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 The Euwira Reformatory 
 
 ALEXANDER WINTER. HSS. 
 
\n5S-5'|[ 
 
 CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
Cornell University Library 
 arV17553 
 
 The New York State reformatory in Elmira 
 
 ■^ 1924 031 234 028 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031234028 
 
THE KET\r YOBK 
 STATE BEFOBMATOBY 
 
 IN 
 
 ELMIBA 
 
 P' " 't^ ff ;!1| W 1^ "^^ 
 
 BY 
 
 ALEXANDER WINTER, F.S.S. 
 
 ORIGINAL ENGLISH EDITION 
 
 fUBLISBED aiilVLTAlfEOUSLJ WITH TBS BSsaAJf BDITIOS^ 
 
 WITH A PREFACE 
 
 ET 
 
 HAVELOCK ELLIS, 
 
 Author of " The Criminal" in the " Contemporary Science Series " 
 
 LONDON 
 
 !WAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO. 
 PATERNOSTER SQUARE 
 ..." " 1891 
 
Printed by Hazel), Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. 
 
PBEFACB. 
 
 During the last fifteen years the study of the criminal 
 has been carried on with great activity in many of 
 the older countries of Europe. The chief impetus 
 of this new scientific movement was given by Lom- 
 broso, whose great work, L'Uomo Delinqvsnte, was 
 published at Turin in 1876 ; and it is above all 
 fn Italy — although to a large extent in France and 
 Germany also — that criminal anthropology, as it is 
 usually called, has been most fruitfully pursued. The 
 results obtained are still at variance in many respects, 
 but it is now generally agreed that a considerable 
 proportion of criminals are not merely moral criminal?, 
 but physical, intellectual and emotional criminals ; 
 that they are largely persons who, partly by defects 
 of birth, partly by defects of nature, are abnormal, 
 and who think, feel and act differently from other 
 people. 
 
 It has not been in the old continent, however, that 
 the practical, treatment -of criminals has of late years 
 received its chief impulse. For the epoch-making 
 movement in this matter we must turn to the United 
 States, which do not present us altogether with a 
 model prison system. Mr. Z. R. Brockway, who had 
 
 6 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 previously made an extensive study of the question, 
 was enabled in 1876 to establish at Elmira the New 
 York State Reformatory, at the head of which he has 
 ever since remained, aided by many able assistants ; 
 among whom Dr. H. D. Wey, the physician of the 
 Reformatory, shotild especially be named. Thus, by 
 a curious coincidence, Elmira was founded in the 
 year in which Lombroso's L'Uomo Delinquente was 
 published. The European criminologists, although 
 some of them, notably Garofalo, have advocated 
 principles very similar to the practice of Elmira, 
 have worked for the most part purely as scientific 
 investigators. The founders of Elmira, on the other 
 hand, seem to have been guided purely by practical 
 and social considerations, and to have had no know^ 
 ledge of the scientific movement that was arising 
 in Europe. In the future, there is now good reason 
 to hope, these two currents of scientific advance 
 and practical social progress will be united. The 
 practical workers are beginning to see that the 
 science of criminal anthropology is the formal justi- 
 fication, and eventually the guide, of the movement 
 they are initiating. The purely scientific investigators, 
 who have already shown the need of such a system, 
 easily recognize in Elmira the practical outcome of 
 their studies. The Elmira system is by no ineans 
 yet in a perfect or final shape ; it is still in course 
 of growth, but the rapidity and complexity of its 
 growth is a measure of its vitality. The author of 
 this book has for a long time studied the working 
 of Elmira ; he has here supplied a careful and reliable 
 
PrefAc£. 
 
 account, np to date, of the methods there adopted; 
 arid in the preparation of that account he has had the 
 ever ready and generous assistance of Mr. Brockway. 
 The reader has before him the most comprehensive 
 account yet published of what is probably the most 
 fruitful and interesting experiment in the treatment of 
 criminals which the world has yet seen. 
 
 The main outlines of the Elmira system will be 
 sufficiently clear to all who read this book. Our con- 
 ventional attempts to deal with the criminal have been 
 vitiated. We have reformed our prisons ; we have 
 been content to look upon the prisoner as, literally, a 
 cypher. He is merely an incident in a huge system 
 of routine, to the efficient working of which he is 
 subordinated. Our prison authorities will sometimes 
 take any trouble to improve the condition of a 
 prison; if the drainage seems to be defective, they 
 are prepared, if necessary, to rebuild the prison, as 
 was recently done at Shrewsbury. 
 
 But it is the improvement of prisons only, not 
 of prisoners, with which our prison authorities occupy 
 themselves. They have no interest ia considering 
 the improvement of the prisoner, and it is by no 
 means surprising that, as a matter of fact, the prisoner 
 is not improved. In England, as is well known, 
 there has been a considerable decrease lately in the: 
 prison population; at all events so far as minor offences, 
 are concerned. This decrease is not, however, due to 
 our methods of teaching the criminal, but to a huge 
 system, sensible enough in itself, of drafting off youthful- 
 criminals to separate establishments. We still have* 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 a vast army of criminals to deal with, and so little 
 attention is given to right methods of coping with 
 them that even to-day the Bertillon system of register-' 
 ing and recognizing prisoners-, by a scandalous and 
 unexplained neglect has not yet been introduced 
 among us; although that method is an elementary 
 step in the. detection of recidivists, the most danger- 
 ous class of offenders, and in the protection of the 
 innocent. 
 
 But if the improvement, or even the detection, of the 
 criminal, seems to be to a very limited extent the 
 affair of our prison and police authorities, as at 
 present constituted, it is certainly the affair of society. 
 It is not in the interests of society that any persons 
 should be brought within the sphere of an institution 
 which is often an artificial incubator of criminals, 
 and which, at the best, merely inculcates in the 
 prisoner those virtues of the cloister, obedience and 
 resignation, which will enfeeble his already enfeebled 
 power of will, and multiply opportunities of evil to 
 himself and to others when he is again let loose on 
 the world. The first step in the rational treatment of 
 the criminal is the introduction of a bracing moral 
 training. This can only be effected by means of what 
 is called the indeterminate or indefinite sentence. To 
 allow a man to stagnate in prison routine untU a 
 capriciously fixed day arrives, as a deus ex machindf 
 to open the prison door, is the height of absurdity. 
 The prisoner must mn his freedom by his own 
 exertions. Not until he has shown himself capable: 
 of living a fairly human life may he safely be 
 
PREPACE. vii 
 
 liberated. It cannot be too frequently or too em^ 
 phatically asserted that the indefinite sentence is the 
 foundation of the rational treatment of the criminal. 
 It is worthy of note that this has been recognized in 
 the foundation of the International Association of 
 Criminal Law, a society made up of criminologists from 
 all parts of the civilized world. Wherever that funda- 
 mental principle is neglected the best prison system is 
 condemned to hopeless routine and sterility. Wherever 
 that has been introduced stagnation is impossible ; it 
 becomes at once the business and the interest of the 
 prison authorities not merely to build fine prisons, and 
 to give the prisoner good food, and to dispose of his 
 excreta in accordance with the latest views of sanitary 
 science— important as all this is — but to take in hand 
 the prisoner himself. 
 
 Thus rational progress in criminal reform lies in 
 abandoning routine, and in paying attention to the indi- 
 vidual. As Lacassagne has epigrammatically said: 
 f There are no crimes ; there are only criminals." 
 From among the miscellaneous crowd who commit 
 offences against the law, we have to separate those 
 accidental criminals, whose offence lies chiefly at the 
 door of society; we have to distinguish the criminal 
 by passion from the criminal by instinct, the occasional 
 criminal from the habitual criminal. These dis- 
 tinctions are, however, elementary ; we have to go 
 farther, and to treat each criminal person as individu- 
 ally as we treat each diseased person. Such treatment 
 on . the physical side consists in strengthening and 
 refining the flaccid muscular system and the blunted 
 
Wu PREFACE. 
 
 senses whicli are so common among criminals ; on 
 the moral side it consists in educating the will-power, 
 in affording the bracing elements of struggle, in 
 practically putting the prisoner's liberation in his own 
 hands, while affording him every help in working 
 towards that liberation. Not until, in the eyes of 
 those who possess a shrewd and intimate knowledge 
 of criminal nature, he is deemed to be no longer 
 dangerous to society is he liberated, conditionally, and 
 placed in a position where he may earn his own 
 living. 
 
 This is the system, based (with certain restrictions) 
 on the indeterminate sentence, which has been carried 
 on for fifteen years at Elmira. Both in character and 
 results, it is very unlike the barbarous and ineffectual 
 code of prison customs which still prevails among 
 us to so deplorable an extent. Its diffusion, as was 
 frequently remarked with regret at the recent Congress; 
 of the United States National Prison Association, is 
 slow, but it is steady ; and as Professor von Liszt, 
 the distinguished founder of the International Asso- 
 ciation of Criminal Law, recently observed, it seems 
 destined to make the tour of the civilized world. As 
 seen at Elmira, it is still capable of improvement, 
 and it is not adapted for indiscriminate application. 
 But, at the least, it contains one of the keys of a 
 great social problem, and it cannot be neglected by 
 those who concern themselves with the study of social 
 problems. 
 
 Havblock Ellis. > 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Pkepace iii 
 
 Jntboduction 1 
 
 Oeganization op the Institutiow 7 
 
 Ebception op the Prisoners 16 
 
 Promotion and Liberation op the Prisoners . . 25 
 
 Parole op the Prisoners 41 
 
 Summary op Daily Routine U 
 
 Diet op the Prisoners 48 
 
 DiPPERENCE op the GRADES 50 
 
 School 57 
 
 The Library op the Institute 97 
 
 The Journal op the Institute: "The Summary". . 103 
 
 Utilization op the Working Power op the Inmates . 107 
 Technical Training op the Prisoners . . . .120 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 "Intbodttction of a Self-suppokting System amongst 
 
 THE PBISONEBS 127 
 
 expebiments in physical oultubb . . . . v 132 
 
 Military Training of the Pbisonbbs . . . .145 
 
 ; ■ 1 
 
 The Eesults of the Bepobm System 149 
 
 The Cost of Maintenance 169 
 
NEW YOEK STATE EEFOEMATORY. 
 
 INTKODUCTION. 
 
 In the year 1876 Mr. Brockway, who, up to that date, 
 had been for many years accumulating a wide and 
 comprehensive experience in the administration of 
 prisons, laid before the State Commission appointed 
 for their management and inspection, a plan of 
 organization worked out entirely by himself, for the 
 improvement and reform of criminals. By the Com- 
 mission it was presented to the Legislative Bodyj 
 where, without any opposition, it received legislative 
 sanction^ and the capital necessary for its institution 
 was voted. Thus arose the Elmira Institution, which, 
 owing to the astonishing capacity for work and the 
 vigUance of its originator and conductor, has been 
 worked up from quite small beginnings with 184 
 inmates, to a physical, intellectual, and above all 
 things, a moral sanatorium of over 1,000 inmates, 
 unique of its kind in the world. This steady growth 
 clearly shows what confidence the Institution has won 
 
 1 
 
2 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 amongst the administrators of tlie law and in tlie 
 opinion of the public by the satisfactory solution of 
 the problem which it set itself to solve. For several 
 years the question of the erection of a second in- 
 stitution in the State of New York has been 
 prominently brought forward — 800 being considered 
 the maximum number of inmates in one institution, 
 if the system of reform is not to suffer in efficiency. 
 In other States, such as Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, 
 Ohio, Minnesota, Kansas, Texas, California, etc., in- 
 stitutions on the Elmira model have either been long 
 in operation, or are already in course of erection ; 
 whilst in nearly all States of the Union Brockway's 
 system has more or less contributed to a reform 
 in legislation and in institutions for criminals in 
 general. 
 
 Erected on an elevation, on the western side of the 
 romantic Chemung Valley, nearly two-and-a-half miles 
 distant from the Elmira Town Hall, and commanding 
 a most charming view of eighteen to twenty miles' 
 radius, bounded by a range of hUls, the newly erected 
 establishment, so far as locality and style of archi- 
 tecture are concerned, gives any impression rather 
 than that of a prison, or an asylum for criminals. The 
 area of land belonging to the Institute, and farmed 
 by its inmates, embraces altogether about 280 acres, 
 of which some 15 acres are occupied by the Institution 
 proper, being enclosed partly by buildings, partly by 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 walls 20 feet. high. The front, with a length of 500 
 feet, faces the east. The architecture is attractive ; 
 the building material exclusively blue-stone and brick, 
 consequently absolutely fireproof ; whilst the interior 
 arra,ngements are simply astonishing. The construction 
 and arrangement of the whole, in regard to space, 
 light, air and ventilation of each single room or cell 
 are carried out with the greatest care, and realize 
 from a practical and sanitary, as well as from an 
 educational, point of view, ideas which are entirely 
 in harmony with the most advanced views of the 
 age. Up to the end of 1889 no less than 1,885,565 
 dollars have;_been expended on the Institute — that is 
 to say, for .buildings, workshops, schoolrooms, machines, 
 tools, etc. 
 
 The Institution is limited to males of sixteen to 
 thirty years of age, who have fallen for the first time 
 under the penal code, that is to say, exclusively to 
 individuals with whom successful reform is anticipated. 
 In exceptional cases, relapsed criminals are admitted, 
 when it appears judicious, and the possibility of realiz- 
 ing the purpose of reform appears to be not altogether 
 excluded. The clause in the law relating thereto. 
 
 " That individuals of the age of sixteen to thirty 
 years, who are not known to have been previously 
 sentenced to a State prison, either in this or any other 
 
4 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 state or country, can be sent to tlie Elmira Institution, 
 on conviction of a criminal act, by any court of justice 
 in the State." 
 
 It is bardly necessary to empbasize the fact that 
 the period of life frona the termination of school dis- 
 cipline to the age of manhood, is most inclined to 
 irregularity of life, debauchery, to incapability of 
 governing impure impulses and desires, to recklessness 
 in regard to social duties, and to overstepping the 
 bounds of law, and that prisons, and penal institu- 
 tions in general, are for the most part filled with 
 individuals of this age of life. Consequently, it will 
 amply repay us to deal with the particular class who 
 are passing through this age, and to subject them to 
 a suitable mode of treatment. The application of a 
 radical method of conversion and reform, is the more 
 suitable, because in this !age the abnormal motives 
 and causes which give rise to the perpetration of 
 crime are mostly capable of being eradicated, and the 
 possibility of a radical change and reform still exists. 
 Consequently the subject can for the long future -of his 
 life be made a useful member of our society. 
 
 From the court of justice the convict is simply 
 handed over to Elmira; and here, without regard to 
 the sentence, or to the length, nature, or mode of 
 punishment, he is treated according to the rules of the 
 establishment. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 , As soon as the subject has satisfied the necessary 
 conditions of the Institution, and, consequently, is 
 reformed, which may happen in little more than 
 twelve months, he is liberated on parole, and after a 
 further six months of good conduct, obtains absolute 
 freedom, no matter whether the legal sentence would 
 run for two, five, or ten years. The clause in the law 
 relating thereto runs as follows : — 
 
 " The length of time of imprisonment of such a con- 
 victed and legally sentenced individual is to be decided 
 by the managers of the Reformatory ; but such -im- 
 prisonment shall not exceed the longest term of 
 punishment provided by law for the particular criminal 
 case for which the individual has been convicted and 
 sentenced." 
 
 According to this clause, therefore, there is always 
 a definite limit to the length of the term of imprison- 
 ment; and this, it has been shown, sometimes proves 
 an inducement to the prisoners to manifest constant 
 indolence and obstinate resistance to the aim and 
 purpose of reform. There is a certain growing ten- 
 dency to abolish this limit of time. When the subject 
 is no longer supported by the knowledge that after 
 the expiration of a determined period, he must be set 
 free, he will no longer be influenced thereby in his 
 endeavours to advance, and must with all his energy 
 
6 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 tread that path of reform which offers the only means 
 whereby he can regain his freedom. 
 
 At this point we may introduce a brief statistical 
 review of the enormous increase of criminals and 
 offenders against the law in the United States : a 
 fact which, it cannot be denied, compels men of science 
 and society in general tp deal vigorously with criminal 
 legislation and the treatment of criminally inclined 
 individuals, and which seems to have given the chief 
 impulse to the' creation of such an original and 
 thorough-going system of improvement and reform 
 as that of Elmira. 
 
 Proportion of prisoners to population in America : — 
 
 In 1850 : 1 prisoner to 3,448 inhabitants. 
 „ I860 „ „ „ 1,649 
 „ 1870 „ „ „ 1,172 
 „ 1880 „ „ „ 855 
 
 Or to 1,000,000 inhabitants there were : — 
 
 In 1850 . 
 
 290 prisoners. 
 
 „ 1860 . 
 
 . . 607 „ 
 
 ,,1870 . 
 
 . . 853 „ 
 
 „ 1880 . 
 
 . . 1,169 „ 
 
OKGANIZATION OF THE INSTITUTION. 
 
 In accordance with the law, the administration, control, 
 superintendence, and responsibility are placed in the 
 hands of a Board of Managers and a General Superin- 
 tendent. The former consists of five gentlemen chosen 
 from public life, by the State Governor and the Senate, 
 for a period of five years, receiving no pecuniary reward 
 for their services. Besides certain special meetings 
 called together whenever it appears necessary or 
 desirable, the committee holds regular monthly and 
 quarterly sittings : the former for the purpose . of 
 inspecting the accounts of the establishment ; the 
 latter, called Tribunal Sittings, for the purpose of 
 considering with all care, and finally deciding, the 
 conditional release — release on parole — of such indii 
 viduals as come under consideration. The practical 
 control and administration of the Institution rests in 
 the hands of the General Superintendent. He has by 
 law the authority to dismiss or to appoint any 6f the 
 officers, whatever rank they may occupy ; he lives in 
 the establishment, devoting his whole time to it, and 
 is, in short, the life and soul of the whole. 
 
8 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 Next in importance come the Principal Keeper and 
 tlie Transfer Officer. 
 
 On the Principal Keeper, under guidance of the 
 General Superintendent, rests in particular the re- 
 sponsibility for the safe custody and the discipline 
 and order of the prisoners, as well as the control 
 and inspection of the inferior officers. In his 
 hands lies the economical administration in all its 
 details ; he has to keep a daily journal, and enter 
 therein all the occurrences of the day. He has, further, 
 to keep himself thoroughly informed of the work of 
 the prisoners, and daily to inspect the quantity and 
 the quality of the work performed, as well as tools, 
 materials, etc. 
 
 ■ The duty of the Transfer Officer is to superintend 
 in particular the transfer of prisoners from the place 
 where judgment has been given, to the Institution ; 
 he has, further, to superintend the correspondence 
 of prisoners with civilians, as well as to control the 
 conduct of those who have been conditionally released, 
 until they have won their full freedom. 
 
 A Physician visits the Institution daily ; he is 
 responsible for the condition of the health of all 
 prisoners, including also the regulation of physical 
 exercise. 
 
 A Protestant as well as a Catholic Chaplain and a 
 Kabbi from Elmira act as religious teachers in the 
 Institution. 
 
ORGANIZATION OF THE INSTITUTION. 9 
 
 A Chief Clerk with the aid of an Assistant, keeps the 
 books of the Institution, superintends the business 
 carried on with the outer world, conducts visitors round 
 the Institution, attends to the telegraphic apparatus, 
 and performs such services as are directed by the 
 General Saperintendent. 
 
 A Book-keeper, with the assistance of prisoners 
 qualified for the work, keeps the general report and 
 discipline books in regard to the prisoners. These 
 include the biographical register ; conduct, sickness 
 and cell books ; the occupation and grade books ; the 
 diet and clothing register etc., etc. He has, further, 
 to see to the printing department and library. 
 
 The School Secretary is particularly responsible 
 for the educational department, and he has to impart 
 instruction in such classes and branches of knowledge 
 as may appear necessary. He has specially to con- 
 trol the classification and transfer of the prisoners 
 to the different school-classes ; he has to superintend 
 the instruction given by the rest of the teachers, and 
 to report thereon to the General Superintendent, as 
 well as to accurately state the exact result of the 
 monthly examinations. 
 
 Similar special functions, in their respective spheres 
 of duty, fall to the military, technical, and physical 
 teachers and instructors. 
 
 A Superintendent for Repairs under the direction of 
 the General Superintendent, has to personally supervise 
 
10 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 and direct all building operations and iniprovements 
 in and around tlie establishment.; and to take care that 
 the establishment with all buildings belonging to it 
 is kept in good repair. 
 
 A Superintendent of the Farm sees to the cultivation 
 of the land and soil belonging to the Institution, and is 
 responsible for the best possible utilization of the same. 
 He is specially answerable for the teams, cattle, wagons, 
 machines, tools, and stores ; and has to keep the stables, 
 sheds, barns, etc., inside and outside the Institution, in 
 good condition; and must hand in every morning a 
 report of the various kinds of work performed on the 
 previous day. The prisoners are put to work of every 
 kind, but they are specially employed in farm labour. 
 When engaged out of doors, the superintendent either 
 carries a gun himself or is accompanied by one of the 
 armed guards. 
 
 The Steward and Cook is answerable for the domestic 
 affairs, including the kitchen. He has to see that all the 
 rooms of the establishment are kept in a clean and 
 orderly condition, to daily inspect the iron bars of the 
 windows, etc. ; to personally superintend the cooking ; 
 and, above all things, to carefully study and guard the 
 economic interests of the establishment. Every Monday 
 morning he has to present to the General Superin- 
 tendent, for his approval, a bill of fare for the officers 
 and prisoners for each day of the week ; and when 
 approved to order meat and other provisions as required, 
 
ORGANIZATION OF THE INSTITUTION. ii 
 
 and farther to hand in each day an accurate statement 
 of the costs of the various tables, in order that it may- 
 be entered in the diet-book. He has to keep a receipt- 
 book, and enter in it all receipts of provisions or other 
 domestic articles. 
 
 An Engineer, with such assistants as he requires, is 
 answerable for the engines, and all that pertains to 
 them ; he has to see that the boilers throughout the 
 establishment are kept in good condition, to see to 
 the fires, and to be responsible for a constant and 
 sufficient supply of gas ; and, when necessary, to carry 
 out repairs and new plans for conveying steam, gas, 
 and water. Further, the fire-engine, and all safety 
 and rescue apparatus connected therewith, are under 
 his control, and he is responsible for their being con- 
 stantly in a good condition. 
 
 A Gardener has to keep the garden, ground, and 
 greenhouses, as well as the paths and roads in and 
 around the Institution, in good order. 
 
 A special Attendant, under the direction of the 
 physician, undertakes the direct responsibility and 
 management of the hospital and dispensary, and has 
 to carefully carry out the prescribed treatment, and 
 bestow every care upon the patients and their safe 
 custody. He accompanies the physician in his daily 
 visits to the patients who have remained in their 
 rooms, and writes down the prescriptions dictated, 
 prepares the medicine, and hands it to the recipient 
 
12 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 together with the necessary instruction. He has to 
 vaccinate each new inmate soon after his arrival. 
 Should any sudden change occur in the condition of a 
 patient he must announce it without delay to the 
 principal keeper or General Superintendent, in order 
 that the physician may be at once summoned if 
 necessary. Finally, he must keep a journal, and enter 
 in it each case of sickness, with all its details. 
 
 The Keepers are responsible for the direct discipline 
 and safe custody, as well as the industry and behaviour, 
 of the prisoners in their respective departments. They 
 have to prepare daily reports, and hand these over, 
 together with those of the civilian foremen, or the 
 prisoners acting as overseers or foremen, to the 
 principal keeper on his morning rounds. It is also 
 their duty to prepare a weekly report of each single 
 prisoner, regarding his behaviour and willingness to 
 work — whether industry had to be forced from him, or 
 admonition was necessary, or whether he worked 
 entirely by his own free-will ; and whether the general 
 results are unsatisfactory, mediocre, or good ; and, 
 further, to state when a prisoner is absent, and in such 
 case the cause and length of his absence. The transfer 
 of a prisoner from one department or room to an- 
 other, may only take place with the approval of the 
 General Superintendent, and then the transfer must 
 be conducted by one of the keepers. 
 
 The Foremen, who are mostly civilians, give the 
 
ORGANIZATION OF THE INSTITUTION. 13 
 
 work out to the prisoners and superintend it, and are 
 responsible for tools, materials, and finished articles 
 in particular. 
 
 Special Rules are also provided in the law for 
 civilian contractors and their employees, who have 
 occg,sion to be engaged in the interior of the Institu- 
 tion. Similar special instructions also apply to the 
 gatekeepers and the day and night watchmen. The 
 latter are provided ' with gans and revolvers. 
 
 The whole organization is so carefully elaborated, 
 and the delicate threads are so accurately interwoven, 
 that everything works with the utmost tranquillity, 
 and irregularities are entirely excluded. It may be 
 mentioned here, by the way, that in the United States 
 the Official engaged by the State is remunerated for 
 the effective services he performs as in the relations 
 between employer and employee in ordinary life. 
 Long, or indeed life-long, engagements, salaries, or 
 pensions are in America, even in the military world, 
 entirely unknown; and with the cessation of the con- 
 ditions of contract entered into every further obliga- 
 tion on the part of the State or the State Institution 
 comes to an end. 
 
