pw« ^ I /A I REFORMATORY i| < IW » ^> UW| N IMI I W» i>i O iiiiWMM"«»«w^iW»»<»WM^H<«^ The Handbook includes excerpts from board^of nnanagers' reports and an abstract of laws relating to the reformatory The Summary Press 19 16. TABLE OF CONTENTS Board of Managers, The 6 Ruildings, Dimensions and Area of the Principal Reformatory Buildings and Enclosures '. 141 Building, Domestic, The . 61 Bathroom, The 64 Band, Regimental Brass and Reed, The , 42 Badge-of-Honor, The ■. . .......... 14 Commitments, The Nature of (Definite and Indefinite) 8 Clothing, Prisoners', The 13 Conduct-Ledger, Inmates', The 15 Clothing of Prisoners, Method of Washing the . . 67, Class in Stenography and Typewriting, The^ . 35 Class, Special Training, The 28 Clemency, Executive , . . , ... . ' 11 Dress-Parade, Military, The . . , , .'. . . . 45 Department, Administrative, The .... 57 Department, Purchasing, The .58 Enclosure, Institutional, The 43 '/.Effect of Reformatory Treatment on Crime". .".'.'.'..■.... .113 By Jo'sepK'F. Scott Extract from Annual Report of 1900 119 By Z. R. Brockway Extracts from Annual Reports of 1914 and 1915, "The Special Train- ing Class " 128 By P. J. McDonnell Extract from Board of Managers' Report for 1904, " Discipline " 124 Fines, Imposition of 14 Farm, The ... 69 Grades, Prisoners, The (how distinguished) 11 Gifts and Prohibitions 53 Gymnasium, The 62 Greenhouse, The 72 Gate, South, The 43 Gate, Center, The 44 Hospital, 1 he 61 " Institutional Experiences of Peter Luckey, The " 74 Law, Abstract of Principal Provisions of. Relating to the New York State Reformatory and the Eastern New York Reformatory, in Force, January 1, 1916 133 By Henry Melville Library, The - 55 Laundry, The 66 Marking-System, The 12 Office, Letter Clerks', The 51 Office, Record, T he 48 ( )rganization. Military, The 39 Prisoners, Bathing, The ; ^^ Prisoners are Boarded, How the ' - Prison srs. Supervision of 54 Parole, Release of Prisoners by ..: . . ..:':.'.;.::;;:., - 9 Parole, of Invalids, The ^ . 11*- Power-House, The ' . ; ; 68 Park, Recreation, 'I he . ... 72 Reformatory, The 1 Routine,' Daily, The 15 Rooms, Method of Assigning Inmates to 50 Rooms of Prisoners, The 1!2 Superintendent of Reformatories, The 7 School of Letters, The ; ; 17 School of Trades, TKe 29 "Summary, The" 56 Storeroom, Laundry, I he 65 Supervision, Parole 53 Treatment, Medical 13 Trades-Classes, List of 30 The New York State Reformatory at El mi ra li" «« ^ BY F. C. ALLEN [N the year 1869 a law was enacted in the state of New York, authorizing the establishment of an institution for the reception of male felons, between the ages of sixteen and thirty, not previously convicted of any crime punishable by imprisonment in a state prison. The institution was to be located in the city of Elmira, and its name was to be the New York State Reformatory at Elmira. In due time the construction of the reformatory was commenced. In July, 1876, its first prisoners were received; others followed, and in January, 1877, the population numbered 164. Inmate labor was utilized to hasten the completion of the various buildings in process of construction, and in 1878, the institution was in condition to render possible the application of the system which had been devised for the discipline and employment of its inmates. Since that time, buildings have been added, from year to year, and the number of cells in the prison proper has been increased to 1,440. The reformatory is located on a moderately high table land in a pleasant part of the city, near its western boundary; the institutional wall incloses a portion of land comprising nearly eighteen acres. A farm of 280 acres, adjoining the. enclosure, westward, also belongs to, and is operated in connection with the institution; the produce therefrom contributing toward the maintenance of the prisoners. The appearance of the reformatory is stately and imposing; 4 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY its principal buildings are ornate in their construction, their lofty spires and turrets taking an added air of dignity because of the institution's elevated location, which commands an excel- lent view of the adjacent valley; The purpose for which the institution was designed, is indicated by its name "reformatory." To cause all of the inmates, not incapacitated by ill health or other infirmity, to work daily at some useful employment, both physical and mental, was considered of the first importance in the process of refor- mation. As a means to this end, factories and shops were built within the prison enclosure, soon after its completion, and in these, a majority of the prisoners worked, manufacturing various articles for sale. Among the first productions of this character were brushes and hardware. Supplementing the manual work, a school of letters was finally organized, in 1879; its sessions were held on certain evenings of the week, and its membership included practically all of the population. It was considered that schooling in letters was an essential factor in reformative work in that it aided in preventing the inmates from degenerating in mental power, during confinement; and aside from this, was of great value because it aided them to take a more elevated station in life, upon their release. After the manufacturing industries had been in operation for several years, it was decided that, while this work wrought a beneficial effect in that it furnished a means of teaching the inmates to think for themselves, and aided in establishing habits of apphcation, it was defective by reason of the fact that the different branches of manufacturing, as here conducted, were too few in number to furnish sufiicient!diversity of trades taught; and the further fact that the trades actually acquired were found in many instances, unremunerative, or unsuitable for the inmates who learned them. . In view of this it was thought best to try the experiment of estabhshing classes for the sole purpose of trades teaching, with- out reference to the production of articles for sale and profit, and in the summer of 1883, a test class in clay modelling was HAND BOOK 5 established for the purpose of ascertaining the efficacy of specific industrial training as an aid to reformation. The experiment proved so satisfactory that trades classes in carpentry, clothing- cutting, plumbing, and telegraphy were established during the following summer. In 1888, a special building was completed for the occupancy of the trades classes, and their establishment, as a permanent feature of the reformatory work, became assured. At the close of that year, instruction was given in eleven trades and six hundred inmates were in the trades schools. A trades school director was engaged to take care of this department; the Capacity of the classes was gradually increased and the course of study extended until, in 1894, it became possible to afford each inmate an opportunity to receive trade instruction. The curriculum at that time included thirty-four trades. The school of letters, whose organization, as stated above, was completed in 1879, numbered about five hundred pupils ; these were accommodated in a half-dozen large class rooms, suit- ably equipped with the necessary school furniture. The edu- cational course embraced only strictly common school studies in , which were included, of course, reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography. The schedule was arranged to cover a period of two years; school sessions occurring on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings of each week. The educational department was in charge of a school director, who taught in the schools, and was assisted in his work of imparting instruction, by several other gentlemen, engaged for this purpose, residing in the city of Elmira. The foregoing sketch, necessarily brief, will, it is hoped, aid the reader to a general knowledge of the origin of the reforma- tory, and the reasons for its establishment. Since the reception of the first prisoners, in 1876, the constant purpose of the suc- cessive boards of control has been to develop its reformative possibihties and extend its capacity. With these results in view, buildings have been added to the institution as they were needed, for the use of the trades and school of letters classes. Additions to the main building were also constructed containing cell blocks 6 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY for the accommodation of the increasing population. After a time, the prison enclosure, originally containing but eight acres, was enlarged, rearward; the wall now enclosing, as previously stated, approximately eighteen acres. The reformative agencies, successfully employed in years past, are, in most instances, still in operation in the reformatory, although various modifications have been adopted where it has appeared to the management that such changes would tend to improve the original plan; among these may be mentioned the change in the number of grades, or divisions into which the population is separated, from four, to three ; and the substitution of day for evening classes, in both the school of letters, and trades school departments. We shall next endeavor to explain, with, some attention to detail; the manner in which the reformatory is conducted at the tinie of the present writing. The Management of the Reformatory. The affairs of the reformatory are administered by a board of seven managers, appointed by the governor of the state, with the approval of the state senate. The term of a manager is seven years and the dates of appointment are so adjusted that during each year the term of some one of the managers expires, and another appointment is made, so that at all times a majority of the board is experienced in its duties. In view of the fact that more than two-thirds of the prisoners committed to the reformatory are sentenced from the city of New York, or vicinity, it is considered expedient that two of the managers should be chosen from that city. At present one is also appointed from the city of Elmira, so that his advice or other assistance can be readily secured by the reformatory, when necessary, and one from the vicinity of our branch insti- tution located at Napanoch, Ulster County, N. Y., chosen for the same reason. The other menjbers of the board are chosen from various sections of the state without particular reference to locaUty. In 1906, legislative enactment placed the board of managers HAND BOOK 7 of the New York State Reformatory at Elmira, in charge of the Eastern New York Reformatory, located at Napanoch, Ulster County, N. Y., changing their title to "State Board of Managers of Reformatories." The Napanoch institution at that date was a comparaitvely new institution, having many of its buildings still in process of completion, and others yet to be planned. The legislative act above referred to, conferred upon the state board of managers power to appoint a superintendent of reformatories, to have charge of both institutions, and directed that such superintendent should appoint with the approval of the board, an assistant superintendent for the Elmira, and another for the Napanoch institution, and should further appoint new officers, or where practicable, continue in office such as were already employed in the Napanoch reformatory. The board of managers elect annually, from their number, a president, a vice-president, and a secretary and treasurer, the term of office for each being one year. The board meets, in regular session for the consideration of, and action upon reformatory matters, once in each month, the date chosen being usually near the middle of the month. Eight of these regular meetings occur at Elmira and four at the Napanoch institution. At every third regular board meeting, parole is authorized for inmates whose institutional record entitles them to same. Also, upon these occasions, a personal interview with members of the board is granted to each prisoner who may desire it. Each board meeting at the Napanoch institution usually occurs in the month immediately succeeding the month in which the board authorizes parole for inmates at the Elmira institution. The Napanoch institution at the present writing, is not a reformatory of original commitment, but receives all its prisoneirs from the Elmira institution. Its inmates earn their parole in the same manner as do the Elmira prisoners and are subject to similar regulations and routine. The Superintendent of Reformatories. The reformatory is in charge of a superintendent, chosen by the board of managers. The executive staff under 8 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY his direction, includes an assistant superintendent, a chief clerk, a steward, a physician, an assistant physician, three chaplains, a director of the school of letters, a director of the trades school, a disciphnary officer, an instructor in military, and a chief engineer. The general force comprises guards, instructors, clerks, mechanics, firemen, teamsters, and others. In addition to exercising a personal supervision of the daily affairs of the institution, the superintendent, at the beginning of each month, executes all promotions or reductions in grade; he likewise assigns to each prisoner, his place in the reformatory routine, and from time to time, grants interviews to all inmates ■desiring same. At each regular meeting of the board of managers, the superintendent brings to their attention any matters transpiring subsequent to the previous meeting, upon which he may desire their advice or official action. He also submits for their consideration and approval certain regular monthly reports, including a statement of the finances of the institution, a report concerning the health, school status, promotions or reductions in grade, and general welfare of the inmates, a statement showing changes, if any, in the reformatory official roster, during the past month, and other monthly reports upon which action by the board is desired. The liature of Commitments Men are committed to the reformatory under two forms of sentence known respectively as the determinate, and the indeterminate. The determinate sentence, as its name implies, imposes a penalty of imprisonment for a definite period. The indeterminate sentence differs from the determinate in that the prisoner so committed is not sentenced for a definite period, but the date of his release is determined upon by the board of managers at their discretion; but he cannot be held longer than the maximum time for which he could have been sentenced to a state prison, for the crime committed. "Definites" or United States Prisoners. The prisoners committed to the reformatory under the HAND BOOK 9 determinate sentence constitute but a small portion of the prison population. They are sentenced by the United States courts for crimes against the federal government and are termed United States Definites. ' ' They are received here in accordance with the state law and as previously stated, are not eligible for release under the conditions provided by the indeterminate sentence; but such prisoners may be paroled and absolutely released in the same manner as are indeterminately sentenced prisoners if, after they shall have earned their parole in the regular way, the attorney-general of the United States, upon the recommendation of the superintendent of reformatories, shall signify his approval of such parole. State, or Indefinitely Sentenced Prisoners. The bulk of the inmates received at the institution are committed under the indeterminate sentence and, in accordance with its provisions, may be released at the discretion of the board of managers, in accordance with its rules governing the parole and absolute release of indeterminately sentenced prisoners. The minimum term of confinement of this class of prisoners is determined by the board of managers but the maximum term is established by law which limits the power of the board of managers to detain these prisoners longer than the maximum prescribed for the crimes which they have committed. The Release of Prisoners by Parole. The conditions under which a prisoner may be released from the reformatory, prior to the maximum prescribed by law, are as follows: his general demeanor, and his record in school of letters, and in trades school, must be such as to give the board of managers good reason to believe that he will, if so released, become a law-abiding citizen. It is also necessary before this conditional release can be granted, that he obtain employment; such employment to be, if practicable, in the town from which he was sentenced, and at the trade learned while at the reformatory. A prisoner released under the conditions as stated above is 10 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY said to be paroled, and, upon his departure from the institution, he is given what is termed a parole paper which contains printed instructions which he must implicity obey if he would obtain his permanent, or absolute release from the reformatory. The parole paper informs the prisoner that the board of managers has decided to parole him with the understanding that he is to be honest in his dealings; that he is to avoid evil associates and abstain from intoxicating beverages; that is he is to proceed immediately to the place of employment provided for him and there remain, steadily at work for at least six months, unless in the meantime, he shall obtain from the management of the reformatory, permission to change his location, or class of employment, or both; that each month he is to make a writtea report to the superintendent, giving a somewhat detailed statement in regard to himself and his surroundings, and telling whether or not he has been steadily earning wages during the past month, and if not, the reason for his failure so to do. This report, before it can properly be a,ccepted by the superintendent, must receive the certification of a duly author- ized supervising agent of the reformatory, residing in the locality from which the prisoner was sentenced. For all localities except the cities of New York and Buffalo, the chiefs of police, or other peace officers are the supervising agents for the reformatories. In the city of New York, the Elmira and Napanoch reformatories have their parole department, with the necessary equipment of offices, stenographer, and parole agents. In Buffalo, the reformatories have one parole agent, who has an office with the Charities' Aid Association of that citv. The maintenance of permanent organizations for parole supervision in New York and Buffalo, is rendered necessary by the fact that bjr far the major portion of our prisoners are committed from these cities. After making six satisfactory monthly reports to the management, paroled men are usually given an absolute release from the reformatory. Parole ot InOatids. Should a prisoner become so seriously ill that, if retained HAND BOOK 11 in the institution, his recovery would be considered doubtful, or impossible, the board of managers, upon the recommendation of the superintendent, informed and advised by the physician, may grant him what is termed an invalid parole, provided the relatives or friends of the prisoner are willing and able to properly care for him if so released. No Other Method of Release EUcept EHecutiOe Clemency. With the exception of executive clemency, the two methods of parole outlined in the foregoing paragraphs comprise the only means for the release of indeterminately sentenced reformatory prisoners, prior to the expiration of their lawfully prescribed maximum sentences. Prisoners ViOided Into Three Grades. The reformatory population is divided into three grades: first, second and third. Each man upon admission to the institution, is placed in the second grade, from which, by making a good record in demeanor, school of letters, and trades school, he may rise to the' first grade or, by failure to do this may drop to the third. Six months of proper institutional record in the second grade ensures promotion to the first grade; a like six months in the first grade entitles the prisoner to consideration by thfe board of managers for parole. For improper demeanor, if suflaciently serious, reduction in grade is possible at any time. Poor school work, if below certain prescribed standards, and persisted in for a month or more, also necessitates grade reduction. After reduction to the third grade, at least one month of proper record is required before eligibility for promotion can be considered. Prisoners may be reduced from the first to the second, from the second to the third, or from the first to the third, but they can be promoted only one grade at a time. The Various Grades Distinguished by Difference in Clothing or Collar Device. The first and second grades are clothed, in winter, with black coals and gray trousers; in summer with khaki uniform; 12 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY the difference in grade being denoted by a number worn upon the collar of the jacket. Red coats and trousers are worn by the third grade. The Marking System. Under the Elmira reformatory system it is designed that each prisoner, from the date of his admission, until granted his absolute release, shall be taught the value of self-support, and to this end his personal account is credited with a small daily amount, intended to represent wages, and is debited with the cost of all he receives, be it for meals, lodging, clothing, medical attendance, or fines incurred; nothing being furnished gratis with the exception of his first outfit of clothing, and a few other necessary articles of hke character. It is possible for a prisoner of average health and inteUigence to defray all his institutional expenses, as enumerated above, and still have remaining to his credit when released, a small balance, sufficient to pay for his transportation to place of employment, and temporary subsistence until he receives his first wages in free life. Hou> the Prisoners are Boarded. The prisoners take their meals in dining rooms, to which they are assigned according to grade. The food supplied to the three grades, is uniform in quality, but the ration of the first grade admits of a somewhat greater variety than does that issued to the second and third grades. First grade prisoners who have been economical in their various expenditures, and have thus obtained a certain credit balance, showing a specific sum saved, occupy a separate dining room and are allowed a more extended dietary than their fellows, their accounts being duly debited with the cost of the additional items received. These prisoners are also permitted to converse while at table, another privilege not accorded to inmates using the other dining rooms. The Rooms of the Prisoners. The prisoners' rooms are seven feet wide, eight feet long, and nine feet high, and each has its ventilator, opening HAND BOOK 13 at the roof of the institution. The walls are whitewashed and in each room is an iron bedstead, a wooden cupboard, table and chair, and an electric lamp. Closets and lavatories are at present installed in 176 of the rooms, and it is expected that eventually all will be so equipped. Prisoners' Clothing Manufactured at the Institution. With the exception of a few minor articles, including- collars and neckties of prisoners going out on parole, the clothing of all the prisoners is made up at the reformatory, the material being purchased from other state institutions. Prisoners' First Outfit Free of Cost to Himself. As hereinbefore mentioned, each man is allowed his first outfit, free of cost; this includes coat, vest, trousers, shirt, two suits of underclothes, cap, shoes, stockings, wash-basin, water-cup, broom, dust-pan, comb, hair-brush, tooth-brush, blacking-brush, box of blacking, towel, soap, four sheets, two pillow-cases and one blanket. For the renewal of this outfit, or the purchase of certain other articles not included therein, but which are allowed him, if desired, he must rely upon his institutional earnings. Medical Treatment. Under ordinary circumstances, prisoners desiring medical treatment are required to report at the doctor's office at a certain hour in the morning ; but in case of serious illness, may call for the physician at any time. The assistant physician makes a daily tour of the various institutional departments, conferring with such inmates as may desire medical service, and if it is considered necessary, placing their names upon a list which he afterward delivers to the senior physician, who, the next morning, summons these prisoners to his office for advice, or treatment as the case may require. Applicants for treatment may be transferred to the institutional hospital, or, if found to be shamming, required to return to their duties, the physician in charge making such disposition of the various cases as in his judgment may appear necessary. A prisoner's account is 14 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY debited with a small charge for each occasion of medical service. Fines Imposed. In addition to being charged for food, lodging, clothing, and medical attendance, prisoners' accounts are debited with amounts which represent fines, imposed for the violation of institutional rules, or for failure to pass school examinations. These fines vary in amount and are designed to be commensurate, as nearly as may be, with the offense committed, or the failure incurred. Should the sum total of a prisoner's fines reach a certain amount during any given month, that month, in so far as it concerns him, is regarded as imperfect and cannot be numbered among those entitling him to consideration for promotion in grade and eventual parole. A month during which institutional fines do not amount to the certain sum above referred to, counts for him as a perfect month and an aid in earning grade promotion and parole. When it is considered necessary that a fine be imposed, the niethod followed requires that a certain printed form be filled in and handed to the disciplinary officer of the institution, •reciting the offense or failure requiring the fine, giving, the name of the. prisoner in question, and bearing the signature of the supervising officer who issues the report. The printed forms are of two kinds, termed respectively, major and minor offense reports, according to the nature of the cause for their issuance. The disciplinary officer, upon receiving one of these forms, properly filled in, proceeds to investigate the matter in order to be able to decide as to whether or not the report is just and if it should be decided to be so, to determine the amount of fine; his decisions, of course are at all times subject to revision by the superintendent. Fines may be imposed, based upon reports issued by any citizen officer having the supervision of prisoners. Badge ot Honor. Each prisoner, maintaining a perfect institutional record since his admission to the reformatory, is decorated, upon his HAND BOOK 15 promotion to the first or highest grade, with a small, metal Maltese cross. This cross is affixed to the collar of his jacket and is a badge of honor, to be retained only by continuing the perfect record which has earned it. Once forfeited, the badge of honor cannot be regained by subsequent good record. Inmates' Conduct Ledger. As may be seen from the above, an indeterminately sentenced prisoner's release upon parole may be either hastened, retarded, or prevehted by his conduct and personal effort, and the quality of these is shown by the conduct ledger, a page of which is headed with his name and devoted to his record while an inmate of the reformatory. A glance at this ledger will at any time acquaint the management with a prisoner's status as regards demeanor, trades school work, and school 0/ letters work, the three departments or branches into which the reformatory system is divided. Here are entered all school examination markings, and where failures occur, theamountof fines imposed for same; likewise a record of all fines incurred by infractions of institutional discipline, together with the nature of the offense for which each fine is exacted. Inmates' Daily Routine. With the exceptions hereinafter noted, the various tasks and exercises occupying the reformatory day, are apportioned in the following manner: During the morning hours, until about ten o'clock, a large number of the prisoners are occupied in cleaning the rooms and corridors, repairing buildings, apparatus, etc., while others, including all new arrivals, are being drilled in military exercises. There is also at this time, in the institutional gymnasium, a class in physical culture composed of prisoners thus assigned by the physician as being in especial need of gymnastic exercise and other treatment here given. A little after ten o'clock, general military exercises begin and these occupy the remainder of the morning and are participated in by the major portion of the population. 16 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY The prisoners dine at noon. The first part of the afternoon is devoted to the trades school, and there is also an afternoon physical culture class in the gymnasium. These sessions last until about half -past three; from there the prisoners pass directly to their various classes in the school of letters, and receive instryiction until five o'clock, when their labors for t-.he day are concluded. After a half-hour for supper, the prisoners retire to their rooms to rest, read or study, until their hed-time, at nine o'clock. Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, form an exception to the above schedule, the respective programmes for these days being as follows: On Wednesday morning occurs the usual routine, with the addition of the semi-weekly session of the respective classes of stenography, and clothing-cutting, and the elimination of the morning military exercises. On Wednesday afternoon there is no session of the school of letters, and the sessions of the trades school classes are limited to those of printer and book binder, and a class in mechanical drawing, the latter including nearly all the trades school pupils. The military exercises and the dress parade occupy the remainder of the day. There is no change in the institutional routine on Friday except that during the morning is held a session of the classes in stenography and clothing-cutting. On Saturday morning the usual routine obtains with the exception that all prisoners are required to bathe, and there are no military exercises but a session of the school ,of inmate officers under instruction of the colonel of the regiment. In the afternoon there is no session of the school of letters, nor of the trades school; the entire time being occupied in military exercises, which conclude with dress parade beginning at a quarter to four. The Roman Cathohc and Protestant chaplains conduct their respective religious services on Sunday morning; in the afternoon, in addition to the Jewish services, in charge of the Hebrew chaplain, occur class sessions in ethics and current topics. HAND BOOK 17. The School ot Letters. A citizen instructor called the school director has charge of the department of the school of letters. Upon their reception at the institution, the men are interviewed by the school director and assigned to the particular grade of the school for which, in his judgment, they are best qualified by natural intelligence and previous educational advantages. The school director is assisted in his work by the chaplains, and a visiting lecturer, of the faculty of Elmira College;: he has also an efficient corps of inmate teachers by whom, under- his direction, a considerable portion of the teaching and routine work of the school is performed. The school director visits all class sessions, for purposes of criticism and suggestion, and also conducts a semi-weekly normal class composed of all of his inmate instructors, at which methods, of teaching are considered, and plans for improvement discussed.. The subjects taught in the school of letters are: arithmetic,, bookkeeping, language, history, ethics, literature, civics,., economics, and hygiene. The classes in history, civics, economics, ethics, andi literature are instructed personally by the chaplains and a. visiting lecturer. The class iii bookkeeping is taught by a member of the; citizen clerical force. The classes in arithmetic and language, are divided intoi eleven different grades each of which has its inmate instructor' who, subject to the school director, has entire charge of and! personally conducts its class recitations. As has been previously shown, there are five school days in each week, including Sunday. The school classes are apportioned as follows: European History and] Current Events. Civics or Economics. American History, and "Special A" Arithmeti*., Literature, and "Special A" Arithmetic. Question Box and Current Topics. ; Monday Arithmetic Tuesday Arithmetic Thursday Language Fn'dny Language Sunday Ethics .18 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY COURSES OF STVDY. Arithmetic. The course of study in arithmetic is arranged practically -as follows: There are eleven groups, or grades. The work in each grade consists of a four months' course of study, examinations -occurring monthly. At the conclusion of the course, the regular monthly examination includes a review of the four months' work just completed and is the final one for the course, determining the pupils fitness to advance from the ,grade in question to the next higher. Th6 initial (eleventh) grade is made very easy for the T)upil and is intended to prepare more than usually ignorant pupils to enter the regularly classified lowest (tenth) grade, from which they may advance from grade to grade until they arrive at the ' 'Special A, " or highest, and when the final examination in this grade is successfully passed, they are graduated, so far as the school of letters is concerned, from the study of arithmetic. The following is a brief synopsis of the work in the different grades, commencing with the preparatory, or eleventh, and progressing to the first, and thence to the highest, or "Special A" Grade. PREPARATORY, OR ELEVENTHGRADE. First Month: Elementary work in reading and writing numbers. Concrete practical examples involving dollars and cents. Attention lessons. Lessons and drill from arithmetic chart. [Second Month: Continuation of above with harder practical examples and more rapid drill with chart and blackboard. Third Month: Continuation of the above with practice in the use of signs in combination of numbers. Very simple work in addition of columns and subtraction. Rapid work with chart and revolving blackboard is expected this month. HAND BOOK 19 Fourth Month: Continuation of preceding work. Very simple concrete examples in multiplication. Multiplication tables as far as six. Drill in fractional parts as: j of 9, i of 20, etc. Quickness and ease in use of chart and revolving blackboard is expected at the end of this month. TENTH GRADE. First Month: Elementary work in reading and writing numbers. Multiplication tables perfectly learned as far as 4. Simple concrete examples in addition and subtraction which involve dollars and cents. Attention lessons. Second Month: Multiplication tables as far as 7. Develop the use of signs as follows: +, -, x, -^, =. Place columns of figures on board and have pupils add aloud. Give exercises in oral sub- traction. Continuation of simple concrete examples in addition and subtraction. Third Month: More difficult examples in addition and subtraction. Introduce simple concrete examples in multiplication by one figure. Continue blackboard work in abstract addition and subtraction. Fourth Month: Multiplication tables to 9. Drill in fractional parts, as j of 12, h of 14, I of 20, etc. Concrete work in addition, subtraction, and simple multiplication. NINTH GRADE. First Month: Review of previous sets continued. Simple concrete examples in addition, subtraction, and multiplication. Simple mental arithmetic. Revolving blackboard. Multiplication tables. Fractional parts. U. S. Money, Second Month: Same as above. Counting by 2's and 3's. 20 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY Third Month: Same as above with increase in difficulty and amount. Multiplication. Fourth Month: Review of term's work. EIGHTH GRADE. First Month: Careful connection of work in set 9 with that in set 8 which will be exercises with revolving blackboard, simple mental arithmetic, and concrete examples using pints, quarts, dollars, etc. Special attention paid to the use of the decimal point to mark cents. Multiplication table. U. S. Money. Fractional parts. Second Month: Mental arithmetic harder than in previous month. Addition and subtraction of numbers of three figures. Multiplication. Third Month: Same as above and simple examples in Roman notation-^^to one hundred. Multiplication. Fourth Month: Review of term's work. SEVENTH GRADE. First Month: Careful connection with work of previous set. Difficult addition and subtraction and multiplication in concrete examples. Mental work and drill with view to drawing inferences and reasoning. Multiplication tables. Fractional parts. U.^l^S. Money. Division begins. Second Month: Same as above and division with divisor of not more than two figures. Third Month: Same as above and simple examples in division with divisor of not more than three figures. , Fourth Month: Review of term's work. HAND BOOK 21 SIXTH GRADE. First Month: Elementary work in developing the idea of a fraction. Common fractions developed. Numerator, denominator, proper and improper fractions, mixed numbers, reduction to higher and lower terms, unlike to hke fractions. Mental drill in reduction. Second Month: Same as above and addition of fractions. Practical examples, such as occur in trades and drawing. Tliird Month: Same as above and subtraction of fractions. Fourth Month: Review of term's work. FIFTH GRADE. First Month: Careful connection with work of the preceding set. Much practical mental work in fractions. Multiplication of fractions introduced. Second Month: Same as above and multiplication of fractions with cancel- lation. Particular attention to trades and drawing examples involving fractions. Division of fractions introduced. Third Month: Same as above and division of fractions. Fourth Month: Review of term's work. FOURTH GRADE. First Month: Review of entire subject of common fractions. Denominate numbers. Table of linear measure. Examples under same involving use of both integers and fractions. Second^Month: Same as above with tables of liquid and dry measure. 22 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY Third Month: Same as above with avoirdupois weight. Fourth Month: Review of tables of time and counting. THIRD GRADE. First Month: Careful connection with precedingjgrade. Decimal fractions explained and taught, especially their notation and numeration. Reduction to decimal, dissimilar to similar, common fractions to decimal, vice versa. Addition and subtraction. Drill in aliquot parts of 100. Second Month: Same as above with multiplication of decimals. Third Month: Same as]above and divison of decimals, also accounts and bills. Fourth Month: Review of term's work. SECOND GRADE. First Month: Careful review of both common and decimal fractions. Linear measure with practical examples involving common and decimal fractions. Board measure. Second Month: Same as above and square measure, including carpeting, plastering, papering, land measure, etc. Third Month: Same as above and cubic measure, including stone work, cubic contents of bins, cisterns, etc. Fourth Month: Review of term's work. FIRST GRADE. First Month: Careful 'review of the subject of decimal fractions. Per- centage, profit and loss. Commission. HAND BOOK 23 Second Month: Same as above with commercial discount, insurance, and principles of interest. Third Month: Interest, discount, and promissory notes. Fourth Month: Review of term's work. "SPECIAL A." First Month: Taxes, duties and customs; stocks and bonds, with problems. Second Month: Partnership, ratio, and simple proportion with problems. Third Month: Compound proportion, longitude and time, involution and evolution. Fourth Month: Practical measurements, and applications of square root; practical problems, and general review. Language. The course in language, like that in arithmetic, is divided into grades, each embracing four months of work. There are nine grades in language, including the preparatory. After the preparatory grade, the regular course begins with the next higher grade, called the Sixth Primary, and progresses successively to the First Primary. Next higher than the First Primary comes the Second Intermediate and following that the final, or highest, the First Intermediate, which is the graduating grade in the study of language. Examinations, etc., are subject to the same rules as in the arithmetic course. The following is a general outline of the course of study in the different language grades, subject to such supplementary work, or other modification, as the school director may from time to time deem beneficial: 24 NEvv VORK STATE REFORMATORY PRELIMINARY CLASS WORK. Special Langitage Class No. 1. All foreign born illiterates except Italians. Reading is taught by a combination of the word and sentence method. Special Language Class No. 2. All foreign born illiterate Italians. Reading taught same as number one. Special Language Class No. 3. Itahans promoted from Special Language 2. Continuation of work in reading, spelling and writing. PREPARATORY, OR SEVENTH PRIMARY GRADE. First Month: Talks about familiar things, illustrating the meaning of words by means of objects and pictures; errors in language pointed out and corrected; use of the blackboard in writing and reading simple sentences; pupils repeat sentences after the instructor, care being takeji as to pronunciation and enunciation; ■each pupil taught to write his name and address in a neat and proper manner, using the correct pronunciation for same; all words taught should be used in original sentences; the use of the •capital, and period taught; practice given in writing from copy, and in speaking. Second Month: Continuation of work of preceding month; pupils taught the manner in which to properly begin a letter of business or friendship; how to properly write a note to an officer of the reformatory. Third Month: Continuation of work of preceding month; practice in letter writing; practical drill in the use of good English words. Fourth Month: Continuation of work of preceding month; pupils required to learn and repeat before the class short quotations from standard authors. HAND BOOK 25 SIXTH GRADE, PRIMARY. First Month: Continuation of work of preparatory grade; the uses of "is" and "are" explained; short lessons in reproducing in writing, articles read, or descriptions given by instructor; object lessons, reading and spelling. Second Month: Continuation of work of first month. Third Month: Continuation of work of second month. Fourth Month: Review of work of Sixth Grade, Primary. FIFTH GRADE, PRIMARY. First Month: Continuation of work of preceding grade; uses explained of the capital, period, comma, interrogation point; pupils required to learn each day quotations of not less than two lines in length, from standard authors; also required to properly read aloud, and write same; question and answer method used to develop new words at each lesson ; exercises in supplying proper words where omissions have purposely been made; reading and spelling. Second Month: Continuation of worii of preceding month; name- words and action-words pointed out and their uses explained; practical neatness and accuracy required in writing simple sentences. Third Month: Continuation of work of preceding month; facility required in the use of simple sentences ; discussions about the lessons. Fourth Month: Review of work of Fifth Grade, Primary. FOURTH GRADE, PRIMARY. First Month: Continuation of work of preceding grade: exercises calcu- 26 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY lated to develop the faculty of imagination; spelling and dictation. Second Month: Continuation of work of preceding month; proper and common names; letter writing. Third Month: Continuation of work of preceding month; the use of abbreviations explained; action-words in' present and past tense explained. Fourth Month: Review of work of Fourth Grade, Primary. THIRD GRADE, PRIMARY. First Month: Continuation of work of preceding grade; quotations of not less than three lines, from standard authors, learned each day; spelling and dictation. Second Month: Continuation of work of preceding month. Third Month: Continuation of work of previous month; exercises from language book. Fourth Month: Review of Third Grade, Primary. SECOND GRADE, PRIMARY. First Month: Continuation of work of preceding grades; drill in the use of the different forms of action-words; the subject of synonyms introduced; derivation words; spelling and dictation. Second Month: Continuation of work of preceding month. Third Month: Continuation of work of preceding month; uses of quotation marks explained; practice in writing sentences, stories, letters, etc, ; new words in each lesson. HAND BOOK 27 Fourth Month: Review of work of Second Grade, Primary. FIRST GRADE, PRIMARY. First Month: Review of work of preceding grades; exercises in the use of possessives and plurals; instructions as to proper forms for writing advertisements, notices of situations wanted, articles found, or lost, etc. ; spelling and dictation. Second Month: Continuation of work of preceding month; how to write checks; promissory notes. Third Month: Continuation of work of preceding month; how to properly write dispatches to be sent by telegraph; how to write a letter ordering books, periodicals, etc. Fourth Month: Review of work of First Grade, Primary. ■ SECOND GRADE, INTERMEDIATE. First Month: Discussions; choice extracts of prose and poetry discussed and re-written by pupils, using individual forms of expression; accuracy and fluency cultivated; spelling and dictation. Second Month: Continuation of work of preceding month; introduction of the subject of paraphrasing; special attention given to finishing the subject of letter writing; accuracy, neatness, care in punctuation; perfect familiarity required with all kinds of letter writing. Third Month: Continuation of work of preceding month. Fourth Month: Thorough review of work of Second Grade, Intermediate. FIRST GRADE, INTERMEDIATE. Essay work; accuracy; style; fluency; originality ; 28 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY biography; criticism; debate; study of choice extracts from works of different authors; discussions; spelling and dictation. Classes in History, CiOics, Economics, Ethics, Literature. In the above named classes, instruction is imparted by means of lectures delivered, as before stated, by the chaplains and visiting lecturer. Each class is convened in one group. As aids to memory, prmted memoranda, termed outlines, are issued to the pupils; these contain the salient points upon which the lectures are based. Examinations are held periodically, as in the other school of letters classes. The course of study in each of these classes is connected, but of somewhat indefinite length; any subject being concluded and another introduced, at the option of the instructor. The Special Trairing Class. This is a department established in 1913 for the especial care and development of that portion of the inmate population known to be mentally defective. Its class rooms, dining-room, and sleeping-rooms are located in a portion of the institution separated by brick walls from the remainder of the reformatory, thus completely segregating the class. Its periods of open the air exercise and recreation are selected in such a manner that pupils do not meet or communicate with the other prisoners. A citizen officer of proven ability and judgment has charge, and he is assisted by an inmate instructor and an inmate nionitor, both carefully selected for this special work. Determined by the ability and general qualifications of the pupils, the class is divided into three groups: the highest, the intermediate, and the kindergarten, or lowest grade. In the forenoon the pupils, after disposing of the necessary cleaning work about the class-rooms, dining-room, and sleeping-rooms, have an hour of- school of letters work, with the inmate instructor, the small number of pupils making it possible to give valuable individual attention and instruction. After the class HAND BOOK 2& session, an hour is devoted to some useful institutional work— mending garments, or what not, and at the conclusion of the second hour the class adjourns to the manual training-room and is engaged for a third hour period in learning to saw, and plane, and other of the elementary processes of the carpenter trade. Dinner is at noon. The class remains out of doors during the afternoon, engaging in athletic exercises and games, in a yard entirely separated from the other institutional lawns and grounds. On Wednesdays and Saturdays, especial attention is given to the work of teaching the pupils to write, and stories are read to them by the officer in- charge. On Sunday, the class attends the regular religious exercises and spends the remainder of the day in listening to the reading of selected literature, by the officer in charge, and in quiet games as, dominoes, etc. The school of letters work is scheduled like that of the regular routine, the sessions on Monday and Tuesday being devoted to the study of arithmetic, and Thursday and Friday, to lessons in language. At the latter sessions, facts are also taught relative to the geography and government of the United States. As has already been stated, the very small number in each of the groups of this class makes possible much individual instruction, and processes can be emphasized and repeated for the benefit of the slow-minded, so that there is at least a fair chance of attaining the result sought. The Trades School. The department of the trades school is presided over by a citizen officer entitled the trades school director. While his duties are in the main supervisory, he personally conducts a class in mechanical drawing, numbering practically all the trades school pupils. Each trades class is in charge of a citizen instructor who is assisted by a more or less extensive corps of inmate instructors, chosen from the most advanced pupils, preferably graduates of the class. 30 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY At the present time twenty- trades, seven as enumerated in the following list, are taught in the trades school: Barber Machinist Bookbinder Moulder Brass-smith Paint-mixer Bricklayer Plasterer Cabinet-maker Plumber Carpenter Printer Clothing cutter Shoemaker Electrician Sign-painter Frescoer Steam-fitter Hard-wood finisher I Stenographer and Horseshoer ( Typewriter House-painter Tailor Iron-forger Tinsmith Machine- wood- worker Upholsterer In the reformatory system of trades teaching, the minimum time in which a trade may be learned is designated as a certain number of hours; this total number of hours is divided into what may be termed examination periods. When the pupil works at his trade for the specified number of hours allotted to the period in which he may be employed, he is examined by the citizen instructor in regard to the quality of his work which, if it merits a marking of 75 per cent, or higher, entitles him to be advanced to the next higher period, or outline as it is termed. When he has successively passed all the outlines prescribed in the schedule of the trade at which he is employed he is graduated from the class and, thereafter, until his release from the institution, maybe employed at making repairs, constructing new work, or if necessary, assigned as an assistant instructor in the class from which he has been graduated. To aid the reader in obtaining an idea of the amount of knowledge required in order to pass from outline to outline of a trade, descriptions of the outlines embodied in the respective trades of bricklaying, and steno- ^aphy and typewriting, follow in the order named: H Q < O Q as HAND BOOK 31 Bricklaying. Schedule of outlines which it is required to pass in order to be erraduateed from the trade of briclclayingr. The total number of hours during which a pupil must work at this trade before he can be graduateed is seven hundred and twelve, divided into thirty-five outlines varying in length from eight to thirty hours respectively. OUTLINE NO. 1. Length of Outline 8 hours. Character of Work— Practice in use of trowel and mortar board— properly placing mortar on board, then spreading it upon the wall. OUTLINE NO- 2. Length of Outline 14 hours. Character of Work— Practice in laying an 8-inch wall, without the use of plumb and line, spreading mortar for three bricks at a time, and striking joints. OUTLINE NO. 3. Length of Outline 14 hours. Character of Work— same as No. 2. OUTLINE NO. 4. Length of Outline 24 hours. Character of Work— Building square piers and chimneys, striking joints. OUTLINE NO. 5. Length of Outline 24 hours. Character of Work— same as No. 4. OUTLINE NO. 6. Length of Outline 30 hours. Character of Work— Building an 8-inch wall, using plumb and line; also a chimney fire-place; learning to turn corners and form pilasters. OUTLINE NO. 7. Length of Outline 30 hours. Character of Work— same as No. 6. 32 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY OUTLINE NO. 8. Length of Outline 30 hours. Character of Work— Building 12-inch wall using plumb and line; also fire-place flues; practice in turning corners and building pilasters. OUTLINE NO. 9. Length of Outline 30 hours. Character of Work— same as No. 8. OUTLINE NO. 10. Length of Outline' 30 hours. Character of Work— Building 12-inch, plain wall, spreading mortar for three bricks; practice in turning comers, building pilasters, and forming projections between pilasters to face of same. OUTLIN.E NO. 11. Length of Outline 30 hours. Character of Work— same as No. 10. OUTLINE NO. 12. Length of Outline 30 hours. Character of Work— Building 16-inch wall, turning corners, giving attention to placing headers, outside and inside, making a high wall without scaffold. OUTLINE NO. 13. Length of Outline 30 hours. Character of Work— same as No. 12. OUTLINE NO. 14 (A) Length of Outline 16 hours. Character of Work— Building a 16-inch plain wall, at the rate of 75 bricks per hour. OUTLINE NO. 14 (B) Length of Outline 18 hours. Character of Work— same as No. 14 (A) except that the rate is 100 bricks per hour. HAND BOOK 3».. OUTLINE NO. 14 (C) Length of Outline- 18 hours. Character of Work— same as No. 14 (B) except that the- rate is 120 bricks per hour. OUTLINE NO. 14 (D) Length of Outline 18 hours. Character of Work— same as No. 14 (C) except that the rate is 140 bricks per hour. OUTLINE NO. 14 (B) Length of Outline 20 hours. Character of Work— same as No. 14 (D) except that the rate is 160 bricks per hour. OUTLINE NO. 14 (F) Length of Outline 24 hours. Character 'of Work— same as No. 14 (E) except that the, rate is 180 bricks per hour. OUTLINE NO. 14 (G) Length of Outline 28 hours. Character of Work— same as No. 14 (F) except that the rate is 200 bricks per hour. OUTLINE NO. 15. Length of Outline 30 hours. CharacterofWork— Building 16-inch wall, using "bats" for backing and filling, and placing flues in wall without projecting. OUTLINE NO. IR. Length of Outline 20 hours. Character of Work— Building semicircular arches, 4-inch by 28-inch, and 12-inch by 16-inch. OUTLINE NO. 17. Length of Outline 20 hours. Character of Work— Building segmental arches, 4-inch by 8-inch and 12-inch by 16-inch. OUTLINE NO. 18. Length of Outline 20 hours. Character of Work— Building Gothic arches, 4-inch by 8-inch and 12-inch by 16-inch. 34 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY OUTLINE NO. 19. Length of Outline. 26 hours. Character of Work— Building dovetail arches, 8-inch by 12-inch. OUTLINE NO. 20. Xength of Outline '• 20 hours. Character of Work— Building 8-inch wall, turning corners, setting door and window sills and frames, with semicircular arch over each door and window frame. OUTLINE NO. 21. Length of Outline 20 hours. Character of Work— same as No. 20. OUTLINE NO. 22. . Length of Outline ...... .... 20 hours. Character of Work— Building 12-inch wall, with corners, ■ doors, windows, bracket cornice, and pilasters, the pilasters to be connected by semicircular arches. OUTLINE NO. 23. Length of Outline 20 hours. Character of Work— same as No. 22. OUTLINE NO. 24. Length of Ouiline 20 hours. Character of Work— Building 16-inch wall, with corners, windows and doors; over windows, semicircular arch outside, segmental arch inside; over doors, dovetail., OUTLINE NO. 25. Length of Outline 22 hours. Character of Work— same as No. 24. OUTLINE NO. 26. Length of Outline 22 hours. Character of Work — Building gables, plain, and with windows. OUTLINE NO. 27. Length of Outline 22 hours. Character of Work— Building arches, gables, octagons, and semi-octagons. HAND BOOK 35 OUTLINE NO. 28. Length of Outline 22 hours. Character of Work— Changing square to octagon, OUTLINE NO. 29. Length of Outline- ■ 22 hours. Character of Work— Battering brickwork true to battering rule. OUTLINE NO. 30. {Final Outline) Character of Work— Building a test-piece as prescribed by the instructor. Note:— All pupils before graduation must be able to lay brick, plumb, neatly, and at the rate of at least 60:) in eight hours. A lesson in mixing mortar is given oncp each month during the course. Stenography and Typewriting. The stenography and typewriting class numbers twenty- four pupils and, in addition to the citizen instructor, has a force of three inmate teachers. Its sessions are of two hours' duration and occur on Wednesday and Friday mornings. This trade comprises two branches — the art of the stenographer and that of the typewriter. The study of stenography necessarily involves the learning of certain principles and rules and the memorizing of many written characters, as well as manual practice with the pen or pencil; while the ability to operate the typewriting" machine depends mainly upon manual practice. The methods of instruction therefore necessarily differ somewhat in character, and we shall consider the two subjects separately, in the order named. stenography. The following is a brief description of the various outlines of the stenography branch of the class. The prisoner pupil is required to successfully undergo, commencing with. Outline No. 1, a final examination on each of the twelve hereinafter described outlines, consecutively, before he can be graduated from the study of stenography proper: The first eight of these outlines are termed theory outlines 36 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY and have to do exclusively with the principles and writing exercises contained in Graham's Handbook of Standard Phono- graphy. The remaining four outhnes are known as practice outUnes, and include stenographic reproduction and oral transcription of business letters- contained in Graham's Universal Dictation Course. A theory outline comprises three lessons in the handbook with their accompanying writing exercises. A practice outline includes: work in the dictation book at the rate of thirty words per minute, for the ninth stenography outline, which is the first practice outhne, fifty words per minute for the tenth stenography outline, or second practice outline, eighty words per minute for the eleventh stenography outline, or third practice outline, and one hundred words per minute for the twelfth stenography outline, or fourth practice outline. After passing the twelfth outline the pupil is graduated from stenography. As hereinbefore stated, class sessions occur twice each week. The class of twenty-four pupils is divided into groups of twelve; one group working at stenography and the other at typewriting, each session; the groups alternating in their work so that each group has one session of stenography and one session of typewriting, each week. One lesson, or one-third of one theory outline in stenography, is studied each session; three weeks being devoted to the study of an ontline of three lessons; the fourth weekly session is devoted to a review of the preceding three weeks' work, by the instructor, and the fifth session is devoted to an examination of the pupil on the outhne of three lessons just finished. This plan brings the examination period of each pupil in the stenography class, every fifth week. Upon such examination, should he merit a marking of seventy-five per cent, or higher, he is rated as successful, and begins the'study of the outhne next in advance; should he fail in his examination he is required to go over again the work of the previous outline, taking his examination at the regular five-week interval. Should a pupil be absent from HAND BOOK 37 session, his examination period is delayed accordingly, examin- ations occurring only after four weeks of actual study in the class. This, together with the irregular dates of entrance of pupils to the class, precludes the practicability of a general examination day. Under the present plan examinations occur from time to time, as the five- week study periods of the various pupils terminate. Of the twelve stenography outhnes, the theory outhnes comprise the first twenty-four lessons in the hand-book, and as the outlines include three lessons each, there are eight of these groups or outlines, necessitating eight five-weekly examinations to be successfully undergone before the pupil may be advanced to the remaining four outlines of the course. The practice outlines, four in number, conclude the stenography course. The final theory outline being number eight, the practice outlines are nuinbered respectively, nine, ten, eleven, and twelve; the last named being the final outline in the course. Each of these outlines consists of three weeks of practice work at stenographic reproduction and oral tran- scription of business letters, . one weekly session for review by the instructor, and the fifth, or final weekly session, devoted to the examination of the work accomplished. The rate of stenographic speed required in the four outhnes is as follows: for the ninth outline, thirty words per minute; tenth, fifty words; eleventh, eighty words; twelfth, or final outline, one hundred words per minute. Dictation on examination, in volume, is as follows: five-minute periods of dictation at the rate required in the outline, i. e. , 150 words at the 30-word examin- ation, 250 words at the 50-word, 400 words at the 80-word, and 500 wbrds at the 100-word examination. Both old and new matter is used on each examination. Advancement, as rapidly as the ability or dihgence of the pupil may render possible, can be accomplished by obtaining a standing of ninety per cent, or higher, on any regular examination. This admits of a special examination on the next higher outline, and such examinations may be continued until the pupil shall 38 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY fail to obtain the required ninety per cent, standing. A failure to pass one of these special examinations after acquiring the right to take the examination, is regarded as a special effort made by the pupil and does not militate against his institutional record, his regular examination occurring at the specified time as under ordinary circumstances. These special examinations, however, are g.van only upon the expressed desire of the pupil, who may wish to make faster progress than the regular schedule admits. Typewriting, The course in typewriting comprises twelve groups, or outlines, as does the course in stenography. The pupil is first required to carefully peruse a card of instruction in the use of the typewriting machine. The first outline is then given, which consists of exercises to be copied on the typewriter, and is designed to teach the proper use of all the fingers of each hand in the rhanipulation of the fingerboard. The second and third outlines comprise similar exercises, the pupil being required to copy typewritten exercises consisting of the alphabet, and words and short sentences, in which the first,. or topmost line to be copied, has printed over it, figures denoting the proper finger for each letter of each word in the exercise. After completing the first three outlines, the pupil receives the fourth which consists of printed instructions to be copied, showing the proper manner of writing a letter— where and how to write the superscription, body, and subscription, with directions as to the proper use of abbreviations, proper punctuation, paragraphing, etc. The fifth outhne consists of a business letter of one hundred words; this is to be copied, repeatedly, as were the previous exercises, during the sessions preceding examination, but instead of. being required to copy this letter on examination, as was the case with previous exercises, he is required to type the letter, from dictation by the instructor, at the rate of twenty-five words per minute. The sixth and seventh outHnes consist of two business HAND BOOK 39 letters each, with examination-test at the rate of twenty-five words per minute; the eighth and ninth, two letters each, with test of thirty words per minute; the tenth and eleventh, two extracts from literary productions, not in the form of correspondence, with test at the rate of thirty-five words per minute. The twelfth, or final outline consists of two letters, with examination-test at the rate of forty words per minute. The pupil has three two -hour sessions, on each outline, and receives examination on the fourth session of each outline. As in the stenography class, advancement may be as speedy as the pupil shall elect, although in this class, a standing of one hundred per cent, is required before a special examination to the next higher outline is allowed. The twenty-four pupils are separated into groups of twelve; each group having one session in stenography and the following session in typewriting. As there are twelve typewriting machines, one half the class is engaged, each session, in the study of stenography, while the remaining half is practising on the typewriters. As there are two sessions of the stenography and typewriting class each week, each pupil receives one lesson in stenography and one lesson in typewriting per week. Pupils receiving a marking of seventy-five per cent, or higher, upon outline number twelve, in stenography, and upon outline number twelve, in typewriting, are graduated from the class. The Military Organization. The military department is under the supervision of a citizen oflacer termed the military instructor; he is the com- manding officer, or colonel, of the inmate military organization known as the reformatory regiment. All prisoners, unless excused by the superintendent, upon recommendation of the physician, are required to become members of the miHtary organization as soon as they are received in the reformatory. Practically all the prisoners in 40 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY the institution are thus permitted and required to avail them- selves of the advantages incident to mihtary training. Newly received prisoners, before they are allowed to participate in the daily regimental military exercises, are given preliminary training, in the way of suitable gymnastic exercises, for the purpose of improving their physical condition and personal bearing; and in the art of handling military arms and performing other movements witli the aim of qualifying them to take their places, in due time, in the reformatory regiment proper. This group of beginners in military work is institutionally termed the "awkward squad." Its numbers are continually augmented by the acquisition of new arrivals at the reformatory, and as steadily depleted by the departure of its most proficient members who are graduated from the awkward squad and assigned to the regiment; thus, the number composing the awkward squad varies, occasionally reaching one hundred and fifty and in exceptional instances, an even greater number. The average period of time passed in the awkward squad is five weeks. The reformatory regiment numbers approximately eight hundred men; although of course the regimental roster is con- stantly subject to change on account of receiving reinforcements consisting of the graduates from the awkward squad, and losing those prisoners who, from time to time are authorized to leave the institution upon parole. The regiment is divided into four battalions, of four companies each. A citizen major is in command of each battalion and a citizen captain is in charge of each company. All officers below the rank of captain are inmates. The inmate officers include battalion adjutants, lieutenants, sergeants, and corporals, both of the gun and color squads. All citizen officers of the regiment are clothed in dark blue uniform coats with trousers of dark or light blue according to the wearer's rank. As in the regular army, the rank of each citizen officer is definitely denoted by his shoulder straps. A citizen officer's oflficial uniform, as required by his rank in the HAND BOOK' 41 reformatory regiment, is considered as his regular institutional uniform, hence it is not necessary that he should make any material change in his clothing except to don his sword belt, before taking his place in the regiment at dress parade. The inmate officers' summer uniforms are of khaki (a thin material yellowish in color). In winter these are replaced by uniform suits of heavier, Kght blue cloth. The inmate officer's rank is designated by shoulder straps, or chevrons, as his title may require. His institutional uniform, like that of the citizen officer, is practically identical with that required by his military duty, and for dress parade purposes, little change is made except that white cross belts are added and if he is a lieutenant, his sword belt is included in his equipment. The rank and file of the regiment wear summer uniforms of khaki and winter uniforms of heavy cloth; the coats are black, the trousers gray. Their uniforms, like those of the citizen and inmate officers, are not materially changed before entering the dress parade except that the regulation white cross belts are put on. However, should any certain number of inmates chance to be engaged in labor at which there is a likelihood of their clothing becoming soiled, they are provided with working suits which they must change for their regular uniform at dress parade time. During military exercises, all the citizen officers of the regiment, viz: the colonel, lieutenant-colonel, majors, and captains, carry swords, as do inmate officers of higher rank than second sergeant, namely, lieutenants and adjutants. The remainder of the inmate officers and the rank and file of the regiment, are equipped with wooden models of rifles for use in executing the manual of arms. The general cut and style of the regular institutional uniform does not vary materially whether intended for officer or private; citizen or inmate. It consists of a sack coat and trousers of a mihtary cut, the coat having a standing collar and concealed buttons and the trousers, a side stripe where required by the rank of the wearer. All officers, citizen and inmate. 