5

is, that the State will be compelled to support 200 or 300
prisoners in idleness until further room and accommodations
are provided by the Legislature.

A Special Committee has been appointed by the House of
Delegates to consider the question, and it is to be hoped the
defect will be remedied, as your Committee are fully impres-
sed with the conviction that some measures should be imme-
diately adopted, not only to prevent the evils complained of,
but to secure the services of the now necessarily idle convicts,
and thereby contributing to an increase of the revenue of the
Institution, which is already self-sustaining, and yielding
this year a surplus over its liabilities of $1,524.67 In con-
nection with this, it will be remarked that the prices of pro-
vision, clothing, &c., have materially increased, and in the
last five years nearly 100 per cent. Your Committee exam-
ined the bosks of the Institution, which are kept in an admira-
ble clerical style by the very efficient clerk, John J. C.
Dougherty, Esq., to whose ability we bear cheerful testimony,
as also to the thorough medical ability displayed by the Phy-
sician, Dr. E. R. Baer, who has faithfully labored day and
night among the convicts to prevent the introduction of any
disease among them, and though the typhus fever has heen
prevailing to an alarmingly fatal extent in the Baltimore
City Jail, which immediately adjoins the Penitentiary, and
only contains about one-half of the number confined in the
latter. .Dr. Baer has, by his faithful and skilful attention,
been successful in preventing any spread of it in his hospital,
and in the treatment of the only three cases which occurred,
was successful, none of them proving fatal.

Your Committee would suggest that in view of promoting
the means already in successful operation for the im-
provement of the morals of the convicts, a regular Chaplain
should be employed, believing it would be productive ot
great good, and seed sown in good ground, and which would
show its good effects upon the criminal when discharged from
prison. The want of a permanent Chaplain, who could devote
the whole of his time to the moral and religious improve-
ment of the convicts, and who could give valuable aid to the
Executive in his exercise of the pardoning power should be
appreciated and supplied. Your Committee would call your
attention to the recommendation of the Executive of the im-
portance of introducing by law a system of abatements in the
period of confinement, graduated according to the term of the
sentence, as a reward for good conduct. The abatement of five
days per month, contingent upon good conduct and strict
observance of the rules of the Institution, and that abatement
to be forfeited upon any violation thereof or attempt at escape,
we are satisfied would be a measure of great importance and
benefit both to the State and its prisoners. Your Committee