r REPORT 
OF 
lie J^Mriftttoti 
OF NEW-YORK, 5 
UPON THE CONDITION, ETC., OF THE INSTITUTIONS 
UNDER THE CHARGE OF THE 
Commissioners of public (Scarifies anb Correction; 
WITH SUGGESTIONS IN RELATION TO 
ORGANIZING A BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS AND EMPLOY- 
MENT, AND DEPOTS IN THE WEST FOR THE 
DISTRIBUTION OB' LABOR. 
PUBLISHED BY 
THE CITIZENS’ ASSOCIATION OF NEW-YORK. 
1868. EEPOET 
OF 
Wkt fitigew’ 
OF NEW-YORK, 
UPON THE CONDITION, ETC., OF THE INSTITUTIONS 
/ 
UNDER THE CHARGE OF THE 
Commtssrcmtrs of public Cjrcritb arcb Comctiott; 
WITH SUGGESTIONS IN RELATION TO 
ORGANIZING A BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS AND EMPLOY- 
MENT, AND DEPOTS IN THE WEST FOR THE 
DISTRIBUTION OF LABOR. 
NEW-YORK : 
3?nblish.ed T>y the Citizens’ Association, 
No. 813 BROADWAY. 
1868. Citizens’ Association of New-York, 
February l\th, 1868. 
Messrs. James B. Nicholson, Owen W. Brennan, James 
Bowen, Isaac Bell, Commissioners of Public Charities 
and Correction. 
Gentlemen,— 
Please find herewith, the Report of the Committee ap- 
pointed by the Citizens’ Association to visit the institutions 
under the care of the Commissioners of Charities and Cor- 
rection. 
The Association respectfully begs leave to call your 
attention to that portion of the Report referring to the 
organization of a Bureau of Labor Statistics and Employ- 
ment, and to the establishment of depots in the West for 
the distribution of the surplus labor of the East. 
In view of the present depressed condition of business, 
the large number of persons out of employment, and the 
high price of all agricultural products, the Association 
would earnestly urge early action on the part of the Com- 
missioners to inaugurate these great measures of relief, so 
that, with the opening of Spring, the work may commence 
Large quantities of grain and corn were unharvested last 
year in the West, on account of the scarcity and high price 
of labor. 
The famine prevailing with such severity in many parts 
of Europe will create a very active demand for bread-stufis 
from this country; and this demand will, if labor remains 
thus stagnant in our large cities instead of being transferred 
to the West, increase the distress of thousands of our own 
people and impose upon us a very burdensome tax. 
In order to pave the way for a general movement 
throughout our large cities on the Atlantic coast to transfer 
the surplus labor of the East to the West, the Association 4 
intends to send this Report to the Editors of the principal 
newspapers in the Western States, with the request that 
they will publish portions of it, with such editorial com- 
ments as will call public attention to the subject. 
If the tens of thousands out of employment in the cities 
and towns of the East, and the able-bodied inmates of our 
alms houses and charitable institutions, could be transferred 
to the idle and unproductive lands of the West, this addi- 
tional labor would increase the amount of our annual pro- 
duction by many millions of bushels of wheat and corn. 
This whole subject is worthy of the attention of our most 
eminent statesmen; and the Association feels that it will 
receive, at the hands of the Commissioners of Charities and 
Correction, the earnest and prompt consideration which its 
importance demands. 
The Association will be most happy to co-operate with 
the Commissioners at all times, and in any way that will 
promote this or any other interest coming within their field 
of labor. 
The golden precept, “ Overcome evil with good,” seems 
to come to us with fresh inspiration, as we survey the field 
of human ills and sorrows in which it is the peculiar mis- 
sion of the Commissioners of Charities and Correction to 
labor. 
There is room enough for all—there is plenty for all—— 
and life may be made a great blessing to all if we only take 
hold of it wisely. 
Yery respectfully, 
PETER COOPER, 
Chairman Citizens' Association of New-York. New-York, January 30th, 1868. 
To the Citizens’ Association of New-York. 
Your Committee appointed to examine into the condition 
and management of the institutions under the charge of 
the Commissioners of Public Charities and Correction of 
the City of New-York, and to report thereon with such 
suggestions as to the Committee might seem proper, res- 
pectfully begs leave to report : 
A careful investigation has been made into the manner in 
which the Commissioners conduct the business of their 
department at the Central Office, in Bond Street. 
The strictest business arrangements prevail, and no check 
is wanting which is calculated to secure economy and 
honesty in the expenditure of the public money. The 
Commissioners attend at their office every day to superin- 
tend the matters connected with the department, and a 
daily visit is made by one or more of them to all the 
institutions under their charge. 
All the supplies of the department are purchased in open 
market by a Supply Clerk whose exclusive business is to 
make the purchases for the institutions. The Commis- 
sioners represent that the Supply Clerk is left to his own 
judgment in making the purchases, the Commissioners 
never recommending that he should buy of particular 
parties, but he is held to a strict accountability in the 
performance of his duties. 
