Morning journal and courier., 1880-11-24
Wednesday Morning, Nov. 24, 1880.
AN INFAMOUS PENITENTIARY sYs-
 ITEM.

| ITEM.
 | If the full history of the penitentiary sys l tenn of the southern States is ever written i l will be a sad record of injustice and cruelty | Enough is already known about it to show
 that it is disgrace to the country and tc | humanity. During the recent campaign 1T Georgia there was quarrelling among the
 Democrats, and the ''irregulars" told the truth about the penitentiary system in that State in order to thus injure their regular opponents. It was shown that the convicts
 of Georgia are mostly negroes that many | of them have been sentenced to terms of i'm prisonment out of all proportion to the
 nature of the offenses charged against them that, sick or well, they are compelled, often by the lash, to do work which is far beyond their strength that men and women are chained together, living wretched lives ot disgusting immortality that, in numerous in-
 stances, conyicts have been shot to death by
 brutal keepers, and that rich or influential
 white men can defy the law, and, even
 though sentenced to long terms of imprison-
 ment are often leased to their relatives and
 allowed to live in their own homes entirely
 free from restraint.
 So much for the working of the system in
 Georgia. Howard Carroll, correspondent of
 the New York Times, during his recent trip through Mississippi looked into the treat ment of convicts in that State, and reports in the Times what he found. He says that at present there are about 1,2Oo prisoners in the Mississippi penitentiary, fully four-fifths |, t11-, the contractors make from their labor may be inferred from the fact that most of them are sublet as farm-workers and cotton-feld hands at from $7 to 80 a month At these prices their labor is in great demand, it be- ing well known that they can be made to work much harder and for longer hours than the free laborer, who can only be hired at from SIP to $15 month. Under the law it is necessary for all lessees to give bond of $5,OOO for the safe-keeping of convicts hired by them. On its face this provision looks like very wise one; indeed, it has been pointed out as a redeeming feature in the bad system. Yet careful inquiry reveals the fact that under this very pro- vision the most glaring injustice is practiced. For instance, if a white man of property is convicted of murder, robbery, arson, or any other crime, his own wife or any other member of his family may, by sim ply making bond of $5,OO0 and paying monthly stipend to the contractors, hire his services, bring him to his own house, sur round him with every luxury, and allow him to travel from point to point with just about oc f1ouoh frnn60D1 aC if Ina had ma nffaOdad the law in any way. Those who cannot buy their liberty fare hard. They are beaten they are not half-fed; they are clothed in rags, or not at all, as best suits the conve- nience and inclination of their task-masters, and when they attempt to escape the keepers are justified in chasing them with blood hounds and shooting them down like dogs And yet many of the most desperate of them, rather than endure the cruelties to which they are subjected, run the risk of death, and break away from their guards.
 During the session of the last Legislature proof of the cold-blooded murder of a num- Der of eonviets by their keepers was offered and an investigation of the penitentiary sys- tenn asked for. The Legislature refused the request and has continually ignored every pe- tition of the sort which has been presented to it. It is proposed, Mir. Carroll says, by the Republicans to make, during the next session of the Assembly, another effort to have the condition of the convicts inquired into. It is improbable that this effort will succeed, but if it does not it is to be hoped that efforts to right the wrong will not cease. There ought to be ip Mississippi, and other south ern States also, enough humane men to pre- vent the continuance of such an infamous.s system.