The comet. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1877-1882, 1880-02-14
VOL. III.
III JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI SATURDAY, FEBRUARY a 1880
THE PENITENTIARY.

$ Quite recently number of news.
papers and leading men'in Mississippi
have expressed themselves as favor
able to the lease system, as a choice OF
evils. AS shown by the statement of
Col. Hamilton, the leading spirit of
the present lessees, the, Penitentiary
has cost the State $500, 900 in the last
forty years, and this when the average
number of convicts would not exceed
one-fiith of the present number, and
the numerical standard likely to be
maintained for the next century. We
must uproot society and tEample down
all law, go back on reconstruction, and
ignore the Fifteenth amendment, be-
fore we can hope to lessen the number
of convicts in our Penitentiary. Ac-
cording to this showing, the next
forty years maintenance of the Peni-
tentiary of Mississippi, under yhe old
policy, will cost The State at least five
times as much as it has cost in the
last forty years, or four millions of
dollars The Penitentiary question
has dwindled down into cold calcu-
lation. viii this Legislature turn
its back upon system which has
been tried, and in which relief has
been found-to the State, at least
and resort to the old programme, with |
all its accumu ated burthens, or to some
new-fangled Board of Public Works |
wherein the State is called on to null
tiply soft places for anxious patriots,
to pay out salaries for public service
in this behalf, which would be much
better performed by parties who had
a direct interest in economizing, and
who were under heavy bonds for faith
full conduct.
Turn dissatisfaction over to a "Board
of Public Works." and it may give a
job to ocertain parties, but it converts the
at once into an eleemo-
synary charge upon the State. The
lease programme guards against this,
md, restricted as it is, furnishes as full
| guarantee for the safety of the pris-
,ners as the other. The idea prevails
IL some quarters that convicts are not
punished for their crimes,
nd in other quarters that they are :.
30 severely punished. When you y
ONE to look into the inside workings
f the Lease, it will be found that :.
9th these ideas are partly correct and -
artly wrong, and when we come to &"
trikc a general average it will be ="
bout the same as other modes of man. L
ging the convicts. 1t is idle to talk
bout confining thousand or more p
,nOrant and unskilled laborers with b,
/ walls, except in connection with a Is
appropriation to build the m
alls and cells. +
Let the Representatives of the State ~
smiss all prejudice against the lease re
stem, and look to the true interests o'
the State, and if there is money in w
le treasury to appropriate, lie! the w
hools have the benefit of it. The co
ate has been put to enough expense 'o
provide for her convicts. Now let al
II representatives consent to the plan 1el
making them self-sustaining at least, al
id if a revenue can be drawn with on
It detriment to public justice, the so
ne idea is TO make the most out of IL
EN- with the least trouble. gu
The lease system has had only ~
rtial test, but the parties most in - -
'ested, Messrs. Hamilton & Co., are ~.
ling to take the responsibility, and 49,,
We IL bond for continuance of the w
lse upon more favorable terms, per- -
ps, than any other man or firm g.
lid afford. They are in position n ..,
do this, and it is probably the best g.,
ng the State can do to enter into 1-e
" and long lease with them on the an,
per showings and bonds. mo