42 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY wear military caps with straight visor and chin strap. The rank and file of the prisoners wear caps of the same general pattern, having chin strap but without the visor. The Regimental Brass Band The institutional class in music is under the direction of a citizen instructor, who utilizes the services of inmate teachers as needed. Pupils in the class in music have their class sessions during a certain period of the morning and afternoon of each week day except Saturday, which is the institutional bathing day as has before been stated. The knowledge of music which it is possible to acquire at the reformatory during the average period of detention of prisoners is not considered adequate to afford a sufficient means of livehhood for inmates when released. Inmate musicians are therefore required to learn some one of the other trades included in the institutional curriculum, and take their places as pupils in the regular afternoon trades school. Instruction is imparted in the manipulation and use of all instruments of brass, wood, and percussion, commonly used in a military band. From the most proficient pupils of the music class are chosen the members of the institutional military brass and reed band. The band, when on regular daily duty, is in direct charge of an inmate instructor, or band leader, who selects the music to be played and gives attention to the manner of its execution. The march movements and playing signals of the band are controlled by an inmate drum major who, from his position at its head, and several paces in advance, directs its movements with his baton. The musicians of the band are clothed in khaki uniforms in summer, and light blue uniforms in winter. The drum major's uniform is similar, with a black shako, worn only upon dress parade days. There are twenty-five musicians in the band. When in regular order for marching they are in five ranks, with five men The South Gate HAND BOOK 4S to the rank; these, with the drum major, complete the organi- zation. The instruments are distributed as follows: Front Rank Two basses, two trombones, one baritone. Second Rank Four altos, one baritone. Third Rank Five clarinets. Fourth Rank Five cornets. Fifth Rank Drums, cymbals. The Institutional Enclosure. A reference to the ground plan of the reformatory will show that the institution proper is comprised of buildings so arranged as to partially enclose a considerable plot of ground, and that the enclosure is rendered complete by the addition of a brick wall. The institutional yard is in the general form of a rectangle and is divided about midway of its depth by a trans- verse wall which formerly constituted the rear boundary of the enclosure, but which is now called the center wall. The yard walls are twenty feet in height and two or more feet in width. Upon the walls, at each of the angles, and at all gateways allowing egress from the enclosure, are located small, circular wooden sentry-boxes, or turrets, each surmounted by an electric lamp and surrounded by a platform. Within the turret is a telephone connected with the administrative building. These turrets are for the use of the wall guards, of whom, more will be written later on, under the heading, "Supervision of the Prisoners. ' ' The South Gate. In addition to the main entrance at the front of the insti- tution, there are three gateways leading to the reformatory enclosure; two of these are located opposite each other at about midway of its lateral walls; the third pierces the rear wall at a point directly opposite the front entrance. The accompanying cut shows one of the lateral entrances, known, from its location, as the south gate. At the top of the wall may be seen the south 44 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY gate turret, with the wall guard at his post. One of his duties is to open and shut this gate when teams are allowed to enter, or leave, the institutional enclosure. Through the south gate pass all institutional supplies, and its opening doors discover to the arriving prisoner his first glimpse of the interior of the reformatory. The gate has two pair of doors; the first, or inner pair closes the entrance through the wall proper; from these doors, a high, walled, but not covered passage way extends outward at right angles to the wall for a distance of about thirty feet. The second pair of doors closes the outer end of this passage. Both sets of gates are operated by the guard in charge of the turret, without leaving his platform. When it becomes necessary that a team should pass into the institutional enclosure, the outer gates are opened, the team is admitted to the passage, and the gates are closed. The gates in front are then opened, permitting the team to enter the yard. This arrangement very effectually safeguards against the escape of prisoners at these points. The other two outside gates are similarly constructed. The Center Gate. Midway of the transverse center wall before mentioned is located the center gate, formerly the rear gate of the institution. Toward the front, this gate opens upon the original reformatory enclosure, in which are located the prison proper, the domestic building, the power plant, the gymnasium, certain trades school shops, the school of letters classrooms, the laundry, the general bath room, and certain store rooms. A large part of the unoccupied yard space is utilized as a parade ground for the reformatory regiment. The center gate, gives to the rearward upon the extension of the original enclosure and is the terminal of what is practically an institutional street beginning at the rear gate (situated at the center of the present rear wall) and extending through the middle of the enclosure extension. On either side of this street are located the remainder of the trades school shops, the regi- Ill z 93 HAND BOOK , 46 f mental armory, the lumber yard, various store houses, and other minor buildings. The accompanying cut gives a view of the center gate taken from the enclosure extension. All institutional supplies, after being received at the south gate, are inspected and accounted for at the center gate. The turret above has now no occupant as, since the building of the enclosure extension, it has been deemed unnecessary that a guard should be stationed on the wall at this point. At the base of the turret is the center gate office, in which is stationed the officer who inspects and accounts for all materials received at or shipped from the institution. Although there are several small grass plots in the reforma- tory enclosure, the major part of the open space is concreted; and all roads over which institutional teams must pass are paved with bricks. The concreted and paved surfaces are so constructed as to depress slightly toward lateral shallow gutters leading to numerous sewer gratings, so that rain, melted snow, and cleansing water are easily disposed of. The pavement is sprinkled and swept, daily, in summer, and in the winter season fallen snow is quickly loaded on the institutional wagons and carted away. No effort is spared to keep the enclosure In a neat and cleanly condition. A number of prisoners are regularly assigned to this work upon the recommendation of the physician, for the reason that they stand in need of more exercise in the open air than is afforded by the regular routine. One of the small grass plots before mentioned, situated near the center gate, and opposite the parade ground, is furnished with seats for visitors who may wish to view the military exercises. The Military Exercise of Dress Parade. The institutional bugler voices the signal for the parade. Quickly the prisoners appear from various points within the reformatory, and wend their several ways toward the armory, which is the assembUng place for the regiment. A period of ten minutes, immediately preceding the sounding 46 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY of the bugle, is allotted the inmates as a preparatory season in which to blacken their shoes, wash their hands and faces, don their white belts and cross-belts and render themselves generally presentable. For Wednesday or Saturday parade, the men make these preparations in their rooms, shortly after returning from the midday meal; on other days, local wash basins and itinerant shoe-blacking equipments afford the necessary smartening facihties in the divers shops, corridors or other places where the prisoners may be employed. In taking its way to the armory, each of the different groups, or squads walks in "column of twos" as it is called, i. e., two walking abreast, immediately followed by the rest of the squad, in the same formation and in regular succession. The men keep in step with the inmate officer into whose charge they have been detailed by the citizen officer having supervision of the work at vs^hich they have been engaged. As the squads pass, we are impressed by the quiet and orderly way in which the large body of inmates composing the reformatory regiment is mobilized from the numerous places of employment, to the general rendezvous at the armory. The military requirements of silence, strict attention, and obedience to the orders of the commanding officer, are enforced as wiell in changing groups of prisoners from one place of employment to another, as when actually engaged in mihtary drill, or parade. In fact, one of the chief among the many beneficial results accruing from institutional military training is that of increased facility and effectiveness in the handling of the prisoners. In the meantime, however, the passing squads have all disappeared within the armory, whii-,her, with your leave, we shall follow them, and observe what next takes place. The different groups, upon arrival, separate, each man receiving his gun, or sword, as his rank may designate, and repairing at once to his place in the company to which he belongs. The citizen captains form their respective companies in double rank, that is, in two rows, facing to the front and one HAND BOOK 4'; behind the other. When this is done, the first sergeant in each company calls the roll of his company and an account is taken of absentees. At the conclusion of company roll call the captain and first Heutenant of each company inspect the arms, accoutrements and personal appearance of its members. An order is then given for all who desire to be excused from military duty for the day on account of disability, to step from the ranks; these are then taken in charge by the first sergeant. The bugler sounds the proper signal and the four battalions composing the regiment leave the armory in consecutive order and, headed by the band, begin their march to the parade ground. We observe with interest the marching ranks, as they approach, in compact columns, each battalion with its individual flag, while in the center of the regiment appears the Stars and Stripes; the latter having, in addition to its standard bearer, a color guard, composed of two privates of the regiment. Officers give attention to the proper placing of their men, and when all is in readiness, the regimental adjutant, stationed off to the right, gives the order, "Sound off!" This is the signal for the band, which, headed by the drum major, in his raven-hued shako, marches, playing, to the opposite end of the regiment; then counter marching, returns to its original position at the right. The bugler now voices the appropriate signal; the insti- tutional cannon booms ; "Old Glory, ' ' floating from a stately spar, near by, is lowered; the regimental adjutant moves to a position near the colonel, and, facing the regiment, gives the order, "Present arms!" Then, turning upon his heel, he lifts his sword in the military salute and reports to the colonel: "Sir, the parade is formed!" The colonel now assumes charge of the regiment, causing the performance of such military exercises as he may deem desirable, and concluding with the "silent manual," an exercise including all the movements of the original manual of arms, executed, in its entirety, upon the issuance of the initial order, "Carry arms." The institutional regiment executes this 48 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY exercise with an accuracy and precision which both interests and impresses us. At the conclusion of the parade, the regiment, in company formation, passes the reviewing; officer and returns to the armory. The Record Office. This office is in charge of a citizen officer who is assisted in his duties by several inmate clerks and stenographers. The department is devoted exclusively to institutional matters as, the computing of prisoners' accounts, the recording of their demeanor, school, and military work, etc. Also, through this department is conducted the correspondence with outside parties necessary to the obtaining of employment for prisoners about to be paroled; and here are prepared the necessary documents authorizing the parole, absolute release, discharge, or return for violation of parole, of each inmate leaving the reformatory. Many other business matters pertaining especially to the prisoners, find attention in this office. All the information concerning a newly arrived inmate which it is possible to obtain, (elicited in large part at his interview with the assistant superintendent) is recorded in a large volume kept for the purpose in the record office. These entries may include the following: The prisoner's right name (with aliases, if any) , his photograph, taken upon admission, by the institutional photographer, his age when received here, education, religious belief, personal habits, previous criminal record, if any, and place of residence prior to conviction. In addition to the above, in this book is noted from time to time, each with its appropriate date, the inmate's promotion or reduction in grade, his parole, and subsequent history; and if he should be a United States prisoner, or one retained for the maximum period specified in his commitment, because of having failed to earn his release by parole, the date of his final discharge is here noted. The volume in which this record is kept is named the biographical register. Another volume in the record office contains a detailed HAND BOOK 49 record of each prisoner's daily routine. Here is noted his class, and assignment in the school of letters, and the trades school, with his respective percentage ratings, as shown by the periodi- cal examinations. Losses of credit incident to failures in school examinations, and to infractions of institutional discipline, are here added to the amount of the prisoner's indebtedness to the institution for medical attendance, food, lodging, clothing, and other supphes; the total, when subtracted from his daily earn- ings, showing his credit balance, to date. This book is known as the inmates' conduct ledger. ■ The ledger is kept on the "loose leaf" plan so that the leaf containing a prisoner's account may be removed from the volume after his parole, or discharge, from the institution, and filed in the record office for possible future reference. By reading the above, it will be observed that an examination of these volumes acquaints the seeker with the exact status of an inmate, even to the probable date of his authorization for parole. There is also in the record office a large filing cabinet containing a series of drawers, each of which is devoted to the affairs of the inmate whose name and consecutive number appear thereon. In these drawers are filed the prisoners' original commitment papers, their written reports to the superintendent, as required during the period of their parole, and all institutional notes or correspondence pertaining to them, including all reports issued against them for infractions of the rules, or for failures in school examinations, together with all letters written to the superintendent .concerning them, by outside parties. These drawers are arranged consecutively, according to the prisoner's number which each bears; and are placed in series. For convenience in dispatching the routine work of the office, apian somewhat similar to the "loose leaf ,',' and known as the "card system, " is quite extensively used. The cards employed for the purpose are each headed with an inmate's name and number, the remaining space being utihzed for whatever data is required; they are consecutively arranged in 50 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY long boxes. One of the records maintained in this manner is that of the superintendent's interviews with inmates; in this instance the card bears the date of previous interviews, together with any brief memoranda concerning same, to which the superintendent may subsequently wish to refer. Another use for the card system is in assigning prisoners to their various daily vocations; in this case the card contains a record of present assignment, together with previous changes, and the date of each. Method of Assigning Inmates to Rooms. For his guidance in making assignments, the record clerk has a room chart, consisting of a large blackboard upon which appear the floor plan of the institutional cell galleries and the number of each cell. All cells with occupants are so shown by having the small rectangular spaces, by which they are repre- sented on the blackboard, occupied by pasteboard slips; thus the clerk can tell at a glance which of the cells he has at disposal in making his assignments. Upon this little card is noted the name, consecutive number, and peculiarities, if any, ■of the room's occupant. Upon admission, all inmates favorably reported upon by the institutional physician, are temporarily assigned to the ' 'receiving gallery, ' ' a tier of cells especially reserved for this purpose. They lodge in these cells until summoned to the office of the assistant superintendent for the initial interview. After this takes place they are assigned by the record clerk to unoccupied cells, and notification of such assignment is forwarded to the school director and to the several supervisory officers in charge of the institutional corridors, for convenience in locating the inmates when their presence is desired elsewhere in the institution. The initial examination made by the physician is for the purpose of ascertaining if diptheria bacilli exist in the throats of the newcomers, and such as are unfavorably reported upon are HAND BOOK 51 transferred to the detention ward of the institutional hospital, and remain there until throat-cultures, forwarded by the physician to the state department of health, Albany, N. Y., are pronounced by that department to be normal in so far as diptheritic germs are concerned. The Letter Clerk's Office This department is in charge of a citizen officer, known as the letter clerk. All letters received at the institution, addressed to inmates, are read by him, and filed, for delivery to the owners when they shall be entitled to receive them; he is also required to read all letters written and addressed to outside parties, by the inmates, under the rules relating to inmates' correspondence, and such letters must be approved by him before being sent out. The letter clerk's office is the meeting place of prisoners and their relatives, upon the occasion of the latters' periodical visits to the reformatory, as authorized by the rules governing such interviews, which take place under the personal supervision of the letter clerk. After the reception and reading by the letter clerk of a letter addressed to an inmate, the name of the writer is sought in the recorded list of persons authorized by the management to correspond with the prisoner in question, and if the name is found in this list, the date of the receipt of the letter is noted on a card kept for this purpose, and the letter placed on file until the next regular day for the delivery of letters to the inmates. These days are as follows: for the first grade, on the first Sunday in each month; for the second and third grades, on the third Sunday in each month. Should an inmate desire to reply to a letter thus received, he is required to write his reply on the day he receives his letter; both letters are then given to the letter clerk, who places the former, if approved, in the outgoing mail, while the latter is placed on file to be given to the inmate upon his departure from 52 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY the institution. All outgoing inmates' letters are very carefully censored by the letter clerk to minimize the possibility of unauthorized and improper correspondence, as mentioned in the foregoing, and should a letter of this sort be written by an inmate, it is at once returned to the writer, with statement of reason why it cannot be mailed. Inmates unable to read or write are summoned to the letter clerk's office on the days of the delivery of their letters; and, should they receive approved letters, same are read to them; and if desired, approved replies may be dictated by them and duly dispatched in the mail. Exception is made to the foregoing rules in instances of letters to inmates announcing death in the family, or letters of legal or business importance requiring immediate attention. The above rules regarding writing do not apply to inmates authorized for parole, who are allowed to write and receive letters relative to employment when released, at which time all mail and packages which may have arrived for them during the period of their confinement are given them with their parole papers. In addition to applications for employment these men may write every two weeks to their immediate families and also receive all daily mail from their relatives or from friends concerning employment. All information furnished the letter clerk relative to an inmate is transferred to a biographical card on which is entered his name, consecutive number, name and address of his wife, father, mother, brothers and sisters, or friend in the United States, to whom he may write in case his family hves in a foreign country. In addition to these cards, the letter clerk has a general index in which is entered the name, consecutive number, and aliases of each inmate. When inmates are transferred to other institutions, all mail and other matter belonging to them are sent with them. Inmates in the first, and second grades, may receive, once in three months, a visit from their relatives; but this visit is denied those in the third grade. HAND BOOK 53 Gifts Which May be ReceiCed from the Outside. Each inmate is allowed to receive from his relatives, a floor rug, three by six feet in dimensions; also photographs of rela- tives, when approved by the superintendent. Upon the occasion of a visit from an inmate's relatives he may be allowed to receive a certain amount of fruit as a gift. Prohibited by the Rales Inmates are not allowed to receive money from any person; relatives of prisoners being especially cautioned by the manage- ment to inclose no money in their letters when writing to persons confined in the institution; nor to pay or send money to any persons representing themselves to be connected with the institution, or claiming to have the power to secure benefits or favors for, or the release of, an inmate of the reformatory. Inmates are not allowed to use tobacco in any form. Parole Sapertiision It has been previously mentioned in this book that prisoners paroled from the reformatory are required to make monthly reports to the superintendent for a period of at least six months before they are entitled to consideration for absolute release. These reports must each receive the written approval of the superintendent of police, or other supervising peace officer, or reformatory parole agent residing in the town to which the prisoner is paroled. Under ordinary circumstances, it is the custom to parole an inmate to the town from which he was sentenced to the reformatory. All offers of employment, obtained by prisoners authorized for parole, or obtained for them, by their relatives or friends, are investigated by the supervising officers named above, who then make recommen- dations regarding same, for the guidance of the superintendent, in the matter of paroles. Supervising officers also frequently assist in obtaining such employment; aid being often needed in the event of the prisoner having no friends to whom he can apply for this purpose. 