There is no department of the City Government where ca- 
pacity, economy and honesty are more required than in that 
of the Public Charities and Correction; but in this depart- 
ment there is also required a love of the work and strong 
sympathy with the unfortunate classes with whom the 
department deals. In other public matters honesty is 
desirable, but its want is the cause of the loss of so much 
money merely to the public; but in this department the 6 
want of honesty not only causes a loss of money to the 
public, but is a positive cruelty to the poorest, the most 
unfortunate, the most helpless in the community. 
Your Committee is happy to state that everything it has 
seen in its inspection of the public institutions has tended 
to show that, in addition to capacity, ecoomy, and effici- 
ency in the discharge of their duties the present Commis- 
sioners possess, in the highest degree, that warm sympathy 
ior the unfortunate classes coming under their care that 
makes their work a pleasure. 
The department of Public Charities and Correction has 
the care and maintenance of four classes of institutions : 
First. Prisons for the temporary confinement of prisoners, 
Penitentiary, Workhouse. 
Second. Alms Houses, Lunatic Asylums, Asylum for 
Inebriates. 
Third. Hospitals. 
Fourth. Nurseries for Children. 
In order that a correct idea may be obtained of the extent 
of the work of this department, your Committee gives the 
number of persons subsisted during the year 1867, at the 
various institutions under the charge of the Commission- 
ers, as taken from their last report, viz. : 
In the City Prisons 47,640 
“ “ Penitentiary 2,311 
“ “ Workhouse 16,130 
“ “ Alms Houses 4,033 
“ “ Blind Asylum 99 
“ “ Hospital of Incurables 204 
“ “ Infants’Hospital » 1,535 
“ Bellevue Hospital 6,573 
“ “ Charity Hospital 6,855 
“ ‘ Small Pox Hospital 209 
“ “ Fever Hospital 320 
“ “ Epileptic Hospital. 153 
“ “ Lunatic Asylum 1,440 
“ “ Paralytic Hospital 119 
“ “ Randall’s Island Nurseries 2,040 
“ “ Randall’s Island Hospitals 1,080 
“ “ Idiot Asylum 62 
Total 90,815 7 
THE INFANT HOSPITAL. 
The first institution visited by your Committee was the 
Infant Hospital on Ward’s Island. It was the custom to 
send foundlings and abandoned infants, and infants whose 
mothers were unable to work, to the alms houses, where 
the infants without mothers were committed to the care 
of the female inmates. It appears, however, from the 
reports of the Commissioners that the mortality among 
the infants without mothers was 85 per cent., and, excluding 
those adopted from time to time, an infant seldom survived 
a year. The Commissioners, in 1866, to decrease this mor- 
tality established a separate hospital and appointed a matron 
and paid nurses to its charge. The change, although per- 
ceptible, was not entirely satisfactory. 
The Commissioners then introduced, June, 1867, the 
wet-nurse system by transferring some of the wet nurses to 
the Infant Hospital. The change was manifest and imme- 
diate. 
In consequence of this prolonging of the lives of the in- 
fants it became necessary to transfer them temporarily to a 
portion of the Inebriate Asylum, just completed on Ward’s 
Island, and this transfer will continue until the Infant 
Hospital, now in course of erection on Randall’s Island, 
is completed. The number of infants now at the Hospital 
is 815, and the average mortality is about twenty per cent. 
Your Committee examined this institution very thor- 
oughly. The infants are classified; the hopeless cases being 
placed in one large room by themselves. These hopeless 
cases are mostly those from two weeks old and upwards, 
picked up in the streets of the city by the Police. 
They are found generally in a starved or half frozen 
condition; several of those seen by the Committee were in 
a dying state. 
The Commissioners receive, on an average, from two 
to three infants daily. 8 
Your Committee found the rooms commodious, well aired, 
and clean and supplied with all the conveniences and 
comforts for the support of the infants. Each nurse has 
charge of two infants whom she nurses. 
The Commissioners are entitled to the thanks of the com- 
munity for the inauguration of a system which has made 
life the rule and death the exception in this hospital. 
THE NURSERIES ON RANDALL’S ISLAND. 
Your Committee then visited the various institutions on 
Randall's Island, including the nurseries and hospitals for 
children and the Asylum for juvenile idiots. 
The nurseries are for the reception of children over four 
years of age who have been abandoned by their parents 
and for children whose parents are unable to support 
them. The number of these children in the nurseries, on 
January 1st, 1868, was 726. These children are taught 
on the Island, in schools provided by the Board of Edu- 
cation until they arrive at a suitable age to be bound out 
to trade or to be sent to supply the demands of the West 
for farm hands and female labor. 
The Commissioners represent that they exercise the most 
careful supervision over binding the children out to em- 
ployment, and reserve to themselves the right to cancel the 
indentures, if the interest of the boy or girl demands it. 
