The warden occupies the main building, or middle part. Here, too, are the cook room for the male prisoners, the chapel, the office, guard room, hospital, dormitories for the guards and overseers, and the reception room, in which the library is kept. The prison yard is surrounded on three sides by a granite wall, perhaps sixteen feet high, the prison itself constituting the wall on the fourth side. In the yard are two buildings of brick, each two stories high, one much larger than the other: the smaller, on its lower floor, affording a wash-room, tailor's shop, &c., the second story and attic rooms used for storage or any needed mechanical purpose, sometimes as shoe shops; the larger building is devoted to bedstead manufacturing, the machinery driven by steam. From this engine these two buildings are warmed by means of steam pipes, the boiling in the wash-room being done by the same. The hall is furnished with a steam boiler, which not only warms that, but also the guard and reception rooms, and the chapel, and the steam is used in the men's cook room, all other warming and heating in the prison being done by wood fires. To economize fuel as much as possible, a steam pipe has been extended from the engine room to the prison to conduct the waste steam of the shop boilers for use in those apartments. The female prisoners eat at a table in the warden's kitchen and from the same food as goes to his own table. The men have a prescribed diet, called rations, the allowance of each being dealt out in a tin basin,--meat, potatoes, gravy, &c., all together, the potatoes unpared. Coffee is given in a tin dipper. The meals being ready, the men are marched through an entry by a long table standing contiguous to the kitchen and loaded with their rations, each taking what belongs to him, carrying it to his cell and partaking in solitude. Their mode of eating is quite a curiosity. They generally use their beds for tables, and each has a knife, fork and spoon in his cell of which he takes the exclusive care. He fishes out his potatoes and pares them; but where shall he put the parings, dripping as they are? He has no extra dish. Then how shall he wash his knife, fork and spoon? He can use his tongue, for he has nothing else, and he may or may not have a towel on which to wipe them, but his jacket sleeve or pants' leg is wonderfully convenient. What a dehumanizing system! Why not let the men eat at tables the same as the women, and have some decency about the matter? Then how much better in another respect. By the present system, rations must be dealt out to all alike, giving the same quantity to each, with the result of having more or less food returned or a part not have enough, some eating more than others. But if at a table, each can eat as he needs, and thus avoid suffering or waste.