The total cost of our prisons and prisoners for the year 1867, was £657,129, distributed as follows: (1) Extraordinary charges for new buildings, &c., £177,553 19s. 9d. (2) Ordinary charges £108,218 15s. 11d. (3) Officers’ salaries, &c., £213,285 15s. 5d., and (4) Prisoners’ diet, sick allowances, clothing, &c., £158,071 5s. 3d. The average yearly charge per prisoner under each head of costs, was as follows:—(1) Extraordinary charges £9 17s. 4d. (2.) Ordinary annual charges £6 0s. 3d. (making together £15 17s. 7d.). (3) Officers and attendants £11 17s. 1d. (4) Prisoners’ diet £6 11s. 1d., and clothing £2 4s. 7d. (together £8 15s. 8d.), making a total per prisoner of £36 10s. 4d., or omitting the extraordinary charge for buildings, &c., £26 13s. The average of £36 10s. 4d. is higher than the corresponding average for 1865–6 by £2 1s. 8d. The average of £26 13s. is higher than the corresponding average by 15s. 1d. These averages are calculated upon the total amounts under each head of expenditure, and the total daily average number in all the prisons. The average cost per prisoner naturally shows great variation in different prisons. The highest is at Alnwick, viz.: £114 3s. 2d. against £110 1s. 2d. in 1865–6, £108 2s. 5d. in 1864–5, and £88 15s. 11d. in 1863–4, _with a daily average of one prisoner in each year_! At Oakham, the average cost for 1866–7 is £80 13s. 3d., with a daily average of 10 prisoners against £93 16s. 2d. in 1865–6, and £87 1s. 9d. in 1864–5, with the daily average of 8 prisoners in each of those years; at Appleby £70 2s. with a daily average of 6 prisoners; at Ilford £51 6s. with a daily average of 20 prisoners. The lowest averages are as follows: At Hull £16 17s., with a daily average of 173 prisoners; at Salford £16 17s. 8d., with a daily average of 568 prisoners; at Liverpool £18 8s. 9d. with a daily average of 952 prisoners; at Devonport £18 12s. 4d., with a daily average of 58 prisoners; at Durham £18 16s. 9d., with a daily average of 433 prisoners; and at Manchester £19 1s. 3d., with a daily average of 631 prisoners. The following are the comparative costs per prisoner for the whole of the prisons for each of the last six years:—£24 3s. 4d., £23 7s. 5d., £23 7s. 10d., £24 3s. 3d., £25 17s. 11d., and £26 13s. The total number of police and constabulary for the same year, is set down at 24,073 as against 23,728 in the year preceding. The total cost for the year is £1,920,505 12s. 2d. as against £1,827,105 16s. 7d. in 1866, an increase of upwards of 5 per cent. following an increase of £78,647 17s. 1d., or 4.5 per cent. upon the amount for 1864–5. As compared with the total costs for 1856–7, the first year for which returns were made under the Act; the increase in 1866–7 amounts to £654,926, or upwards of 51 per cent. The increase in the number of the police and constabulary during the same period is 4,886, or upwards of 25 per cent.