ANNUAL REPORT

Pursuant to the requirements of chapter 55 of the Consolidated Laws, I transmit herewith my fifth, and the Department's Twentieth, Annual Report, for the year ended June 30, 1921.

CLASSIFICATION OF INSTITUTIONS

Eighteen institutions are supervised by this department as follows:

Six correctional and reformatory institutions, classified as to sex and age; one for males from sixteen to thirty years, two for females with similar age limitations; two boys' and one girls' training school. A reformatory for males at Napanoch, by chapter 483, Laws of 1921, was converted into an institution for mental defective delinquents over sixteen years of age.

The reformatory at Bedford Hills, by chapter 364, Laws of 1921, has been provided with a division for mental defective delinquent women who have previously been placed in other institutions for mental defectives or who may be committed to the institution direct.

Six institutions for mental defectives are differently classified. The Newark State School has adult females. The institutions at Rome, Sonyea, and Thiells have both sexes, and all ages except babes in arms. Craig Colony at Sonyea cares for epileptics only; while Letchworth Village at Thiells gives custodial care to mental defectives or epileptics. The Syracuse institution provides training and education for mentally defective boys and girls. Besides the foregoing, Napanoch and Bedford Hills have delinquent mental defectives as stated above.

Two hospitals provide for both sexes: one for incipient pulmonary tubercular patients, and the other for the care and treatment of crippled and deformed children.

Two educational institutions include both sexes, one for blind children and the other for Indian children. The two eleemosynary institutions are the Soldiers' and Sailors' Home at Bath, and the Oxford Home for the veteran and his wife, his widow, his mother, and for army nurses.

All the institutions enumerated above, except, Bath, Oxford and Ray Brook, have educational advantages covering a wide range of industrial activities as well as scholastic training.

An industrial farm colony established by chapter 812, Laws of 1911, resulted in a site being obtained at Beekman, at a cost of $60,000. This site, with an area of 825 acres and 22 buildings, was placed under the control of the Armory Commission in 1917; and in 1920, by chapter 320, was transferred to the State Hospital Commission for a period of two years from April 26, 1920.

The organic law establishing a New York State Reformatory for Misdemeanants, chapter 502, Laws of 1912, remains in the statutes although there is no board of managers, nor has a site been selected. This institution was planned for the reformation, and educational, industrial, and moral instruction and training of males convicted for misdemeanors and other minor offenses.

A Training School for Boys, established at Yorktown Heights in 1904, was abandoned for that purpose under the provisions of chapter 543, Laws of 1918; and by chapter 659 of the Laws of 1921, the State Board of Estimate and Control was authorized to sell and convey the land, buildings, and premises upon which more than a-half million dollars had been expended.

The total average population for the year ended June 30, 1921, was 10,434.02, as compared with 10,496.07, for the preceding year, a decrease of 62 or about three-fifths of 1 per cent. Eight institutions had increases ranging from 4 to 441, and the nine showing decreases ranged from 13 to 207.

The Bath Soldiers' Home decreased its population 26 per cent; Bedford Hills, 50 per cent; and Randall's Island, 19 per cent. Letchworth Village, on the other hand, increased its population nearly 80 per cent, as a result of opening new buildings. Following is a statement showing a comparison of the attendance for the two years, by Institutions.

MAINTENANCE APPROPRIATIONS

Approximately a million dollars more was appropriated for maintaining these eighteen institutions in 1920-21 than in 1919-20. About 56 per cent of this increase, or considerably over a-half million dollars, which was the direct result of increases in salaries, was made available by the Legislature of 1921 to employees in state institutions generally. An increased allowance to employees for commutation in lieu of maintenance, to meet outside industrial and labor conditions, was also provided.

These available maintenance moneys included as well nearly $70,000, which prior to 1920-21 were classified in special appropriations, improvements, and betterments, and did not previously enter into maintenance accounting.

In determining the amount of money adequate for coal for 1920-21, allowance was made for the almost certain extreme advance in the price of coal and increased freight rates. To that end, $187,800 more was appropriated than for 1919-20; and here it is interesting to note that the expenditure increase came within. $2,000 of the appropriation so increased.

SAVINGS ON APPROPRIATIONS

Notwithstanding the fact that nearly a million dollars more was appropriated, and that the expenditures for 1920-21 increased over those of the preceding year, the saving effected from the appropriations was over half a million dollars, as compared with a quarter of a million dollars saved in 1919-20.

