road rollers and gravel, and things of that kind, and your expenditures are probably 95-percent personal, are they not? Mr. PAYNE. Office supplies. Mr. BATES. I know that is incidental. Mr. BATES. What is office equipment? Mr. PAYNE. A typewriter or a new desk or pens or pen holders, and such things. Mr. BATES. Well, for the fact that your permits are so much less in 1947 than in 1937, what is the cause of all these increased amounts over and above the 40 percent? Mr. PAYNE. Among other things the report as prepared for 1937 includes 332 transfers of licenses. The figures that I gave for last March 1 did not include the transfers. I think that those 332 should probably not be included there. Mr. BATES. That is 1937? Mr. PAYNE. In the 1937 figures. Mr. BATES. So that you have relatively about the same number of permits, actual permits today that you had, say, in 1937? Mr. PAYNE. Just about; yes, sir. Mr. BATES. I see. Mr. PAYNE. The 1937 figure also included 62 class F licenses, which are 1-day permits for excursions, bazaars, and so forth. Mr. BATES. You gave the number of personnel you had in 1937 and 1947, did you not? Mr. PAYNE. We had 12 in 1937, including the Board, and 22 in 1947. Senator CAIN. Are you hazarding guess as to how your revenues by way of income are likely to keep up or fall off over the next 5-year period? Mr. PAYNE. That is very difficult to answer, Senator. About a year and a half ago we tried to estimate what the income for the last fiscal year would be, and thought there would be a drop. Actually there was an increase of $300,000. From what we observed in the licensed establishment I believe the District's income will be less from this source this year from the tax end because of a considerable drop in sales, as high in some of the larger establishments as a drop of 30 percent, as against just a few months or a year ago. Senator CAIN. Right now their sales are falling? Mr. PAYNE. Yes. In the package stores, as well. Mr. BATES. That reflects, does it not, the drop in the Federal pay roll which, after all, is the basis of your whole economic life in the community and something that we have to look forward to with some apprehension as it diminishes to a degree which we read so much about in the papers, as a result of the reduced appropriations? Mr. PAYNE. I believe sir, that is only one of the reasons. Mr. BATES. I am just going to cite these brief facts. Ten years ago the pay rolls in the Federal departments of this District, which after all is your greatest industry, were about $235,000,000. In 1943 they went to $685,000,000. In 1944, $661,000,000; 1945, $674,000,000; and last December, or last year, 1946, they reached a peak of $692,000,000, and that is nearly $700,000,000 compared with $235,000,000 in 1937. Of course, the basis of your economic life here and whatever affects that pay roll, the employment of our people, which will be affected by reduced appropriations and a substantial number, it is going to affect the business you are doing in the liquor stores and every business along the highway. That is the thing we have to view. Mr. PAYNE. That is only one factor, Mr. Bates. There is another we must take into consideration. During the war period there were, of course, great numbers of persons in uniform in and around the city and their friends and relatives visiting here. This was a mecca for them. Also for large numbers of businessmen coming to transact various business affairs before the various agencies. Mr. BATES. You do not think that these conventions that we will have from now on to replace those business people will take up that slack? Mr. PAYNE. Most of the conventions are not dry, Congressman, that is a fact. There is another factor, however, and that is that due to the increase in living expenses, people are possibly not buying as they did. They do not have the money to throw away as they did. The hotels have noted that. Then there are large numbers of persons who for 14 years have had a certain amount of security here and they do not know what that security is this coming year. They are withdrawing in their amusements or recreational activities. Mr. BATES. In other words, the heyday is over and they are putting their thinking caps on as to what tomorrow is going to bring? Mr. PAYNE. Yes, sir. Mr. BATES. That is true all over this Nation. Mr. PAYNE. I noted that the Federal income from alcoholic beverage tax resources in January was 2.2 percent less nationally than it had been the year previous. That figure had been dropping since last October and