In the matter of apportioning the expenses of purchasing and maintaining the bridge over Charles river between the City of Cambridge and the town of Brookline, among the counties, cities and towns benefited thereby, mentioned in my last report, the Commissioners decided that no assessment should be laid upon the County of Suffolk.

The County Commissioners of the County of Middlesex, acting under the 266th chapter of the Acts of 1869, at a meeting holden on the 28th day of April last, assessed the City of Boston fourteen hundred dollars, for its proportion of the expenses of maintaining the Malden Bridge for the current year. If this action of the County Commissioners is sustained, this city will hereafter be assessed annually a portion of the expenses of maintaining that bridge. An application has been made to the Supreme Judicial Court for a revision of the action of the Commissioners, and awaits the decision of that tribunal.

The hearing before the Commissioners appointed to apportion the expenses of the maintenance of Charles river and Warren bridges, between the cities of Boston and Charlestown, has been closed, and the Commissioners are holding the matter under advisement.

J. P. HEALY.

CITY OF BOSTON.

In Board of Aldermen, August 29, 1870.

The Special Committee of the Board of Aldermen, who were appointed to inspect the Prisons and Houses of Detention within the County of Suffolk, and make the examinations and reports required by the statutes of the Commonwealth, beg leave to submit the following report.

HOUSE OF INDUSTRY.

The Committee visited the House of Industry, at Deer Island, June 1, 1870. The previous inspection was made on the 16th December, 1869; and the number of commitments from that time to June 1st, amounted to 1,373, as follows:

There have been discharged, during the same time, as fol

Remaining at time of last report (Dec. 16, 1869)
Admitted from Dec. 16, 1869, to June 1, 1870 .

450

1,373

Total.

1,823

Discharged from Dec. 16, 1869, to June 1, 1870

1,494

Remaining June 1, 1870

329

The male prisoners have been employed on the farm, and as carpenters, shoemakers, blacksmiths, painters, boatmen; and, also, in cleaning and taking care of prison, etc.

The female prisoners have been employed on contract work, in making institution clothing, and in cooking, washing, nursing, scrubbing, mending, knitting, etc.

The punishments are by solitary confinement. But one prisoner occupies a cell.

HOUSE OF REFORMATION.

On the same day (June 1) the Committee inspected the House of Reformation for Juvenile Offenders, at Deer Island. From Dec. 16, 1869 (the date of the previous inspection), to June 1, there were committed sixty-four boys and ten girls, as follows: