648 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



gard to profitable results to the State, we can return each year a 

 surplus into the State treasury. We do not think that the State should 

 refrain from working its convicts or utilizing its advantages because 

 it may have some effect upon other businesses. All over the United 

 States prisoners are engaged in manufacturing, and our investigations 

 lead us to believe that the effect of prison competition, so called, is 

 greatly overestimated." 



The biennial report of 1894— '95 and 1895-'96 returns to the sub- 

 ject, states that the jute mills can not be a success under the restric- 



Folsom State Prison. 



tions of the present law, and urges that they should be run on a busi- 

 ness basis, for a profit. It continues, " One source of profit would be 

 to make use of the granite owned by the State " (at Folsom). It 

 suggests a consolidation of the two prisons at Folsom, where, with 

 prison labor and free power, and granite on the ground, a model 

 prison could be constructed. Warden Aull, of Folsom Prison, in dis- 

 cussing the subject in 1896, said that for nine years the improvements 

 there have employed the convicts, but now some new scheme must 

 be devised. " The convicts must be kept at work. Every considera- 

 tion of discipline, economy, reformation, and health demands this." 

 But he believes that it will not pay the State to make shoes, blankets, 

 clothing, brooms, tinware, etc. (as has been suggested at various 

 times) for the eight thousand inmates of our State institutions. There 

 are over two thousand convicts at Folsom and San Quentin. Only a 



