The financial showing for the State cotton mill, which is operated under the public-account system, is given as follows:

541.59

Fertilizer

To balance.

4,209.30

Convicts are employed under the lease or contract system, also in working farms on the share-crop plan and in raising products for sale and manufacturing under the public-account system.

The mill has been operated about 12 months since it began operations, January 1, 1897, and shows a profit of $9,817.16, not including any allowance for labor.

The financial statement for the penitentiary for the years 1897 and 1898 is summarized as follows:

The report of the institution states that during the past 5 years there has been no appropriation of money for the maintenance of the penitentiary; also that on January 1,1897, there was in the State treasury, belonging to the penitentiary, $35,211.44, and in addition thereto 400 bales of cotton unsold. There is now in the State treasury, belonging to the penitentiary fund, $46,310.66, and in addition there are at the walls, at the various camps, and in the fields yet to gather, conservatively estimated, 1,500 bales of cotton belonging to the penitentiary. Estimating this cotton and the seed from the same at $25 per bale, when sold, it will increase our cash balance $37,500, and the total to $85,810.66. In this estimate I have not taken into account such of the live stock and agricultural products as will be used by the penitentiary. In addition to the general expense of running the penitentiary, and the amount paid for the increased number of mules, wagons, and agricultural implements, we have paid in excess of the $12,500 appropriated by the legislature in 1897 for the establishment of the State electric-lighting plant about $5,000 out of the penitentiary fund, and there has also been established an excelsior plant in the walls at a cost of about $3,000.

These statements clearly show that the penitentiary has been more than selfsustaining during the past two years.

COLORADO.

In response to a request for data covering the financial operations of the penitentiary, the warden furnished the following statement, under date of June 24, 1899: "It will be impossible for me to give you any such financial statement as you ask for, as in this State we have never had the contract system. Our work here is most on the farm, besides which we cut considerable stone and burn lime (our prison being situated on stone and lime quarries) and make brick. As to giving actual cash received from the convicts labor, it would be impossible, as, while the products of our farm go toward the maintenance of the prison, they are not taken into account as a cash receipt. The cash received from our other products; lime, stone, and brick, depends upon the general business situation of the State, more especially as to our lime sales. For instance, in 1887-88 our cash receipts were a little over $80,000, or, say, $40,000 per year; but they have steadily decreased since that time, until during the years 1897-98 our receipts from these sources amounted to less than $10,000 per year.

The support of this institution, over and above the earnings of the prisoners, cost the State about $90,000 per year; and, with the object of reducing this expense, and making the prison self-supporting, or at least partially so, I have been endeavoring to induce eastern contractors to establish a manufacturing enterprise within our walls, but the contract has not yet been closed."

CONNECTICUT.

With the exception of farm work the convicts are employed almost entirely under the contract system, and the following tables taken from the report of the State prison, show the financial operations of the institution during the years 1896, 1897, and 1898.

Convicts are employed largely under the public-account system. The warden of the penitentiary at Joliet states that during the year 1898 there was a total loss on the business of the different industries of $69,298.43, and that to this should be added $50,198.94, the cost of the maintenance of prisoners, making a total of $119,497.37.

The following statement covers the operations of the penitentiary for the year ending September 30, 1898:

Partition statement of cash received and expended at Illinois State penitentiary during the year ending September 30, 1898.

Convicts are employed almost entirely under the contract and piece-price systems. The receipts from the labor and the cost of maintenance at the different institutions for each year from 1893 to 1898, inclusive, is shown in the following statement which was furnished by the secretary of the board of State charities:

Cost of mainte

nance.

Institution.

Year.

Convict
labor.

Indiana State Prison North became Indiana State Prison Apr. 1, 1897.

Indiana State Prison South became Indiana Reformatory Apr. 1. 1897.

Convicts in the penitentiary at Fort Madison were employed under the contract system, and the following statement, furnished by the warden, shows the financial results of the industries for the two years ending June 30, 1899:

KANSAS.

Most of the convicts at the penitentiary are engaged in mining coal to be sold on public account or consumed in State institutions. A number were engaged in farming and in work on the public roads.

The warden states that during the year ending June 30, 1897, the gross earnings of the institution were $138,300.87, while the total expenditures were $150,131.33, and during the year ending June 30, 1898, the gross earnings were $164,345.05, while the total expenditures were $148,972.26.

KENTUCKY.

There are two penitentiaries in the State, and the major portion of the convicts at both are worked under the lease or contract system, or in the manufacture of chairs, which are sold to a contractor at a stipulated price. The report of the board of prison commissioners states that—

"It was soon demonstrated that under the contracts as we found them the State was failing to realize enough revenue to defray the expenses of the penitentiary by thousands of dollars per annum, as the following report of the warden, who had charge during that time, will show. For the year ending November 30, 1896, he says it cost him $109,075.05 to run the penitentiary, and that he had an income from all sources amounting to $63,450.73, which left a deficit for that year of $45,624.22. In testifying before a legislative committee, that warden said that he had failed to charge himself with the amount of stock on hand when he took charge, which amounted to $50,163.39; this amount added to his expense will show that the penitentiary was running at an absolute loss of $113,614.22 for that year. For the year ending November 30, 1897, the warden reports a deficit of only $16,412.01, but from his own report he had no basis from which to figure, as there was no inventory taken. He estimates that he had at the commencement of that year $48,393.19, and at the expiration of the year $82,857.68. But if it is as he reports, that he fell behind $16,412.01, that, added to the $113,614.22 (the 1896 operation), will make a total for 2 years of $130,026.23. The Eddyville Penitentiary (known as the branch penitentiary) expended during those 2 years $100,000, in round numbers, more than their income, which made the two penitentiaries cost the State $230,026.23. The present year the Frankfort Penitentiary expended $30,783 more than the income, while the Eddyville Penitentiary expended $35,987.35 more than income, which makes a deficit of $66,770.35 for the year 1898, and which makes a grand total of $296,796.58 as a deficit in the operation of the two penitentiaries for the past 3 years."

MARYLAND.

With the exception of the comparatively few convicts engaged in the manufacture of supplies for the institution, all of the prisoners at the penitentiary have been worked under the contract system for a number of years. The following statement shows the financial result of the industrial operation for the years 1888 to 1898, inclusive:

Grand total of surplus earnings for the past nine years paid into the State treasury.. $118,802.11 Grand total of earnings on overwork account for the past eleven years by the convicts for themselves..

157, 469. 10