own country, and we will denounce it everywhere. It has all the characteristics of slavery, and must lead to oppression wherever it exists. And yet there are only four of the central prisons where the former system of contracting is in use, while there are twentythree in which this latter prevails. Why such a disparity? Because the probable gain is greater under this than under the other, and therefore the contractor is willing to pay a higher price for the labor; and so another therefore comes in, making the government more willing to give the contractor a chance to squeeze the prisoner than it is to hire his labor at its exact value; though, confessedly, the sterner is more obstructive to the discipline than the milder method.

The average production of the prisoner, as compared with that of the free laborer, is in the proportion of three to four; about the same as it is with us, though we have, in this country, some prisons in which the convicts do quite as much as the same number of workmen in the outside world; as those of Massachusetts, Maine, Wisconsin, and perhaps a few others.

In the central prisons, no less than sixty-two distinct trades are taught or followed. The principal trades pursued, and the aggregate number of days employed on each, in these twenty-seven prisons, in 1864, together with the average daily profit of the labor, after paying for materials and expenses, but before any division of the profits between the State, the contractor and the prisoner, are given in the following table:

The total net profits for the year were $668,900, divided as follows: Public treasury, $25,250; contractors, $335,000; prisoners, $306,400. The average profit of each day of labor was about sixteen

cents, the women, as will be noticed, earning about as much, proportionally, as the men.

In the departmental prisons, twenty-nine distinct industries are pursued, the principal being the making of shoes, slippers, sucks, sewing, and domestic work. In the reformatories, the chief employment is agriculture, with household work, tailoring and rope making. In the central prisons, the prisoners receive a portion of the profits of their labor, varying from one-tenth to six-tenths, according to their standing and conduct; but the average amount is twenty-five centimes, or about five cents, daily. This is divided into two portions. Eleven centimes constitute a reserve, which is retained for the prisoner till his discharge; but this is subject to partial or even total forfeiture for misconduct. The remaining fourteen centimes (pécule disponible) are at the disposal of the prisoner, to be spent, if he so incline, from day to day, in any way not prohibited. The actual disposition of this portion by the prisoners, in 1864, was as follows: Bread, 59,491 francs; other food, 471,121 francs; clothing, 58,823 francs; remittances to families, 43,354 francs; voluntary restitutions, 497 francs. This is out of 633,286 francs disposable. Approximately it may be stated that the men, out of fourteen disposable centimes, spend one centime on bread, eight on other food, one on clothing, and one on their families and on restitutions; leaving three which they would be at liberty to spend, but prefer adding to their reserve. The women spend only eight centimes, and add the remaining six to the reserve.

An important feature of the system of industrial labor is the constant extension of agricultural occupation. Two large penal farms have been established in Corsica, where vine culture and arboriculture are peculiarly suited to the character and exposure of the soil; sheep and swine are also easily reared. The experiment has proved a pecuniary success, but it is the moral results which have been most striking. The proportion of recommittals to the penal farms and to the other central prisons is as one to four and a quarter; a diminution of over four hundred per cent in favor of agricultural labor.

The reformatory prisons for juveniles are an interesting department of the penal and correctional justice of France. According to the French view, derived from the civil law, the state is truly in loco parentis to a neglected youth below the age of sixteen, and is bound by the strongest moral obligation to do for it what the natural parent has failed to do. There are now nine imperial reformatory schools, containing about 1,700 boys and 80 girls; and fifty-three private establishments, containing about 6,500 boys and 1,600 girls. Besides these, there is a large number of conventual establishments, which have

the same general objects, but are less under the control of the state. In all but the conventual schools, agriculture has been steadily and rapidly gaining ground, as being at once the most healthy and the most reformatory occupation.

A very remarkable practice has of late been introduced into some French prisons, and it is in contemplation to introduce it into others. A new trial is granted to prisoners, after their admission to prison, before a court composed of the directors, the chaplain, the inspector and the head jailor. If it is found that their offence is a first one, and of a character that does not involve grave moral degradation, they are placed in a separate quarter of the prison, and if their conduct is substantially good, they are not only to be assisted to return to their former manner of living, but receive a legal "rehabilitation" or testimonial of purification from their crimes. This regulation has been regarded as of much importance, but as yet it does not appear to have had extensive trial, or to have yielded results of great value.

