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is received, and to it we make the following reply, which you are at liberty to use in any manner you may regard beneficial.

It is, however, the distinct recollection of the acting Commissioner that a specification was made by the Board at the time, acted upon while the Board existed, and left in the office when they retired.

Soon after our appointment and organization, in 1838, as the law (session, 1833, p. 123) authorized us to "build a prison similar to the Auburn prison, with such variations as they shall think will best promote the interests of such institution," the acting Commissioner, Benjamin Porter, visited several eastern prisons for examination and information, and finally procured at Auburn a set of maps or drafts for a prison for Michigan, approved by the warden of that prison and J. J. Hagerman, the architect, as combining, in an eminent degree, safety, economy and beauty, as much so in their judgment as is attainable in a prison calculated for the keeping of 800 men and employing them usefully. This plan is now, and so far as we know, always has been, in the prison office.

By this plan the ground plat shows a prison yard enclosing the shops and prison wings and joining the sides of the principal dwelling, the keeper's house, a central building, and leaving that building projecting 25 feet in front of the wall into a front yard enclosed with an iron picket fence. The size of the prison yard by this plan, is 800 by 725 feet, and the size of the front yard, 100 by 800 feet. The house, 55 by 61 feet, with a portico of 12 by 61 feet. The prison building, 57 by 500 feet, in one continuous building, of two tall stories, with a continuous block of cells 4 tiers high, after the Auburn plan, cut in two at the middle by a passage through the house and prison to the rear yard. The shops were parallel, ranges 400 by 53 feet, 2 stories high, 394 feet apart, in the rear of the prison wings, with a kitchen, dining-room and hospital in the end of the right hand shop, nearest the prison. The yard to be entered by teams, &c., in the centre of the rear wall and the centre of the buildings by foot people and visitors from the front. This plat is surmounted by a front view of the whole prison on a similar scale.

The 2nd draft shows the form of the front building; the division of the rooms in the 2nd story; the number of pillars in front; the size of the rooms and halls; the number of windows, &c.

The 3d map shows the front elevation; the height of stories, the pillars, the tower, &c., &c.

The 4th map shows the several views of the whole prison when finished, from the front, the rear and longitudinally.

The 5th plat shows the form of the roof, sections of cells, &c. &e. After the acting Commissioner returned and a full examination was had of this plan, as compared with the Auburn prison, a map of which we had adopted, the plan represented by the five maps above mentioned, retaining the interior arrangement without alteration— being substantially the Auburn arrangement of cells with the following alterations from the plats-all of which are calculated to be less expensive and equally safe and healthy, viz:

1st. To make the prison yard 500 feet front by 585 feet rear; the yard walls to join the right and left rear extremities of the wings, leaving out entirely the front yard wall and making the rear of the prison buildings the front yard wall, with no entrance for teams except at centre of the rear wall. The size of the prison buildings and house to be according to the draft with a diminution of windows in the main prison, from 21 in front and 19 in rear to 14 in front and 9 in rear, corresponding with the left wing as built. The house, without substantial alteration in form or finish. The front walled yard, as represented by the ground plat, to be left out, and the iron fenced front yard to be retained. In the centre of which was to be the house over the prison offices, sitting-room, &c. The shops to be according to the plan, except being placed nearer to each other, to correspond with the diminished size of the yard.

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Thus altered, we adopted the plan and commenced building accordingly, interjoining the end of the west wall with the north-west angle or corner of the left wing of the prison.

This plan we then believed, and still believe, is not surpassed for convenience, economy and safety by any Prison in the United States.

A yard of 500 by 585 feet, in the rear of an impassable building, can be guarded by at least two less guards than one 1,000 feet square, and surrounding the buildings.

So, also, a continuous Prison of 500 feet in length requires constanty three less guards nights than two separate Prisons of half that length, especially when all the guards and keepers lodge in the adjoining rooms in the house, out of the way of danger from within, and yet in a position to be awakened in a moment by alarm bells by day and by night.

This sketch, with the plats in the office, will convey a correct idea of the plan upon which the Prison was begun under the law of 1838, and by us, under that law, intended as the plan to be followed until the whole Prison should be finished.

Respectfully yours,

B. PORTER,
DAVID PORTER,

A. B. GIBSON.

STATE PRISON OFFICE.

Jackson, Michigan, Dec. 1st, 1849.)

I hereby certify that the foregoing is a true copy of a correspondence now on file in this office.

G. BLOOMFIELD, Clerk of the State Prison.

Report of the Physician.

To the Inspectors of the Michigan State Prison:

GENTLEMEN: In compliance with the established usage of the Institution, I make the following report of the health of the convicts in the Prison since the period of my appointment, and previous to the first of April, so far as I have personal knowledge.

I visited the Prison occasionally during the months of December and January last, in the absence of the attending Physician, and more frequently in the months of February and March.

The health of the Prison was good during the winter, and there was nothing to claim particular attention in the hospital department until the latter part of March, when the colored convict Jackson was taken with an hemorrhage from the stomach which proved fatal in a few days.

A post mortem examination was had a few hours after death, which exhibited an ulcer of considerable extent in the mucous coat of the stomach. The blood vessels of the stomach were highly injected. and the blood appeared to have escaped from a blood vessel uncaped by the ulceration.

This is the only death which has occurred in the Prison during the past year. This is a matter of congratulation, particularly when we consider the mortal epidemic which has prevailed throughout the country, and particularly in the prisons of other states.

The establishment has not however been exempt from sickness, and in the latter part of the season of a severe form.

The diseases of the summer months were principally fevers of an intermittent and remittent type, and such as were met with on the outside of the walls.

In the latter part of July the prevailing epidemic began to show itself in the more frequent occurrence of cases of cholera morbu and diarrhoea. Many of the cases were severe, and so many were under the epidemic influence for a time as to seriously affect the business eperations of the Prison. This form of disease, however, grad

ually disappeared, and I am happy to say that not a well marked case of cholera existed in the Prison during the season. For this exemption I believe we were much indebted to the sanitory measures adopted by the officers of the Prison.

The cleanliness of the Prison buildings-the regular and nutricious diet-the occupation of the mind by the daily task of labor-the cleanliness of persons and clothing of convicts-and, not least, the kind attention and encouragement given to those who were sick, had much to do in warding off a disease that is often produced by desponding fear.

About the commencement of Autumn the Dysentery made its appearance in the Prison, and continued more or less severe up to the fore part of November.

This proved the most obstinate form of disease that we have had in the Prison during the past year.

The health of the convicts is good at the present time.

In conclusion, I would acknowledge the cordial co-operation of the Inspectors, Agent, and other officers of the Prison, in carrying into effect the most humane plans for alleviating the confinement of the convicts and for administering to their wants when sick.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

IRA C. BACKUS, M. D., Physician to the Penitentiary. Jakson, Dec. 20th, 1849.

NOTE.-The Report of the Chaplain, referred to in the first part of the body of this Report, has been unaccountably mislaid and lost. This is to be regretted. B. KNIGHT, Inspector.

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