standard desired. In other cases the same defects noted from year to year call for repeated criticisms and recommendations for improvement. No new public institutions have been established during the year, but alterations and additions, some completed and others still in progress, mark an endeavor to keep pace with the advances of modern development. Several matters of legislation regarding State institutions and charities. were enacted by the General Assembly of 1901 and will be noted more at length in a succeeding paragraph.

THE STATE PRISON.

The new buildings at the State Prison, which have been erected under appropriations of $125,000 from the General Assembly of 1899 and $60,000 from the General Assembly of 1901, and upon which work was suspended for a time last winter, are practically completed. The new cell house, number three, contains at present a block of ninety-six steel cells of modern design, and there is room for as many more cells to be added when required. The large congregate dining-room, with the new kitchen and bakery adjoining, will be utilized at an early date. Other improvements are well advanced, including the new boiler-house and alterations in the workshops, and when all are completed the Prison equipment will compare favorably with that of other modern institutions of the kind.

The administration of the Prison has been conducted during the year in accordance with the high standards established by the present warden, and its results are evident in the admirable spirit developed throughout the institution. The new rules governing the grading and conduct of prisoners are successful in operation, and a larger number of inmates than before have been enabled to secure promotion into the first grade. Material additions made to the Prison library and the extension of the privileges of the evening school to a large number of prisoners are noted among the evidences of progress.

The amounts received from the earnings of prisoners in the shoe and shirt contracts during the year have been well maintained, and the latter industry, transferred to the room formerly occupied by the hospital, is now provided with model quarters unusually well lighted, ventilated and equipped. A large part of the labor upon the new buildings has been performed by

prisoners, and its proceeds, added to the receipts from the shoe and shirt contracts, makes a very creditable total of $50,771.00 earned by the inmates during the year. The lack is still evident at the Prison of a suitable enclosure where men who are employed in the workshops may be given regular exercise in the open air.

Perhaps the most important event of the year in relation to the Prison was the passage by the General Assembly of the indeterminate sentence act, which is generally conceded to be one of the best laws of the kind ever enacted in regard to a State Prison. Although the indeterminate principle is restricted within minimum and maximum limits, it is, nevertheless, believed that the practical operation of the law will be of great benefit in encouraging prisoners to an honest and thorough reformation. Its results will hardly be evident until a year or two hence, but hereafter the Connecticut State Prison, equipped with this admirable measure and guided by its able executive head and its faithful board of directors, may stand in the front rank of the country's penal institutions.

THE CONNECTICUT SCHOOL FOR BOYS.

The record of the year at the School for Boys at Meriden shows a smaller number of boys committed to the School than during any equal period for a number of years past. Among the causes contributory to this result can hardly be included the law passed by the recent General Assembly, which forbids the commitment of boys under ten years of age to the School except upon conviction for a State Prison offense, because this law has been in operation for so short a time. Its future application, it is hoped, will be beneficial in preventing some questionable commitments of very young boys.

An even greater proportion of the commitments than usual. is shown to be upon the charge of "incorrigibility," which, in the case of juvenile offenders, is a rather indefinite one and may, in some cases, merely aid unworthy parents to rid themselves of somewhat troublesome children. It is hoped that the principle of suspended sentence with supervision by probation officers, as operated successfully in Massachusetts, may receive more favorable consideration in the next General Assembly than it did in the last, and may be adopted with beneficial results.

Some changes have been made during the year in the personnel of the School's supervisors and officers, and it is believed that a somewhat improved tone is noticeable among the inmates of the institution. The classes in manual training have been continued successfully, but it is desirable that the work should be extended to include all of the boys in the School who are fitted by age and ability to receive its instruction. The need is still evident at the School of a good gymnasium and of adequate facilities for sound physical development, which is so important a factor in the training of delinquent youths. It is hoped that this defect, as well as the lack of a suitable cottage hospital, may be remedied at an early date.

