The record-union., 1897-08-28
Some Facts of Interest to
All Glasses.
New York's Splendid Institution
at Elmira.
Exhaustive Report Thereon by Secre-
tary of State l. II. Brown.

During the summer of 1896 Secre-
tary Of State L. II. Brown was author
lied by the State Board of Examiners
to visit a number Of reformatory in
stitutions in the East, with O. view to
reporting to the board the methods
employed by the older States in TAX
ing care of their criminal element.
The Secretary Of State is the Vice
President Of the National Prison Asso-
citation, and takes great interest in the
reformation of criminals. number
of the reports on the institutions Wis
tied by him have been filed with the
Board of Examiners, and others will
follow. When all are in, Secretary
Brown will submit recommendations to
the board, and the probabilities are
that the next Legislature will be asked
to pass a bin drawn on the lines of
his recommendations
Among the reports already on file is
that on the New York Reformatory, at
Elmira. That institution, Secretary
Brown says, is a model of the first
class, and in view of the fact that out
side OF its reform schools for juvenile
offenders, California has no prison re-
formatory the report will prove inter-
esting. Shorn of statistics relative to
prices paid for clothing, supplies, etc,
the report is as follows:
NEW YORK REFORMATORY.
The New York State Reformatory at
Elmira, n. Y, was established in July
1876. OF all the penal reformatories in
this country, or ony other, this one eX-
cells. It is first in moral and physical
training; in military discipline and
trades teaching. It's several systems
for the reformation and betterment of
the criminals are we'll nigh perfect u.
r. Brockway the superintendent, has
but few equals and no superior in his
line of work of which he has made life
study, and the result of his labors at this
great refOrmatory has given him a ma
tional reputation, and made him an au-
thority upon penology. He combines
qualities rarely found in men; is kind,
but firm, keen and very intelligent, and
is master of every detail of the work of
the institution.
Here are confined /, 400 felons, whose
ages average % years. Since the open
ing of the reformatory in 1876, to July,
1895, 1886 inmates were received. OF
the number. $3.50 have been paroled or
u.
tention was twenty-four and three
twelfths months. Here the indetermi-
nate sentence law governs the commit
ment and release of prisoners. The
average term of sentence of those sent
to the State priOsns, for similar crimes
to those sent to Elmira, is more than
five % years, being three 90 years lon
ger. As theecost to the State for sup
port of an inmate is something like $40
to $3.50 per annum, one can see at a
glance that the law results in a large
saving to the State.
Had the definite law been in force
there would be twice the number of in
mates in the reformatory, because there
would have been three more years of
commitments added to the number al
ready there, owing to their term of SEN
tence being three years longer. A pTis-
oner may, by good behavior, be parOled
I'm one year after becoming an inmate
of the reformatory. Nearly 500 are con-
ditionally released in a single year.
During the existence of the parole sys-
TEN, more than 5000 of those sent here
have been paroled, and only 700 dis
charged by expiration of maximum
term During the same period less than
200 were regarded, after beingreturned
to the reformatory and less than 400 re-
committed.
The total cost of $50 acres of land 05
acres being inclosed between the wallis
and buildings, is $1500.000. There are
/. 300 cells in tiers of three or four, one
above the other. Of the present in
mates and those received in the past,
s. per cent. are of foreign parents. and
10 per cent. of natives. In one year out
of 612 men received, more than 600 had
no trade.
The annual cost for maintenance, de-
Quoting income from sales of products,