Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1894 — THE PRISON NORTH. [ARTICLE]

THE PRISON NORTH.

Annual Report of the Warden and Direct or*. The annual report of Warden French .and the directors of the Prison North was filed with Governor Matthews, Wednesday, November 21. Mr. French desires to inaugurate reforms in the Indiana penitentiaries. He suggests in his report that the State penitentiary be converted into an industrial school, where diversified trades may be taught, so that men can leave the prison with a knowledge s! a trade. If illiterate, the Warden thinks the State should furnish them the rudiments of education, and when dismissed should meet them at the door and assist them in finding employment in the line of :raft taught at the prison. The Warden also recommends that the term of a life prisoner be made fifty years, with time allowed. He says that there are forty men in the Northern Prison whose only hope for relief is a pardon or death. A fifty years’ sentence, with time allowed, would cut the term down to thirty years-. The report says that the population of the prison is rapidly increasing. October 31. 1893, the institution had 841 the fiscal year closed with a population of 308, and at one time during the year there were 951 men inside the walls. The Warden believes the population will Increase to one thousand this year. During the year one man escaped, but he was recaptured in Pennsylvania and returned to the, prison. During 1893 the prison earned $13,294.37 above expenses; in 1894 the surplus earnings were $7,832.32. In the four years of Warden French’s administration the prison has earned and paid into the State Treasury the sum of $451,030.42; there has been paid out for maintenance, new buildings and repairs, the sum of $438,460.14, leaving to the credit of the prison a balance of $12,570.28. In 1893 the cost of maintaining each prisoner was $128.20; in 1894 the cost was $110.03. The Warden’s report asks for an increase of the annual appropriation from SIOO,OOO to 8120,000. It is the desire of the prison directors to next year build a prison front for office purposes, and to reroof a part of the prison. Money is also needed to put in new boilers, the old ones having been pronounced unsafe. The Warden deplores the existence of the contract system, and laments that Indiana, as well as other States, works prisoners for the benefit of the State Treasury, and says that the methods nowexistingsfmply tend to make confirmed criminals of convicts after their discharge.