 Of the general conditions! of the establishment, 
 which apply to the officers, we may refer to one, 
 namely, that those in the rank of an overseer, who 
 wish to dissolve their connection with the Institution, 
 must give notice at least two months beforehand, and 
 
14 
 
 NEIV YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 the other officers and employees at least one month, 
 except in particular cases when a longer term of 
 notice has "been agreed npon. Ten days' leave of 
 absence from service are allowed in the course of the 
 year with continued pay whether the absence is 
 for business affairs, holidays, or sickness ; if absence 
 be prolonged beyond this time pay is stopped, 
 except in special and exceptional cases when the 
 Managers agree to make other arrangements. 
 
 With the exception of the physician, the ministers 
 of religion, the teachers and lecturers, the whole of 
 the officers live in the establishment. 
 
 The maximum salaries voted by law for the 
 officers are, per annum, as follows : — 
 
 General Superintendent 
 
 . up to 3,500 dollars 
 
 Physician 
 
 • 1) ,, 1,500 „ 
 
 Principal Keeper . 
 
 • ,, >, 1,000 „ 
 
 Chief Clerk . 
 
 ■ „ „ 1,000 „ 
 
 Ministers of Beligion . 
 
 ■ „ „ 1,000 „ 
 
 Steward and Cook 
 
 • „ „ 800 „ 
 
 Hallkeeper . 
 
 • „ 1, 800 „ 
 
 The rest of the overseers, attendants, watchmen, 
 etc., receive up to 500 or 600 dollars respectively. 
 The school secretary receives 300 dollars. 
 
 When, however, the law relating to officers' salaries 
 was agreed to, various other posts, which in time have 
 been found to be practically necessary in the Institu- 
 tion, were left out of sight. Moreover, the salaries 
 
ORGANIZATION OF THE INSTITUTION. 15 
 
 as agreed to by tlie Managers and actually paid 
 Tary very considerably from the maximum as set 
 down. 
 
 Tlie exercise of discipline over the prisoners rests 
 immediately in the hands of the General Super- 
 intendent : no other officer is authorized to inflict 
 punishment on a prisoner or to deprive him of a 
 privilege, nor in any way to show favour or confer 
 reward. When prisoners perform the offices of 
 monitor, overseer, etc., they are always under the su- 
 pervision or control of officers of the establishment ; 
 their reports must be attested by the supervising 
 officer, and be submitted to the special revision of the 
 General Superintendent. Actual disciplinary punish- 
 ments do not exist ; they are replaced by rewards 
 for the fulfilment of duty, and, further, by the 
 introduction of a mark system, which, in general, is 
 regarded as quite sufficient. At the same time the 
 General Superintendent is authorized to apply forcible 
 restrictions according to certain regulations, whenever 
 he considers them necessary and demanded by special 
 circumstances. The cases in which such restrictions 
 are applied occur very seldom, and then they are 
 applied exclusively in the interest of the subject, not 
 as a punishment, but as a necessary evil, on the as- 
 sumption that a change and an improvement in the 
 subject will be thereby effected. 
 
EECEPTION OF THE PRISONERS. 
 
 As soon as an individual is sentenced by a court of 
 justice in the State to be sent to Elmira, the Institur 
 tion is informed of the fact, and has to send officers 
 to the place where sentence has been given, in order 
 to receive and transfer the convict. Soon after his 
 arrival in Elmira the prisoner is subjected to a 
 thorough cleansing of the body, is clothed in the 
 appointed dress, such as is worn in the second or 
 intermediate grade, is photographed, entered in the 
 general register, medically examined, vaccinated, 
 and then shut up in a cell for one or two days in 
 order to give him time for contemplatioji. From the 
 particular court of justice is sent at the same time 
 to the Institution an accurate transcript of the whole 
 proceedings in court, with an estimate of the utmost 
 penalty established by the law for the case in question. 
 The reform system is not, however, satisfied with 
 such a report. After the necessary time for reflection 
 the subject is brought before the General Superin- 
 tendent, who in his own person makes investigations 
 covering a far wider range, with the view of obtaining 
 a much deeper insight into his inner nature, into the 
 
RECEPTION OF THE PRISONERS. 17 
 
 mind and character of tlie man, so as to be able to 
 apply a mode of cure suited to the individual. The 
 whole past history of the patient is traced with the 
 greatest . care, and thus a complete diagnosis of his 
 physical, intellectual, and moral condition is extracted. 
 It is also sought to make clear the history, and above 
 all the mode of life from a moral point of view of 
 his parents and, where possible, of his grandparents, 
 as well as the earliest surroundings and influences, 
 natural inclinations, associations, occupation, and do- 
 mestic life of the individual ; and, further, at what 
 age he began to depart from the path of rectitude, 
 and ^hen he descended to the perpetration of the 
 actual crime. In this investigation not a single 
 point is omitted that can have the slightest 
 connection with the criminal and the circumstances 
 of the crime ; and the inquiry is carried out until 
 the subjective defects, so far as they possibly can 
 be, have been discovered. Feeling and thought, sense 
 of shame, bold bestial impulse, ambition ; egoistic 
 aspirations for praise, rank or material gain; the 
 education received, as well as the present degree 
 of culture and its foundations; inclination, passion, 
 excitability, vindictiveness — in short, all the in- 
 tellectual and psychological veins of the individual 
 are tested and exposed with astonishing care and 
 accuracy. After Mr, Brockway has completed 
 his scrutiny he knows, his man, and in most cases 
 
 2 
 
1 8 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 througli the experience lie has acquired, and his 
 rare knowledge of men, would be in a position to 
 predict when he will have satisfied the conditions 
 necessary for his liberation. At the same time the 
 prisoner will have also formed the conviction, that 
 in the General Superintendent he finds himself face 
 to face with a personality, deserving full confidence, 
 with whom every concealment or misrepresentation of 
 facts, or even the very attempt at it, would not only 
 not prove of the slightest service, but would have 
 a directly contrary effect. Experience shows that 
 to play the part of a hypocrite is the characteristic 
 feature of the criminal class, and even in Elmira it 
 is often begun to be practised — only, however, to be 
 discontinued when its fruitlessness is recognized. 
 
 The General Superintendent then consigns the 
 prisoner, exclusively in the interest of the individual, 
 and of the realization of the reformative results which 
 are aimed at, to a school class, an industrial depart- 
 ment, and sometimes to a class in the technical 
 school for the purpose of learning the trade, that 
 may appear most appropriate to his degree of cul- 
 ture, and his health and bodily constitution. 
 
 The result of the scrutiny itself is entered in all its 
 details in a special ledger, and observations regard- 
 ing the intended method of treatment are added 
 generally by the General Superintendent himself. 
 
 Finally, the prisoner is made to understand the 
 
RECEPTION OF THE PRISONERS. 19 
 
 duties, rights and privileges of tlie Institution, accord- 
 ing to law and practice, the arrangements of the 
 credit-mark system, the conditions nnder which he 
 •can advance and regain his liberty, besides all the 
 less important rules and customs. Everything is 
 made clear to him in a consecutive, impartial and 
 natural manner, until not a doubt is felt that a full 
 understanding and consciousness has been come to 
 on the subject. And herein the wonderful and ab- 
 solute objectivity which the General Superintendent 
 observes towards the prisoner is worthy of mention. 
 Mr. Brockway seems not to represent the authority 
 or speak in the interest of the State or the Keforma- 
 tory, but exclusively in that of the prisoner, and 
 explains most candidly to him all his advantages . 
 a,nd disadvantages. 
 
 To be allured by prohibitions and the desire to 
 resist absolute subjection is recognized to be an 
 instinctive characteristic of man in general, and is 
 much more likely to prevail in an individual whose 
 body, mind and soul are either partially or wholly 
 in a condition of abnormal action through external 
 influences or natural irregularities. Nothing con- 
 sequently is more effective and successful than 
 objectivity ; it necessitates self-contemplation, the 
 arousing and developing of the natural spontaneous 
 impulse to arrive by one's own efforts and by 
 independent methods at a certain result, which is 
 
20 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 more successful than all the methods of force and 
 threat taken together ; and from the first moment 
 forms in the individual a solid and incalculably 
 favourable foundation for the good result of this 
 system of reform. The prevailing repugnance which 
 generally manifests itself in prisoners at iirst, the 
 awkwardness, the incapability of knowing and dis- 
 tinguishing right from wrong, and of allowing reason 
 to prevail on all occasions in thought and action, is 
 soon thrown into the background by the positive 
 action of the objective compulsory improvement 
 method ; it forms of itself, though at times perhaps 
 slowly, the path to consciousness and self-recognition 
 which must infallibly lead step by step to complete 
 conviction. 
 
 The following statistical table shows the result of 
 the observations and inquiries made with the,inmates 
 on their admission to Elmira. 
 
 BIOGEAPHICAL STATISTICS. 
 I. — Relating to the Parbnts of the Inmates. 
 
 HEKEDITAKT 
 
 Insanity or Epilepsy ia ancestry . . 499 or 13 '7 
 
 DRUNKENNESS IN ANCESTRY. 
 
 PEE CENT. 
 
 Clearly traced 1,408 or 38-7 
 
 Doubtful 403 „ 11-1 
 
 Temuerate 1,825 „ 50-2 
 
RECEPTION OF THE PRISONERS. 21 
 
 EDUCATION AND CITLTUBB 
 
 Without any education . 
 Simply read and write . 
 Ordinary common school or more . 
 High school or more 
 
 TEE OEKT. 
 
 495 or 13-6 
 1,385 „ 38-1 
 1,592 „ 43-8 
 
 164 „ 4-5 
 
 PECUNIARY CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 Pauperized 173 or 4-8 
 
 No accumulation 2,801 ,, 77-0 
 
 Fosaeased of means .... 662 „ 18'2 
 
 
 OCCUPATION. 
 
 
 Servants, etc. 
 
 ... 
 
 376 or 10-4 
 
 Common labourera 
 
 . 
 
 . 1,197 „ 32-6 
 
 At mechanical work 
 
 
 . 1,343 „ 36-9 
 
 Traders . 
 
 ■ ■ 
 
 . 633 „ 17-7 
 
 The Profeasions : — 
 
 
 
 Law 
 
 . 16 
 
 
 Medicine 
 
 . 36 
 
 . 87 „ 2-4 
 
 Theology 
 
 . 10 ■ • 
 
 Teaching 
 
 . 25 . 
 
 
 II. — Relating to Inmates Themselves. 
 
 ENVIRONMENT. 
 
 (o) Character of Home Life. 
 
 Positively bad 1,883 or 51-8 
 
 Fair (only) 1,453 „ 399 
 
 Good 300 „ 8-3 
 
 (6) Duration of Home Life. 
 
 Left home previous to 10 years of age . 187 or 5'2 
 
 „ ,, between 10 and 14 years of age 226 „ 6-2 
 
 „ „ soon after 14 years of age . 1,121 ,, 30-8 
 
 At home up to time of crime . . 2,102 „ 57"8 
 
22 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 (c) As to the 1,534 Homeless. pbe obb 
 
 Occupied furnished rooms in cities . 890 or 25 "4 
 
 Lived in cheap boarding-houses (itinerant) 280 „ 18'2 
 
 Lived with employer .... 331 „ 21'6 
 
 Rovers and tramps .... 533 „ 34"8 
 
 EDTTOATION AND CULTURE. 
 
 Without any education (illiterates) . 710 or 19'5 
 
 Simply read and write (with difficulty) 1,814 ,, 49-9 
 
 Ordinary common school . . . 979 „ 26'9 
 
 High school or more .... 133 ,, 3'7 
 
 INDUSTKIAL. 
 
 Servants, etc 1,041 or 286 
 
 Common labourers 1,853 ,, 51 "0 
 
 At mechanical work .... 649 ,, 17'8 
 
 Idlers 98 „ 2-6 
 
 Note. — It should be stated that very many of the above who 
 claimed some occupation have not regularly been employed, 
 nor are they steady workmen. 
 
 CHARACIBR OP ASSOCIATIONS. 
 
 Positively bad 2,072 or 56 9 
 
 Not good 1,439 „ 39-6 
 
 Doubtful 64 „ 1-8 
 
 Good 61 „ 1-7 
 
 NOMINAL RELIGIOUS TRAINING. 
 
 Protestant 1,531 or 421 
 
 Roman Catholic 1,667 „ 458 
 
 Hebrew 207 „ 5-7 
 
 None 231 „ 6-4 
 
RECEPTION OF THE PRISONERS. 23 
 
 PHYSICAL CONDITION. 
 
 (a) Health. jbb ceitt. 
 
 Debilitated or diseased .... 200 or 5-5 
 
 Somewhat impaired .... 301 „ 8-3 
 
 Good health 3,135 „ 862 
 
 (6) Quality. 
 
 Low or coarse 916 or 25-2 
 
 Medium 1,354 „ 37-2 
 
 Good 1,366 „ 37-6 
 
 MENTAL CONDITION. 
 
 (a) Nattiral Capacity. 
 
 Deficient 73 or 2-0 
 
 Fair 789 „ 21-7 
 
 Good 2,300 „ 93-2 
 
 Excellent 474 „ 13-1 
 
 (J) Culture. 
 
 None 1,572 or 43-2 
 
 Very slight 1,040 „ 286 
 
 Ordinary 916 „ 252 
 
 Much 108 „ 30 
 
 MORAL CONDITION. 
 
 (a) Stbsc^tihility to Moral Impreadon estimated. 
 
 Positively none 1,318 or 36-2 
 
 Possibly some 1,310 „ 361 
 
 Ordinarily susceptible .... 851 „ 23-4 
 
 Specially susceptible .... 157 „ 4 '3 
 
 (6) Moral Sense, even S7ich as shown under the Examination, 
 either Filial Affection, Sense of Shame, or Sense of 
 Personal Loss. 
 
 Positively none 1,794 „ 49-3 
 
 Possibly some 1,112 „ 30-6 
 
 Ordinarily sensitive .... 553 „ 15'2 
 
 Specially sensitive 177 „ 4'9 
 
24 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS FACTS. 
 
 Nature of Offence. pee ceki. 
 
 Against property 3,406 or 93-6 
 
 „ the person 217 „ 6-0 
 
 „ the public peace . . . 13 „ 0'4 
 
 « 
 
 Age of Inmates when admitted. 
 
 Between 16 and 20 years of age . . 2,106 or 579 
 „ 20 „ 25 „ „ „ . . 1,153 „ 31-8 
 „ 25 „ 30 „ „ „ . . 377 „ 10-3 
 
 Note. — (a) Those who acknowledge the fact of their previous 
 imprisonment immediately on admission, or who voluntarily 
 make it known afterwards are to be detained until the "good 
 time " expiration of their maximum term — with certain excep- 
 tions when the maximum is very great.. 
 
 (6) Those who under special pressure reveal the fact of their 
 former imprisonment, or when it is ascertained without their 
 acknowledgment, are to be detained until the fuU expiration of 
 their maximum term — except when the maximum is too great. 
 
 However, under (a) as well as (6) allowance is very often made 
 in practice, according to the circumstances and the reformative 
 results obtained with the subject in question. 
 
PEOMOTION AND LIBEEATION OF THE 
 PRISONERS. 
 
 The prisoners are divided into three grades, clearly 
 distinguished one from the other. On entering the In- 
 stitution the prisoner is placed in the second or inter- 
 mediate grade, from which he may rise into the first 
 or fall into the third or actual criminal grade. The 
 process of promotion and final liberation depend on a 
 continued and steady advancement. It is compara- 
 tively a short, but a far more difficult, process than it 
 appears. The Reformatory is a compulsory school 
 and training institution for its inmates. This com- 
 pulsion, however, it must be understood, is only 
 intended to arouse the individual, and to compel him 
 by his own efforts to recognize and to improve his 
 defective faculties ; and it depends exclusively and 
 solely on the will, industry and behaviour of the 
 individual in question, whether and at what time he 
 is promoted or liberated, or on the other hand de- 
 graded into the third or actual criminal grade. The 
 regaining of his freedom is a prisoner's only aim and 
 aspiration ; it is constantly before his eyes, and is a 
 miraculous force that never ceases to impel him, and 
 
26 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 it is able to arouse the most insusceptible and dormant 
 character. It is, therefore, impossible to make use of a 
 more suitable foundation on -which to build a success- 
 ful system of reform. If a man's natural instinct to 
 strive towards a definite goal is weakened, or either 
 partially or totally suppressed, he falls into indo- 
 lence and indifference towards his fellow-men ; he 
 loses self-respect and the power of moral judgment, 
 even when he possessed these qualities before his 
 imprisonment. And the longer such a degrading 
 and hardening period lasts, the more firmly do such 
 impressions take root in the individual, and the worse 
 is the condition of the prisoner and his relationship 
 to society when released. 
 
 In the Elmira System, this instinctive striving in 
 the individual is not only not interfered with, but it 
 is sought to promote it by all the means which our 
 present knowledge of science and of practical experience 
 affords. And it is indeed astonishing what striking 
 results are thereby attained, no matter with how much 
 indolence, and intellectual and physical inactivity the 
 subject may have hitherto been afflicted. In most 
 cases the existing insensibility and indifference begin 
 to disappear forthwith; in a few cases they remain 
 for a longer time, but never is the goal in view 
 entirely without effect in rousing the individual, if 
 he do not depart too far from a normal human 
 nature ; if his faculties are not too defective and 
 
PROMOTION AND LIBERATION OF PRISONERS. 27 
 
 debased, or too dwarfed to be capable of being effec- 
 tively awakened, and of developing in the individual 
 that degree of self-interest and self-help which the 
 system seeks to arouse as the true means of helping 
 a man forward. The latest statistics show that, on 
 the average, 35 per cent, of prisoners at once tread 
 the path of reform, and keep steadily to it, so that 
 they are released on parole within fifteen months. 
 Other 36 per cent, develop less will-power and per- 
 severance ; they hesitate and waver, fall and rise, and 
 take from fifteen to twenty-four months, before 
 they have worked out their liberation. Another 19 
 per cent, are men of such bad principle, so thoroughly 
 uncertain and lacking in energy, that they require up 
 to three years before they satisfy the demands of the 
 Institution, necessary to obtain their release, unless this 
 is necessitated in the meantime as a result of the ex- 
 piration of the maximum sentence of punishment for 
 the particular case. The remainder, amounting to some 
 10 per cent., require over three years, and are apparently 
 recruited from incurables, who almost invariably 
 pass the full maximum period of imprisonment, either 
 in Elmira or in some other penal institution to which 
 they have been transferred. Take away these 10 
 per cent., and the 35 per cent, who shtfw themselves 
 at once willing subjects, and there remain more than 
 50 per cent, whose individual training and care de- 
 mand extraordinarv personal efforts. But this again is 
 
28 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 wonderfally assisted by the individual himself through 
 that powerful driving-wheel — the desire for freedom. 
 
 It may be as well to point out here, that in Elmira 
 experience has shown that it is advisable to apply 
 the legally fixed minvmv/m period of the training pro- 
 cess less frequently than was the case in the earlier 
 years of the Institution; because twelve months appear 
 only in a few cases to be sufficient to allow the reform 
 system to produce lasting and radical results. Using 
 greater care and exactness, the authorities have been 
 guided in recent years by the consideration, whether 
 an individual is ripe for his liberty — the result 
 being that the average period of imprisonment of an 
 individual in the Institution has been raised from 
 eighteen to twenty-one months. 
 
 The following table shows the duration of imprison- 
 ment in detail. The number of prisoners released on 
 parole up to the end of 1889, amount altogether to 
 2,295. 
 
 Of these were released on parole : — j^k ceki. 
 
 After 12 months . . .202 or 89 
 
 From 13 to 15 months . . 595 „ 162 
 
 „ 16 „ 18 „ . . 372 ,, 16-12 
 
 „ 19 „ 24 „ . 469 „ 20-4 
 
 „ 25 „ 36 „ . . 432 „ 18-9 
 
 After more than 36 months 225 „ 9'7 
 
 The process of working out one's liberation consists 
 in earning credit marks. Mne marks in each month 
 during a half-year, if not in uninterrupted succession, 
 
PROMOTION AND LIBERATION OF PRISONERS. 29 
 
 at least with but little variation, win promotion from 
 the second to the first grade. 
 
 These credit marks are : Three for Demeanour, three 
 for Labour, three for School Progress. 
 
 While in Demeanour and Labour, the " perfect " 
 attainment or 100 per cent, in full is necessaiy to 
 earn credit marks, 75 per cent, is sufficient in School 
 Progress. 
 
 " Perfection " in Demeanour requires, according to 
 the law, obedience to rules, loyalty to the government 
 of the Eeformatory, and no improper intimacies with 
 fellow-inmates. In Labour it requires the voluntary 
 performance of a reasonable amount of work without 
 wastefulness, and with care to produce good work. 
 In School, diligence in the classes assigned, recita- 
 tions in all studies not below 75 per cent., and a cer- 
 tain amount of observable progress in growth and 
 development. 
 
 As marks are gained so they can be easily lost, 
 through negligence, misdemeanour, careless work, 
 insufficient development of the intellectual and 
 bodily functions, etc. In such cases it not only affects 
 the promotion, but the individual is eventually sent 
 back into the third grade, and the mode of working out 
 his release is longer and harder. Degradation to the 
 third grade is always for one of the following three 
 reasons : — 
 
 (1) Deceitfulness (even in comparatively unimportant 
 
30 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 matters, when it reveals tke continued criminality 
 of the man.) 
 
 (2) Quarrelling (when it culminates in an assault 
 or a fight). 
 
 (3) Such disregard of rules or proprieties as shows 
 indifference to progress, or great want of self-control, 
 if continued for three months or more. 
 
 Deceitfulness, hypocrisy, or the slightest symptom 
 of a criminal tendency in the subject is very severely 
 dealt with. Flight, or attempt at flight, causes with- 
 out exception degradation into the third grade. 
 
 MaEKS : How LOST AND HOW EEGAINBD. 
 
 1. Six valid Neglect or pink reports, or three valid 
 Derelict or yellow reports in one month cause the loss 
 of one mark. A single valid Offence or chocolate 
 report causes the loss of one or more marks, at the 
 discretion of the General Superintendent. 
 
 2. Marks once lost, may be regained under the 
 following conditions, viz. : — Marks lost in school in 
 the most advanced class m9.y be regained by obtain- 
 ing 100 pel' cent, in two successive subsequent 
 examinations in the same subject. Marks lost in 
 any of the lower classes may be regained by the same 
 method, or by earning promotion to a higher class, 
 and successfully passing the next examination follow- 
 ing the date of the promotion. 
 
PROMOTION AND LIBERATION OF PRISONERS. 31 
 
 3. Marks lost through Neglect or Derelict reports 
 may be eventually restored, when the subsequent 
 demeanour shall have shown the fault to be corrected 
 and the General Superintendent adjudges the offender 
 entitled to such consideration. 
 
 4. Marks lost through deficiency in labour will be 
 restored when the labour is made up. 
 
 5. Marks lost through valid Offence reports will 
 invariably stand. 
 
 6. Marks lost in either Labour, Demeanour, or 
 Study do not affect grade, when in the judgment 
 of the General Superintendent, or upon the certi- 
 ficate of the physician, it is found that the loss was 
 occasioned through some physical defect, or other 
 cause for which the inmate is not responsible. In 
 such cases, however, they are not restored. 
 
 7. Any inmate who is reduced to the third grade 
 will forfeit all " nines " earned previous to the date of 
 his restoration to the second grade, so far as they 
 might have counted towards future promotion ; and 
 any marks lost, save labour and school marks, will not 
 be subsequently considered or restored ; and any in- 
 mate getting less than eight on his conduct book 
 for any month will be shut out of all preceding "nines " 
 if counting towards promotion, unless by some one of 
 the foregoing methods the marking be raised at least 
 to an eight. 
 
 Of incalculable importance, however, and of absolute 
 
32 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 necessity, considered in the light of a modern theory 
 of criminal reform, is the characteristic feature of the 
 Elmira System, which consists in this — that less stress 
 is laid upon the effective performance of the demands 
 laid upon the individual than upon his capabilities, 
 and the satisfactory development of all bodily and 
 mental faculties, especially in the school and work- 
 shop ; and this is the standard by which the results 
 are measured. 
 
 By means of the mark system the individual is 
 tested and kept under strict watch and control in 
 his association with his fellow-prisoners in school, in 
 the workshop, in his conduct towards the officers 
 of the establishment, and when alone. Thought and 
 deed, moral, intellectual, and physical capacities, and 
 their actual application, are continually being subjected 
 to the most searching and minute examination. All 
 parts of the organism, visible and invisible, must be 
 positively — andj,indeed, simultaneously — brought into 
 use, and kept permanently in full activity. So 
 far as the condition of the prisoner permits, every 
 function must be brought into play, exactly as the 
 nature of things and the problem of life demand ; for 
 this is the only way to radically cure an abnormally 
 constituted man, to eradicate the irregularities of his 
 inner nature, and to permanently establish in him 
 good and right principles. A further circumstance, 
 upon which great weight is laid at Elmira, is the 
 
PROMOTION AND LIBERATION OF PRISONERS. 33 
 
 accurate determination of tlie extent of a man's 
 capacity for work and dexterity; as well as tlie care 
 and economy with which he employs tools and 
 material in order to be able thence to draw a con- 
 clusion with the greatest possible certainty, as to 
 whether the prisoner, after regaining his liberty, will 
 be in a position to earn by honourable means sufficient 
 to supply his needs. 
 
