minors TO county jails--nota-
bly, in Columbia and Fond du Lac--by magis-
trates armed with discretionary power, This
is deprecated as being entirely coluary TO pub
lie policy The board finds that tho great need
Of She poorhouses to-day is separate hospital
rooms for the sick and disabled Hospital
cases Of accident or sickness are constantly
coming 10 the poorhouses in default of any
hospitals in most parts of the State.
During the past year he per capita cost OF
pauperism upon the population of Wise0nsin
was 30 cents, a calculation based upon tho
following statement. which IL from official re-
ports Of all but niue of the sixly-fiye counties,
which are carefully estimated:
Total outdoor relief S239, 23l IA
Current expenses of poorhouses...... lOl,l44 80
Total cos. of pauperism in 1882 sIo4, l2g Ca