SOCIETY FOR THE REFORMATION OF JUVENILE DELINQUENTS The House of Refuge is located on Randall's Island-ferry crossing at foot of 117th Street, East River. City office, No. 516 Broadway. Officers and Managers. Oliver S. Strong, President. Shepherd Knapp, Charles M. Leupp, Vice-Presidents. Andrew Warner, Secretary. John W. Ketcham, Superintendent. 647 inmates-577 boys, 70 girls-January 1, 1858. Or these there are three principal ones in the State: one at Auburn, Cayuga County, one at Sing-Sing, Westchester County, and one at Danemora, Clinton County. In the city of New York, Albany, and some other counties, there are Penitentiaries for the confinement and punishment of an inferior grade of criminals. AUBURN STATE PRISON. Situated on State Street, opposite New York Central Railroad Depôt. This prison originated in an act of the Legislature in 1816; first convicts received in 1817. After several experiments and modifications, it was organized on its present plan of discipline and management in 1823. Its general control is vested in a Board of Inspectors, and the internal discipline and management are intrusted to an Agent, with subordinates. The convicts are lodged in separate cells at night, and during the working hours by day, they work in company, but in absolute silence, all speech, or communication by signs or looks, being strictly forbidden. Many mechanical employments are pursued, and those who enter without any, are taught some trade. The plan has been adopted to let the labor of the convicts to contractors, and the avails of this labor go to defray the expenses of the prison. Strangers are admitted to all parts of the prison during prison hours, on paying an admission fee of 25 cents. The trades plied in the prison may be seen in the statements which follow, of the earnings of the convicts. EXTRACT FROM REPORT DATED AUBURN PRISON, OCTOBER, 1857. Number of convicts remaining in prison Sept. 30, 1856 .645 Received during the year .238 MOUNT PLEASANT STATE PRISON. This prison is in Sing-Sing, on the eastern shore of the Hudson River, 33 miles above the city of New York. It was opened for the reception of convicts in 1827. It is organized on the plan of the prison at Auburn, and the general system of discipline and management is the same. The chief practical difference between them is in the far greater amount of convict labor employed at the Mount Pleasant Prison, in the very extensive marble quarries immediately contiguous thereto. Connected with the principal prison, which is for males, is a distinct and well-arranged prison for female convicts. EXTRACT FROM REPORT DATED SING-SING PRISON, OCTOBER 1, 1857. Number of male convicts in prison Sept. 30, 1856. Received during the year. Total... Discharged by expiration of sentence. 831 66 by pardon...... Total remaining in prison Sept. 30, 1857. Number of female convicts in prison Sept. 30, 1856 Discharged by expiration of sentence. 66 by pardon and commutation Died 347 .1,178 198 53 17 5 11 -284 894 84 31 -115 33 2 1 36 79 Remaining in prison Sept. 30, 1857 Wm. Beardsley, Agent and Warden. CLINTON STATE PRISON. The establishment of a third State Prison, in this State, was provided for by an act of the Legislature passed May 1, 1844, with the design of applying convict labor to the production of iron, including the whole process, from mining the ore to the manufacture of the metal, in various forms, for market. The site for this new prison is in the town of Danemora, Clinton County, about 14 miles west from Plattsburgh, and the purchase made on behalf of the State embraces 200 acres of land, including the mines. The tract slopes to the southeast, and is abundantly supplied with pure water, which can be easily conveyed through the proposed prison yard, not only for all the culinary and other uses of the prison, but for cleaning the ore; and being surrounded by a wide extent of native forest, the supply of charcoal will be plentiful, cheap, and permanent. In front of the mine is a ravine 20 to 30 feet deep, with a rivulet running along the bottom, near to which is the mouth of the mine. Excellent building stone can be obtained on the ground, for the prison structures and other purposes. EXTRACT FROM REPORT DATED CLINTON PRISON, OCTOBER 1, 1857. Number of convicts in prison Sept. 30, 1856.. .309 .117 -426 62 35 51 3 1 -152 274 Table exhibiting the number of Convicts in the several State Prisons at the close of the fiscal year ending September 30, 1857, ceipts and discharges of all kinds. including re Totals..... 