JAIL.

On Friday, June 24, 1870, the Committee visited Suffolk County Jail, and made a thorough inspection. The improvements and repairs of 1869 and the present year have made the jail nearly perfect in all its appointments. The new ceiling in the large octagon guard room (about nineteen feet below the original ceiling, leaving the present height from the guard room floor about fifty feet) has been found very beneficial. A great saving of heat in winter, without interfering with ventilation, has been accomplished, and the mechanical proportions of the room improved. A new ventilator, of improved pattern, has replaced the old one, blown down from the north wing during the gale of February 8th, last.

The large wooden building in the jail yard, used for storage of coal for the steam heating and cooking boilers, which had become decayed and unfit for further use, has been torn down, and the cellar under the jail has been put in order, by laying the floor with brick and cement, and filling the large crevices in the foundation walls with stone and cement, and enlarging one of the cellar openings; thus affording ample and convenient room for storage of coal and provisions.

The jail yard and fences are in good condition; the fences being of brick, except part of the southerly line, bounding on the passageway in the rear of Can bridge street. This last is of wood and has been repaired and strengthened with new posts, and will probably answer the purpose for which it is used for eight or ten years longer, without any extraordinary expense. All the other property and arrangements of the jail were found to be in good order.

On the day of inspection, there were 187 prisoners confined in jail, all of whom were visited and separately examined. They were all found to be healthy and well cared for; and no complaints were made of ill treatment in jail. The cells were

clean, and kept in good order. The same is true of the whole prison, in every part of which there is an entire absence of prison odor.

The addition of the Southern district to Boston has added but very few to the number of prisoners committed to jail, and the present accommodations (214 cells and 16 large rooms) were found sufficient to accommodate all who have been committed during the past year. The largest number in jail at any one time since January 1, 1870, was 261; and the average number from January 1, 1870, to date of inspection, 211.

GENERAL REMARKS.

In making the inspections required by the statutes, the Committee have endeavored to comply not only with the letter of the law, but with its spirit, in ascertaining the actual condition of the several prisons and houses of detention, and the treatment of the inmates. With the exception of the lack of sufficient accommodations for all the prisoners in the House of Correction, before mentioned, the Committee have nothing but commendation to bestow upon the manner in which the institutions are conducted. Proper attention is paid to cleanliness and ventilation; the food is sufficient and wholesome; the discipline appears to be neither too lax nor too stern; and the records show that the health of the prisoners has been remarkably good. The Committee exercised their right of conversing apart with many of the prisoners of all classes, and in no instance was there any complaint against the officers, or the general discipline and management of the institutions.

Respectfully submitted.

CHARLES E. JENKINS,

NEHEMIAH GIBSON,

GEORGE O. CARPENTER,

Committee.