The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1890-11-15
State ConvictS.

| We are coming upon a time when
it will be necessary to consider the
justice and injustice of public acts,
as we'll as the necessity for them.
The question what to do with state
convicts is being asked and is de-
handing an answer in many Of the
states of this Union. It should
come before the Idaho legislature
this winter. Convicts we shall al
ways have unless, indeed, revolu-
ton more radical than one can
conceive of as possible, should over
take and overturn our present social
state. Having convicts We shall
have to dispose Of them in some
way consistent with humanity, and
if that way should be one consistent
with justice also, so much the better.
While the justice of employing
our felons at some kind of produc-
tive labor will not be disputed, it is
certainly an injustice to the wage
earners of the country to so employ
them as to make them competitors
in the labor markets. It were better
to support them in idlcness than to
make them the means Of impover-
ishing honest laborcrs, for, by so
doing the wronged laborer may be,
and ne think is, in many instances,
forced into the ranks Of crime, Il
result to which a properly enlight-
ened social organization could never
contribute. Col. 1ngersoll with his
usual advanced sentiment has sug-
gested plan that, to our mind,
covers part Of the ground, at least.
His proposition is to give felons
their labor. Criminals should have
the benefit of their labor" says the
eloquent Colonel. Give them that
and they will turn out as good work
as free men would do, and as con-
sequence, poor articles poorly
constructed would not come into
competition with good articles"
made by honest men. The only
reason that prison work is poor,
continues the same authority, is
because the poor wretch who does
the work is robbed" And there
does seem to be sense in this argu-
ment. II the criminals labor were
one Of atonement, if the proceeds
of his toll were given over to the
persona his wrongs had deprived,
the present system of working con-
victs in competition with free
laborers might have some SEM
blance OF an excuse for being; but
since it only benefits contractors,
or the state, which is able to live
without his earnings, there is little
reason for it's perpstuation in Idaho. !
BIZ. there is still another phase
Of this subject overlooked, we be- |
lieve, by all philanthrcpists. A
man having family is convicted !
Of felony; the judge sentences
him to 10 years in the p,nitentiary.
His family are poor and need his
earnings. They atleast have com |
mittea no ofensc. His earnings |
are absorbed by the state, and his |
lnoffending wife and children left |
10 suffer for the necessaries Of life, !
which tho convict husband and !
fathers wages, were his family fairly |
dealt with by the state, would sup
ply. In tho case we have instanced |
We think the wife and little ones are |
The ones punished and not the |
guilty. Were the incoming legisia.
lure to seek and find q method of
dealing with the states convicts
hat would do justice to the offender !
without furnishing the innocent, it |
would be long step in the direc.
ion of a much needed reform, and |
aer example would be followed by ;
many, if not all of the older states. !
The experiment ia worth trying, |
since nothing could be much worse
han tho methods at present in |
vogue in all the states in dealing !
With their convicts, by all of which |
'evenge and not reform is, or seems
% be the prime end sought by law
maker and Judge.