The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-01-30
PRESSING NEED OF THE REFORM
ATORY.

All the State institutions need eXpendi-
ture to make them what the superintend-
ents and other officers believe to be neces-
sary for their perfection, but if the Legis-
lature should accept the advice of some Of
the capable and Jealous officials who are
bound up in the one institution in their care,
the levy for benevolent and correctional in
stitutions would be doubled. 1t is not pos
sible to do this, consequently the Legisla-
ture should attend first to the pressing
needs and let the others wait-some of them
to wait forever. One of the pressing needs
is a dollhouse in the Jeffersonville Refor-
matory During the fiscal year which ended
Oct 81, 1898, the average population of the
Reformatory was 909-an increase of 9S over
the average of the preceding year. On Oct
81 the population was 941; Jan. l the num-
Der was $50 These figures show an in
creasing population due to the change in the
system of making the prison a reformatory
There is reason to believe that the popu-
lation of the Reformatory will be 1900 in the
course of three or four years. Sanitary and
other considerations require that each in
mate should have cell to himself. In the
Reformatory there are $50 cells for the $50
inmates in the institution early this month.
In 200 of the cells the superintendent is COM
PEELED to put 400 men. There are $50 cells in
which but one person can be put conse-
quently PA inmates are compelled to sleep
on cots. which fill the corridors of the cell
houses. In some corridors these cots are so
crowded together that those who occupy
them must crawl into them from the ends,
there being no room to reach them from
the sides The facilities for ventilation are
sufficient only for one man in each cell, so
that in some of the cellrooms three times
as many men sleep can be supplied with
pure air. 1t is unnecessary to add that the
| conditions are almost as bad as they can
be. making cleanliness and general whole
someness impossible. 1t may be added that
these statements are made upon an investi-
CATION by men who have no official connec-
ton with the institution.
This is one of the cases of pressing neces-
| sity which the Legislature should favorably
consider 1t is proposed during the summer
| to tear down one of the cellhouses which
was condemned by Gov Baker in 1869 anc
! 1871 and build a large and permanent struc-
ture with modern methods for ventilation
| and heating, with ample capacity to meet
the demands upon the institution. Such a
dollhouse may cost $4,000 but when it shall
once be built there will be no extensive
repairs to be made for years This seems q
large sum of money, but a permanent
building is more economical in the end. Fol-
years the State has been spending compare
lively small sums in the construction Of
buildings in prisons. 1t has patched W
buildings which should have been TORI
down because of their unfitness and of the
expense of heating and ventilating. 1t costs
ten times as much for the heating OF ons
OF the prisons. because of it's Anticipated
system, as 1t does another State institu.
ton. much larger. with modern apparatus
The waste in the heatiAg in ten years wouIC