The Commissioners represent that they make careful 
inquiry into the moral character of all applicants for child- 
ren, and endeavor to secure for those under their charge, 
good and comfortable homes, wherein by industry and 
merit they may rise to become men and women of use- 
fulness. 
The Commissioners have realized gratifying results from 
the sending of children to the West. The Commission- 
ers represent, that of the 1,000 sent West by them, 
not more than 5 or 6 have turned out badly; all the others, 9 
as a general rule, have become prosperous and happy, and 
successful in business. This speaks well for the plan. 
Your Committee arrived at Kandall’s Island, as the 
children were mustering for dinner, and observed, with 
much pleasure, the general order prevailing, the regularity 
of movement as the children marched to their dining hall, 
and the good behavior manifested throughout the meal. 
Before they commenced their meal the children asked a 
blessing. The Committee examined the food, which was 
abundant and wholesome. 
The boys were all well clad in thick woolen garments. 
The Committee carefully examined the dormitories of the 
children, and found them well ventilated, comfortable and 
neat, and the beds clean and supplied with an abundance 
of covering. 
The supply of Croton water was ample throughout the 
buildings, and the washing, bathing and other conveniences 
were in the best order. 
In the Hospital for the children, there were on January 1st, 
1868, 280 inmates. Everything possible is done here to 
assuage the suffering of the children, and restore them to 
health ; and the attendants seem to be persons of skill and 
ability, and in sympathy with the little ones who are under 
their charge. 
THE IDIOT HOUSE. 
The Committee visited the Idiot House on this island, for 
the care of children of all degrees of mental imbecility. 
There are now about 60 idiots in this institution, which is in 
charge of the officers of the Children’s Hospital. 
In connection with the Idiot House the Commissioners 
have established a school for the education of the juvenile 
idiots. The Committee were greatly surprised at the pro- 
ficiency manifested by these children, many of whom, 
originally, were incapable of distinguishing color or form, 10 
but who now show great progress under their efficient and 
careful instructress. 
THE WORKHOUSE. 
Your Committee then visited the various institutions on 
Blackwell’s Island. The Commissioners report that there 
are now some 1,200 persons confined in the Work House. 
Drunkards, vagrants and disorderly persons are committed 
to this institution, and the terms of imprisonment vary from 
ten days to'six months. The Work House is a stone build- 
ing, well built, about 700 feet in length, and three stories 
high. All the inmates are required to work, the females at 
scrubbing, &c., and the men at drawing stone, digging, 
carting ice, and improving the island. 
Your Committee found this whole building in most ad- 
mirable condition, the cells clean and well ventilated, and 
the prisoners comfortably clothed. It gives your Committee 
pleasure to commend the general order, the strict discipline 
and cleanliness on all sides. 
EPILEPTIC AND PARALYTIC HOSPITALS. 
Your Committee next visited the two special Hospitals 
established by the Commissioners, the one a hospital for 
epileptics and the other for paralytics. 
Formerly these classes of patients were treated in the 
general hospitals, but the Commissioners as far as practica- 
ble with economy, have now classified the patients. 
It has been found that the comfort of the patients has 
been greatly increased when separated under distinctive 
classifications. When they were in the general hospitals 
their afflictions being chronic, and considered incurable, they 
were often times overlooked by the physicians, whose care 
was demanded by others needing immediate attention. 
In the Hospital for Epileptics the patients number some 11 
65, and in the Hospital for Paralytics the number is about 
49. The nurses and attendants appeared to your Committee 
to be persons of intelligence, well qualified for their difficult 
positions; and everything seemed to have been done to 
provide for the comfort of these poor unfortunates under 
the charge of the Commissioners. 
Your Committee also visited the school or gymnasium 
used by the epileptic patients. The exercises consisted of 
light gymnastics, and were calculated to promote moderate 
physical development, and to prevent the mind of the 
patients dwelling upon their misfortunes. 
The Commissioners represent that there is no other 
institution in the country where paralytic and epileptic 
diseases are treated separately and distinctively from all 
other diseases. 
LUNATIC ASYLUM. 
Your Committee next visited the female wards of the 
Lunatic Asylum. The Commissioners represent that in the 
Lunatic Asylum, on January 1st, 1868, the number of 
patients was 917, male and female. 
The inmates of this institution appeared to be greatly 
crowded for room; the building not being able to accom- 
modate properly more than 521 patients. 
Your Committee would recommend that the accommoda- 
tions for the insane be increased. 
Your Committee next visited the hospitals for incurables— 
the one a hospital for males, and the other a hospital for 
females. These hospitals are for those who are afflicted 
with chronic diseases beyond the reach of medicine, and for 
the bed-ridden inmates of the Alms Houses, both of which 
classes require the continuous attention of the physicians 
and of kind nurses. 
