The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1876-06-29

Il
sum of $67, 970 80, without taking into con.
sideratiou any injury done TO the conugu.
Gus State property. Your committee here
to attach a transcr pit of the proceedings oi
the town council of Huntsville with refer
ence to this land, and have marked the
same Exhibit c." Giving the lessees the
benefit of every doubt, and especially as tC
whether they or the State must bear the Loss
Of, the shrinkage in the value of State
machinery above mentioned, there can be ne
doubt that un final aud complete settlement
the lessees would owe the State a consid
| cradle sum OF money, which your commit
| Ice think they are wholly unable to pay.
Your committee Also hereto append re-
port marked Exhibit d, from Mr.. II. K.
White, tue present inspector, showing 1896
convicts undergoing sentence; of which
number cons ,derably less than vne-6fth art
| in the penIteutiary, the balance being scat
tered in various sized squads through some
fifteen counties OF the State. Your com
mittee would call especial attention to what
Is culled the ''trusty system" which, when
explained, means the habit of practically
annulling the DEGREES of our courts by set
ting the convicts sentenced by the courts,
at great expense to the State, at liberty
Whenever its suits the economic views oi
| to do so.
If this habit of liberatiug convicts SEN
| fenced to imprisonment and labor were con
fined to the less guilty class, and to that
class whose terms have nearly expired, the
evil would not be SO bad but snch is not
the fact; but, on the contrary, many con-
victs lately sentenced for long periods are
practically liberated by being made ''trus-
ties, " to the great annoyance of citizens and
to the utter subversIon of the sentences of
our courts. Your committee saw one con-
vict, colOreG woman, who WAS sentenced
to the penltentlary 1Ur ninety nine years
tor the heinOus crime of killing her own
child, some four or five years ago, who was
employed as u domestic servant In Hunts
vile and who has spent but a few weeks of
her sentence within the prison walls. She
is wholly unguaI ded, day or night, and has
given birth to one or two children since
her convection, and is innocent of the
stripes required by law to be worn by every
convict. This particular instance is men
toned because 1t came under the immedi.
ate observation OF the committee, amt not
because the committee deem il at all an ex-
ceptlonai case. Believing that, by reason oi
the immensely responsible position occupied
by the lessees, and Incidentally their great
power for good or for evil, the committee
deemed it within scope of their duty to in
quire into the personal traits of character
and habits of the lessees, and the result of
the inquiry was anything but satisfactory.
From the information before the commit
tee, including d good deal of testimony
under oath, given in the presence of two
of the lessees, who had and exercised the
privilege of cross-examination, your COM
oI 80, hal. hat all
the lessees are drinking men-in many cases
drinking to the extent of druDkenness-
and that they have all been more or less
drunk within the prison walls, and many
times under the influence of hquor in the
presence of and with the knowledge OF
many convicts. The testimony before your
committee raises a very strong presump
! tion-if it does not, indeed, amount to
proofAof the fact that two of the lessees,
Messrs. Ward and Dewey, were, In tn.
month of May, 1875, gully of drunken
debauch with the convict women at night.
This Instance in May, 1875, seems to be
better authenticated than any other similar
occurrence, although there seems to bt
very well-grounded suspicious that licen
tious conduct between these two lessces
and the convict women was not InfrPQuent
These charges seem to have been generally
heard in and out of the prison, and are by
many fully credited. On the occasion il
May, 1875, referred to, some thirty of the
convict women were found in a state o.
intoxicatlon, in the yard of the prison,
when the day guards and officers went or
duty.
Your committee will not even comment
upon the tales of horror told the committee
by convicts. Some of them doubtless were
true. And even If the least horrible one
be so, it were enough to show the uttei
and overwhelming unfitness Of such men as
the lessees for the responsible position they
now hold. To support some of these &C
counts, by convicts, of cruelties, there are
strongly corroborating ce'umstances.
Your committee would call especial at
tention to the large number of escapes, as
shown by Inspector Whites report, and as
! is well and painfully known to the country.
Your committee are satisfied that these es-
capes are, in large number of instances,
attributable to the gross carelessness, and,
in some instances, to the willingness OF
guards, and that they constitute, perhaps, the
most terrible evil under which Texas is now
laborIhg. While in Huntsville, our atten-
ton was drawn to the manner in which
! burials of dead convic,s were and are made,
| anu Tue ItSulb III OuT JuNeSllIdJlOu Wds
shocking. In many cases the graves were
not over a few inches deep, sometimes
the coffins had no lids, and in consequence
of these two causes, the hogs have, ON sew
eral occasions, rooted up and scattered the
bones of the dead While it may be true
that such things hurt not the dead, and the
convict is away from home and friends and
past all suffering, still the exhibition OF
such traits degrades humanity, shocks SEN
sibility and breaks down the barriers be-
tween civilized and savage man. Your
committee, in consideration of the lateness
of the period of the session of the Legisla
ture, and of the high and imperative neces
sity in their Judgment existing for change
| in our penal system at this session, and con-
need, while at Huntsville, that supposing
| all things at the iside Camps to be work
ing well, the opinion of your committee
would undergo no change, did not VISIT
any other point where convicts are sta
toned. In fact, the outside cDnvicts are SO
| scattered that to have visited sufficient
number of thtir camps to have formed a
proper idea of the whole would have taken
your committee more than double the time
at their disposal.
Reviewing the whole subject your com
mittee think the State has no guarantee
that the pecuniary obligations of the lessees
to the State for the past, present or future will
be complied with; that the State has not
by this lease avoided any pecuDisry expense
of maintaining a penitentiary for the pro-
per punishment of crimiasls by shifting the
responsibility from the State to the lessees,
but that the proper way to express this
change is to say that by this lease and ting
management of lessees the State has simply
avoided the maintaining of sush institu-
ton atall by anyone. Your committee think
instead of pen tentiary for the purposes of
furnishing the guilty there exists only sys-
TEN OF the vIlest slavery for the benefit of
the Iessees, and that when the slave be.
comes Improbable 10 them the duiy OF
maintaining him for the purposes OF legal
punishment and the safety OF society weighs
6ut lightly with the lessees as is evidenced
by the unprecedented and Increasing num-
Der of escapes and TRUSTEES.
In conclusion your committee respectfully
and earnestly recommend that the State re-
sr,,s e.,utrol of ira PSnifantiaru and eon-