The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-01-29
OUT OF POCKET
TO The TUNE OF
A CLEAN 100000
That is What Reform Cost
State Through the Pen.
AN AMAZING TANGLE
MISMANAGEMENT UNPARALI,
ELED, SAID SENATOR
BROWN.
TEXT OF THE BILL RE0RGANlZlNG THE PEN
Under the New Management It Will BE- Recon-
mended that the State Purchase Some
of eFarms if Farm System
is to BE- [ oatinued.

The Joint Committee on Penal Insti-
tutions were made acquainted with an
appalling state of facts yesterday after
noon, The special committee appointed
TO investigate the affairs of the peni-
tertiary appeared before the Joint com
mittee and made a statement through
Senator Brown. it's chairman, of 4
part of the results of its labors.
Speaking for the committee, Senator
Brown said: There has not been in
North Carolina, in my Judgment. a
parallel of the bad management that
has prevailed at the penitentiary and the
farms. There has been jobbery on every
hand. 1t was found by the committee
that the families of superintendent have
been fed at the States expense without
warrant of law, and at one of the farms
the physician was found drunk and some
of the convicts drunk and full Of
rermin.'
Senator Brown continued that the
testimony of subordinates had been that
the acknowledgement of Mewborne had
been quite as gross as that of Smith.
Their had been no Improvement under
his supervision.
The evidence laid before the commit
tee and the result of their personal ex-
animation has led them to conclude
that the total loss to the State through
its misIhanagement will aggregate $780,
600. There is at least $4,000 of out
standing Indebtedness, and the destruc-
ton aud depreciation of State property
and the run down condition of the State
+.,r will r.
The committee decided as the only way
TO get at the amount of claims against
the penitentiary to advertise for them
TO be sent in within the next ten days
to Senator Brown, chairman of the COM
mittee.
Senator Brown gave it as his opinion
that it would be better if the State is
to continue the farm system that it
should buy certain of the farms instead
of leasing them. At the present rate of
rental the State is paying seven per
cent on the option price of the farms.
whereas the interest on bonds to cover
the cost of the farms would be only
four per cent. Some of the farms are
worth buying, and some are not Some
of them have been largely developed
and improved under the State manage
Hltut, III SUDie luSldHGSS uuuuItUS VI
acres of wooded land cleared up for
cultivation. IL the option on the farms
are allowed to lapse all these improve,
ments would be lost to the State.
As the farms have been managed. the
committee found that some of them
did not produce enough to feed twice
the number of men who TILED them
On the other hand Senator Brown gave
it as his opinion after investigation
that one of the farms, il properly man
aged, could be made to feed all the con
victs, and he felt sure that if the State
owned good farms where the convicts
could be concentrated that the peniten-
tiary. under a business instead of a
political management, where the EN-
ployes were chosen for fitness. could be
made a source of profit in two years,
instead of a constant drain on the State.
Beside the reckless and utterly ire
sponsible way in which debts were in