HOSPITALS FOR INCURABLES. 12 
The number of patients remaining in these nospitals 
January 1st, 1868, was 74. 
Your Committee was much pleased with the kind atten- 
tion shown to the inmates, and with the ample provisions 
that are made for their comfort. 
ALMS HOUSES. 
Your Committee next visited the Alms Houses. In these 
institutions there remained 1,242 inmates on the 1st of 
January, 1868. 
The Commissioners represent to your Committee, that as 
a rule no persons are admitted to the Alms Houses, except 
those who, from old age or lasting infirmity, are unable to 
earn a livelihood; for it has been found that an inmate of 
the Alms House after a brief residence loses all self-reliance 
and becomes a pauper through life. The able bodied who 
apply for relief are either relieved through the Bureau for 
the Relief of the Out-Door Poor, or are committed to the 
Work House. The Alms Houses have thus become Hospitals 
for the old and infirm, rather than retreats for the vagrant 
and slothful. 
Your Committee found the wards of the Alms Houses 
well ventilated and clean, and the inmates comfortably 
clothed, and well cared for. 
THE PENITENTIARY. 
Your Committee next visited the Penitentiary. The 
number of prisoners confined in the institution on January 
1st, 1868, was 475. The prisoners are divided into three 
classes, according to the gravity of their crimes, namely: 
First. Prisoners known to have been imprisoned in a State 
prison. Prisoners who have been convicted of felony the 
second time. 
Second. Prisoners convicted of felony for first offence. 13 
Prisoners convicted for assault and battery, with intent to 
commit felony. 
Third. Prisoners convicted of assault and battery. 
Although subject to the same rules in respect to discip* 
line, they work in separate gangs, and eat at separate tables, 
and each prisoner occupies a separate cell. Those who have 
not been guilty of felony are exempt from wearing the dis- 
tinctive dress of the Penitentiary. 
Your Committee carefully examined the condition of this 
building, and found it to be most admirable. It was well 
heated throughout, and the cells were neat and clean. 
CHARITY HOSPITAL. 
Your Committee next visited the various wards of the 
Charity Hospital. The number of inmates in this institu- 
tion January 1st, 1868, was 1,053. 
The Commissioners are to be commended for the admira- 
ble arrangements that prevail in this hospital, and for the 
care and attention bestowed upon the sick. 
Your Committee examined the apparatus by which the 
institution is heated and supplied with hot and cold water, 
and found the same in excellent order. 
The Medical Department on the Island is composed mostly 
of young physicians, graduates of the various colleges in the 
country, who are not admitted by the Commissioners until 
after passing an examination. There are many applications, 
and the Commissioners thus have the opportunity of pro- 
curing good medical attendance for the patients free of 
charge. 
The Commissioners also have the services of a number of 
the best physicians in the city, as consulting and visiting 
physicians, free of charge. 14 
Your Committee also visited the Asylum for the Blind, 
and found the inmates to be well cared for, and their apart- 
ments clean and well ventilated. 
THE MORGUE. 
Your Committee also visited the Morgue, or receptacle 
for the unknown dead. This building is connected with 
Bellevue Hospital. 
The following figures, showing the work of last year, prove 
the importance of this institution : 
There have been received 105 bodies. 
Recognized by friends 54 
Unknown 51 
— 105 
OUT-DOOR SICK. 
Your Committee also visited the Bureau of the Out-Door 
Sick connected with Bellevue Hospital. 
This is a dispensary for the gratuitous treatment of the 
sick who live at their homes, and are able to visit the 
Bureau for advice and medicine. This Bureau is most 
effective in relieving the sick, and in preventing them from 
coming into the public institutions. 
Your Committee found admirable arrangements prevailing 
here, for the treatment of this class of patients. 
BELLEVUE HOSPITAL. 
Bellevue Hospital was erected in the years 1811-15. It 
was formerly a part of the Alms House, and was so badly 
managed that even the vagrant sick were loath to enter its 
wards. Under the administration of the Commissioners it 
has gradually been elevated to the rank of the best Hospitals 
in the world. The number of inmates averages about 800, 
the capacity of its wards being for 1,000 beds. On visiting 
its wards and the different departments, your Committee 
was struck with the cleanliness, the good order everywhere 15 
prevailing, and the apparent efficiency of the officers and 
all the subordinates. 
CITY PEISONS. 
Your Committee also visited the City Prisons under the 
charge of the Commissioners, and found the Essex and 
Jefferson Market Prisons in good condition ; the cells were 
neat and clean, and the buildings well ventilated. 
The First District Prison, (the Tombs,) was completed in 
the year 1838, with accommodations for the confinement of 
120 prisoners, though the average number for that year was 
about 50. The Commissioners report that in the year 1866 
the average number was 369, and during the month of Sep- 
tember, 1866, 435, or nearly four times the number for 
which the prison was contemplated. 