 To the individual striving for his liberty there is 
 absolutely no other way open than by exerting his own 
 will-power to work. The mark system is not regarded 
 or applied as a means of punishment, but solely in 
 the personal interest of each individual; and it is un- 
 influenced by any thought either of encouraging with 
 favour, or of goading by fear, or of using any kind of 
 deterrent. Those who are really worthy advance ; 
 and those who are not deserving stay where they were 
 or go backward; exactly in accordance with the nature 
 and order of public life. However little this system 
 may be understood, it is nevertheless an extremely 
 powerful, almost miraculous, means of working moral' 
 improvement, and the evidence of facts at Elmira 
 shows in an astonishing way, how men may be raised 
 from the lowest sphere to a good, honourable, in- 
 tellectual, and moral position, and make further 
 satisfactory progress therein. 
 
 The contrivance and organization of the mark 
 system at the same time render superfluous, at any 
 
 3 
 
34 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 rate in the first and second grades, the disciplinary 
 punishments which are generally in force in penal 
 institutions ; and even in the third or actual criminal 
 grade — which comprises only a^iminishing percentage 
 of the inmates of the Institution — it is considered to be 
 effectiYC and adequate. 
 
 When an individual has been promoted into the 
 first grade, he is required to obtain — alike in work, 
 school, and conduct — what is known as a "perfect" 
 predicate : that is to say, he must obtain in each of 
 these departments three, or altogether nine, marks 
 per month for another sis months, before he can be 
 brought under the notice of the Board of Managers 
 at their quarterly or tribunal meetings, at which Mr. 
 Brockway likewise assists, to consider the question 
 of liberation on parole. The qualification for dis- 
 charge necessitates not only unexceptionable conduct 
 and the fulfilment of the rules of the Institution, as 
 well as a corresponding voluntary unfolding of the 
 dornaant or irregularly working organs of the body ; 
 but it demands a certain assurance that the criminal 
 has actually become a converted and a better man, 
 and both can and will conduct himself .with propri- 
 ety in the future ; and that, above all things, he 
 is thoroughly qualified to supply his needs, and to 
 maintain himself by upright and honest means, so as 
 to be returned to society a useful citizen and a peaceful 
 member. The condition of discharge, however, though 
 
PROMOTION AND LIBERATION OF PRISONERS. 35 
 
 only on parole, Includes another point of great im- 
 portance, namely, that for each prisoner who" is to be 
 discharged a definite and more or less permanent post 
 in public life, suited to his capacity, is found, whereby 
 he can support himself, and into which he can enter 
 soon after his discharge. No difficulty of any kind is 
 experienced in finding an opening for an inmate of 
 Elmira ; friends or relations, with whom the prisoner 
 can freely correspond, generally take upon themselves 
 the task of finding a suitable berth, and when this is 
 not the case, or the situation found does not appear 
 acceptable to the Managers of the Institution, the 
 latter try to find a suitable place by direct communica- 
 tion. Employers not only have no objection to giving 
 employment to such discharged prisoners, but the men 
 are frequently sought after and willingly engaged ; 
 they are reformed, improved, different men from what 
 they were before entering this Training Institution. 
 
 Uninterrupted activity is an indispensable desidera- 
 tum, if the discharged convert is to be saved from 
 falling again into his bad ways. Idleness is the ^ 
 direct path to crime. What an infinite amount of 
 both direct and indirect harm could be prevented if 
 this fact alone were recognized in its full significance, 
 and the introduction of regulations in accordance with 
 it were insisted upon ! 
 
 It may be as well to mention here that the opinion 
 has often been broached that a proposal should be 
 
Missing Page 
 
Missing Page 
 
38 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 exclusively to tlie prisoners in personal interviews ; 
 and it is on these occasions that he has such exhaustive 
 opportunities for seeing into the inner nature of the 
 prisoners, and of considering their relation to the grade 
 and position which they have attained. In the most 
 objective and humane manner he discourses with them 
 regarding the affairs which they have most at heart, 
 seeking, where advisable, to remove evil conditions, 
 and imparting advice and encouragement with im- 
 pressive words, according to the necessities of the 
 case. The prisoner need only make known his wish to 
 speak with the General Superintendent to be admitted 
 without further questioning at the following hour of 
 audience. The number desiring such audiences is 
 pretty great — on the average from forty to fifty each 
 day, so that in the course of a month the number of 
 consultations exceeds that of the prisoners. And we 
 may here particularly call attention to the difference 
 there is between an official who simply carries out his 
 orders and instructions, and a man whose personal 
 interest is closely united with the efficient working 
 of the system and its results ; whose' whole thought 
 and aspiration, nay, whose whole existence, is devoted 
 to the attainment of a definite end, and whose self- 
 imposed moral sense of duty leads him. to make 
 sacrifices such as can only be appreciated and under- 
 stood by one who knows what it is to feel the full 
 force of devotion to a good cause. No past, no yester- 
 
PROMOTION AND LIBERATION OF PRISONERS. 39 
 
 day, no punishment for wrong-doing ; but only a present 
 and future — a reward for self-improvement — is the^ 
 fundamental principle of tHe Elmira System ; and the 
 motto with which the General Superintendent re- 
 ceives each prisoner on his arrival, and with which, as 
 long as he is detained in the Institution, he con- 
 tinually encourages and cheers him. The sad and 
 nnedifying memories of his past life are forgotten, and 
 are never alluded to again. 
 
 There is also a direct individual feeling between the 
 Managers and prisoners. Whenever the former are 
 present in the Institution — whether assembled at their 
 official meetings, or singly, as is often the case — the 
 latter, if they wish it, have free and unimpeded access ; 
 even notice is given beforehand to the prisoners of 
 the quarterly or tribunal sittings, with the reminder 
 that they flaave an opportunity at these sittings of 
 openly presenting any petitions either to the Managers 
 collectively or to any one of them. The prisoners are 
 not only in no way intimidated from freely and openly 
 giving utterance to whatever they have at heart, and 
 to whichever of their superiors they choose, but are 
 directly encouraged to do so. They are not hardened " 
 by confinement in their cells, but remain continually 
 in touch with men — with those who are capable of 
 sympathizing with them. In prisons and other penal 
 institutions it is thought to satisfy completely this 
 much neglected want simply by the visit of a religious 
 
Missing Page 
 
Missing Page 
 
42 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 serve to a certain degree as a guide ; in practice each, 
 single case is estimated and dealt with specially, and 
 according to the particular circumstances. 
 
 (1) Paroled men who, through " misfortune " or 
 ''inability," lose place and voluntarily return with 
 our advice and consent, but without arrest or formal 
 order, to be received as guests and again placed in 
 situations, as soon as may be possible — with.exceptions. 
 
 (2) Paroled men who, through " fault, but without 
 crime," lose place and voluntarily come in on our 
 request or order, to be placed in second grade for 
 three months at least, and then to go through the first 
 grade in the ordinary way — with exceptions. 
 
 (3) Paroled men, who violate their paroles by gross 
 improprieties, or by crime, who are apparently in the 
 way to commit crimes, when arrested and brought in, 
 to be placed in the second or third grades, as the case 
 may be adjudged on admission, and to work through 
 their release in the ordinary way — with exceptions. 
 
 (4) Other inmates who escape, or attempt to escape, 
 to be degraded to the third grade, and remain in such 
 grade as they shall prove worthy of, until the " good 
 time " expiration of their maximum term " at least." 
 
 A sudden change from one sphere to another — for 
 instance, from wealth to poverty, from poverty to wealth, 
 or from imprisonment to freedom — frequently leads 
 directly to excesses, but is never productive of good re- 
 sults. In order to gradually accustom human nature to 
 
PROMOTION AND LIBERATION OF PRISONERS. 43 
 
 the change from a conditiou of confinement or imprison- 
 ment to that of unbounded freedom, a transition period 
 of some months is generally recognized as indispens- 
 able. It is, however, also further recognized, that the 
 usual police supervision, which is the only device that 
 has hitherto been known and adopted, and which is 
 supposed to stand in the place of a transition' period, 
 is one of the worst and weakest features 6f our present 
 system of punishment ; because it generally deprives 
 a man, who is striving to improve himself, of every 
 chance, if he had any, of again working his way up, 
 and of becoming a respectable citizen and member of 
 our society. If such a transition position is to be really 
 beneficial, it must, before all things, be of a character 
 unassociated with police-control, at any rate outwardly. 
 With rational organization why could not a special 
 officer, either from the Institution or appointed by the 
 district, exercise such a control, without being connected 
 with the police so long as their help is not required ? 
 Under all circumstances, however, such a control and 
 supervision ought to be of a secret nature, so that the 
 past history of the individual is not unnecessarily 
 exposed, and his struggle forward for self-improvement 
 is not thereby hindered. For the Elmira Institution 
 it suffices to have evidence that the individual in ques- 
 tion is still working satisfactorily in his situation and 
 is likely to continue there, and a certificate from the 
 employer is all that is required. 
 
SUMMARY OF DAILY ROUTINE. 
 
 The purpose of the day's routine in the Institution, 
 taking an ordinary working day as an example, is to 
 fully occupy the mind of the prisoner during all the 
 waking hours ; and, indeed, rather to direct it instead of 
 leaving it to itself ; forming thus perforce, if need be, 
 improved mental habits. 
 
 At 5.30 in the morning the inmates are summoned 
 from sleep by three loud strokes from the gong in the 
 guard-room, and in fifteen minutes are dressed and 
 ready for breakfast. Then, on signals given by the 
 gong, the first grade men are unlocked and proceed 
 to their places in the dining-room, where silence is 
 maintained until the word " Ready ! " is given by the 
 ofiicer on duty. When at table they are allowed to 
 converse. The second and third grade men, remaining 
 in their rooms, are supplied with food by inmate waiters, 
 one on each side of a gallery. At another signal the 
 first grade men return to their rooms and employ the 
 interval before 7.30 as they wish. Before going out to 
 work all are required to leave their rooms and cupboards 
 scrupulously clean and in order. Shortly before 7.30, 
 the last morning summons of the gong is struck, and 
 
SUMMARY OF DAILY ROUTINE. 45 
 
 all inmates not confined by illness repair in orderly 
 lines to tlie workshops, only tlie third grade men ■ 
 marching in lock-step. The first grade men march in 
 three squads commanded by captains selected from 
 their numbers ; the second grade is subdivided into 
 many squads in charge of first grade sergeants ; while 
 the third grade lines move under the eye of an officer. 
 
 The working hours extend from 7.30 a.m to 
 4.30 p.m., with the omission of the dinner hour from 
 12 to 1 p.m. During this time the various industries 
 of the Reformatory — iron-founding, hollow-ware works, 
 brush, shoe and broom making, and the labour inci- 
 dent to the domestic and clerical departments — are in 
 active process. 
 
 [N. B.— Of late it has not been found possible to 
 regularly adhere to these hours of work, partly on 
 account of accumulation of labour-force, partly on 
 account of want of work.J 
 
 Supper is given soon after the day's work is over. 
 
 About 9 a.m. the physician visits the establishment, 
 and, with the assistance of the attendant, sees to 
 the invalids. Particular attention is given to the 
 sanitary condition of the Institution and the health of 
 the prisoners ; to this end arrangements are made for 
 each inmate to take a bath once a week, Fridays or 
 Saturdays, either warm or cold according to the time 
 of the year. 
 
 Mr. Brockway bases his theory on the fact that 
 
46 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 bodily health is the fundamental condition of practical 
 ethics — of that state in which the nobler impulses and 
 principles of the human soul master and control the 
 lower ones; and, that on sound physiology only is it 
 possible to build moral principles, true religion, and 
 reason. For this reason the prisoners are accustomed 
 to bodily cleanliness with all care, and are instructed 
 in the advantages of a healthy body, as well as in the 
 means of attaining the same. 
 
 It does not require a very extended field of 
 observation to convince one that an immense number 
 of unfortunate individuals owe their physical, mental 
 and moral disease, their disastrous disqualification as 
 members of our society, and finally their early death, 
 exclusively to the lack of bodily cleanliness. "Want of 
 moderation in eating and drinking, irregular mode of 
 life and their only too well-known consequences can 
 mostly be traced to an unhealthy and insufficiently 
 active physical constitution. 
 
 They further receive once a week a change of under- 
 clothing, a pair of socks, drawers, shirt and working 
 blouse. Each prisoner has his underclothing marked 
 with his name and number. 
 
 At 12 o'clock the signal for cessation of work is 
 given ; the first grade march to their dining-hall, the 
 second and third grades to their cells, in order to take 
 their dinner in the same manner as breakfast. 
 
 At 1 o'clock work is again begun, and at 4.30 
 
SUMMARY OF DAILY ROUTINE. 47 
 
 ceases for tlie day. From 5 o'clock the General 
 Superintendent is accessible to the prisoners for 
 private audiences, and for this purpose a ticket must 
 be placed beforehand by the particular individual in 
 the private letter-box. lii the evening the tin^e is ■ 
 occupied by instruction in the school and technical 
 department, as well as by lectures, by scientific and 
 entertaining discourses, and occasionally by musical 
 performances, etc. Morning, noon and evening, when- 
 ever the prisoners are assembled for any purpose, 
 they are carefully counted. 
 
 The cells are in winter warmed by steam pipes, and 
 in the morning, as well as in the evening up till 9.30, 
 are well lighted with gas, so that in their free time 
 every opportunity is afforded for mental occupation, 
 reading and studying. 
 
 On Sunday mornings the letters and packets de- 
 livered during the week are distributed to the prisoners 
 privileged to receive them ; similarly writing paper, 
 when it is required for writing letters either home 
 or in connection with the securing of a situation on 
 conditional discharge ; and the weekly journal of the 
 Institution, The Summary, is distributed. 
 
 On Sunday the first signal for getting-up sounds 
 at 6 instead of 5"30. 
 
 On Sundays and the established holidays of the 
 year, a regular service for Protestants is held by a 
 Protestant Minister, and , after this lectures for the 
 
48 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 Practical Ethics Class, and at times instructive and 
 entertaining discourses, concerts, and musical per- 
 formances for the whole of the prisoners. The 
 Catholics receive twice a month special instructions in 
 religion from a Catholic Priest ; once a month Con- 
 fession is heard, and on the following Sunday Mass is 
 said. For the small percentage of Jewish prisoners 
 a special religious service is also held by a EahM on 
 one Saturday in each month. 
 
 On Sundays the General Superintendent also usu- 
 ally delivers a short address to the prisoners, mostly 
 on subjects which he considers it advisable to speak 
 openly about, arising out of his daily intimate inter- 
 course with the prisoners. 
 
 Diet of the Peisoners. 
 
 The bill of fare for the prisoners of the first and 
 second grade for one week is, for instance : — 
 
 Breakfast :— Beet hash, potatoes, bread, coffee, 
 sugar. 
 
 Dinner : — Three times soup and meat ; twice mutton 
 stew ; once beef and turnips and roast beef and gravy, 
 always including bread. In addition the first grade 
 receives daily, and the second grade four times in the 
 week, coffee and sugar ; and, besides, the first grade 
 sometimes receives dessert, preserved or dried fruits. 
 
SUMMARY OF DAILY ROUTINE. 49 
 
 The diet of tlie third grade is exactly like that of 
 the second, with the exception of tea and coffee. 
 
 Besides Ms ration a prisoner may ask for more, 
 but in the third grade such supplement consists of 
 bread only. Meat and all other provisions are of the 
 best quality. 
 
 The diet may appear to be extravagant. When 
 particularly questioned on this point Mr. Brockway 
 replied : " We simply keep in view the pursuit of our 
 purpose — i.e. reform. Good food is, for every one, of 
 the iirst necessity for orderly life, if he wants to make 
 the fullest possible use of the powers of his body ; and 
 my long experience has taught me that I obtain far 
 better results with the subjects by supplying a good 
 diet." 
 
DIFFERENCES OF THE GRADES. 
 
 The distinction of the three grades is marked, as 
 already mentioned, in the diet — that is to say, in its 
 constituents and the manner of serving it. The first 
 grade take their meals together in a special large 
 hall ; they sit at tallies of eight to twelve covers ; have 
 tahle-cloths, porcelain ware ; can satisfy their appetites 
 in a variety of ways ; and have the privilege of 
 Tinrestricted intercourse with one another at meal 
 times, and can spend the whole hour of noon in 
 social intercourse. 
 
 The courteous behaviour of the men is, indeed, an 
 excellent feature. One carves at the table, and they 
 help one another politely. 
 
 The dress of the second or transition grade is a 
 civilian suit of dark material, with a Scotch cap ; the 
 dress of the third grade is of dark-red material, with- 
 out a cap, and the first grade wear a neat blue uniform 
 witli a navy cap. 
 
 The first grade occupy larger and better cells — in 
 some cases provided with spring mattresses. 
 
 As long as the overcrowding of the establishment 
 lasts — that is to say, as long as the number of existing 
 
DIFFERENCES OF THE GRADES. 51 
 
 cells does not correspond to the number of prisoners — 
 it is nsual to place a considerable number of those of 
 the first grade together in pairs ; naturally, the choice 
 ■of those who are to be placed together, is a matter 
 Tequiring the greatest care. 
 
 Formerly, short extracts from the newspapers were 
 read at table once a week to the prisoners of the first 
 grade ; however, the publication of the weekly journal 
 of the Institution, The Summary, which is distributed 
 amongst all the prisoners of the first and second 
 grades, has completely replaced this arrangement. 
 
 The first grade is allowed both to receive and write 
 letters on Sunday. The second grade is allowed to 
 receive letters every Sunday, but to write letters only 
 once a month. 
 
 The first and second grades are permitted to receive 
 visitors once in three months, though the visits must 
 be short, and, naturally, in presence of an olficer of 
 the Institution. The first and second grades can re- 
 ceive and change library books every week. The 
 third grade is excluded from all these privileges. 
 
 Writing materials and postage stamps are supplied 
 gratis by the Institution. The -whole of the outgoing 
 and incoming correspondence of the prisoners is con- 
 trolled by a special official — the transfer officer. 
 
 To and from the dining-room, workshop, school- 
 rooms, etc., the prisoners march : the first grade four 
 abreast, in three squads, generally under command 
 
56 N£iy YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 By special permission from the General Superin- 
 tendent inmates can receive carpet or photographs 
 from home or relatives ; and should any inmate have 
 such carpet, etc., when reduced to third grade, it will 
 he transferred to the store-room until he is restored 
 from third grade. 
 
 When two or more inmates occupy the same room, 
 conversation is allowed only in subdued tones; and no 
 talking or noisy mating of beds, moving of chairs, 
 or other necessarily disturbing noises will be allowed 
 after the second bell. 
 
 First grade men are allowed to burn their gas one 
 half-hour after the second bell, that being the signal 
 for second and third grade men to turn theirs off. 
 
 Any neglect to comply with the above rules will 
 subject the inmate to report. 
 
 There are also special rules for the dormitory, the 
 first grade men when in the dining-hall, for all 
 inmates in assemblages, etc. 
 
SCHOOL. 
 
 From the very first Education fonned a leading feature 
 in the Elmira Institute ; and this circumstance may 
 to a great extent be undoubtedly ascribed to the want 
 of any uniform and general standard of culture in 
 America. Statistics show that about 70 per cent, of 
 the prisoners on their arrival fail to come up to the 
 standard of a simple elementary education ; an effort 
 therefore to remove this lamentably defective con- 
 dition, is as necessary as it is desirable. But not 
 only in the more unequal and unregulated conditions 
 which hold in America, but also in those which hold 
 in England, is education and mental improvement — 
 that is to say, the conversion of irregular mental 
 activities into regular — one of the most important 
 factors of a reform which is intended to operate radi- 
 cally, and also to produce permanent results. If only 
 a slight investigation of the conditions obtaining in our 
 prisons and houses of correction is made, one cannot 
 but wonder, and again and again ask the question : 
 M''hy is such an unlimited amount of valuable time^ 
 inexcusably wasted here ? When confinement and 
 solitude in an often cold, damp and dark cell for 
 
58 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 fifteen, sixteen, to eighteen hours out of the twenty- 
 four, without occupation or proper mental and bodily 
 activity is still to-day considered as a means of reform, 
 one can only lament the degree of human knowledge 
 /and the state of culture and civilization in our times. 
 
 Such offenders as appear really susceptible to re- 
 form, require, before all things and without exception,' 
 mental elevation — not necessarily a higher standard 
 of education, when, as is fortunately the case to-day 
 in the United Kingdom, this exists in normal pro- 
 portion ; but uninterrupted mental and psychological 
 activity, applied in such a way that the mind is 
 thereby compelled to further expand and strengthen 
 its power of thought, and the psychological part of 
 its ethical principles, so as finally to establish a 
 rational self-consciousness. 
 
 The founder and present administrator of the 
 Elmira Institution would say the three chi ef fac tors 
 ^ ofLxe&an===Wor]%GQndnclLand. J^ducatifin — if arranged 
 in order of the importance and the power of the 
 influence which they exercise on the man, would 
 stand as Education, Conduct and "Work — because the 
 schoolroom is alone qualified to bring an individual 
 to a fall self-consciousness. Not until the inner man, 
 imperfectly developed and governed by low and mean 
 motives and inclinations, together with the irregular 
 workings of his mental and psychological organism, 
 has been eradicated, and a normal condition, governed 
 
SCHOOL. 59 
 
 by right and reason, has been attained, can we speak 
 of successful reform. We have not only the right, 
 but it is our bounden duty, without regard to addi- 
 tional outlay of trouble, to endeavour by every practical 
 means that science offers, to attain such an end, and not 
 to rest until actual reform has been effected in the 
 cases coming under consideration. Then, and not till 
 then, can we boast of possessing an actual system of 
 correction and reform. An orderly mode of life and 
 regular work, it is true, may make a prisoner more 
 amenable to prison discipline; and may even at times 
 have an improving effect upon his whole conduct, but 
 in accordance with the opinions of all authorities on 
 the subject such a mode of treatment which merely 
 touches the physical part of human nature will 
 touch and effectively and radically improve his prin- 
 ciples and character in a few cases only. Where 
 the capability of distinguishing right from wrong, and 
 where the impulse and effective power to prefer the 
 former to the latter on all occasions, and under all 
 circumstances has been lost — and this is the case with 
 a far greater number of criminals than is usually 
 sxipposed — an improved physical condition may, indeed, 
 co-operate very advantageously, but alone it can never, 
 or at least seldom, lead to the realization of true and 
 sound reform : conversion must absolutely begin 
 its process at the root, it must begin with the very 
 motives which precede, or should precede, and occasion 
 
6o NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 -. , , I 
 
 an action, with the mind and soul, so as to be able to 
 dictate their proper activity to the thus elevated 
 physical constituents, which have become more tract- 
 
 ^ able. The awakening of an interest in something 
 outside the sphere in which the subject has hitherto 
 moved — which must naturally be the path of improve- 
 ment — proves, when the spontaneous impulse is deve- 
 loped by forced application, a sure ladder of reform, 
 and stimulates the natural interest. The one-sided 
 and narrow-minded assumption, that criminals make 
 progress in their pernicious course by education and 
 mental development, can only be maintained, where 
 there is a lack of insight into the character, the 
 nature and method of such a system of education. 
 It must affect not only the mind but also the soul ; 
 the physical advancement must be in strict harmony 
 with the intellectual; in fact, body, mind and soul, must 
 be separately and yet simultaneously worked, schooled 
 and developed, by individual treatment, if we wish to 
 radically reform the subject. Confirmed criminals 
 have in general a decided liking for all that is base 
 and mean ; they hate any physical or mental oc- 
 cupation which leads and forces them into a better 
 and nobler vein of thought. And the experience in 
 
 ^ Blmira leads to the full conviction that compulsory 
 education is actually one of the hardest punishments 
 for the criminal. A rational system of education and 
 improvement can, however, be applied without any 
 
SCHOOL. 6 1 
 
 considerable difficulties and material sacrifices, with- 
 out interfering witli the hours of labour, and without in 
 any way endangering the safe-keeping of the prisoners. ^ 
 Education in Elmira begins with the lowest ele- 
 mentary stages — reading, writing and arithmetic — 
 according to the degree of education of the particular 
 prisoner ; and is extended through the English 
 language, grammar, higher mathematics and geo- 
 graphy, up to English, American and universal history, 
 politics, literature, .law, political economy, electricity, - 
 chemistry, physiology, mental and moral philosophy 
 and other subjects, which are of importance to society. 
 Some courses, such as the literary, attain to such a 
 perfection that Shakespeare and other classic authors 
 are studied and discussed with fair understanding. 
 From a very insignificant condition at the founding 
 of the Institution, the educational department has 
 sl owly but steadily e xpanded and developed to an 
 extraordinary degree of usefulness. Four chief points 
 are sought to be realized in connection therewith : — 
 
 (1) To teach those subjects which are unquestionably 
 an aid to any honourable trade ; 
 
 (2) To teach those subjects which give a full under-- 
 standing of the rights and duties of an honest citizen 
 according to the law ; 
 
 (3) To teach the ethics of truth and duty ; and - 
 
 (4) The chief points of general science, art, industry 
 and health. 
 
i 
 
 1 I 
 
 62 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 Twelve classes or more, according to requirements, 
 are formed, in order to realize, as far as possible, uni- 
 formity in the various grades of education of tlie 
 pupils. 
 
 The original division was into seven classes, as 
 follows : — (1) Reading, Writing, Arithmetic and Gen- 
 eral Elementary Subjects ; (2) Physics ; (3) Political 
 Economy ; (4) Civil Government ; (5) Algebra ; (6) 
 English Literature ; (7) Practical Ethics. 
 
