Connecticut western news., 1882-01-11
CONVICT LABOR MONOPOLY.
Work in Prisons Affecting that of Laborers Outside - Observations of 8 Keeper.

Work in Prisons Affecting that of
 Laborers Outside - Observations
 of Keeper.
 E. R. Campbell, of New York, who has been guard and keeper in Sing Sing and Clinton prisons for five years, speaks emphatically against the present system of contract labor in prisons. Referring to it, he said: "I want to en- list the sympathies of the press against the contract system, in order to procure some action on the subject by the Leg islature. A good deal of injustice is done both to honest laborers outside the prisons and to the convicts themselves by the contract system. It is obvious that manufacturers who can hire healthy workmen for fifty cents 8 day, and com pei them to heavy tasks by the fierce and cruel punishment of prisons, have an unfair advantage over other manu- lecturers who are compelled to hire free laborers. The goods produced in the prisons are sold at such low rates that they drive out of the market goods pro- duced by honest labor. The result is that the wages of honest laborers are cut down in order that the product may be sold. In New Jersey the matters pre- scented the subject so strongly that the work of making hats was stopped in the State prison. There was an effort made to secure the same result in this State from the late Legislature, but the con- tractors for other products than hats managed to get the bill so loaded down with amendments that it failed to pass. William Carroll, the hat contractor, em- ploys 450 men in Clinton prison.
 "At present everything in the prison system is made to give way to the con- tract system. The prisons are run for the benefit of contractors, who get their rent for nothing, and not only hire prisoners at 50 cents day, but supply large numbers of free laborers in the prisons. The prisoners are pushed to their utmost powers. Doctors who will not keep men at work who are unable to do their tasks lose their positions through the influence of contractors. If keeper is merciful and tries to re. lieve the overworked men he finds his place in danger from the contractors, who are jealous of the release of any man from their clutches. I have often tried in vain to secure relief from duty ] of poor fellows who were too weak to work, but in vain.
 Sometimes would get other pris- oners to do a mans work to save him from punishment. I havo brought a man medicine from outside the prison, and paid for it out of my own pocket, when doctors have refused to give it to 8 man. It is dangerous to let the pris- oners out of their cells after dark, and often in winter, when the days are short, I have seen prisoners compelled to go from their work in the foundry tc their cells without chance to wash There are no adequate facilities fol anliness. I have often heard the p. isouers shouting in chorus, Lousy shirts !~when they had been kept too long without 8 change. Sometimes prisoners are compelled to work over. time and on Sundays, under pretence that there is some exigency in the work.
 "Mnst of the harsh punishments comes from eff ,rts to get more work out of the prisoners than they are able tc perform. The main object is to gel work. The reason why solitary con finement is abolished as punishment in Sing Sing is because of the loss of the working time of the prisoner. They would rather paddle 8 man and make him work. Even when 8 man is re fractory and will not come out of hii cell for punishment, they prefer tt drown him out by playing water on him from big hose than to starve him out They do not wish to weaken man so that he cannot work. I you visit Sing Sing they will show you some of the men through their task early in the afternoon, but the reason the men get through thelr tasks earl, is because they are put to work at day light.
 "As for humanity, the contract sys tenn kills it out of the keepers and makes brutes, of the convicts. Men are dou bled up in the small cells so that thu shops may be kept full. There ar' 1,6OO prisoners crowded into 1,20O cells This is done while there are empty cell in Clinton prison, where the State ha recently spent $2OO,OOO for improve ments."