Our female members visit the female prisoners in both institutions. Kind-hearted willing souls are found among the subscribers of our Society, who are willing to freely give and have spent their time and money for the recovery of those who have stumbled and fallen. What we need most is a classification of prisoners, that all may be employed in some work, and a merit system. The nearest approach to a merit system now is a shortened term or commutation for good behavior, and every man receives his pardon from the Governor which restores him to citizenship. Eastern Penitentiary Board of Inspectors have done wisely in the sanitary improvements of the institution the past year, under the direction of our esteemed warden, D. W. Bussinger. The place once so cold and cheerless, has been brightened up and made scrupulously clean, and the foul draughts of air are no more. The fronts of out-buildings have been rebuilt and present an appearance of firmness and stability. The cells are kept neat and clean, and the food is much better, being in a larger variety, and by careful economy, at no greater cost. When you reach a man’s stomach with good things, it seems to brighten up his countenance; every visitor realizes this. The men have daily exercise in the yard, for health; and an instrumental band has been formed of those in the bakery department, and allowed in the rotunda two evenings in a month to entertain the entire population of the institution; they have become very creditable performers. Our Prison Agent, John J. Lytle, is at the Penitentiary nearly every day of the year, and in advance of a man’s going out, provides through this Society what the State does not, a new suit of clothing when needed, and procures a railroad ticket if he is to go to some distant home, and then when the man has a place to work (if a trade), he provides tools and a suitable boarding-place until the man is able to do for himself. After a time he may have fallen, or met with misfortune, and again he comes for help that he may again be placed in position where he can earn a support; in all these cases the prisoner is identified by his prison number, which no man ever forgets. In order to carry on this work for the discharged prisoners, the income from the funds of the Society is but a third of what is needed; and as the Legislature and Governors have failed the past six years to grant the Society the accustomed $3000 annually, we have been compelled to solicit donations from benevolent donors for the discharged prisoners of the Eastern Penitentiary. The aid given for the discharged prisoners of the County Prison, is from the income of the Society. It seems hardly just that we be compelled to solicit for discharged prisoners of the Eastern Penitentiary from Philadelphians, when many of the convicts are sent there from most of the eastern counties.