 The great increase in the number of prisoners last 
 year — the average was over 900 — necessitated, how- 
 ever, a further extension, so that altogether twenty 
 separate classes had to be formed. This classification 
 is so arranged that in pursuing the end in view all 
 individual requirements are satisfied from one extreme 
 to another. 
 
 On the one hand are those who, possessing little 
 or scarcely any education at all, have to begin at the 
 very lowest rudimentary stage ; and on the other hand 
 are men of a high education of wide though generally 
 superficial acquirements, but possessing actual culture 
 in a very low degree, who are yet capable of beginning 
 with academic studies. In fact, men of the greatest 
 conceivable differences, with regard to mental 
 equipment, have to be reckoned with in the 
 department of education and culture, and with such 
 men only an absolutely special study of the system 
 of imparting instruction can be of any real efficacy. 
 
SCHOOL. 63 
 
 Such subjects require individual treatment ; it is as ' 
 indispensably the beginning and end of the school 
 system as the alphabet is for every man. 
 
 The present school classes embrace, amongst others, 
 the following courses of instruction ; a short descrip- 
 tion is given of some of them — without further 
 comment it is evident what an amount of work is 
 performed in this department, and what wide-reaching 
 problems the Institution has undertaken to solve : — 
 Primary Writing, Reading, and Arithmetic; Mental 
 Arithmetic; Primary Language ; Language — Analysis 
 and Expression ; Practical Arithmetic ; Elements of 
 Familiar Science. 
 
 American History. — Especially the growth and 
 influence of civil institutions. 
 
 English Literature. — Including both the historical 
 survey of the influences that have modified English and 
 American thought, the biographies of great authors, 
 and the critical reading and study of representative 
 masterpieces, for the acquisition of thought and the 
 culture and elevation of literary taste. 
 
 Physical Geography. — The study of the earth as 
 the abode of man, especially noting the relation of 
 its continental structure, water distribution, climate 
 and productions, to the progress of man in manufacture, 
 commerce and other elements of civilization. 
 
 Political Economy. — Tracing the growths and 
 characteristics of industrial society, and thoroughly 
 
64 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 examining and illustrating the principles applica- 
 ble to economic life in tlie present condition of soci- 
 ety — as to production, distribution, exchange and 
 consumption. 
 
 Higher Mathematics. — Familiarity with such alge- 
 braical processes and geometrical principles as are 
 necessary for the prosecution of advanced work iu 
 practical courses of science. 
 
 Physiology. — The study of the human body as a 
 mode, both elementary and complete, of obeying the 
 maxim, " Know Thyself ; " especially noting the 
 functions and hygienic laws relating to the great vital 
 processes, and the influences of physical conditions 
 upon mental and moral character. 
 
 Stenography, Type-Writing, and Telegraphy. — Tech- 
 nical branches, largely involving the ready command 
 of information acquired in the scholastic courses, and 
 leading to the development of memory, ready and 
 accurate perception, practical judgment and concentra- 
 tion of attention as essentials to success. Thus these 
 studies are highly disciplinary, as well as prospectively 
 useful for practical life : and one, stenography, is a 
 valuable adjunct in the lectures of the school course. 
 
 Ancient and Mediceval History. — This is confined 
 to those great peoples of antiquity, and to those civil 
 institutions of later times, which have exerted an 
 influence on the progress of humanity that the world 
 should not forget. Egypt, Palestine, Phoenicia, Greece, 
 
SCHOOL. 6s 
 
 Rome, Germany and England are brought under 
 review ; their natural characteristics analyzed and 
 contrasted, and the principles and lessons of their 
 respective careers carefully studied. This branch is 
 made to subserve a threefold purpose : the develop- 
 ment of logical causes in investigation of historic 
 causes and consequences ; the elevation of sentiment 
 in the recognition of heroism and nobility in the great 
 characters of other times and countries ; and the 
 attainment of correct notions concerning practical 
 government, as these are suggested by the history 
 of the past. 
 
 Practical Ethics. — This branch takes for its special 
 subject that to which every other study of the course 
 points, and for which all reformative agencies prepare, 
 namely, " right living." By lectures, by reading 
 from the works of great authors, by class discussions, 
 and by the individual studies of suggested practical 
 questions, involving a delicate application of ethical 
 principles, the pupils are brought to face the great 
 questions and foundation principles of " duty," and to 
 grow thereby into the consciousness of the moral 
 spheres to which they belong, thus giving to many 
 the revelation a new world of thought and feeling ; 
 and to all a truer and more profound sense of their 
 relation to that world. 
 
 This course not only gives the means of future 
 acquisition of knowledge, but much that is of present 
 
 5 
 
66 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 use and direct value, particularly some acquaintance 
 with the constitution of the world ; with the achieve- 
 ments of great nations in the past ; with the treasures 
 of thought found in the literature of their own country, 
 and with the principles that determine duty and that 
 should regulate the conduct of life. Its aims in the 
 lower branches, are not to teach over again what common 
 observation has learned itself ; but to rectify, complete, 
 and analyze such knowledge, so that the pupil will com- 
 prehend its principles and understand its relations. 
 
 In place of printed books loose sheets of paper, 
 printed with the respective themes and questions 
 which come under consideration, are distributed to the 
 pupils of the advanced classes before each lesson pr 
 lecture. In order to form an idea of the character 
 of the same, I will here refer to one such printed 
 leaflet which was distributed before a lecture in the 
 class of Practical Ethics. It runs as follows : — 
 
 LECTURES ON PRACTICAL ETHICS. 
 
 Outline of the Discussion on November 7th. 
 
 br peof. chas a. collin. 
 
 IV. — Certain Fundamental Principles of Bodily 
 Health. 
 
 A. — Modbkation. 
 
 " MoDEKATiON is, accordiug to my idea, a sort of order 
 and control in certain pleasures and desires ; this is 
 
SCHOOL. 67 
 
 signified by the motto: 'Everyone is his own 
 master.' 
 
 " There is something ridiculous in the expression ; 
 ^ To be his own master ; ' for, the master is also slave, 
 and the slave master. The true meaning, however, 
 I believe, is, that the soul of the man has better and 
 worse principles. When the better principles control 
 the worse ones, then it is said : ' The man is his own 
 master.' But, when the better principles are over- 
 powered by the worse ones, then we say : ' The man 
 is his own slave, and possesses no principles ' " (Plato, 
 " The Eepublic," 430; Jowett, ii. 256). 
 
 " And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and 
 cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one 
 of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole 
 body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand 
 offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is 
 profitable for thee that one of thy members should 
 J)erish, and not that thy whole body should be cast 
 into hell" (Jesus, Matt. v. 29-30). 
 
 " Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I 
 will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make 
 my brother to offend " (St. Paul, 1 Cor. viii. 13). 
 
 (1) Bad and unhealthy bodily constitution or disease 
 is primd facie a disgrace. No laws, with regard to 
 our conduct, are written by our Creator more dis- 
 tinctly than the laws of physical health, and no 
 violations of the law are punished more infallibly 
 
68 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 and severely tliaii tlie violations of these laws — for 
 they comprise the first and most unpardonable, or at 
 least the most inexcusable, sins. Disease renders a 
 man incapable, and causes sufferings both to him and 
 his friends around. For disease there is no place in 
 our nature, except when it is the result of external 
 causes and is no fault of our own.- According to our 
 conception the soul of the man — the man himself — 
 only profits by passing through this'earthly life, when 
 this life is healthy. 
 
 (2) The man is on this earth first earthly. The 
 physical mass is developed slowly. Our first sur- 
 roundings, parents, teachers, teach and train us for a 
 long time in physiology only. A sound physiology, 
 or hygiene, is the elementary basis of morality and 
 true religion, and forms the only foundation stone of 
 the physical spiritual life. The most of us would 
 improve in physical and hygienic morality if we 
 would try to care as well for our bodies as the beasts 
 of the field do for theirs. 
 
 (3) Proper nourishment is the first and most 
 important law. 
 
 The "first point of this law is moderation. Cleanli- 
 ness — ^that is to say,k the removal of the refuse — is 
 the next point ; perhaps of equal importance. 
 
 When these two conditions |are strictly satisfied 
 by a healthy bodily constitution, then the activity, 
 the organisms, resulting therefrom will fulfil the 
 
SCHOOL. 69 
 
 purpose for wliich the human machine has been 
 constructed. 
 
 The fundamental principles of bodily health, by a 
 person of sound bodily constitution, are moderation, 
 cleanliness and activity. 
 
 (4) Food and drink in sufficient quantity, and of 
 proper quality, are apparently much appreciated, but 
 Seldom according to their full importance » The 
 generally customary carelessness in this respect 
 reduces the sphere of life into a lower standard, and 
 shortens the life ; very often unconsciously extinguishes 
 it suddenly. These dangers, however, rarely come 
 forth in a direct or fatal way, and therefore do not 
 attract the general attention. A few evidently starve 
 directly. Yet the Ulness of a good many, and finally 
 their premature death, is exclusively the consequence 
 of inadequate or improper nourishment. 
 
 (5) Evidently the greatest danger with regard to 
 the. provision of food and drink lies in excess. As 
 the process of eating and drinking is a pleasant one, 
 mankind is always inclined to increase and multiply 
 in an irregular proportion the pleasure connected 
 therewith. In this way they not only annihilate 
 the real purpose for which they strive, but tantalize 
 themselves by the continued development of their 
 desires, which become insatiable, and are never to be 
 satisfied. 
 
 It is no wonder that, in contrast to physical excess, 
 
72 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 properly understood, and suitably applied to the end in 
 view, by one wbo devotes bimself body and soul to the 
 purpose, and who is assisted by wide acquaintance and 
 knowledge of the world and of men, and a deep in- 
 sight into practical life. Brockway very rightly starts 
 from the undeniable truth that the result mostly 
 depends upon the first attempt to expand the miad. 
 And, however difficult and complicated this problem 
 may be, yet Brockway appears to have solved it in 
 Elmira, and that, too, not theoretically only, but 
 practically. Of course, his ultimate discharge, ever 
 hovering before the eyes of the subject, is to be 
 considered as the powerful incentive, so that the 
 originally prevailing aversion to culture and mental 
 occupation in the prisoner soon either consciously or 
 unconsciously vanishes, and gives place to animation, 
 from which a spontaneous liking and appetite for 
 mental food is soon formed. This is most plainly 
 seen in the choice of books from the library of the 
 Institute. At first, almost exclusively light works of 
 fiction are sought after, principally for the purpose of 
 killing time. However, through the unfailing influence 
 of the method of education adopted, a decided change 
 is soon noticeable, and the man who in public life 
 perhaps had never taken a book in hand, and who 
 began to read novels, etc., in the Institute, now takes to 
 ethical, economic, historical, ancient classics, and other 
 works. School books are not used in the classes, but 
 
SCHOOL. 73 
 
 the instruction is only imparted orally, in a manner 
 easily to be understood, by the most eminent- 
 authorities in the sphere of education, science, etc., 
 engaged in public duties in the neighbourhood; and for 
 this purpose remuneration is allowed out of the means 
 at the disposal of the Institution. There are also 
 many well-known persons who deliver discourses and 
 lectures in the Institution gratis ; and, further, amongst 
 the prisoners themselves, there are to be found many 
 sufficiently capable to be selected as teachers and 
 lecturers. 
 
 Their advanced physical condition, age and expe- 
 rience make the prisoners, as a rule, when the process 
 of schooling works successfully and in accordance with 
 the purpose in view, industrious pupils, and usually 
 leave better results than are obtained in the correspond- 
 ing school classes for boys, in spite of the fact that 
 here mentally and physically inert and sluggish 
 subjects of criminal tendencies have to be dealt with. 
 Indeed, to observe the thirst for learning and the 
 apparent self-interest of the pupils of a school-class 
 creates a peculiar and delightful impression ; it is 
 astonishing, and nowhere, in any school in ordinary 
 life, however well it may be organized and kept in 
 discipline, can the quality of the pupils be found to be 
 better. The newly awakened zeal to learn, to know, 
 and understand, seems to have opened to them a new 
 world, an altogether different sphere of life. No 
 
74 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 better proof can be produced than the fact that out 
 of the originally enormous number of 70 per cent, in 
 a state of ignorance, there remain scarcely 4 per cent, 
 upon whom the school system produces apparently 
 slight results ; the bulk of 66 to 95 per cent, make 
 steady progress, and many of them reach the very 
 highest attainable degree of culture. The main point 
 in the method is the thorough individual treatment 
 which the prisoner receives. The teachers and in- 
 structors have special orders to place themselves in 
 touch with each individual pupil, in order to judge 
 as accurately as ipossible their individual needs and 
 capacities, and to be able to deal also specially with 
 their dormant ones. 
 
 Teachers and instructors are also required to watch 
 carefully over the mental conditions and behaviour 
 of the pupils, and to report the slightest change, or 
 anything worthy of notice, at once to the General 
 Superintendent. 
 
 Once a month the inmates undergo a written examin- 
 ation, and the teacher and instructors are required to 
 produce promptly the examination lists containing the 
 exact percentage of the result which each pupil obtains. 
 This is then used as a basis for advancing into a 
 higher, transferring into a lower, or retaining in the 
 •same class. Transfer to a lower class only occurs, 
 when the pupil is absolutely unfit for the class in 
 which he finds himself, or when the percentage 
 
SCHOOL. 75 
 
 obtained at an examination is so low as to make it 
 appear desirable. 
 
 The necessity for strict impartiality is impressed 
 upon teachers and instructors, as upon all officers ; and 
 we may here remark that they lie under no responsi- 
 bility for the realization of good results ; but their 
 functions in this respect are considered to be discharged 
 with the simple announcement of the percentages. In 
 connection with the individual treatment is the 
 personal responsibility which rests upon the prisoners, 
 which is cultivated from the first moment of their ad- 
 mission. The individual can only rely upon himself ; 
 there is no other way but the straight, no other means 
 but his own activity. This individual responsibility is 
 forced upon the prisoner in such a way that at every 
 step, every thought, and every act, he is obliged to 
 reflect. Advancement and early regaining of freedom 
 rest exclusively on the individual himself ; and he 
 must be thoroughly in earnest if he will reach his 
 goal. It is not mere blind obedience to the letter of the 
 law and the performance of duty, or the mere submission 
 to the more or less important customs and regulations 
 of the Institution, that is demanded ; nor is much stress 
 laid upon them, as if any great purpose were ac- 
 complished by such submission : but what is desired 
 is the development of the individual's power of self- 
 contemplation. He must, in his inmost self, be 
 convinced of; the. immorality of wrong-doing, and of 
 
76 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 the benefits associated witli an orderly and upright 
 life. 
 
 The unfolding of the moral faculties of the individual 
 prisoner, simultaneously with those of the mind, is a 
 special feature in this educational and training depart- 
 ment. The moral feeling is imparted, not merely 
 through religious instruction, sermons, discourses, etc., 
 from the ministers of the respective creeds, but to a 
 great extent, if not to the greatest, by the teachers and 
 instructors. The whole school system is based upon 
 moral tendency, and all its aims and purposes end 
 in the instilling and due comprehension of the idea : 
 Practical Morality. And the end in view is less the 
 mere imparting of knowledge, of stereotyped facts and 
 ideas, than it is the arousing of the mind and soul of 
 the man, so as to leave a true comprehension of the 
 moral order of the world, and a complete recognition of 
 our relation to it. In order to keep alive and to pro- 
 mote the pupil's interest, free discussion of this or that 
 point is always allowed to the school classes ; and this 
 is found to be in the highest degree essential and 
 effectual for Practicsiil Ethics. The religious ministers 
 connected with the Institute, in their yearly reports, are 
 unanimous in their praise of the behaviour of the 
 prisoners, and their progress in religion ; and confirm 
 the great and beneficial effect of the class in Practical 
 Ethics. The examination papers in this class also 
 show, beyond a doubt, what progress has been made 
 
SCHOOL. 77 
 
 in the treatment and answering of deep questions on 
 Ethics. And we must particularly mention, in con- 
 nection therewith, that falsehood and dissimulation are 
 less associated with the answers and questions on the 
 part of the individual than is generally assumed. 
 Every utterance, however superficial a view it may 
 express, is freely and openly — ^if at times hastily — ex- 
 pressed, and deserves unbounded confidence in its 
 sincerity. Some answers of diff'erent pupils at one of 
 the last examinations may follow as examples : — 
 
 " No. 2,422. In the pursuit of pleasure I have found 
 an inexhaustible source of happiness." " Before, 
 excess was my delight ; now it is moderation." 
 
 " No. 2,737. I have profited most by having learnt 
 to understand the wrongfulness of anger." 
 
 " No. 2,236. The lectures have taught me that it is 
 always the wisest and most profitable plan to choose 
 the golden middle course — viz. not to despise legitimate 
 pleasure nor honest work but to combine both, to a 
 harmonious whole." 
 
 " No. 2,768. In consequence of the lectures, free 
 discussions, etc., I have already found how worthless 
 is the epicurean theory which I was following uncon- 
 sciously. I think that reason and conscience and at 
 the same time absolute subjection to the law should be 
 the dominating elements in every system of teaching 
 morality." 
 
78 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 " No. 1,973. I have learnt more about tlie right 
 ways to happiness than I ever knew before, — viz., 
 happiness in the right sense ; and further, that a 
 person, who acts with reason and careful reflection, 
 will only do what he considers most beneficial in the 
 interest of moral comfort; and that nobody, except 
 the madman, will think of committing suicide. " 
 
 " No. 1,890. I have learned most on the moral point 
 that everyone is your brother." 
 
 Of great interest is also a report of Professor 
 Charles A. Collin, lecturer on Practical Ethics, written 
 in 1883, about a year after the fprmation of the 
 Practical Ethics Class, the extract of which I will add 
 as follows : — 
 
 " The class — that of Practical Ethics — at first con- 
 sisted of about seventy young men from sixteen to 
 thirty years of age, selected as the brightest minds out 
 -of the prison population of nearly 600 — in 1885. A 
 majority of them had graduated from the classes in 
 the Reformatory schools, and had enjoyed from one 
 to three years' high-school training in the Reformatory, 
 especially in Political Economy under my professional 
 brother, our county judge ; in Physics, under the 
 iprofessor of that department and in English History 
 .and Civil Government, under the Principal of the 
 Elmira Free Academy. 
 
 ^'Expressly discarding oratory, funny stories, and 
 
SCHOOL. 79 
 
 similar nonsense, I set to work dryly, but cheerily and 
 heartily, to discuss on a low plane the most com- 
 fortable methods of living. At the outset I ignored 
 all authority, the Bible included, and took up the 
 problem of life as though for the first time— my 
 favourite and frequent recurring illustration being the 
 analogy of individuals in society to locomotives on a , 
 demoralized railroad, all wild-catting and frequently 
 colliding and wrecking. Bodily comfort and physical 
 health quickly brought up the general topic of temper- 
 ance. Upon the special application of temperance to 
 stimulants and narcotics, with a reckless indulgence 
 in intellectual honesty, I gave a fair exposition of the 
 argument for temperance as opposed to total 
 abstinence. My pupils had hitherto listened with 
 dubious interest, but now began to scent rank heresy. 
 The General Superintendent sat nervously watching 
 for me to fall over the edge of the precipice along which 
 I was treading. At the first meeting of the class I 
 had attempted to force discussion by calling up 
 members and asking questions, but ten minutes' trial 
 satisfied me with that experiment. Now the discus- 
 sion needed no urging. I was rebuked for encouraging 
 intemperance, and we have some very forcible total 
 abstinence lectures from members of the class. I took 
 my castigations meekly, and conceded that total absti- 
 nence was possibly the only true rule for anyone, and 
 was certainly the only safe rule for very many. 
 
8o NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 "By this time my pupils liad decided that their 
 teacher was not smart, nor particularly good. They 
 could not see how they were to pass their examinations 
 in such a study. The Practical Morality Class became 
 decidedly unpopular, and was known throughout the 
 Institution as the class in ' Practical Rascality.' 
 
 "The discussions naturally passed from physical 
 health to the health and diseases of the soul. Here 
 I was met by a spirit of scepticism, of which the 
 following extract from a note sent to me, was one of 
 the manifestations : — 
 
 " ' Dbab Sik, — I think that the man who said last 
 Sunday that he knew he had a soul, made a very 
 strong assertion ; and I am not near as sure as he is 
 about the matter, and I would like to be convinced 
 of the fact.' 
 
 " Strange to say, the proposition that man has a soul 
 troubled me for several Sundays, in spite of the 
 assistance of the orthodox majority of the class. I 
 finally clinched the proposition, as follows : ' If I 
 called you a fool you would say I insulted you. Then 
 there is something of you besides body, and this some- 
 thing can be happy or suffering, healthy or diseased. 
 Let us call this something, whatever it is, soul, without 
 regard to whether it continues to exist after the death 
 of the body.' John Doe, the leader of the sceptics, a 
 bright young burglar about eighteen years old, said to 
 
SCHOOL. 8 1 
 
 me privately, as we were walking out of tlie class- 
 room : ' "Well, I see that ia the sense in which you 
 use the word soul^ man has a soul : but whether man 
 has a soul in the religious sense or not I don't 
 know, and I am going to wait and see what I can 
 make out of it.' 
 
 " The topic of revenge was quickly reached in discuss- 
 ing the diseases of the soul. A recklessly honest dis- 
 cussion of the utility of revenge again put the General 
 Superintendent on tenter-hooks. This was further 
 heresy, and was more strenuously resented by the 
 class. 'Revenge was what brought me here,' said some 
 members frankly. I presented the other side of the 
 question by reading some elected passages from the 
 Socratic dialogue of Plato, with running comments, 
 elaborating the proposition that doing injustice is a 
 greater misfortune than suifering injustice. I was 
 quite satisfied with my argument, but John Doe was 
 not. He sent me the following note : — 
 
 " ' I have only attended up tUl now two lectures, and 
 therefore do not know what may have been said in the 
 other three. But in the lecture on the 24th, I think 
 you go a little out of the line. You say that if a man 
 from pure cussedness strikes you, it is better to let him 
 alone. Eeason: because a man in doing so hurts what 
 we have agreed to call his soul, and if he continues to 
 hurt it in such a way he will find in the end that he 
 
 6 
 
82 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 has hurt himself more than you. This is hardly 
 ' Practical Morality.' That which is unnatural can 
 hardly be called practical. Kevenge is not only grati- 
 fication of a desire, but also a mode of protection. All 
 our legal punishments are based on a spirit of revenge, 
 for the purpose of protection. A fine country we should 
 have if the Government were to let men go on doing all 
 the wrongs they pleased, consoling themselves by the 
 knowledge that the men were injuring themselves more 
 than anybody else. To show you that revenge is 
 instinctive, and a natural protection: a man strikes you 
 one blow, and your impulse is to strike him two, so as 
 to let him see that it does not pay to strike you, and to 
 make him, from impulses of fear, quit. Therefore 
 revenge, in such a case, is a natural protection, the 
 impulses of which are instinctive, and so universal that 
 they must contain some good. Farther on you say 
 that a man in striking you has only hurt the flesh. 
 Let us see. Suppose he has struck you on the cheek. 
 It hurts. The organic matter has been bruised. But 
 is that all ? What makes your hands close and 
 your teeth come together ? Ah, then, another source 
 of feeling has been touched, and let's see what it 
 is. . . . 
 
 " ' Look at yourself, and then see if the man who 
 struck you is not the better off. Besides, what 
 kind of forgiveness do you call that, where you 
 allow a man to strike you, when you believe that 
 
SCHOOL. , 83 
 
 by so doing the man will, in time, pay dearly for his 
 action ? You will have the world think you turn to 
 him the left cheek, while in your heart you expect 
 your pound of flesh. 
 
 " ' Pleslse excuse my freedom, and look upon me as 
 your attentive and respectful scholar.' 
 
 " I frankly acknowledged to the class the superiority 
 of my pupil's moral reasoning. 
 
 " Note. — Here may be mentioned that John Doe was 
 exceptionally heavily burdened with criminal heredity 
 and environment. His father a professional burglar, 
 his mother a professional black-mailer, and both in 
 State Prison when John, barely sixteen years of age, 
 entered the Eeformatory for taking his father's calling 
 to support his younger brothers and sisters. How hard 
 he struggles to keep to the right, which he sees so 
 clearly 1 However, what finally the struggle led to is 
 indicated by his contribution about a year afterwards 
 to The Summary, the Eeformatory newspaper, written 
 from the depth of his heart as follows : — 
 
 " ' God and the Robin. 
 