54 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY While it is not customary for the reformatory management to pay peace officers throughout the state for the work of supervising prisoners paroled to their care, exception to this rule is made in the cities of New York and Buffalo, from where a large proportion' of our prisoners is received. In the city of New York the institution employs at the present time a chief parole agent, and two assistant parole agents, and in the city of Buffalo, one parole agent. Supervision of the Prisoners While all the reformatory employes have to do, more or less directly, with the supervision and discipline of the institution, as they may find it necessary, in their various occupations, to have charge of, or come in other contact with the inmates; and while, in such capacity, they have the authority to verbally reprove, or if necessary, to issue reports against the latter, the supervision department, proper, comprises those officers whose especial duty it is to supervise the inmates in their daily routine; and this class includes the present force of reformatory guards, numbering sixty-five. A continuous supervision of the prisoners being essential to their safe keeping, the force of guards is divided into two groups, for day and night duty, respectively. The latter group ' is not large, for the reason that during the night season there are no assemblies of the inmates, as they are locked in their rooms after receiving their supper at five-thirty in the evening. The day watch, comprising the remainder of the guards, is separated in two groups, the wall guards and the inside guards. The former do duty upon the institutional wall, which is so constructed that it may be patrolled its entire length. There is usually a wall guard assigned to duty at each of the wall turrets; these turrets being located, as hereinbefore mentioned, at angles of the wall, and at the gates permitting egress from the institution. The duties of wall guards include the patrolling of that portion of the wall assigned to their supervision, and if this HAND BOOK 55 should include one of the gates, the supervision and manipu- lation of the latter. The wall guards take their posts of duty in the morning before the prisoners go to their occupations, and are recalled at such time as the prisoners are locked in their cells at evening. The duties of the inside guards include the daily supervision of the inmate population as they are assembled in the shops, school rooms, corridors, at institutional construction and repair work, or at whatever employment the latter may be engaged. At breakfast, dinner, supper, shop, school, military, bathing. Sabbath, and all other assemblies of the prisoners, the inside guards are stationed about the institutional corridors, rooms, and enclosure where, assisted by inmate monitors, they super- vise the "turnouts," as they are institutionally termed, and insure the execution of these movements in a quiet and orderly manner. The inside guards must be sufficiently versed in military exercises to be officers, if required, in the reformatory regiment, previously described. The Institutional Library The library contains approximately 6,000 volumes; in addition to which, subscription is had to fifty weekly and monthly publications, including three prominent metropolitan, and three local newspapers, several religious papers, and many of both the standard and popular weekly and monthly magazines. In addition to these, there are many journals devoted especially to the trades in which instruction is given at the reformatory. Included in the list of volumes comprising the library proper, are text and reference books pertaining to the school of letters, among which may be found works on art, biography, government and law, philosophy, religion, science, history, economics, literature; also reference books for the various trades taught in the institution. There are likewise many volumes of standard and popular fiction, and several standard dictionaries and encyclopoedias. Each inmate, upon the occasion of his initial interview with 56 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY the school director, occurring soon after his admission, is furnished with a printed list of books, of which, one may be drawn upon a specified day of each week. The grade and character of the books allowed a prisoner depend in large measure upon his status in the school of letters. The list mentioned above does not include works of fiction, which are supplied by the school director, at the rate of one a week. An inmate also obtains, once in two weeks, a trade journal, especially devoted to the interest of the trade he may be learn- ing in the reformatory. Members of the two highest classes in the school of letters are entitled to an extra library privilege, allowing each to draw in addition to his regular library book, one extra book, every second week. In addition to the above, any inmate may receive, at his option, a magazine every fourth week, in place of his regular book, while those who obtain an average monthly standing of seventy-five per cent, in the school of letters are allowed an extra non-fiction book each week. For convenience in distributing Hbrary matter each prisoner is given what is called a library card, at the top of which are printed forms with blank spaces which the applicant is required to fill with his consecutive number, name, room, and class number while underneath are other blank spaces in which to enter the number of the book desired, and the date of application. The Reformatory Newspaper In 1883, "The Summary," an institutional newspaper, designed for the instruction and entertainment of the prisoners, was established, and it is still continued. It is an eight-page weekly, issued on Saturday evenings to inmates, citizen officers, and a necessarily limited outside circulation; the latter, chiefly public officials and others interested in penological matters. When possible, on legal or other holidays, a special edition, consisting of extra pages and an illustrated cover, is published. The Summiary is edited and printed by the inmates. HAND BOOK 57 The contents of the paper includes general news selected from the leading newspapers and periodicals, editorial comments, local institutional items of interest to the prisoners, occasional articles contributed by inmates, or citizen officers, notices of an institutional character; together with a record showing total number of inmates at time of writing; also, number received, discharged, paroled, or returned for violation of parole during the current week; likewise a record of changes in grade, military standing, and other information of local or general interest. All matter of a criminal or otherwise objectionable character is carefully excluded. The AdministratiOe Department The administrative offices are located outside the prison enclosure but adjacent to its main entrance. They include the superintendent's office, the chief clerk's office, and the general office. In the latter are located the desks of the book keeper, the junior clerk, and the file clerk, and in this department are conducted the general book keeping, and accounting. All checks in payment for services rendered or supplies furnished the reformatory, are here prepared, the employes' payroll is made; bills are audited, and checked; supervision and record is maintained of amounts received and expended against the several special appropriations authorized by the state legislature to be used for various purposes, including repair and new construction work. Briefly stated, the finances of the institution are administered in the general office. The chief clerk has general supervision of all clerks, clerical work, and accounting, and is cashier. He is also confidential clerk to the superintendent, and, under his direction, has charge of the general correspondence. In the absence of the superintendent and assistant superintendent, the chief clerk has charge of the reformatory. Persons having business to transact with the reformatory officials, or visitors desiring to inspect the institution, first 58 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY come to the general office and confer with the chief clerk, by whom such matters receive prompt attention. In the superintendent's office is located the desk of the private secretary to the superintendent and the board of managers. This officer, in addition to his duties of collaboration with the chief clerk in the disposition of the superintendent's correspondence, attends all meetings of the state board of managers of reformatories, and prepares the reports of proceedings at such meetings. He likewise prepares and edits the annual reports of the board of managers to the state legislature, other reports and pamphlets as required, and from time to time, renews the editions of the reformatory handbook, the first edition of which was published in 1906. The Purchasing Department The citizen officer in charge of the department is the reformatory steward; his book keeper and two clerks are also citizens. In addition to this force, he has in his department a number of inmate accountants and stenographers by whom, under his direction, a considerable portion of the routine work is performed. Approximately $360,000 is annually appropriated by the state legislature for the general maintenance of the institution and its inmates. Estimating on this basis, one-fourth of that sum, or $90,000, would be the average, or pro rata amount which could be expended during any three months. Certain conditions, as, the variation of the coal consumption during the summer and winter months etc., would necessarily cause this amount to vary somewhat, but it is intended that excess expenditures in certain months will be counterbalanced by savings in others so that the total at the close of the fiscal year shall not exceed the annual appropriation. To defray the expenses of maintaining the institution, the state treasurer issues monthly drafts, payable from the annual appropriation, upon the order of the state comptroller. HAND BOOK 59 Under the rules governing state charitable and reformatory institutions, all expenditures incurred must receive the approval of the proper authorities at Albany, before payment can be made, and such payment must be made before the expiration of the months during which the bills are contracted. To accomplish this, it is necessary to previously determine, as nearly as may be, what supplies will be necessary for the months in question ; to tabulate a list of such supplies, with their prices, and to forward same to the proper supervisory department, at the state capitol, Albany, N. Y., sometime during the month immediately pre- ceding, the months in which supplies are to be purchased; the approval of such statement will then be received in time to order and pay for the goods before the expiration of the months in which it is designed that they shall be used. A statement of this character is known as an ' 'estimate. ' ' A statement enumerating the various items of supplies needed by the reformatory during the months of the fiscal year is called a general maintenance estimate. There are four of these estimates prepared yearly; they are tri-monthly in extent, beginning with the first three months of the fiscal year. In the preparation of this tri-monthly estimate, the following method is in vogue : We will suppose that the estimate is to be prepared for the months of October, November, and December. About the 1st of July, preceding, notice is given to all heads of institutional departments to formulate lists of the supplies which they will need during the before mentioned months of October, November, and December; upon the receipt by the steward's department of these lists, printed requests for quotations of prices for the various articles needed, are sent to a number of business firms dealing in these supplies. The lowest of the quoted prices are incorporated in the estimate and practically form the basis on which the total amount of the estimate is to be computed. When the estimate shall have been completed, say about August 10th, it is examined and approved by the board of managers of the reformatory and forwarded to Albany for approval. Upon receipt of such approval, say on September «0 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY 25th, the various items of supplies may be ordered for delivery during October, of supplies for the three months mentioned, for which the general maintenance estimate has been prepared. The efficiency of the general maintenance estimate ceases with the expiration of the months for which it is prepared, hence, if goods ordered on this estiniate are for some reason not delivered until the three months have expired, thus rendering the estimate void, it becomes necessary that another estimate, known as a re-estimate, be prepared and approved to admit of payment being made for the goods thus tardily delivered. Or, should it be found, after the preparation of the regular maintenance estimate, that certain articles were omitted which it is desirable to purchase, an estimate would be made, and approval asked, for purchasing such supplies. Again, if quantities ordered in bulk, as coal, arrive in greater amount than was specified for any month, which at times is unavoidable, it becomes necessary to make an estimate to allow for the pay- ment of excess quantities. Al§o, should the services of an employe be engaged after the estimate has been prepared, a special estimate would be necessary before his salary could be paid for the month in question. Lastly, it sometimes occurs that there is delay in the reception of replies to requests for quotations of prices. The preparation of the estimate may not be longer delayed; approximate prices are taken by the steward's department; while in the interim, possible purchase-prices may have advanced, thus necessitating the preparation of a supple- mental, excess-price, estimate. All the above are known as supplemental estimates to the general maintenance estimate. There are also prepared in the steward's office, estimates against special appropriations authorized by the legislature for the construction of new buildings, the repair of the present construction work, etc. Estimates of this character are subject to the general rules, but are submitted at any time as occasion may require. The Hospital HAND BOOK 61 The Domestic Building This fine large building is of fireproof construction, having 1 steel frame, brick walls, concrete foundations and floors, and a, roof of concrete, covered with slate. The building is 250 feet long, by 65 feet wide, and contains four floors and a basement. The first floor has the officers' kitchen, the inmates' kitchen, the bakery, general food storage rooms, and the refrigerating plant. The second floor contains the dining rooms for all the prisoners. The third floor is sub-divided into the offices of the superintendent and assistant superintendent, the physician, the disciplinary officer, the steward, the military instructor, the director of the school of letters, the editor, and the inmates' letter clerk. Here are also located the departments of the record office, the library, the stenography and normal classroom, and the officers' restaurant. The fourth floor is occupied by the officers' bed rooms and recreation room and has a spacious balcony with a view of the prison enclosure. The Institutional Hospital The hospital is under the supervision of the physician, the assistant physician, and one citizen officer; there are also several inmate helpers and attendants, composed in large part of convalescents. It occupies the second, third, fourth, and fifth floors of a division- of the reformatory, located at the western extremity of the south wing; the rooms are well lighted, the walls, painted, and the floors are of concrete. Ascending the stairs to the hospital, one comes first to the floor on which are located the surgical ward, operating room, pharmacy, dining-room, etc., all well equipped for the uses for which they are respectively designed. Ascending another flight brings one to the sick ward, or sick gallery ■ as it is institutionally termed; this floor is all in one room; the beds ai:e arranged around three sides of it in a row, and at a sufficient distance from the wall and from each other to admit of con- y^enience of movement on the part of physicians and attendants. 62 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY Beside each bed is placed a small medicine stand; a table in the centre of the room, with the usual equipment of easy chairs, completes the furnishing of the sick ward. The next floor above is the contagious ward. The top floor of the hospital is in one large room, and is reserved exclusively for inmates afflicted with tuberculosis; its elevated location insures good light and pure air, both especially essential in the efforts made to combat this disease. Each ward in the hospital is equipped with two bathrooms, lavatories, and toilets, and commodious compartments are provided for the'storing of linen and other necessary articles. The Gymnasium The gymnasium is a brick structure, 140 feet in length by 80 in width, and stands nearly in the middle of the original prison enclosure. It contains an apparatus room, bath rooms, and dressing room; the floor of the former is of hardwood, polished, and the bath rooms and the dressing room are paved with marble tiles. The building is heated by steam. The apparatus room, or gymnasium proper, is 100 feet by 80 feet in dimensions ;](from its ceiling depend trapezes, rope ladders, etc., and ranged around its walls are other pieces of apparatus used in athletic work; among these may be enumerated a variety of pulley and weight arrangements designed to strengthen the muscles of the neck, chest, abdomen, and limbs, by affording exercise in a variety of movements arranged and classified for this purpose; likewise, vaulting bars, horizontal and inclined ladders, travelling rings, and other devices to aid in improving physical development. Extending around the^four sides of the room at about mid- way of its height, is a padded gallery for running, one-sixteenth of a mile in length, giving facilities for exercising the limbs and lungs without taking upJUthe space of the floor beneath, which may be utilized at the same time, for other work. The gymnasium is of sufficient capacity to accommodate 200 pupils at a time. HAND BOOK 63 A special suit of clothes is furnished each inmate assigned to gymnasium treatment; this suit is worn only during class sessions and is composed of a loose, sleeveless, knit shirt, white duck trousers, and leather-soled, canvas slippers. Every inmate assigned to the gymnasium keeps his class suit in a small com- partmnet allotted to him for this purpose. The physical culture class numbers about 100 in the fore- noon and 50 in the afternoon and is made up of inmates assigned from time to time by the physician, to the the gymnasium for special treatment; its sessions are held each week-day forenoon and afternoon with the exception of Saturday, upon which day two class sessions are held in the afternoon, because the regular institutional bathing period is on Saturday morning. The class sessions are of two hours' duration. The pupils of the class remain so assigned until in the judgment of the physician they are sufficiently improved, physically, to admit of their return to the routine. Certain body measurements are taken of the pupils upon their admission to the class, and these are repeated, from time to time, by the physical director, and a record of the same is kept for the purpose of ascertaining the rate of improvement. At the conclusion of each class session the pupils take a hot shower-bath, and, where pupils are fit, which obtains in a majority of instances, a cold plunge in the swimming-pool follows. In the gymnasium class-work, the Ralston system is used. The pupils perform the various exercises in time to piano music. At the conclusion of each set of these exercises the pupils enjoy a short rest, after which the next set commences. The management considers that these manual exercises without the use of apparatus are best adapted to the class of boys assigned to this department. Chief among the results sought in requiring these move- mients is the attainment of an upright and manly bearing, enabling the pupil to appear to much better advantage upon ultimately taking his place in the military organization. 64 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY The physical culture class sessions are so airranged that the pupils in them arelnot deprived of trades instruction, but where pupils are considered by the physician able to profit from such instruction they receive their regular trades school assignment. The Bath Room This room occupies space on the first floor of a brick, iron, and concrete building of fireproof construction, standing in the original prison enclosure, near the centre gate. The bath room is 285 feet long, by 65, wide. A longitudinal partition wall through the centre of the building separates the bath room from the laundry, which occupies equal space on the opposite side of the building. The lower windows of the building's west wall furnish the bath room light by day; if used by night, it is illuminated by incandescents, conveniently placed. Steam heat is supplied by the central power house. The room has concrete ceiling and floor, the latter having a gentle slope from the longitudinal centre to the sides. Extending along each longitudinal side and close to the walls of the room is a shallow trench in the concrete floor. Over these two trenches are placed the booths for bathing. Each of the booths is walled with slate, upon three of its sides, the fourth, opening toward the longitudinal centre of the room, is closed by a spring-hinged wooden door. The slate walls of the booth are six feet in height, while the door in front is much foreshortened at both top and bottom, permitting a thorough supervision of the booth by the officer in charge. Extending longitudinally through the centre of the room is a wooden platform, elevated three feet above the floor; this platform is patrolled by the officers having charge of the bath room upon the regular days for bathing the prisoners. Water for bathing is supphed by a two-inch, horizontal pipe, having a small, spray-nozzled branch depending over the centre of each booth. Each of these branches has its controlling valve, operated by means of a small chain hanging within reach of the bather. In an angle of the booth is placed a small, metal HAND BOOK 6fy soap dish. The temperature of the water for bathing is regulated by a water heater, installed at the end of the room. There are 110 booths in the bath room. Opposite each of the two rows of booths is a door leading to the laundry store- room. The Laundry Storeroom This is a capacious room, occupying one end of the building in which are located the laundry and bath rooms, and affording, by means of suitably placed doors, communication with each of these rooms. Small wooden compartments contain the prisoners' newly washed underwear, pillowslips, etc., as they are received from the laundry. On the outside of each compartment appears the consecutive number of the inmate whose property it, contains. Bathing the Prisoners With the exception of certain prisoners (kitchen helpers,, outside workers, and the like, who are allowed to bathe more frequently than the others on account of the peculiar character of their work) the entire inmate population bathes on Saturday morning of each week, the modus operandi being as follows: The prisoners march in double rank to the corridor leading" to the bath room; here the even and odd consecutive numbers are placed in respective lines. They then pass to the laundry store room, adjoining the bath room, where each deposits certain of his soiled articles and receives his quota of clean garments, pillow slips, etc., from the laundry officer and his assistants. They next pass into the bath room, the even numbers taking the right and the odd numbers, the left row of. booths. Each prisoner places his clothes upon the bench in front of his booth. He is allowed five minutes in which to complete his bath, after which he dons his clean garments and resumes his place in the ranks, depositing as he passes out, his soiled underwear in a receptacle prepared for the purpose. m NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY The Laundry The laundry is a long room, parallel to the bath room, but on the opposite side of the building; it is lighted by the east windows of the latter. Like the bath room, it has a concrete ceiling and floor. A door at the end of the room affords communication with the laundry store room. Near the side next the bath room is placed a row of six, cylindrical, rotary washers; motion is imparted to these washers by means of gearing, suitably connected with a line shaft ■operated by an electric motor. The washers may be operated singly, or together, as desired. At the axle of each is an arrangement whereby water and steam can be admitted to the cylinder or chamber in which the clothes are placed. A large iron tank, five or six feet in height by as many in diameter, is used for preparation of soap-suds. Occupying space in a line parallel to the row of washers are four machines known as centrifugal extractors, which perform the work of clothes wringers. The principle feature of an extractor consists of a hollow cylinder which rotates upon a vertical spindle. When this cylinder is filled with newly washed material and caused to revolve rapidly, the centrifugal force : generated forces the moisture in the material outward to the walls of the cylinder, through which it escapes by numerous ; small openings. The material, after being whirled in this for five minutes is removed, nearly dry. Not far away stands the large mangle, between whose long, lieated, cloth-covered rollers, the larger pieces of material, as sheets and table cloths are passed for the purpose of pressing them; the mangle takes the place of the ironing board for this class of material. In the laundry is also installed a steam heated dryer, consisting of twenty, uniform, galvanized iron, vertical compart- ments, containing sliding frames, the whole arrangement being not unlike the compartments and slides of a photographer's camera. The slides are iron frames about eight feet square, having cross bars upon which to hang the clothing or other HAND BOOK 67 material to be dried. To aid in moving these slides in and out of their respective compartments, they are suspended by rollers from iron tracks. Heat for drying the material is furnished by a coil of steam pipes placed beneath the compart- ments. Upon the outside of each compartment in the series is marked the class of material, as, sheets, towels, underwear, and the like, which it contains. Ironing boards and other necessary facilities are furnished for the starching and ironing of the better grade of inmates' shirts; practically the only class of articles subjected to this process, found on the laundry list. Method of Washing the Prisoners' Clothing The material to be washed is piled in a miscellaneous heap in a corner of the room. Inmate helpers assort and group the various articles according to their uses, each group being washed and dried separately, as, towels in one group; underwear in another, etc. The washers are filled with the soiled material, cold water is admitted, the washers are set in motion and the material receives a preliminary rinsing; steam is then allowed to enter the washers, a couple of pailfuls of soap from the tank is allotted to each, and the machines rotate slowly for an hour or two, the length of time varying somewhat with the material washed. A second rinsing with cold water follows; the machines are stopped, and tfte material taken from the washers, placed on wheeled trucks and moved to the centrifugal extractors. These machines take most of the water from the clothes, the drying process being completed by the steam heated dryers, in whose compartments the material is then placed, to remain for about ten hours, after which it is removed, and such articles as towels, pillow-slips, and sheets for the hospital beds, are passed through the mangle; while the better grade of inmates' shirts are starched and ironed by hand. A final sorting is now made and each inmate's quota of clean clothing, etc., is placed by 68 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY itself to be ultimately removed and stored in the locker, against the time of his next bath. Ordinarily, the washing of the material occupies three days, the drying, one day, and the sorting and placing in lockers, another day; the latter including the mangling, and the starch- ing and ironing, where necessary. The electric motor, before mentioned, operates all the machinery of the laundry. The Institutional Pou>er House This building is located near the north side of the original prison enclosure and is a substantial brick structure with steel roof and brick floors. It is divided into three rooms, the boiler room being located in the centre, and the dynamo room and the cold storage room, at either end. The brick smoke- stack is 126 feet in height. The boiler room is ample in size, being 60 feet wide by 86 feet in depth; it is furnished with eight, 150 horse power boilers, of approved construction. In one corner of the boiler room is located a brick-walled pit in which are installed two Worthington, boiler feed pumps with 12-inch steam cylinders, 7-inch water cylinders and 10-inch piston stroke; also two sewer pumps, an elevator pump, a feed water heater and return tank, and sundry other apparatus. The dynamo room, situated at the right of the boiler room, occupies the entire end of the building and is 30 feet wide and 45 feet deep. This room contains three, high-speed engines, of respectively, 50, 100, and 150 horse power, directly connected with three, 320, 640, and 800-ampere electric generators. The engines are equipped with Wright, automatic speed governors, and automatic relief valves to free the cylinders from water forced in with steam from the boilers. There is also installed an improved electrical switch-board provided with automatic circuit-breakers. The left end of the building is fitted as a storeroom for coal; it is 30 feet wide by 86 feet in depth and is capable of HAND BOOK 69 holding about 1,000 tons of coal; its floor is placed several feet below the surface of the ground, to admit of increased storage capacity. The Institutional Farm The farm lies adjacent to the rear of the reformatory grounds and comprises, approximately, 280 acres, of which, fifty are used for pasture, twenty-five are woodlands, and eight are occupied by an apple orchard. The land is clay loam, somewhat stony, with heavy clay subsoil, and while it is not especially fertile, the nature of the soil favors the production of pasturage and hay, oats and rye, more than the other usual farm crops. However, all varieties of vegetables being extremely desirable for the prisoners' use, a considerable portion of the arable land is devoted to the raising of potatoes, sweet corn, cabbage, tomatoes, beans, turnips, carrots, etc. Fair results are obtained in the production of these crops with the aid of barnyard and commercial fertilizers. In an average year the farm would yield for the use of the inmates, 1,000 bushels of potatoes, 1,000 dozens ears of sweet corn, and large quantities of the othejr vegetables named. Ten teams are maintained upon the farm. When not employed at the farm work, proper, they are engaged in drawing coal and other supplies from the railway station or from the city markets, or in incidental team work about the institution, of which there is always abundance, occasioned by construction and repair work, delivering ice from the ice houses to the several departments, carting away ashes, etc. The woodlands support a good growth of oak and pine, a considerable quantity of which is from time to time manufactured into lumber, as required for building or repair work, or for use in the trades classes. At the rear of the farm, a small brook, passing through a ravine, has been transformed into a reservoir, covering some ten acres of the bottom of the valley. From this reservoir, water 'i'O NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY supply for the steam-plant, and for institutional bathing, and general cleaning, is piped ; the elevation of the reservoir above the plateau upon which the reformatory stands, being sufficient to render this practicable. In winter, also, the ice houses are replenished from this reservoir. Water for drinking purposes is obtained, by purchase, from the mains of the city of Elmira. A new, horse-cow-and hay-barn has recently been completed, the construction of which has been accomplished entirely by inmate labor; this building includes a central, one-story- with- basement structure, flanked by a one-story wing extending at right angles on either side, without basement, In the north wing are stabled the cattle, in the south wing, the horses. The central portion is devoted to the storage of grain-feed, agri- cultural root-products, etc., in the basement, and hay, straw, and mill-feed in the superstructure. Two large silos, located in the angle of the cow-bam with the central structure, and conveniently connected with the feed- room located in the latter; and a commodious milk-house adjacent to and connected with the cow-barn at the rearward side of the latter, complete the barn equipment. The walls of the central structure are of concrete with an exterior coat of stucco. The walls of the cattle .and horse sections are of wooden construction with exterior coat of stucco on metal lath. All the roofs are of slate. Entrance to the basement of the central structure, is by double doors located at the front; and on the north side, in the rear of the barn, is located a second door. The second story has double doors located at the rear, but none at the front. The location of the barn, at the base of the hill at the rear of the institution, permits the rear doors of the second story to open at grade, while the basement doors open at grade at the front. A mechanical hay-fork having a metal track extending the entire length of the second story, is used to transfer the hay from wagon to mow. It is estimated that the hay capacity of the bam is 200 tons. HAND BOOK 71 The silos have sufficient capacity for storage of corn-silage for the use of forty cows. The milk-house section includes in its equipment a large concrete water-tank, in which to cool the cans of milk as soon as the milking shall be finished, and from this tank the milk is distributed to the institution as desired. Scales for weighing, and record-blanks, are conveniently placed so that total and individual milk -products may be ascertained and tabulated for the in- formation of the management. In the cow-barn section, modern swing-stanchions are in- stalled upon a suitably trenched concrete floor. The cows are stanchioned in two rows, one row facing each of the side-walls of the barn. Concrete feed-troughs extend in front of the stanchions, and hay, silage and grain rations are placed before the cows by means of feed-carriers depending from overhead tracks ; water is supplied from inlet-pipes, to the concrete troughs in front of the cows, when the troughs are not in use for feeding purposes. The barn receives its water supply from the institutional mains. It has a local sewer, connecting with the main insti- tutional sewer, and receives electric current, for lighting, by a conduit cable from the institutional power house. A small but efficient heating plant, located in the basement, furnishes hot- water for the cleansings of milk-containers, etc, Each day the barn-hose is used unsparingly on concrete floors and troughs, metal stanchions and stucco walls; and even the glsss of the windows is daily sluiced with water and thorough- ly washed. Every effort is made to maintain in all departments of the barn a high standard of neatness and cleanliness. The institution at the present writing maintains a herd of twenty-eight tuberculin-tested cows and as before stated, it is the desire of the management to increase the number of cows as conditions permit. The horse-barn section is suitably equipped with single, double, and box-stalls, and is ample for the accommodation of the teams belonging to the institution. 