The average annual per capita cost of prisoners in France appears to be about sixty dollars, which we presume to be for subsistence and clothing, and apart from the expense of administration. That might bring it up to nearly or quite one-half what it is with us.

XXX. RECENT LEGISLATION IN NEW YORK ON THE SUBJECT OF ADULT REFORMATORIES.

BY THE CORRESPONDING Secretary.

A remarkable advance has been made in our State within the past year, in the direction indicated by the above heading. We have already given, in a former paper, the report of the commissioners appointed to select a site and prepare a plan of organization for a new penitentiary, to be called the "State Reformatory." We now append the act which creates the institution, makes provision for the purchase of the site selected, provides for the erection of buildings, etc., etc.

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. The Governor shall appoint five persons, who shall act as a board of building commissioners, for the erection of the prison or industrial reformatory, established at Elmira, in Chemung county, and during the time that they shall act as such commissioners they shall receive no pay, except their traveling and other official expenses. The said prison shall be known by the name of "The State Reformatory."

§ 2. The said building commissioners are hereby authorized to procure, by purchase, the site for said industrial reformatory; the deeds thereof shall be duly executed to the people of this State and delivered to the Comptroller, and thereupon the Treasurer is hereby directed to pay, on the warrant of the Comptroller, to the said building commissioners such sums of money as may be required to pay for the site in accordance with the contracts submitted by the commissioners appointed under chapter four hundred and eight of the laws of eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, to locate the reformatory. And the Treasurer is hereby directed to pay to said commissioners, on the warrant of the Comptroller, such sum or sums of the money as they may want for the erection of said reformatory, at such times as the same may be required for carrying into effect the provisions of this act.

§ 3. The said building commissioners shall be charged with the general superintendence of the grounds, and the design and construction of the buildings, with power to appoint an architect, a superintendent and other necessary agents and assistants; provided the plan of buildings which they may adopt shall be submitted to and receive the approval of the Governor, Comptroller and State Engineer. The building shall have a capacity of not less than three hundred prisoners, and shall be so constituted as to admit of a classification of prisoners.

§ 4. The building commissioners above mentioned, before they enter upon the duties of their office, shall each give his bond to the people of the State, in the penal sum of ten thousand dollars, with two or more sufficient sureties, to be approved by the Comptroller, conditioned for the faithful performance of the duties required of them by this act.

§ 5. It shall be the duty of said building commissioners to make a report of all the moneys received and expended by them by virtue of this act, and of the progress which shall have been made in the erection and inclosure of said buildings, to the Comptroller of the State, on or before the first day of December next, and as often thereafter as he shall or may from time to time require.

§ 6. Whenever the said reformatory shall be finished the said building commissioners shall make, under their hands and seals, a certificate thereof, which they shall transmit to the Governor of this State. The Governor shall, after receiving such certificate, appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, five persons who shall act as a board of managers of said reformatory, and who shall perform the duties required of them by this act, with no compensation other than reasonable traveling and other official expenses; they shall hold their office for ten years, and be so classified that one of their number shall go out of office every second year. Whenever vacancies shall occur in the said board of managers, such vacancies, for the unexpired term thereof, shall be filled by the appointment of the Governor.

§ 7. The said building commissioners, authorized to be appointed by the first section of this act, shall retain general superintendence and control of said reformatory and every thing connected therewith, until said board of managers, mentioned in the last preceding section, shall be appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the senate, when they shall turn over to the said board of managers the said reformatory and all of the appurtenances and things thereunto belonging; and the term of office of the said building commissioners shall then be at an end and cease.

8. The said board of managers shall have general charge and superintendence of the said reformatory, and shall appoint a warden, physician, chaplain, inspector of discharged prisoners, and clerk, who shall receive a salary to be hereafter established by law, and shall have power to remove them for cause, only after opportunity to be heard upon written charges; the clerk shall act as secretary of the board of managers. All other officers shall be appointed by the warden, and removable at his pleasure. The Governor may remove any of the managers for misconduct or neglect of duty, after opportunity to be heard on written charges. § 9. The said board of managers shall receive and take into said reformatory all male criminals between the ages of sixteen and thirty, who shall not be known to have been before convicted of any crime punishable by imprisonment in a State prison in this or any other State or country, who shall be legally sentenced to said reformatory, on con[Senate No. 21.]

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