 " ' Early in the morning, before the lazy cock crows, 
 you may hear the robin singing his welcome to the sun. 
 All is quiet tUl his music rends the air, and as you 
 listen you are inspired with thoughts of Him who made 
 
84 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 the robin and yon. Perhaps the sweet song is a prayer 
 of thanks to God for sheltering them from the dangers 
 of the night. Do they know of God ? Who can tell ? 
 Perhaps He is the cause of what we, in onr ignorance, 
 call instinct. Once, as I listened to their music, I fell 
 asleep, and dreamt of a house near the sea. It had a 
 lawn in front, on which was a roMn hopping in search 
 of food for her young. But as she hopped about the 
 sky seemed to grow darker. I knew that a storm was 
 approaching, and when it came I saw the robin cling 
 to the tree for shelter. But the wind was fierce, and 
 it tore her from the branch, and in spite of all her 
 efforts, bore her out over the ocean, farther and farther 
 from the land, till at last, when its energy was spent, 
 its fury gone, it left her on the ocean with no land in 
 sight to guide her to her home. And as she flew she 
 thought of her little ones at home, and of her mate. 
 She thought she was flying to them, but every little 
 effort was taking her farther away, though she knew it 
 not. In her frightened cry I seemed to hear her say : 
 " Oh where shall I rest my weary wing ? " But in the 
 murmuring of the ocean she heard no reply, so she 
 could but fly on till darkness came, when, utterly 
 exhausted, she fell upon the cruel waves and died. 
 And He who made her will receive her when the 
 course of life is past. Cannot the little robin find in 
 that house of many mansions a place to rest her weary 
 wing ? Is heaven made for man alone ? Are not 
 
SCHOOL. 8S 
 
 these little creatures wlio never offend God, but wor- 
 ship Him with the purity and happiness of their little 
 hearts, entitled to the joys of hereafter ? Who can 
 doubt it ? '" 
 
 Professor Collin goes on : — 
 
 " We continued the readings from Socrates on ' Pun- 
 ishment as a Remedy for Diseases of the Soul.' That a 
 man should run to a judge to be punished as he would 
 to a surgeon when wounded, and should do the same 
 for his friends and relatives, was a new and strange 
 doctrine; and the professionally orthodox could not 
 tell which side to take. The only trouble with the 
 discussion now was to control it. Half-a-dozen hands 
 would be up at once, waiting for the leader's nod, and 
 even the General Superintendent could not always keep 
 his seat. 
 
 " Wewere progressing with quicklyincreasinginterest 
 for several weeks on such topics, when a dispute, which 
 had arisen between two men, as to whether a certain 
 expression constituted swearing, was referred to the 
 class. I tried to explain the value of religious 
 reverence. But, however indifferent they might be 
 to attacks upon their theories of morality, their re- 
 ligion they were ready to fight for. The Hebrews 
 felt insulted by the Roman Catholics, and vice versa, 
 and so on through all the variations, even to the 
 Agnostics. The discussion got away from me, and 
 
86 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 Lnt for the presence of the prison ' paidagogoi ' our 
 class would have broken up like the famous society 
 on the Stanislaus. 
 
 " The General Superintendent deemed it prudent to 
 prohibit the first grade men from continuing the dis- 
 cussion at their meals. The next two Sundays I 
 occupied the floor mainly myself, on the rationale of 
 religious controversy. Thereafter, only a hint was 
 necessary to stop the symptoms of a religious riot. 
 But the repression of the debating society spirit, and 
 of the argumentwm ad hominein, was constantly being 
 called for. These were the only points on which the 
 momentum of the older membership did not keep the 
 freshmen in order. 
 
 " The membership gradually increased to about 300 
 — in 1886. The popularity of the class had become 
 established, as might be inferred from the following 
 note, received by the General Superintendent, given 
 verbatim : — 
 
 " ' Gen'l Sup't : — Please helow me to attend the 
 lectures on Practical Morality Sundays fornoon. I 
 ges I can pas examination. I would much like it, 
 as I think morality is my weakest point. 
 
 " ' Yours truly 
 
 " I soon went floundering into the terra incognita 
 of business morality, with unaff'ected ignorance, hunt- 
 
SCHOOL. 87 
 
 ing for some standard of right and wrong, whereby to 
 test the morality of business transactions. I took 
 positions confidently, and abandoned them freely. 
 Some called me Socialist and Communist; but they 
 soon found that names did not trouble me in my 
 search after substance ; and that I was desirous only 
 to follow my intellect wherever it might lead, wholly 
 regardless of my landing-place. So great was my 
 faith that the truth will bear the keenest investigation 
 without damage either to the truth or to the inves- 
 tigator. Finally, we are plunged together into the 
 unstable waters of doubt and inq[uiry; but after a time 
 we came slowly scrambling out again, into the solid 
 ground of New Testament doctrine. The suggestions 
 from the class were of wonderful assistance to me in 
 my own pursuit of the truth. Indeed, I doubt if any- 
 where a club could have been formed, capable of 
 discussing this special line of topics with such freedom 
 from conventional prejudgment, such unguardedness 
 of expression, with such genuineness and sincerity. 
 
 "Their strong, practical tendency, coming from a 
 hard and narrow mature experience, held their leader 
 down to the ground, and often took the nonsense out 
 of his idealistic theories. 
 
 " I must skip a longer period without telling how I 
 came to read selected passages from the Apology, Crito, 
 and Phaedo, giving the dramatic story of the trial, 
 imprisonment and death of Socrates. 
 
88 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 " I would hot voluntarily have gone on to undertake 
 the difficult and delicate task of comparing the life 
 and teachings of Socrates and Jesus, but the class 
 forced me into it. It would have done you good 
 to hear Jews and Agnostics joining with the rest of 
 the class, in literally and sincerely praising Jesus 
 as they had formerly been praising Moses and 
 Socrates. All symptoms of the old religious wars 
 had disappeared. 
 
 " A discussion of the fundamental propositions of 
 religion naturally followed, and could not be avoided. 
 I confined the discussion as closely as possible to the 
 points in which the principal religions agree ; and, 
 strange to say, the only fundamental beliefs which 
 do not admit of critical intellectual' treatment — the 
 existence of God and the life hereafter were not once 
 questioned. It was strong confirmation of my faith, 
 that men so disposed to question anything, accepted 
 so readily my assumption of these fundamental 
 truths. 
 
 " Some utterances of the class sounded blasphemous, 
 but were not repressed, as free utterance seemed like 
 the proper relief to a festered sore, and the speakers 
 thereof were afterwards ready to reverentially consider 
 the doctrines they had denounced. 
 
 " One speaker raised the point that a man can only 
 reverence but not love God. The following contribution 
 in The Sum/mary the next Sunday, from a very young 
 
SCHOOL. 89 
 
 member in the third grade, closed the discussion of 
 that topic. 
 
 " 'LOVE. 
 
 "The love that prompts embrace, and tender sign ; 
 That resteth on desire of human joys, 
 And doth not bear the test of time, but cloys, 
 Partaketh not, nor comes of, the divine. 
 'Tis but attraction coarse of human clay ; 
 Its aim, that man to man should e'er be kind. 
 But, there's a love, life's traveller does not find 
 By chance, nor yet acquireth in a day. 
 'Tis that which draws the hearts of noble men 
 To hearts of some grand, heaven-ordained ones, 
 Whose words they read, though forms they may not see : 
 'Tis that which thrills the human spirit, when 
 It views the love of Him who made the suns 
 And worlds that roll in wondrous harmony.' 
 
 " [' The writing of the above sonnet was suggested by 
 the remark in the casuistry class last Sunday, that, 
 although reverence and respect may be felt, it is im- 
 possible for the human soul to feel any love towards 
 God. This, I have attempted to show to be false. — 
 F. J. D.'] 
 
 " F. J. D., for a considerable period after his entrance 
 to the Reformatory, had continued in a state of morbid 
 despondency. He has since demonstrated that there 
 was truth, as well as poetry, in his contribution to The 
 Summary the next Easter, as follows : — 
 
go NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 '"AN EASTER SONNET. 
 
 "'By F. J. D. 
 
 " ' Back from the door that bound the sepulchre, 
 Wherein my soul was gyved with chains of Sin, 
 This mom of Life, the rook of Death has been, 
 By hands seraphic, rolled away fore'er. 
 From out the dark, cold sleep, I cried aloud 
 Unto the Lord, within whose hands doth rest 
 A myriad worlds ; who doeth for the best 
 AU things. He oast aside my bond and shroud ; 
 And Death's armed sentries, who through all the night 
 Had watched beside my prisoned spirit's cave, 
 Fled, blinded by the rays of heavenly light 
 That circled Him who stood beside the grave 
 With angel cohorts ; come my soul to save. 
 And wake from out the sleep of wrong to right.' 
 
 " That the Socratic philosophy took sharp hold of the 
 class is indicated by the foUowiug answer given in an 
 examination paper to the question whether it is better 
 to beg or steal ia a case of emergency : — 
 
 " ' Beg, or, if you are too proud, die. For none but 
 an utter fool or coward is afraid of death itself, but he 
 is afraid of doing wrong.' 
 
 " One of the questions for examination at the close of 
 the religious discussion asked for the difference between 
 the teachings of Socrates and Jesus as to God's love of 
 men. Whatever else the class failed on every man 
 answered this question with abundant variations of 
 language, substantially as follows : ' Socrates taught 
 
SCHOOL. 91 
 
 that God loves and rewards those who honour and 
 obey Him ; but Jesus taught that God is the Heavenly- 
 Father, who has not forgotten or ceased to care for the 
 poor, down-trodden, miserable children who seem to 
 be good-for-nothing.' 
 
 "A very practical friend inquires : 'Well, after you 
 have got through with your moral and intellectual 
 gymnastics what is there in these men to show for it ? 
 "What is the final outcome of sharpening the wits of 
 such men with your high-toned discussions ? ' My 
 answer will be somewhat to this effect ; However it 
 may be with religion, there is no such thing as a 
 sudden conversion to morality. Morality means firmly 
 set habits acquired by long practice and severe dis- 
 cipline. Men can quickly recover from sudden and 
 sharp attacks ; but it is, not in human nature to 
 resist the effects of a steady pound, without any let- 
 up. Men cannot be kept steadily thinking, with a 
 genuine interest, on better or higher themes, with 
 reference to better ends, without acquiring better 
 habits of thought. 
 
 " I shall never forget one Sunday. A gentleman, well 
 known among prison reformers, was a visitor in my 
 morning class, when we were discussing the funda- 
 mental questions of religion. We were all doing our 
 best, feebly struggling with great questions, beyond our 
 abilities. I had remained to hear our visitor's address 
 in the afternoon, in place of the regular religious 
 
92 NEW YORK STATE REFORM ATORy. 
 
 service to the entire university. Never did I hear 
 sucli noble thoughts, couched in such noble language, 
 delivered with such solemn eloquence. He seemed to 
 cover the whole field of essential religion, and yet 
 without a word or colour of thought to check the . 
 unre stained admiration of Hebrew, Roman Catholic, 
 Protestant and Agnostic alike. That was a model of 
 the true system of ethics — religious education — the 
 sharpening of the critical faculties over questions of 
 practical conduct in the morning, the solemn appeal to 
 the religious emotions in the evening, with the leaders 
 of both exercises present and taking part in both. 
 And as I looked into the faces of those two or three 
 hundred young men, with the sympathy which cannot 
 but come from working side by side in the same 
 pursuits, and saw their brightness and moistened 
 eyes, and watched the lights and shadows play over 
 their uplifted countenances, with their quick appre- 
 hension of fine intellectual distinction and solemn 
 spiritual truths — condemned felons every one, yet men 
 whom I had learned to love — I said to myself : ' Here 
 must be the substance of things hoped for ; this is the 
 evidence of things not seen.' 
 
 " Chaeles a. Collin." 
 
 This chapter may fitly close with " Professor 
 Collin's Memorial on a Convict, George E. Lyons, 
 published in 1885 in The Summary." 
 
SCHOOL. 93 
 
 " When a comrade passes from our mortal sight the 
 impulse instinctively arises to erect a memorial to 
 mark the place he filled. As a man is conspicuous 
 among his fellows it is natural and customary that 
 his memorial should be likewise conspicuous. That 
 George Lyons was, by virtue of his force of char- 
 acter, conspicuous among his fellows here there can 
 be no question. It seems, therefore, fitting that his 
 memorial in The Summary should be more than a 
 mere mention of his death. 
 
 " If Lyons was a weak man, his weakness arose not 
 from the lack of forceful emotions, strong will, or 
 brilliant ability, but from the closely balanced conflict 
 between forces opposing each other with more than 
 usual power. His soul responded quickly to the 
 invitation to broader intellectual activity and to 
 religious meditation. He soon revealed that he was 
 by Nature endowed with strong religious and do- 
 mestic emotions, and a remarkably clear and logically 
 working intellect. I have met with few young men 
 so highly gifted with what is known among lawyers 
 as a legal mind. At the same time he was subject 
 to malignant passions of like strength. When these 
 gained control he lost his intellectual clearness. In 
 his better moods he was most amenable to sweet 
 reasonableness. Upon a mere hint he would antici- 
 pate, and sometimes surpass, the best counsel of older 
 and more experienced advisers. For a considerable 
 
94 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 period there can be no question but lie fougM a good 
 fight to give his better emotions the mastery. It is 
 difficult to believe that' the effect of that struggle 
 would ever be wholly lost on his character. The 
 near prospect of certain release from the Eeformatory, 
 and the contention between the desire to preserve home 
 ties and the desire to break old associations and pur- 
 sue a lawful career, apparently caused him to abandon 
 the struggle, and to relapse under the control of his 
 worse nature. I have seldom heard from any man 
 expressions of purer religious aspiration or of more 
 malignant passion. Each at the time was, as I believe, 
 equally sincere. He seemed almost cruelly weighed 
 with equal capacities for goodness and for badness. 
 At the best his life here was to be a severe struggle, 
 with the probability of apparent failure, even if he 
 kept up the fight. Does it, then, seem irreverent or 
 disrespectful to say that it was with a sense of relief 
 that I heard that Lyons had died a natural death ? 
 And surely it is not unreasonable to believe that in 
 parting from his mortal body he has been freed from 
 the heaviest burdens which oppressed and blinded 
 him; and that, like his poor robin, he will sometimes 
 find in that house of many mansions a place to rest 
 his weary wing. 
 
 " This George Lyons was the son of a notorious 
 burglar and professional shop-lifter. The young man 
 himself had been in the House of Refuge before 
 
SCHOOL. 95 
 
 admission to the Eeformatory, where, on his entry, 
 he was pronounced thoronghly crilninal and devoid 
 of moral susceptibility, though intellectually bright. 
 His career in the Institution sufficiently confirmed this 
 view. He oscillated between the highest and the 
 lowest grade for fifty-one months, leaving fights, in- 
 subordination, numerous great and small violations, 
 and an attempted arson in his track. He was 
 usually unbalanced and quarrelsome, and yet he had 
 intervals of noble impulses and manly behaviour; and 
 violent, passionate outbursts were not rare with him. 
 He developed rapidly and surprisingly in education 
 and mental power, but at every step he was handi- 
 capped by his heredity — a matter upon which he at 
 times openly displayed a sort of tragic feeling. When 
 a young lad, before coming to Elmira, his mother had 
 him placed in a Roman Catholic boarding-school in 
 Canada, which he left to shift for himself. Once, 
 when he was travelling by railroad he flew into an 
 ungovernable rage because she had not secured better 
 accommodation for him, and denounced her as a shop- 
 lifter before all the passengers. Again, when his 
 mother visited him at the Reformatory, he besought 
 her to work outside for his release, and, when she 
 objected, he became furious, abused and ordered her 
 out of the room, saying : ' God pity me if I ever see 
 you alive.' 
 
 " From first to last Lyons was an active, if not always 
 
96 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 consistent and decorous, participant in the Practical 
 Morality Class debates. A few times he made him- 
 self so objectionable that his exclusion was imperative. 
 In December 1885 he was removed altogether from 
 the Eefprmatory as incorrigible and of evil influence, 
 by transfer to the Auburn State Prison, where he died 
 about two months later. 
 
 " Physically Lyons was diseased, undersized, of low 
 quality, and had a peculiar head, the back of which 
 dropped vertically into the cervical line." 
 
THE LIBRAEY OF THE INSTITUTE. 
 
 It is important and almost necessary for the efficiency 
 of the school and educational system, that means 
 should be at hand for giving occupation to the mind 
 during hours not devoted to instruction; and indirectly, 
 consciously or unconsciously, to pave the way towards 
 the realization of the end in view. Beginning with a 
 very small supply of books in the Elmira Institute 
 there has now been established, thanks to the unweary- 
 ing efforts to expand and complete it on the part of 
 the school secretary, and especially of the General 
 Superintendent — a very respectable library of 3,970 
 volumes, and 650 magazines, amongst which are The 
 Century, Harper's Magazine, Scrihner's Magazine, 
 The Forum, The North American Heview, The 
 Atlantic Monthly, etc., as well as 240 illustrated 
 weekly papers. Of the 3,970 volumes, 1,250 are 
 for purposes of education and instruction or travel ; 
 1,100 are religious and ethical, 292 historical, 227 
 biographical, 208 scientific, and 893 are of light 
 literature — such as novels, romances and poetry. The 
 library is carefully arranged, and possesses printed 
 catalogues ; one of the officials of the Institution 
 
98 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 is appointed librarian ; there are certain library 
 regulations, and tlie arrangement of tlie whole is 
 like that of a great public library. Of the general 
 library regulations the following may be specially 
 mentioned : — 
 
 (1) The librarian has, in the first instance, to try to 
 meet the views of such readers only as make request 
 for useful books. It will always be ineffectual, there- 
 fore, to ask for particular works of fiction. 
 
 (2) Each reader, so soon as he is assigned to a 
 class in the school, must write the name of his 
 class opposite the word ". Grade " on his library 
 card. 
 
 (3) Readers desiriag to exchange on regular days 
 must place their books in door, or on the threshold, or 
 on their pillows if sleeping in the dormitory, so as to 
 leave no doubt as to their wish. No exchanges will 
 be made between regular days. 
 
 (4) Readers who exchange books with other inmates, 
 or who mutilate or grossly soil book or card, will be 
 deprived of the library privilege for a length of time to 
 be determined by the magnitude of the offence, and to be 
 usually not less than two weeks. 
 
 (5) Notify the librarian as soon as you are through 
 with books from Reference Library, as other men may 
 be waiting for them. 
 
 (6) Do not dog-ear the pages of your library books, 
 nor mark with pen or pencil. 
 
THE LIBRARY OF THE INSTITUTE. 99 
 
 (7) The librarian will distribute incoming letters on 
 Sundays, and collect those which are written by the 
 inmates, and will also supply paper. Letters for mail 
 are not to be folded or rolled ; and on the top of the 
 page the full name and address of the party for whom 
 the letter is intended is to be written. The name of 
 the inmate in full as well as consecative number is 
 also to be given. Ink can only be used by the General 
 Superintendent's special permission. Letters must be 
 ready for collection immediately after supper on 
 Sundays. 
 
 In order to form some idea of the circulation of 
 books amongst the prisoners, we may give the 
 statistics of one month — those of September, the last 
 month of the State Year 1888-9, the prisoners 
 numbering over 900 : — 
 
 During this month there were read : 
 
 In the Academic Classes . . . .616 books 
 5, ,, Intermediate ,, • ■ • • ^^^ 
 
 jj i) 
 
 Elementary „ . . . . 1,109 
 
 — altogether 2,184 books. Taking this number as a 
 monthly average, it amounts, to a yearly circulation 
 amongst the prisoners of 26,208 books from the 
 circulating library. The use of the library is not 
 compulsory ; on the contrary it is a special privilege, 
 which always taxes the reader with a certain responsi- 
 bility. "Where — ^in what country — can one find a place 
 
loo NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 whose inhabitants are so anxious to read and learn as 
 those in the Elmira Institute, where each man reads 
 more than twenty-six books regularly in the course of 
 the year ? Fiction is the most popular reading, but 
 it is represented exclusively by works of the very 
 best and most renowned authors, with regard to 
 whom no doubt exists that they are likely to prove 
 an important co-operating factor towards the realiza- 
 tion of the purpose of intellectual and moral im- 
 provement and reform. The rest of the works, 
 with the exception of those of biography and travels, 
 are included in the Eeference Library, which is 
 open and accessible to the prisoners on Monday 
 and Thursday evenings ; its object is to at once 
 supply a reliable answer to the questions arising in 
 the course of instruction, or at the lectures. On the 
 average 220 readers consult this Eeference Library in 
 the course of the month, and of these 40 ask for 
 works on Electricity, 42 Political Economy, 36 on 
 Technology, 22 on Physics, 21 on History, 15 on 
 Geography, and 35 for works on Miscellaneous Sub- 
 jects. The yearly circulation of the magazines 
 amounts to 20,256 numbers, and -those of the weekly 
 papers to 9,964 numbers. 
 
 It is, of course, impossible to estimate exactly the 
 beneficial influence which the Library exerts upon the 
 ■inmates ; at the same time, when one takes into 
 consideration the fact that by far the greater part 
 
THE LIBRARY OF THE INSTITUTE. loi 
 
 of the men coining into the establishment, previously 
 possessed no mind for reading, and indeed first learnt 
 to read here, or at most in their free life had a liking 
 for the low and flashy novel, etc., and here for the 
 first time learnt to value and understand something 
 better, — it is evident that the results, although they 
 cannot be proved by statistics, are strikingly shown in 
 their indirect effect. 
 
 The General Superintendent hopes this year to 
 so far extend and complete the Library, as to be 
 able to realize his ideal — namely, to suit the 
 reading to the reader. Although this plan has 
 hitherto been kept well in view, yet very much is 
 wanted to attain that standard which it is hoped 
 to realize, and the completion of which appears 
 necessary. 
 
 The number of works, as well as the arrangement 
 of the library and of means of access to it, for the 
 prisoners, does not yet satisfy Brockway's unwearied 
 spirit. He says : " Learn to know man, his habits, 
 thoughts and the condition of his mind, and give 
 him a suitable book to read, just as you give a 
 sick man the proper medicine for his recovery, and 
 you will then understand what has yet to be obtained, 
 before the Library of the Institute has reached the 
 position which it should occupy, as an aid to the 
 T^ork carried on in the Institution." 
 
 Let it be observed, too, that in the Institution many 
 
I02 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 letters arrive from the parents of discharged prisoners,, 
 greatly expressing their astonishment, that the son 
 who formerly wandered about the streets of an 
 evening after work, now hastens home and takes his 
 pleasure in books. 
 
THE JOUENAL OF THE INSTITUTE : 
 " THE SUMMARY." 
 
 One of the most original features, and one in certain 
 respects closely united with the educational depart- 
 ment, is the publication of a weekly Reformatory 
 paper, which is distributed every Sunday morning 
 to all the prisoners, except those of the third 
 grade. 
 
 One of the officers of the Institution, under the 
 direction of the General Superintendent, has charge 
 of the editorial management of the paper. Amongst 
 the inmates thiere are always men who can be 
 employed - as printers and compositors ; whilst at 
 the same time the printing department itself serves 
 several other purposes, as, for instance, for the print- 
 ing of the official annual, etc., reports, the papers 
 for the school-classes, which are specially prepared 
 for each lesson, etc. ; and generally, whenever any 
 paper, however insignificant it may be, is required in 
 a number of copies it is immediately taken to the 
 printers. 
 
 The Summary is edited with the utmost care. It 
 consists of eight pages — printing, paper and 'the 
 
104 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 whole arrangement leave nothing to "be desired. 
 Besides giving concisely a summary of all the news 
 that has been worth mentioning, both at home 
 and abroad, during the preceding week, it also 
 reports all events and changes which have oc- 
 curred in the Reformatory, or anywhere else in 
 connection with it, or are likely to take place in the 
 following week. It further contains original con- 
 tributions from writers of authority; and articles, or 
 extracts of them, from the best and leading newspapers 
 and magazines, carefully selected for the purpose of 
 indirectly developing a moral tendency ; and such as 
 are worth reading and of general interest — important 
 novelists, and the great questions of the day in 
 politics, political economy, science, art, literature, 
 technology, pedagogy, physiology, strategy, trade, in- 
 dustry and shipping; whilst a special correspondence 
 column gives answers to all kinds of reasonable 
 questions. 
 
 In this way the inmates live and advance with 
 the time, and could scarcely have better oppor- 
 tunities in ordinary life. The publications referring to 
 the Institution embrace everything which occurs out- 
 side the usual daily programme ; for instance, how 
 many prisoners arrived last week, how many were 
 discharged, and how many the present number 
 amounts to ; arrangements or alterations in next 
 week's programme for school, labour or religious 
 
THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE. 105 
 
 services, in the technical, militaiy or physical training 
 departments ; in the cultivation of the land, in domestic 
 arrangements, library, music, band ; in the personnel 
 of the officers or prisoners ; and in the case of the 
 latter not only transfers from one grade to another, 
 but promotions and degradations in school labour or 
 military service. 
 
 The paper, besides being a means of education and 
 culture, dispenses with the otherwise usual system of 
 giving orders orally to the prisoners. Consequently a 
 distortion or mutilation of an order is not possible ; 
 everything works with the most perfect regularity. 
 The whole machine moves and revolves with the finger 
 of the telegraphist. 
 
 Many remarkable communications from prisoners 
 who have been discharged sometimes many years be- 
 fore frequently appear, either in entirety or in abstract, 
 in The Summary — generally without publication of 
 the name. They at the same time afford evidence 
 of the influence which the school and reform system 
 in Elmira has exercised on those who have been 
 discharged. 
 
 In conclusion, 1 may just refer to a short notice 
 which was printed in the number of The Summary 
 for December 29th, 1889. However naturally it takes 
 its place, and however unimportant it may be to 
 those who know Elmira yet it is of great import- 
 ance for strangers, because it helps to give a correct 
 
io6 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 idea of the true relations between the General Super- 
 intendent and the convicts : — 
 
 " The General Superintendent herewith publicly ex- 
 presses his acknowledgment of the hearty Christmas 
 congratulations which he has received from a great 
 number of men through the letter-box. 
 
 " (Signed) 
 
 " Genbeal Supbeintbndent." 
 
UTILIZATION OF THE WORKING POWER 
 OF THE INMATES. 
 