72 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY The various barns and other necessary farm buildings are conveniently located outside the institutional wall, where they may be easily reached from the institution. The Greenhouse This building, is of modern construction, located outside the prison enclosure, near the south gate. Its teimperature is regulated by steam heat, furnished by a small boiler and furnace installed in the building. In the greenhouse are propagated tomato, cauliflower, and celery plants for the garden. Flowering and foliage plants are also furnished for the flower plats, the flower urns, placed at various points throughout the corridors and grounds, and for the decoration of the several school rooms. Cut-flowers are hkewise supplied for the institutional hospital, the superin- tendent's residence, and the chapel. The greenhouse is in charge of the gardener, a citizen officer, who, with his group of inmate assistants, cares also for the garden, the numerous lawn shrubs, etc. Recreation Park This park is located immediately to the rear of the reforma- tory, outside the west enclosure-wall. .A woven-wire fence, twelve feet in height, supported on posts of iron tubing, incloses on three sides a rectangular space comprising about four acres, whose eastern boundary is the west enclosure-wall of the insti- tution. A closed sewer, extending along the western boundary of the park, and connected with numerous closed cross-ditches, affords ample drainage faclities. Sifted clay, compactly rolled, and surmounted by a layer of fine sand, for the baseball diamond, and by a layer of sifted coal-ashes, for the remainder of the park, forms an excellent surface for the players to exercise upon. Along the eastern side of the park, benches ars provided for the use of the inmate population, all of whom are admitted to the games. The western boundary of the park is at the foot of a beautiful, wooded hillside, shaded from the afternoon sun; >,f // >J ^/ V K . (i.L\r^*'M m D O Z o ? <: o <: ». o W rc H HAND BOOK 73 and on this slope, commanding an excellent view of the ball- ground, although located outside the boundary fence, commodious seats are provided for the use of institutional visitors who may wish to witness the games. During the month of August, a baseball league, composed of teams of the inmates, play games, scheduled on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, with an occasional game on Saturdays, also. These games occupy the school of letters period in the afteirnoon; the school being discontinued during August. At this point in the handbook, the author considers that his purpose of describing the reformatory and its methods will be advantageously served by writing the following story, of the imaginary experiences of a New York city lad, sentenced to the Elmira institution, by the court, in the usual manner. THE I INSTITUTIONAL EXPERIENCES o F PETER LUCKEY F. C. A L L E N He came, with eight others, on the afternoon train from New York. Shabbily dressed, not very clean, his appearance advertised him for what he was, an "East Sider." His sullen eyes noted little of his surroundings; his listless air evidenced slight concern for his present condition, or hope for the future. Not much had there been in his life of sixteen years to incite to honest Hving or elevated ideals of conduct. He had small knowledge of books, and little desire or abihty for sustained effort of any description. Orphaned, nearly five years since, his reception in his aunt's family was not over cordial; hence, left in large measure to shift for himself, he easily drifted into bad company. In a moment of temptation, he took that which was not his, and as a consequence of his wrong doing was now on his way to the reformatory. Upon the coat of the athletic young man who had charge of the group, appeared the badge of a transfer officer of the New York State Reformatory at Elmira. Standing upon the plat- form of the station with his prisoners, he was first to note the approach of a team of blacks, attached to a light, three-seated spring wagon, and driven by a blue coated official. "All right, boys, there's our hack; tumble in!" said the transfer officer. The team steadily jogged homeward and was presently climbing the hill leading to the southern gate of the reformatory. The stern appearing prison structure with its massive, turretted, enclosure walls, by its very nearness, forced the boy's attention and he glanced up at it. Although habited to environments the reverse of favorable to honest and virtuous living, he had still to fulfil his first sentence as a convicted criminal, and he instinctively recoiled as HAND BOOK 75 he looked at the institution, high and gloomy in the fading light of the short, November afternoon. The van arrived at the gateway. The transfer officer exchanged cheerful greetings with the wall guard, as the latter operated the mechanism of the gate. The boy, listening, envied these two, over whom hovered not the dark cloud which seemed to him to be approaching more closely with each revolution of the cogged, gate wheel. One, two hours would elapse; then these men would be stepping briskly homeward through the lighted streets, free and happy, while he— but the great valves of the gate opened, the driver chirruped to his team and the van moved leisurely into the prison enclosure. The boy's senses were now alert and he glanced quickly and anxiously at his surroundings. Iron gates, brick walls, everywhere. The gate through which the team had just passed, creaked as it was being closed; he looked back apprehensively and was not reassured as he saw it steadily decreasing his perspective of the outside world and freedom. Then it was closed, and he felt indeed in evil case. Again he noted the inexorable brick walls. Five years in this enclosure of brick and stone and iron! To a lad of sixteen, five years seem an interminable period of time. Would he ever live through them? Another sinister looking gate, a combination of iron rods and bars, opened and closed upon them, and, as the van moved under the great, gloomy central arch forming the entrance to that portion of the enclosure known as the parade ground, the lad felt that he could scarcely hope ever to step forth to freedom again. An open door, and beside it, a pleasant faced, blue uniformed officer, who glanced comprehendingly at the party, indicated that the travellers were expected. "Only nine?— pretty slim for Saturday and coming on cold weather, too," he remarked casually to the transfer officer. "All there was," briefly responded that official. "Lads, this is where you lodge tonight. Climb out!" "There, there, Luckey, don't look so blue!" he continued. 76 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY encouragingly patting the lad on the shoulder as the group of prisoners, one by one, jumped from the wagon. "Elmira isn't so bad if you look sharp and mind the regulations. Come along, boys!" Presently they were in a large room, with wire-screened apartments where men were busy, working at account books and sorting clothing. The electrics were already alight. Peter Luckey stood, awkwardly looking about him. The transfer officer, after conversing in a low tone for a few moments with the store room clerk (the officer who had met them at the outer door, ) took his departure. The clerk turned briskly to Luckey, who chanced to be standing nearest him. "Here, boy, quick!" he commanded: "Off with your clothes and place them in a pile over by the screen there." The boy hastened to comply. After a hurried examination by the clerk, the i-aiment of Peter Luckey was consigned to a pile of garments which eventually found a Gehenna in one of the furnaces at the institutional power house. The clerk searched the lad's pockets, and a few pennies and a button photo, found therein, were placed in an envelope, inscribed with the owner's name and the consecutive number given him by the storeroom clerk. "We'll keep these for you, lad. What is your name?" inquired the clerk. ' 'Peter Luckey, ' ' was the reply. ' 'All right, Luckey, when you go home these things will be returned to you. Now stand one side and make room for the next man. You— there— with the curly hair— come over here!" A short time sufficed to subject the rest of the prisoners to a like process; then, after having their hair trimmed, all were conducted to the bath room. Ten minutes beneath the warm spray, with a vigorous application of soap and towel, and they were returned to the storeroom, and a complete new suit, including underwear, cap and shoes, furnished each of them, together with a number of other useful articles. Luckey was quite impressed HAND BOOK 77 ith the magnitude of his possessions, which included a blanket, leets, towels, a wash-basin, various brushes, broom, dust-pan ■a whole armful of property. He put on his clothes and stood atehing with interest the deft motions of the barber, a :"isoner, he concluded, by his dress, which was identical with is own. Glancing about he noted that all the assistants were milarly attired. If he could only have some such pleasant nployment as have these boys, he thought, imprisonment light not be so bad as he imagined. But he was particularly interested in the boy he had first Dticed, who had been busily plying his vocation upon several f the new arrivals whose beards required this attention, and ad just finished the last one. How foolish, thought Peter, that young fellow so skilful, should allow himself to commit crime ifficient to incur imprisonment. "Dat's a smart barber!" he ventured to say to the store )om clerk. "Learned all he knows about it here;" was the terse jsponse as the officer turned away to "line up" the prisoners )r the march to their rooms. Peter's mind was so occupied with the thought of the quick, raceful motions of the barber; the apparent ease with which 3 accomplished his work ; and of the pleasant, contented faces ' all the prisoner assistants, that he but carelessly noted the issage of the party through long, high, wide corridors, with fty, barred windows and hundreds of cells rising tier upon er to the vaulted ceiling. He was startled when the officer suddenly plucked him by le shoulder and steered him up the iron stairway leading to the scond tier of cells. Midway of a gallery extending along this iw of rooms the squad was halted. "Man at the head of the squad, drop out!— The one at the ft— that's the one! Look on the inside of your cap and you'll id your consecutive number. Drop out and go into this room. " "T'ank yer, sir," said Peter, mechanically. He stepped ngerly upon the one stone step, and passed through the 78 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY narrow doorway. Clang! went the door, closing behind him. Creak— the key turned in the lock. Onward moved the squad, and he was left alone. While not absolutely his first experience of being locked in a cell, as he had passed several days in the New York city prison after he was arrested, nevertheless, the closing of the cell door carried with it an impression of finality, most depressing to Peter Luckey. He gloomily seated himself on his small, iron bedstead and meditated about many things. How he wished for the power to render himself invisible, that he might so place himself outside these walls. On the other hand, he reluctantly admitted certain improved physical conditions. He was clean, decently clothed, warm— better off, in many ways than he had been for a good while. Still- He heard the steps of the officer, returning after locking the other prisoners in their respective cells. "Why do you sit, moping in the dark? Light your light!" he called briskly in at the door. "I didn't know as I had none. Oh, yes, sir, I see it now." Peter turned the button of a small electric bulb which projected from the wall above the head of the bed, to the left of the door, instantly flooding the room with light. ' 'Now, jump up, quick and make your bed and place your things in the cupboard, there. When the nine o'clock bugle blows, you must turn out your hght and get into bed. If your light is burning after nine, you will hear from it," tersely concluded the officer. "Good night, boy." "Good night, sir." The officer moved away. Peter Luckey commenced, awkwardly enough, to arrange his possessions. At the side of his room, opposite the door, was a wooden cupboard, on the shelves of which he placed several of the articles. Clumsily he spread his sheets and blanket on the mattress lying on the bedstead, placing the pillow-slip on a pillow which he also found th«re. Presently an officer appeared bearing a tray containing food HAND BOOK 79 id drink. Peter, realizing all at once that he was hungry, did ill justice to the plain but wholesome fare. Then, feeling ;terly wearied with the day's excitement, waited not for the gnal for retiring, but got into bed at once, not forgetting to irn out the Hght, and fell asleep almost as his head touched le pillow. II He was awakened by the loud, clear blast of the morning agle echoing through the corridor. As he was bathing his ice at a lavatory placed in a corner of the room, he heard lother bugle note and rapid footsteps on the gallery outside, oing to his door he was soon much interested in watching a ng line of boys of about his own age file past, and concluded, •om the tumult of steps, sounding from near and far, that all le prisoners must be going to breakfast. Quiet was soon restored, however. The boys ceased to pass is door. The officer brought him his matutinal refreshment, iter breakfast he returned to the door and stood for some time, oking out. His cell was so located that he could not see the 3or of the corridor, but directly opposite him was one of the reat, barred windows, through which he could observe a portion ; the paved yard of the prison enclosure and the tall brick aildings bounding its farther side. This was evidently the iclosure through which he had been conveyed the previous rening. Through the open window, sparrows fluttered in and it fearlessly. How he envied them. Footsteps again in the gallery. A trim looking young ficer, tall, and straight as an arrow unlocked the door and bade m follow. Along the gallery they went, down stairs, along )rridors, up more stairs, finally joining his associates of the rening before in a large, pleasant room having an inner door immunicating with the superintendent's office. Clad in uniform of sober fashion— black coats, gray ousers, and caps without visors, the group would hardly be cognized as the arrivals of the previous day. 80 NEW YORK STATK REFORMATORY "Wot's dis for?" Peter finally whispered to a young fellow beside him. "Don't know, guess we're goin' before de high guy," was the answer. "Say, young feller, if he asks yer if yer can read and write, tell him 'No.' " "Wot's de use of-" "Cut out that chinning!" sharply chided the officer in charge. Peter had no further chance to question, but he did not forget the incident. The door of the superintendent's office opened. "Consecu- tive Number 12,345- Luckey— where are you? Oh, there— come into the superintendent's office;" said a rather good look- ing boy, clad in a prisoner's uniform, but with a band marked "Messenger" attached to his cap, who came from the inner room. A little excited, embarrassed, and, if the truth were known, frightened as well, Peter Luckey edged his way from among his fellow prisoners and was conducted through the open door, which the messenger closed behind him. A kindly faced gentleman, sitting at a desk, glanced keenly at him, as he entered. The superintendent, for it was he, motioned the lad to a seat facing him, while he examined for a moment a paper lying upon the desk. Seated at another desk near, was his inmate assistant, a stenographer who had learned the art in the institution. In the window were growing plants. On the walls hung several pictures of elderly, thoughtful look- ing gentlemen, who, to Peter's mind, appeared to regard him with distinct disapproval and severity. The superintendent looked up. "What's your name, lad?" he crisply demanded. "Peter Luckey, sir," the boy answered. "How did you come to be sent here, Peter?" Peter fumbled with his cap a moment. "Me an' a feller was workin' 'round a power house on de east side," he finally said ; ' 'One night we took some copper wire out of de storeroom. 0) bjd a Oh I a, a, HAND BOOK 81 About a week after dat, I guess it was, I was chewin' wid a feller about sumthin' and a cop come up and pinched me." "What became of the wire— did you sell it?" "No, sir— hid it under a lumber pile near de track— on an empty lot, it was. Me an' de udder guy had it fixed to go for it and sell it after a while." "Ever arrested before?" "Once before." "How was that?" "About a year ago, dat was. Boss, I tried to git a bundle out of de back of a wagon. ' ' "What did you get out of that?" "Not'n. The Judge— Judge Green, it was; he talked to me awhile and let me go." "What do you do for a living? Did you stay at home?" "I stayed to me Aunt Kate's some— not all de time. I staid where I could." "Are your father and mother dead?" "Yes, sir, five years ago, I guess; I don't know exactly when it was. I had to work 'round at any ting I could git; I worked for two or tree mont's for de power house; I didn't git much wages. ' ' "Do you drink, smoke, or chew?" ,'No, sir; I chew some." "A glass of beer— with the other boys? You'd take that, wouldn't you?" "Yes, sir." "Luckey, can you add numbers? "Add numbers? No, sir, I am very bad at dat." "How much are fifteen and ten?" "Fifteen and ten, sir? Twenty-five, sir." "Can you do multiplication?" "No, sir." '^How much are five times seven?" "How much? Thirty-five, sir." "How about division? How many times will five go in twenty?" 32 NEW YORK STATE REFORM ATORV "Four times." "^'How many times will twenty go in sixty?" '"I can't tell dat, sir." '"Can you read and write?" "No, sir." "Pickaxe," said the superintendent, addressing his clerk. '"You may put this boy down in arithmetic as far as division." "Have you any disease about you, Luckey?" asked the superintendent. "Disease? No, sir; I ain't got no disease." "What's your father's name, Peter?" "'Benjamin Luckey, sir." "And your mother's?" ■"Elizabeth Greefe, sir." "Luckey and Greefe! A case of second husband, I suppose. "No, sir." ■"No? How interesting! Third, perhaps?" "Yes, sir." "I am inclined to think, Peter, that it runs in your family, and I will venture a guess that you are married, yourself. Is it not so?" "No, sir, I ain't married nor I don't want to be." "So there's another of my logical inferences gone astray, making an added argument against the theory of heredity, Peter Luckey?" "Yes, sir." "Did your father know how to read and write?" ■"I don't know, sir, I don't tink so." ^'Did your mother?" ■"Yes, sir, I tink she did." "Did your father or mother drink?" "Me f adder got drunk sometimes; me mudder didn't drink none." "Have you brothers or sisters, uncles or aunts?" "No, sir, I had an uncle; he lived over in Flatbush; he moved away quite a while ago; I tink he went to New Jersey somewhere; I don't know where he lives now. I tink it was HAND BOOK 83 Passaic he went to; he was a carpenter. Luke Luckey was his name. I hain't heard from him since he moved away. I got an aunt; she lived at 18th Street; she's married; her name is Sugeree— Kate Sugeree. Her man's a cab driver." "Have you no other relatives?" "I dunno of any, sir." "What is your rehgious belief, Peter?" ' 'I dunno, sir. ' ' "Are you a Catholic?" "No, sir." ' 'Well, you may go over to the clerk's desk and sign your name to a paper he will give you, which will authorize me to open any letters which may come here for you; otherwise we shall have to hold the letters here, unopened, until your release from the reformatory. ' ' Peter Luckey went readily enough, and scrawled his name on the paper indicated. The superintendent smiled. "Didn't you tell me you couldn't write. Peter?" The boy looked crestfallen. "I lied to you, sir," he said, "I can read too, a httle," ' 'Of course you lied, Peter Luckey. Now, don't do it again; that's all. Stick to the truth and you will always get on better. You will in due time be assigned to learn a trade here and will also be placed in school You will likewise be trained in military exercises. In these various departments you will be expected to do your best to learn, and to obey the rules. If you try, there is no reason why you should not get along well, and eventually earn your release. Pickaxe, bring in 12,346-Nicholas Settel." Ill In good time the next morning, Luckey was again summon- ed to join his comrades of the previous day, now gathered in a group in the corridor, outside the physician's office. Peter's acquaintance of yesterday, whose name he now knew to be Settel— 12,346, sidled up to him. 84 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY "Did yer work dat racket?" he whispered behind his hand. "I tried it but it didn't go. He fooled me before he got troo wid me." "Dat settles you. Youse'll get put in a higher class den me and you'll have to work to get your lessons;— see? You was easy;— see? I fooled him all rite, all rite. I can read and write and figure some. You was dead easy. " Naturally somewhat depressed at his evident lack of mental astuteness, Peter stood, thinking about the matter, when a messenger standing at the doctor's door, touched his arm; "The doctor is ready for you, ' ' he said. The office of the physician included in its equipment, scales for weighing the prisoner, an appliance by which to ascertain his height, and a printed card, fastened to the wall, for use in testing his eyes. "Remove your clothes, boy;" briefly directed the doctor, who was seated at his desk; while at another, his clerk waited with a printed form ready placed in his writing machine, on which was to be typed the record of the prisoner's physical examination. Presently Peter stepped forth in a state of nature. His weight, and height, together with his name and consecutive number, were ascertained by an assistant, and quickly recorded on the blank form, by the clerk, who then proceeded to ask various questions, reading from the printed form before him, and typing the answers thereon as they were given by the prisoner. The questions included inquiries as to the prisoner's habits regarding the use of alcohol, tobacco, opium, chloral, etc.; likewise questions in reference to his father, mother, sisters and brothers; if living, their state of health; if dead, the cause of death, and the age at death; also as to whether there existed in his family, a record of consumption, insanity, epilepsy, or other hereditary disease. Inquiry was made as to whether the prisoner had ever received a severe injury, and if so, of what HAND BOOK 85 nature; and if he had, at that time, any disease, and if so, what were its present symptons. "All right, now step over there to the doctor's desk," said the clerk, briskly. Peter complied with this request and found himself facing a rosy cheeked young man with a cheerfully gloomy expression who interrogated him as follows: "Do you ever have any trouble with your heart or lungs, boy?" "No, sir." "Draw in deep, full breaths and keep doing it." The physician took from his table a stethoscope and adjusting the ear-pieces, made a thorough examination of the prisoner's chest by placing the instrument upon different portions of it. Then, laying the stethoscope aside, and taking a small, rubber-tipped mallet, concluded his examination of the chest by repeatedly tapping upon it with the mallet, interposing his finger in such a manner that the latter received the direct impact of the mallet by being placed over that portion of the chest which the physician desired to test. When he was at length satisfied upon these points, he dictated rapidly to the waiting clerk: ' 'Heart and lungs, normal. ' ' "Now, my lad, open your mouth— wide." A quick glance at the inside of the mouth; then the doctor queried: "Can you hear all right?" "Yes, sir," answered Peter. ' 'Teeth, poor— hearing, normal, ' ' dictated the physician. "Ever have any trouble with your eyes— can you see good?" was the next question. "I guess not; I can see pretty good." "Step over there to the other side of the room— further back— so. Now let me here you read this line of letters." "L-T-C-P-T, no, F, no, L-" "Put your hand over your right eye," interrupted the doctor. "Now read." "L-F-0-" 86 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY ' 'That' 11 do. Put your hand over your left eye. Now try. ' ' "I can't read that way, sir." "All right. Eyesight, defective;" was the concluding dictation to the clerk. The record being complete, the prisoner was directed to resume his clothes and take his place with those outside and the next man was summoned. As soon as the doctor had finished with the group, a tall officer with a red mustache arrived, and, taking charge of the squad of newcomers, conducted them out of the building in which they were, across the yard, into another building and then, upstairs and upstairs to the top of a high narrow structure where, in a small room, adjoining the photograph gallery, they, waited to have their pictures taken and to be measured according to the Bertillon identification system. An inmate barber, whom Peter soon recognized as his hero of the store room, arrived, in charge of a messenger, and was soon busily plying his trade upon one or another of the group. Beyond the barber's chair, Peter could see the open door of the photograph gallery, with screens placed just inside, so that nothing could be observed of the operations of the photographer. Presently a voice emanated from behind the screen: "12,345-Luckey!" "Which is. Luckey?" sharply queried the officer with the red mustache. "Oh, that's you, is it? "Come now, be lively and take that coat off. Now fix this around your neck. Here, put this other coat on. Now you look like a dude. Slide in there and get your picture taken!" Meanwhile, Peter Luckey, divesting himself of his coat, was supplied with a collar and necktie, combined with an adjustable shirt front, all of which were suitably arranged over his regulation shirt. A black coat completed the temporary out- fit. These changes served to transform the prisoner, in so far as outward appearance was concerned, into a free citizen again. Upon entering the room he was expeditiously placed in a chair standing on a low platform which had a pivot arrangement allowing the occupant to be placed in a position, either facing, s d ^ to HAND BOOK 87 or with his side face, turned to the camera. Thus, the photo- grapher, by changing the position of his picture-plate, or negative, was able to obtain both a front' and side view of the prisoner with ease and quickness. As soon as Luckey was seated, an inmate assistant approach- ed him and deftly attached to the front of his coat a stencil, showing his Bertillon letter and number; this, when subsequently photographed with the prisoner, would furnish, in conjunction with the Bertillon measurements afterward obtained and placed on the photograph card, an effectual means of future identifi- cation, in the e'vent of his escape from the institution, or of his being wanted by the peace authorities after his release from the reformatory. The photographer, large and portly, pow approached. "Sit back in your chair— hold up your chin,— so! Get your eyes open and fix them on the camera— steady!— all right. Now stay in the chair. Slater, turn him 'round. Now, boy, look straight at that spot on the window curtain— steady— all rightNow step down." "Call the next man;" he continued, handing the negative to an assistant who conveyed it to the "dark room" for develop- ment. Luckey waited outside while the others were being photo- graphed. When Nicholas Settel came back after taking his turn he found an opportunity to say to Peter: "Gee! De pickchur feller said he'd slap me in the guard- house if I didn't cut out me chinnin'— I cut it out— just in time; too! He says: 'dis ain't de bowery, young feller!' I guess dat's right too." At length the photographing of the group was completed. Then Peter Luckey was again summoned, this time to another room where was arranged the various apparatus for taking the Bertillon measurements and making the examinations incident to same. The measurements included, in addition to his height, the length of the forearm, fingers, feet, ear; and by means of calipers, finely graduated, the measurements of his head were 8b NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY also taken; these included width, distance from ear to top of head, from ear to back of head, etc. He was required to sit in a chair and the distance from chair seat, to crown of head was recorded. By comparison with colored charts conveniently- suspended upon the wall, the exact color of different portions of the eye was ascertained. The quality of complexion was like- wise noted, together with all peculiar markings of the skin, as, moles, scars, tattoos, or any unusual discoloration. The photographer, who is also the Bertillon measurer, dictated the result of his examination to his inmate Bertillon clerk, the technical nomenclature of the system being readily understood by the latter, who entered same in a book kept for the purpose; the complete data being ultimately printed upon a Bertillon card, containing also the two photographic views of the prisoner, previously taken. "Now, Luckey," said the measurer, in concluding his examination, "Stand here, on this box." He turned the boy slowly about, scanning him for any additional peculiarities of physique. At length, apparently satisfied, he said with a humorous twinkle of the eye: "Flat-footed. Knock-kneed. Go dress yourself!" and Peter proceeded to resume his garments amid a ripple of laughter from the assistants. IV Morning again at the reformatory. Arising betimes, Peter again interested himself in listening to the shrill voice of the bugle and the answering tread of marching feet as the prisoners passed and repassed his door in the course of the usual morning turnouts. He hoped he would soon be allowed to take his place in the lines and eat with the others, in the dining room. After the prisoners were gone he watched the sparrows awhile. At length the peculiar grating sound of the door brake interrupted his meditations and the officer appeared with his morning meal. After breakfast he seated himself upon the bed. Noting its tumbled condition, he determined to make it up; this he had neglected to do on the previous day, considering it a matter of HAND BOOK 89 minor importance. He then proceeded to set his room generally to rights and was enjoying a consciousness of well doing, novel, but not unpleasant, when the door brake again creaked; footsteps approached, the key was turned, and he was summoned, this time to appear for interview with the director of the trades school. As he joined the usual group, the loquacious Nicholas, ever ready with advice or suggestion, found an opportunity to whisper: ' 'A guy told me in de city dat de easiest job up here wuz sign paintin'— a cinch, sure 'nuff, he says. You ask him ferdat, see? I'm goin' to make a stab fer it all rite, all rite." This sage advice was as seed sown upon good ground. Peter, like most of his class, saw nothing attractive in work. So he instantly resolved to act upon the suggestion of his friend. The director of trades schools, precise and methodical of appearance, looked judicially at Peter and said: ' 'Stand a little further over to the right, there, where I can see your face. Now, take your cap off." Peter was asked a great many questions as to his previous habits of life, occupations, education, etc., the trades school director concluding with the query: "Well, is there any particular trade you would like to learn while you are here? There are vacancies in"— consulting a printed list on his desk— "in the blacksmithing, bricklaying, and carpentry classes." The boy, after a suitable pause for contemplation, said : "I'd like to learn sign paintin'." The director regarded him with a cynical smile. "The class is full;" he remarked, curtly. "I conclude, from your description of your former habits, and from my general observation of you, that what you need is good, wholesome manual labor, with the opportunity and necessity for the develop- ment of habits of sustained, intelligent effort along prescribed lines requiring not too acute mental processes. I shall there- fore recommend your assignment to the bricklaying class. Bring the next man." 90 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY Nicholas Settel was called in for interview with the director and returned to his place in the group, without comment. Peter sidled up to him. "Wot'd yer git?" he asked with a grin. "What?" Settel looked up absent mindedly. Then, making a wry face: "Bricklayin' is what I got. De guy said me dukes looked better hold of a trowel den a razor. I sprung barberin' on him. I guess he's on to tis, all rite, all rite." "I wonder who's de next guy we'll go before." "I dunno. Some feller said de school superintendent." "Bet yer dollar he gits wise to yer spiel same as dis one;" jeeringly remarked Peter. "Make it ten an' I'll take yer;" loftily returned Nicholas Settel. The sharp reprimand of the officer in charge cut short the conversation. At length the director of trades school finished his examin- ation of the group, recommending the assignment of each inmate to the trade which in the director's judgment appeared best suited to the prisoner's natural ability and the conditions under which he lived, previous to his imprisonment. In the course of the interviews the director dictated from time to time, to his inmate stenographer, data in regard to each man appearing before him, to be in due time properly transcribed and entered upon the records of the trades school office for future reference. Ten o'clock