Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1910-01-14

home. If q woman's reformatory be
created they can be sent there. Girls
under seventeen years of age in the
state prison Gf any such there bel.
should also be transferred to the State
Home For Girls in the same manner
as here recommended as to transfer
of boys to the reformatory.
At present the law permits the send
ing of persons to the state prison for
any period not less han six months.
This is wrong and should be changed.
The state prison should not take any
offender whose term of sentence is
less than one year. Prisoners SEN
fenced for less than one year should
be sent to the county jail.
/ further .ecommend that on all SEN
fences to county jails the prisoner be
entitled to be credited with one day in
every six for good behavior, and that
the boards of chosen freeholders of the
respective counties be empowered to
make the necessary rules for the dis
charge of such prisoners by the ward
en- or keeper of the jail when in his
judgment the behavior Of the prisoner
warrants the same.
! also recommend that the age
which offenders may be sent to the
Railway reformatory be reduced from
thirty to twenty-five years. Experience
shows that persons over twenty-five
years of age should not be sent in as
ISOLATION with boys under twenty
years of age.
Purchase of Supplies.
The present method of separate pur-
chase of staple supplies for the several
state institutions is wrong. | econ
mend the creation of a state board for
this purpose. the board to consist of
the commissioner of charities and cor
rections and the official of eaeh of the
institutions who now makes the pur-
chases for it.
Recommendations For Institutions.
The following recommendations are
made for the needed betterment of the
several institutions of the state:
First.-A house of detention for con-
Wet insane should be erected on the
grounds of the State hospital at Tren-
ton. Such an institution should be
placed under the control of the board
of managers and officers of the State
hospital at Trenton.
Second.-A woman's reformatory
should be erected on the property of
the state at Jamesburg and placed I'M
der the management of the board now
controlling the Boys home.
The state prison is overcrowded,
and this will afford needed relief.
There are forty-four women now con-
fined in the state prison and from
thirty to forty in the Girls home, who
should be transferred to the woman's
reformatory.
The reformatory should be con-
structed for the detention of $50 and
In such a way that a wing could be
added for fifty more in ase of future
needs. This would probably answer
for the next twenty-five years.
Pine G1ris home management ask
for an appropriation Of $4,000 at this
time to provide a disciplinary build
ing at the home if the older girls now
there and being sent there are to re-
main.
New Departments.
In my inaugural and my first mes
sage the creation of three new de-
partments was recommended-namely:
A department of corporations, a de-
partment of motor vehicles and a de-
partment of collateral inheritance
taxes.
/ still adhere to the view that the
interests of the state, greater efficien-
cy and a larger revenue would result
from such action.
The revenue from motor vehicles
last year was $245, 1865. The ex-
penses of the management in the Of
flee of the secretary of state were
$36, 80. Greater and closer super
vision should if possible exist over
motor vehicle operation than at pres
ent. There is nc proper supervision of
agencies. Their financial methods are
not carefully guarded, nor are they
in any way examined or audited. A
commissioner, with a reasonable force
of assistants, should be created and
the agencies inspected and all matters
of license kept under careful surveil-
lance.
The collateral inheritance tax law.
passed at the last session. is a tech
nical act and requires skill and con-
slant attention to details to secure the
full benefit to the state which should
be derived from it. The total revenue
from this source the last fiscal year
exceeded $569.000. which was an in
crease of over $322.0O0 over the pre-
vious year. The revenue of this de
partment could be largely increased
if proper vigilance were observed.
Public Utilities Commission.
At the present time there is abso-
lutely no control in any authoritative
way over the public serving corpora
tons of this state. If they give good
service, well; if poor. the people are
without remedy. If they charge for
gas or electric light or for telephone
or pxnrpSS matter excessively there is