CORRECTIONAL AGRICULTURE 289 



could not otherwise have been built. We expect to more than 

 double our mileage during this present period and also to double 

 the value of our farm products. 



THE PRISON FARM 1 



WM. J. HOMER 



WARDEN, GBEAT MEADOW PRISON, COMSTOCK, N. Y. 



I AM much in favor of the plan in operation here, i.e., a number 

 of farms, or a farm connected with each prison as they are es- 

 tablished. I believe there should be some shops maintained in 

 which, perhaps, certain men, though well behaved and amenable 

 to discipline and absolutely to be trusted, should be retained 

 throughout the extent of their sentences, because there are a cer- 

 tain number of men in every prison population who have come 

 from the cities, have been in factory work all their lives, and in 

 order to support their families will have to return to factory life 

 on release. To take such men for a year or two and put them on 

 the farm would not make farmers of them but would spoil a 

 factory hand. But with these exceptions, I think all those who 

 show themselves fit for it, should be sent to farms where they 

 may gain strength of body and cleanliness of mind which farm 

 work seems to bring to men, that they may be able to go back 

 to liberty stronger and better men than they were on entering 

 prison. 



W. O. MURRAY 

 CHAIRMAN, BOARD OF PRISON COMMISSION 



WE employ the greater part of our labor on farms. The State 

 owns eight farms, aggregating about 32,000 acres, and we have 

 four plantations rented or leased, aggregating about 18,000 acres, 



i Adapted from Report of Convict Lsilior Commission, State of Con- 

 necticut, Public Document Special, Hartford, Conn. 



