River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1885-03-26
SOUTHERN CONVICT SYSTEMS.
How the Conyiets Are Worked and Treated
Field for the Humanitarian Criminal
Laws Made Only for Negroes.

Indianapolis correspondent OF Ihe CG71-
einnati Enquirer. Toaaay | read an
other paragraph which stated that the
convicts in Arkansas are hired out to
farmers at 50 per month. Within the
past ten years, and often during that
tune, have had opportunities to see
every phrase of the system of leasing
convict labor in various states, but
have given special attention to those
states which allow the convicts to be
worked out of doors. What / shall
write on this subject will be unvar-
nished facts, and will try to make
them so distinct that no one can dis
pute one statement which will make.
The states which know lease their
convict labor to be worked outside of
the penitentiaries are Arkansas, Tex
as, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and
Kentucky. Most Of the states lease
their prison labor, but in the north the
convicts are worked within the prison
walls; the tasks are regulated by the
state, through its own officers; the
state feeds the convicts, treats them
when sick, attend to their sanitary
condition. has them bathed and their
clothing properly washed and mended.
/ shall not make comparisons, they
are unnecessary, for the intelligent
reader can do that when he has the
facts. / only want to call atten-
ton at the outset to the fact that the
constitutions of all tile states, follow
ing the eighth amendment to the
national constitution, provide that
excessive bail shall not be required,
nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel
and unusual punishments inflicted. )"
1t may be that do not know what
constitutes "cruel and unusual pun
ishments, so that those who read the
facts viii have to be their own judges.
During the years 1875, 1876, and
1877 the convicts of the state of Ar
kansas were leased to Mr.. Zeb Ward,
of Kentucky. Mr.. Ward had been a
prison-labor contractor in Tennessee
when | first knew him. His lease of
the penitentiary of Arkansas and Of
the convicts was for the term of ten
years. One of the conditions of the
lease was that NJ Ward should not be
hampered witt me presence of a ward
en- or any state officer who could stand
between the cupidity or passionate
cruelty of the lessee. During the term
for which the persons were sentenced
the state had no control whatever over
the criminals. The contractor fed,
clothed, and cared for them as he saw
fit. About 1875, perhaps 1876, Mr..
Ward found that he could not work
all the convicts in and about the peni-
Tertiary, so he opened large cotton
plantation and penal farm up the Ar
Kansas river, and in what is Known as
the river bottoms. There the soil is
very rich, but the malaria is general,
and if not fatal, produced the result
which was fatal in the end. | visited
this prison farm twice during the sum-
mer of 1877, once at the invitation OF
Mr.. Ward, and once at the request of
citizens of the little town on the Little
Rock and Fort Smith railroad. Dur
inc my first visit | saw that the con-
victs were fed on corn-bread and fat
meat: that they were huddeled to-
gether in the vilcst, tilthiest dens of
cabins within q stockade; that they
were not half clothed, and no regard
was paid to their sanitary condition;
and, worse, that there were no bathing
facilities within the blockade. There
was not a white prisoner among the
three hundred then on this prison
farm, and l do not think there was a
white man in the penitentiary at Lit
tie Rock who was subject to the con-
tractor. Several white men, who in
oentlemanly bouts had killed other
white men, and who. feared lynching
or assassination if kept in the jails of
the counties where the crimes were
committed, were confined on their own
request in the penitentiary until the
courts could go through the form of
releasing them. They, of course, were
not convicts, and when they felt like it
came down town and had good time
with the special guards who looked
after them. 1t seemed to me that the
criminal laws applied only to negroes
except where the crime was horse
stealing. This observation applied to
all the states, in general way, where
convicts were leased out to contrac-
tors, and it appeared to me that the
arrest of negro for any offence
seemed accepted as proof positive
that he was guilty. gave especial
attention to this subject, and no
ticed that conviction almost al
WAYS followed arrest. / do not
know that the negro is always thief:
perhaps he is, which would account
for his almost universal convection
when charged with u crime. The
treatment of leased convicts has been
discussed through the newspapers,
and in Kentucky and in Georgia have
heard of legislative Investigations, but
| am not aware that any legislation
has ever followed which was intended
to mitigate or change the methods Of
treatment to which the victims were
subject. once talked TO Mr. Ward on
this subject, and he told me some oil
the methods by which he controlled
refractory convicts. In one case a
man refused to leave his cell to work
in a brickyard. Mr.. Ward went tc
the blacksmith shop and had two long
iron hooks made, which were heated
red-hot, and then taking two guards,
who covered the man with shot-guns.
be told the man to come out in one
minute or he would have him dragged
out with the hot irons. The mar
marched out and was bound and giver
one hundred lashes. / asked Mr..
Ward what he would have done hao
the man refused to obey the order, anc
he replied that he would have dragged
him out with the irons, and if he hac
attempted to assault any Of them the
guards would have killed him. HC
said that one guard could watch eigh
men, and then, with a significant look
added that sometimes it took eigh
men to control one desperate man, bu
that such fellows usually attempted t
escape and were killed by the guards
But / never regarded Mr.. Ward as
brutal man; on the contrary, / though
he desired to find the average under
which, at the least expense, he coult
get the greatest amount OF labor ou
of the convits. But | remember thai
one day in 1877 / came up to gang
of convicts who were working on {
Texas railroad, and where one of then
had been killed by guard. | asked
one of the guards how it came about
and he told me that the man was al
unruly fellow, who gave them a grea
deal Of trouble, and that it was cheape
and safer to give him a chance to at
tempt to escape, which was done
and the man was killed as he ran.
The leasing system in Arkansas wa
inaugurated while Nh. Garland wa
governor. Senator Garland is regard
ed as just and humane man, with NOR
than average friendly bias in favor o
the negro, but in this matter he drifte'
with the general sentiment of his state
The Georgia convicts were hired on
to a number of people, and were EN-
| ploved il variety OF pursuits. Sen
ator Joseph Z. Browne has large mum