

INDIANA. 



439 



to the State Constitution were passed at the 

 legislative session of 1877. They will be recon- 

 sidered at the session of 1879, and, if again 

 passed, immediately submitted to a vote of the 

 people. 



The number of patients in the Hospital for 

 the Insane on November 1st was 614. The 

 number admitted during the year was 470 ; 

 whole number treated, 1,084. The number 

 discharged recovered was 273 ; improved, 62 ; 

 not improved, 72; died, 59. The whole cost 

 of maintenance was $107,227 ; cost of each 

 patient per year, $173.77; per week, $3.34. 

 There was an average of 754 persons, patients 

 and employees, the cost of meat for whom has 

 been per year about $14.75 ; not quite 29 cts. 

 a week or 4 cts. a day. The cost of meats of 

 all kinds for the year was $11,126. The cost 

 of flour for each person has been $8.49 per 

 year, or about 2*3 cts. per day. The amount 

 of butter consumed has been 32,311 Ibs. at 

 19 cts. per pound, making the cost for each 

 person $8.64 per year. The average cost of 

 clothing has been $25.46 per patient. The ag- 

 gregate amount of wages paid was $2,776.69. 



The enumeration of children in each county 

 of the State between six and twelve years of 

 age amounts to 699,153. The school money 

 collected from the counties in 1878 was $752,- 

 125. Out of this and the balance in the treas- 

 ury there was apportioned to the counties $874,- 

 534, which was $1.24 per child. The amount 

 of the State school fund is $9,000,000, and the 

 value of permanent school property $20,000,- 

 000. The average per diem pay of teachers is 

 $1.80, and, four months being the average term, 

 the average annual salary is $144. The average 

 cost of school-houses is $160. The expense for 

 school-houses in 1874 was $875,515, but in 1878 

 it was only $424,304. The expenditure per 

 capita for the last three years has been as fol- 

 lows: 1876, $2.69; 1877, $2.34; 1878, $2.27. 

 In I860 Indiana was the sixth State of the 

 Union in population and the twentieth in edu- 

 cational facilities. Her system of instruction 

 is now generally acknowledged to be a superior 

 one, and her progress in recent years unsur- 

 passed. The higher institutions are the State 

 University, the Purdue University, and the 

 State Normal School. Each county sends two 

 students free of charge to each of the univer- 

 sities. 



From an attendance in 1848 of 92 and an 

 annual expenditure of $11,765.83, the attend- 

 ance of the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb 

 has increased to 328 and the expenditure to 

 $62,994.99. Instruction has been given to 1,- 

 207 pupils. The course of study has been en- 

 "irged and improved to correspond to the pro- 

 gress in the common-school education guaran- 

 teed to children who have the use of their 

 faculties. More than 100 children having claim 

 to an education can not be received because of 

 a lack of accommodations for them. 



The average attendance of pupils in the In- 

 stitute for the Education of the Blind during 



the year was 1 08. Instruction has been given 

 to 598 pupils since the opening of the institute 

 in 1847. The expenditures for the fiscal year 

 were $31,404.96, being $259.20 per annum for 

 each pupil. 



Crime in the State has greatly increased. 

 There is a prison for females, which is under 

 the charge of a commission of females consti- 

 tuted by law. The superintendent and assis- 

 tants are also females. The prison has received 

 more than 50 prisoners since its establishment 

 in 1873. The Prison North had at the begin- 

 ning of the year 646 and at its close 605 con- 

 victs, 295 having been received, 340 released, 

 and the average being 619. The disbursements 

 were $75,295.73, being $868.06 in excess of the 

 earnings. This excess is explained by the ad- 

 ditional accommodations provided for an ex- 

 pected increase in the number committed to 

 the prison. The Prison South had at the be- 

 ginning of the last year 590 convicts, received 

 335, making 925 in all, and released 299, leav- 

 ing 626 remaining at the close. The daily aver- 

 age during the year was 626. Since its estab- 

 lishment in 1822 it has received 6,526 convicts 

 and released 5,900. More than two thirds of 

 those remaining are unmarried men. Less 

 than one third are over thirty years of age. 

 Forty-four are sentenced for life. The expense 

 of maintenance per man was $29.03, which was 

 the lowest in ten years, being less than one half 

 the expenditure live years before. The total 

 cost for the year was $72,733.19, being $28,- 

 539.53 in excess of the earnings. But a little 

 over one half the convicts have been leased. 

 The State receives forty-five cents per man. It 

 is supposed that the employment of four fifths 

 of the convicts would make the institution self- 

 sustaining. Better provision for the mental 

 and moral instruction of the prisoners is asked. 

 It is especially urged that opportunity be given 

 for evening reading and study by the supply of 

 a light in each cell. The directors think the 

 deprivation of light is an inhuman hardship. 

 The prison has but half enough cells. 



It is enjoined in the Constitution that "the 

 General Assembly shall provide houses of ref- 

 uge for the correction and reformation of juve- 

 nile offenders." An institution for boys was 

 established at Plainfield in 1867, and has been 

 in operation eleven years. The number of 

 boys admitted during that time is 1,128. At 

 the close of the last year 145 had been admit- 

 ted and 383 remained, that being the greatest 

 number in the institution at any one time. 

 Provision for controlling the criminal inclina- 

 tions of girls has been made in the reformatory 

 department connected with the Female Prison, 

 where 296 have been received since 1873. 



Notwithstanding that the prisons are over- 

 crowded and have not capacity to accommo- 

 date the prisoners, and that nearly 400 of the 

 1,300 confined in 1877 were idle, as the State 

 was unable to let their labor, and that the 

 South Prison had not enough cells to accommo- 

 date its inmates, and nearly 200 had to sleep 



