The Waco daily examiner. [volume] (Waco, Tex.) 187?-1888, 1885-05-26
Convict Labor.

As an economical measure we doubt |
IL very much can be said of the policy |
of working the state convicts outside
of the walls of the several penitentia-
ries. 1t costs the state about all il
comes to, and the chances for escape
are so many, that real enterprising
man eau walk away into the shades
Just as he pleases. There is every
thing to be said against the policy,
and nothing whatever, for it. To our
mind, one of the most serious objce-
lions to the policy of employing them
outside, is that it makes a neighbor-
hood where they are so employed
10 all intents, and purposes, for the
time being, criminal settlement-a
sort of Botany Bay. The people live
in dread, and the baletul morals of
the convicts are scattered broadcast
over the state to the detriment of the
people, and all their interests. This/
IL we add the injury done to the ~
boring forces by bringing them into
competition with the oondenmed,
amounts to an evil of colossal pro-
portions, true enough. The laboreIs of
Texas are prosperous, it is true, and
there is enough for all to do, but pa
trioiic people cannot aud do moi
lose sight of the fact that II is good pol
icy to dignity aud elevate labor in
every possible way. How can this
be done if we place the convict
forces of the state upon an exact level
with it in the fields and in tho
workshops. There is wholesale con
tammation in the thing. Not only
must they be kept from competing
with honest labor, hut they must b'
kept out of sight of it. The touch o
the convict must be averted. Gu
5 poor must not be forced to accept tn
fact that they are, by their poverty
raised but a single degree above thos
who are in prison for the most horri
o BILE crimes. Besides these aud othe
9 similar objections, it costs the stat
o very nearly as much as IL receives 70
% their services, and in it there is abst
= lutely nothing, no advantage, b,
II rather serious and grave injury
large and respectable class OF Il
: citizenship OF the state.
X. One of the main considerations
providing penalties for the infracti'
of law is TO deter others from yiolatil
le it. We contend that the emplo
ne ment of criminals in our fields is II
Il such as is contemplated
law. Exclusion from intercourse WI
= their kind, and their employment
seclusion far from the eyes ofthe pu
lie and its sympathies, is the confer
plated purpose of criminal detentio
It has most wretched eiiectt para
the striped brigade with e'l
its hideousness, with its guards al
at surroundings, full in the eyes of Z
public. The most brutal of our pop
lation is thus placed in places whe
~ the temptation to commit excuses
'n intensified in every way. Let qua
be caught mapping fora moment fro
ng any cause, and murder and an
M cape is at once the result. Rapii
murder and theft attend every su
occurrence.
Oh Now, if the state is not able to pre-
ny perly confine and punish her Grimm
she ought not to have courts, judi
70 and officers, and she should make
a., effort to convict OF crime unless g
o,- intends aud has the means to punt
We hope to see the day when even
state will no longer seek to maxi
i'll profit from the criminal acts of |
IDS men, but when man commits criI
IL will look upon him as dead for
term to which he is condemned by
Ter courts, and seclude him from the pl
ID lie as sedulously as If he were, in d'
OF and in truth, dead. Until we arr
at some such policy as this, crimi
To- detention VII be farce, a farce
4, the criminal himself, TO the courts
ha TO all concerned, save end except
honest laborer with whom the loa
he some convict come in contact
rival working force. There VIII
no peace on this score until the C
his victs are cop6ued strictly TO the WI
,as of the penitentiary.