of the next morning found Luckey and his companions in the presence of the school director, a serious looking gentleman with a slight Harvard accent. He directed the prisoners to seat themselves at a long table, and as they were so doing, Luckey noticed that his friend Settel was absent from the group. An inmate assistant distributed writing materials. "Now, boys," said the school director; "you may each of you write a letter home. Direct your letter to some member of your own family; do not write anything about getting a pardon; nor anything regarding criminals, nor crime. Just write a good. HAND BOOK 91 family letter. Tell them about your trip up here; how soon you expect to earn a parole and get home again, and things like that. ' ' Luckey took the pen clumsily, dipped it in the ink and then —a great wave of homesickness swept over him as he tried to collect his thoughts and decide to whom he should write. Intensely desirable seemed the sunny nooks of the east side, and greatly did he long to be back in good old New York! Someone entered. Luckey looked up and noticed that it was Settel, just arrived, in charge of an inmate messenger. The school director motioned him to a seat at the table. "Here, my lad, sit down over on this side. Here are pen, ink and paper. Write a letter home and tell your people how you are. They will be glad to hear from you and after a while you will be allowed to receive a reply from them." "Mister, I dunno how to"— Nicholas stopped short. In his room that very morning he had been thinking how the baby brother looked at home— little Bobs who had such a cunning way of grabbing the grimy finger of his big brother, wriggling his small legs and gazing up with the most knowing look imaginable on his little round face. Nicholas gave up. He finished his sentence rather lamely: "Dunno how to 'rite very good, sir." "No matter, lad; do as well as you can. We're none of us perfect writers. Hurry up, now; you came late you know, and some of the boys are through already. ' ' Luckey had been an interested listener. He grinned a little at Nicholas Settel' s boasted plan of causing himself to be placed among the beginners in the school. But he was soon cautioned by the school director to make haste with his writing, and finally decided to write to his Aunt Kate, as being the only relative whose address he knew. Once more dipping his pen in the ink, he scrawled as follows: ' 'Aunt Kate, i got here all rite, how is de folks in de city, i wish i wuz back dere. i don't like it very well here, maybe i will like it beter when i am here a wile. some tings aint very bad here. But i am frade i will have to work pritty hard, de 92 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY boss, says i, kin git back dere in a year or so. i hope i ken. i wood like to see you and de house and evryting. i guess mabe i will see if i kin git along here, i wish you wood see Shorty and git dat coat i giv him and you keep it fur me. good bye." "Peter Luckey." Luckey and Settel finished their letters at about the same time, and were told to join the other prisoners who were by this time seated at the back part of the room. One by one, the members of the group were summoned to the desk of the school director, for interview. Presently it was Peter's turn. "Your name is Peter Luckey?" "Yes, sir." "Where were you born and brought up?" "In New York, sir." "Never went to school much, did you?" queried the school director, glancing at Peter's letter which he had selected from the pile before him. "No, not much; I went a httle— not fur four or five years." "A Protestant school?" "Yes, sir." "What have you been doing since you stopped going to school?" "I done wot I could find to do; I worked for de railroad shops, some." "I don't believe you like to work very well, do you?" ' 'Why, yes, sir, pretty well. ' ' "Did you like to go to school?" ' 'Yes, sir, I liked dat, but I had ter quit and shift fur meself when me folks died; I forgot most dat I learned den." "Well, Luckey, most of us have forgotten enough to fill a book. How far did you get when you left school?" "Not very fur; I could read and write pretty well and figure some. I can multiply numbers and add. I don't believe I could divide much." HAND BOOK 93 ' 'Did you ever work at anything at which you had to think Tiuch— write, or add a little, or anything like that?" "No, sir." ' 'Could you take up a newspaper and read and understand it ?" "Oh, yes, I could read dat some." "What paper do you read most?" "Read most? DeJoinal." "All right, my boy that will do. Go back to your seat." After interviewing each of the group the school director said : "Now, men, you will begin to go to school soon— on Mondays and Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, the school sessions are held. You will be placed in classes where you will learn some- thing if you try. If you are lazy and don't work, your school will bother you some. Pay close attention to your teachers, study in your rooms, and you will not have much trouble. Get all you can out of the State of New York, while you are here. Keep the slips which I will give you; they will tell you where to go to school if you forget. If you want a Bible or prayer book, write me a note and drop it in the box which you will be shown, and I shall receive it and send you the book. You will be allowed other books to read. We want you to read them and get the good out of them. Always keep the book in your room, and keep the card in the book. You may tell the officer in the morning that you want a book. We will send you the first one; after that, you may choose your own. "I hope that each of you boys will be better able to care for yourself when you leave, than you now are. ' 'Now, when I call your names you may come forward and get what I have for you, 12,345 Luctey." "Luckey, " continued the director; "here is a list of books from which you can select when sending for a library book. Here, also, is a copy of the multiphcation table which you had better take with you, to brush up on. Here, too, is a table of American weights and measures which you would best become familiar with. My clerk will presently furnish you with a lead pencil, a couple of pads of paper, and a slate pencil. When you 94 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY are in the school room a slate will be furnished you to use during the class session; but this is not to be taken to your room. Now you may take your place again." Each of the group received practically the same articles of school equipment. The school director issued a few additional instructions, and the prisoners, under the charge of a citizen officer, returned to their rooms. V "—eight— two— three —four— Left! One — two —three — four, two— two— three— four— Hold!" "You men in the third squad— watch the guide— watch the guide! Remember, he is facing you— if he bends to the right, you bend to the left. On the count, move your head to the left —the next count, bring it back to attention — so! One — two! One— two! Do you see? "Attention! Second series! Hand, wrist and forearm! One— and— two— and— three— and— four— " Incisive, continuous, it seemed to Peter Luckey that the counting would never leave off. Backward and forward, up and down his limbs moved, in awkward imitation of the precise and graceful movements "of the guides. Up and down, backward and forward, till he ached from the unusual motion. Peter didn't like the awkward squad; he was very sure of that. The military instructor was too particular; things had to be done just so. Peter wasn't accustomed to movements of precision, or in fact, precision in any form, and he felt disgruntled and mad. At length the calesthenics, or "setting up" exercises as they were termed, came to an end; hats and coats were resumed and the squad stood at ease. A messenger came hurriedly into the armory and approach- ing the military instructor, touched his cap. Receiving the officer's salute in return, he handed him a slip of paper. The latter glanced at it. "12,346-Settel— Report here!" commanded the instructor. "Settel;" he continued, when the boy had appeared before him. HAND BOOK 95 ' 'Go with this messenger. You are wanted at the disciplinary office." ' 'Sergeant Reilly, the third squad — Wright, the second — Osborne, the first. Reilly, I see you have several brand-new men this morning. Bear, and forbear!" The military instructor walked toward the equipment room. The new arrivals— twenty or more— were soon hard at work in a remote corner of the armory, while the remaining groups of the awkward squad, graded according to proficiency, were located in other portions of the big room, at sufficient distance from each other to avoid confusion of orders. Very soon Peter wished with all his heart that he were back again doing "setting up" exercises. In obedience to an order, the group started to walk a short distance toward the center of the armory. Unfortunate Peter, laboriously painstaking, thrust his right (not in this instance his best) foot forward at the word of command. "Change shtep— you, there— change shtep! Ain't ye afther knowin' yer right fut from yer left? Squad— halt!— Now— you, there— yer left fut forrud at the wurrud 'March!' Moind phwat's goin' on whin I say 'Forrud,' and whin I say 'March!' thot means that yer left fut's to move furst. ''Squad, attention! Forrud— march!" This time Peter stepped out firmly with his left foot fore- most; his zeal out-jumping his discretion, however, he unconsciously lengthened his stride, which soon caused him to stumble against the man ahead, bringing forth another sharp reprimand from his commanding officer. The group marched about thirty feet further when their meditations were interrupted by the sudden order: "Column left— march!" "Squad— halt! Phwat koind of marchin' d'ye call thot?" disgustedly exclaimed Sergeant Reilly, looking daggers at Peter who had "'walked around" the corner in his easy, "east side" fashion. "Why shud ye be afther wearin' yer shoes out gittin' 'round 96 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY a corner in thot shtyle? Now watch how I do it. Column right —march— one-two-three-four. Column left— march— one-two- three-four. That way— d'ye see? Yes? all right." "Squad, attention— Forrud— march! "Squad— halt! Now men, whin I say 'Squad,' kape yer moind on phwat ye're doin' an' whin I say 'Halt, ye're to shtop on the second count afther— this way. Squad, halt— one-two. Squad, halt— one-two. "Squad, attention! Forrud— march! Hip— hip— hip— hip— " And so on, seemingly ad infinitum, until the magic hour of eleven-thirty when the hearts of all the awkward squad were gladdened by the signal for dinner. A hearty dinner did much toward soothing Peter's ruffled feelings, especially as this was his first meal with the other prisoners, in the general dining room. The food was abundant, and neatly served. On this particular day they had roast beef, potatoes, bread, and coffee. Peter understood that the food would be varied for the differesnt days of the week. He ate his beef from a tin plate; drank his coffee from a tin cup. He had likewise, a steel knife and fork and a pewter spoon, for further aid and comfort in gustatory operations. He was not allowed to talk aloud, or even whisper, to his neighbors at table. But he had heard that if he behaved well, and strove to make good progress in his school and trade work he might in due time earn the right to eat in another dining room where he could not only obtain better fare, but enjoy the very desirable privilege of conversing with the others. This, he could see, would make it very fine indeed. After returning from the armory, the prisoners had been allowed to go to their rooms for a few minutes, in accordance with the usual custom, and wait for the dinner bugle to sound. On his way to the dining room, Peter had observed with interest several big trucks, laden with capacious tin tureens and platters which were being trundled back to the kitchen after discharging their freight of eatables at the dining tables. He met also, HAND BOOK 97 several assistants bearing huge tin cans, like water sprinklers, used for serving coffee. While Peter ate, he watched curiously the long lines of faces,, most of them pleasant enough; some of them glum; nearly all of them doing ample justice to the fare. He also noted that the walls looked very white and clean, as did also the tables. He wondered how many there were in the dining rpom and was just about to ask the man next him when he caught a warning look from the blue coated officer at the end of the table and wisely held his peace. In half an hour the after dinner bugle sounded. Its note jarred upon Peter. The call seemed not nearly so musical, as had its predecessor. He had eaten his fill; but he did not feel like moving. However, there appeared no other way. So he got up with the others and was soon in the lines, marching toward the shops and the afternoon's work. As the lines were passing through the central archway, a sprightly, gray haired old gentleman, in the uniform of a trade instructor, stood near the entrance, giving emphatic instructions to an inmate, apparently one of his assistants, who held a tin pot containing a yellow substance, which looked like varnish. Peter heard a tall young officer, standing by, remark quizzically to a comrade: "Pop Keuwler's soap!" "Sure death to hogs— don't touch it !" exclaimed the old gentleman, (who was the institutional soap-maker) turning on the speaker, quick as a flash. Then he walked composedly away with his pupil, leaving the laugh on the joker. "Fall in line, men!" commanded the officer in charge of the bricklaying class, after the squad had separated itself from the lines and entered the big brick structure, devoted to the use of the bricklayer, stone-cutter, stone-mason, and plasterer classes. These classes are located in different portions of a long room on the ground floor, and are taught by the instructor in bricklaying who is master also of the other trades enumerated. "Attention to roll call!" continued the officer. He proceeded 98 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY" to check the names of the pupils present, in his book, making a side note of all absentees. "12,345-Luckey-12,346-Settel! Hang up your coats and hats with the rest, over yonder, and then report here at the office," he concluded, after he had finished his checking and consulted a slip of paper just handed him by a messenger. Peter and Nicholas presently found themselves confronting Mr. Keuwler, who, it appeared, was the instructor in brick- laying. "I can tell you right here, Mr. Man," he grumbled to the officer having supervision of the class ; ' 'I've found out just what I'm goin' to do about that house, there;" pointing to a small brick cottage, about twelve feet high, in process of erection in one corner of the large room. ' 'Now then, just the minute I put one of my good boys on that scaffold to work on that house, Mr. Skeels" (this gentleman was the superintendent of construction) "will be in here and get his eye on that boy workin' up there and he'll say to himself, 'There's just the man I want for the new trades school buildin' !' Then he'll ask him his name and number and the first thing I know I haint got no man workin' up there. Now, then, what I'm goin' to do is to put all my greenies .and good for nuthin's on that scaffold and let Skeels have 'em! See if I don't." "Bub," he continued, turning sharply on Peter; "See that I don't put you up there! Come— Don't be standin' 'round— you and the other feller get hold of those two trowels, and get *over there by that barrel with the mortar board and the green mortar on it. I'll soon have you throwin' mortar for three brick. Lively now— lively!" "Here, give me that trowel ! " he went on ; after the two boys had taken their places by the barrel and were standing, uncertain what to do next. "Now then, my boys, take a little bit of the mortar— so! Shape it into a nice little pile— this way— then pick it up on your trowel— so! and lay it— just like this! Then take and draw the point of your trowel along the middle of the streak and there you are with a nice bed to lay your three brick in. HAND BOOK 09 That's what we call 'throwin' for three brick.' It's as easy as eatin'! Now let me see you da it." By this time, the class scattered about the room, singly, or in groups of two or three, were busily engaged, each at his outline or piece of work upon which he was to be examined by the instructor at the expiration of a stated number of hours of labor. The laying of straight wall, building of chimneys, forming of pilasters, "turning" of corners, erection of semi- circular, segmental, dovetail, and Gothic arches— in fact all the work incident to the bricklaying trade appeared to be busily going forward. Over beyond the bricklayers, could be seen massive sections of foundation wall upon which the stone masons were working. To the right of these, the pupils of the stone cutting class were shaping and finishing the rough blocks of granite and sandstone into the various forms and scrolls prescribed in their trade outlines. Against the opposite wall of the room, a row of small lathed booths, roofed and inclosed upon three sides, were occupied by plasterers who were thus afforded practical ex- perience at their trade. Some of the bricklayers were at work upon the ornate little cottage, before mentioned. A glance through its open door, revealed a handsome colonial fireplace and mantel, the work of some advanced pupil. An iron crane, andirons, and tongs, a hundred years old, the property of Instructor Keuwler, found space within the arch. Upon the shelves appeared artistic specimens of the stone-cutters' skill. A miniature lighthouse, complete, from base to lantern, and about twenty feet in height, could be seen, standing near the instructor's office. ' 'Now, then, boys, ' ' continued the instructor, after watch- ing Peter and Nicholas valiantly strive several times to make the coveted 'three brick throw,' "keep right at that till you can do" it. You'll have the class work of three days, or about eight hours, in all, to get so you can do it. Then I'll come over and examine your work and if you can do it well enough you'll 100 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY pass, and if you can't you won't. Now keep to work; you'll have all you want to do; I can tell you that." "I knew a man in Oswego," continued the instructor, turning to the officer in charge, whom he favored with a slight quiver of an eyelash— "I knew a man in Oswego that many and many a day laid his seven thousand brick. I knew him well . He worked for me for three years and four months. It took five men to 'tend him. He could make a seven brick throw, easy- easy, sir!" "Say boss, how's dis?" asked a youth at work nearby, on a small brick pier. "How's that? Why it's all wrong; that's how it is! Look at it! Can't you see?" "It's straight, boss; I put the rule on it." "Well, what if it is straight— it aint plumb— there's a difference between 'straight' and 'plumb!' Don't you know that? Why don't you put your plumb rule down properly— get your line over your mark— there— now you see how plumb it is! You wouldn't have room enough on a farm to build a barn in, that way. ' ' "Now then, you've thrown mortar all over that bran-new spirit level I just borrowed of the carpenter shop — you scamp, you!" he chided at Nicholas, who had just made a poor throw with his trowel. "Well, nevermind— that' 11 make it mine. Every thing that's got mortar on it belongs to this class— that's been fought to the bitter end long ago. Now, hold your hand lower — so — now turn your trowel just a leetle — now draw it quickly over the board— that's better— that's better!" Bricklaying was numbered among the most practical and useful of the trades taught at the reformatory. While the average pupil would earn his parole before remaining in the class a sufficient period of time to graduate therefrom, he would still have made sufficient progress to enable him to earn fair wages as an apprentice, after his release. In addition to the class work there was abundant opportunity for intelligent pupils to obtain practical experience at their trade by assignment to the regular 'Viell, what if it is straight,- it ain't plumb .'—"Page 100 :iAND BOOK 101 construction work almost constantly in progress about the institution. Ten minutes previous to the expiration of the class period, which lasted from 12:30 until 2:30 P. M., the usual signal to stop work (clapping the hands) was given by the officer in charge. To the two boys it was a very welcome sound, for their arms ached from their labors with the trowel. Tools were quickly gathered by the inmate instructors, who, after checking their receipt in a book kept for the purpose, locked them in a storeroom near the instructor's office. The prisoners then gathered at a long sink, supplied with water by individual jets which, continuously flowing, enabled each man to perform his ablutions from running water. The men were then directed to "pair off;" (one couple pre- ceding another) and the two lines thus formed were carefully counted and compared with the class roll call to make sure that no prisoner had secreted himself in the classroom or elsewhere with the intention of ultimately trying to escape from the reformatory, or, in institutional parlance, attempting to ' 'hide- out. " By the time these preparations were completed, the roll of a snare drum signalled for the march to the school rooms, which occupied the entire second and third floors of a large building, located for convenience, adjacent to, and accessible from the northern range of cell blocks, A wide corridor extended the length of the building, on either floor, from which doors communicated with the numerous class rooms. The partitions separating these rooms from the corridor were largely of glass, rendered partially opaque for a sufficient height to effectually screen the pupils from observation from the corridors. The school rooms also received light from the outside windows of the building, on either side. Blackboards occupied space upon one wall of each room, from which the floor was terraced, supporting wooden chairs, , provided with widened arms, for convenience in writing. A 102 NEW yORK STATE REFORMATORY higher chair for the use of the supervising officer was placed in a corner, facing the others. A small table, for the accommodation of the inmate instructor, stood in front of the blackboard. In the windows were boxes of flowering and foliage plants. In due time the Hnes entered the school building and, traversing the lower corridor, ascended the stairs at the further end and moved along the upper hall; the pupils leaving the ranks upon arriving at their proper class rooms, which were easily identified by the numbers over the doors. It was quite an animated scene— messengers hurrying to and fro; prisoner pupils locating and entering the school rooms to which they had been assigned; inmate instructors receiving from the school director the roll call books for the different classes, then ranging themselves in line in the corridor to wait for the signal to enter upon their duties as teachers. Stationed along the corridors were citizen supervising officers. Others, assigned to duty in the class room were already in their chairs; one or two late comers were just arriving. Luckey and Settel, entering with the rest of the prisoners, and not knowing fexactly where to go, very naturally became stranded, in company with a half-dozen of the other new men, at the further end of the upper corridor. Standing near them was the officer with the red mustache who had conducted the party to the photograph gallery. "I see yer leave de squad, dis mornin' wid de messenger guy. Where'd he take yer?" asked Peter of Nicholas as the two stood together by the window. "My eye!— but dat was a close one!" remarked the latter. "De guy in the office wanted to know where I got a little bit o' 'baccy dey found in de cubberd. I says to 'im, I says: 'A feller trun it in de do' when he wus goin' by,' I says. Oh, dat's straight goods— dat's wot he dun. Den de guy he says: 'You're one of the new men, I see by your number, ' he says; and I says- 'Yes'; and den he looks at me hard and he says: 'Of course you didn't take a chew of dis?' an' he hel' up de plug wid de marks on it of bein* half bit off. HAND BOOK 103 'I didn't take a single chew off it!' I says lookin' him straight in de eye. 'How about half-a-dozen?' he says, wid a wink. 1 dunno as I'm exactly prepared to say as to dat.' I says: Hully gee, Cully, but I'd soit'nly filled me face wid dat 'baccy 'bout 'leven or twenty times, all rite, all rite— Hully gee, but it tasted good! Don't yer— "Now, look here, you, Settel! This is the second time I've caught you chinning with him. Here's where you both get a yellow out of it— what's your number?" "Oh, say boss, I wuz— "What's your number! Don't give me any game of talk— I know what you did— talking calls for a second class report and you'll get it— what's your number?" "Now, you fellows, pair off and stand at attention— I've heard enough of you!" concluded the officer, as he recorded in his book, the respective names and consecutive numbers of Nicholas Settel and Peter Luckey, tremblingly given bv these unfortunate individuals. A few minutes later, the boys saw the school director approaching. "All right, captain, I'll take these men now;" he remarked to the officer. "Come, boys, and I'll show you where you are to go to school. " Proceeding along the upper corridor, followed by the group of newcomers, the school director conducted them all to school room number twenty-three. "Here are six men for you. Lane;" he said to the inmate instructor who was engaged in placing some written work upon the black board, preparatory to beginning work with his class, "You can talk to them a little before roll call, can't you?" "New men?" Certainly, Mr. Upton; I've got my work all in shape now. Say, Mr. Upton, I haven't got my late light permit yet. I've been in the normal class two weeks now. I wish I had it. I don't have half enough time to prepare my work. Will you see about that, Mr. Upton?" 104 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY "All right, Lane; I'll take that up with the guardroom office. You don't look overworked though. You're sure you don't want that late light to read your library book by, are you? Yes? All right, I'll see about it, Get after these men now." The school director went out. The instructor, a bright appearing youth, about nineteen years of age, greeted the new arrivals pleasantly and gave them seats in the front row of chairs. After asking them some questions about their previous school advantages, he said : "To-day being Thursday, we study language— the classes in language occur on Thursdays and Fridays, and arithmetic, on Mondays and Tuesdays. This afternoon we are going to have some reading and also some spelling— writing words on your pads. If you attend closely to what is going on you will soon be able to work with the class. You will be given some- thing to take to your rooms and prepare for the next class recitation. If you study in your rooms you will get along a good deal better in your classes. Our work here is not so very hard but you will have to do some thinking, which won't hurt any of you. Once a month you will be examined, to see what you have learned during the month. You must pass these examinations or it will cost you money— I suppose you know that? Anything under seventy-five per cent, and over fifty will cost you a dollar; under fifty and over twenty-five, two dollars; anything under twenty-five per cent, will cost you three dollars. I suppose that you know that you are working for the State, here, for about fifteen cents a day and your board, don't you, and that if you get in debt by failing in your examinations, it will hinder your getting out of here just so much— there's a point there, you see, all right? So it is up to you fellows to 'saw wood,' or get left." "Say, boss, I don't git dat troo me nut— de guy in de mil't'ry said sumthin' but I didn't ketch on none. I don't wanta stay here longer'n I hav' ter," said Peter Luckey, with decision. "Ner me!" briefly added Nicholas Settel. HAND BOOK 105 "You've a rule book, haven't you? Why don't you read t?" asked the instructor. "I hain't had no— Oh, gee— dat's so; a guy in de office giv IS all a little book when we went out; after de high guy— "Say 'superintendent' — that's his name — the 'general superintendent'. You're liable to get yourself disliked if you :all the officials here, 'guys'; I don't mind telling you that." "I didn't mean nuthin', sir." said Peter. ' 'All right. Now if you have received a rule book, I give i^ou a straight tip that you had better study it through in your •oom to-night. You'll find it'll be good for what ails you. Now, iit up and take notice, boys, and do as you're told." concluded ;he instructor, as he arose and took his position in front of the ;lass. ' 'Last week, ' ' he said, I gave each of you five slips of paper ;ut in the form of an envelope, and asked that you write a lifferent address upon each one, in the proper form. Three >f these were to contain titles, and all, the abbreviation for the lame of a State. How many have done this?" All raised their hands, with the exception of the new pupils. ' 'You were also given a printed outline, . containing eight ncomplete sentences, the information for the filling of the paces, to be supplied in writing, by yourselves. Has this been lone? Yes? All right; Moriarty, please collect the slips and (lace them on the table here. ' ' The instructor glanced casually at several of the slips as hey were handed in. . Then he smiled. ' 'One of these sentences you have all seemed to end the ame way. Are you sure you haven't communicated? This entence: 'On next Fourth of July I should like to visit'— and lien you've all written, 'New York!' I wonder how that appened!" The instructor then proceeded to distribute certain printed lips containing the description of the building of the canoe, rom Longfellow's beautiful poem, "Hiawatha." Sentence by jntence, this was read by the class. Some little time had, no 106 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY doubt, been devoted to the study of this selection as, upon request, several pupils repeated portions of it from memory, with good expression. When a bright young fellow, the star of the class, recited the last few lines, beginning: "Thus the birch canoe was builded In the valley, by the river. In the bosom of the forest." — our friend Peter was mightily impressed and fervently wished he could do as well. After the reading of the poem, the instructor indicated with his pointer, a list of words, selected from the piece just read, which he had previously written upon the board. These words he now gave out to different members of the class with the request that each make a sentence which should include the word given. Peter Luckey was among the pupils thus honored, and instantly realized that he was, to use his own expression, ' 'up agin it." His word was "water" and to save his hfe he could think of nothing to say about it; especially after listening to the flowery sentences in due time given forth by more practiced, or perchance more gifted scholars. Particularly did he feel over- shadowed by the genius of the bright youth who had last recited from "Hiawatha," and who had received the apparently unpromising word "resin" and had almost immediately sprang to his feet and recited : ' 'The resin on the bow makes the violin string sing." However, after waiting until the last minute, Peter had an inspiration and won the deserved applause of teacher and pupils by enunciating the sterling epigram, "Water is better than whiskey!" VI Peter Luckey languished in the guard house. Melancholy was written large all over him. For the space of two days he had done little but restlessly pace the narrow cell. Two nights "devoid of ease" had he slept upon a mattress, placed upon the chilly, unsympathetic stone floor— no bedstead, no pillow, no- HAND BOOK 107 chair nor table. His own room appeared by comparison, luxurious, to a degree. The story of Peter's transgression is not so very long in the teUing— a single blow; "only that and nothing more"— and here he was, in disgrace— and discomfort! Ten months had now elapsed since his reception at the reformatory; ten months in which he had run well. Quite a bit of patient study of his rule book, nights, eked out with bits of information gleaned here and there, and close observation of the ways of the other prisoners, sufficed to soon render him tolerably familiar with the insti- tutional routine. He had had good sense enough to see where the "shoe pinched, "and resolved to make an effort to earn his release by parole. This, he found would take about thirteen months, provided he did not make any slips. His "chinning" with Nicholas, in the corridor of the school rooms, for which misdemeanor. Captain Reeves had given each of the boys a "yellow, " or second class report, meant a fine of twenty-five cents— not a large amount, but still sufficient to indicate in which direction the wind set, and to serve as a warning against future and possibly more serious infractions of the reformatory discipline. His task in the school of letters, though requiring consider- able class and evening study, he had managed to get through with, in a fairly satisfactory manner thus far. Although suffering several failures in examination, no one of these had merited more than a dollar fine. His spelling was one of his weak points, but this had greatly improved, of late. In his trade, bricklaying, he took great interest, and learned rapidly. In this work he was examined at the expiration of. an allotted number of hours of practice, and as yet he had not failed in a single outline. He had experienced a hard siege with Sergeant Reilly and the awkward squad, but finally graduated, in seven weeks, and now proudly appeared with the regiment, at dress parade, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Peter was a very good natured boy and had become quite a favorite among the prisoners with 108 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY whom the routine necessitated his coming in contact. Two or three months previous, he had gained promotion to the first, or highest institutionaV grade and had begun to anticipate the day when he should be summoned to appear before that august body, the board of managers, and be authorized for parole ! And now, as stated above, Peter languished in the guard house. To particularize: Peter had an enemy. The feud was ancient, of "east side" origin, in fact— something touching the insulted honor of "de gang," or perchance, "de odder bunch" —a vital point, without doubt. Peter's enemy's name was Dogan. He had a red head and a squint in his eye. Peter's hair was also red. Dogan had long been absent from the twilight councils of his "gang" and it developed that he had been persuaded to pass the interim in the ' 'College on the Hill, ' ' on account of a penchant for climbing balcony pillars. Peter recognized Dogan the second day after the former's assignment to the. bricklaying class. Dogan favored Peter with a truculent smile. Time passed on. Peter for a time had not much trouble in avoiding his old time adversary, as Dogan had been a long time in the class and was quite a bit in advance of Peter and consequently located in a different portion of the room. However, as before mentioned the latter soon became greatly interested in his trade and, passing every outline, in due time, overtook Dogan, who was a lazy, mischievous boy and had, in the course of his institutional career, passed two months in the "Wing" a place in the reformatory where they darned socks and mended clothes, in depressing silence, from morn till eve. Moreover, Dogan cared little, whether or not he passed his trade outlines, as he had fully determined to do his "bit" of two and one-half years; and he had hinted, so Peter heard, that he, Peter Luckey, should not miss a like experience if he, Dogan, could compass it. So in due time, destiny and the trades school office decreed that Peter and Dogan should share the same mortar board. HAND BOOK 109 although engaged upon different work; Dogan being still one outline in advance. One day officer Dale paused a moment in passing: ' 'Well, Luckey, come out of your trance and get in the game awhile! What's the matter? You look as if you'd seen a ghost!" Peter started. He had been lost in contemplation of the particular spot where he had placed his trowel a moment before, in order to pile over some bricks, and had not noticed the approach of the officer. "Boss, I can't find me" — ' 'Come, you fellows, stop your chewing the rag and get to work— you two in the corner, I mean! Cut that out!" sharply called Officer Dale, turning away for a moment to reprimand a couple of men at the further side of the room. "Lost your what?