274 62 35 261 378 320 238 240 51 117 152 1,890 476 139 17 4 6 19 51 733 712 STATE PRISONS REPORT. According to the Report of the Inspectors, there were in the three State prisons, on the 30th of September last, 1,890 convicts The number in Sing-Sing was 973; Auburn, 643; Clinton, 274. This shows a decrease in the total of 104 from 1854, and of 15 from 1855, and an increase of only four over 1856. The whole number now in prison does not greatly exceed the average of the last ten years, notwithstanding the increase of population in the State. There are 43 life prisoners, and 217 for ten years and over-a permanent population of nearly 300. Of the whole number of prisoners only 19 died in prison during the year. At Auburn, all but one died of pulmonary consumption; at Sing-Sing, of the twelve deaths, two were of consumption and two by accident. About forty of the convicts are reported insane, and this does not include a larger number whose minds are partially deranged, but not sufficiently so as to incapacitate them for labor. The prisoners deposit what money they have in pocket on entering prison, to be refunded on their discharge. The amount deposited in Auburn was $240; at Sing-Sing, $218 20; an average of less than a dollar each. Visitors are charged an admission fee of 25 cents each. The amount received at Auburn from this source was $1,166 75; at Sing-Sing, $518 60; at Clinton, $64. STATE INSTITUTIONS. THE WESTERN HOUSE OF REFUGE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, FOR JUVENILE DELINQUENTS. THIS institution is situated about 14 miles from the center of the city of Rochester, and has attached to it a farm of 423 acres of land. The buildings are surrounded by a stone wall twenty feet in height, inclosing 4 acres, and are sufficient for the accommodation of 360 boys. The whole front of the main building is 382 feet, but the entire plan, as originally projected, is not yet completed. The remainder of the land is appropriated for cultivation and pasturage. The number of inmates in January, 1858, was 345. There are three classes of Managers on the part of the State, each consisting of five persons, whose terms of office expire-the first class in February, 1858, and the other two in 1859 and 1860, successively. Samuel S. Wood, Superintendent of the House, with two Assistants. There are also six Teachers, male and female, a Steward, Farmer, Gardener, Chaplain, and Consulting Physician. STATE IDIOT ASYLUM. Situated in Syracuse. Founded in 1851. The grounds upon which the New York Asylum for Idiots is erected are situated about a mile from the centre of the city, in a southwesterly direction, consisting of eighteen acres. The location is delightful, affording a fine view of the city of Syracuse, Onondaga Lake, and the surrounding country. The edifice occupied by the institution is 153 feet front and rear; the central part 50 feet deep; the tower 18 feet square, and carried to the height of 70 feet. In elevation the wings embrace four stories, basement, and sub-cellar; the central parts three stories, and the lower five stories. Number of pupils in 1857 one hundred and twelve. Officers. Hervey B. Wilbur, M.D., Superintendent, Mrs. Eliza F. Mulford, Matron. Miss P. Carpenter, Ass't. Matron. The Governor, Lieut.-Governor, Secretary of State, and Comptroller. H. N. Pohlman, Chairman. Allen Munroe, Secretary. NEW YORK STATE LUNATIC ASYLUM. Situated one mile west of the city of Utica. This institution was founded by an act of the Legislature passed March 30, 1836. The work was commenced in the spring of 1838, when the foundations were laid, according to a plan contemplating the erection of four buildings, each of five hundred and fifty feet front, placed at right angles to each other, facing outward. They were to be connected at the angles by verandahs of open lattice work, and each building was to be three stories high, exclusive of a basement and attic. The surface inclosed by the foundations measured thirteen and a half acres, of which the buildings were to cover two and a half acres. The whole grounds include a productive farm of about 130 acres. One of the above buildings was finished, according to the above plan, in 1842. It is of the Grecian Doric order of architecture, and is constructed of a dark gray limestone, quarried at Trenton, about eleven miles distant from Utica. This edifice was ready for the reception of patients in January, 1843, and was opened on the 16th of that month. It will accommodate about 400 of them. The legal quota of patients receivable from the respective counties is proportioned to the whole number of the insane therein; and to determine these points, the law directs the town and ward assessors to ascertain such number, every year, and send lists thereof to the County Clerks to be transmitted to the Treasurer of the Asylum. Patients are sent to the Asylum by several authorities. The Overseers and Superintendents of the poor send insane paupers, and such as would be dangerous if left at large, on their being apprehended under a Justice's warrant; the First Judge of a county sends such as are indigent, but not paupers; and those who are in confinement for crime or have been acquitted on the ground of insanity, are sent by the Courts. In the three former cases, however, formal examinations, embracing the testimony of at least two respectable physicians, as to the fact of insanity, with other suitable evidence of the fact of indigence, are required, and the whele proceedings must be reduced to writing, filed in the County Clerk's Office, and duly certified under the county seal. EXTRACT FROM THE FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. Total. Number of patients, January, 1857. .461 Received during the year.. .235 |