The Evening critic., 1884-11-25

| tion IN the administration of the affairs of
| the District is just now being brought to
the attention of the Commissioners Tho
subject is that Of tho employment of Jail
prisoners, sentenced from the Police Court,
on work of the same nature as that now per-
formed by the workhouse chain. gang.
There are number of reasons urged in
favor of the plan and 1t Is moro than prob
able that the Commissioners will adopt it.
First IN the order of Importance Is the fact
that imprisonment with labor IL and
Imprisonment without labor is not
q punishment to large percentage of the
violators of the law who como within the
jurisdiction of the Police Court. 1t being
conceded that the sentence with labor is
tho most severe punishment, 1t is not just
or fair that the vagrant, the beggar and the
druDkaTd should go to the chain-gang
while the thief and the rullian enjoy the
lazy and COM aratively comfortable life in
jail.
1t is argued that a man, checked in a
career of thievery or reckless dissipation
and assigned to place in tho chain-gang,
acquires the habits of industry, tho train
ing and the endurance which qualify him
for, and arc apt to attract him to, n better
life, while the Jail prisoner loiters unoc-
cupied in his cell, plots new depreciation
and crime, pines for the liberty that he
does not know how to employ and comes
out at the close of his term a worse member
of society and less competent for an active
or honest life than when ho was sentenced.
The plan of putting the chain-gaug to
work is represented as having proved bane.
fetal in every respect and to have attained
uniformly good results
Many of tho veteran "vags" aud tramps
who have whiled away ninety days in the
| cbain-gang during the past year are said to
| be now industrious citizens, earning q
| livelihood by their daily labor.
| 1t is understood that the Commissioners
and police authorities, Judge Smell and the
attorneys unite in regarding the street
work as powerful preventive and a
beneficial training, and that all favor the
extension of tho present system to the
prisoners in United States cases, IN which
sentences of not more than one years i'm
prisonment are imposed.
strong argument in favor of this propo-
sition is the success, from financial stand
point, which has attended the experiments
already made.
The results in other cities show that the
prison laborers of other cities are not self
supporting; the carpenter or weaver, whose
maintenance In Jail costs the Government
seventy cents day, eau only secure fifty
profit of the prison labor, but in Washing
ton more satisfactory result Is attained.
The workhOuso prisoners engaged on
street improvements have accomplished an
amount of work which, at current contract
| prices, would have cost more than the total
| expenses of the workhouse. This uncx-
pocted showing Is n gratifying one. Il
shows the complete success OF an expert
ment Of some Importance.
| The greatest danger in SuCh movement
the competition between convict aud homes
labor, has been guarded against with n car,
that has fully satisfied the workingmon ant
labor organizations and whatever addi
tional safeguards arc necessary will bC
promptly thrown around the system.
1t is estimated that the grading and
sewer excavations of East Washington
streets, the cultivation Of the Washington
Asylum farms and the redemption of the
marshy land back Of the asylum would
afford work for our entire criminal popu
lation for ten years, while the expansion
of tho city would increase the amount o
work. In all these operations competition
is impossible, as the work is such as Con
gress does not appropriate for, aud If no
done by convict labor could not be done al
all.
For these reasons, and several Others tn
employment of jail prisoners under thu
direction of the Commissioners is urged a
desirable in every respect-good as pun
ishment, preventive Of crime, good in it
influence and training, good for tho pris
oncr and tho prison, and particularly goo
for the localities in which the work Is &C
complished, aud can be performed in II
other manner.
The Commissioners last week requeste
Attorney Riddle to advise them on tb
distinction between the nature of offense
that sent persons to Jail and to the work
house. The matter was referred to MI
James Z. Padgett who prosecutes tho cor
poration cases in the Police Court, for o.
opinion. He states that persons who com
nit onenses against the municipal ord
which is a municipal institution.
Persons who commit ofienses against tn
United States laws are sent TO tho iai
which is United States institution. In
latter Ofienses embrace such ollenses as sim
pie assault, petit larceny, etc, which h
considers should be sent to the workhous
for the following reasons
He states that crime in the District woul
be diminished If such persons as are col
victed of these latter crimes had to Yor
instead Of being supported in idleneis )
: the taxpayers. A large percentage of I'll
criminals have n dread of the w0rkhous
and steer clear of it, bat don't object TO b
ing comfortably taken care of in the jai
especially when the weather Is severe. -
tI"H
Talk on Boots and Slk8es.
Our SO custom. made boots, RfffAffect 1T,