— trowel? Why, man, look! It's right there behind you!" "Bo'ss, I looked dere just a second ago— dat ain't where I laid it down, either." "Oh, I guess it was; you were dreaming," said the officer. "Dogan," he continued, after a moment; "you're terribly industrious this afternoon— I hope it'll last!" and the officer passed on. "T'other red-head hid yer trowel— I saw him put it back;" remarked a tall, lean youth to Peter, in a low tone, as the former trundled a wheelbarrow past, on his way to the mortar bed. One fine afternoon, several days later, it transpired that Peter was on examination. His outline, the fourteenth, required the "building of a plain, 16-inch wall, at the rate of 200 bricks per hour." In order to finish his examination before the close of the class session, it was necessary that he should lose no time, and he busily worked away, laying bricks as fast as he could. Presently he turned to where he had placed several carefully selected bricks, having sharp corners and edges, and which he intended to use in forming his corners, but— his fine bricks were all missing ! He glanced quickly across at Dogan. 110 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY That virtuous individual appeared to be absorbed in the work of building "semi-circular arches" and was laboring diligently. Peter remembered the incident of the trowel, and was very wroth. But he said nothing because he wanted to finish his ex- amination within the allotted time, and thought he could use some other material for his corners. As he turned again to his work, Dogan openly sneered. Peter observed; but still, with an effort, held his peace. In a few moments Peter turned to the mortar board. As he bent over the board, mixing his "throw," Dogan, after laying his own last three bricks, scraped the surplus mortar from his work, after the usual manner of bricklayers, and instead of tossing it back upon the board, dejc- terously flirted it full in the face of the long suffering Peter ! Bang ! Down clattered Peter's trowel. Biff ! Peter's fist went against his enemy's nose. Thud ! Down went Dogan, headlong across his semicircular arch. Peter Luckey, his red hair bristling with rage, sprang forward with the intent of committing further depredations upon the face of his foe, but Officer Dale was on the spot in a trice and seizing him by the collar, dragged him away "I can't see why, Luckey, you expect me to help you out with this fine, when you started the fight yourself, and nearly knocked the fellow's nose off— that wouldn't be right, would it?" asked the general superintendent to whom Peter had madeL. urgent solicitation for an interview, which had been granted. "He got wot wuz comin' to him, superintendent." "Well, what if he did? Where would you be if you got all that was coming to you, Peter?" "Superintendent, I hain't never got into trouble here before dat scrap, sir. If you'd help me wid that 'chocolate' I'd have a chance for de next boid, sir." ' 'The next board! What in the world do you want the next board fo^? As like as not you'd be fighting again in a week and get into trouble and I'd have to bring you back, you scallawag, you! Isn't that so?" HAND BOOK . Ill ' 'No, sir, I don't think so. I'd cut dat out. I wouldn't a'hit him if he'd let me be, sir." "The Major appears to think there are extenuating circum- stances, Peter." "Sir?" "He says, from what he gathers, from Officer Dale and others, the fight was not all your fault. You must learn, though, not to let that red head of yours get the start of you and get you into trouble. Don't fight if you can possibly help it. I shouldn't wonder if I could help you about this, as it seems to be as you say, the first time you've got into any serious difficulty; and I've noticed you've been a pretty good boy since you came here. You can go now, Peter. ' ' "Tank you, sir," said Peter Luckey, On January, the fifteenth, nineteen hundred the Honorable Board of Managers of the New York State Reformatory atElmira, convened as a quarterly parole court, at that institution. Before them appeared two hundred and twenty-eight young men with cheerful and animated countenances. Noticeable among them were Sergeants Peter Luckey and Nicholas Settel, good men and true; members of the N. Y. S. R. Regiment for the space of twelve months, and non-commissioned officers since October, preceding. In the interim, Peter's "chocolate," (so named from the color of the paper used in the issuance of this class of fines) the general superintendent had cancelled. Dogan kept his distance. Peter's excellent record in demeanor, school and trade work had been continued, so that it became possible to reduce the five years of his maximum sentence, to fifteen months, a very creditable showing for a lad of his capabilities. He had received and answered three letters from his Aunt Kate, the last one stating that his uncle's employer, a contractor, had agreed, when Peter should be paroled, to give him work as a helper to the bricklayers who were putting up partitions in a newly completed building in Harlem. 112 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY As the time for the meeting of the parole court drew nigh, Peter lost appetite and grew pale. Nicholas, who also had hopes of getting the board found opportunity to inform Peter, that he, Nicholas, was in the same sickly condition, and from what he could find out, this was the regular thing with men expecting parole. Bright and early on the morning of February 14th,— St. Valentine's Day— Peter and Nicholas, neatly attired in spick and span new suits, stood together in the "cage" and experienced the intense pleasure of seeing "Daddy" Spencer, the veteran door keeper of the reformatory, throw wide for them the portal, through which, while passing along the corridor, they had so often enviously watched the egress of other paroled prisoners, "gone before." They passed the barred door, bade "Daddy" goodbye and were conducted to the "front office," where each received his personal belongings, including a check for ten dollars, and his parole paper; the latter containing instructions for him to make at least six, monthly, written reports to the general superin- tendent, after which, if the reports should prove satisfactory, the paroled would be entitled to consideration by the board of managers for absolute release from the reformatory. Then, after each of the boys had received a pleasant word and a hearty hand-shake from the general superintendent, Peter Luckey and Nicholas Settel jubilantly set forth to take the "9:35" for New York. 18th St. New York, March 14, 190- Mr. Scott: Dear Sir— I make report to you sir. I am staying at my Aunt Kate's four weeks now. My hoss says I take pains with my work. I worked at my trade all but three days. I got $11.40 and I got new does and watch and chain. I did not get into fites as I told you. Hoping you are well Mr. Scott, Very truly yours, Peter Luckey HAND BOOK X13 Note:— Afr. Joseph F. Scott, writer of the article which follows, was super- intendent of the Elmira institution from 1903 until 1911. The article was written during his incumbency. EFFECT OF REFORMATORY TREATMENT ON CRIME BY JOSEPH F. SCOTT General Superintendent. The last century witnessed a wonderful development in the social life of the nation. The poor are now aided by govern- mental, individual and organized charity; so that the beggar is fast disappearing from our midst. Hospitals have been provided for the sick, and homes for the incurable, aged, and infirm. The hours of the workingman have been shortened, child labor curtailed, the conditions of laboring women improved, together with more cleanly and sanitary conditions of living. A Dorothy Dix showed the way, and the lunatic is now properly cared for; the epileptic and the feeble minded are also within the fold of our tenderest care. A Howe gave his life to the blind, and a Gallaudet to the deaf mute, making it possible for a Helen Keller to graduate from Radcliffe. All of this manifests the marvellous advancement made in the last century, the great burden of which is cheerfully borne by a generous people in their prosperity. Even now the criminal, the most despised and longest neglected of all our unfortunate classes, is receiving an attention unthought of at the beginning of the century. Through all the past he has been the subject of retributive punishment alone; once a criminal, always an outcast; increasing steadily in numbers under repressive measures until he became a menace to civilization. It is needless for me to picture to you the condition of our prisons and the treatment of criminals of a century ago. Nowhere has the advancement been made in dealing with these 114 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORV dangerous unfortunates, that has been made in this country. To be sure, Maconochie, rich in his experience at Norfolk Island, outhnes to a committee of the British Parliament, measures and methods akin to those in vogue in our country to-day, and Sir Walter Crofton was successful in incorporating like methods in the prison system of Ireland; but the belief that many prisoners, under proper treatment may be reformed, has taken deeper root in the American mind than in any other part of the world ; so that belief in the possibility of the reformation of the criminal may properly be called the American idea in penology. This belief in the possibility of the reformation of the 'Criminal gave the Auburn and Pennsylvania penitentiary systems to the world; but it was only a trifle over a quarter of a century ago, through the efforts of such men as Doctor Dwight, Doctor Wines, and Mr. Brockway, of New York, that the underlying principles of a strictly reformatory system, advocated by Maconochie, .and vitalized by the then new indeterminate sentence, were incorporated in the statutes establishing the New York State Reformatory at Elmira; giving a new trend to the whole penological system of the country and resulting in the adoption of this system by twelve different states of the Union. The advocates of the reformatory system maintain that society has the right to incarcerate criminals for its own protection, and not for their punishment; that under the indefinite sentence, the criminal should be restored to society when he bas demonstrated his fitness to again live in society without being a menace to it, and no sooner; in distinction from the old method that after a period of confinement for punishment he should be released to again prey upon ■ society, whether he be reformed or not. The advocates of the reformatory system do not believe that all prisoners are susceptible to reformation. They do not believe that crime is a disease; but, a physician, in the treatment of his diseased patient, recognizes that there is in some, congenital disease which, though he may not cure, he can in a degree alleviate; he also knows that there are others, forming the bulk of those coming under his observation, who HAND BOOK Ufi are afflicted with acute disease which, in skilful hands, may be eradicated; and that there are still others who, through neglect, have fastened upon them, disease in its chronic form. In like manner we believe that there maybe congenital criminals, who continue through life as such. In these the manifestations of criminality develop early, and they may be found at a tender age, in the reform schools; afterwards in the reformatories for adults; passing on, and ending their existence in the state prisons. And there are others who, by neglect, or improper treatment, pass on into the realm of the habitual criminal. The great bulk of criminals, however, who may be classed as criminals of environment, are susceptible, under proper treatment and training, to reformation. If reformatories founded upon these principles, have not accomplished the work expected of them, it is due rather to the unthoroughness in the adminis- tration of methods, and the inability to place the proper laws upon our statute books for the execution of those methods, than to any defect in the principles themselves. The indeterminate sentence, to achieve its full effectiveness, should be relieved of its maximum limit which, in many cases, is now altogether too short to carry with it much reformative influence. It has been my observation that the higher the maximum limit in any particular case, the greater has been the incentive and effort on the part of the prisoner toward reformation. Under the present penal code of this state it is possible, and largely a practice in many of our courts, for criminals, guilty of serious crime, to be allowed to make a plea to an attempt to commit crime, and receive sentence therefor. Out of the 1,059 inmates sentenced to the New York state reformatory, last year, 361 were sentenced for an attempt to commit the crime with which they were charged. The greater number of these were for attempts to commit burglary and grand larceny in the degree carrying a maximum of two and one-half years, which is altogether too short a maximum to have much reformative influence. 116 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY The advocates of the indeterminate sentence, accepted the present limitation as a compromise; they have demonstrated what they can achieve, hedged about by these limitations. The community ought now to insist upon, and the legislature ought now to allow the indefinite sentence in its entirety. If the contention of those believing in the reformatory system, is right, and the theory of the indeterminate sentence is correct, a person arrested and brought before a magistrate, for crime, should not receive a sentence as punishment for that crime; but the evidence of his having committed crime should be taken as a symptom of the person's criminality, and the magistrate, by such evidence of his having committed crime, should adjudge him a criminal and commit him to prison in precisely the same way as he adjudges a person to be insane and commits him to a lunatic hospital. There the criminal should remain, like the lunatic, for life if need be, unless his sooner release would be safe to society. It has been contended by many that the indefinite sentence allows the release of criminals too soon, but it is a fact, that in every state where the indeterminate sentence has been given trial, the average term of imprisonment has increased instead of diminished. It is also contended that the power of the release of prisoners should not be left to the prison authorities, they being a part of the executive branch of the government. We reply that the authorities having the oversight of a criminal during a long period, are better qualified to judge of the time of his release, than the committing magistrate, who, at the best, observes him for a period of only a few hours. We believe that the people have no more to fear from the unwise discharge of prisoners by the executive officers trained in this line of work, than they have from their judicial officers. The reformatory methods have now been on trial long enough to invite consideration of their results. If they have attained what could be reasonably expected under the imperfect conditions imposed upon them, may we not plead for further progress in this direction? HAND BOOK 117 The reformatory system appeals to its advocates as being a reasonable, scientific, practical, and Christian way of dealing with criminals. Its methods should be extended and their application made general. No longer should justice be repre- sented by the figure of a woman with bandaged eyes, holding in her hands scales weighing out justice and punishing the guilty; but the figure should represent universal motherhood, with eyes wide open to the possibilities of humanity and a heart throbbing with compassion and mercy toward her unfortunate children. The following extracts from reports in the years 1900, 1904, and 1914-15, respectively, aside from what is shown as to the general organization and administration of the institution, are interesting for comparison of methods in vogue at different periods, for dealing with troublesome prisoners, viz: First. Physical disciplinary treatment (commonly known as corporal punishment) for repression, or stimulation, without segregation. Second. Segregation, without corporal punishment or special training. Third. Segregation without corporal punishment, but with special training. HAND BOOK 119 EXTRACT FROM ANNUAL REPORT OF 1900 BY Z. R. BROCKWAY General Superintendent. The total of- benefits desirable and possible by punishing or imprisoning offenders is included in the purpose of the public protection. Of convicted culprits, the only complete protection is their reformation. To perpetually imprison them or destroy them is either costly or demoralizing to the community. Reformations serviceable to the state are of habitudes, tastes and capabilities from the anti-social predatory to orderly, legitimately productive inhabitants. The vital principle of such reformations is training by doing. The essential characteristic attainments are self-regulating power, true perceiving with wise choosing for personal welfare, and good skill and ability to earn. The field of reformation with each prisoner is, subjectively, the human organism, the mind and the feelings, or moral impulse; objectively considered, it is his economic relations, his personal habits and associations, and his worth to any com- munity. The truest test and evidence of reformation is had in actual performance observed and recorded while under training in seclusion, and again when released conditionally, but living at large. The prerequisites and facilities for such reformations are: (a) Indeterminate sentence committal of prisoners, with its conditional release clause, substantially as at Elmira, but without the maximum limitation feature of the reformatory law. (&) A marking system and accounting with each prisoner, which should include wage-earning necessity, with expenditure opportunity. (c) Trades school so comprehensive and complete that each 120 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY prisoner pupil shall learn and ^jractise the occupation best for him to follow on his release. (d) School of letters, covering instruction from the kinder- garten grade to and including the academid, together with a supplemental lecture course. (e) Military organization, training and drill, embracing every inmate not disqualified. ( /) Physical culture and well appointed gymnasium with bath and massage appliances for scientific use to renovate the physical man, compensate asymmetries and augment vital energies. (g) Manual training proper, with tool work, etc., for use to aid recovery from discovered specific physical defects. (h) For more direct appeal to the moral and spiritual consciousness, there should be provided a library of carefully selected and wisely distributed books, with class study of literature and authors; art education by use of the stereopticon, with lectures, and, when practicable, occasional art exhibitions carefully selected and explained; music, both vocal and instru- menta,l, always high class, given and practiced to quicken sensibilities and for refinement; oratory directed to inspire heroism and patriotism; these together with religious services and ministrations. The principles of good reformatory administration should include: (a) Custody so secure that prisoners do not occupy their minds with thoughts or plans for escape. (6) Control and management (within the law) by the constituted institutional authority, without interference or "influence" of outside persons. When the state undertakes the reclamation of criminals, benevolent societies and individuals rendering voluntary assistance, should serve under advice: the state is competent and responsible. (c) There must be a resident executive officer in full HAND BOOK 12l command, vested with good authority and wide discretionary- power. (d) Subordinate officers and employees should be appointed and dismissed by such executive at his pleasure. They should be completely and exclusively under his control, and their functions should be limited to his direction. (e) The entire life of the prisoner should be directed, not left to the prisoner himself; all his waking hours and activities, bodily and mental habits, also, to the utmost possible extent, his emotional exercises. So thorough and rigorous should this be that unconscious cerebration, waking or sleeping, will go on under momentum of mental habits. There should be no time nor opportunity for the prisoner to revert to vicious character- istics. To such reformatory training the reasonable cooperation of, say, eighty per cent, of the prisoners can be secured by moral means alone; but for the remainder something more is required, and it is most important that the intractable remainder be recovered. They constitute the dangerous twentieth of the prison population, whose release unreformed is of itself wrong, indeed a crime. Moreover, these intractable prisoners do, by their misconduct and their opposition or indifference to the means provided for their reformation, hurt others and hinder the usefulness to the state of the reformatory itself. For this comparatively small contingent, of a prison population, when moral considerations fail to influence them, another appeal must be made through some form of coercive discipline. Deprivation of or indulgence in the common physical comforts of living will assist to resolve some; others will respond to short periods of seclusion, with or without extreme deprivations and restricted diet the while; yet others, always some, cannot adjust their conduct without severe and sharp treatment; but the total of very refractory prisoners in a reformatory depends much upon the kind of use made of moral means and mild coercives. The most intractable of them may be treated in any one of three ways: They may be removed to another prison; they may 122 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY be secluded and abandoned to themselves within the prison where they are confined; or physical treatment may be used to recover them. There is no fourth alternative, for to lower the standard of performance for all to the level of the worst of the prisoners, but turns a reformatory into a common jail prison. Removal of troublesome prisoners to another prison is not only no remedy, but an evil. Their apparent triumph confirms them in misconduct and incites others remaining to similar misbehavior. This plan might be more satisfactory if all the prisons were under centralized control; each, one of a graduated series of prisons, and if the full indeterminate sentence, in place of the present half-way measure, could be the uniform condition of imprisonment. Equally unsatisfactory is the second plan named and for quite the same considerations, together with the additional very serious difficulty of the disturbance and evil influence of their disorderly behavior, and the injury to health of body and mind sure to result from continued cellular confinement under the most favorable conditions consonant with any tolerable state of affairs throughout the prison estabhshment. Physical disciplinary treatment of really recalcitrant prison- ers in a reformatory prison for male adult felons is either repressive, or tonical, or both. Repressive measures only, must be long continued with the class we are considering. Such measures are, all of them, always objectionably depressing of vitality; they deteriorate mind and morals, degenerate the man and operate to deprave instead of reform him. The necessary repression in treatment is had without injury only when it is derived from invigorating measures. To proceed to repress the evil albne, without supplying at the same time a tonic for good, is destructive. The bracing disciplinary measures supply both; repression being incidental, stimulation the main reliance for recovery. Physical treatment for correction by invigoration finds its last resort in the shock of some brief physical pain. The ingenuity of man devising so-called punishments for recalcitrants everywhere has apparently been HAND BOOK 123 expended mainly for repressive pains rather than those that stimulate and strengthen. Of the latter, there are three common forms, namely; shock by douche, by electricity, and by spanking. The douche is difficult to regulate. Electricity is dangerous. The only harmless, stimulating physical treatment is, fbr such as must suffer it, the safest and surest, that which has always been used, rarely abused, the too much contemned measure, spanking. Conferred authority to use this means, shown by occasional applications of it, greatly reduces the number of occasions when the physical treatment is needed. The actual usefulness to the state, of a reformatory, greatly depends, always, on the man who is the executive head, on his appreciation and devotion, his ability and tact, together with the exclusiveness of industry with which he applies himself to administrative duties. To hamper and belittle his position is unwise. Administrative details cannot be well conducted by any remote non-resident authority or agency, and it is impossible to maintain with efficiency the numerous departments and the delicate adjustment of them in a well organized reformatory if there is divided executive control. 