remunerative. The rest were permitted to escape.
On one occasion, while a prison brig was lying at
Angel island, the men at work and their guardians
lolling in the cabin, the convicts quietly turned the
key on them, and escaping to the adjacent mainland
betook themselves to the woods.
It soon became apparent that the hulk system failed to meet the requirements, and that ground must be selected and substantial buildings erected. The year following, namely, in April 1852, a bill passed the legislature providmg for the erection of a state prison on the site purchased at Point Quintin.
Even then the stone building which soon arose failed to accommodate all, nor would the interests of the contractors allow prisoners to be confined to one locality. Hulks were still used at different points. Men were likewise sent in squads under feeble guards to farms and woods ; many convicts were even des- patched unguarded to distant places. Great partiality was shown, thereby facilitating the escape of many a scoundrel.
Still matters were far from prosperous ; and so clam- orous became the public, that in 1855 the legislature revoked the contract with Estill, and declared his lease forfeited. The state then assumed the manage- ment. A board of directors was appointed, and a strong wall twenty feet high, was thrown round the prison premises. In 1856, politics being more power- ful than public weal, and as a reward for his for- mer unfaithfulness, a fresh contract was made with the same Estill, with new restrictive conditions. He was to safely keep and maintain the state prisoners for the term of five years at a compensation of $10,000 a year. So favorable to the lessee was this contract that Estill was enabled almost immediately to assign it to one McCauley at half the compensation allowed him.
The principle was now a grinding one ; prison man- agement meant simply money. Abuses were
