The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1909-04-09
Prisons Everywhere Are OvercroWded
More Criminals and Paupes Are Now Confined State and County
Institutions Than Ever Before-Hard Times and
Undesirable Aliens Are Chiefly Blamed

New York City.-Never before in
the history of the State of New York
have there been so many criminals
behind prison bars as there are at
present. The State prisons are over
crowded, the penitentiaries filled to
overlooking and the warehouses SO
congested that the inmates are in
each others way.
Prison officials and criminologists
assign two reasons for the crowded
condition of the penal institutions
the hard times prevalent for the last
two years and the influx of undesira-
BILE aliens to the big cities Of the
State. Unable to obtain work these
men drift to crime and eventually
land In prison.
Sing Sing Oyercrowded.
There are more than 1000 convicts
in Sing Sing Prison, originally built
to house but 1900; the prisoners are
doubled up in cells, lodged in out
houses and the chapels and some are
said to sleep in the main office of the
prison. In order to accommodate
the horde of convicted men recently
sent from this city-and they have
been going in weekly patches of a
score or more-Warden Frost has
been compelled to place cots in the
beautifully decorated Protestant and
Catholic chapels.
A batch of sixty-fve was trans
ferred to Clinton Prison against the
protest of the officials of that institu-
ton, who say they have no room to
spare. Numbers of Sing Sing con-
victs-short term men-in order to
make room for the new arrivals, are
sent daily to the site of the new
prison now being constructed on the
west bank of the Hudson, near Iona
Island, and kept there in shacks UNI
der the watch of keepers. These men
are employed in the building of the
new structure.
The same condition is reported by
the warden of the penitentiary on
Blackwell's Island The census there
recently showed 1119 men and eigh-
ty-three women In cells. This is far
above the average census, and the
rate at which the courts are sending
prisoners there has alarmed the peni-
Tertiary officials. They are in a
quandary where to confine the prison.
ers. AS in Sing Sing, the problem of
employing all the convicts is puzzling
the officials of the penitentiary, and
steps are being taken to put a number
of them at work erecting new build
ings on the various islands owned by
the city and used for city purposes.
Reports from the Elmira Reforma-
tory state that that institution Is
overcrowded, and transfers are being
made daily to the upstate penal in
situations in order to relieve the over
crowding.
Most of the Elmira recruits come
from this city, and with the six
Courts of General Sessions working
daily the number of youths committed
to the reformatory weekly from this
county averages twenty-five. An av-
erage of ten a week are committed
there from the Brooklyn criminal
courts. A batch of seventeen was
transferred from the Tombs recently
to Elmira, making total of 10 SEN
fenced from this county during the
month of March.
Warehouses Are Congested.
It is in the warehouses on Black
wells. Harris and RandalI's Islands
that the increase of poverty is ap-
parent. Hundreds of prisoners-mea
and women-are housed in these in
situations, all committed from the po-
lice courts of this city and Brooklyn,
many of their own volition. The CEN