The Texas State Penitentiary Board of Commissioners was responsible for overseeing the treatment of convicts, preparing an annual inventory of property, purchasing land for the penitentiaries, purchasing machinery, effecting repairs, leasing the penitentiaries, leasing convicts for outside labor, purchasing and/or leasing farms for the employment of convicts, and providing for the transfer of convicts from county jails to the penitentiary. Records are monthly reports prepared by the superintendent of the state penitentiary for the governor bound in a letterpress book and date from May 1881 to November 1883. The superintendent reported to the governor biennially and at the end of each month on the condition at the state penitentiary. The monthly reports consist of a cover letter to the governor giving a brief narrative summary of the activities over the past month and several statistical tables, including the number of convicts received; lists of convicts discharged, pardoned, escaped, recaptured, died, and hospitalized; clothing and other provisions issued; transportation vouchers paid; and the number of convicts on hand during the month, including a breakdown by location. The data reported includes the state penitentiary and all the outside camps where convicts were housed. Beginning in 1883, data is provided for Rusk penitentiary. Following the February 1882 monthly report is a lengthy narrative on the conditions at the penitentiary, seemingly written as part of the biennial report to the Governor. The writing is badly faded and cannot be read in places. At the back of the volume are pages listing United States prisoners housed in the state penitentiary in 1882 and 1883. Additional monthly statistics on the convicts received and discharged, and on the classification of convicts, or inmates, can be found in the overall Texas Department of Criminal Justice finding aid (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/tslac/20127/tsl-20127.html), in the series Statistical record ledgers. Letter copies of the monthly reports that were sent by the superintendent to the governor during the period circa 1875-1882, can be found in a collection of records held by the Archives and Information Services Division, Records Relating to the Penitentiary (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/tslac/20053/tsl-20053.html), in the series, Reports, Superintendent. Later monthly reports, dating 1914-1916 and 1931-1932, can be found in the overall TDCJ finding aid, in the series Texas Prison Board monthly reports. This series was removed from the overall TDJC finding aid due to the electronic file size limitations imposed by the online finding aid web site (TARO). If you are reading this electronically, click on the following link to access the overall finding aid, Texas Department of Criminal Justice records (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/tslac/20127/tsl-20127.html). If you are reading this in paper in the Archives search room, this finding aid is found in a separate divider within the same binder.