is apparently still dropping, and reached the point in January which was equal to that of June of last year. Apparently the indications are that consumption is reduced. In the State of Pennsylvania, which is a monopoly State, in January there was a reduction of 34 percent in the sales from the State's commissary stores. Mr. BATES. What policy does the Commission have here in the District relative to the establishment of these licenses in neighborhood districts? Mr. PAYNE. Under the act, all but one type of license- that is, for the sale of beer and light wines in groceries-must be in commercial zoning. It is illegal to place any other type of license in residential zoning. The same pertains to placing a license within a distance of 400 feet of educational or religious institutions. Mr. BATES. The prohibition against 400 feet, is that an adoption of the Board? Mr. PAYNE. That is the regulation of the Commissioners. Mr. BATES. And you try to rigidly live up to that, do you not? Mr. PAYNE. Yes, sir. Mr. BATES. And also the neighborhood restrictions? Mr. PAYNE. Yes, sir. Mr. BATES. I think that is a good sign. Senator CAIN. Next we have the gentleman present who can help us on correctional matters as they affect the District of Columbia, not necessarily the Committee. (Statement later received for the record from the Alcohol Beverage Control Board.) JUSTIFICATION FOR INCREASES OR DECREASES 1939: Increase due to five reallocations, $1,140. 1942: Decrease, reclassification of Administrative Assistant from CAF-7 to CAF-5, $600. 1943: Increased by one inspector at $2,300 and one CAF-3 clerk stenographer at $1,620, $3,920. 1945: Increased by addition of seven inspectors to the staff, $18,200. 1946: Increased by the addition of one messenger, $1,320. STATEMENT OF DONALD CLEMMER, DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Mr. CLEMMER. My name is Donald Clemmer, I am Director of the Department of Corrections of the District. Mr. BATES. What we are particularly interested in, Mr. Clemmer, is what overlapping there may be with respect to Federal institutions, care of Federal prisoners, what contribution the District makes through your department to take care of Federal prisoners. Mr. CLEMMER. In a very few moments I believe I can show the contrast in the fiscal picture between 1937 and 1947. The appropriation for 1937 was $1,300,000, for 1947 it is $2.200,000. The personnel in 1937 were 303. The personnel in 1947 are 592. The per capita cost of keeping an inmate in 1937 was 89 cents a day. The per capita cost this year is $2.40 a day. Senator CAIN. Do you want to stop right there? Mr. CLEMMER. As you wish. Maybe I can give you these few additional figures first and the picture will clear itself up. The expenditures for salaries in 1937 were almost a half a million dollars $496,000. The expenditures for salaries in 1947 are $1,300.000. As an example of increased costs, in 1937 we could feed a man for 19 cents a day, in 1947 the cost was about 45 cents. Those are the basic figures of contrast, gentlemen, between 1937 and 1947. I can explain pretty well the reasons for the differences. Take for example, this figure: The correctional officer of the guard in 1937 was making $1,500 a year for a 48-hour week. That comes to 60 cents an hour. In 1947 that same correctional officer is making $2,695 a year for a 40-hour week. That is $1.30 an hour. It is over 100 percent increase in wages. The expenses of this department have increased because the number of employees has increased obviously, almost 100 percent, because the pay of personnel has increased, because the services have been expanded and because the capital improvements that have been added over this period have called for expanded personnel. There is, furthermore, to come back to your original question, Mr. Bates, the fact that the District government pays the Federal Government, the Department of Justice, for the care and keep of District of Coulmbia prisoners in Federal institutions. Mr. BATES. Such as what? Mr. CLEMMER. Such as a District of Columbia offense committed here in the District. A man is too criminalistic for care in our institutions; he may be shipped to Atlanta or Alcatraz. At Alcatraz the cost is $5 a day-exhorbitant. Mr. BATES. To the District? Mr. CLEMMER. Yes. Senator CAIN. Did I hear you say it is exhorbitant? You would not mean it in the sense of being exhorbitant, it is just a lot of money we have to pay? Mr. CLEMMER. That is true. Mr. BATES. $5 a day? Mr. CLEMMER. At Alcatraz. Mr. BATES. Every prisoner from the