The Rock Island Argus

THE CHESTER PENITENTIARY.
Joliet Republican and Sun.

Mr. Haight, who is employed by the United States government to look into the sanitary condition of penitentiaries in which United States prisoners are confined and the discipline to which the prisoners are subjected, has just completed a minute examination of the Chester (Ill.,) state penitentiary. His recommendation of the prison is very flattering to the management. That it is one of the very few prisons in the West which are chosen for the reception of United States prisoners, is in itself a very high testimonial to the prison and the officers. Owing to its superiority over the Joliet penitentiary from a sanitary point of view, especially in the matter of ventilation and freedom from the escape of sewer gas, the government has discontinued sending prisoners to Joliet, and will in the future send all prisoners from this district to Chester.

The foregoing, which appears as a "special" to the Chicago Journal, was doubtless sent or inspired by the management of the Chester penitentiary. Mr. Haight doubtless said nothing to warrant the above inferences, for if he had made the "minute" examinations as claimed, he must have examined the reports of the medical departments of the two penitentiaries for the past four years. An examination of the official reports will show that in Chester, from October, 1878, to October 1880, the average of days labor lost by sickness was seventeen out of every 1,000, while at Joliet it was but ten, to every 1,000, or one per cent. The death rate during the same period was 18 per 1,000 at Chester, and 11 at Joliet. It may be said in reply that the first two years at Chester were naturally those of unusual sickness; but taking the reports from 1880 to 1882, of both institutions, it will be seen, upon comparison, that out of a daily average at Chester of 889 convicts 75.2 were constantly in hospital, while with a daily average of 1,432 there were but 45.5 in hospital—thus showing that in proportion to prison population Chester lost over six times as many days by treatment in hospital as Joliet. During the same period the average death rate per thousand prisoners was 30 at Chester and only 14.35 at Joliet.

The physician's printed reports of the two penitentiaries show, furthermore, that during the four years from October, 1878, to October, 1882, the following number of cases of fevers and other diseases due to or affected by miasma or climate poison were treated at—

961 585

to an average population of 369 persons and 1,457 persons respectively; or 6 cases in Chester to every one case in Joliet, in proportion to population. In view of the fact that the buildings, sewers, etc., are new at Chester and therefore presumably perfect, while they are a quarter of a century old at Joliet, the foregoing figures are startlingly suggestive—and if our Chester friends had knowledge of them, prudence, to say nothing of modesty, ought to have kept them from airing their "management" through the medium of "specials" in which they make unworthy flings at a sister institution.

The facts as known to the world are, that Chester secured the United States prisoners, not by reason of superior sanitary conditions, but by offering to take them and board, guard and clothe them for nothing—while Joliet was charging 25 cents per day for each prisoner—the state was thus deprived of a large income.

It is suggested for the benefit of the medical staff that if Chester is so much healthier than Joliet, the health record of the two prisons is a big advertising card for Dr. Campbell, physician to the Joliet prison.

	Chester	Joliet.
Intermittant fever	336	281
Remittent	255	52
Bilious	63	0
Bilious intrim	67	0
Typhoid	11	5
Typhoid mal	19	8
Pernicious	2	0
Diarrhoea and dysentery	207	233
Diphtheria	1	3