from the warden, Captain H. I. Todd, which will appear in the statistical table.

MAINE.

The State prison of Maine has long since, under the management of its present head, Mr. W. W. Rice, taken rank as one of the most successful penitentiaries in America, in respect both of its finances and its reformatory work. On the subject of discipline Mr. Rice expresses himself thus:

To enforce the necessary discipline in this prison, it is sometimes found necessary to punish by solitary confinement in a cell without bed, and diet of bread and water, and occasionally, for the second or more serious offenses, in a dark cell; and the convict understands that he loses the time he is in punishment, and also the deduction from his sentence, that he would be entitled to for one month of good behavior. Comparatively few cases will occur when it will be necessary to resort to punishment, provided the officer in charge is well adapted to the responsible position he is intrusted with. He should be a man capable of controlling his temper and governing himself under all circumstances, avoiding all familiarity, and discharging his duties faithfully, firmly, and without ostentation. If on the other hand he is irritable, vacillating, or in any way unreliable, disorder, confusion, and frequent punishments will prevail wherever he has control.

I am glad to be able to say that a greater degree of harmony and efficiency exists among the subordinate officers at the present time, than at any time since I took charge of the prison; consequently, the discipline is better and more easily enforced. Some people think that the inmates of this prison are treated too well, so that there is danger of their committing new crimes to bring them back. I have only to reply to such by simply stating the fact that out of 236 whom I have discharged during my connection with the prison, only eight have returned as convicts.

The following statement and suggestion on the subject of pardons will attract attention:

Twenty-one have been discharged by pardon during the year, nineteen by the governor and two by the president. This is the largest number of pardons granted in any one year, during the five and one-half years I have been in charge of the prison, and much larger in proportion to the average number of conviets in prison than have ever been granted in any other State, showing that the executive has erred on the side of humanity, if at all. It may be proper to remark that in several cases the sentences were reduced but a few weeks or months by the pardon, which was granted for meritorious conduct in prison. In Massachusetts last year, with an average number of convicts nearly four times as large as we have, only fourteen were pardoned.

Since June, 1863, ninety in all have been discharged from this prison by pardon, and of the number only two have returned here as convicts.

The pardoning power is very properly lodged with the governor and council, and may be used to affect the discipline of the prison very materially; and I may be allowed to suggest, that except in cases of extreme hardship or when new evidence is discovered causing a doubt of the guilt of the convict, a rule might be adopted, with good results, that no convict shall be granted a pardon until he has served in prison at least two years, nor within one year after he has been punished for violation of the rules of the prison.

Mr. Rice's views in regard to the proper length of sentences deserve thoughtful consideration:

I am tempted to repeat what I said in my last report in regard to the habit our courts have of sentencing men to the State prison for a term of but one year. The reports of other prisons in the New England States show that the sentences to them are much longer than they average in this prison, and comparatively very few for one to two years only.

Of the forty-nine committed for a term of years to this prison during the past year, thirty-one, or sixty-three per cent, had but two years or less, while in Massachusetts, in 1867, but twenty-eight per cent had only two years and under. Now I am not in favor of extraordinary sentences, and think that sentences for a term less than life should rarely exceed five years, and that life sentences should be restricted to capital offences, still I believe it mistaken sympathy as well as mistaken policy that sends a convict to this prison under a sentence of less than three years. Less time than that is not long enough to make him master of a trade or to wean him from the habits and haunts that made him a criminal. A sentence of but one year attaches disgrace to a man, but it neither reforms him nor protects society only from his depredations during his term of service, at the termination of which he goes out little better prepared to earn an honest living or to resist temptation to commit crime than before.

Worthy of respect and applause as the management of this prison. is in most points, there are two material defects, which we cannot regard or speak of otherwise than as a disgrace to the State; no provision is made for the secular instruction of the illiterate among the prisoners, or for the support of a permanent chaplain. Both these great interests might be committed to the same hands in so small a prison, and at a very moderate cost, compared with the immense advantage certain to accrue therefrom. One criminal thereby annually saved from a continuance in his career of depredations would more than pay the salary of such an officer; for it is a well established fact that on an average criminals spoliate on society to the amount of about $1,600 each per annum.

The only punishments employed here are the solitary cell and loss of commutation for one month.

MARYLAND.

The authorities of the Maryland penitentiary, including directors, warden, physician and clerk (there is no chaplain), are evidently vigilant, alert, active, upright, and studious, in a high degree, of the best welfare of the institution; but they struggle against difficulties, physical and financial, which would appal men less brave of heart, less resolute in spirit, than they. The overcrowding in this prison is fearful, thrice or four times as many being huddled together therein as there are suitable accommodations for. The directors speak of this condition of things as existing "to an extent that is discreditable to the State and repulsive to humanity;" and we

judge that but for the extraordinary care of the medical officer, the prison could hardly fail to be visited by some epidemic disease that would more than decimate its population.

