State Expenditures, 89 



treasury for the maintenance of the prison. Conditions at the old 

 Newgate prison were far from satisfactory and the assembly finalh' 

 decided to build a new state prison at Wethersfield. This was made 

 and all the prisoners — one hundred twenty-six in number — were 

 removed to it from Newgate in 1827.^ After the year ending March 31 , 

 1829, the prison was not only self-supporting but also a source of 

 revenue to the state.^ Even the cost of building the new prison was 

 more than met by the surplus earnings of the prisoners. 



The total expense of the state prison to the state treasury from 

 March 31, 1826, to March 31, 1846, including the cost of building 

 the new prison was as follows: 

 Expense of Newgate for the two fiscal years ending ^larch 



31, 1828, $5,795 



Original cost of building new prison, 33,000 



Expense of new prison for first two years ending March 31, 



1829, 3,502 



Expense of building an addition for the two fiscal years 



ending March 31, 1832, 7,926 



Expense for year ending March 31, 1834, 2,609 



Salaries of the directors of the state prison from March 31, 



1829, to March 31, 1846, 5,183 



$58,015 



The total money received by the state treasurer from the state 

 prison from the time it began to be self-supporting in 1829 until 

 the close of this period was sixty-three thousand twenty-seven 

 dollars. Thus the state prison ceased to be an expense to the state 

 after the first third of this period. 



7. Public Debt Discharged. 

 At the beginning of the second period the pubhc debtwas$3,312.90.^ 

 Reference has been made to the fact that in the latter part of the 

 previous period not enough payments were made on the debt to 

 co\'er even the interest and that for all practical purposes the debt 

 was merely nominal. That statement can now be proved by tracing 

 the history of the debt during this period. In the first place, it was 

 decided that the interest on the debt ought not to go on accumu- 

 lating. The state was now ready, as it had been for years, to pay 

 the debt upon the presentation of proper evidences, but it no longer 



New England Magazine, vol. v, p. 433. 



Cf. p. 75. 



Compt. Report (Ms.), May 1818. 



