The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-02-26

Concerning the new prison reform Dill
introduced by Representative Seyfert the
Philadelphia Ledger editorially says "As
to the necessity for thorough reform in
the management of the county prisons,
there can be no question among those
who have given attention to the subject.
The board of charities year after year
have animadverted upon the Wasteful,
vicious and discredtable prison methods
in vogue in the great majority of the
counties. The general agent of the board
in his report for 1895 declares that the sys-
TEN which exists in fifty counties is de-
plorable. The jails are conducted by
sheriffs who know and care nothing for
penology, and are interested chiefly in the
perquisites in the shape of allowances
for the daily support of prisoners. The
general agent says that the prisoners as
a rule are allowed to congregate in the
corridors, and that the institutions are
nurseries of crime from which prisoners
emerge worse than they We're when COM
| mitted. The general agent AYERS that he
| cost of conducting one of these jails in
charge of inspectors would be no greater
| than that of one under the old system
| and inaSmuch as the state, by the passage
| of a law providing for the county prison
| inSpectorship system, would be saved the
| heavy expense involved in the conStruc-
| ton of a new penitentiary, 1t might be
| possible to allow each county small
amount toward the payment of its off
GERS, as is now the case in the peniten-
| tiaries The proposed act deals with the
counties with greater liberality, in that It
provides that the expense of convict main
tenace in the counties shall be borne by
| tn estate. There are grave economical
| questions involved in this feature of the
| act which will of course, be exhaustive
| ly investigated before the bill becomes
| law.
There is no uniformity in the per capi-
ia weekly cost of maintaining prisoners
by the counties. In Chester county in 1885,
the average weekly cost of prisoners per
capita was $40; Delaware county, $2.5G.
| In Bucks, where the old system is in use,
| the per capita was $il5. In the adjoining
county of Montgomery, where the inspec-
torship system Is in use, the per capita
was only $232. The per capita cost at the
| Philadelphia county prison for 1895 was
only 81, II; at the Allegheny county prison
81. .O4, the lowest in the state. In the small
counties the per capita Is very high. But
Ter county's per capita was SSH, but there
We're only eight prisoners in its Jail in that
year and the cost was insignificant. The
average weekly per capita cost for keep
ing prisoners, taking all the counties into
consideration, was $il8, which could
doubtless be greatly reduced by more eco
nomital methods of prison government
Certain it is that If the cost of prison
maintenance could be brought to the Del
aware and Chester county basis in all tht
rural counties taxpayers would feel tn,
benefit of the change
"'To show in a general way the financia
difficulties that confront the common
wealth just now,' says Chairman Mar
shall, of the house appropriations CON
mittee, II may mention that the commit
tee has made a record of all the approprI
alton bills introduced up to this ;ime
There are more to come; but thesC
amount to $27,571,72O This includes NJ
money whatever for the new capitol, anC
yet the total revenue for the two years
available for appropriations is only $40,
100000 in round numbers. OF this, tn
general appropriation bill, including tn,
school money, calls for about $4,000 O0G
the National Guard 100000 and the car
of the insane $l,250, 900. These three item
aggregate only about $l0OO,000 less thar
the total available revenue. Besidc
emitting the new capitol, this calculation
makes no account of such appropriation
as those to hospitals not under state con