This prison, in addition to being a mere district prison, is 
also a prison for the temporary confinement of prisoners 
under sentence, and a receptacle for the prisoners from the 
other prisons who are held for trial. They are confined 
here until trial. 
The prison for males in the Tombs was very much 
crowded—from two to three prisoners being in each cell. 
There is not a sufficient classification of the prisoners; in 
consequence of the want of room, the more depraved prison- 
ers are confined with those charged with lighter offences. 
The court-rooms and clerks’ offices in the Tombs occupy 
much space—additional cells could be made if these court- 
rooms were removed—but they must of necessity be near 
the prisons. 
The Commissioners should be empowered by law to make 
such judicious alterations in the building as would supply 
the wants of the institution. 
Your Committee found the ventilation of the Tombs very 
THE TOMBS. 16 
imperfect, and would recommend that the Commissioners 
give special attention to this subject. 
In the management of the institutions on the Island, 
pauper-labor is extensively used. 
In the different institutions, and in the Hospital wards, 
printed cards are placed on the walls indicating what diet is 
allowed to the inmate; and if the inmate does not receive 
it, he can complain to one of the Commissioners on his daily 
tour of examination. In case of medical treatment, the 
patient is told what he is to get; and if it is not furnished to 
him, he can complain to the Commissioners; and if the ex- 
planation of the officer whose duty it was to furnish it, is 
not satisfactory, the officer is discharged. 
All applications for relief, for admittance to the Hospitals, 
Alms Houses, and Nurseries, are made through the Bureau 
of Out-Door Poor. Voluntary committals to the Work-Houses 
are made through the same Bureau. 
The poor who do not come into the public institutions, 
are relieved through the Bureau known as the Bureau for 
the Belief of the Out-Door Poor. 
The manner in which this Bureau is managed is as 
follows: 
The City is divided into six districts—to each district a 
Visitor is appointed. The Visitors visit the applicants for 
relief, and report to the Superintendent of the Bureau of 
Out-Door Poor the nature and amount of relief required, 
who then grants such relief as he thinks proper. The relief 
is either in money or coal. 
In 1867 the amount of the various kinds of relief afforded 
to the out-door poor was as follows: 
Coal 1,682tons ; cost, $13,530 10 
Money..... 25,716 75 
No. of persons relieved with coal 13,071 
“ “ “ “ money 8,760 
OUT-DOOR POOR. 17 
The system of order throughout the institutions is ex- 
cellent. 
There are many checks in operation by which it is ascer- 
tained, very correctly, that all supplies purchased are used 
in the institutions. 
INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS. 
Your Committee respectfully calls the attention of the 
Legislature to the necessity of empowering the Commis- 
sioners of Charities and Correction to take active means to 
remove the sources of crime among our people. In this 
city, the Commissioners represent that there are 30,000 
children growing up in ignorance and idleness. They are 
mostly vagrants, and have no occupation but to beg, and 
learn no art but to steal. 
It is represented that the first vice of these children is to 
pilfer from the goods on our wharves; and that the pro- 
gression from pilfering to burglary and other crimes is sure 
and rapid. At the age of 15 the girls are fallen, and the 
boys professed thieves. To arrest this evil and rescue these 
children from certain destruction, and remove the sources 
which supply our charitable institutions, poor houses, hos- 
pitals, penitentiaries and prisons, it is necessary that the 
Commissioners should be empowered to take these children 
while quite young, and as soon as they are found begging 
or liable to become vagrants, or whose parents are unable to 
support them, and before they have entered fully upon a 
criminal or immoral career. The Commissioners' should 
have power to establish industrial schools, separate from the 
nurseries, to which the following classes of children could 
be sent under the warrant of a Police Magistrate, there to 
remain until indentured to some useful pursuit. 
First.—Children under 12 years of age found begging in 
the public streets. 18 
Second.—Children under 14 years of age committing a 
first offence punishable with imprisonment. 
Third.—Children whose parents represent them as incor- 
rigible, and given to vices and criminal associates. 
If this power should be given to the Commissioners it 
would have a tendency to dry up the great sources from 
which crime is supplied. The children in these schools 
could be adopted out as in the case of the children in the 
nurseries. 
These views of the Association are held by the Commis- 
sioners themselves, and are also advanced in the reports of 
the Prison Association of New-York by very forcible 
reasoning. 
POLICE COURTS. 
Your Committee would call the attention of the Le- 
gislature to the administration of the criminal law by the 
inferior magistrates, as most closely connected with the 
question of reform and relief for the needy and depraved. 
The first necessity is—prompt action by the Police 
Justices on the cases brought before them. When a thief 
is detected he is apprehended, and the drunkard is carried 
to the station-house as soon as he is found helpless in the 
streets. The arraignment and disposition of the prisoners 
should be prompt. To this end the District Police Courts 
should be constantly in session. Three Justices instead of 
two ought to be appointed for each Court. 
