Office Architect & Warden,
North Carolina State Penitentiary,

W. J. Hicks
Architect and Warden.

Raleigh, N.C., [Blank line] 187[Blank line]

"Ordered by the Board that the Architect & Warden shall communicate to the Governor the fact that some of the Judges of the Superior Courts under the suggestion of the Legislature of sending persons sentenced to the Penitentiary direct to certain public works have seen the State to considerable expense. In a few instances convicts have been sent from some of the extreme Eastern Counties by the Penitentiary Gate to the Western N. C. R. Road. In one instance it cost nearly two (2) hundred dollars to carry two convicts as above. 
While we can send Fifty convicts from here to the work upon the W.N.C. RR for about $180.00. We respectfully ask his Excellency to communicate in some way with the Judges of the state, calling their attention to the facts, in the hope that the evil may be remediated, and to notify them also that the whole number 500 allowed by law has been furnished to the W.N.C. RR."
"A true Copy"

W. J. Hicks Architect & Warden