THE DIRECTORS OF THE STATE PRISON SOUTH
report the average number of convicts during the past year 600, being 593 at the beginning and 562 at the close, 247 having been received and 278 discharged, pardoned and otherwise lost. The availhad at the close of the year forty-eight convicts, an increase of seven, thirty-four having been received during the year. There were 147 girls in the Reformatory at the beginning of the year, and 148 at the close; forty-one having been committed during the year. The annual appropriation of $21,500 was drawn and expended, as will appear from detail and classified statements of allowances of the Board. The estimated cost of keeping a girl is $126 per annum. This is the basis of the accounts against Counties, by which one-half is reimbursed to the State. These collections page: 22[View Page 22] amounted to $5,273.77 for the six months to December 1, 1879, and $5,162.90 to June 1, 1880, in all $10,436.67, or nearly one-half the total expense of the Institution, both penal and reformatory. The Managers urge an increase of appropriations for maintenance, recommending that $7,500 more be allowed for current year, and $30,00 per annum thereafter, They have had difficulty to procure profitable employment for the inmates. Having built and equipped laundries at a cost of $5,944.50, they find laundry work useful as a reformatory means at first, subduing excitability and making submission easier, and require all not disabled to serve a apprenticeship in that department. Knitting and sewing and caning able men are on contracts, 445 at forty-five cents, and fifty at thirty cents. The receipts were 76,638.81; the disbursements, $74,753.59. With an expense of $71,875.87 and an average number of 600, the average cost was thirty-two cents seven mills per day; or, excluding repairs, leaving $68,137.06, but thirty-one cents per day for each convict. That each prisoner is substantially fed appears from a curious table of weights, disclosing the fact that the average of those received is 143 1/4 pounds and of those discharged 149 3/4, a gain of six and one-half pounds. The Chapel, Hospital, clothing shop and laundry has been put under contract and partially completed for the sum specifically appropriated, and the cell-house is in process of construction. When completed it will accommodate 400 convicts. An additional $4,000 will be needed to complete the former as designed, and the $50,000 appropriated for the latter is regarded as quite insufficient. The old wooden wall must soon give place to another wall, estimated to cost $25,000. There were seven eaths during the year, five from diseases of the ungs. The Moral Instructor urges the supply of ooks for the convicts, and develops the theory nd practice of good time as a means of encouragement. John V. Linck resigned the office of Director November 1, 1880. The vacancy was filled by the appointment of John Horn.
