The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-01-02

penSatlon in any way. Now the priS- oner is remunerated for the work done by him. A complete banking system has been established, where deposits may be made, the prisoner receiving for a days work $1 in prison money. The money has so far only actual value of 13 cents on the dollar but with a trust fund to be established in the future, it will have actual face value in time.
 One of the prisoners said to us while visiting the Leagues bank that he had purchased in actual money $1O0 of the prison money and had deposited it as trust money. Trust he said, ''in MT. Osborne. He always makes good" The men are charged from this money for their cell and board. A man may se- lect his own cell and pay for it according to the location of it in the cell block, the cell prices ranging from $1 to $l.50; the price of breakfast and supper is 10 cents in the mess hall and the price of dinner 25 , cents. These meals consist of good, wholesome food. nicely prepared and served on china plates and in china mugs. A supper, for instance, consists of some kind of dried fruit pudding or soup, with bread and tea Under the old system the supper, which had to be eaten in ti;e cell, consisted of dry bread and tea. Tie tea was poured into rusty can that hung on the door of the cell and the bread showed through the door without opening l the door at all.
 CONDUCT IN MESS HALL The conduct in the mess hall is all that could be expected In any large hall of 1 the kind the men have pleasant conversa- tions, exchange jokes and after each meal are allowed to smoke. Mir. Ostor said
 this was the time man enjoyed smoke most and this was the time the men i should be allowed to smoke.
 | The prison also conducts a commssary,
 d relic of the old system, a. which the
 men may purchase meals in case they do
 not wish to eat in the mess hall. Here
 the prison money may also be used. l In the prison at the time l visited it. l December :, 1915, there was in Sing Sing prison a population of 1912 men. Out of
 this number 1477 were white, 135 co,ored, and 137 life men. The daily average pop | ulation of the state prisons of New York
 was five years ago. 462S men and women 1 Today it numbers 5206, increase of over /, 600.
 1 Out of the vast number ir Sing Sing, 1 not one of the 1912 men was marked up
 or punished for misconduct in the prson i all equally in Class A.
 The great population of Sing Sing has peculiar changes and phases effected by outside forces. For instance, we are told by an officer in speaking of tine popula- 1 tion, that 20 years ago the population of
 Sing Sing was overwhelmingly Irish. then
 the change, gradual but persistent, eff fected by the influx of emigration from | Poland and Russia, was by great ma jority Yiddish. Now the population is
 greatly dominated by the Italians,
 SCHOOLS IN PRISON
 Tn epercentage of lliteracy in Sing ! Sing is only ? per cent even with The vast foreign element Schooling in the lprison is compulsory. Some branch must be followed In addition to regular school
 work, classes are held in correspondence courses, mechanical trades. stanography, te'eelaphy and civil engineering.
 | An efficient educational committee. guided by the convict chaitmen, found
 that the chief necessity in the piison WAS
 education, education in skilled work. Now after three months effort to estab- fish a technical school the enr,lllnent is
 Se3 men. attending classes faiw.fully, at