District. So if he is there 365 days of the year, you will have a bill of around $1,700? Mr. CLEMMER. If he is there 10 years it goes up to some $18,000. Mr. CLEMMER. It is about $1.92 a day now. In Atlanta they have 2,400 men in 8 or 9 acres. The more men condensed in the area the cheaper it is to care for them. Mr. BATES. I suppose the reason they send them to a Federal institution is because we have not any, what you would call State prisons? Mr. CLEMMER. That is true, of an adequate type. Mr. BATES. What are your local institutions? Mr. CLEMMER. We have the jail in the city with about 700 men today. Mr. BATES. And the maximum sentence to be served at that institution is what? Mr. CLEMMER. That is simply a holding institution. We have in the country at Lorton, Va., 30 miles from the District, a reformatory with about 1,100 men. Mr. BATES. What is the maximum age for that reformatory? Mr. BATES. Reformatory for young and old? Mr. CLEMMER. It is a reformatory in spirit. Mr. BATES. You think it can reform the old men? Mr. CLEMMER. I would rather not comment; I am not too optimistic. Mr. BATES. Do you have any juvenile correction at all? Mr. CLEMMER. No. We have a workhouse also near the reformatory with some 600 men there. Mr. BATES. What do you call that? Mr. CLEMMER. Occoquan workhouse. We also have a women's reformatory with 150 to 200 women. Senator CAIN. Who makes the decisions covering one of your District of Columbia residents who is charged with being a criminal going to Atlanta or to Alcatraz? Mr. CLEMMER. The men committed to my jurisdiction are actually committed to the Attorney General. The Attorney General through the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons makes the decision. Actually the decision is made routinely, except in controversial cases. Senator CAIN. You do not have many in Alcatraz, do you? Mr. CLEMMER. We have 20 men in Alcatraz, Mr. BATES. It costs you $100 a day. Mr. CLEMMER. The District is spending $250,000 a year to care for District of Columbia prisoners in Federal institutions. Since last year the Federal Government through the Department of Justice, is beginning finally to pay the District government for the care of Federal prisoners held in District institutions. That will come out, it now appears, to be about $160,000 a year. Senator CAIN. It has been a one-way street? Mr. CLEMMER. Up until now. Mr. BATES. What is the determination between a District prisoner and a Federal prisoner? Mr. CLEMMER. Thinking of the District as a State for a moment an offense committed in a State that would go to a State penitentiary is a District offense. That is, an offense, such as a robbery of a post office, that would be a Federal offense. Senator CAIN. What fee would be charged back against the Federal Government? Mr. CLEMMER. We charge them our per capita fee, which now is about $2.40 a day. Mr. BATES. Has there been any objection to that? Mr. CLEMMER. No; there has been no objection. Mr. BATES. Do you have an institution, that you commit, say, firstdegree men to? Mr. CLEMMER. We send men whose criminality is not too advanced and who are more or less adaptable to our reformatory. Mr. BATES. Let us take a life prisoner. Mr. CLEMMER. Depending on the degree of criminality. If he is not an escape threat, not psychopathic, we will handle him. We have thirty-some lifers at Lorton reformatory. Mr. BATES. The total number of prisoners is what? Mr. CLEMMER. 1,060. Mr. BATES. In that sense of the word it is a State institution? Mr. CLEMMER. It is. That is why I want to come to this point since an earlier comment this morning, when you pointed out that the appropriated portions of the dollar going to correctional work in the District are a good deal higher than your 13 cities, that is so because we probably have more prisoners and operate more institutions. Mr. BATES. That is because the crimes incidence is much higher? Mr. CLEMMER. Higher than those other 13 cities, and also because we actually run an institution similar to a State penitentiary, you see. Most cities do not, they will run a jail and a workhouse. We e run a jail, two workhouses, a semipenitentiary, and a reformatory. Mr. BATES. I presume, however, that there may be some basis, and yet there may not be, that the Bureau of Census computed these figures on. I do not see how they can possibly do it. Maybe there is some correlation and maybe there is none. Mr. CLEMMER. I am sure there is none. Mr. BATES. Of course, the relative number of what we call local prisoners in State institutions is rather small. |