The work of the supervising agent for the year shows a large number of places investigated, visits made, and situations at employment obtained for the boys, which facts justify the establishment of the office and give promise of adequate supervision so long needed for the boys who are released on probation. The question of caring for wards of the School who get into trouble after reaching seventeen years of age, emphasizes anew the need in the State of a suitable reformatory for offenders between the ages of sixteen and thirty.

THE CONNECTICUT INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL FOR GIRLS. The Industrial School for Girls at Middletown has enjoyed another year of successful activity in all departments and maintained its enviable reputation of being one of the leading schools of its kind in the country. A somewhat smaller number of girls was received than during the preceding year or two, but about the same proportion was placed in family homes and with relatives when released on probation. The usual high percentage is reported of girls who are doing well in their new homes, and much credit for this condition must be given to the careful supervision maintained over them by the School's visiting agent.

The grounds and buildings of the School have presented on all occasions their customary appearance of neatness and good order, and certain improvements have been effected, among which may be mentioned the construction of a new subway containing the steam-heating pipes of the institutions. Plans

are also under consideration for the establishment of a model laundry for instruction in the finer grades of such work, and it will doubtless be put in operation as soon as a suitable instructress can be secured. This feature will make complete the system of domestic science now taught at the School with admirable results.

Deep regret is felt at the failure of the last General Assembly to establish a Women's Reformatory, where young women offenders, who have passed the age-limit (sixteen years) for admission to the Industrial School, may be saved from the evil associations of the county jails and may be given that special industrial, physical and moral training that is essential to their reformation. Connecticut cannot afford to neglect longer the organization of this much needed institution.

COUNTY JAILS.

No important changes can be reported for the year among the county jails in the State. The usual repairs and improvements have been made from time to time and the institutions, as a rule, give evidence of reasonable order, cleanliness, and comfort. In the case of the Middlesex County Jail at Haddam, a new keeper took charge in July last and the interior of the building has since been given a thorough renovation.

The system of county jail management, however, as maintained in Connecticut, is still as devoid as ever of any reformatory or preventive influences exercised upon the inmates or upon would-be misdemeanants. The same irrational practice is continued of herding together, with more or less freedom of communication, offenders of all ages and of all degrees in

crime.

Greater hope for improvement in these conditions could be had if a radical change were effected in the present system and the management of these institutions were placed under the centralized control of a non-political State Commission of prisons. Then there could be effected a much needed classification both of the county prisons and of the prisoners, separating the young from the old, first offenders from habitual criminals, and misdemeanants from those convicted of more serious crimes.

The economic aspect of the question is one

that should appeal forcibly to the citizen tax-payers, and there is little doubt that, under the direction of a competent superintendent of industries, the labor of county jail inmates would yield much greater revenue to the State than the insignificant sums now received under the contract system. With an adequate classification of county prisons and their inmates, and with the application thereto, under trained officials, of such well-established reformatory principles as the indeterminate sentence and release on parole, this State would stand foremost in the country in its treatment of the criminal problem.

STATE REFORMATORY.

A final report in regard to the State Reformatory matter was made in the last General Assembly by the special committee, which was appointed for the purpose by Governor Cooke under a resolution of the Legislature of 1897. In its report the committee set forth the details of the sale for $24,000 of the property in Hartford originally selected as a site for the institution, and said further: "In performance of the duty imposed by the Legislature, this committee has carefully considered the question submitted to it and is unanimously of the opinion that a reformatory properly managed would be for the best interests of the State. The chief reason for the intense opposition to the consummation of the plans of the former commission seems to have arisen from the fact that that commission had in the opinion of the public exceeded its powers as to the expense which it was at liberty to incur and had also made a mistake in locating the reformatory within the limits of the city of Hartford."

Renewed efforts were made in the last General Assembly to secure the establishment of this much-needed institution by the introduction of three bills for the purpose, of which one provided for a reformatory for both men and women, while the other two provided for women only. Of these bills the one introduced by the State Board of Charities, which advocated the women's reformatory as the more immediately needed and the more easily established, was favorably reported by the committee on humane institutions, but was finally rejected after adverse report by the appropriations committee, on the ground