 Next, if not of equal importance, to the department of 
 education and culture, the development and exercise 
 of the intellectual and moral faculties, in a reform 
 system which is intended to be rational, radical 
 and of lasting success, is the regular employment and 
 training of the physical parts of the man, or, to use 
 the general expression, " labour." In Elmira they 
 distinguish productive and instructive labour. The 
 latter signifies the teaching of a handicraft or trade, 
 which, up till now, has been carried on theoretically 
 and practically on a polytechnic basis ; whilst the former 
 means what is generally understood in prisons, penal 
 and other such establishments by the word " labour," 
 the utilization of the physical working power of the 
 inmates. This utilization of the individual working 
 power has, since the foundation of the Elmira Institute, 
 iu consequence of the constant political struggles, 
 experienced great revolutions. At first the " public "^ 
 account system " was in vogue. This means that the 
 State is itself manufacturer and merchant at the same 
 time, it conducts the whole manufacturing business, 
 
io8 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 invests the necessary business capital, undertakes the 
 buying of the raw materials and the sale of the manu- 
 factured articles either wholesale to certain contractors 
 or in the open market. The public account plan is 
 a method very frequently employed in America for 
 utilizing the individual working power of the inmates 
 of State prisons and other such establishments. In 
 consequence, however, of complaints about the appa- 
 rent competition created by the State, from the busi- 
 ness men who suffered thereby, the Elmira Institute 
 had according to a special law in 1881 to cease 
 working under the " public account system," and the 
 working power was contracted to manufacturers. How- 
 ever, in consequence of the strong agitation of the 
 labour party, the " public account system " was in 
 1884 again adopted by the State on a larger scale, 
 and it is hoped will be permanently adhered to. 
 
 Keeping reform as the end exclusively in view the 
 "public account system" is undoubtedly the most suit- 
 able means for keeping complete control over the labour 
 of the individual and the satisfactory development of 
 his bodily faculties. At the same time serious con- 
 siderations are involved in its introduction. In addition 
 to the great difficulty of profitably conducting, under a 
 clumsy State construction, a manufacturing business 
 which can only be managed by business men of proper 
 ability, the important politico-economic question has 
 to be considered : whether the State is justified in 
 
WORKING POWER OF THE INMATES. 109 
 
 entering, on at all a considerable scale, into direct 
 competition in any branch of business or manufacture 
 with free labour and with tax-paying citizens ? Justice 
 demands due regard for the outside world; and besides 
 that, the State would not be less capable of fulfilling 
 its duty in regard to preserving and protecting the 
 tendency to reform, if the individual working power, 
 measured by the effectively performed labour of the 
 prisoner, — i.e. on the principle of payment by the piece 
 of finished work, — were let out to contractors ; and 
 likewise if, more of course in the interest of reform 
 than of material profit, as much variety as possible 
 were introduced in trade and manufacture — at least 
 if the most important branches of industry connected 
 with outside life were practised. In a manufactur- 
 ing business rationally conducted by the State, it is 
 calculated in America that a working capital of 
 about £200 is generally required per labourer or 
 prisoner, — that is to say, for raw materials, finished 
 and unfinished articles, machinery and general busi- 
 ness capital, so that an institution with 500 hands 
 would require £100,000. 
 
 In the New York State prisons, the " public account 
 system" has been in force for several years, and the 
 results are considered to be most satisfactory ; the 
 business capital invested for the purpose amounts to 
 over £600,000. It is conducted by Superintendent 
 Baker and a Commission drawing a salary of £3,000. 
 
no NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 This Commission consists of three gentlemen, and 
 bears the name of the " Prison Labour Reform Oom^ 
 mission." In other States-, such as New Jersey, 
 Pennsylvania, Ohio, California, the " public account 
 system" has been adopted in place of the "central 
 system." In Michigan, the proposal fell through in 
 the Legislature, only for want of other suitable occupa- 
 tion. Another method very frequently applied in 
 America is the Piece-price-plan, ' by which the State 
 enjoys the full use of the effective labour of' the 
 prisoner ; that is to say, the contractor has to pay for 
 each piece of finished goods. 
 
 In the Elmira Institute, under the " public account 
 system," the manufacture of hollow glass-ware, 
 chairs and tobacco-pipes has been conducted on a 
 large scale; and for this purpose about £22,500 has 
 been invested as business capital; and that, too, in the 
 first instance, in the interests of reform without regard 
 to the financial results, although when the labour 
 forces are fully employed the financial results are 
 expected to be better than those of the contract 
 system. However, the income derived from an in- 
 dependent manufacturing business, has of late years 
 never amounted to more than 56 per cent, of the cost 
 of. maintenance, whereas in the last years of the con- 
 tract system it approached 70 per cent. The cause 
 of this unfavourable result is ascribed to a large 
 extent to the fact that the means at hand for 
 
WORKING POWER OF THE INMATES. in 
 
 carrying on trade were hardly sufficient, and that in 
 consequence tlie individual working power could not 
 be fully utilized. It was hoped that this unfortunate 
 circumstance would be removed in time, and more 
 favourable results were looked for in the future. 
 Meanwhile, during the last two years, the condition 
 of things in this respect has not only not improved, 
 but, in consequence of new laws which partly prohibit 
 and partly limit particular branches of industry, it 
 has grown much worse. In fact, last year no receipts 
 at all could be recorded as derived from productive 
 labour — nay the account shows a considerable loss, 
 which however must be ascribed only to the fact that 
 deductions for the wear and tear of tools, machines, 
 etc., which should have been made in previous 
 years, were made up for this year, and that the 
 market price of products last year showed a con- 
 siderable falling-off as compared with the previous 
 year. 
 
 Since the passing of the so-called Yates Bill, in 
 1888, the law entirely prohibits the utilizing of the 
 labour of the inmates for the manufacture of shoes, 
 boots, stoves and hollow glass-ware ; whilst the 5 
 per cent, limitation clause, which was conceded in an 
 amendment through the Fasset Bill of 1889, has the 
 effect of practically hindering the resumption of the 
 manufacture of chairs brushes and brooms. It limits 
 the making of tobacco-pipes, for which there are tools 
 
112 
 
 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 and machinery for 75 men, to 11 men. The same 
 clause reduces the employment of prisoners in the 
 manufacture of hardware, a branch of industry which 
 was recently taken up, and was intended chiefly to re- 
 place the manufacture of hollow glass-ware, as being 
 more profitable, and for which tools and machinery 
 have been made for 250 men, to 120. The Yates Bill 
 of 1888 actually threw 854 prisoners out of employ- 
 ment in August 1888, these being at that time employed 
 in the following industries : — 
 
 Hardware . 
 
 251 
 
 Brushes 
 
 190 
 
 Brooms 
 
 . 68 
 
 Tinware . 
 
 . 31 
 
 Chairs 
 
 . 39 
 
 Tobacco pipes 
 
 . 32 
 
 Packing and paper boxes 
 
 . 25 
 
 Otherwise employed . 
 
 . 218 
 
 In this way'it has been found impossible, during the 
 past year, to keep to the eight hours working-day in 
 Elmira; and the Managers have consequently been in 
 a position to apply the best methods more and more 
 to the realization of the purposes of reform. Besides 
 devoting the free time to physical exercises, and a 
 more comprehensive extension of the trade school for 
 technical instruction, it has been also applied to a new 
 organization that has been called into existence, namely 
 military training. 
 
WORKING POWER OF THE INMATES. ii 
 
 3 
 
 The number engaged in various employments at the 
 end of last year, was as follows : — 
 
 Hardware ,• • 121 
 
 Pipes and other Swedish novelties in woodwork . 64 
 Chairs and cabinet-making . . . . .36 
 
 Packing cases 5 
 
 Tinware 26 
 
 Pasteboard boxes .... . 11 
 
 The division of time was as follows: — 
 
 Productive Work. — Five hours daily. 
 
 Technical Instruction. — Two hours daily, except 
 on Wednesdays and Saturdays. 
 
 Military Training. — ^Dress parade every day at 4 
 o'clock, and on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons 
 two hours' drill. 
 
 Evening School. — Class exercises and instruction 
 every evening from 6 to 9.30. 
 
 A departure from this arrangement of time is allowed 
 in the case of about 200 of the 1,000 inmates, who are 
 either engaged in domestic, agricultural and other 
 services, or are undergoing special treatment in the 
 class of physical culture. 
 
 The Institution at Elmira has suffered considerably 
 through the confusion in the labour question in New 
 York. In so far as, owing to the continual changes 
 in all branches of manufacture, it is extremely difficult 
 on all occasions to find at once suitable foremen, who 
 satisfy all requirements, and above all things are 
 
,114 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 capable of teaching quickly and thoroughly the new 
 hands who are constantly arriving — discharges and 
 new arrivals are continually taking place; and further, 
 as the customers, the purchasers of the finished articles, 
 could not be regularly supplied, they have frequently 
 formed other connections, and so ceased to take the 
 products of Elmira. 
 
 It remains now to be seen what position the legisla- 
 tive body and the people in general will take up, and 
 whether they will permanently remain contented with 
 the small earnings of the prisoners in proportion to 
 their cost of maintenance. In my opinion it would 
 be just if matters could be so arranged that the 
 prisoner earns by his labour a large part, if not the 
 whole, of his maintenance; and this can be easily 
 accomplished with ordinary economy, without any 
 prejudice to the cause of reform. 
 
 Besides the chief branches of industry, a further 
 number of prisoners find either temporary or regular 
 employment exclusively in the service of the Institu- 
 tion — as bricklayers, carpenters, plumbers, shoemakers, 
 tailors, machinists, as well as in agricultural and 
 domestic service, etc. 
 
 The General Regulations for the behaviour of pri- 
 soners in the workshops, are given in abstract as 
 follows: — 
 
 (1) Upon entering the shop at any time, you must 
 
WORKING POWER OF THE INMATES. 115 
 
 go directly to your place, and arrange your clothing 
 ready for work; you must not leave your place under 
 any circumstances, even if ordered by another, unless 
 pei-mitted by the overseer in charge. 
 
 (2) All permits must be obtained from the overseer 
 by signalling with the hand held high above the head, 
 and immediately after attracting his attention indicate 
 your desire by a motion of the hand. 
 
 When you are in need of stock, tools or instructions, 
 you must immediately notify the citizen foreman or 
 inmate foreman by hissing slightly to attract his 
 attention. 
 
 (3) Talking to any one is strictly forbidden, and 
 those who have not previously obtained permission for 
 necessary conversation cannot get the overseer's per- 
 mission by the usual signal. 
 
 (4) Anyone who has the privilege of talking relative 
 to work, and abuses such privilege, will be deemed 
 "untrustworthy, is subject to report, and may suffer the 
 loss of confidence which is so essential to release. 
 
 (5) You must give close attention to the work, and not 
 glance about, laugh, motion or make signs to other 
 inmates, stare at visitors or speak to the overseer or 
 other person louder than in an ordinary conversational 
 tone ; or in any other manner create disorder. You 
 are not allowed to sit during working hours, while 
 in the shop; and when out of work you must stand at 
 your place in an erect position, and with arms folded. 
 
ii6 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 (6) You are not permitted to cease working before 
 qtdtting-time, even if you have completed your require- 
 ment, but must keep yourself constantly employed all 
 the time during working hours, unless actually com- 
 pelled to remain idle because ofinsufficient or improper 
 stock, lack of tools or any other cause for which you 
 are not to be blamed; and at such times you must 
 immediately notify the overseer at the exact time of 
 stopping and resuming work ; to the end that he may 
 make proper allowance, which will be credited to you 
 on your task. 
 
 (7) When marching in double or single file you must 
 keep about two and a half feet in the rear of the man 
 preceding you; and when marching by fours, each set 
 must keep about six feet behind the preceding set. 
 Third grade men will, at all times, when marching in 
 the yard, maintain single file and the lock-step, and 
 their faces turned at an angle of forty-five degrees 
 from the front, and toward the side on which the over- 
 seer is walking. All inmates must go up and down 
 stairs in single order. 
 
 (8) It is not permitted to lend, borrow or trade 
 tools, stock or appliances with another inmate, without 
 the knowledge and consent of the foreman having 
 charge of the same. Stock or tools must not be wasted^ 
 and the latter must be carefully kept in their proper 
 place and in good condition, as everyone will be 
 held responsible for them, and will be required to 
 
WORKING POWER OF THE INMATES. 117 
 
 make good by an amount of overwork equivalent in 
 value to any loss through. wUful damage or culpable 
 carelessness. 
 
 (9) A fellow-inmate's place must not be encroached 
 upon. In case of finding the room insufficient, com^ 
 plaint is to be made to the foreman, and he will adjust 
 the matter if there be real cause for the complaint. 
 
 (10) Another inmate must not be assisted to perform 
 his task, by doing work for him, or in any way or 
 manner aiding him to complete his requirement ; 
 neither is it allowable to receive assistance from another 
 inmate. 
 
 (11), (12), (13). 
 
 (14) The overseer will give instruction as to the time 
 and place for washing up, and at the signal it is required 
 to move to and from the sinks or washing bench 
 promptly and quietly. Upon returning to the place, 
 work must be resumed immediately, and each prisoner 
 must be constantly employed until the second general 
 whistle has blown, when the proper clothing, prepara- 
 tory to marching to the hall, must be put on. 
 
 ■ (15). 
 
 ' (16) No inmate is permitted to raise or lower a 
 window except when ordered to do so by the overseer, 
 (17) It is not permitted to step upon overseer's plat- 
 form, or to hold an extended conversation with him; 
 but merely to state briefly the complaints or requests, 
 and to return to work> 
 
ii8 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 (18) Any inmate not having permission, wlio is found 
 to have upon his person, or in his possession, or who is^ 
 shown to have prepared for or given to another inmate^,, 
 a knife or other dangerous weapon, will be reported 
 and marked at least, and may also suffer deprivation^ 
 degradation or other correction. , 
 
 (19) It is not allowed to give or receive any article 
 whatever^ as a gift to or from any officer, employee, 
 citizen or fellow inmate, no matter of how trifling a 
 value it may seem, without the knowledge and consent 
 of the General Superintendent or principal keeper. 
 
 - (20) When in doubt about the propriety of an action, 
 adopt David Crockett's rule: " First find you are right, 
 then go ahead." 
 
 From the General Labour Requirements, there may' 
 be mentioned : — 
 
 (1). 
 
 (2) Upon commencing work, 6ach one has to apply 
 
 himself diligently, and to pay close attention to every- 
 thing shown by instructor or foreman, 
 
 (3) Each one is expected to do the work in a thorough 
 and workman-like manner, and to work carefully, 
 avoiding damage to stock or tools, as any loss or 
 damage, if such result through negligence or careless- 
 ness on the part of the man, will be charged to him,^ 
 and he may also lose demeanour marks for the same. 
 
 (4). 
 
WORKING POWER OF THE INMATES. lig 
 
 (5) By complying voluntarily with the requirements 
 laid down in this book, full marking will be secured. 
 By neglecting to do so the labour will become com- 
 pulsory, in which case full marking cannot be secured, 
 even if afterwards worked up to the requirements, for' 
 the effort would fall under the head of "forced labour," 
 which does not entitle to full credit. 
 
 (6) A strict credit and debit account of work done by 
 every one is kept, and balanced at the end of each 
 monthi 
 
 (7) Overwork will be credited. In case of falling 
 short of the requirements from any cause the whole of 
 the shortage must be made good before a credit can be 
 claimed. If through indifference, obstinacy or care- 
 lessness a debit is run up, this debit must be made up 
 or cancelled by the Managers before " parole " can be 
 granted. 
 
 (8) At any time, when employed in a non-tasked 
 capacity or department, the duties must be performed 
 Industriously and faithfully, and the overseer must be 
 satisfied as to the quality and quantity of the production 
 in order to gain " perfect " marking for labour. 
 
 Besides these there are special rules applying to 
 the iron foundry, and the manufacture of hollow glass- 
 ware, shoes, brooms, brushes, etc. 
 
TECHNICAL TKAINING OF THE PRISONERS. 
 
 When it is considered that of the individuals sentenced 
 to Elmira, at least 75 per cent,, or perhaps even 90 
 per cent., have actually learnt no trade, or have not 
 learnt it in a way to ensure their finding a regular 
 and sufficient livelihood; and that in round numbers 
 94 per cent, of all crimes are committed against 
 property; it is not to he wondered at that, from the 
 very first special care and attention have been given 
 to this circumstance in Elmira, and that more and 
 more attention is continually being devoted to it. 
 We can only speak of a radical improvement in the 
 individual, when not only the mental and mora,! but 
 also the physical nature has been trained and im- 
 proved; when indolence and lack of skill have been 
 banished from the body ; and when, thanks to its 
 increased suppleness, the habit of regular activity has 
 been established, and if possible, a definite manual 
 occupation or knowledge of a trade to serve as an 
 honest means of support in public life has been 
 taught. To this, and especially to the last mentioned 
 point, the efforts of the Elmira Institution are directed. 
 When it is realized that by far the greater part of all 
 
TECHNICAL TRAINING OF THE PRISONERS. 121 
 
 crimes committed, not only in America but also 
 amongst ourselves, originate directly or indirectly in 
 material causes; and that these circumstances again 
 find their origin to a considerable degree in the lack ^ 
 of capacity for obtaining the necessaries of life in an 
 honourable way; it is evident that nothing can be 
 more to the purpose and more essential than instruc- 
 tion and training in a particular branch of labour, in 
 order to place the individual after his discharge in 
 a position to be able to secure with less difficulty 
 the satisfaction of the necessary wants of life. Every 
 kind of work in prisons or in reformatories should be 
 directed to this end, so that the prisoner may be sure of 
 a means of livelihood after his discharge ; for only when 
 this is realized, and mental and moral culture have 
 been successfully applied, is there a certain guarantee 
 that for the future an honest citizen has been created, 
 who will be a protection instead of a danger to 
 society. To possess moral principles is all very well,-^ 
 but as soon as want and distress knock at the door, 
 as soon as the pangs of hunger begin to be felt, then 
 the temptation to overstep the paths of law and right, 
 almost unconsciously one may say, presses hard on 
 our weak human nature, especially in a youthful 
 person in the full vigour of life, whose inqipulses, 
 inclinations, desires and needs instinctively recognize 
 and understand only the passing moment — the present 
 day, and not the morrow. The noblest characters, t]ie 
 
122 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 first and most deeply rooted natures in this way 
 become the mere play-balls of fate, like the solitary 
 adventurer in his skiff on the open sea. In accepting- 
 any real theory of reform, then, the first and indispens- 
 able condition is that care should be taken, at least in 
 certain relations, for the future of the individual — a 
 problem which, when rightly understood, is less difficult 
 than it appears, and will be crowned with astounding^ 
 results; in fact, by a general improvement through- 
 -out the whole of society. The individual capable of 
 improvement, and above all one who judging from 
 his age has a long future before him, ought not to lose 
 the charm of existence, the striving after a definite 
 goal; and this particularly happens when the prisoner 
 in a long term of imprisonment sees no opportunity 
 of making use of the occupation imposed on him, after 
 his release from prison, or when it appears to him 
 to be beneath his dignity and repulsive. When this 
 is the case, outward compliance can only be effected 
 by the use of force ; freedom of thought and action, 
 with the consciousness of a purpose in life, no 
 longer exist when absolutely normal requirements are 
 not satisfied, or when sach irregularity has already 
 taken root ; the bodily functions no longer correspond 
 to those of the mind — the body is driven forwards by 
 the power of the machine, and without thought or 
 sense fulfils its functions in this mechanical arrange- 
 ment, like the dead tooth of a living wheel; whilst 
 
TECHNICAL TRAINING OF THE PRISONERS. 123 
 
 thoughts and feelings rise np in the mind or else 
 their already existing forms take deeper root, in which 
 one fails to find any good and sound qualities. 
 Hypocrisy, deceit, dissimulation, a mania for obtaining 
 advantage by long circuitous means — in short, lying 
 and deceit in the widest sense of the words, are the 
 most common and prevailing evils. It is these 
 qualities that are the greatest foes of society, the 
 worst and most dangerous that can be possessed by 
 a man ; yet it is these which are systematically, though, 
 perhaps unconsciously, nourished and cultivated, in- 
 stead of our endeavouring, in accordance with the 
 true conception of reform, to eradicate them by all 
 available scientific means. Body, mind and soul must 
 at all times be so linked together that no thought, no 
 feeling, can arise without knowledge of the body, and 
 that the latter should yield itself to no acts which 
 are not simultaneously accompanied or preceded by 
 a mental or moral activity. Consequently, in connec- 
 tion with the department of education and culture, 
 a schooling and moralizing of the body is an indis- 
 pensable condition of a reform system that aims at 
 being really efficacious. The work may be instruc- 
 tive or productive, or both at the same time, but it 
 must be capable of producing reform, and must keep 
 in view the future of the individual." 
 
 Although the question of a physical training has, 
 from the beginning, received special attention in 
 
\. 
 
 124 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 Elmira, it was not until the year 1884, after the 
 contract system had been entirely abandoned by the 
 legislature, that the initial step was first taken in 
 the founding of a well-organized department of tech- 
 nical instruction. In the previous year the experiment 
 had been tried in a summer course of a technical art 
 school under the direction of a professional artist. 
 The results obtained and the interest shown by the 
 scholars were so encouraging that in 1885 the building 
 and arrangement of places for instruction in various 
 branches of trade was proceeded with. At the begin- 
 ning of 1886 this trade school was opened with six ex- 
 perimental classes, viz. : for blacksmiths, bricklayers, 
 poUshers, stonecutters, carpenters and plasterers, with 
 over 800 prisoners as apprentices. The instruction 
 took place at first on Mondays and Thursdays, and 
 the teachers and instructors were, with one exception 
 only, drawn from the outside world. Since then the 
 development and expansion of the trade school has 
 progressed so rapidly that last year 1,006 prisoners 
 received instruction and training in 25 diiferent 
 branches of trades and industries, and that, too, by 
 properly qualified professional men, generally pos- 
 sessing a practice of their own in public life. Special 
 weight is laid upon instruction in drawing in all 
 classes, the object of which is to initiate the pupU in 
 the advantages of drawing in connection with his 
 work, and to advance him so far that he may be able 
 
TECHNICAL TRAINING OF THE PRISONERS. 125 
 
 at once to read, understand, and eventually realize in 
 his work any drawing of tlie subject on which he is 
 engaged. For instance, the bricklayer should not 
 only learn how to lay one brick on another, but he 
 should know before he begins his work what is to be 
 produced from the whole — that is to say, he should 
 work according to a well-elaborated plan, instead of 
 proceeding blindly and without aim and end. A 
 similar necessity is felt in many other trades. 
 
 Amongst the 25 trades there exist classes for 
 machinists, blacksmiths, stonecutters, carpenters, 
 wood-turners, carvers, polishers, varnishers, plasterers, 
 bricklayers, decorators, plumbers, metal-workers, book- 
 binders, printers, tailors, shoemakers, bakers, barbers, 
 etc. During last year, in consequence of the lack of 
 regular productive work, four hours were daily devoted 
 to the trade school, except on Wednesdays and Satur- 
 days when military exercises took place. Technical 
 and drawing instruction is at the same time a great and 
 valuable contribution to the general education and 
 culture of a man. It is worthy of remark that before 
 the tribunal sittings, last October, many who were 
 recommended for conditional discharge, on being 
 asked what they would do to maintain themselves on 
 their discharge, replied in a tone which showed no 
 doubt or hesitation as to their future success : " Why ! 
 by foUovnng the trade, or working in the profession, 
 which I have learnt here." 
 
126 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 In one of the latest audiences of the General Super- 
 intendent, a prisoner, nineteen years of age, confessed 
 with tears in his eyes that he had misrepresented 
 himself on being brought to the Institution. He 
 stated that he had already served in both the West- 
 boro' Reformatory School, and in the Charlestown 
 (Massachusetts) State "Prison, and most earnestly 
 added : " If I had been taught a trade, either in my 
 first or second imprisonment, I should never have 
 known a third conviction for crime." 
 
 It may further be remarked that, of late years, 
 almost the whole of the work, the improvements and 
 additions, both in and around the Institution, build- 
 ings, etc., have been exclusively carried out by the 
 pupils of the Technical School. 
 
 Up till now the department of Technical Instruction 
 has devoted itself to instruction alone ; at the same 
 time strenuous efforts have already been long made, 
 with the express purpose of uniting therewith actual 
 production and material utility, in order to give each 
 individual, as far as possible, technical practice and 
 accuracy, and to better guarantee their advantageous 
 application in public life after liberation. 
 
INTRODUCTION OF A SELF-SUPPORTING 
 SYSTEM AMONGST THE PRISONERS. 
 
