workshops, devoted to carpentry, tannery, worked with the aid of water power. In 1874, 150 acres of garden and farm land were already under cultivation, and this, together with the brick-making department, helped considerably to sustain the establishment, so much so, that the earnings of the two years 1873-4 amounted to $65,260 and $65,269, while the expenses were but $78,047 ; but the average number of prisoners for the two years was a little over 100 with not a single female.
The merit-book system worked well. When a prisoner had earned not less than four marks, and not over six, during the six months, he received a credit of one day for each mark. When such credit-marks were earned during the succeeding semesters, he received an additional day for each, until five days had been gained for each mark. This time was deducted from the sentence, while the allowance was lost by breaking rules or attempting to escape. At the expiration of his term he received fifty cents for each credit mark, less loss of tools, loss of material, and waste.
In 1861 the Oregon state penitentiary received the convicts from Washington at $375 a week, the lessees having liberty to work them at times. In 1871 the Washington convicts were kept at Steilacoom jail, pending the futile attempts to obtain an appropriation for a territorial penitentiary upon the twenty-seven acres donated on McNeill island opposite Steilacoom. By act of February 22d, 1873, congress made an appropriation, and in November a wing with forty-two cells was completed at a cost of $37,800. In 1866, the Boise county jail served as territorial prison for the eleven convicts of Idaho. Miners would not employ them, and no work could be procured wherewith to make them contribute to the cost of maintenance.
Deer Lodge City, as the pretty little village situated in the valley of that name is called, is the site of the Montana penitentiary. The Deer Lodge river
