Journal

two middle brick buildings cover an area of one hundred and seventy-four feet, and contain four hundred and twenty cells, eight feet long by four feet wide each, and six and one-half feet in height. The length of the stone building is one hundred and eighty feet and its width twenty-eight feet. The ground floor of this building is divided into seven rooms, taking up the entire width. The second and third floors contain ninety-six cells, each ten feet long, six feet wide, and eight feet high. The ground floor of said stone building is occupied as follows: In Red Room, thirty-nine prisoners; in Number One, twenty prisoners; in Number Two, thirty-five prisoners; in Number Three, forty-two prisoners; in Number Four, thirtynine; in Number Five, thirty-eight prisoners; and in Number Six, thirty-nine prisoners. Making a total of two hundred and fifty-two convicts occupying seven rooms.

We introduce, as bearing upon the subject of lack of prison accommodations, the following extract from the last biennial report of the Warden and Resident Director, Lieutenant-Governor Johnson, of date July first, eighteen hundred and seventy-seven: "It is absolutely certain that a new home must be found for California convicts, or else the San Quentin Prison must be enlarged. With the number of bricks we shall have on hand at the end of this burning season, the Prison walls could be enlarged by the addition of about three and a-half acres, at a small cost to the State for lime, cement, sand, iron, etc. Either this must be done, the Folsom Prison put in operation, or a new one built somewhere else."

QUARTERS OF OFFICERS AND GUARDS.

The quarters of the officers and guards in the main building, front entrance, need enlargement and better arrangement. They are defective both as to capacity and adaptation. They are uncomfort able and unwholesome, by reason of offensive surroundings and the crowding of too many guards into a single apartment. Their conti guity to the cooking and eating rooms of the officers and guards, so great is the noise of feet and the clangor of culinary implements, ren ders it out of the question for their occupants-the night guards especially to obtain satisfactory rest and sleep.

Again we quote from the biennial report of Dr. Pelham, the Physi cian and Surgeon at the Prison, of date July first, eighteen hun dred and seventy-seven. He says: "The sleeping apartment assigned to the night guards are not sufficient in space or ventilation for the demands of health, and the main draught of air that reache them is blown over the surface drainage of the kitchen and a con tiguous lot of old decaying shed rooms, about two hundred feet in length, that stand against the outside of the south part of the eas Prison wall, their contents adding to the impurity of the atmospher It is necessary that these sleeping-rooms should be less crowded and better ventilated, and that the old buildings referred to, togethe with the officers' water-closets, be removed, and that different arrang ments be made for the vegetable depot, which at present is one the shed rooms mentioned."

EATING ROOM OF THE GUARDS.

The guards' eating-room is not only too near their sleeping apartments, but is not large enough. It is neither sufficient in length, width, nor height. The two tables, placed lengthwise the room and parallel with each other, take up so much space as to render the situation both inconvenient and uncomfortable for the guards. They should be accommodated at one sitting. As it is, a portion of them must wait standing without, there being not room enough within, until the seats are vacated by the first comers. Chairs or smaller benches should also be provided, so that persons may not be compelled to crowd in between those already seated, greatly to the annoyance and discomfort of all parties.

PRISONERS' FARE.

The food provided for the use of the convicts is, as they themselves bear testimony, wholesome, plentiful, and properly prepared. The completion of the new and commodious building for workshops, manufacturing, and other purposes, having furnished ample facilities for cooking and eating, there seems nothing wanting as to convenience and comfort in this department. The officer immediately in charge thereof, Mr. Barton, is thoroughly qualified for its superintendency. He is possessed of special aptitude and a long experience, having been retained in that capacity by several consecutive State administrations.

THE SLAUGHTER-HOUSE AND BUTCHER SHOP.

These were severally inspected, and found to be properly managed, and well suited for their respective purposes.

GUN POSTS AND GUARD HOUSES.

These are suitably located, and meet the requirements of the offices for which they were designed.

VEGETABLE GARDENS.

Two small gardens, cultivated by convict labor, are situated near the Prison, and partly supply the demand in this regard.

FLOWER GARDEN.

A beautiful garden of flowers adorns the Prison inclosure. It is in a high state of culture the year round, and contains choice varieties of shrubs and flowers. It affords a pleasing surprise and an object of admiration too, to visitors. It occupies a small space in the center of the upper yard, intervening between the cell buildings and the offices of the Turnkey and Captain of the Yard. There is also a small inclosure, beautified by a similar array of flowers, in the rear of the Turnkey's office.

WATER SUPPLY.

Two fresh water reservoirs are situated on elevations adjacent to the Prison. They are sufficiently elevated to be utilized effectively in case of fire. The supply is sufficient for general use. The capacity of one of them is three hundred and twenty thousand gallons; of the other, one hundred thousand gallons. There is also a salt water reservoir, holding one hundred and twenty thousand gallons. To these several reservoirs are attached pipes and fittings, conducting the water to all parts of the Prison. For purposes of ablution, there is a salt water cistern within the enclosure, about midway between the southeast and southwest corners of the inclosed wall. This is used at will by the convicts when given the liberty of the yard, and at leisure. Regard for the public interest prompts your committee to propose and urge that the State make an effort to provide water by artesian wells, or to obtain a reduction of the rates at which it is now purchased, twelve thousand dollars per annum being too heavy a draught upon the State treasury; in addition to which, and a consideration worthy of note, is that the State is liable in the future to pay more for the water required than is now demanded. Artesian water could be bored for, and in case of success, and the flow should only reach the surface, the water could be made available by the use of the engine in pumping it.