In order to relieve any of these local Judges of extra 
labor, the Court of Special Sessions should be constituted 
in a manner different from the present system. No necessity 
exists for two Judges to hold that Court at one time—one 
experienced Magistrate will do justice to the criminal and 
the people; but two Judges for the Special Sessions should 
be created in order that this Court might be also constantly 
in session. There would be no necessity for our extensive 19 
city district jails, if all these Courts were in session every 
day of the week, except Sunday. A person charged with 
petty crime could be arrested, examined, tried, and, if found 
guilty, sentenced, and on his way to the penitentiary in a 
very short time from the commission of his offence. 
The present Police Justices perform great labor, but it is 
easy to perceive ttiat their number should be increased, and 
the system of holding courts reformed, in order to get the 
full benefit of their labor and to dispatch business. The 
Court of Special Sessions, an independent tribunal, is com- 
posed of two Police Judges, taken from their duties in dif- 
ferent parts of the city, in order to hold sessions three times 
a week. This is unjust to those Judges, and a cause of 
delay. The Police Judges dispatch their examinations and 
commitments with great speed; it is only when the case is 
sent to be tried at Special Sessions that delay begins. Some- 
times prisoners linger for days in city jails, waiting their 
turn of trial, because that court meets but three days out of 
six ; and finds each day a discouragingly heavy list of cases, 
which have been hourly accumulating. 
The prisoners in the city jails are idle for days and weeks 
together, waiting for trial. If they be innocent, this is an 
outrage; if guilty, they should be tried and sentenced as 
speedily as possible. 
Perhaps the most important consideration in the adminis- 
tration of criminal justice is the character of the magistrate. 
The highest Judge in the land has not such deep responsi- 
bilities as the Police Justices of New-York City. Before 
them pass in review all the follies and vices of the city. 
The jail is a moral hospital, and the Justice has to deal, 
not with brutal enemies, but with patients needing wise 
management. The Judges of the higher courts are almost 
wholly employed with temporalities, property and the rights 
of property; the Police Justice has to deal with immortal 
beings, whom vice is seeking to engross and whom the 20 
judicial office is to preserve, not to punish. The Police 
Justice should be a man of large experience, a close observer 
of human nature, and capable of sympathy towards the un- 
fortunate creatures to whom he must administer the remedies 
proper for their cure. The child that has made its first false 
step, and the reprobate that has served out a hundred sen- 
tences on the Island, are brought before him, successively, 
in five minutes. There is a higher duty to perform than 
simply to convict and commit according to the letter of the 
law; punishment will not preserve the child—it has not re- 
formed the reprobate. 
LODGING-HOUSES. 
Your Committee would recommend for the consideration 
of the Commissioners of Charities and Correction, the sub- 
ject of establishing lodging-houses in different parts of the 
city, where those, who shall be unexpectedly without shelter 
and without money, can find lodgings for the night, and 
a plain, wholesome breakfast in the morning. 
At present there are no places in the city to which persons 
can go for a night’s lodging, without pay, except to the 
station-houses. The unfortunate should not be forced to 
seek shelter in the station-houses, which are always connected 
with the idea of crime. These two conditions should be 
kept as wide apart as possible. The register of the station- 
houses shows the number of persons who nightly find shelter 
there to be great, and for this class of unfortunates provision 
should be made. It is not proposed by this plan to establish 
alms-houses in the city, to give permanent support to the 
idle or careless, but merely to establish institutions to give 
a night’s lodging and a breakfast to those whom night finds 
in a large city, without a home, without money and without 
friends. 21 
EXPENSE OF PUBLIC CHARITIES AND CORRECTIONAL 
INSTITUTIONS. 
Your Committee reports that the expense of the depart- 
ment for the year 1867 was $981,824.36. 
The daily expenses for the maintenance of each inmate in 
the several institutions in the year 1866 were as follows: 
City Prisons 
Cts. 
29 
Mills. 
0 
Bellevue Hospital 
33 
2 
Out-door Poor Hospital 
2 
Charity Hospital 
26 
2 
Smallpox Hospital 
2 
Fever Hospital 
1 
Penitentiary 
38 
1 
Almshouses 
1 
Infants’ Department 
13 
3 
Workhouse 
27 
4 
Lunatic Asylum 
28 
7 
36 
2 
Children’s Nursery, Randall’s Island 
24 
6 
SOURCES OF POVERTY AND CRIME, 
One of the most fruitful sources of poverty and crime is 
the unnatural centralization in cities of immense masses of 
human beings who should be distributed throughout the 
rural districts, thus bringing idle hands and idle lands 
TOGETHER. 
The efforts heretofore have been to deal with crime and 
pauperism after they have sprung into being; whereas true 
wisdom dictates that efficient steps should be taken to 
prevent both as the safer and cheaper course in a country 
where the elements of wealth are almost boundless, and 
where pauperism can be almost entirely removed by 
suitable regulations. 
