lems as a whole. A considerable number of changes in administration were introduced as a result of the work of this survey committee, chief among them being the replacement of obsolete machinery in the prison industries and improvements in methods of production to make them conform more nearly to methods used in successful private industries.

In 1921 the position of Superintendent of Prison Industries was created by Governor Miller as a result of the recommendations of the survey committee. This was part of a plan of reorganizing and modernizing the industries through the creation of a separate industrial management organization. In practice this arrangement proved unsatisfactory because the necessary detailed plans and statutory changes were not made which would pave the way for a real reorganization of the prison industries, and because the position of superintendent of industries was simply superimposed upon the present prison system without being coordinated with this system. In other words, the position was only advisory.

After considering the entire matter of prison reorganization in the light of my experience as Governor of this State for three years, I have come to the conclusion that the key to the prison problem lies in the prison industries and that by definitizing the prison industry program and putting it into effect, we shall be taking as long a step as can be taken at this time toward the solution of the entire problem. In accordance with this conclusion, I asked the Legislature at the last session to abolish the position of Superintendent of Prison Industries, and in its place to put at the disposal of the Board of Estimate and Control a sufficient sum of money to work out the prison industries program in detail. This recommendation was accepted. I was particularly anxious to retain the advice and assistance of Mr. Adolph Lewisohn and some of his associates who have rendered so much valuable assistance to the State in the past. Mr. Lewisohn was kind enough to agree to become chairman of a special committee of the New York State Association on Prison Industries and arrangements were made for the appointment to this committee of several other members of the original Lewisohn Survey Committee, and also for the assistance in this work of Mr. Robert Moses, Secretary of the New York State Association. The members of the advisory committee in addition to Mr. Adolph Lewisohn, are: Sam A. Lewisohn, Richard S. Childs, Mrs. Henry Moskowitz, Peter Brady, George Foster Peabody, George W. Wickersham, John S. Kennedy, Robert E. Simon, Adelbert Moot and George W. Alger.

I requested this advisory committee to make recommendations to me as chairman of the Board of Estimate and Control as to competent persons to be employed by the State. They recommended the appointment of Mr. Ernest Willvonseder, a Certified Public Accountant of New York city with many years of executive and investigative experience, to be in immediate charge of this program and also the employment of Mr. Fred F. Moran, who had been connected with the original Lewisohn Survey Staff and several others. Arrangements were immediately made for the employ

ment of these persons by the Board of Estimate and Control. The report which follows was prepared by this staff with the advice and assistance of the committee of the New York State Association, and after consultation with me.

I find myself in substantial accord with these recommendations which I am herewith transmitting to the Legislature with my approval. The necessary legislation to make these recommendations effective is being drafted and will be ready for introduction early in the session.

The prison industries must be directed and managed by an organization closely related to the one which controls the disciplinary and custodial functions in the prisons. Prison industry and prison discipline should be given equal weight in determining the date of each prisoner's release. One body which controls both of these elements should determine all questions of parole. If we can bring about a condition in the State prisons, which will offer an incentive to each prisoner to work hard and conduct himself properly while in prison, we shall have gone a long way toward rehabilitating this unfortunate element in the community. At the present time the parole system does not operate in such a way as to offer a real incentive toward rehabilitation. The industrial record of the prisoner is given practically no weight in determining parole. As a matter of fact, it is almost impossible, under present conditions, to give any weight to this matter. The prisoners are paid only a cent and one-half per day and the prison industries are in other respects not organized to offer any incentive to the prisoners to do more than the minimum amount of work. There is a general impression that an insufficient market for prison goods or inadequate machinery and industries are responsible for the relatively small output in prisons, for the small returns and even actual losses in conducting the industries and for the lack of interest on the part of prisoners in their work. As a matter of fact, the prison market in State and city departments is a great deal larger than the prisons even under a proper industrial system could supply at the present time. The machinery has been greatly improved and is only in relatively unimportant cases obsolete. Moreover, the present industries are rather well adapted to prison conditions and they can easily be extended before the market is covered and before new industries need to be created. The real trouble now lies in the fact that there is no incentive offered to the prisoners and that there is no business organization to encourage and direct the enterprises. The real need is to create such an industrial organization, to offer a reward to the prisoners in the form of pay based upon their actual accomplishment, and most important of all, to tie up intimately the question of the convict's release with the part he plays in making the industries successful. The proposed compensation plan is conservative. It provides at the beginning for the distribution to each prisoner who does productive industrial or maintenance work, of a modest amount based on what is actually being earned under a system without incentive. Once the new system is established and real

incentives are provided, the earnings should increase rapidly to the benefit of the State and the inmates.

In order to solve these problems, we must set up an industrial organization which as nearly as present conditions permit, will parallel industrial organization in private life. I believe that such a system has been worked out and that it can be placed in successful operation.

The detailed recommendations on reorganization of the prison industries are incorporated in the report which follows. Where such recommendations require legislation, the necessary bills have been drafted, and will be submitted to you shortly.

I wish to emphasize particularly the following important changes:

1. The creation of a position of superintendent of industries at a salary of $7,500 per annum; the incumbent to be in direct charge of all prison production. Appointment is to be made by the Superintendent of Prisons with the advice and consent of the Governor; the tenure of office to expire with that of the superintendent.

2. The abolition of the Parole Board. The parole functions are to be transferred to the Prison Department to a Prison Industries and Parole Board. The new board is to be composed of the Superintendent of Prisons, the Superintendent of Industries and a deputy comptroller assigned by the comptroller. The functions of the new board are to act in the capacity of a wage board and board of directors with relation to the prison industries and to consider each convict's conduct and industrial performance in making decisions as to parole.

I have already recommended to you the consolidation of the functions of parole, industrial management, prison inspection, probation and other similar functions with the administration of the prisons and adult reformatories. Such a consolidation is contemplated by the constitutional amendment re-organizing the State government which has already passed at one session of the Legislature. This contemplates the setting up of a department of correction and an inspectional commission on correction on which the head of the department will be represented.

As this amendment limits the number of departments the consolidation above referred to must be carried out when the amendment is adopted by the people. In the meantime the expansion of the Parole Board and its consolidation with the Prison Department is a step in the right direction. It is also recommended that the Board of Classification be abolished and the prices for prison made goods be fixed by the Prison Industries and Parole Board with the approval of the State Superintendent of Purchase. This will bring about a further consolidation of prison agencies and advance us another step closer to the ultimate consolidation under the constitutional amendment.

3. Assignment to the Deputy Superintendent of Purchase of the function of maintaining and enlarging the market for prison made goods. Ultimately a position of Market Manager should be pro

vided in the office of the Superintendent of Purchase. For the present the creation of this additional position is deemed unnecessary.

4. The development of a comprehensive plan of prison building development looking toward the elimination of obsolete structures and the proper utilization of existing facilities.

5. Provision should be made for the payment of a reasonable wage to prisoners based on a profit-sharing arrangement with the State and on the actual earnings of the industries, a proper deduction being made for maintenance. This will involve a change in the present Compensation Law so that prisoners will be charged with a direct maintenance cost of thirty cents per day out of earnings, the earnings above that amount to be apportioned at the rate of thirty per cent to the State and seventy per cent to the convict.

6. The use of prison labor on outside construction and maintenance work should be extended, compensation to be provided for all such work, the compensation to be credited to the industries and not to maintenance.

7. When the State Department of Purchase is in full working operation, no further releases for outside purchase of goods obtainable from the prisons should be granted without the approval of this department as well as the Bureau of Standards.

8. The Women's Prison at Auburn should be included in the pay plan and its industrial activities extended in order to make this possible. Ultimately when the consolidation amendment passes, the system should be extended to the adult reformatories.

9. Current inspection of the prison shops by the Labor Department should be required on the same basis as inspections of private industries are now made.

10. A schedule of salary adjustments upward for civilian employees engaged in the industrial shops should be adopted.

On the passage of the necessary legislation to make this program effective, I recommend that the Board of Estimate and Control provide expert services and supervision in the installation of the new prison industries system.

(Signed)

ALFRED E. SMITH.

Ordered, That said message be printed and laid upon the table.

A message from the Governor, at the hands of his secretary, was received and read in the words following:

STATE OF NEW YORK EXECUTIVE CHAMBER,

To the Senate:

January 21, 1924.

I hereby nominate as a Commissioner of the Watkins Glen reservation Daniel Sheehan of Elmira, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Otis A. Leonard.

Said nomination was referred to the committee on finance.

A message from the Governor, at the hands of his secretary, was received and read in the words following:

STATE OF NEW YORK

To the Senate:

EXECUTIVE CHAMBER,

January 21, 1924.

I hereby nominate as Members of the State Commission of Prisons Sarah L. Davenport of Bath and Cecilia D. Patten of Saratoga Springs, whose terms of office as such members will expire with the current year.

(Signed)

ALFRED E. SMITH.

Mr. Walker moved that the said nomination be confirmed. The President put the question whether the Senate would agree to the said motion, and it was decided in the affirmative.

A message from the Governor, at the hands of his secretary, was received and read in the words following:

STATE OF NEW YORK- EXECUTIVE CHAMBER,

To the Senate:

January 21, 1924.

I hereby nominate as a Member of the Syracuse State School for Mental Defectives for a term to expire the first Tuesday in February, nineteen hundred and thirty-one Melvin Z. Haven of Syracuse, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Alta F. Crouse.

(Signed) ALFRED E. SMITH.

Said nomination was referred to the committee on finance. Mr. Downing, from the committee on finance, to which was referred the nomination of Thomas W. Churchill of New York City as a Justice of the Supreme Court of and for the First Judicial District, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Daniel F. Cohalan, reported the same to the Senate for confirmation. Mr. Downing moved that the said nomination be confirmed. The President put the question whether the Senate would agree to the said motion, and it was decided in the affirmative.

IN SENATE, January 22, 1924.

A message from the Governor, at the hands of his secretary, was received and read in the words following:

STATE OF NEW YORK-EXECUTIVE CHAMBER,

To the Legislature:

ALBANY, January 22, 1924.

In my annual message I stated that I would communicate with your honorable bodies and inform you about the details of the expenditure of money appropriated last year for park purposes and make recommendations for the further development of the State park policy entered upon at that time.

Last year I pointed out that the State was fortunate in having available a plan for the extension and unification of its State park facilities covering a period of approximately ten years. This