Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-04-06
CONVICT LABOR.

In the debate on the Prison bill on Sat
urday in the Assembly, an amendment was
adopted to the effect that convict labor
should not be let out to contractors for less
than one dollar day. The new Constitu-
ton provides that the contract system
shall cease in 1883, but it would have
probably been wiser to abolish it immedi-
ately, since it is very doubtful whether any
advantageous arrangements can be made
for SO short a period The fact that under
the new Constitution the State will have
to find employment for the convicts does
not as yet appear to have suggested its
legitimate implications to the Legislature,
however 1t involves the necessity of large
appropriations for machinery, andin the first
place it requires the thinking out of COM
plete system of employment, 1nasmuch as
thechange of plans after machinery had been
purchased would result in great waste
of the public furds. But before such a
plan can be framed, those who undertake
1t musttrealize the requirements of the case
fully. Thus it would be great mistake
to treat the matter solely from an
economic point of view, considering
only how best to secure the largest money
return on the outlay. The State has certain
we'll defined obligations with regard to her
criminal class, and these obligations are
intimately connected with her material in
terests. The central problem in all penal
legislation and systems must be the re-
formation of the criminal. Without that
consideration all such legislation is merely
first necessary that his habits should be
changed, and in the next place he must be
given the means to earn an honest hveli-
hood At this point one of the worst vices
of the contract system comes into view.
The labor OF the convicts being let out to
contractors whose selfish interests alone
control them, there Is no motive for teach
ing them trades, but each man is taught to
do some one thing, and if he learns to do it
time. The result is that the prisoners do
not learn the trade, and that when they are
turned out again they are not able to earn
their own living. This fault the State
cannot afford to initiate. 1t must so ar
range its system of employment that every
convict shall have the opportunity of
learning a full trade, and this must
be made the most important con-
sideration. 1t is not necessary
that convict labor should return
profit in money to the State. That is a
very superficial and largely mistaken view
to take of it. What is required is that the
imprisonment of criminals shall be made
the means of their reclamation from vicious
habits, and that by giving them the skill
to earn an honest living they shall be ena-
bled to begin new life, and be strength
ened to resist the temptations that forced
idleness too surely breeds. Il may not
pay the State in cash to do this, because
the necessity of so arranging the employ
ments that all may learn complete trades
is almost certain to diminish the produc-
tive outcome. But it will pay in restoring
criminals to society with new abilities and
orderly and wholesome habits, and this is
the true end and aim of all penal legislation
We are of opinion that the Legislature
would have done well to anticipate the
changes made necessary by the new Con-
stitution, and that it might have laid
the foundations for the new system of en-
ploying convict labor which will so soon
have to be introduced.