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Under the resolve of the second of February last, a Committee has been appointed to collect information, and investigate the subject of the punishment of convicts, and the establishment of a State prison. The instructions contained in said resolve are so explicit, and point so particularly to every important object of enquiry, that it has not been deemed necessary by the Executive to make any additions. But as the subject is probably of as great importance as any that will be presented for consideration the present session, I have deemed it proper to recommend it to your special attention. That some further provision has become necessary for the punishment of convicts is obvious. While connected with the parent State, punishment for the more flagrant offences was inflicted by confinement to hard labor in the State prison, and the county gaols were required only for those who were committed for trial or sentenced to imprisonment for shorter periods and for minor offences. In erecting the prisons in the several counties, the same attention to strength and security, to arrangements for labor by yards and workshops, and to solitary confinement by suitable cells, and not deemed necessary that would have been, had there been no general prison for the State. Consequently we now find in most of the Counties the prisons altogether insufficient, even for a proper distribution of the prisoners without any regard to hard labor or solitary confinement. Some change is, therefore, unavoidable to give due effect to existing laws. Either the county prisons must be enlarged, or a State prison erected. The question necessarily points to the inquiry which will be least expensive, and most likely permanently to answer the great objects for which imprisonment becomes necessary. The expense incident