Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-02-25
.CONWCTS A BURDEN
TO THE DISTRICT
Expense of Maintaining Them
at Penal Institutions.
ANNUAL OUTLAY is GREAT
New Argument of Advocates Of
Local Penitentiary.
BIG SAVING COULD BE MADE
Men Sent to Moundsville and Tren-
ton With No Return for
Work Performed There.

Since the filing of the report of Mrs J.
Ellen Foster. special agent for the De-
pa:tment of Justice, on the conditions
| at the Jail and the very evident need for
improvements which that document en-
phasized the whole question Of moderniza-
| ton of the system of caring for the local
| convict classes has been thrown prom
inently in the limelight. Mrs. Fosters
| report seems to have struck a responsive
chord in Washington. and all classes and
conditions of citizens are making their
| several influences felt in the right di
rection.
| All public officials approached yeStcr-
day agreed that the Improvement of hous
| ing and sanitary conditions in the Dis
ttict jail would be found to be a para
mount necessity in the very near future.
| Now the question of the actual economics
of the herding together of some hundreds
| of prisoners in close quarters and main
tanning them in absolute idene;ss is being.
! agitated. as is also the investigation into
the practically of sending the criminals
of the District of Columbia to the penal
institutions of neishboring states, whence
| no fractional! part of the return upon
their productivity finds its way back into
the municipal treasury.
| Kept at Public Expense.
| In other words, the criminals appre
hended by the local police and sentenced
to terms of varying length either in the
| jail or in the penitentiaries are maintained
wholly at public expense, or, as it might
be characterized with no return whatever
| upon the investment Victor Hugo de-
clared that the wealth Of Paris was
1 a
| this may not be an entirely apt simle.
1t is not wholly inapropros to say that
the present system of maintenance of its
undesirable citizens is an absolute drain
upon the resources of the District of
Columbia.
| And it is not question of loss only. but
by the present system the Capital city is
contributing quite materially to the en-
richment of West Virginia. New Jersey
and Ohio, in the penitentiaries of which
| states the United States and the District
prisoners undergo their period Of incar-
ceration. The contribution takes the form
not only of an actual outlay approximate
ing more than $4,000 for the maintenance
| of the prisoners, but also the form Of
pecuniary return due to the disposition o.
| articles manufactured in the penitentiary
| workshops.
According to the scale agreed upon be-
|
| ington and the state officials of the peni-
| tentia les in Trenton, N. j.. and Mounds
vile. w. Va. the outlay for the main
| tenance OF prisoners from this jurisdiction
| Is % cents per capita per diem. The
| United States and the District of Column
| bia share this expense in equal proper
tons. and of the annual appropriation OF
$4,000 there Is never more than very
| slight balance to cove back into the
Treasury at the end of each fiscal year.
What Prisoners Earn.
| Carefully compiled statistics show in adj
| dition to this that the average prisoner
earns. in excess of his maintenance. about
80 to 40 cents a day. Exact figures upon
the actual cost to the states of feeding.
clothing and housing their prisoners are
practically understandable: In the annual
reports of the institutions the cost &C
counts are as carefully cloaked as might
be any weighty matter oe state affecting
the welfare of the nation. In other words.
it is not possible to secure a net sched-
uls covering the cost of maintenance of
inmates of these institutions and as
basis of comparison the only figure avail
able is the % cents per capita which 1t
now costs the District of Columbia and
the United States to keep local Offenders
under lock and key.
in the briefest possible space the actual
| outlay for keeping prisoners from this
jurisdiction in the foreign penal lnstltu.
| TONS and the aggregate OF nearly $2OO,OW
entry upon the profit and loss account.
The number of prisoners from the District
incarcerated in institutions outside the
District June 30 of each year for the past
Ave years was as follows: 1903. 1863; 1904.
351: 1905 372; 1906, 416: 1907, 426.
The amount appropriated by Congress
for each of these five fiscal years was
$45, 900 and the difference between the eX-
penses and the amount appropriated was
largely taken up by the cost OF what Is
known as discharged gratuities. This
consists of transportation TO the peniten-
tiary on convictions and from the peni-
Tertiary to the place of conviction or to
the bona f1de residence of the convict
upon the termination of his sentence Be
sides this the "gratuities'' include S. in
cash to each discharged prisoner ana a
suit of clothes which, by the regulation
of the Department Of Justice, must not eX-
coed $12 in cost.
i The Atlanta Prison.
The Department Of Justice at the pres
ent time is engaged in the construction OF
an addition to the penitentiary at Atlanta.
Ga, and nearly all government prisoners
from the eastern districts whose terms
are in excess of two years each are being
cared for at that new institution. Con-
vict labor there figures very largely in the
| construction work and the departments
| cost tables show that the expenditure for
maintenance of each convict approximates
"a cents a day. But this does not take
into account the pecuniary return for the
labors of the men.
| Taking the % cents day cost of main
tenance Of each Of the District prisoners.
and the earning capacity of each prisoner
at an average OF 40 cents a day, 1t is fairly
obvious that the ret loss to the District
government approximates 81 cents per
| capita rcr diem. To make the eXplana-
| ton more clear it might be recalled tina.
| the District of Columbia is required to
meet onehalf the expense OF maintaining