REPORT

Of the Joint Special Committee appointed to examine into the
affairs of the Maryland Penitentiary.

To the Honorable, the

General Assembly of Maryland:

The committee to whom was referred the affairs of the
Maryland Penitentiary and the condition of the same;
respectfully report, that they have acted in pursuance thereof,
and to the extent of their ability, have, during the very
time allotted them in consequence of the press of public business
endeavored to discharge the duty so enjoined and take occasion
to say at this stage of their report that from the character of the
institution and the various phases it presents and the needful re-
forms that might naturally be suggested, from its peculiar
character, for want of time we have not been able to fully canvass
its interests, and present such a report as will embrace recom-
mendations that would correct all the grievances under which
the institution labors and place it upon a footing and inaugurate
a system that would at once operate to the honor of the State, the
benefit of society, and the reformation of the unfortunate inmate.

WARDEN AND DIRECTORS.

The committee take great pleasure in conceding to the Warden
and Directors great credit for the urbanity of manner they exhibit-
ed, and the willingness they evinced to aid the committee in the
prosecution or their labors for which they have their unaffected
thanks.

No fact was elicited during the cursory examination of the com-
mittee into the expenditures of the establishment that would
accuse the warden or directors of a lack of economy.
INTERIOR OF THE PRISON.

The first business of the Committee was to make a survey of
the interior of the prison, to examine into its various apartments
and their several uses, which gave them the opportunity of wit-
nessing the operations going on therein, the operative departments
of the prison a very important feature of the institution, were review-
ed with great interest and from a superficial glance nothing present-