Here there are about 180 prisoners, say, 150 able-bodied persons, detained in idleness, from a few days to a year with no duties except in the line of domestic service. The bakery, the kitchen, the serving and the work of sweeping and scrubbing give nearly 25 per cent. of them some employment, and the good warden by a system of rotation endeavors to give all their turn at being useful. But what an appalling waste of labor!
There is no available land belonging to the county on which they might raise supplies for the institution. Dauphin County needs a prison farm.
Formerly the warden received 25 cents per day for each prisoner whom he maintained. Now the cost is 13.5 cents per day and the menu is far superior to what was formerly dispensed under the fee system. The meat ration is one-half pound daily, which is regarded as too much for unemployed men. They bake their own bread.
Strange to state, notwithstanding the lack of employment, none are paroled. In this respect, the county is very much in the rear of the procession.
As a rule, letters ought to be inspected before delivery.
Of the 168 hours in the week, the men may spend four hours in the open air. Conditions are not as they should be and cannot be improved materially till the question of employment is solved.
DELAWARE COUNTY.
The county prison is fortunate in having a warden who does not slumber on his job. If the laws of the State restrict employment in some lines, this warden gets busy in some other lines. It is vexatious to him to see able-bodied men dawdling about with nothing to do. He gives them all the open air possible. On occasion they may play games in their limited enclosure. Recently he has constructed a special building in which the looms are installed. No longer do they work in their cells, where they were obliged to live, eat and sleep in lint-laden air. The men assist in making improvements, and somehow there is something doing in the line of repairs or improvements every minute.
At the personal request of the warden, the Court had liberated some selected men to work on the poor farm, and the result had been exceedingly satisfactory. They raised much of the vegetables for their own use, and what they could not eat at the time they canned for future use. They bake their own bread.
The Court here was one of the first to adopt the principle of parole, and in no county of the Commonwealth have so many offenders been placed on parole and probation and with such good results. Grade increased from 67 to 75 per cent.