THE NEW BUILDING.

The new building recently erected in place of the one destroyed by fire, February twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and seventy-six, is a fine four-story structure, ample in dimensions, and built with reference to the wants of the Prison in the matter of workshops, manufactories, and other purposes. It is nearly centrally located in the inclosure, on the old site, in the lower yard. As before said, it is four stories high, four hundred feet long, sixty feet in width, and contains sixteen rooms, each one hundred by sixty feet in dimensions. Fire-walls separate the rooms.

For the workshops, comprising several of the rooms, six hundred feet of shafting, with a two hundred-horse power Corliss engine for propelling the same, has been provided, and is now in successful operation. The above, together with a boiler house, constructed of brick, forty-six by thirty feet, containing two large boilers; also, water pipes, gates, and all requisite appliances, have been provided at a cost to the State of one hundred and twentynine thousand nine hundred and ninety-five dollars ($129,995 00), including nine thousand five hundred and ninety-eight dollars and ninety-eight cents ($9,598 98) for wood, and one hundred and fifty-six dollars and twenty-nine cents for coal and coke used for fuel in burning brick, and three thousand three hundred and eighty-nine dollars and ninety-one cents ($3,389 91) paid for discount and interest. The forty-eight cells added to the stone building cost twenty-three thousand nine hundred and sixty-eight dollars and sixty-six cents ($23, 968 66), making a sum total expended of the appropriation of one hundred and fifty-three thousand nine hundred and fifty-three dollars and sixty-six cents ($153,953 66). The large sum paid for discount and interest is owing to the fact that all the contracts were made payable in gold, when the State treasury paid ten per cent. of

the amount in silver. There has also been built a brick supporting wall one hundred feet long and ten feet high, and a bulkhead wall across the yard, three hundred and fifteen feet long and thirty feet high.

MORE ROOM NEEDED.

The attention of the Legislature has from year to year, in former reports, been called to the lack of prison accommodations at San Quentin. The iron cells recently constructed, comprising the upper story of the stone building, and the new tank or cell building, containing two hundred and four tanks, also just completed, have relieved but not fully met the want existing in the matter of cell room, since, as before stated, too many are necessarily put in a single cell-as many as two hundred and fifty-two convicts occupying seven rooms of the ground floor of a single building-an average of thirtysix to a single room. The increase in the number of prisoners, in two years, has been three hundred and forty-seven. At such rate, it will be but a brief period before the necessity for more cell room will De as great as before the late improvements.

The evils resulting from the unavoidable putting of more than one convict in a single cell, and the impossibility, by reason of the smallness of the Prison inclosure, of classifying the prisoners, so as to keep classes differing as to age and degree of criminality from indiscriminate and promiscuous association, still appeal to the law-making power for redress and a proper provision for making reformation possible, which is not the case so long as such classification cannot be made.

The boy in years and novice in crime, whose rudimentary knowledge of it only may have doomed him to imprisonment for the brief term of a year or two, is, under existing circumstances, brought in perpetual contact with the hardened graduate, who, having taken all the degrees in villainy and become an adept in every vice known to the criminal calendar, is indeed a moral upas tree, beneath the shade of whose influence is blighted every impulse of the former towards reformation and a better life. For this the management is blameless, being powerless to apply the antidote of separation; an impossibility while facilities are lacking for segregating the youths and others not by nature criminal but made convicts by sudden ebullition of passion or other unfortunate circumstance.

The only material change in the situation at San Quentin, as it was at the date of the report of two years ago, and as it now is, is that for the better, brought about by the construction of the iron cells or tanks alluded to, and the erection of the building for workshops and other uses. This increase in cell room, as before said, has materially relieved but not fully supplied the want, since so many are from necessity required to occupy a single apartment-as high as forty-two in one room. We may also mention the addition to the building for the accommodation of female convicts.

The engineer, Mr. Coffey, having the general management and supervision of the engine and machinery, we deem entitled to special mention for fitness and ability as manifested in the cleanliness and order that prevail throughout his department. The machinery was found in admirable condition, and the harmony and system that mark every thing subject to his superintendency, show him to be the right man in the right place.

The conclusions arrived at by your committee for the solution of this whole question of prison accommodation, which involves the three paramount ideas in prison economy, of making our penitentiary system at once punitory, reformatory, and self-sustaining, have been set forth at some length in a former report submitted to your consideration, recommending the immediate completion of the Branch State Prison at Folsom, to which report your thoughtful attention is most respectfully directed. From this last suggestion, however, Dr. May and Mr. Allen of the committee dissent.

Your committee esteem it a pleasure, and deem it but a deserved recognition of the worth and services of good officers, to testify here to the efficiency, zeal, and discretion, of those now in authority at San Quentin. A thorough knowledge of affairs as conducted there, based upon actual acquaintance and observation, enables them to assert that the management have done and are doing all in their power to faithfully and ably discharge the responsible trust committed to them. They have been devoted to the public interests, and the conduct of affairs there under circumstances so adverse and trying as have confronted them since their assumption of the control of the Prison government, certainly commends them to the regard and confidence of the people of California.

For further particulars relating to the Prison, reference is made to the annexed statistics and tabular statements of the Prison officers.

J. H. MILLER, Chairman of State Prison Committee.

PRISON STATISTICS.