Mr. Cook's Report on Clinton State Prison. 55 



ANNUAL REPORT OF RANSOM COOK, ESQ., AGENT 

 OF THE CLINTON STATE PRISON. 



(Presented to the Senate on the 19th of January, 1846.) 



We have from the beginning taken a deep interest in the es- 

 tablishment of this prison. The proposed employment and the 

 improved discipline of its inmates, gave to this project greater 

 importance than belongs usually to affairs of this kind; and we 

 are pleased with the prospect of success which appears to await 

 the judicious efforts and management of the Agent. It is not our 

 object, however, to speak of the police of this institution, but to 

 bring before our readers the mode of ventilation which Mr. Cook 

 devised for the main building, or that part of the building which 

 is appropriated to the confinement of the prisoners. 



No person has ever visited a jail or a prison, who has not been 

 half suffocated with the effluvia on first entering its walls. Hence it 

 has been a great desideratum ever since philanthropists began the 

 work of ameliorating the condition of this class of our communi- 

 ty, or since men have begun to think that prisoners may pos- 

 sibly suffer more than their crimes deserve, to find some mode by 

 which the offensive air might be removed. The attempts hitherto 

 have only partially succeeded. On this point we copy a para- 

 graph from the Medical Chirurgical Review, vol. 2, 1845, new 

 series. 



" Simple as this object may appear to be, it is, as we have pre- 

 viously noticed, difficult of attainment, and moreover most of the 

 plans, especially when applied on a large scale, are so expensive, 

 as to be on that score impracticable." 



We are happy to say, that Mr. Cook, the Agent of this prison, 

 has succeeded in this highly important end; for it is an end 

 which is unportant to community generally, but especially to all 

 public institutions where men are congregated. The following is 

 Mr. Cook's description of the plan of ventilation. 



" The plan adopted for ventilating this prison, is as follows: a 



