THE JUKES. 



as required by law. In some counties, not one-fourth of the cases 

 adjudged are reported, and in almost every county they are defect- 

 ive. So far is this kind of negligence carried that we have found 

 men locked up in jail without a mittimus. Second, The neglect of 

 many sheriffs to keep jail registers, and the consequent inability to 

 make returns to the Secretary of State of the persons committed to 

 the county jail for offenses punishable by imprisonment in such 

 prisons. Third, The neglect of county clerks to furnish correct month- 

 ly returns of the indictments and sentences in courts of record to the 

 Secretary of State. Fourth, The negligence of clerks in transcribing 

 copies of returns. Fifth, The mutilation of the records of the courts 

 f record, successive pages being in some instances bodily cut out. 

 Sixth, The failure to identify habitual criminals, so that we know 

 absolutely nothing of the proportion of first offenders to habitual 

 criminals. One man, aged forty-one, who figures on the records as 

 committed for second offense, began prison life at seven years' of 

 age, has been twice in the house of refuge, once in the juvenile 

 asylum, and altogether sixteen times in prisons of some degree 

 (mostly penitentiary), each time committed from New York city. 

 Another, aged seventy-four years, who also appears on the registers 

 of a State prison as committed for second offense, is now serving 

 his seventh consecutive term in the same prison in which this regis- 

 try is made, the sum of his united sentences amounting to seven- 

 teen years. Out of 233 cases examined, 79.40 per cent are undoubt- 

 edly habitual criminals ; of these only twenty-six per cent are regis- 

 tered upon the books as such. Seventh, The falsification of ages, 

 names, nativities, by convicts, to protect themselves in various ways 

 from severe sentences. Boys of sixteen give their ages as nineteen, 

 because they do not want to be sent to the house of refuge ; while 

 others of nineteen give their ages as sixteen, because they do. In 

 Buffalo and Albany, offenders give their ages as older, so as to be 

 sent to State prison instead of the Penitentiary, because " you get 

 better food and less work to do ; " but in New York city they give 

 ages younger than the facts, preferring to go to Blackwell's Island, 

 " because there you don't work and you get shorter time." Many 

 give false names, because their own is too notorious, or to protect 



