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THE STATE INSTITUTIONS.

The thirteen State charitable and correctional. institutions have had 12,161 persons under their care during the past fiscal year. Of this number 9,786 were present at the beginning of the period and 2,375 additional were received. Eight hundred four of the latter were insane; 315 were admitted to the Soldiers' Home and to the Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home; 124 to the schools for the deaf, blind and feeble-minded, and 1,132 to the penal and correctional institutions. The daily average attendance was 6,738 in the charitable institutions and 3,024 in the correctional. On the last day of the fiscal year, the institutions had a total enrollment of 10,587 inmates, with 9,847 actually present.

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It is difficult to compare these figures with those for preceding years, since owing to the change in the fiscal year the last reports cover only eleven months. However, the institutions for years past. have been receiving more inmates than they discharged, the net increase having averaged about three hundred annually. The tendency is less marked this year, the number received having been only 170 greater than the number discharged. In 1906 the difference was even less-101-but in 1905 there was a difference of 406. The number of inmates received, however, depends more upon the capacity of the institutions than upon the number needing the State's care. Most of the institutions, particularly the hospitals for insane, are crowded and have been for some time past. They have received all they could and most of them have a long waiting list. It is the more gratifying, therefore, to find that the correctional institutions, which must admit all who are sentenced by the courts, show little change in the number received. In the past eleven months there have been 1,132 admissions to the prisons and State schools, while for the four years preceding the number of admissions averaged 1,242 each twelve months.

For the care and oversight of these wards of the State, 1,596 persons are employed by the different institutions. The average number of inmates to each person on salary is five in the charitable institutions and eleven in the correctional. The hospitals for the insane employ an average of one attendant for every ten patients. The lowest average of administration (17.8) is found in the State

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Prison at Michigan City, where 57 persons are employed to look after more than 1,000 convicts. The other extreme (2.4) is found in the School for the Blind in Indianapolis.

For the eleven months which comprise the new fiscal year, the maintenance of these thirteen institutions cost the public $1,540,984.53. This sum covers all the regular operating expenses, which are divided under five heads: administration, subsistence, clothing, office, domestic and outdoor departments and ordinary repairs. An additional sum amounting to $232,778.53, was spent for new buildings and permanent improvements, bringing the grand total up to $1,773,763.06. Each institution paid into the State treasury a certain amount as receipts and earnings, varying from small amounts for the sale of waste material in some, to the much larger earnings of the prisoners at the State Prison and Reformatory. The State Prison at Michigan City reports $66,979.62 as earnings and the Indiana Reformatory at Jeffersonville reports $109,812.28 received from the sale of goods manufactured in the trade schools. The receipts from other sources in all the institutions amounted to $19,425.44. Deducting these three sums from the total expenditures for maintenance and construction, the net cost to the State is found to be $1,577,545.72. This sum is still further reduced by the reimbursements of the counties and the United States government. The counties return to the State treasury whatever the State spends for the clothing of the patients in the four insane hospitals and the pupils of the State Schools for the Blind, and the Deaf, as well as practically half the maintenance of the children in the Indiana Boys' School and the Indiana Girls' School. The Federal government reimburses the State to the extent of $100 per capita annually for the care of soldiers maintained in the State. Home at Lafayette.

Thirty-seven per cent., or $565,112.68, of the regular maintenance expenditures was required for the salaries and wages of officers and employes. Food supplies cost $419,793.78 or 27 per cent. of the maintenance cost; office, domestic and outdoor departments cost $410,422.48, or 27 per cent.; clothing, $65,160.33, or 4 per cent., and ordinary repairs, $80,495.26, or 5 per cent. The State spent $678,276.46 in giving hospital care to the insane; $214,258.40 for the soldiers, their widows and orphans; $119,783.41 for the feebleminded; $105,513.92 for the deaf and blind; $285,308.03 for the State Prison and Reformatory, and $137,844.31 for the State schools for girls and boys, and the Woman's Prison.

The average amount each inmate of these different institutions

cost the State for the eleven months comprising the fiscal year was $157.82, the amount varying as the inmate required asylum care or special training or treatment.

