Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1879-01-17

DISGRACE TO HUMANITY.
Col. r. A. Aston, an e1-Confederate
officer, and Democrat, is q member Of the
Georgia Legislature and Chairman of the
Committee on the Penitentiary. In that
capacity, he has made a report, an abstract
of which is given by the Washington cor
respondent of the New York Times The
disclosures therein made arc most disgrace.
ful to the State of Georgia, and shocking to
every instinct of humanity. The State Of
Georgia appears to have adopted, for the safe
keeping of its State prison criminal, sys
TEN which embodies some OF the worst fea-
lures OF the prison-pens in which the Union
soldiers starved and rottcd during the war.
Unable or unwilling to properly provide for
its criminals, the State has entered irto a
contract with certain parties by which such
criminals are leased out to companies who
make bids for their labor. At present there
are in the State upward Of LOO OF these
criminals who have been let out in lots to
such distinguished leaders of the Democratic
party as Ex-Governor Joe Brown, Benjamin
G. Lockett, Senator John b. Gordon, and
John W. Murphy. For the services of the
convicts. the State is to receive s:a5 900 per
annum. The contractors keep the convicts
in camps" The correspondent states that
in the camp of W. D. Grant, contractor in
Jefferson county, 10 per cent of the conyicts
have died within the last year and again,
in Grants camp, in Richmond county, the |
mortality has been 40 per cent in four |
months, or 10 per cent a month. In the |
camp controlled by Mr.. A. 5. Barnwell, |
another well-known Democrat, the average |
mortality for three years has been l6 per |
cent year. Excepting the Dade coal
mines, in which the mortality amounts to
but per cent year, the average dca tn
rate in all the camps is 10 per cent year.
Just how startling these figures are will be
the better appreciated when it stated that
the official reports from the principal prisons
in the United States show in them an
average mortality Of only | per cent a
gear. Indeed. 1t Is matter of rec
ord that, considering the number
)f convicts. more persons have died in one
gear in the camps Of Barnwell and Grant, in
ieorga, than in the Maryland penitentiary
n Is years. Even in Texas, where the
ease system also prevails and the majority
If the convicts are negroes. the death rate is
ess than 3 IL per cent year. There being
10 fines imposed for the loss of cOnyicts by
Ieath, the Georgia contractors evidently do
lot feel themselves bound to take any pre-
e.. - ~.
ate prisoners committed to their care. In
act, according to testimony which cannot be
l-puted, the prisoners are in many instan-
es kept without even the nourishment
1hich would suffice to sustain life in beasts !
burden. They are made TO work in
wamp5 ana wildernesses in which malaria
bounds and where 1t is impossible for medi-
Al AID 10 reach the sick. In such districts
iey die by scores, and in one or two in
ances have been literally left to rot where n
ley died unctret for by the heartless men :,
no uTe their legal masters. The average
escapes from all the camp-, has been from
D to - per cent, so that there are now up T.
and OF 500 escaped convicts roaming at
rye through toe State OF Georgia The q
ase act says that There shall be such reg =.
ations, restrictions and arrangements made
7 the Governor to be enforced by law, as U
Ill aSsocIa:c only persons convicted Of Il
lmes vi lIural turpitude. which shall
gard the condition Of the sexes and age OF n
nylcts and their ability to labor" This y
'rtlon OF the statute is utterly disregardcd. c.
many OF the convict camps meE and NO a
en- are chained together and promiscuously C.
cupy the same huts and sleeping hunks. "
! Il result it can be stated upon the :.
lthority Of Col. Aston and other Demo N
ats now in Washington, that there are at :, :.
esent in the Georgia Penitentiary % bas- r.
ri children. whose ages range from ; a,
Jnths to 5 years, and that most Of the tr
male convicts are about to become mothers b,
mother section OF the law provides that the b,
Inclpal lessees shall not be allowed to sub al
cOnvicts to minor contractors. This pro-
'ioa Is ignoret, and in many cases criminals a
no have wcll-;o-do relatives have been ir
ised To then, and are now living at homo nc
idleneSs and comfort. To Illustrate nc
will he remembered that Kate South 1T
4, well-conncctcd white woman =
North Georgia, in a fit Of ZEAL ~
; rage killed young lady with whom IN
found her husband dancing She was su
ltenced to he hanged, but the Governor, W,
luenced by mistaken public sentiment. pa
the sentence to Imprisonment Tor ju
2. Shortly atterward the woman was DE-
sed 10 a contractor named I. } Smith, OF III
ashington county her husband was hired pa
guard her, and now they are living to
her quite a. happily as they did before a, I,
: murder was committed. | am assured -
It various Instances Of similar character 50
aid be cited. These and kindred reycla- ~.