The New York herald., 1879-11-15

line 1ncerState commlCtee OF Legislators
who have been considering the various
phases of convict labor adjourned on
Thursday with the assurance to the public
that they would present to their several
legislatures the facts they had gathered
with view to the remedy Of existing evils
The prevailing system of hiring out con-
victs to the highest bidder was the princi-
pal subject of discussion, and the points
given in the order under which the Massa-
chusetts committee was appointed. pub
lished in yesterdays HERALD, indicate the
various questions at issue. With one excep-
ton they refer exclusively to the economic
interests of the community. but the excep-
ton alluded to has an ethical Importance
that should not be hidden by material in
terests besides, it affects the general pros
perity and security to degree that legisla-
tors never seem to realize. We refer to the
question Of the effect Of contract labor upon
the reformation of the convict. Most of
our penal institutions are professedly re-
formatory. The statement may provoke
smile on the strength of what observing
men know of the moral condition of dis
charged convicts; but law and sentiment
assert the theory. If they did not our sys-
tenn of punishment would not be whit in
advance of the ways of the barbarous nations
Of two centuries ago.
What are the reformatory influences pro.
vided by State for the benefit of its
criminals? Punishment always, generally
O chaplain, and sometimes o library-only
these, and nothing more. What are the
influences. besides the perverted nature of
the prisoners, that oppose these? A great
many, but in many States the worst is the
contract labor system, by which the men
are placed practically. body and soul,
under the control of contractors who con-
slider themselves charged only with the
duty of getting the greatest possible guam
tity Of labor for the smallest possible pay.
The mechanic or laboring man in the city,
with every incentive that love and neces-
sity can offer, is seldom or never seen
to work as hard as the inmates of many
prison are compelled to do, yet
the latter has absolutely no recreation or
relaxation but what he gets from food and
sleep, while all his surroundings tend to
lessen his laboring capacity by depressing
his spirits A contractor determines how
much per day man should do OF certain
kind of work, and the rule is uniform, re-
gardless of the condition of the prisoner,
provided he is not excused on account of
sickness. If the work is not done the
prisoner must be punished-not for his own
good, not for an actual offence, not for the
benefit of the State or community, but
solely that the contractor shall not suffer
few cents in pocket. Ii more brutalizing
system has ever existed in penal institu-
| tions history has kept silence about il. For
nearly quarter of q century the civilized
world has sorrowed over the prison suffer-
| ings of Jean Vatican, who went into Jail
tender hearted youth and emerged hard
ened criminal, but many a New York con-
| vict suffers more severely and unnecessarily
than the hero of Lies Miserables."
What is the economic result OF this sub
mission of the State to contractors, and the
consequent intensifying of every bad habit
Of the convict-i is not hard to imagine. The
loss to which professional criminal sub
jects the State cannot be made good by the
labor of half dozen honest men, for the
expenses of trials, incarcerations, &C., are
but small part of the total. Many of them
leave families of paupers behind them, while
every one OF them who lives by his pro fession
wastes many times as much as he uses. A
pickpocket steals watch worth two hun
dred dollars and sells it for twenty; burg
lar gets for his share of house robbery
about one-tenth rs much as will have to
be expended in replacing the stolen articles.
The community loses at this rate by many
a rascal who might have been reformed in
prison had not an itch Tor the semblance of
economy turned the man over to aset of
taskmasters whose system would ruin any
honest mechanic and can do nothing for
| bad man but make him worse.