The Forrest City times., 1908-12-11
27s Conviets Were pardoned in 2
 Years

NOih, fliCOCh, Nltn the assistance of Chief Clerk Payne. of the penitentiary. has practically completed the biennial report of the institution for the period beginning October 31, 1906, and ending October 31, 1908. The report is one of the most interesting in connection with any department of the State govern ment. but it's preparation is very tedious, because of the large amount of detailed work required under the various subdivisions, in all of which the greatest care and discrimination must be observed.
 The report in brief shows that for the biennial period there have been handled at the State penitentiary a total of 1000 prisoners of whom 1002 have been received since the period opened. The institution "be- gan business" in October 1906. with S47 convicts, and at he end of the period there were 7S3. showing a net decrease of 64 Pardons have been issued in the case of PTS prisoners. 214 have escaped, 9l have been re- captured, three par0led. Fl transferred to the reform school, three transferred to the asylum for the insane. 573 have been released and 95 have died.
 That, in brief, is the summary as 10 the disposition of the convt2,s for the two years.
 A comparison of the rardo4 lists for this biennial period with that of the preceding period shoya that the for mer contains 75 names more than the latter For the biennial period of 1904 to 1906 there were issued 203 pardons, against PTS for the period just closed.
 Of the pardons granted during the period just closed r were for con- victs in which the sentence was fo Fl years or greater, including one lie sentence. Of course, in many in- stances, the pardons were granted where the men had already served large portion of the term The majority of pardons were in cases where the offense was of minor nature
 The records show that there is only one Indian under sentence, he hay ing been convicted in Sebastian County At the beginning of the biennial term the distribution of pris- oners, as to sex, nationality, etc, was as follows: White, PA men, no women, 5S5 negro men, IS negro women. At the close of the period the distribution is as follows: PIP white men, no white women, 544 ne gro men, 26 negro women, 1 Indian.
 There are ill the Arkansas Penitenti- ary men of the following nativity: One Austalian, one Canadian, one Dane, one Hungarian, one Nova Scotian, two Englishmen and three Germans.
 Among the States outside of Arkan- fhe sfgsst numberA of our rFasdErXi eohvXic, so there being 63 who claim Mississippi as their birthplace now doing time under our penal laws; Tennessee has A, and Louisiana and Texas tie for third place with 33 each. Georgia furnishes 21, Alabama 22, Arizona 1, California 2, Illinois 9, Iindiana ', Iowa I, Kansas ?, Kentucky 15, Michigan 1, Missouri 26, Nebraska 1. New York 9, North Carolina 13, Ohio 2. Oklahoma [, Pennsylvania ,, South Carolina 10, South Dakota ?, and Vir- ginia i.
 As 10 counties Sebastian heads the list for the number convicted in her courts, the number now held being 72. Pulaski County has credit for 60. and Jefferson is sigaed up for 63. Lee County has 36 and Phillips Coun- ty 33, Hampstead z2, Jackson 21, and Miller and Mississippi Counties have each sent up 23 Calhoun. ClebtHne, Faulkner, Izard, Marion and Sharp have no conviets to their credit, and only one each is posted opposite the names of the following counties: Clay, Conway, Fulton, Grant, Mont gomery, Newton. Polk. Stone and Var Buren. Marion County has not had a convict in the penitentiary for the