Descriptive List Of A Convict Required By The State Board Of Prison Commissioners, Upon Receipt Of The Convict At The Penetentiary

STATE PRISON, DEER LODGE, MONTANA

Publication: Office of the Contractors of the State Prison, Deer Lodge, Montana, 1907, Deer Lodge

16" x 8 1/2" document, typed in blue ink and signed by Frank Conley and Thomas McTague. Frank Conley was the first warden of the Montana State Prison. He transformed the overcrowded dismal facility into a massive prison structure with the use of convict labor. On November 8, 1889, Montana became the forty-first state and assumed ownership of a Prison, which it could not afford to operate, and certainly not renovate or modernize. In February 1890, the Board of Prison Commissioners contracted out the entire Prison operation at the rate of 70 cents per capita per diem to Colonel Thomas McTague and Frank Conley for a term of one year. The contract was renewed year-by-year until, in 1909, another firm underbid Conley and McTague. However the State owed Conley and McTague money for construction costs and inmate care which neither the State nor the newly selected contractors could afford to repay. As a result, Montana reassumed operational control over the Prison and appointed Conley as Warden, a position he retained until relieved of his duties by Governor Joseph Dixon in 1921. When Conley began running the Montana prison it was overcrowded, deteriorating, and increasing in population. Inmates were being housed in outbuildings in the prison yard, carpenter shop, storehouse and wash house. There was also no substantial security fence or wall. Warden Conley began his administration by beginning extensive renovation of the security fence and construction of a log cell house, which could house sixty-eight inmates. This document is addressed to the Board of Prison Commissioners reporting that Harry Jones was received at the penitentiary on October 14, 1907. Jones is 23 years old; is "Dark, looks like Mexican," stands 5'4" and weighs 144 pounds. He committed the crime of robbery in Butte, was convicted in Silver Bow, and was sentenced to 5 years for his crime, being delivered to the state prison on October 14, 1907. At bottom of document are two 3 1/2" x 2 1/2" photographs of Jones ... one in civilian clothes and one in prison garb. Document is lightly soiled. A great piece of Montana history.

Inventory Number: 49165