Fitness of Prisoners, Cost of Upkeep, Feb. 2, 1925

Survey of the North Carolina State Prison. . . Out of 1,287, only 522 are from 90 to 100 per cent efficient physically, according to a statement issued by Superintendent George Ross Pou. It is further shown that 182 prisoners are totally incapacitated and the physical efficiency of 105 is below 50 per cent. Two hundred and forty-four are between 75 and 90 per cent efficient and 234 from 50 to 75 per cent efficient.

Superintendent Pou has also made a study of the per capita operating expense of 21 prisons. For the 21, the average is $395.62, as compared with $356.45 for North Carolina. It is shown that the lowest annual per capita cost is incurred at Brushy Mountain Penitentiary, in Tennessee, where I cost only $244.55 to keep a prisoner a year, while the Canada Prison leads with $564.75 for North Carolina. States that operate on a per capita less than North Carolina’s are: Pennsylvania, 350.40; Virginia, $379.20; Connecticut, $348.57; Missouri, $317.55; Maryland, $316.09; South Carolina, $307.55; Kentucky, 305.91; Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, $274.30; Georgia, $299.69; Tennessee (Brushy Mountain), $244.55.

Ten prisons in the survey show a greater per diem expense of each prisoner I the North Carolina prison has been figured out by Superintendent: tobacco, 02.00 per cent; outer garments, 06.40 per cent; under garments, 01.60 per cent; shoes, 06.90 per cent; medicine, 01.45 per cent; germicides, 00.75 per cent; soaps, 01.25 per cent; bedding, 06.80 per cent; guarding, 33.40 per cent.

From the front page of the Concord Daily Tribune, Monday, Feb. 2, 1925

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