Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-10-20
THE PENTTENTIARY.
What Shall be Done with the Convict
IAhOrT

lADOTy
To the Editors Of the Union and American:
1t is well known to every citizen of the
State that our Penitentiary has been a heavy
expense to the State from the time the cor
ner stone was laid until the present, and
will continue to be, with its present system
of labor. have taken great pains to in
form myself in regard to the management
of the Penitentiaries in the different States,
and have learned that wherever a general
system of manufacturing has been adopted,
it has in every Instant proved a burden to
the State and ruinous to the prosperity and
growth of the towns and cities where
these Institutions are located. Con-
Wet labor comes in competition with
that of the honest mechanic, and if
he follows his trade at all he is compelled
to do his work at the same price charged
for that done by the eOnvicts in the Peni-
Tertiary. This reduces him to poverty, so
he is compelled to leave the town or city
where those State curses are located and
seek employment elsewhere. | know that
MANY of the best mechanics that Nashville
ever was blessed with, have been forced 10
quit their trades and seek employment at
some other business, or leave for other
parts. Again, is there any good reason
why the mechanics should be singled out
and made to bear all the eontumely and
disgrace of all the rogues in the State? |
could mention many cases where ,rOgues
have been convicted and sentenced to the
Penitentiary, and they have learned trades,
and then been turned loose to mingle with
the honest mechanics, and in some instan-
ces have married their daughters.
If we have public institutions, why should
not all the people in the State have an inter
est in them? Then upon the principles Of
Justice, set apart portion of the prison for
the study of medicine, another part f0r the
study of Law. and another for the study of
divinity, aud so on. This would relieve the
mechanics, and make the competition gen.
eral
You ask Inc, is there no remedy for these
evils? The remedy is at hand. The very
system that l advocated twenty-five years
ago is the only system upon which State
prison can be managed so as to relieve the
State from debt and make convict labor
profitable. That is, hire out the convicts to
companies to dig coal, iron ore and copper
ore, to build turnpikes or railroads, or do
anything else that would bring revenue to
the State and relieve the mechanics. There is
another branch of labor that may be ma de
profitable in your State prison; that is, the
manufacture Of rope and bagging. This
would increase the products Of the State
and bring in handsome revenue, while it
would stop in our own State thousands Of
dollars now sent to Kentucky and Missouri
to buy these very articles which are made
in their penitentiaries. Adopt this system,
and at once you stop an immense outlay in
the way of employing outside mechanics as
foremen of the various branches Of meehan-
ism taught in the penitentiary.
There are no people on the American
continent who have exercised more for
bearance than the mechanics of Tennessee
have towards this State monopoly.
SAMUEL p. AMENT.