The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-01-21
BONDS FOR DEBTS
OF The
PEN|TENT|ARY
AT Least 100000 Will be
Needed.
BOARD COMMISSIONERS
BOARD COMMISSIONERS
WILL ELECT THE SUPERINTEND-
ENT UNDER NEW PLAN.
THE INVESTIGATION BEGAN YESTERDAY
And the Deficit Was Found to be About $40,
0o0. Day and ledbetter Before Com
miliee. Politics Must Yield to
Business in Management.
Business in Management.

1t is proposed to reorganize the peni-
Tertiary.
1t is also proposed to shift that hapless
institution from political 10 a business
basis.
The plan of reorganization provides
that the Legislature shall elect u body
of nine or twelve men of affairs to be
called the Board of Directors or perhaps
the Penitentiary Commission. Under
the new regime the whole responsibility
for the proper conduct of the peniten-
tiary would be thrown upon the COM
missioners instead of being divided as
at present. between the superintendent
and the board of directors with the result
that both shirk or abuse it as during
the Fusion incumbeney.
The commission will have power to
select the superintendent or superinten-
dents-for there may be more than one
and to the commission the superinten-
dent viii be responsible. 1t is possible
that a superintendent may be selected
for the central prison and one for all the
farms, or for each branch of them as
the necessities of the case may seem to
demand. The salary of the superinten-
dent win be fixed by the board which
elects him.
II is expected that the commission
shall make individual fitness the pri-
mary test in the selection of the superin-
tendent. instead of merely electing the
man who has failed to land anywhere
else. This plan. it is thought, will insure
that the penitentiary can look after its
own future.
To rid it of its recent past the COM
mittee propose that the State shall issue
bonds to the amount of 100000 and APP
ply the proceeds to paying off the in
debtedness of the institution. The debts
have been made and must be met and
some of the committee think no better
way can be found. since the State has
not the ready cash to spare at this time.
The investigation of the affairs of the
penitentiary began yesterday afternoon.
Capt. w. I'll. Day, the present superin-
tendent, and William Ledbetter, former
ly deputy warden and now a member
of Capt. Days examining board. APP
peared before the committee appointed
to conduct the investigation.
Ato dtttlhpL was ~ tldht5 UP Tue
work in detail and the ground was gone
over only in a general way. The COM
mittee with the aid of the two witnesses
summoned walked around the rim Of
the deficit and took its measure They
found it, so far as at present ascertain
able, of about the dimensions formerly
published in this paper, viz: $4,000.
There is no reason to believe from what
was developed yesterday that it will
shrink as the work of investigation goes
on, but rather that ''all the hollowness"
of it will get deeper.
The fact has been brought out that
absolutely no books were kept at the
penitentiary to show what the institution
owes and it will be impossible to get
the Indebtedness until all the outstand-
ing bills are sent in. that the figures
may be thus compiled.
The committe will take up the work
in earnest Monday and it will probably
continue through the entire week.