BUREAU OF INFORMATION, STATISTICS AND EMPLOY- 
MENT. 
Your Committee ■would recommend that the Commis- 
sioners of Charities and Correction be requested to establish, 22 
in connection with their office, a Bureau of Labor Statistics, 
Information and Employment. 
A correspondence should be opened with the different 
officials of the cities, towns and villages throughout the 
Western States, and there should be forwarded to them a 
carefully prepared circular, calling out full and detailed 
information bearing upon the demand and supply question 
of all kinds of labor in the respective localities, cost of 
living, health, &c., kc. With such letters there should be 
forwarded a pamphlet giving a full account of the organiza- 
tion of the Bureau of Information, Statistics and Employ- 
ment. The information received from the authorities of 
the West should be printed in pamphlet form, and a copy 
handed to each applicant at the Bureau, desiring to obtain 
the information. 
There should be opened one or more books in which 
should be recorded all applications of persons desiring to 
go West, in pursuit of new homes and employment, with a 
full description of their ages, qualifications, trades, number 
in their families, age of children, &c., &c. 
The Commissioners of Charities and Correction should, 
as fast as such lists can be prepared, forward the same to 
the towns and villages of the West, and propose to the 
authorities thereof to forward to them any of the persons 
described in those lists whom they may desire, on the con- 
dition that the authorities would defray the expense of their 
transfer under an agreement with the emigrant that he or 
she would repay it out of his or her earnings. Parties in 
the West wanting labor, could then go to the town authori- 
ties, describe what they desire, and deposit their money; 
which information and money could ■ at once be forwarded 
to the Commissioners of Charities. Under such an arrange- 
ment those wishing to go West could be forwarded to 
homes, and have the means advanced to carry them from 23 
poverty to peace and plenty; and while all would be bene- 
fitted, none would be taxed. 
Every emigrant landing on our shores and every child 
born to us in all conditions of life would then be a source 
of wealth, and would be welcome. 
The Bureau of Information, Statistics and Employment 
should invite the intelligent and well-known philanthropists 
residing throughout the principal cities and towns of Europe 
to act as corresponding secretaries, and forward all publica- 
tions and works treating upon pauperism, crime, reforma- 
tories, prisons, &c., &c., which publications would soon 
form a valuable library full of suggestions and containing 
the experience of other countries in these matters. 
The Bureau of Information and Statistics could forward 
in return their own and other publications in this country 
on these subjects. 
Tnis interchange of ideas and information would be 
beneficial. It is submitted that a Bureau intelligently ful- 
filling these duties would, with the expenditure of not over 
$10,000 per annum, bestow incalculable relief and blessings 
upon tens of thousands of persons, and could, in a few 
years, with its increasing experience, almost dry up the 
sources of poverty and crime. 
In addition, the West would be supplied with the labor 
it so much needs. It should be borne in mind, also, that 
our people shrink from everything in the nature of alms 
taking, for this is felt to detract from manhood ; but no such 
reluctance would be felt where the object of the Bureau 
would be merely to help those who were willing to help 
themselves. And it is a duty for the strong to foster and 
protect the weak, the wise to administer to the less gifted, 
and the intelligent to point out the way to those who are 
willing to work, but who know not whither to go in search 
thereof. 
Nearly one-half of our population lives in cities, towns 24 
and villages, whereas not more than 25 per cent, of popula- 
tion should concentrate thus; the balance should be upon 
the productive portion of the soil. 
DEPOTS IN' THE WEST FOR THE DISTRIBUTION OF 
LABOR. 
Your Committee would recommend that the Commis- 
sioners of Charities and Correction open a correspondence 
with the Governors of the Western States, to ascertain 
from chem what encouragement their respective States 
would offer, to have established in them depots for the 
distribution of the surplus labor of the East. 
The West is greatly in want of labor of all kinds, and 
can absorb any amount of it. If some of the States should, 
on examination of the subject, feel inclined to donate large 
tracts of land upon which model farms could be located, 
and which, under suitable regulation, could form large 
depots for the concentration and distribution of labor, im- 
portant results might be reached. Able-bodied men, women 
and children, applying to the Commissioners for work, 
might be at once, when other openings were not available, 
transferred to these farms, under an equitable agreement 
to work a certain length of time to reimburse the expense 
of their transfer, and during the period of such service, 
they could be trained so as to be much more valuable 
to those wishing to hire them. 
The surplus stock and grain raised on these farms could 
be sent to the Commissioners in New-York, and could sup- 
ply the institutions here, thus greatly reducing the cost of 
maintaining them. 
Large depots of labor could thus be established in the 
West, and thousands provided with temporary homes with- 
out cost to the public. Few men are either paupers or 
criminals from choice, and under suitable provisions both 
would disappear in a few years and become useful citizens. 25 
It is stated that 60,000 persons are now out of employ- 
ment in this city, while flour is $14 a barrel, and millions 
of acres of land are lying idle and unproductive. So long 
as our people permit this, they will suffer the penalties of 
those who violate the great laws of nature, and of supply 
and demand. There are many thousands of persons in this 
city who would gladly go to the West if intelligent men in 
official positions would make suitable arrangements for their 
so doing. 