 The introduction of a system of self-support amongst 
 the prisoners is tlie outcome of a plan wMcli was 
 conceived in Elmira some years since, and to the 
 realization of which considerable energy has been 
 devoted in recent years. According to this plan, the 
 prisoner is to receive, for work done, an actual wage, 
 according to an established scale ; out of this he has ' 
 to pay for all that the Institution supplies him with, 
 such as board, lodging, clothing, etc., and even 
 medical treatment ; the rest of the wages earned then 
 remains the property of the individual. Whether this 
 settling of wages is to take place weekly with the 
 prisoner, and the amount of his credit paid over to 
 him at once, or whether payment in cash is to be held 
 over until the prisoner is discharged from the Institu- 
 tion, has not yet been definitely expressed in the 
 proposals. Had it not been that the regular occupation 
 and material utilization of the prisoners experienced 
 during the last few years such complete revolution 
 and continual changes, there is no doubt that a system 
 
128 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 of self-support amongst the prisoners would have 
 already been introduced. The plan was originally 
 conceived chiefly in regard to productive labour, and 
 calculated for the ordinary branches of industry. But, 
 on account of the difficulties in regular work already 
 mentioned, the principal attention is at present given 
 to the trade school. There is besides not the least 
 prospect at present of these legal obstacles being 
 either soon, or at any time, removed. Even if in a 
 favourable moment a law is passed by the Legislature 
 for this purpose, it is only too often soon after, per- 
 haps in a few months, buried by the busy grave- 
 digger, until it is once more brought to light by 
 the caprice of a majority. The popular representa- 
 tives of the inhabitants of the New World ar6 
 agitation-loving, ambitious, and contentious politicians. 
 Whether in Elmira, in the trade school, that is to say, 
 when the trades are placed upon a productive basis, or 
 in regular labour, or in both departments, the self- 
 support plan will be introduced, depends largely upoii 
 the position which the legislative body will take in the 
 near future in relation to the employment of prisoners. 
 However, if Brockway's ideals should ever be realized, 
 and the trade school fulfil the purposes of production as 
 well as of instruction, and many more departments of 
 industry and professions be included, and all pupils be 
 engaged in it for the whole working day — and that, 
 too, on a self-supporting basis— it is impossible td 
 
A SELF-SUPPORTING SYSTEM. 129 
 
 conceive any arrangement of a system of reform which, 
 could be taken up witli greater pleasure, which would 
 bear such fruit and bring such blessings, which would 
 be so conscious of a purpose and a goal, and be so 
 calculated to fill up with unfailing promptitude an im- 
 measurable gap in sociology in general and penology 
 in particular. 
 
 It is evident that a two, instead of a one, years' 
 technical schooling allows of decidedly better results 
 being attained, and that a course extending over only 
 one year has in many cases a very imperfect effect 
 upon the individual, so far at least as technical educa- 
 tion is concerned. Even in Elmira the authorities are 
 thoroughly persuaded of these facts, and would long 
 ago have placed the technical school on a self-sup- 
 porting basis ; were it not that in many cases a large 
 part of the twelve months' minimum period of im- 
 prisonment is used up before the prisoner has so far 
 progressed with his particular trade, as to be able to 
 use tools and materials without loss to the Institution, 
 and to be able to work for himself. At the same 
 time there is every reason for believing that, with 
 the energy and vigour with which problems are 
 usually attacked in Elmira, a way will sooner or later 
 be found which will bring these all-important con- 
 siderations to a satisfactory solution. 
 
 In the general introduction of all the more important 
 professions and trades, commonly practised in public 
 
 9 
 
130 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 life, for the purpose of providing regular productive 
 occupation and of introducing tlie greatest possible 
 variety, there is further this great politico-economic 
 advantage, that thereby no one trade suffers any com- 
 petition worth mentioning. Indeed society is surely 
 in duty bound to bear a certain amount of competition 
 from those who are kept in prison ; for they belong to 
 society, and if they were free and orderly citizens, 
 instead of prisoners, they would pursue this or that 
 branch of industry, and consequently be natural com- 
 petitors in the daily struggle for bread. 
 
 The object of the self-supporting system is, in the 
 first place, that each individual during his imprison- 
 ment may show and develop his disposition and 
 qualifications in such a way that no doubt remains 
 as to his capability to maintain himself in free life. 
 If the individual does not earn his own maintenance 
 in the Institution, there is less reason for assuming 
 that he can and will earn his living when free in an 
 honourable way ; and it is necessary to continue the 
 schooling and practical training, in combination with 
 the other usual means for developing power of will, 
 until the end which is kept in view is reached, and a 
 satisfactory capacity for work has been absolutely 
 formed. The individual is also accustomed to prac- 
 tise reasonable economy ; he knows how much he is 
 obliged to work in order to be able to obtain a 
 comfortable maintenance, and soon finds out that 
 
A SELF-SUPPORTING SYSTEM. 131 
 
 surplus earnings are welcome as a means of increasing 
 comfort, or when laid by can become a still more 
 welcome reserve for certain unforeseen occasions. 
 Moreover, in the interest of the State, such an in- 
 dustrial arrangement ensures that the prisoner, if 
 regularly employed, earns, if not all, at any rate a 
 certain share of the total cost which his imprisonment 
 entails upon the State. 
 
EXPERIMENTS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
 
 Just as great stress is laid in Elmira on the sanatory- 
 condition and tlie proportional physical development 
 of the subject, so also men suffering notoriously from 
 physical, and consequently from mental, incapacity are 
 continually subjected to special experiments in physical 
 culture. In the summer of 1886 Brockway arranged 
 that experiments in physical culture should be made 
 for the first time with a class of 12, composed of men 
 
 ^--who, in the course of one to two years spent in 
 the Institution, had made little or no progress in the 
 department of education ; and who appeared completely 
 incapable of continuous mental application, although 
 they could not be regarded as mentally unsound or 
 imbecile. 
 
 The object which was held in view in the formation 
 of such a class was to ascertain as far as possible 
 whether special physical treatment, such as frequent 
 
 /4)athing, rubbing the body, and daily gymnastic 
 exercises under a competent instructor, would not 
 result at least in a partial awakening and arousing of 
 the sluggish, sleeping powers of the mind. The class 
 
EXPERIMENTS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE. 133 
 
 was from the first an entirely new experiment, and no 
 anticipation as to the results to be attained were 
 formed, and still less was it supposed that a pro- 
 cess of physical culture would change a blockhead into 
 an intelligent and industrious scholar, which, accord- 
 ing to the ordinary view, would require mental rather 
 than muscular development. 
 
 The experiments took place under special direction 
 of the physician. The class was formed on June 6 th^ 
 1886, of 10 white and 2 coloured men ; the average 
 age of them was 22*9 years, varying from 19 to 29 
 years of age ; 10 men were born in the United States, 
 1 in Canada, and 1 in Ireland. 
 
 The crimes committed were : for bodily injury in 
 the first grade in 1, for burglary in the third grade 
 in 5, for high-arson in the first grade in 1, for 
 high-arson in the second grade in 3, for rape in 1, 
 and attempted rape in 1 case. It may be men- 
 tioned ■ that offences of an unintelligent individual 
 against property are, as a rule, of little importance, 
 and their execution does not require much genius. 
 But when their offences are committed against the 
 person they are generally of the worst and most 
 brutal kind ; then the uncontrollable passions and 
 hideous criminal elements of the instinctive animal 
 nature show themselves in their fullest and most 
 terrible form. 
 
 The maximum term of punishment for the 12 
 
134 ^EW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 cases amounted to 85 years according to law, or an 
 average of 7^ years — 5 years and 20 years respectively 
 being the extremes. 
 
 Of the 12 men there were, before entering the 
 Reformatory : 3 temperate, 1 confirmed drunkard, and 
 
 1 periodical drunkard ; whilst 7 took beer whenever 
 they had the means or it was paid for by friends. 
 This statement is based upon the best possible in- 
 formation that could be obtained. 
 
 Not one of them knew a trade, or had been in 
 permanent employment ; but all had maintained them- 
 selves most miserably when outside gaol, as common 
 labourers, vagabonds or idlers. The surroundings of 
 most of them had been equally bad ; in many cases the 
 parents were intemperate, whilst the toother of one was 
 insane, and of another epileptic. 
 
 With regard to moral principles, the whole class, 
 
 I taking the scale of three, would most properly be 
 
 j ranged as zero and the susceptibility to moral impres- 
 
 1 sion as 0-008. 
 
 "^' The physiognomy of Inany represented features 
 which clearly indicated criminal tendencies, whilst in 
 
 2 cases forehead and head in profile nearly resembled 
 the type of an idiot. In short, there was no face 
 amongst them which did not express mental and moral 
 degeneration. 
 
 Instead of the prison-diet the men received special 
 food ; the ration for each man was weighed separately. 
 
EXPERIMENTS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE. 135 
 
 SO that one received exactly the same quantity and 
 quality as the other. 
 
 Instead of taking their meals in their respective 
 <3ells, they were taken under the special supervision 
 ■of an officer at a reserved table in the dining-hall of 
 the first grade. 
 
 The bUl of fare for one week, for instance, was as 
 follows : — 
 
 Breakfast. 
 
 Cocoa or coffee . 
 
 • • 
 
 1 pint 
 
 Bread 
 
 p ^ 
 
 8 oz. 
 
 Butter 
 
 . 
 
 i» 
 
 Dinner. 
 
 &mday,' Meat, free of bones (roast 
 
 pork, beef or mutton) . 5 oz. 
 
 Vegetables . . . . 9 „ 
 
 Bread 3 „ 
 
 Monday: Meat, free of bones (boiled 
 
 ham or salted pork) . 5 oz. 
 
 Vegetables . . . . 16 „ 
 
 Bread . ■ . • . 3 „ 
 
 Meat, free of bones (boiled 
 
 beef or mutton) . . 5 oz. 
 
 Vegetables . . . . 9 „' 
 
 Dumplings . . . . 5 „ 
 
 Meat, free of bones (meat-pie) 3 
 
 Pie 4 
 
 Vegetables . . . .12 
 
130 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 Thursday : Meat, free of bones (boiled-ham 
 
 or salted pork) . . . 5 oz. 
 
 Vegetables . . . . 16 „ 
 
 Dumplings . . . . 4 ,, 
 
 Friday : Fish (fried or boiled) . . 10 ,, 
 Vegetables . . . . 9 „ 
 Bread . . . . . 4 „ 
 
 Satv/rday : Meat, free of bones (Irish stew) 3 ,, 
 
 Stew 16 ,, 
 
 Bread 6 ,, 
 
 SUPPEK. 
 
 Tea, cocoa or milk . . 1 pint 
 Bread ..... 8 oz. 
 Butter J ,, 
 
 The meals were taken at 6 a.m., noon and 5 p.m. 
 
 Of the standard of culture of the men an idea can be 
 formed from the following facts : 1 could neither 
 read nor write ; 1 could read and write with great 
 difficulty ; 4 understood the principles of arithmetic 
 sulficiently to work a problem in long division, but 
 were never able to arrive at a proper result ; whilst 
 the attainments of the other 6 men were not beyond 
 simple division. 
 
 At 8 a.m. the men were taken into the schoolroom, 
 where the school secretary personally took charge of 
 them. After the school, at 9" 30 a.m., there was 
 bathing. No rule was observed at first as to how 
 often a man could bathe ; but the effect was carefully 
 
EXPERIMENTS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE. 137 
 
 noted in eacli particular case, and it was decided 
 from that how often the individual was to be taken 
 to the bathing-place. It was begun with one bath 
 daily ; but when it was found to be too enervating for 
 the subject one day was sometimes omitted until 
 finally each regularly received three baths weekly, 
 viz., two tubs and one Turkish bath, alternately with 
 one tub and two Turkish baths. In the tub bath the 
 temperature of the water was about 100° Fahrenheit. 
 The subject was left in the bath for at least fifteen 
 minutes to rub and soap his body thoroughly, then he 
 came under a hot^and cold water douche bath after 
 which he received a propter massage-treatment : 
 muscles and joints were strongly kneaded and pinched, 
 and then the body rubbed with a rough towel in order 
 to remove all dirt and superfluous matter from the 
 body and the skin. All these bathing and other 
 operations were executed by a professional massageur, 
 whom the Institution was fortunately able to engage 
 during the time. 
 
 In the Turkish bath the temperature of the room 
 was 115° Fahrenheit. A stage, six feet off the 
 floor, was erected, provided with seats where the men 
 had to place themselves ; each one had at his side 
 a pail, with cold water and a sponge, in order to wash 
 and cool his face as often as it pleased him. Here 
 thoy had to perspire for about twenty minutes, after 
 which Nthey were soaped and subjected to the same 
 
138 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 douche and massage operation as in the tub bath. After 
 the bath the men were locked up in their cells, and 
 there they generally wrapped themselves in their sheets 
 and lay down on the bed until dinner. 
 
 After dinner the men were drilled for two hours 
 in bodily exercises ; they had not, however, to perform 
 labour or any other kind of duty. 
 
 As it was anticipated, in consequence of the enforced ' 
 bodily exertions and a ration of food strictly provided 
 and sufficient for a normal condition, after one month's 
 experiments the weights of the bodies of the respective 
 men showed a loss. 
 
 After five months however — that is to say at the 
 end of the experimental period — this loss was more 
 than regained (see Tables pp. 139, 140). 
 
 The average weight of the 11 men under considera- 
 tion amounted, on June 5th, to 133" 13 lbs., and on July 
 1st to 129'34lbs., or a loss of 3*79 lbs. on the average 
 — ^Ib. and 91bs. being the lowest and highest loss, 
 while 2 men actually showed an increased weight of 
 ■^Ib. and Iflb. respectively. 
 
 In the school, personally conducted by the school 
 < jjsecretary, with the utmost care, the course was 
 ''i'Commenced with exercises in writing and reading and 
 \ daily exercises in mental arithmetic with problems 
 suited to -their individual abilities. After a compara- 
 tively short time an increase in mental activity Was 
 observed, and the working of their minds required less 
 
EXPERIMENTS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE. 139 
 
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EXPERIMENTS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE. 141 
 
 enforcement than at the beginning. In mental 
 arithmetic however they made the best progress, and 
 "were soon able to work exercises with three or four 
 single numbers comparatively quickly and easily. 
 Arithmetic was begun in the most elementary stage, 
 and continued with the greatest care and attention, so 
 that every branch of the subject was fully understood. 
 
 Experience having shown that the greatest weak- 
 ness of the prisoners in the school is conspicuous in 
 arithmetic, it was taken up with special care in this 
 culture class. It is a characteristic fact that the ' 
 criminal classes generally distinguish themselves by 
 a remarkable ignorance of the science of numbers. 
 
 The ignorance of some of these men went so far 
 that they were unable to say in which country or state 
 they were living. Indeed, men like these seem simply 
 to exist, without purpose and aim, in a confined and 
 low animal sphere. 
 
 At the bodily exercises the men were at the begin- 
 ning heavy, clumsy masses ; and one may easUy under- 
 stand what amount of patience and perseverance it 
 required to impart to them precise bodily movements. 
 At first they had to learn to understand an order, and 
 then to execute it with deliberation. Then it was 
 begun with slow step, with placing of the right and left 
 foot, exactly as it is required from recruits, until they 
 were able to march singly and together and keep 
 proper time. Quite in the same way other bodily 
 
142 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 movements were proceeded with. After a few weeks 
 liand weighty were added to the bodily exercises ; at 
 first they were of 3 lbs, each, being gradually re- 
 placed by heavier ones, nntU the maximum weight 
 of 8 lbs. was reached. *' It gave a most pleasant 
 impression," says the official report, "to watch on a 
 hot summer afternoon the exercises of these men, the 
 accuracy and quickness of their movements. The 
 sweat-bathed forehead and face which proved their 
 actual exertions, while the resolute look, the expres- 
 sion of the countenance of each clearly showed the 
 determination by all means to endure it to the utmost 
 and persevere to the end " (see Table, p. 143). 
 
 Since June 5th, the weight of the men had increased 
 16"75 lbs,, or relatively per head 1-395 lb. In fact, 
 the weight of 8 men had increased, and that of 4 
 decreased, All superfluous matter was removed from 
 the body, and the functions of all organisms were 
 brought to their normal active condition. The general 
 result obtaiiied by the physical training and culture 
 ■V with regard to improved mental activity was indeed 
 surprising, Dnring the five months preceding the 
 experiments the standard of the school examina- 
 tions of the \% men amounted on the average to 
 45'25 per cent. This average increased during the five 
 operation-months to 74" 16 per cent. However, the 
 actual measure of the success obtained cannot be 
 proved mathematically, nor approximately estimated at 
 
EXPERIMENTS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE. 143 
 
 
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144 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 all. One must form a judgment from the nature of 
 the experiments, and it appears quite sufficient to add, 
 - that the men were completely reformed physically, and 
 ' consequently also mentally and morally. They all 
 exerted themselves to their utmost in the school in 
 making the best possible progress, and even worked 
 diligently in their cells in preparation for the school. 
 " Only those," states the official report, " who had an 
 opportunity of coming daily into close contact with 
 the men are able to give a right judgment of the 
 change, and of their increased mental activity." 
 
 Encouraged by these experimental trials in 1886, 
 further culture classes have since then been formed 
 and now belong to the regular programme of the 
 Institution. Bathing arrangements, etc., have been 
 so far extended that all prisoners whose physical 
 condition made it appear desirable can be subjected 
 to a special process of treatment. A training officer 
 expressly appointed for this purpose, under special 
 supervision of the physician of the establishment, 
 has the management of these individuals. , A special 
 building, 140 feet by 80, has been erected during 
 last year, with an exercising hall 100 feet by 80. 
 Space and bathing arrangements are .calculated for 
 200 persons. At the end of last year 31 men 
 were under special Jtreatment^n the Physical Culture 
 Class. 
 
MILITARY TRAmiNG OF THE PRISONERS. 
 
 When, in 1888, all the prisoners were thrown out of 
 work through the Yates Bill, the idea was conceived, 
 for want of any other means of employment more 
 profitable from a material point of view, of a military 
 organization, in order to provide the individual with 
 a substitute for labour by means of the beneficial 
 physical exercises involved in military training. A 
 duly qualified military instructor, to act as commander, 
 was forthwith engaged, and 60 of the most suitable 
 men were selected from the first grade, and were 
 instructed as quickly as possible in the first principles 
 of military movements. These 60 men were de- 
 signed for officers and non-commissioned officers, and 
 in less than a month a regiment of eight companies 
 was formed. For this military course Upton's System, 
 which has been generally introduced into the army 
 of the United States for the last twenty years, was 
 adopted. It began with deportment and marching 
 in file, followed by marching in line, company, 
 wheelings, and general evolutions. Finally, the men 
 received arms, and the handling of the bayonet and 
 gun, including charging and discharging, was imparted 
 
 10 
 
146 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 with military accuracy. During tlie time of want of 
 work five to eight hours were daily devoted to exer- 
 cises, when the weather permitted in the open air, 
 otherwise in the foundry building, which, having a 
 level floor of 6,000 square feet, makes an exercise 
 hall such that a better can hardly be found in the 
 United States. This foundry building was soon 
 christened the " Armoury ; " and it is here that 
 the military orders are given out every morning. The 
 afternoons were generally devoted to exercises in the 
 formation of battalions. After the afternoon service 
 at 4 o'clock there was always dress parade. Instead 
 of real guns the men have imitation wood guns, 
 made in the trade school after the Springfield model, 
 moxmted with iron, polished, weighing from 6 to 8 lbs. 
 each, and serving every purpose that was required of 
 them. 
 
 Out of the original 8 companies, 10 were subse- 
 quently formed, owing to the increase of prisoners. 
 These included last year 803 men. There were attached 
 to the regiment 36 ofiicers of the field, staff, and line 
 — namely, 1 colonel, 1 lieutenant-colonel, 2 majors, 
 1 adjutant, 1 bandmaster, with 1 captain and 2 lieu- 
 tenants for each company; further, 35 non-commis- 
 sioned officers : 1 sergeant-major, 1 drum-major, 1 
 colour-bearer (the regiment also boasts a standard), 
 1 commander of the right and left flanks, and 3 
 non-commissioned officers for each company. The 
 
MILITARY TRAINING OF THE PRISONERS. U7 
 
 officers carry long steel swords, and the differences 
 of rank are indicated by gold and silver stripes on 
 the shoulder. The non-commissioned officers wear 
 their stripes on their coat-sleeves. 
 
 The band of the regiment also deserves special 
 notice ; like the officers and non-commissioned 
 officers it is exclusively composed of prisoners 
 specially trained for the purpose. It began with 
 a dozen drums, then fifes were added, and, finally, 
 metal instruments, until a complete band of music, 
 40 men strong, was formed, which, besides being 
 employed for military service, is also sometimes 
 engaged on Sundays or other occasions to give a 
 concert to the prisoners, in which the pieces are 
 played according to a selected programme. 
 
 The arrangement of a credit mark for good conduct 
 is also employed in connection with the military ser- 
 vice, just as in the departments of school and labour. 
 The highest number of credit marks which can be 
 obtained for faithful service by a prisoner in a month 
 is three. For offences against discipline there are 
 the following regulations: — There are three classes 
 of offences ; in the first class one or more credit marks 
 are lost according to circumstances, and as the 
 General Superintendent thinks fit ; such degradation 
 is made known when the general orders are given 
 out. In cases in which a doubt exists as to the 
 guilt of the accused a court-martial is held, which 
 
148 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 is formed out of the ofl&cers of the regiment. In 
 the case of offences pertaining to the second class 
 a third part of a mark is lost, and in those of the 
 third class a sixth. 
 
 During last year the whole of the prisoners not 
 otherwise employed were daily drilled morning and 
 afternoon, whilst regular exercises took place every 
 Wednesday and Saturday afternoon ; this arrangement 
 will be adhered to in the future till further orders. 
 Once in the month a special exercise competition 
 between the different companies is held, and the 
 best company receives a mark of distinction in 
 the form of ribbons of honour, which are worn by the 
 officers of the company untU the next monthly 
 competition. 
 
 For the officers a weekly instruction class is held 
 xmder Colonel Bryan, in which military strategy and 
 tactics are taught. 
 
THE EESULTS OF THE EEFOEM SYSTEM 
 
 I WILL now give, at least as far as the existing 
 official statistical material permits, tlie restilts arrived 
 at in the prisoners under the Elmira Eeform System. 
 
 STATISTICS OF THE INMATES SINCE THE 
 OPENING OF THE REFORMATORY TILL SEP- 
 TEMBER 30th, 1889. 
 
 Gbnbeal Statistics. 
 
 totai. number kecbived. 
 
 Defiiiites 353 
 
 Indefinites 3,637 
 
 3,990 
 
 Total number discharged .... 3,074 
 Indefinites returned from parole and now in 
 
 custody 28 
 
 3,046 
 
 Actual count, September 30th, 1889 . . . 944 
 
 DBruriTES. 
 Of the definites received there were : — 
 Directly sentenced by State Courts ... 80 
 „ „ „ the United State Courts. 86 
 
 Transferred from other prisons . . . 187 
 
 353 
 
ISO 
 
 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 Of the total number of definites discharged 
 
 
 there were : — 
 
 
 Discharged by expiration of sentence 
 
 293 
 
 Transferred to Criminal Insane Asylum . 
 
 8 
 
 Pardoned by the Governor 
 
 2 
 
 Escaped, not yet retaken 
 
 2 
 
 Committed suicide 
 
 1 
 
 Died while incarcerated .... 
 
 1 
 
 Ke-transferred to State Prison 
 
 15 
 317 
 
 Indefinite. 
 
 
 Of the whole number received there were : — 
 
 
 Sentenced by State Courts 
 
 3,635 
 
 „ u. S. „ ... 
 
 2 
 
 3,637 
 
 Of the whole number of indefinites discharged 
 there were : — 
 
 Absolutely released without parole . . . 14 
 
 Paroled 2,295 
 
 Eeleased from the Reformatory by expiration 
 
 of the maximum term .... 139 
 
 Eeleased from Auburn State Prison by expira- 
 tion of maximum term .... 80 
 
 Released by expiration of maximum term 
 
 while escaped 11 
 
 Released from Clinton State Prison by 
 
 expiration of maximum term ... 5 
 
 Eeleased from the Insane Asylum by expiration 
 
 of maximum term .... 6 
 
 Released from the Insane Asylum by special 
 order of Managers and placed in the care 
 of relatives ... . . 10 
 
 Carried forward . . 2,560 
 
THE RESULTS OF THE REFORM SYSTEM. 151 
 
 Brought forward . 
 
 ■ 
 
 2,560 
 
 Released from State Prison by special order 
 
 
 of Managers . ... 
 
 
 5 
 
 Released by habeas corpus 
 
 
 1 
 
 Pardoned by the Governor 
 
 
 8 
 
 „ „ „ President . 
 
 
 1 
 
 ,, from State Prison . 
 
 
 2 
 
 Killed by falling elevator 
 
 
 1 
 
 „ „ an inmate .... 
 
 
 1 
 
 „ . „ accident 
 
 
 1 
 
 Committed suicide while incarcerated . 
 
 
 3 
 
 Died in Auburn Prison .... 
 
 
 6 
 
 „ „ Reformatory from natural causes 
 
 
 39 
 
 „ at Insane Asylum .... 
 
 
 1 
 
 „ while escaped 
 
 
 1 
 
 Escaped, not yet retaken .... 
 
 
 6 
 
 Transferred to Criminal Insane Asylum, 
 
 and 
 
 
 now there remaining 
 
 
 10 
 
 Transferred to Auburn State Prison, and 
 
 now 
 
 
 there remaining .... 
 
 
 25 
 
 Transferred to Clinton State Prison, and 
 
 now 
 
 
 there remaining .... 
 
 
 77 
 
 Sentence superseded .... 
 
 
 5 
 
 Returned to place of conviction, warrants 
 
 
 untenable 
 
 , 
 
 4 
 
 2,757 
 
 Indefinites Pabolbd. 
 
