New York State Reformatory, Elmira, is one of the oldest institutions
of the kind in the United States. Has about 1500 convicts. As the
State does not permit the sale of their product in open market, the
institution has become more than ever a great trades school. Thirty-six
industries are taught, beside mental, physical, and industrial
training, including education in the school of letters. Several of the
literary schools are taught by convicts trained for that department.
The trade of the convict is determined by the Superintendent, according
to the advice of his relatives, and the surroundings he is likely to
return to. Of the 658 discharged in 1899, 82 per cent. went directly to
the trade practiced in the Reformatory.
It is a very busy place, the convict plying his trade industriously,
not to be sold or serve some useful purpose, but only to give him
practice and skill; when completed it is destroyed, then done over
again. The disposition to excel in skill and excellence has a tendency
to make them better men. Almost every visitor is impressed with the
conviction, that labor here so exquisitely performed, should be applied
to some useful purpose and the articles sold.
The carefully prepared system of grading is admirable. A prisoner
when he enters is placed in the second grade; he may work up to the
highest grade, shorten his term, secure his liberty by good conduct,
and proficiency in trades and school work. The lowest grade is cared
for much like the prisoners in the penitentiary, the middle grade fare
better, have a table-cloth and other privileges, the highest grade have
better food and clothing, privileges to converse, and order their food
and pay for it out of their own funds. The system seems to rest on
three ideas--1st, indeterminate sentence. 2nd, parole provisions of the
law. 3rd, the trades and marking system. Gross cost per capita in 1899,
$153.85.