New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-03-21
A BAD SYSTEM.

In many of the Southern States the I'M
willingness of Legislatures to provide money
enough to build and maintain penitentlal1eS
has led to the growth OF system of farming
out convict labor to contractors, which is bad
in principle and worse in practice. This sys-
TEN is now in full operation in Georgia, Ala
bama, Florida, Mississippi and Texas
and ii we are not mistaken, has recently
been introduced in Tennessee and Louis
lana. The Conyicts are worked on cot
ton, sugar and rice plantations, on rail
roads and in the pinercs. They are leased to
the highest bidder, and the contractors I'M
dcrtake to provide guards. TO furnish food and
clothing, and 10 pay to the State fixed sum
per day or per month for each prisoner. The
only control the State exercises Is to name
the sergeant who commands the guard placed
in charge of each gang; he is designated by
the State Prison authorities although paid by
the contractors. Some sort Of prison
is still maintained by the States which
have adopted this system, and the theory
is that prisoners convicted Of grave
offences and sentenced for long terms shall
be confined in it, and only those sent up for
comparatively tritling crimes shall be handed
over to the lessees. This theory Is often viO-
lated, however, and men under long sentences
for desperate crimes are frequently placed i'll
the hired gangs, from which,, by the help of
friends and the influence of money, they have
no great difficulty IN escaping. 1t is said that
III Texas conylcts can hire their time Of the
contractors and spend the term OF their sen
fences at home. Whether this be true or not, 1t
is evident that the system must be subject to
serious abuses.
The only interest the contractors can have
in the convict is to get all the labor they can
ont of him for the smallest possible eXpendi-
ture for shelter, food and clothing. They are
not bound to make the slightest effort to im-
prove his morals or cultivate his mind. No relig
lous teaching Is provided, no books or papers to
rcad-nOthng, III short that would tend to make
the criminal a better man when turned Loose on
society. On the contrary, the life he leads
speedily reduces him to the level of a brute,
if he had any yCstigeS of manlIness about
him when convicted. Sent to some lonely
plantation in the swamps or the pine barrens
driven to the fields in chains, compelled to
toll from daybrcak till dark in all weathers
clad in rags, fed on the cOarSest and cheapest
food that will support life, huddled with his
fellows in miserable cabins at night without
bedding or fire, and guarded by brutal men
hired to fog him if he flags in his work and to
shoot him like a dog If he attempts to escape,
his fate is indeed pitablc. The spectacle Of
men and women chained to tree in a storm
of sleet ana rain while their guards were at
dinner is one of the features of this cruel
system reported by correspondent in Georgia.
Of course they were black men and women.
Southern sensibilities would be shocked at
the view of white people forced to work in
the fields by the lash and the musket, but
the public opinion of the South does not yet
recognize the negro as quite a human being
That he has soul Is generally admitted,
but it is thought to be different kind of
soul from white mans, for which there is 10
doubt special place set apart in the next
world. The negroes are the victims of this
new cbain-gang system. Before it was intro
duced the disposition of Southern courts was
to give colored cOnyicts light sentences in
order to lessen the expense OF maintaining
them in prison but now they can be made u
source of profit, justice is seldom tempered
with mercy for their benefit.
We appreciate the difficulties under which
the Southern State Governments labor in pro-
viding proper penal institutions, on account
of the unwillngness of their people to submit
to reasonable taxes on real estate, and we
freely admit that this unwlllngness grows
largely ont of the embarrassments, debts and
poverty of the landowners, but it does seem that
the craftsmanship and humanity of the South
might provide some method of furnishing
criminals which includes some refornatory in
fluences and is not wholly cruel, brutal and
degrading.
STUDYING HISTORY.