Congressional Serial Set Volume 6215 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1911 Excerpt: ...bringing themselves into serious difficulty. This illustrates a very good reason why no officer or employee of the penitentiary should be a member of the board of parole. An investigation which was conducted by a representative from your department during the months of March and April undoubtedly had a very salutary effect upon the officers and employees, as well as upon the prisoners, but it also undoubtedly was, indirectly, the cause of many violations of the rules by prisoners. Special or infrequent investigations excite the prisoners and give rise to many rumors, which affect the discipline, whereas regular investigations would soon cease to be exciting and would come to be regarded as a part of the prison supervision. I think that a regular investigation of prison affairs should be made at least once a year. The average age of prisoners received during the year was 34 years, and the average term of imprisonment, not including two life sentences, was 2 years 1 month and 21 days. The aggregate amount of "good time" that can be earned by the 460 prisoners received under fixed sentences is 81,108 days, which is an average of 179 days for each prisoner. PRISONERS UNDER 20 YEARS OF AGE. During the year there were 97 prisoners under the age of 20 years confined in this penitentiary. Since my last annual report was transmitted to you I have segregated the prisoners under 20 years of age from those over that age as far as practicable by quartering them in the rooms on the second floor of the isolation building, but complete segregation, as contemplated by the law, is not possible with the present arrangement of cells and buildings. HEALTH. The health of the prisoners continues to be good. During the year we removed the tuberculosis hospital from its l...