Weekly journal-miner., 1917-09-12
MUDDLED AFFAIRS AT STATE
 PRISON SHOWN BY AUDITOR
Sensational Report On Transactions By Late Management Submitted To Governor Campbell By (. P. Lee Who
 Encountered Much Difficulty In Making Probe.

Diego, but it is absolutely unreason- able to suppose that the amount of such expense would be anywhere in the neighborhood of SSH. One-fourth or one-third of the amount would be comparatively reasonable.
 At any rate, the transaction is ir- regular and more complete ihforma- ton should be furnished by the of. hcers in charge of the institutions affairs at the time the transaction took place. I do not know anything about the law governing the repayment of expenses of escaped prisoners, pro- viding they have a credit to their ac- count at the time of the escape. This credit was entered on the books about four weeks after the return of the prisoner to the prison, so it does not seem reasonable that any such law would apply to the transaction. In any event, the claim for expense should have gone through the records in the regular manner, accompanied by proper receipts"
 State Treasurer's Account.
 On April 2l, 1916, the State treas urer's account which represents re- ceipts not otherwise classified, which are periodically remitted to the State, was extended at S2,231.73 and should have been extended at S2,53l.73, an error of $500. This was corrected on August 3rd of that year. In the meantime all the statements sent to the board of control were forced for the reason that the foregoing error threw them out of balance. Evident lv no attempt was made to check back the entries or extensions for such a large difference ought easily to have been located.
 Another unexplained transaction was discovered. In the claim of Pratt, Gilbert & Go. for May of this year there are found the following items charged as follows:
 May 23-l cream separator,
 including freight .........$ $S65.5O May 2S-1 lawn mower ...... 9.O2
 The separator was afterward crossed out of the claim book and was paid by the personal check oi Superintendent Sims. Still later the lawn mower was paid for by pr Ransdall, the prison physician. Says Mir. Lee regarding this transaction: Though there may have been no wrong intent in this transaction, ii appears rather irregular to be order ing machinery or equipment through a State institution for personal use.
 Cost Per Capita.
 From time to time the last five years statements have appeared re- garding the cost per capita of main taining the inmates of the prison. How this cost was arrived at does not appear: there are certainly no figures found available by Mir. Lee on which an accurate statement could have been based. If there were any records that might have been reliable they have passed out of existence.
 As Mir. Lee states in his report, scientific system of accounting and must he de novo. II can not be said that the present man. agemcnt is a successorship: it has only followed in point of time the of Mir. Sims. The latter | did not wait for his successor, Super Anderson, to arrive, but he had departed some days before.
 As Mir. Lee states, he received no assistance or explanation regarding the fragmentary records found in the office of the institution.