The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-03

which are made criminal by the laws
regulating interstate commerce. For
many years the general Government had
no prisons Of its own In which persons
convicted Of such offences could be in
carcerated: and therefore contracts were
made with the several States whereby
Federal convicts were imprisoned In the
various State penal institutions nearest
the place Of conviction. In 1891, how
ever, Congress passed an act for the
erection Of United States prisons, which
authorized the Attorney-Ge General and the
Secretary Of the Interior to purchase
three sites and cause to be erected thereon
suitable buildings for the confinement
Of all persons convicted in any court Of
the United States Of any crime for which
the term Of imprisonment was M year
or more. The act prescribed that two
Of these sites should be east OF the Rocky
Mountains, one north and the other south
Of the thirty-ninth degree OF north lati-
tude; and that the third site should be
located west Of the Rocky Mountains.
Pursuant to this statute the Federal Gov
Oi AAAAAOhAS AA05 O6JuOAhehCd o ROulJCltl0ly
at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas and an
other in Atlanta, Ca In his report for
the fiscal year 1905 Attorneys General
MOODY expressed the opinion that the
number OF persons west OF the Rocky
Mountains and the conditions affecting
them were not such as to call for the
erection OF a third United States prison
as provided for by the act OF 1901, either
at the present time or In the hear future.
1t appears, however. that there is al
ready in existence a small prison main
tanned by the Federal Government on
Mcneil Island, in the State Of Washing
ton, which sufices for the present needs
Of the Federal Government in that
part Of the country. Attorney-G General
MOODY has recommended that this
island site shall be abandoned whenever
a third prison is built pursuant to the
authority conferred by the act Of 1891.
According to the latest available sta
tistics there were s,445 persons convicted
Of offences against the United States con-
fined In Jail onJune 80, 1905. These were
distributed among sixty-eight penal in
stitutionsi in additionto the United States
penitentiaries at Atlanta, Fort Leaven-
worth and Mcneil Island. There were
1880 prisoners at Fort Leavenwotth and
$40 at Atlanta. The statute under which
these United States prisons have been
established provides that in the con-
struction Of the prison buildings there
shall be such an arrangement of the cells
and yard space that prisoners under 30
years Of age shall not be in any way as
ISOLATED with prisoners above that age,
and that the management Of the class
under 20 years Of g shall be as far as
possible reformatory.
Under the same law every United
States prisoner when discharged from
custody is entitled to be furnished with
transportation to the place where he
resided within the United States at the
time of his commitment, and if the term
Of his Imprisonment was for n year Of
more, he must also be furnished with IS
in money and suitable clothing, the cost
Of which, however, shall not exceed $12.
These provisions show that merciful
considerations to some degree at least
enter into the system Of prison discipline
which Congress has established as appli-
cable to offenders against the laws Of the
United States.