The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-01-02
CONN. STATE PRISON.
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DI-
 RECTORS,
Jus. Issued. show. Decrease of Popu- Iasion at the rns,itution-what War den Garvsn says.

The annual report of the board of state prison directors was submitted to Governor Chamberlain January 1. The report is as follows:
 The striking feature of the affairs O the Connecticut state prison for the fis- cal year ending September 30. 1903. was the dip in population. The average dai- ly census of convicts. showing singu- lar shrinkage, was 46S. That figure, simmer than for any recent year, was .thirty-seven below the daily average for 1902, nd was smaller by thirty-four than the average for the previous half decade. The largest number in confine- ment at one time in the course of the year was 4S9, as against maximum Of 426 in 1902, and an average maximum Of 518 for the five years prior to the last. The minimum count for the twelve month, dropping to 451, was also strik- ingly small and has not been surpassed in littleness since 1898. The abridgement of the convict colony at Wethersfcld is still further attested by the CO amit- ments, which for the year numbered only 140, and which, seventy-two less than the annual average for the five previous years, were scarcely forty eight per cent. as numerous as the ad- missions to the institution in 1898,
 Accompanied by no corresponding di- intuition of the jail census of the state, the decrease of the prison population, at once great and gratifying, is not easily explained, but it is probable that seve- ral influences, all of which was domi- nant, jointly operated to beget the re- huction. The Indications, however, are that the decline was only temporary, and that the contraction of last years statistics will not immediately be dupli- cated. The downward trend has, In sooth, already been arrested, and at this writing a moderate expansion of the felon population at Wethersfeld has begun.
 FINANCES.
 The earnings from productive labor during the year aggregated $52.661, and in proportion to the population of the prison exceeded those of any recent fis- cal twelvemonth. In their total the rev. CiiuCS HUH le1nOI tIdllSttuQSQ tAtE dNti ' age for the eight previous years by more than seven thousand dollars. and have been matched in magnitude only once in the historay of the institution. That was in 1902 when, with an average daily population of thirty-seven in ex- t:cess of that of last year, the earnings exceeded by $2, ,217 those for 1903. Pro- ductive labor which is steady ana stim- Eulating not only etxerts a wholesome in- fence oii the moral and physical well fare ouf the convict and is an effective aid to discipline, but it also lessens the burden on the taxpaying shoulder.
 Supplementary revenues of $3,276 de- rived from various sources bring the total income of the year up to $55, ,937. As result of the excellent financial showing for the past two years, $27, ,O26 of the legislative appropriation for the biennial period, or approximately thir- ty-four per cent of the entire grant, was unexpended and remains in the state treasury. The insane ward at the pris- on, which was first occupied in 1898, and which secures exemption from the ob- jections, both practical and sentimental, Incident to the former policy of trans i ferriug demented convicts to the Con- necticut Hospital for the Insane at Mid dletown, yields no appreciable revenue and necessarily adds considerably to the cost of institutional maintenance.
 SICKNESS AND DEATHS.
 The volume of sickness at the prison | during the year was small, and the gen. eral health of the convicts has seldom been better The systematic efforts which have been made during the past l few years to improve the sanitary con- < ditions of the plant, and which have been supplemented by careful study of { the diet of the prisoners have been ac- companied by a fiuctuating but gene- rally declining rate of mortality. Four deaths occurred in the course of the year. The number, less than for any t tWelvemonth for over a decade and a i half, was probably abnormal in its smallness, and cannot be maintained ex- l cept under highly favorable conditions ! The death rate was S.6 per one thou sand population. which is substantially lower ratio of mortality than obtained in the state at large. One of the dece- dents was an inmate of the insane ward
 A considerable fraction of the con- victs is physically unsound at the time of commitment, and many others, en- feebled by excesses and by irregular habits, are easily susceptible to disease Pulmonary tuberculosis a malady which is peculiarly difficult to cobmat 1 in prison. and which is remorseless, al most, in its ravages, was somewhat less prevalent than usual during the year.
 PAROLES.
 Acting under authority conferred by the indeterminate sentence law, the i board of parole, consisting of the direc- l tors and the warden, conditionaly re- leased six prisoners in the course of the year. The effort to exercise with cau- ton and conservatism thee powers ot parole is steady apa<serious. The num- 1 Der of paQeles grante& which, in truth Lis significantly small, would probably fl nave been larger except forthe fact that in the cases of several persons who were otherwise proper subjects for provision al discharge, the interval between the mum imits of their sentence was SC I short that no adequate opportunity tC appy the parole test was supplied The board does not deem it advisable, ex- cept in extraordinary instances, condi- tionally to release a convict whose max imum term would end within six months of the issuance of the parole. And in.