Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-01-11
A BRANCH PRISON IN SOUTHERN
CALIFORNIA,

The RECoRD-UNIoN, after careful con-
sideration of and exhaustive inquiry into
the merits Of the question involved, is
entirely convinced of the justice and econ
omy of the proposition to establish a
branch State Prison in the southern por-
ton of the State. There are many and
strong reasons of true economy supporting
the proposition, to but few of which we
give present attention While we believe
that the north and center sections of the
State must be and always remain the
centers of greatest population, since nat
ural conditions and commerce so dictate,
no one can be blindsto the wonderful pro-
gress made in the south and the marvel
ously augmented population of the south
ern tier of counties, or fail to see what is
the manifest destiny of that part of the
State. In the history of no State of the
Union has there been made any record of
rapid development similar to that of
Southern California. If for time it par
took OF the character Of undue stimula-
ton, the reaction was but an incident, and
will not have lasting effect upon the ad-
vancement of that section.
The State is an empire of territory, it
will remain such, and indivisible in the
sentiment Of its people. The conformation
of California makes all her longitudinal
distances between bounds very great and
consequently uneconomic in certain mat
tiers of government. The political seat of
of the State is central, and cannot be i'm
proved in that respect, and is accessible
with about equal convenience from the
north and south. But in the location of
other State institutions it is as unwise and
unjust to group them all in the central
portion as it would be to place them all in
the extreme north or the extreme south, or
in one county. To lessen the cost of
transportation of prisoners from the sew
eral parts of the State to the State prisons
it is essential that the next prison built
shall be located in the South. We are not
forecasting the probability of another
event, but if the State attains the proper
tons to which Californians look forward
and for which they pray, it will be within
reason to expect economy and wise distri-
button of our institutions to call for a
State Prison upon the extreme north also.
But that is not now demanded it NAV
never be, and certainly is not within the
issues OF the next decade or two. But
with the southern section it is widely
different matter. The legal distance for
the transportation of prisoners from the
county seat of San Diego, for instance, to
Folsom is 5SS miles, and to San Quentin
1914, while from the county seat of Siski-
you to Folsom it is less than 800 miles, and
to San Quentin 81 miles The element of
cost of transportation is, therefore, one of
exceeding Importance to the State and we
propose to consider it statistically here
after for the present it will suffice to say
that in a comparatively small number of
years 1t will very much more than equal
ize the additional cost of offering and
guarding State Prison in the south.
The tables we present will be found to
be of value in forming correct Judgment
in this matter. In adjusting them we have
made very small group of counties for
the southern section, even after adding
Kern as likely to forward her prisoners to
southern penitentiary. The exhibit,
therefore, is not so strong as could be
made for the south, but we prefer that no
other counties shall for the present be con-
sidered as contributing to a southern
branch prison il established. The three
columns of figures show the number of
prisoners from the counties of the State
which have committed convicts, remaining
in our State Prisons at the close of the
last three fiscal years. first, from the CEN
trail and northern groups, secondly, from
the extreme southern group:
CENTRAL Ann SoRTurpS