The number of prisoners retained on the island is less than it was twenty years ago, more being retained in the city prisons, and a large number are now annually sent to the Workhouse. On December 31, 1851, 803 were in confinement at the Penitentiary, and during the twelve months immediately following, 3,450 were committed. In 1853, 5,236 were committed, and at the close of the year 1,176 remained. The year 1869 began with 502 inmates; 1,563 were committed during the year, and 461 remained at its close, making a. daily average of 477 prisoners, maintained at an expenditure of $73,972.35. Of those committed 1,224 were males, and 339 females. 276 of them were between the ages of fifteen and twenty years; 427 from twenty to twenty-five; 316 from twenty-five to thirty, after which the number in each semi-decade steadily decreases. Twenty were under fifteen years of age, ten of whom were girls, and but one was above seventy years at commitment, and that one a female. These figures confront us with the astounding fact, that about one half of all who enter the Penitentiary, are under twenty-five years of age, and appeal anxiously for the adoption of some measure to arrest the progress of these cadets of crime, ere they are irrevocably enrolled in the ranks of that army, whose march terminates only at the State Prison, or on the gallows.

Of the 1,563 committed, 730 were of American birth (but mostly of foreign blood); 482 came from Ireland, 168 from Germany, 74 from England, 25 from Scotland, 24 from Canada, 13 from France, 12 from Prussia, and the remaining 35 represented the other countries of Europe and the West Indies.

Of the crimes with which they were charged we may state that 1,078 were committed for petit larceny, 259 for assault and battery, 34 for grand larceny, 27 for burglary, 22 for vagrancy, and a smaller number for nearly every other species of mischief in the catalogue of crime. The largest number were committed for six months, and the next largest for two months; 62 were for one year, for eighteen months, 12 for two years, and 3 for four years ; 1,146 were committed for the first time, 245 for the second, 94 for the third, 41 for the fourth, 17 for the fifth, 6 for the sixth, 7 for the seventh, 2 for the eighth, 1 for the ninth, and 4 for the tenth term.

Of the 1,563, there were unmarried 962; married 507; widows 68; widowers 26. Of their mental culture we are informed that 1,052 could read and write well, 156 could read and write imperfectly, and 355 were totally uneducated. Of their former occupations we observe that of the males 394 were reported as laborers, 59 teamsters, 53 waiters, 52 shoemakers, and the remainder were scattered through over a hundred trades, though in fact many have never followed anything. Of the females, 224 were reported as domestics, 53 seamstresses, 13 dress-makers, 10 laundresses, etc. These are employed with the needle, and in other branches of usefulness around the Institution. One cannot look over an audience of these convicts, and meet the glances of their brilliant eyes, without being assured that the Penitentiary contains as much talent as any other structure in the county of New York. And how sad the reflection that this magnificent pile of masonry, that crowns this green island, is a crowded pandemonium—an empire of fallen Lucifers, of wasted energies, disappointed ambitions, and perverted genius, not likely to again rise to a virtuous life, or a blissful immortality.