 Of the whole number paroled there were : — 
 Sent out of the State and therefore absolutely 
 
 released at date of parole .... 151 
 Correspondence and conduct maintained for 
 six months and more, and then absolutely 
 released from further liability to sentence 
 
 here 1,389 
 
 Carried forward . . 1,540 
 
152 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 Brought forward . . 1,540 
 Correspondence and conduct now maintained, 
 
 the period of parole not having expired . Ill 
 Correspondence ceased, thus failing to fulfil 
 
 obligations, and lost sight of . . . 174 
 
 Returned to Reformatory by arrest . . 130 
 
 ,, ,, ,, voluntarily . . 20 
 
 Died 9 
 
 Sent to other prisons while on parole . . 45 
 
 Discharged by expiration of maximum term . 266 
 
 2,295 
 
 Of those returned to the Reformatory there were : — 
 
 Re-paroled 77 
 
 Transferred to Auburn State Prison (maximum 
 
 term having since expired) ... 10 
 
 Transferred to State Prison, and thence par- 
 doned 1 
 
 Transferred to Criminal Insane Asylum and 
 
 now remaining there .... 1 
 
 Transferred to Clinton State Prison, and now 
 
 remaining there 15 
 
 Discharged from Reformatory by expiration 
 
 of maximum term 14 
 
 Remaining at Reformatory .... 27 
 
 Transferred to Auburn State Prison and still 
 
 remaining there 3 
 
 Died at Reformatory 1 
 
 Discharged by special order of Managers . 1 
 
 Of those paroled the second time there were : — 
 
 Sent out of the State, and therefore abso- 
 lutely released at date of parole 
 
 Carried forward . 
 
 150 
 
THE RESULTS OF THE REFORM SYSTEM. iS3 
 
 Brought Forward . . 4 
 
 Correspondence and conduct maintained for 
 sis months, and then absolutely released 
 
 from further liability to sentence . . 24 
 Correspondence and conduct now maintained, 
 
 the period of parole not having expired . 2 
 
 Sentence superseded 1 
 
 Correspondence ceased, thus failing to fulfil 
 
 obligations, and lost sight of . . . 4 
 
 Died 2 
 
 Discharged by expiration of maximum sentence 25 
 
 Eeturned to Reformatory by arrest . . 13 
 
 „ „ „ voluntarily . . 2 
 
 11 
 
 Of those returned the second time there were : — 
 
 Re-paroled 8 
 
 Discharged by special order of Managers . 2 
 
 Transferred to State Prison (maximum term 
 
 since expired) 1 
 
 Remaining at Reformatory .... 1 
 
 Transferred to Auburn State Prison, and 
 
 there remaining 1 
 
 Transferred to Clinton State Prison, and there 
 
 remaining 
 
 Of those paroled the third time : — 
 
 Correspondence and conduct maintained for 
 six months, then absolutely released from 
 further liability to sentence 
 
 Correspondence ceased, thus failing to fulfil 
 obligations, and lost sight of . 
 
 Carried forward . 
 
 15 
 
IS4 
 
 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 Brought forward . . 2 
 
 Discharged by expiration of maximum sentence 3 
 
 Returned to Reformatory by arrest . . 3 
 
 Of those returned to the Reformatory the third 
 time there were : — 
 Discharged by special order of the Managers . 1 
 
 „ „ expiration of maximum term 
 
 while in the Reformatory ... 2 
 
 SUMMABY. 
 
 Of the total number paroled there were ; 
 Absolutely released, page 151 
 Ditto, ditto, page 151 . 
 Ditto, ditto, page 152 . 
 Ditto, ditto, page 153 . 
 Ditto, ditto, page 153 . 
 
 151 
 
 1,389 
 
 4 
 
 24 
 
 1 
 
 On parole, not yet absolutely released, page 152 111 
 Ditto, ditto, page 152 . 
 Ditto, ditto, page 153 . 
 Ditto, ditto, page 153 . 
 Ditto, ditto, page 153 . 
 
 1,569- 
 
 Returned to Reformatory and now in custody, 
 page 152 . 
 Ditto, ditto, page 153 . 
 
 Discharged by expiration of maximum term- 
 page 152 . 
 Ditto, ditto, page 152 . 
 Ditto, ditto, page 153 . 
 Ditto, ditto, page 154 . 
 Ditto, ditto, page 154 . 
 
 Carried forward 
 
 174 
 2 
 4 
 1 
 
 27 
 1 
 
 266 
 
 14 
 
 25 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 292 
 
 28. 
 
 310 
 2,19» 
 
THE RESULTS OF THE REFORM SYSTEM. 155 
 
 Brought forward . . . 2,199 
 Discharged from the Reformatory by special 
 
 order of the Managers, page 152 . . 1 
 
 Ditto, ditto, page 153 2 
 
 Ditto, ditto, page 154 1 
 
 4 
 
 Transferred to Auburn State Prison (maximum 
 
 term since expired), page 152 ... 10 
 
 Ditto, ditto, page 152 1 
 
 Ditto, ditto, page 153 1 
 
 , 12 
 
 Sentence superseded, page 151 ... 45 
 Ditto, ditto, page 153 1 
 
 46 
 
 Died, page 15J. 9 
 
 Ditto, page ,151 1 
 
 Ditto, page 151 2 
 
 12 
 
 Transferred to Auburn State Prison, and there 
 
 remaining, page 152 3 
 
 Ditto, ditto; page 153 1 
 
 4 
 
 Transferred to Clinton State Prison, and there 
 
 remaining, page 152 . . . . . 15 
 Ditto, ditto, page 153 2 
 
 : 17 
 
 Transferred to Criminal Insane Asylum, and there 
 
 remaining, page 152 1 
 
 2,295 
 
 Statement Showing Ratio op Ph'obabxe Reformation. 
 
 Whole number paroled (of these 77 were 
 
 paroled twice and 8 three times), page 152 2,295 
 
156 
 
 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 Of these the whole number who served 
 
 well, and earned their absolute release, 
 
 is, page 151 1,389 
 
 Ditto, ditto, page 153 .... 24 
 
 Ditto, ditto, page 153 . 
 
 Serving well on parole now, page 152 
 Ditto, ditto, page 153 . 
 
 While on parole, lost sight of, page 152 
 Ditto, ditto, page 153 . 
 
 1 
 
 1,414 
 
 m 
 
 2 
 113 
 
 174 
 4 
 
 Ditto, ditto, page 153 . 
 
 1 
 
 *One half of those .... 
 
 179 
 . ^^ 89 
 
 Discharged by ma,ximum expiration, pag( 
 152 
 
 3 
 
 266 
 
 Ditto, ditto, page 152 . 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 Ditto, ditto, page 152 . 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 Ditto, ditto, page 162 . 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 Ditto, ditto, page 152 . 
 Ditto, ditto, page 163 . 
 
 
 
 1 
 25 
 
 Ditto, ditto, page 153 . 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 Ditto, ditto, pagel63 . 
 Ditto, ditto, page 154 . 
 
 
 
 1 
 3 
 
 Ditto, ditto, page 154 . 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 Ditto, ditto, page 154 . 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 326 
 
 *One half of those 163 
 
 Absolutely released because paroled out 
 of the State, correspondence and 
 conduct maintained for sis months 
 
 or more 101 
 
 Carried forward . . 1,88C 
 
 See footnote on p. 157. 
 
THE RESULTS OF THE REFORM SYSTEM. 157 
 
 Brought forward . 1,880 
 Sent out of the State, and absolutely 
 
 released at date of parole, ceased 
 
 correspondence, and lost sight of . 54 
 *One half of those . . . 27 
 
 1,907 or 83-1% 
 
 Returned to the Reformatory and now 
 
 there remaining . , . . 28 „ 1-2% 
 
 Died 12 „ 0-5% 
 
 Probably returned to criminal practices 
 and contact : — 
 
 One half of those lost sight of . .90 
 
 One half of those discharged by maxi- 
 mum expiration .... 163 
 
 One half of those, who, being sent out 
 of the State and absolutely re- 
 leased at date of parole, ceased 
 correspondence and were lost sight 
 of 
 
 Sent to other prisons . 
 
 27 
 
 
 
 68 
 
 
 
 
 348 or 
 
 15 '2% 
 100-0 
 
 * That one-half can be assumed to be reformed, appears to be 
 completely justified. The whole of the Reform System and the 
 Bchoohug in the Institution is of such a nature, that, on no 
 subject can it be without special effect and influence on 
 future hfe. The fact that correspondence is interrupted, and 
 the subject lost sight of does not necessarily show that he has 
 relapsed into criminal courses ; and even if the half who are 
 assumed to be reformed do not on the average reach the level 
 of those individuals who are shown to be reformed, yet the 
 specific improvement of the whole number is certainly not set 
 too high by assuming the half. 
 
158 
 
 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 Of the men paroled to other states and countries, 
 there were sent to : — 
 
 Africa 
 
 1 
 
 Brought forward 
 
 . Ill 
 
 Arkansas . 
 
 . 2 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 , 28 
 
 Austria 
 
 . 1 
 
 Michigan . 
 
 . 22 
 
 California . 
 
 2 
 
 Missouri . 
 
 . 4 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 . 3 
 
 Nebraska . 
 
 . 1 
 
 Canada . . " 
 
 16 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 . 29 
 
 Colorado . 
 
 4 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 . 1 
 
 District of Columbia 
 
 1 
 
 Ohio. 
 
 . 34 
 
 England . 
 
 6 
 
 Pennsylva.Tiia 
 
 . 102 
 
 France 
 
 2 
 
 Ehode Island . 
 
 . 13 
 
 Oeorgia . 
 
 3 
 
 Kussia 
 
 . 1 
 
 Germany , 
 
 9 
 
 Sea . 
 
 . 5 
 
 lUinois 
 
 36 
 
 Switzerland 
 
 . 1 
 
 Tndiana . . 
 
 3 
 
 Tennessee . 
 
 . 8 
 
 Iowa . 
 
 6 
 
 Texas 
 
 . 1 
 
 Ireland 
 
 2 
 
 Vermont . 
 
 . 1 
 
 Kansas 
 
 2 
 
 Virginia . 
 
 . 5 
 
 Kentucky . 
 
 6 
 
 Wisconsin . 
 
 . 6 
 
 Maine 
 
 2 
 
 Wyoming Terril 
 
 ory . 1 
 
 Maryland . 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 Carried forward 
 
 111 
 
 Tot 
 
 al 374 
 
 The above statement shows a probably complete 
 reformation of 83-1 per cent. General Superintendent 
 Brockway, however, up to September 30th, 1887, made 
 special inquiries with scrupulous care, with relatives, 
 employers, friends, acquaintances, authorities, etc., 
 about every man, in order to verify as much as possible 
 the statistical statements of the preceding annual 
 reports, with regard to the reform-results. Those 
 
THE RESULTS OF THE REFORM SYSTEM. 159 
 
 inqtdries gave definite information about satisfactory 
 and orderly conduct of 1,125 out of 1,722 individuals 
 released up to tliat date, viz. : — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 PES CEKI 
 
 Of the 
 
 yeai 
 
 1880 ... 142 
 
 or 
 
 81-0 
 
 )» J) 
 
 )) 
 
 1881 
 
 
 
 127 
 
 
 74-1 
 
 J) » 
 
 )i 
 
 1882 
 
 
 
 108 
 
 
 64a 
 
 )) ii 
 
 » 
 
 1883 
 
 
 
 145 
 
 
 73-1 
 
 J) )) 
 
 :j 
 
 1884 
 
 
 
 . 124 
 
 
 71-8 
 
 )j jj 
 
 )) 
 
 1885 
 
 
 
 134 
 
 
 79-9 
 
 )) » 
 
 }I 
 
 1886 
 
 
 
 . 143 
 
 
 83-2 
 
 i> i> 
 
 )l 
 
 1887 
 
 
 
 , 202 
 
 
 91-0 
 
 
 Total 1,125, average 78-5 
 
 According to this inquiry — inquiries made after those 
 released before 1880 were owing to the long interval 
 impossible — there is ascertained without any doubt to 
 be a positive improvement and reform of at least 78" 5 
 per cent. If taken into consideration that no reliable 
 information could be obtained of a considerable number 
 of released prisoners, who had left their original places, 
 without ia the least necessitating their having also left 
 the right way, one will soon arrive at the conclusion 
 that the fore-mentioned estimated statement, of 83-1 
 per cent, reformed is not only to be fully accepted, but 
 that the percentage of the relative reform is probably 
 much higher. 
 
 I will, however, also add some proofs of the qualita- 
 tive reform of the individuals. With the communica- 
 
i6o NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 tions reaching the Institution from the discharged 
 prisoners themselves, or from their relations, employers, 
 friends, etc., giving evidence of undotibted change, 
 reform and conversion, and expressing thanks and 
 acknowledgments, one might indeed fill volumes. 
 Until recently snch letters were printed, either word 
 for word or in extracts, in the journal of the Institution; 
 but this plan, in consequence of the enormous expansion 
 which this correspondence has undergone, is now no 
 longer adhered to. I will confine myself simply to the 
 original rendering of some few of the productions 
 of this kind, not specially selected hut taken in 
 order. 
 
 " Dbae Geneeai Superintendent, — 
 
 " It is impossible for me to describe the feeling of 
 my heart, when I returned to my home. My home — 
 how can I describe how charming it appears now to 
 me ? To-day I cannot imagine how I ever could do 
 such an act. However, it is past. The schooling I 
 went through in the Reformatory has taught me another 
 future, and an inward voice of God speaks constantly 
 to me ; a better time is to come. God gives a drop of 
 balsam to the worst sinner who is penitent, and that I 
 am so is only owing to your merit. My father has 
 recognized his son again; he has welcomed me again 
 and equipped me with the utmost care — yes, a thousand 
 times more than I deserve. However, I will not 
 
THE RESULTS OF THE REFORM -SYSTEM. i6i 
 
 speak, my future itself shall give proof of my character 
 and further behaviour. 
 
 " Accept a thousand thanks from my father, as well 
 as from — 
 
 " Yours obediently, 
 
 " C. E." 
 
 No. 2,296 writes: "I find that the bricklaying, which 
 I have learnt in the Keformatory, will be the means of 
 making me a mason and a man." 
 
 No. 2,419 says that he only earned twenty dollars 
 in March, but adds : " It was earned honestly, and 
 therefore it gives me more pleasure and satisfaction 
 than if I had earned any sum by dishonest work." 
 
 No. 2,424, formerly printing apprentice, says : " I 
 make good progress in my new situation as distributor, 
 and have good prospect of earning in a short time 
 twenty-four dollars per week, as compositor." 
 
 No. 2,458 writes : " Now being Holy Lent, I apply 
 myself more to worship than to study, but I hope to 
 make it up next month." 
 
 No. 2,312 writes: "I get twenty-seven dollars 
 per month — certainly not bad for a young fellow 
 eighteen years of age ! I go regularly once a week 
 to St. Paul's Church, and think it will not do me any 
 harm." 
 
 No. 2,021 writes : " I will show the police-inspector, 
 who said I would soon commit something again and 
 
 11 
 
1 62 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 fall into Hs hands, that he is ■wrong — I will show him 
 that I can make a man out of myself. I receive your 
 paper every Monday, and am always impatient to hear 
 some news from Elmira, especially how my friends are 
 getting on." 
 
 No. 2,029 writes : " I am saving as mnch as I can 
 to start a business for myself. Many of my old friends 
 watch me closely, and doubt whether my conduct will 
 be the same in future as it is now. While I am 
 working for my employer I also work for myselfi 
 These friends and acquaintances shall see what I am 
 able to do." 
 
 No. 2,568 writes : " They scarcely recognized me 
 again at home, so much have I improved." 
 
 No. 1,641 writes : " At last I have received a letter 
 from my parents in Germany. You can scarcely 
 imagine my feelings now on receiving a dear letter 
 from my beloved mother. For her sake I will exert 
 myself to the utmost, and I am coniident of success." 
 
 No. 1,986 writes : "Just a year has passed since I 
 left the Reformatory. I am infinitely glad to have had 
 an opportunity of going through the different grades of 
 your school. The education and culture received there 
 alone enabled me to obtain the place which I hold now, 
 and I am glad to be able to report my progress to you. 
 At first I worked as a painter for three months, then I 
 obtained a situation in a railway office with twenty 
 dollars per nionth, just sufficient for my support. 
 
THE RESULTS OF THE REFORM SYSTEM. 163 
 
 Meanwhile I learnt telegraphy, and. advanced from 
 one place to another ; I am now second telegraphist 
 of the station, receive sixty dollars salary, and have 
 good hope of further advancement. That is not bad I 
 I should be glad to hear what my former friends, 
 J. 0. S. and F. H., are doing, and I hope that they 
 are released long ago. Please inform them also of 
 my position." 
 
 C. S. writes : " I have now a hard fight, if I am to 
 succeed in maintaining my family. On account of my 
 weak eyes I have unfortunately to give up my trade ; 
 but I shall remain an honest man, as I promised you, 
 whatever may befall me." 
 
 J. D. : " My son works the whole day and behaves 
 well. For the trouble and care you have taken with 
 him, I consider myself alwalys bou,nd to you ; he has 
 been thereby made a good and reasonable man." 
 
 No. 2,527 writes : " I earned sixty dollars in March, 
 of which I spent thirty dollars for clothing, living, 
 etc., and saved a round thirty dollars. Your con- 
 fidence has not been ill-bestowed upon me ; I lead 
 an honest life. I only wish others could as much 
 enjoy the fruits of a successful struggle as I do. I 
 cannot thank you enough, and only hope that you 
 will succeed in making others as happy and as light 
 of heart as you have made me." 
 
 No. 2,444 writes : " Business is flourishing, and it 
 keeps me constantly on the trot. I have to work hard, 
 
i64 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 but it is tlie only way to regain my good reputation. 
 I am glad when I come home in the evening after 
 the day's work, that I have learnt to appreciate the 
 value of a good home. You may rely upon it that 
 I shall always keep away from bad society, and make 
 earthly journey pleasant through an upright mode of 
 life. Up till now I have saved forty dollars, and I 
 shall add something every week. Thanking you with 
 all my heart for your great kindness, etc. — J. M." 
 
 No. 2,220 writes : " I am now happy and content, 
 having no more trouble about constant work. I have 
 now saved so much that I could live for three months 
 without earnings." 
 
 The employer of No. 2,435 writes : " I am very 
 glad, indeed, that I can say C. S., in consequence of 
 the great care and training which he received in the 
 Reformatory, has much improved. Since his return 
 he is really the model of a young man. I am much 
 interested in him, and shall always assist him as far 
 as it is within my power. — 0. H. H." 
 
 E. E. B, writes from his home in Macon in Georgia, 
 after the elapse of two years and a half since his 
 leaving the Reformatory : " I choose to-day, a bright 
 Easter Sunday, to write you some lines and to inform 
 you of my success. I am glad to say that I have 
 recovered from my illness, and enjoy the gifts of Grod 
 and men. I am still in my old business, but I intend 
 making the South my future home, and I have con- 
 
THE RESULTS OF THE REFORM SYSTEM. 165 
 
 fidence that, for the sake of my mother and sister, 
 prosperity will also follow me. I have found that 
 only by perseverance and iirm energy are we able to 
 overcome the obstacles and difficulties which surround 
 us in life. 
 
 " We had a peculiar winter, this year, etc., etc. 
 
 " In the month of September I shall come to New 
 York to settle some business, and I shall avail 
 myself of the opportunity to pay you a visit. It will 
 be the greatest pleasure for me to once more clasp 
 your hand, and to look fearlessly as an honest man 
 into your eyes." 
 
 V. in B. writes : " The four years which I spent 
 in the Reformatory have rid me of the most of my 
 bad inclinations. 1 am now able to appreciate honesty 
 and the regard towards a fellow-creature ; a,nd I 
 cannot thank you enough for the kindness which you 
 have shown me." 
 
 S. S. writes •: " I am working constantly and with 
 success in the glass-trade, and well know how to 
 appreciate an increase of salary. It is impossible to 
 fully express my feelings of duty and thankfiilness 
 towards you. The recollection of my past seems like 
 a dream. I cannot imagine how I could have so far 
 been carried away as to do the act which brought me 
 to you ; however, it is past ! I gain more real friends 
 every day, and indeed they need not be ashamed of 
 me." 
 
i66 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 T. B. writes : " I lead a happy life, and am still 
 working with the same employers. My return took 
 place just in time ; my father was ill, and I am of 
 great assistance to him ; in fact, I am now the only 
 supporter of the whole house." 
 
 W. S. writes : " Up till now I have saved forty- 
 five dollars, which are lying at the bank, and which 
 I have earned as a man by honest means. In the 
 same way as I have begun my life I shall continue it. 
 My former employer, Mr. H., always smiles when we 
 meet, and he has invited me to call on him. I shall 
 keep this old friendship warm. No one would be more 
 unhappy, if I relapsed, than he." 
 
 J. R.T. writes : "When one considers the number 
 of unemployed men here in Chic3,go, I must think 
 myself fortunate, although I earned only 15*12 dollars 
 last month instead of 50 dollars, which I should have 
 earned." 
 
 W. A. writes : " My mother says she would not 
 have thought it possible that such a change could 
 have taken place with me. My employer is perfectly 
 satisfied with me. I thank you with all my heart for 
 the great care which you took with me." 
 
 The following is the letter of a German, who, after 
 leaving the Reformatory, returned to his country : — 
 
 " W , December Wi, 1889. 
 
 " According to the promise which I gave you before 
 
THE RESULTS OF THE REFORM SYSTEM. 167 
 
 my departure, I herewith, send you my first monthly 
 report. On my arrival in New York I presented 
 myself immediately at the Prison Association, one of 
 the members of which brought me on to the steamer 
 the following morning, I arrived at Bremen on the 
 26th ult., and at my native place a few days later 
 where I was received with great joy. My father 
 provided me with means so that I could equip myself 
 completely, and appear like a gentleman. I am 
 working in my father's business and hope to become 
 partner within a short time ; my father promised to 
 do it as soon as I get my absolute release. Allow me 
 to thank you once more heartily for all the kindness 
 and care shown to me. Had I not come to you then 
 I should have most probably had to serve a long time 
 in a prison." 
 
 Finally, I may mention another German, who, like 
 many of his countrymen, came to America, where he 
 was unable to find his daily bread. In his helpless 
 and penniless position he resorted to stealing, and was 
 sentenced to Elmira. After a thirty-five months' 
 schooling he was paroled to the care of his cousin 
 in New York, who promised to assist him. The 
 discharged prisoner had up to that time not learnt 
 a proper profession and, still unable to find a per- 
 manent living, he preferred to return voluntarily to 
 the Reformatory, instead of trying to obtain his 
 
i68 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 necessary wants -by dishonest means. Now he had 
 to learn a trade ; and in this, although at first reluc- 
 tantly, he persevered. After twelve months he was 
 again paroled ; this time not to his cousin's care, but 
 to the care of an employer of the trade he had learnt. 
 Two weeks after his release he said in his letter : " I 
 am getting on nicely, and no longer regret having 
 returned voluntarily to the Keformatory, for the 
 trade which I learnt makes me happy, and will never 
 let me want." 
 
THE COST OF MAINTENANCE. 
 
 The continual and sweeping change in the produc- 
 tive employment of the prisoners, due to the legisla- 
 tion of 1881, 1884 and 1888, had a very prejudicial 
 effect upon the financial results of the Institution. 
 Whilst in earlier years, when the labour force was 
 fully utilized, the receipts from the prisoners' work 
 amounted to 60 or 70 per cent, of the cost of mainte- 
 nance, in the year 1888, only about 30 per cent., and 
 in 1889 absolutely nothing, were realized. For this 
 reason I will confine myself exclusively to the respec- 
 tive expenditures for maintenance, without referring 
 to the receipts. 
 
 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS. 
 The Cosi op Maintenance foe 1889. 
 
 SOIiIiABB 
 
 Steam, gas and water apparatus . . . 921*87 
 
 Clothiiig and bedding 17,032-23 
 
 Fuel and light 13,028-96 
 
 Room furnishings 162-57 
 
 Prisoners' transportation .... 6,063-07 
 
 Kitchen 3,174-12 
 
 General expense 9,447-24 
 
 Discharged prisoners 3,347-45 
 
 Carried forward . . 53,177-51 
 
170 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
 Brought forward . . 53,177-51 
 
 Salaries 30,190-41 
 
 Kepairs and alterations .... 6,468 '56 
 
 Provisions 35,048-86 
 
 School-books and teaching . . . . 2,825 25 
 
 Physical, technological and military training. 9,398-42 
 
 Total . . .137,109-01 
 
 Note. — 4,199-51 dollars, earnings from the farm, turned over 
 to provisions and general expense. 
 
 The total expenditure of 137,109-01 dollars for tlie 
 last year's average of 922 inmates, means 40'8 cents 
 per liead per diem. The gross cost, as . above stated, 
 includes items peculiar to this Reformatory as 
 follows : — 
 
 I>0IiLA.B8 
 
 Physical, technological and military training 9,398-42 
 School-books and teaching .... 2,825-25 , 
 For transportation of prisoners . . . 6,063-07 
 
 Making a total of 18,286-74 
 
 — this without computing the additional cost incident 
 to the system here. If the above items alone be 
 deducted, the gross expenditure for the year is re- 
 duced to 118,822-27 dollars, and equals cost per day 
 35-3 cents. The cost for provisions was last year 10*4 
 cents per day an inmate ; this includes the provisions 
 of the greater part of the officers, who receive full 
 board, separately prepared. 
 
THE COST OF MAINTENANCE. 
 
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 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY. 
 
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 |l|iii|-ilil|iri|i||ii 
 
 3 
 
 
 
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