The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-03-12
PRISON TENANTS
Ages, Conditions and. Crimes
Facts From Keeper Pat
terson's Report.

e.. unual report of State Prison
Keeper -raterson has just been issued.
There are seven persons in State Prison
who must remain there for their natural
lives. They are all mnrderers. One OF
them Is Alden .Fales, the hoy" murderer,
who is not so much a boy now as he was.
Four are serving terms of thirty years,
two lave terms of twenty-one years and
twenty-seyen have twenty years. There
are twenty-four fifteen year conyicts and
la are in for ten years.
The larger amber of sentences are in
fives, tens and Juveniles. There are 1GU
five-year %convicts. Then coming down to
fractions of five years, we find liz in for
three years, 2O7 in for two years and 129
in for one year. Distributed among the
counties we find that Essex is represent
ed by 1873, Hudson by 239, Passaic by LOT,
Camden by 6S, Union by "A, Mercer by IS.
These are ali counties having large cities
and they compare favorably with tho
small agricultural counties. Thus, for ex-
ample, Salem has 2S, Somerset 81, Morris
As. Burlington 81, Bergen SO and ATTAIN
tic 35. rs
The nativity Of the conviets is inter-
esting. There are 1.026 convicts in the
State Prison at the date of the last re-
port. which has just been printed. OF
these only 1882 We're, born in New Jersey.
S0s were foreign born and 3f1 were born
in other States of the Union, New York
contributing no less than 1n.. There are
76 Germans 81 Irish, So English and Is
Scotch, Al Italian and s French conyicts;
write. There are ,974 males and 80 fe-
~TiWENTY7FfVE MTRDERERs.
pure and simple. Six are convicted of
murder in the nrst degree; fifteen of MUIR
der in the second degree, and twenty-four
have taken human life. The larger mum
Der of commitments are for crimes
against property, from burglary ana ana hign-
lawfully removing a horse"
There is Accommodation for 7o5 prison
ers in the State Prison. SO that there is
prisoners have to DO doubled up. al
though it Is contrary to law and to prison
discipline. The erection of a reformatory
the 1.02e convicts SAT are serving their
first commitment. 100 a second commit
ment. 80 a third commitment II a fourth
commitment and s a fifth commitment
One prisoner has been committed nine
times. AS probably a majority of the
prisoners are nffirss OFFENDERS a p rsiforma a.
about one-half its population and Civ
ample room for what should remain.
There were nineteen deaths IN the
prison during the year last reported.
and of these seven were of colored pris-
oners. which was a great d~.sproportion
and seems to snow that the eo.ored man
life than his white brother. The cause
of death is generally some form of con-
sumption.
necessary as air in an institution of this
kind. Work about the prison in various
ways keeps a large number employed
SHOES. The prison p says that "the
amount of work cheerfully performed in
They scrub and keep IN order their own
hall. do their iaundrying and make ali
new over and unaerskirts. towels. sheets.
cary for the entire prison"
PRISON CONTRACTS.
A decrease IN me eaanl1gs On the prls-
ceding year is explained by the fact that
all or nearly all of the contracts under
which articles are manufactured and
years expired about the beginning of the
year, n owing to the great depression
in business at that time 1t was found i'm
much less favorable terms. and for the
same reason new contractors were not
forthcoming; the result was that renew,
ed arrangements were made with the old
contractors ir some cases at lower
prices for the work. and in some cases for
a much reduced production.
within the past few months to further
reduce the prices on some classes of work
in order to prevent abandonment of the
contracts upon the stipulated notice.
These estimates of the value of the la
Dor of the prisoners have been made with
great care and with a view to modera-
ton, and taking them as a basis, the fol-
lowing result appears
Revenue from the labor of AL
Estimated value Of service rem
dered the State by 13 con
Total value of services of con-
victs during the -. .s7s. s57 10
Total cost of maintaining 1,004
convicts during the year........ n, 491 IS
Value of labor of GA ~convicts in
excess of cost of maintaining
1904 81, 1855 70
The law limits the number of convicts