The bakery is also very spacious with 4 arched ovens and 4 kneading troughs. Eight barrels of flour are converted into bread every day, excepting on Sunday, a double quantity being baked on Saturday. The number of loaves baked averages about 900 daily, the weight of each being 2 pounds, this being a proportion of something more than one loaf a day to each prisoner, and it is worth while to add that the bread is uniformly baked and of unimpeachable quality.
Still another large room is used for the production of chocolate and what is called coffee. It is necessary to state that no coffee is used, but the article which passes by that name is rye, which is roasted and ground and boiled in copper boilers; 25 pounds of this material is used every morning and suffices to furnish about 3 half pints to each prisoner.
An equal quantity of chocolate is furnished for the supper. A dessert of prunes is furnished each prisoner on every Friday.
The boiler room, some 30×80 feet in dimensions, requires the attention of 6 men, and from this room an extensive system of steam piping permeates every portion of the buildings and furnishes the power for the engine and for the electric lighting. Electric lights are throughout all the premises, including each cell.
An ample supply of filtered water is furnished by the Holmesburg and Tacony Water Co., for which the jail pays $2,000 per annum.
The city had under consideration a proposal to purchase this water company, but the price at which it was valued, $146,000, seemed to the authorities too high.
There are in the prison at this date 9 cases of tuberculosis. These occupy cells entirely apart from the other prisoners, cells which open out on one side to the open air. The patients have liberty within and without, as their own pleasure and convenience suggests, and when the weather is suitable most of their time is spent in walking or lounging in the prison yard. Besides this, there are but few cases of sickness in the prison at this time.
Up to within a recent period, the prisoners all wore striped clothing, but on June 1st of last year this mark of distinction was abolished and the prisoners were all given new suits free from any distinctive mark. The striped clothing is now worn only as a punishment for misdemeanor and for which purpose there has been so far only little occasion. The exhibition of a suit of striped clothing to a prisoner or the mere mention of a possibility of his being compelled to wear one, has been found sufficient in most cases to subdue and bring the most obdurate prisoners to terms.
There is a library of about 5,000 volumes. Each prisoner being furnished with a catalogue is permitted to select as many as 2 or 3 books a week, the keepers often kindly assisting in making suitable selections. Two or three men are constantly employed in the care of the library and in rebinding the books, which become much soiled or in need of rebinding.
There are religious services in each corridor on Sunday afternoon, and at the close of that service the choir of colored men, numbering about 20, give sacred singing from the center of the rotunda, much to the enjoyment of the prisoners, all of whom can hear distinctly, even from the farthest extremity of the corridors.