It is always interesting to learn at the end of the fiscal period how nearly the institutions were able to complete the year within the appropriations made by the legislature. With the exception of the Soldiers' Home at Lafayette, the maintenance of which is provided for by a statutory allowance of $150.00 per capita per annum, each institution has a regular maintenance appropriation, and nine of the thirteen have in addition a per capita allowance to meet the needs should the population increase beyond a certain fixed average attendance. The four institutions which do not have. an allowance for excess population are the Soldiers' Home, the Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home, the School for the Blind and the Girls' School and Woman's Prison. The first three had a small balance remaining at the end of the year, but the funds of the Girls' School and the Woman's Prison fell short by $9,615.42, $6,226.55 for the old institution and $3,388.87 for the school in its new location. This amount was made up by the Governor from his contingent fund.

Even some of the institutions which had an allowance for excess population could not have closed the year without other help. The State Prison was granted a specific appropriation by the last legislature of $4,300, and the Reformatory one of $9,000, to guard against a deficit in the maintenance fund. The population of both these institutions was greater this year than ever before in their history. Both the regular and specific appropriations for maintenance were used and in addition the State Prison spent $10,434.04, and the Reformatory $15,676.72 from their allowances for excess population. Another institution whose appropriation was entirely too low was the Indiana Boys' School. It used up its regular maintenance fund and was forced to call on the Governor for an additional amount of $5,000. The school has an allowance for excess population, but as it had very few in attendance above the stipulated number the amount which became available was only $275.69. The trouble lay in the meagreness of the original maintenance appropriation.

The four insane hospitals used all their maintenance appropriations and a portion of their additional allowance and had the following balances at the close of the year: Central, $3,578.65; Northern, $1,625.75; Eastern, $1,232.80, and Southern, $613.87. The School for Feeble-Minded Youth used all its regular appropria

tion, as well as all of the amount which became available for excess population $2,450.08. The maintenance expenditures of the School for the Deaf consumed all its appropriation for that purpose and all but $11.27 of the allowance for excess population.

These facts emphasize the wisdom of the General Assembly in providing, by means of the per capita allowance, for the growing population of the institutions; also in giving the Governor a contingent fund for emergencies. Another point is that the maintenance appropriations of the correctional institutions, notably the Indiana Boys' School and the Indiana Girls' School, are entirely too small for their needs. The State may well afford to be more liberal with these institutions. The two prisons and the Reformatory annually return large sums to the State treasury as earnings, while, as stated above, practically one-half the maintenance of those in the boys' and girls' schools, respectively, is paid by the counties from which they come.

CENTRAL HOSPITAL FOR INSANE-INDIANAPOLIS.

Dr. George F. Edenharter, Superintendent.

Real estate, 160 acres. Capacity, 1,631. At the beginning of the year the hospital had an enrollment of 1,976 patients. During the year 382 were received, and the withdrawals and deaths numbered 323, leaving 2,035 enrolled September 30, 1907. Of these, 1,859 were actually present. The daily average attendance decreased from 1,858.89 in 1906, to 1,838 in 1907. The average number of officers and employes for the year was 321.26.

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The per capita cost of maintenance, based on the operating expenses and the daily average attendance for the year, was $170.24.

The value of the produce grown on the institution farm and used during the year is estimated at $4,516.98, or $2.46 per capita, and the cost of producing it at $1,510.43.

As shown above, the population of this hospital is far beyond its

capacity, and the result is a regrettable overcrowding of the wards. Still the demand for admission continues. The hospital annually discharges a goodly percentage of its patients as improved, and it has further the right to return chronic patients to their respective counties. These facts enable it to receive most of the acute cases for whom application is made. It is to this class that preference is always given, though the hospital makes an effort to receive all women who are committed to it. However, because of lack of room the hospital has received fewer patients in the past fiscal year than during any preceding twelve months for twenty-five years back. It is now plain that even when the new insane hospital at Madison is opened, with its proposed capacity of 1,000, the present needs of the central district will scarcely be met.

The usual improvement of the property has continued during the past year. Considerable painting and refinishing have been done. New floors have been laid in a number of the wards in the men's building, adding much to appearances. The general condition of this old building is too well known to need description. Half a century of continuous usage, with too little money available at the proper time for necessary repairs, has brought it to a deplorable condition. It should be said that the superintendent has done the best he could with it. The woman's building has been considerably improved during the past year and is in much better condition than that for men. Cement floors have replaced the old tiles in some of the bath rooms and closets and most of the wards now have iron bedsteads.

On all our visits to this hospital we have found it clean and neat. We have been present at meal time and have found the food ample, of good quality and well served.

Through its pathological laboratory, with its clinics and lectures, the hospital is doing a splendid service to the State. The lectures given by the hospital pathologist and by representatives of the medical colleges are well attended by students, and the knowledge of mental diseases thus gained by them can but result in lasting benefit.

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