The actual number present at the close of the fiscal year 1882 was larger than the average for the year; it was 3,409. The increase in numbers for the next two years is accounted for by the fact that at Jacksonville a new wing has just been added to the institution for the blind; at Anna, the new north wing of the southern hospital for the insane has been completed, and it is proproposed to retain, for the present, and to occupy the barracks erected in the first place to serve a temporary purpose; at Pontiac, the number of boys committed by the courts to the state reform school is rapidly and steadily increasing; while at Kankakee, the capacity of the eastern hospital for the insane has been enlarged by additions already made, and is likely to be still further enlarged. With such an expansion of the institutions, no reduction of expenses is possible, without a revolution either in the mode of living of the inmates or in the mode of support. The latter would not be a reduction in actual cost, but only in the cost to the state treasury, by throwing the burden upon the counties. The former is not contemplated nor advocated, so far as we are aware, in any quarter. We have every reason to believe that whatever complaint may be made of the great cost of the state institutions, their management is, on the whole, not only satisfactory to the people of the state, but a source of state pride and self-congratulation. The stream of visitors, official and non-official, which flows through them, is unceasing. Among these visitors are many who are shrewd, exacting and of an inquiring turn of mind. Any abuse or malfeasance in office would be tolerably certain to find its way to the public ear through some visitor, inmate or dissatisfied employee, to be spread abroad by the press, and to form the basis of political attack. The absence of scandal is the surest evidence that no ground exists for it. If the judgment of those who have inspected our state institutions is favorable, it is not likely to be set aside by the prejudices or suspicions of others, who have never seen them. The only variations between the amounts asked, by the institutions, for the ordinary expenses of the next two years, and the amount recommended by this board, are as follows: We submit for the further information of the general assembly, the following statement of the annual expenses, both ordinary and special, for ten years past, of the institutions now under our charge: |