Intelligence, kindness and philanthropy can accomplish 
wonderful results in drying up the sources of poverty and 
crime among us without the expenditure of a dollar of the 
public money. 
The great tide of population setting towards this city 
should be counteracted by a corresponding tide flowing out 
into the public lands of the West. The great sea-board 
must direct its surplus labor to the vast grain fields of the 
West. 
In this plan of establishing depots for the distribution of 
labor, it is sought to make a thorough effort to afford relief 
to the suffering by merely using mind and superior intelli. 
gence, without expending money—to see how far human 
ingenuity, business skill and capacity can devise measures 
of relief by wise combinations to place unproductive hands 
and undeveloped elements of wealth side by side. 
Your Committee would suggest to the Commissioners of 
Charities and Correction, that a most careful survey and 
analysis should be made of the population of Manhattan 
Island. 
The cellar population and the inhabitants of the slums 
and purlieus of the city, should be most carefully examined, 
and the causes of poverty, crime, deformity and sickness, 
should form subjects of careful investigation and exhaustive 
inquiry. All these conditions of existence have their cor- 26 
responding causes in the homes and surroundings of our 
cellar population. 
It will be found far cheaper, to say nothing of the duties 
of humanity and Christianity, to remove the evil than to 
support the outgrowth of paupers and criminals. 
All efforts at relief should be based upon the simple idea of 
enabling persons to help themselves—to develop the spirit of 
independence and of manhood—and to make’ every man, 
woman and child, scorn to be a pauper or a public burden. 
Remove poverty and want, and crime will be reduced at 
least two-thirds. 
Your Committee would recommend the Commissioners, 
as far as lies in their power, to prepare statistical tables of 
crime, showing the per-centage of crime in the rural districts 
and in the city. 
Your Committee is of the opinion that the treatment of 
crime, which results from MORAL AND INTELLEC- 
TUAL DEFORMITY, should now be made a science; 
that poverty and pauperism should be dealt with in an en- 
larged and intelligent spirit of PREVENTION, rather than 
by ineffectual attempts at temporary relief; that the shelter- 
ing arms of the strong and the gifted minds of the wise 
should be directed to secure these great ends; and also that 
by judicious and well-matured arrangements all classes can 
be permanently relieved, without taxing the honest worker 
with burdens additional to those he now finds it hard to bear. 
By the establishment of Industrial and Reforma- 
tory Schools, into which shall be gathered, trained 
AND TAUGHT, EVERY CHILD OF POVERTY AND NEGLECT; BY 
THE INAUGURATION OF A BUREAU OF INFORMATION, STA- 
TISTICS and Employment, upon the plan herein de- 
scribed ; AND BY THE ESTABLISHMENT OF DEPOTS AND 
FARMS IN THE WEST FOR THE DISTRIBUTION OF LABOR, 
CONCLUSION. 27 
THE GREAT TIDE OF PAUPERISM AND CRIME CAN BE STAYED, 
AND ITS FOUNTAIN DRIED UP. AND THESE ENDS CAN BE 
REACHED, NOT ONLY WITHOUT INCREASING OUR PUBLIC 
BURDENS, BUT WE CAN AT THE SAME TIME GREATLY" DE- 
VELOP OUR RESOURCES AND INCREASE OUR POPULATION 
AND WEALTH. 
Before closing this report, your Committee begs leave to 
state that the admirable condition of the institutions ex- 
amined, under the care and supervision of the Commission- 
ers of Charities and Correction, shows the Commissioners to 
be gentlemen of enlarged views, with superior executive 
ability, foresight and business capacity; and your Com- 
mittee thinks the important trust reposed in them, and the 
public moneys appropriated to be expended under their 
direction, are in safe hands, and that the Commissioners are 
admirably qualified to inaugurate those great reforms in the 
treatment of pauperism and crime demanded by the ad- 
vanced spirit of civilization and Christianity. 
All of which is respectfully submitted. 
PETER COOPER, 
WILLIAM M. YERMILYE, 
JAMES BOORMAN JOHNSTON, 
WILLIAM BLOODGOOD, 
NATHANIEL SANDS, 
WILLIAM T. RUNE, 
THOMAS J. POWERS, 
JOSEPH ALLEN, 
STEPHEN SMITH, M. D., 
JAMES ANDERSON, M. D , 
SMITH ELY, Jr., 
MOREAU DELANO, 
JOSEPH F. DALY, 
RICHARD M. HENRY, 
Committee appointed by 
the Citizens' Association 
to examine the Institu- 
tions under the charge 
of the Commissioners of 
Charities and Correc- 
tion.