The financial difficulties which beset the directors are thus set forth in their report: "The undersigned regret that they have to state that the amount for the hire of prison labor was $10,527.13 less than the sum received for the services of the prisoners in 1867. This fact was consequent upon the reduction of the price of a day's work, and a diminution of the numbers employed." They think that "if the labor of all the convicts could be farmed out, even at a very low rate, the revenue therefrom would maintain the institution." But this is so far from being the case that "only about one-half the prisoners are profitably employed; " that is, doing work for which the institution receives a money equivalent. But further: there is not only no prospect of securing remunerative employment for the convicts on contracts, but even if such should be obtained, "there is no shop room in which to work the men."

Yet despite these grave disadvantages, the financial showing of 1868 is better than that of 1867, the expenses having been less by $16,103.05; and this in the face of an increase of salary awarded to all the members of the prison staff. This decrease of expenses, we are assured, has not been made at the cost of the fare and comfort of the prisoners-they having been furnished with proper clothing and bedding, and with table rations abundant and wholesome.

The directors have constructed a table of much interest, showing the annual average number of convicts from the year 1862 to that of 1868 inclusive, the aggregate annual cost of supporting the institution, and the expense per capita for each year and each day.

The directors have formed another table, covering ten years, and designed to show the diminution of crime among the white population, and its increase among the colored race, "if prison statistics are any authority in that connection."

We rather think that "prison statistics" are not much of an "authority" in this case. The directors forgot that slavery was a factor in the problem at the beginning of their decade, but had been eliminated at its close; and that the cowhide in the hands of the master performed the same punitive function in the case of negro larcenies in the first half of the period selected by them, which the penitentiary now does in the hands of the criminal courts. If then their statistics prove any thing, they prove that crime in the negro race has increased within the last ten years, 1,500 per cent. But do they themselves believe that the members of this race do 1,500 acts in violation of law, where they did one ten years ago? Impossible! But their inference that crime has diminished among the whites is as unfounded as their other inference that it has increased in such an enormous ratio among the blacks. When the increase of population is taken into the account, 82 crimes in 1868 are more than 97 were in 1859. Besides, 82 for the year named was evidently an exceptional number, since for each of the two years immediately preceding, the number was 144, and surely a diminution of 62 (nearly 50 per cent) was too great to be normal, even supposing the ratio of crime to have been really on a descending scale.

Since the above exhibit for 1868 was prepared, the report for 1869 has been received. It is a document of much interest and highly suggestive. The good work of curtailing the expenses of the institution has been still going on. The reduction in 1868 over the preceding year was $16,103.05; that of 1869 over 1868 was $12,687.13; making an aggregate diminution in two years of $28,990.18. If this decrease had been effected by the undue curtailment or deterioration of the food, clothing, bedding, or other necessary comforts of the convicts, it would be matter of censure rather than commendation. Not so, however. There has been no reduction of quantity, no falling off in quality, as regards the food supply. Both officers and prisoners attest that the fare has been of better quality and greater in amount than in former years; and the directors challenge a comparison, in this regard, between their institution and any other con

vict prison in this country or Europe. The convicts are permitted and even invited to make complaints whenever there may be occasion. How, then, has this curtailment of expenditure been accomplished? Simply by the practice of the old fashioned virtue of economy-by stopping up leaks, instituting checks, husbanding every available resource, allowing nothing to go to waste and nothing to be stolen, and holding all who are in any way concerned in the disbursement of funds or the care of property to a rigid accountability. Surely, here is a potent lesson to be learned, a high example to be followed, by the authorities of our own prisons. If Maryland, with 600 convicts, has reduced the annual cost of their maintenance $30,000, through the simple agency of an honest and economical administration, we in New York, who have 3,000 convicts in our State prisons, ought to be able, by a like honesty and economy, to reduce our expenditures by at least $150,000; nay, by a much larger sum, since, even under our present industrial system, our prisoners earn, proportionally, considerably more than those of Maryland.

Notwithstanding the crowded condition of the prison-the accommodations being for 300, while the number rises often to 700-the discipline, though mildness itself as compared with that of by-gone years, was never so good, never so effective, as now. And how has this result been achieved? Let the directors answer:

The lash has been almost abolished, and it is but for comparatively trivial offences that we are occasionally called to condemn to the cells, or the wearing of the ball and chain. Among the means contributing to this happy change of conduct, has been the increased indulgence in the disposition of the time acquired by each prisoner after their daily tasks have been performed, in the use of the yard and grass plats for exercise, and in the providing means of entertainment and amusement for the holidays appointed by law.

and

Humanity, kindness, love, treating the prisoners like men, thus seeking to give back to them their manhood - these are the agents, more powerful than all the terrors of the inquisition, that have wrought the change.

Maryland has no commutation law by which her convicts can abridge their terms of sentence by good conduct; but the warden, Mr. Horn, pleads for it with an earnestness and force of logic, which ought to prevail with the Legislature. The warden also proposes the introduction of a jet of gas into every cell.

In last year's report, after having cited a remark of the medical officer of the prison, to the effect that the prisoners had been allowed a daily recreation of an hour in the prison yard, during the summer months, after their work was done, and that this had been greatly beneficial to their health, we added this remark: