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GENERAL REPORT RELATIVE TO THE STATE PENITENTIARY

TSLAC, BOX 22 - 1, File 2

This report is a letter to the governor (P. H. Bell) from the Directors of the State Penitentiary.

Page 17-19 of my file

• penitentiary still in its infancy
• completed the outer wall of the cells. Before it was "not over five feet high, the ground open to all, and no security of the convicts from escape"
• addiction " A kitchen and pantry ... mainly by convict labor"
• Shops (built by the convicts)
  • • carpenter (<19 months)
    • cabinets (<19 months)
    • wagon (10 months in operation)
    • blacksmith (<19 months)
    • brickmaking (1 year); ("a finer article in that line, cannot be found in the South)
• expenses heavy 
• Sep 30, 1851: five escaped: three retaken, killed while (Investigation made: "the act justifiable")
• "It has been our desire and endeavor, in guarding the interest of the state on the one hand, top guard equally with a vigilant eye, the respective interests of the industrial pursuits of our citizens on the other."
• vision: "enable our 'State Penitentiary' to be converted into a manufactory of cotton fabric" instead of sending cotton to the North "to the prejudice of our common interests at home" North-South rivalry, dream of southern industrialization. Also cited by Perkinson p. 44, n. 106. 
• prediction: "in five years, the institution would be a source of revenue to the state" thus the dream was not just covering the expenses of the convicts but becoming a source of revenue. Also cited by Perkinson, p.44, n.106.