COST OF MAINTENANCE INCREASED

The gross per capita cost of maintenance increased $72.81. Of this amount, $65.09 was due to increases in salaries and wages, and increase in the rate of commutation in lieu of maintenance, provided by legislative enactment; to advance in coal costs with its consequent increased freight and drayage charges. Painting and miscellaneous items, which prior to 1920-21 were not included in maintenance moneys, account for $6.16 more of the increased per capita.

Taking these items into consideration, there is $1.56 left in the increased per capita cost of maintenance to be applied to the balance of maintenance and operation expenditures which includes clothing, furniture, furnishings, supplies, office and traveling expenses, and general administration.

The expenditures by institutions and by classifications will be found in tables forming a part of this report.

ANALYSIS OF EXPENDITURES

Many factors enter into the analysis of the maintenance expenditures of 1920-21, which must be taken into account. There have been unusual fluctuations in the population of the various

institutions making up the group reporting to the Fiscal Supervisor. There have been exceptional variations in prices of the same commodity in the periods compared. Industrial problems were encountered in the institutions as a result of outside labor conditions. There have been conditions of unrest within the institutions, due somewhat to turbulence within the unit, and due in part to statutory changes affecting the class of inmates sent to the institutions.

An analysis is interesting in showing the effect of one or all of these factors as reflected in the cost of maintaining nearly 10,500 state wards, and their complement of employees.

Personal Service: Industrial conditions throughout the country had an effect on institutional activities to the end that the Legislature provided substantial increases to keep an adequate personnel within the institution. Accordingly, appropriations for personal service were increased approximately $463,000, or 28 per cent, but the expenditure increase was kept within approximately 26 per cent, while the per capita increase was not quite 28 per cent, or $41.13 more than the preceding year.

Food shows a decrease of practically 9 per cent in the expenditure, or over $87,000 as compared with 1919-20, and the per capita decrease was nearly $8. An appreciable reduction in the prices of food staples is an important element in this saving. There was a material reduction in the quantities of many of the staples purchased, such as bacon, beef, milk, potatoes, tea, etc., as a result of a careful study of per capita needs and close scrutiny of estimates. Prices per pound of meats decreased from 2 to 3 cents; butter and coffee, 8 cents; tea, 5 cents; eggs, 8 cents per dozen; flour, 90 cents per bbl., and potatoes, $1.12 per bushel. A comparison of ten of the principal commodities, showing quantities and average cost for the two years, follows:

The saving on these items alone was $57,614.74

Fuel, light, power, and water increased their expenditures $189,762.75, and the per capita increase was $18.44. Except West Haverstraw, all the institutions had increased expenditures. Approximately 2,600 tons of coal less were purchased than during

the preceding year, but the average price increased nearly 50 per cent; the average price per ton for anthracite and bituminous coal for 1919-20 was $6.50, as compared with $9.65, the average for 1920-21. Cartage and freight charges increased in still greater proportion, in some cases being far in excess of the cost per ton of the coal at the mine.

Repairs: As carried under the title, this division decreased about $10,000 as compared with the expenditures under the same title in 1919-20. Another subdivision was included in maintenance by the Legislature of 1920 which carried appropriations for the expenditure for specific repairs and painting at individual institutions, in addition to the regular "Repairs" classification. These specific items were not included formerly in maintenance but entered into special fund expenditures. These items, covering six institutions, amounted to an expenditure of $41,647.09; painting at eleven institutions, $22,686.33; while the expenditure for "Repairs and alterations to buildings, repairs and replacements of mechanical equipment" was $136,920.32.

The total gross expenditure for 1920-21 shows an increase of 17 per cent over that of 1919-20.

The items not included formerly in maintenance, aggregating $64,333.42, account for nearly 9 per cent of the total gross in

crease.

MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS

The total of miscellaneous receipts, earnings and sales, amounted to $161,850.37 as compared with $174,767.21 for the preceding year.

The total net cost of maintenance for the year ended June 30, 1921, was $4,744, 726.87, and the net per capita cost $454.74.

HOME PRODUCT

The total home home product values for values for 1920-21 aggregated $704,607.61 as compared with $639,421.13 for 1919-20, an increase of $65,186.48, in spite of the fact that farm and garden expenditures decreased nearly $18,000, or about 9 per cent.