More than seven hundred prisoners out of 2000 at San Quentin prison have been taking correspondence courses given by the University of California. Spanish is a favorite language to be studied.
At Sing Sing the new warden has started out well. He has given to the inmates Saturday afternoon for recreation, and has introduced base ball and other sports. If it works successfully the inmates will have a recreation hour daily, at the close of the day’s work.
Several members of the board of managers of the Prison Association of New York recently made a tour of inspection of correctional institutions in New York, Pennsylvania and the Province of Ontario, being the guests of Mr. Richard M. Hurd in his automobile. The tour included about 1800 miles, and some twenty correctional institutions, among them Clinton and Auburn State Prisons in New York, the Prison Farm at Guelph, Ontario, the new Central Prison site at Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, the State Reformatory of Pennsylvania at Huntingdon, the Eastern Penitentiary of Pennsylvania?, the State Prison at Trenton, New Jersey, the Berkshire Industrial Farm and the State Industrial and Agricultural Farm in New York, and about a dozen county jails. The tour occupied two weeks, and gave a remarkable opportunity to make careful and immediate contrasts of various institutions.
In New York State road work by convicts is assuming important proportions. Superintendent of Prisons John B. Riley is strongly in favor or the outdoor employment of prisoners on roads.
The Prison Commission of New York is investigating the charges of Ex-Warden Clancy that drugs are smuggled into Sing Sing prison by officers and others.