In this connection, the annual report of the New York State Board of Charities is significant. It renews its recommendation, made to the legislature of 1910, for the establishment of a farm colony for tramps and vagrants. It points out that these classes are now kept practically in idleness in the penitentiaries, jails and workhouses at an annual cost of $2,000,000, whereas, following the example of a number of the countries in Europe, they could be humanely maintained and cared for in farm colonies, which could be made self-supporting through their labor.
Public Defenders Wanted in Cleveland.—The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, Ohio, is reviving a plan for the appointment of assistants to the county prosecutor, whose work shall be the defense in common pleas court of persons unable to employ counsel. Under the present system the judges of the common pleas court appoint counsel for impecunious defendants in criminal cases. The ground that better talent will be thus. The appointment of special public defenders is urged on the ground that better talent will be thus secured, and the interests of accused persons better safeguarded.
A plan for the appointment of such public defenders for impecunious persons tried in the police courts was recently rejected in Cleveland. The ground taken was that the so-called prosecutor is theoretically charged not with prosecuting the accused, but with bringing out all the facts in his case, both those favorable and unfavorable. The “prosecutor” was, therefore, held to be both prosecutor and defender.
A “Going Concern.”—According to the Detroit (Mich.) Journal, the city of Detroit has derived $399,000 profit from the House of Correction in the last twelve years. The newspaper account reads as follows:
| Net Book | Paid City | |
| Year | Profits | in Cash |
| 1900 | $ 42,759 | $ 60,000 |
| 1901 | 36,478 | 48,000 |
| 1902 | 26,179 | 26,000 |
| 1903 | 32,016 | 22,000 |
| 1904 | 25,533 | 28,000 |
| 1905 | 27,587 | 25,000 |
| 1906 | 42,905 | 25,000 |
| 1907 | 39,182 | 35,000 |
| 1908 | 32,663 | 35,000 |
| 1909 | 38,577 | 30,000 |
| 1910 | 24,355 | 40,000 |
| 1911 | 25,000 | |
| ———— | ———— | |
| Totals | $ 368,234 | $ 399,000 |
In 12 years the Detroit House of Correction has turned $399,000 into the coffers of the city treasurer. This amount represents the profits from the industrial work which the prisoners turn out.
Brooms, chairs and other articles are manufactured in the workhouse, most of the work being done by prisoners who are sentenced to serve from ten days to six months in the “works” for minor offences.
This splendid showing of profits is due largely to the excellent business management of the house of correction.