124 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY EXTRACT FROM BOARD OF MANAGERS' REPORT FOR 1904 I Discipline Many people when they speak of the "discipline" of an institution mean nothing more than the preservation of order and decorum. A certain type of old fashioned prison where the inmates were marched from place to place with the lock step and not allowed to speak to each other or to raise their eyes above the ground when not at work would, to them, afford an example of disciphne at its perfection. We mean something more. To us, discipline is a system of imparting knowledge and regulating practice for the purpose of making honest men out of criminals, and whether its standard is high or low must be measured by its effect on character. One prisoner may walk a straight line in the prison yard and maintain silence for an indefinite period without becoming a better man, and, vice versa, another may be very troublesome from an institutional standpoint and meanwhile be developing into a useful citizen. A certain degree of order and decorum, however, is essential to the working of any system and the method of obtaining it in the reformatory has been a matter of evolution. We have about 1,400 young men, each of whom, has been convicted of a felony. Before coming here most of them had never been conspicuously quiet and well behaved; quite the contrary. They have been sifted out by the courts from the general community and sent to us because they were deemed so lawless, unruly and .dangerous to society that they could not safely be left at large. They differ in degree, but, obviously, if we sift out from the 1,400 bad ones, the forty worst ones, we have in the latter a crowd, depraved and turbulent, vicious and rebellious with little or no desire to be otherwise. No system yet devised can reform or sensibly improve all. HAND BOOK 125 Last year we discharged 127 men simply because the law did not allow us to retain them any longer, having reason to believe that many of them would speedily return to crime. The most difficult problem in reformatory management has always been to determine what to do with this latter class of men to prevent them from demoralizing the others, especially in an institution hke this, where the proper carrying out of the system of training requires that the large population should be outside their cells all day with considerable freedom of movement and communication. The most kind hearted and philanthropic of citizens, if brought into close personal relations with a young man of this kind, would be very apt to say: "What that boy needs is a good licking!" At first thought, nothing short of that seems at all adequate. Formerly in this institution there was corporal punishment. It is a mistake to suppose that it was of general application. It was confined probably to less then 10 per cent, of the population and if it was to exist at all, few with knowledge of the facts would disapprove of the specific instances. The objection to it was not so much that harm was done to the individual who suffered it but that the rest of the population, never in a state of very stable mental equilibrium, were stirred up by it and kept in a state of unrest rendering the development of relations of confidence and regard between them and the officers of the institution, difficult or impossible. Five years ago it was entirely abolished. The class of men, however, for whom it was designed still remained. Some substitute had to be found. Reduction in grade was impossible, for these men were already at the bottom. A reduction of food allowance was tried. The results were most unsatisfactory. The full ration is none too large for the preservation of health. It is an old saying that you can always reach a man through his stomach. A well fed, well nourished person must necessarily be in a more normal mental condition, 126 NEW yORK STATE REFORMATORY and therefore more easily susceptible to moral treatment than one who is hungry. Conversely, it is natural for a man to behave worse in proportion as his brain cries out for the life giving elements which are absent from his blood through lack of nutrition. Close confinement in individual cells partially remedied the evil by secluding the offenders from the rest of the population. That is to say it was of advantage to the others but of tener a disadvantage to the ones confined. Solitary confinement without employment, if long continued, breeds insanity. The line of demarcation between insanity and viciousness is in any case a hard one to draw. Men on their admission, and subsequently, are carefully examined and watched for symptoms of insanity. When detected, a transfer is promptly made to the state hospital for the criminal insane at Dannemora. This in itself has an important influence in the preservation of good order. The system at present prevailing for which the new superintendent is responsible is working much better than any- thing before attempted. All inmates according to their character and attainments are divided into three grades. The lowest or third grade, the dregs of our population, seldom numbers more than fifty. A wing, containing fifty-six large, airy, well lighted cells has been cut off from the rest of the institution. When a man drops to the third grade he immediately enters this wing and is never again heard of by the general population till he reforms sufficiently to be restored to the second grade, and visitors to the reformatory see no more the red suit men that heretofore have been so picturesque objects at the military exercises and other turnouts. Their bad influence on the others is thus thoroughly eliminated. This third grade wing is a reformatory within a reformatory, bearing about the same relation to the rest of the institution that the latter bears to free life. The food is the same as that HAND BOOK 127 outside and there are no special physical discomforts or restraints. Work is provided which a man may perform with the others in the broad corridors, if he is quiet, and must perform in his cell if he misbehaves. Officers, carefully selected for their dignity, firmness and patience are placed in charge. Thirty days of perfect demeanor entitle a third grade man to promotion which means restoration to the general life and activity of the institution. Failing of this he remains secluded indefinitely from all except those of his own class. As a matter of fact few remain over a month, and none beyond two or three. The psychology of it is not easy to explain but, as a matter of fact even the most hardened and troublesome men soon become exceedingly anxious to get out of this comfortable but humdrum sort of a place and put forth efforts to that end as surprising as they are pleasing. Any day the edifying spectacle can be seen of men who heretofore prided themselves on their criminal records and general toughness and who would regard corporal punishment or physical restraint, like handcuffing, as a tribute to their greatness and who would seek conflict with authority as a means of becoming heroes in the eyes of milder men, of such hard citizens scrubbing the floor or darning socks all day and treading lightly and speaking softly in the hope thereby of getting a chance once more to enjoy life by taking part in the military and trades school work. It shows how the appreciation of anything depends entirely on the point of view. 128 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY EXTRACTS FROM ANNUAL REPORTS OF, 1914 AND 1915 BY P.J. McDONINELL Superintendent of Reformatories. The Special Training Class In former reports to your board, in commenting upon the work of the school of letters, we stated that we had in mind the formation of a special training class composed of mentally defective pupils of the school of letters, classes. Such a group has been assembled and, after a twelve-month test, we are pleased to record our opinion that its establishment and continuance have militated to the advantage, both of the class, and the remainder of the population; and, when conditions have appeared to render desirable and advisable the recruiting of the ranks of the former from the large majority of the latter, mutual benefit has resulted; the class members receiving the advantages which we will endeavor to briefly outline later on, while the general population has been relieved of certain inmates who, by reason of their unregenerate condition of mind and body, constituted a'n obstacle to the accomplishment of the best results, with the large remaining portion of the prisoners. Somewhat in the nature of the fly-trap, the training class takes from the general population those who, like the fly, are prone to infect, with their hereditary or acquired uncleanness of body. But they also accomplish more injury than does the fly, in that they spread among the comparatively untainted of the population, their own peculiar mental and moral disorders, as: impatience under wholesome discipline; a propensity for malicious mischief, and insubordination; and the moral uncleanness too often associated with the degenerate type. The disciplinary officer, in his annual report to the superin- tendent, makes this statement: " The number of major offense reports for the past year is 442 HAND BOOK 1'^ less than for the previous year, and the minor offense reports are 8,417, less than last year No one has been placed in solitary confinement, and I fiiid the general popujataon quiet and orderly." • While it has always been our aim to maintain a high standard of discipline at the reformatory, and while we trust and believe that we have neglected no measure, and spared no effort, to' attain, and maintain such a standard, it is evident from the above statement that there has been during the past year a marked improvement in demeanor and general institutional record, on the part of the prisoners, as shown by the much reduced number of major and minor offenses; and it is our belief that this excellent disciplinary condition, even as compared with that shown by other annual reports of the reformatory, is very appreciably due to the quieting and salutary effect produced by the absence from the population of trouble- makers who have been from time to time assigned to the special training class; and while from this number, certain pupils have been periodically returned to the reformatory routine, such change of assignment has not been made until we have had good evidence, based on our personal observation and upon recom- mendations submitted to us by the officer in change, that -such pupils will be able to satisfactorily hold their places in the routine, without serious disadvantage to themselves or their fellows. But in the course of the last year's experiment with the training class, more than one instance has come to our attention where the boys, before their assignment to the class, have not only been a detriment to the remainder of the population, but in the other hand, the strenuous, albeit salutary reformatory routine has actually produced in such cases, a condition worse, temporarily at least, than would normally prevail with these characters. Such conditions are likely to obtain where the boy in question is of a nervously high-tempered disposition which, in the past or present he has made very little attempt to control. It would therefore appear that in instances of this character both the boy and the routine are not improved by mutual contact, until such time as the former shall perchance experience a 130 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY "Change of mental attitude, incident to a more or less prolonged sojourn in the special training class. In view of the foregoing, we consider that both the population and the training class eligible, are benefited by the latter's transfer from the population to the class, and that in some instances at least, his continuance in the population would prove ■derogatory to the former as well the latter; thus defeating the purpose of the institution, whose aim it is to become a corrective and reformatory agency in the lives of the inmates committed to its care. The value of an offered incentive to good work, which is one of the reformatory principles, has been justified anew by our experience in handling the training class. In the beginning, we adopted the plan of retaining the pupils in the class until evidence should be forthcoming of their fitness to again mingle with their fellows in the prison population; then returning them to the routine with the prospect of earning their paroles in the usual way; but making no accounting of the months passed in the special training class, as either assisting or retarding such parole. But we found later on, that much better results could be obtained by allowing their training class record to count toward parole, as would be the case if they had been in the regular routine. Thus, a pupil, upon being returned to the routine, begins his regular duties, armed with whatever number of perfect months he may have acquired, while in the class, as an asset toward the attainment of his eventual parole. At the present writing, there are three pupils in the highest class, four in the intermediate, and five in the lowest class. The kindergarten class as it might be termed, are for the most part unable to read and write when assigned; those now in the class are commencing to do so, but very imperfectly, after several months of study. These pupils are also studying the elementary processes of number work. The intermediate grade is some- what more advanced upon assignment, and the highest class have progressed as far as fractions, in arithmetic, and can read and write with average facility in most instances. As has HAND BOOK 131 • already been stated, the very small number of pupils in each of the groups makes possible much of individual instruction, and processes can be emphasized and repeated for the benefit of the slow-minded, so that there is at least a fair chance of attaining the result sought. Our inmate instructor is selected with care, and is very kind, patient and thorough in his work. Probably about one out of a hundred of our inmates finds his way to the special training-class, and his sojourn there for a while has certainly, in the judgment of the writer, proven exceedingly beneficial, both to the general population and the prisoner in question; the former loses a disturber, the latter gains special and personal attention from instructor and management, to a far greater degree than would be possible should he continue in the regular routine "where he would be one of many others, subject to general rules and regulations. We have made a few comparisons and deductions in reference to the school and- demeanor records of the class which may be of interest: Last January the class numbered eighteen pupils. For the three months immediately previous to enrollment their average school of letters standing was fifty-seven per cent. During the last three months of their stay in the class, their average standing was sixty-eight per cent. For the first three months succeeding their stay in the class, their average standing was sixty-four per cent. Their higher standing while members of the special training-class, I conceive is due largely to individual attention on the part of the instructors, and longer time-allowance on examinations. The lower standing after leaving the class I consider due to the lessening of these privileges, and also to the fact that they are graded higher after leaving the class. But the higher standing after leaving the class, as compared with the standing previous to enrollment, we consider especially significant as it furnishes a legitimate reason for the existence of the class. Then again, an inspection of the individual markings during the three months after re-assignment to routine shows a general 132 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY tendency to improve in standing from month to month, and this also is good evidence of benefit derived. One instance is especially worthy of note: Consecutive Number 24,247 stood zero for the three previous months; during the last three months in the class his average standing was seventy-eight; and while his standing for the three months after re-assignment to routine was but seventy, not averaging up to the pass-mark, yet it is quite remarkable in view of his zeros before enWing the class. So much for the school records of these boys; now for their demeanor reports. For the three previous months, above mentioned, six pupils lost every month, while eleven failed for two out of three months. During their last three months' stay in the class fifteen lost no months; two lost one out of three months and one lost two out of three. For the three months succeeding, fifteen lost no month, while three lost two out of three months. From the foregoing it appears that there exists a manifest advantage both to the institution and the training-class pupils, in the establishment and maintenance of this branch of the reformatory work. HAND BOOK 133 ABSTRACT OF PRINCIPAL PROVISIONS OF LAW RELATING TO THE NEW YORK STATE RE- FORMATORY AT ELMIRA AND THE EASTERN NEW YORK REFORMATORY AT NAPANOCH. In force January 1st, 1916. by henry melville 1. Sentence of Males between sixteen and thirty YEARS OF AGE. A male, between the ages of sixteen and thirty, convicted of a felony, who has not theretofore been convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment in a state prison, may, in the discretion of the trial court, be sentenced to imprisonment in the New York State Reformatory at Elmira, to be there confined under the provisions of law relating to that reformatory. (Penal Law %2185). No direct commitments are made to the Eastern New York Reformatory at Napanoch. The population of this institution is made up of those transferred from Elmira by the state board of managers of reformatories. 2. Imprisonment when sentenced to a reformatory. When a person shall be sentenced to imprisonment in a reforma- tory as prescribed in section three hundred and seven of the prison law, the court imposing such sentence shall not fix or limit the duration thereof. (Penal Law § 2195). 3. Duration of Imprisonment. Any person who shall be convicted of an offense punishable by imprisonment in either of said reformatories, and who, upon such conviction, shall be sentenced to imprisonment therein, shall be imprisoned according to this article, and not otherwise. The term of such imprison- ment of any person so convicted and sentenced shall be terminated by the state board of managers, as authorized by this article; but such imprisonment shall not exceed the maximum term provided by law for the crime for which the prisoner was convicted and sentenced. (Prison Law § 307) . 4. Board of Managers of State Reformatories. There 134 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY shall be a state board of managers of reformatories consisting of seven members, who shall be appointed by the governor, bj and with the advice and consent of the senate. The full tern of office of each manager hereafter appointed shall be sever years — Such managers shall receive no compensation for theii services, but shall receive their reasonable traveling and othei official expenses. (Prison Law § 281). The said board of managers is given control of the tw( reformatories at Elmira and Napanoch. 5. General powers and duties of state board oi MANAGERS. The State board of managers of reformatories shall (1) Have the general superintendence, management am control of said reformatories, of the grounds and buildings officers and employees thereof, of the prisoners therein, and o: all matters relating to the government, discipline, contracts anc fiscal concerns thereof. (2) Make rules, not inconsistent with law, for the prope: government of said reformatories, and of the officers am employees thereof, and for the employment, discipline education, transfer, parole and discharge of prisoners sentencec thereto. (3) Investigate the affairs of said reformatories, inquir( into any improper conduct alleged to have been committed b: any officer or employee, and require reports from the superin tendent of reformatories and other officers thereof in relation t( the discipline, labor and government of said reformatories, an( have power to take proof under oath in any such investigation o inquiry. (4) Meet at least once in each month, for the purpose o performing the several duties prescribed in this article. (5) Examine, monthly or quarterly, all the accounts expenditures and vouchers relating to the business of sai( reformatories, and certify their approval or disapproval thereo to the comptroller. (6) Report to the legislature, annually, on or before th tenth day of January, for the preceding fiscal year, the conditio! hAnD book 185 of said reformatories, the amount of money received and expended by them during such year, with a detailed statement thereof; their proceedings in regard to the prisoners therein, and suth other matters as they may deem proper, or as the legislature may require. (7) Make such other reports from time to time as the legislature may require. {Prison Law S 284) . 6. Transfer of prisoners from either reformatory TO THE OTHER. The said state board of managers may transfer prisoners committed to their custody from either one of said institutions to the other, in their discretion, and may provide rules and regulations governing such transfers. (Prison Law ^285). 7. Superintendent of Reformatories and Assistant Superintendent; appointment, powers and duties. Said state board of managers shall appoint a superintendent of reformatories, and may remove him for cause after an opportunity to be heard. Said superintendent shall have general oversight of both institutions, and subject to the approval of said board of managers shall appoint all other officers and employees of said institutions, and be possessed with all the powers and perform all the duties in both institutions prescribed in this article. There shall be an assistant superintendent for each one of said insti- tutions, who shall be authorized to exercise in the institution to which he was appointed, the powers and duties of the superin- tendent in case of his absence or inability to perform such duties, and to exercise such powers and perform such other duties as may be prescribed by said board of managers or by the superin- tendent. (Prison Law § 286) . 8. General duties of superintendent of reforma- tories. The superintendent of reformatories, subject to the direction and control of the state board of managers, shall: (1) Have the general supervision and control of said reformatories, of the grounds and buildings, subordinate officers and employees thereof, the prisoners therein, and of all matters relating to the government and discipline thereof. 136 NRW YORK STATE REFORMATORY (2) Make such rules and orders, not inconsistent with lawy or with the rules and directions of the said board of managers, as he may deem proper or necessary for the government of said reformatories and of the officers and employees thereof; and for the employment, discipline and education of the prisoners sentenced thereto. (3) Annually report to the said board of managers on or before the first day of December, all such matters as are required by the said board of managers. (4) Exercise such other powers and perform such other duties as the said board of managers may lawfully prescribe. (Prison Law ^287). 9. Board of Managers may transfer officers and EMPLOYEES FROM ONE REFORMATORY TO THE OTHER. Said state board of managers may also transfer officers and employees from either one of said institutions to the other for temporary or permanent service. (Prison Law § 290) . 10. Transfer of prisoners to state prisons. If it shall appear to the state board of managers that said reforma- tories are overcrowded, or that any prisoner confined in either of said reformatories, (1) Was, at the time of his. conviction, more than thirty years of age; or (2) Has been previously convicted of a felony; or (3) While in the reformatory, is incorrigible and that his presence therein is seriously detrimental to the welfare of the institution; an application may be made to a justice of the supreme court of the judicial district in which such reformatory is located, for an order transferring the prisoner named therein to a state prison. Such application shall be, by written petition signed by the president or secretary of the board and shall state the causes for seeking such transfer and due notice of such application with a copy of the petition shall be served personally or by mail at least eight days before the hearing on the is'uperintendent of state prisons, who shall specify the institution to which such HAND BOOK . 137 prisoner shall be transferred, in case the order shall be made. Such justice shall grant such order of transfer, on such hearing as he may prescribe, if it appears to his satisfaction that the facts alleged are true and that such transfer should be made. A prisoner so transferred shall be confined in such institution as under an indeterminate sentence, commencing with his imprisonment in the reformatory with a minimum of one year and a maximum fixed by law for the crime of which the prisoner was convicted and sentenced; and may be released on parole or absolutely discharged as are other prisoners confined under an indeterminate sentence. Such prisoner may be returned at any time to the reformatory in the discretion of the superintendent ■of state prisons, and with the consent of the said board of managers. (Prison Law § 296) . 11. Control and discipline of prisoners at reforma- tories. The state board of managers shall maintain such control over all prisoners committed to their custody as shall prevent them from committing crime, best secure, their self- support and accomplish their reformation. The discipline to be observed shall be reformative, and the board of managers may use such means of reformation consistent with the security and improvement of the prisoners, as they may deem expedient. The prisoners may be employed in agricultural or mechanical labor as a means of securing their support and reformation. (Prison Law %298). 12. Rules of Reformatories. The state board of managers shall make rules, not inconsistent with law: (1) Prescribing the conditions under which prisoners may be paroled or conditionally released. (2) Regulating the retaking and re-imprisonment of such prisoners. (3) Providing for the employment, discipHne, instruction and education of the prisoners. Such rules shall be adopted by the resolution of the board of managers, passed at a meeting thereof, at which a majority of its members shall be present. All rules adopted and in force shall be printed and a copy thereof 138 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY distributed to each officer, employee and prisoner in each of said reformatories. (Prison Law § 302) . 13,; Marks for good conduct at reformatories ; RECORDS FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE. The state board of uianagers shall adopt a uniform system of marks by means of which shall be determined the number of marks or credits to be earned by each prisoner sentenced to either of said reforma- tories, as the condition of increased privileges, or of release from their control, which system shall be subject to revision from time to time. Each prisoner shall be credited for good personal demeanor, diligence in labor and study, and for results accomplished, and be charged for dereliction, negligence and oifenses. Each prisoner's account of marks or credits shall be made known to him as often as once in each month. The said board of managers shall make rules by which each prisoner shall be permitted to see and converse with some member of the board of managers at stated periods. An abstract of the record in the case of each prisoner confined in each of said reformatories shall be made semi-annually, showing the date of admission, the age, the crime, place of conviction, court or judge by whom sentenced, the situation at the time of making such abstract, whether in a reformatory, or state prison, the hospital for insane criminals or elsewhere, whether any and how much progress or improvement has been made, and the reason for release or continued custody or transfer as the case may be, the names of those deceased during said period, with cause of death. Such abstract shall be considered by the said board of managers at a regular meeting and filed with the secretary of state. (Prison Law § 303) . , 14. Parole op prisoners at reformatories. The state board of managers may allow any prisoner confined in either of said reformatories to go upon parole outside of the reformatory buildings and inclosures, pursuant to the rules of the board of managers. A person so paroled shall remain in the legal custody and under the control of the board until his absolute discharge, as provided by law. No personal appearances before the board HAND BOOK 139 shall be permitted in. behalf of the parole or discharge of any prisoner. (Prison Law § 300) . 15. Supervision op prisoners paroled from reforma- tories. The state board of managers may appoint' and at pleasure remove suitable persons in any part of the state, who shall supervise paroled prisoners and perform such other lawful duties as may be required of them by such board. Such persons shall be subject to the direction of the board. They may be paid a reasonable compensation for their services and expenses, which shall be a charge upon and paid from the funds of said reformatories. {Prison Law § 306). 16. Retaking of paroled prisoners of reformatories. If the state board of managers has reasonable cause to believe that a paroled prisoner has violated the conditions of his parole, the board may issue its warrant certified by its secretary, for the retaking of such prisoner at any time prior to his absolute discharge. The time within which the prisoner mustbe retaken shall be specified in the warrant. Such warrant may be issued to an officer of the reformatory or to any peace ofl[icer of the state, who shall execute the same by taking such prisoner into custody within the time specified in the warrant. Thereupon such officer shall return such prisoner to the reformatory, where he may be retained for the remainder of the maximum term provided by law. {Prison Law %301). 17. Absolute release from imprisonment from reformatories; discharge. When it appears to the state board of managers that there is strong or reasonable probability that -any prisoner will remain at liberty without violating the law, and that his release is not incompatible with the welfare of society, they shall issue to such prisoner an absolute release or discharge from imprisonment. Nothing herein contained shall be construed to impair the power of the governor to grant a pardon or commutation in any case. {Prison Law § 30^) . HAND BOOK 141 DIMENSIONS AND AREAS OF THE 'RINCIPAL REFORMATORY BUILDINGS AND ENCLOSURES General Maasuremenis Entire grounds, 300 acres; farm, 280 acres; main building lYid yard walls, 720x1,056; area, 17 acres; total area covered )y main building, 112,000 sq. ft. ; area 2J acres. Dimensions of Main Building Front portion, exclusive of extensions and wings, 54x608; lorth extension, 54x372; south extension 54x432; north wing, (4x164; central portion, main building, 54x78. Cetl Blocks North cell block, 21x135; four floors, 34 cells on a floor, total, .36 cells, each; 7x9x8. N. C. B. Extension, 176 cells. ■ South cell block, 21x135; four floors, 44 cells on a floor; total, .76 cells, 5x8. North extension cell block, 21x388; four floors, 126 cells on I floor; total, 504 cells, 5x8. South extension cell block, 21x234; four floors, 72 cells on a loor; total, 288 cells, 5x8. North wing cell block, 21x77; four floors, 14 cells on a floor; otal, 56 cells, 8x10. South wing cell block, 21x234; four floors, 26 cells on a floor, otal, 104 cells, 5x8. Total cell capacity of institution 1440, Central Portion of Main Building Includes guard room, 54x78, 2nd floor; auditorium, 78x102, ird floor. Trades School Buildings Trades school building, 60x254, 1st floor, machinist class oom, 57x135; brass sniith, 30x57, machine-wood-worker and abinet maker, 57x81; 2nd floor, printer and book binder class oom, 57x123; upholsterer, 57x61; trades school office, 21x43. 142 NEW YORK STATE REFORMATORY Trades school building, 76x254; one floor; bricklayer class room, 76x100; stone-cutter, 30x30; stone-mason, 30x50; plasterer, 76x100. Trades school building, 50x248; 1st floor, plumber class room, 47x59; steam fitter, 47x48; tinsmith, 47x48. Fire engine room, 16x26; hose tower, 13x13x71; 2nd floor, drawing class room, 47x215. School of letters classrooms; 26 school rooms, ranging in size from 23x27 to 40x40. ' Note: Three of our trades school buildings were some time since destroyed by fire and have not as yet been re-built; but preparations are being made for their re-construction. An appropriation sufficient to commence the construction of Shop Building No. A has already been authorized by the legislature. The dimensions of these proposed new buildings are as follows: Trades School Building No. 2, 59x253; 1st floor, blacksmith classroom, 59x126; plumber and steamfitter classroom, 59x126; 2nd floor, unassigned, 59x105. Trades School Building No. 3, 59x253; 1st floor, foundry, moulder classroom, 59x168; carpenter repair shop, 59x84; 2nd floor, band-room, 59x63; foundry storage-room, 59x42. Trades School Building No. 4, 59x253; 1st floor, cabinet- maker classroom, 59x126; carpenter classroom, 59x126; 2nd floor, painter classroom, 59x253. 'Miscellaneous Domestic building, 65x245; basement under entire building, with 9 ft. ceiling; ^rs^^oor, officers' kitchen, 25x63; 1st grade inmates' kitchen, 25x51; general inmates' kitchen, 51x74; bakery including fuel room and bread room, 52x46; two store rooms, 38x63; refrigerator, 20x40; refrigerating machinery, 20x24. Second floor, general inmates' dining room; 63x192; credit dining room, 53x63. Third floor. Officers' dining room, including serving room, 42x63; eight offices averaging in size, 23x33; library 31x83. Fourth floor, offices quarters, 23 rooms, ranging in size from 12x14 to 17x20, HAND BOOK 143 Gymnasium, 90x120;' isi^oor, main room, 83x84; open to 3f ; running track on gallery extending around sides of room, ft. wide, 330 ft. long, 16 laps to the mile; dressing room, x21; steam room, 16x21; swimming tank room, 16x31; swim- ing tank, 8x27; 2nd floor; drill room, 32x83. Armory, 215x300. Hospital; observation ward, 33x54; medical ward, 31x54; rgical ward, 25x32; consumptives' ward, 54x65; dispensary, :X23 Power house, 90x150; boiler room, 82x86; dynamo room, 1x60; coal storage room, 30x86; capacity, 1,500 tons; smokestack, ft. diameter, 125 ft. high. Green house, 38x122; horse-cow and hay-barn; main build- g, 40x149; horse and cow-barn, each, 36x95; upper farm barn, ix60; reservoir, 900x500; 10 ft. in depth, capacity, 18,000,000 illons, water pressure at institution, about 80 lbs; ice-house, •x35x25; capacity, 600 tons. Residences Superintendent's residence, 88x110; basement, 9 rooms; 1st tor, 9 rooms; 2nd floor, 8 rooms. Cottages outside the general enclosure. Cottage A., 36x39, : rooms; Cottage B., 37x38, 12 rooms; Cottage C, 22x31, 8 rooms. C w Q CO Z w Q Z g 5 2; (a Q Z a H g E w cu D W m a H I < Eh 2; H s E- Pi <: CL, H Q a o E o Q M O O « K E- I < 2; a S H <; tM Q < X H Q Z < 5 X f- d o O H .J o o X o TO W K f- fc O o El, O I < Z S f- < Ph Ed Q o o a o m ra Q <: a o 05 O H O a E- &, O O b O ClI H I a Eh 0. E b O < z J o » I < 2 w S « ca Q a CL, a s &. o a o S, b o fa a J < z w s E- ai <: 0, H Q s o o u m Ed H E-i B J Eb O O o K O B a 2; < o 3 p < s X H I m a Ed H W o J o o K o m w p > J o o as o M W n r 1 c > > CO 2 B 5 2 O Industrial— Class Outlines— Hardwood-Finishing Industrial— Class Outlines— Machinist ^,mmm miummmmmmimim Industrial— Class Outlines— Iron-forging Industrial- Class Outlines— Plumbing Industrial— Class Outlines— Tinsmithing 2 D C CD H 2 ? r I o o c I c ■-3 w > I > f ^-v^l^^:^^'9^x^-'^w^''''fj^^i • > w ■< I M a 3 a H c: ■3 o g o t ■ ■2. S > P3 o o g s H i- «! J^ Z a to £ S w 2 O a B C B 2 Mii-itary-Recimental Battalions Leaving the Armory > I o cn o ^L u u. I i .-<4 t !! I J i '/ -^ I S it - a The Routine— Having His Hair Cut by Inmate Barber The Routine — Bertillon Measurements The Routine— Interview upon Admission The Routine— Writing Home The Routine— Second Grade Dining Room The Routine— In the Credit Dining Room The Routine— Morning Work The Routine— Working at His Trade The Routine— In the Gymnasium The Routine-Gymnasium Plunge Bath The Routine -Talking with the Superintendent The Routine— Instructor in the Gymnasium The Routine- On Post Duty The Routine— Messenger The Routine — Inmate Instructor The RouriNE— School Teaching The Routine — Before the Disciplinary Officer The Routink -In the Third Gra.de The RnuTiNE — Authorized for Parole -« HI ' 'HhH 1 -mi The Routine- Going Out on Parole fiH ":.4^|ii|^ I^BE 1 1 The Routine — Standard-Bearek The Routine- Lieutenant, Commanding Company ■a o S I o a z z z s o o z g o a 2 H a m s I El R O C r d O c > ID c w '■''l* o w r o o jf. m:.^^^t. Special Training Class Pupils, -1— J I 1- _ - . 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