In the prison accounts no allowance is made for the domestic and farm work done by the prisoners. In calculating the value of all work done for the Imperial and State authorities and for the general Prison Administration wages are reckoned at 40 pfennige (5d.) per head per day.
"This rate of wages, which is far less than that paid by employers, is taken arbitrarily, but in order to simplify the trade accounts and particularly accounts with the various State authorities, a uniform rate was necessary. If the rate is low, the Prison Administration must console itself with the reflection that its losses imply saving to other branches of the State service; the State, as a whole, does not suffer injury. Moreover, the full value of the prisoners' work now goes to the State, and not as formerly to private employers, and free labour no longer suffers from the competition of prison work."[62]
Wages ranging, according to capacity and diligence, from 1 to 20 pfennige (100 pfennige =1s.) per day in the case of criminal prisoners, and from 1 to 30 pfennige per day in the case of correctional prisoners, are credited to the men, with the object of giving them a favourable restart in life on their discharge. No part of the accumulated bonuses is paid over during imprisonment until 30s. has been earned by criminal prisoners, and 20s. by others, except that payments may be made to a man's family out of his account; but one half of all earnings beyond the minimum stated may be used in the purchase of extra food, books, clothing, etc., though not of tobacco, the smoking of which is not allowed.
The following statement gives the yearly cost per head in the financial year April 1, 1907, to March 31, 1908, of the whole of the inmates of the Prussian Labour Houses, with the value per head of the produce and work done and the amount per head which fell upon the public funds:—
| Labour House. (Locality) | Yearly Cost per Head of Average Number of Detainees. | How the Cost was Covered. | |||||||||
| (a) By Produce of the Labour House. | (b) Public Contributions. | ||||||||||
| Mark. | Pfennige. | Mark. | Pfennige. | Mark. | Pfennige. | ||||||
| Tapiau | 642 | 51 | 302 | 64 | 339 | 87 | |||||
| Konitz | 383 | 27 | 204 | 46 | 178 | 81 | |||||
| Rummelsburg | 507 | 21 | 124 | 21 | 383 | 0 | |||||
| Strausberg | 434 | 0 | 215 | 0 | 219 | 0 | |||||
| Prenzlau | 547 | 15 | 280 | 46 | 266 | 69 | |||||
| Landsberg a. W. | 401 | 41 | 234 | 83 | 166 | 58 | |||||
| Neustettin | 442 | 68 | 268 | 24 | 174 | 44 | |||||
| Uckermüode | 406 | 31 | 221 | 54 | 184 | 77 | |||||
| Stralsund | 480 | 77 | 361 | 05 | 119 | 72 | |||||
| Greifswald | 340 | 0 | 220 | 29 | 119 | 71 | |||||
| Bojanowo | 355 | 45 | 172 | 14 | 183 | 31 | |||||
| Fraustadt | 694 | 49 | 145 | 23 | 549 | 26 | |||||
| Schweidnitz | 313 | 40 | 255 | 17 | 58 | 23 | |||||
| Breslau | 674 | 32 | 625 | 17 | 49 | 15 | |||||
| Gross Salze | 339 | 29 | 271 | 54 | 67 | 75 | |||||
| Moritzburg | 344 | 76 | 271 | 01 | 73 | 75 | |||||
| Glückstadt | 425 | 26 | 410 | 42 | 14 | 84 | |||||
| Bockelholm | 355 | 30 | 222 | 02 | 133 | 28 | |||||
| Benninghausen | 498 | 76 | 153 | 85 | 344 | 91 | |||||
| Breitenau | 453 | 84 | 397 | 70 | 56 | 14 | |||||
| Hadamar | 278 | 80 | 140 | 99 | 137 | 81 | |||||
| Brauweiler | 396 | 68 | 271 | 97 | 124 | 71 | |||||
| Moringen | 791 | 09 | 142 | 0 | 649 | 09 | |||||
| Wunstorf | 377 | 61 | 131 | 64 | 245 | 97 | |||||
| Himmelsthür | 363 | 42 | 159 | 13 | 204 | 29 | |||||
It appears from this statement that the gross annual cost per head ranged from £13 18s 10d. in the case of the Labour House at Hadamar (a small institution) to £39 11s. at the Labour House at Moringen, and that the net cost to the State ranged from 14s. 10d. per head in the case of the Labour House at Glückstadt to £32 9s. at Moringen.