On account of the new opportunities for employment, we cheerfully revise our estimate of the Efficiency from 53 to 65 per cent.
YORK COUNTY.
No official visit has been paid to the prison at York since the last report. We have learned that conditions are generally unchanged. If this be true, there is much ground for complaint.
There is no employment except that a few assist in domestic service at the prison.
The food supplied is utterly inadequate. A few weeks ago the bill of fare for one week consisted of bread and coffee served twice a day for the seven days and a ration of soup with meat and vegetables was served twice during the week. On one other day three potatoes were dealt out to each prisoner. A certain amount of molasses is given out each week. No prison in the United States or Canada has such scanty fare. The prisoners are allowed to supplement their fare by purchasing supplies from a dealer who calls almost every morning, but the majority of them are penniless. Their friends, if they have any, may bring provision.
The sheriff receives forty-five cents a day for providing this meagre fare. Again and again we have called the attention of the good people of York County to these disgraceful conditions. One hundred and thirty years ago in the prisons of Philadelphia, each prisoner was furnished with water and a half loaf of bread every day. Those who had money could buy additional supplies; others must beg and depend upon friends. The York Prison has maintained a similar system to the present day. There has been no progress. The sheriff follows in the line of his predecessors. The authorities, under whom this iniquitous system has been allowed to continue, are the responsible parties. If the fare at other prisons, where a sufficient quantity is served, costs from 12 cents to 16 cents per day, the fare at York County prison costs barely 10 cents per day. Possibly the sheriff finds the business profitable, but that has little to do with the matter. The system is wrong. Any plan whereby the superintendent of any prison derives his profit from boarding the inmates is liable to abuse. The only remedy is to change the system. Act 171, Laws of Pennsylvania 1909, provides that all counties having a population between 150,000 and 250,000 must have a warden who purchases supplies by contract. Such a warden may be appointed in counties having less than a population of 150,000. The remedy lies with the citizens of York County. A number of prisons in counties having less than a population of 150,000 are controlled by either a warden or sheriff who serves for a salary and purchases food by contract. In such prisons, the conditions are always better than under the fee system. Grade 40 per cent.
Later. As we are going to press, we learn that proceedings are being brought before the court in York County with a view of making some wholesome changes. This Society endorses the efforts of the good citizens of York to remove an evil which has too long been a reproach to that community.
BEQUESTS
We gratefully acknowledge the receipt of the following bequests which we received in 1917: