No. 8.

LEGISLATURE, 1859.

SECOND ANNUAL REPORT of the Board of Control of the House of Correction for Juvenile Offenders, for the fiscal year ending November 17th, 1858.

To the Secretary of State of the State of Michigan:

In compliance with an Act entitled "An Act to establish a House of Correction for Juvenile Offenders," approved February 10, 1855, the undersigned Board of Control, make the following report of the condition of the Institution, its expenditures and business, for the year ending November 17, 1858.

We herewith annex the reports of the Treasurer, Superintendent, Teacher, and Chaplain-which are faithful exhibits of each of their several departments. We take pleasure in bearing testimony to the faithfulness and efficiency of the Superintendent and other officers.

During the past year, the boys have made decided progress in education, as well as in manners and morals; but especially in education. Under the management of Mr. Crosby, the school will challenge comparison with any of its grade in the State. With scarcely an exception, the

boys are rapidly acquiring an education that will fit them for future usefulness.

The business revulsion of the fall of 1857, broke up our shoe manufacturing, for which we had just erected a commodious shop. After advertising, and personal effort for several months, without finding a new contractor, the Board were forced to the alternative of abandoning boot and shoe manufacture, or conduct it on account of the Institution. The latter was not thought expedient, and the work was stopped. The boys were without work for the most part of the past year, with the exception of a little gardening, making their own clothes, and preparing fuel. From necessity, the school hours have been increased, to fill up the time.

Early the past summer the Board entered into a contract with Messrs. Woodhouse, Butler & Baker, to employ forty boys in a chair shop. The necessary buildings and appli ances were not got ready to start the chair shop till last month (October). It is now in full operation, and bids fair to be remunerative to the contractors, and of great ser vice to the Institution, in learning the boys a useful trade, at which they can support themselves when discharged.

The Treasurer reports the year's expenditure at $15,004 00. When the Institution came into our hands, a few months since, it stood in the midst of logs and stumps, surrounded by a rail fence, without furniture, out-houses, or shops, and almost inaccessible for want of roads. To render the Institution accessible, clear off and grub part of the grounds, build good fences, furnish the rooms in the Institution, and erect out-houses and shops, has added largely to the expenditure of money last year and this; but such outlay can no more be called expenses of conduct. ing the Institution, than the erection of the main buildings. During the past year, the expenditure for "improvement and repairs" has been $6,776 91. The sum was expended as follows, to-wit:

In erecting brick chair shop, 25 by 50 feet, two

stories high,......

.$1,637 50

In erecting brick boiler room for above, and well,
In enlarging the yard, and building yard fence,
In erecting board fence around the barn,.......
In grubbing seven acres north of front yard,
plowing the same,...

and

563 00

161 42

164 75

574 00

523 92

167 92

In making turnpike in front of grounds of the

Institution,

568 00

....

In erecting eighty-eight and one-half rods of picket fence around the front yard,........ In laying plank walk from main entrance to the road, ....

In payment of balance due S. R. Green, at the commencement of the year, for erection of shoe shop, (now used for paint shop,)......

533 00

In painting and graining joiner shop of main building,

201 00

In repairs and improvements on buildings,.....
For purposes not enumerated,....

250 00

408 29

Making a total for permanent improvements for 1858, of.......

$6,776 91

In the buildings of the Institution are seventy-six dormitories. The present number of inmates is fifty-eight; and as soon as we receive eighteen more, the house will

be full. There never have been any suitable rooms or arrangements for the reception of girls. During 1857, three girls were sentenced to the House of Correction, from Detroit. One of these was pardoned; the other two have been indentured by the Board in good families during the present year, and we are happy to say both appear to conduct themselves in a manner becoming their sex, and bid fair for respectability and usefulness.

By order of the Board.

JAMES TURNER,

Chairman.