The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1891-07-30
A Bad system.

The editor of the Minneapolis Times, in
commenting upon the recent trouble in Ten
nessee between contractors and free miners
over the employment of convicts in the
mines, gives the convict lease system we'll
deserved scoring. He says:
Unfortunately this infamous system is
not confined to Tennessee. In many of the
Southern States the unwillingness of Leg
islatures to build and maintain penitentia-
ries has led to this system of farming out
convict labor to contractors, which Is bad in
principle, and worse in practice.
The convicts are worked Oh cotton, sugar
and rice plantations. on railroads, in the
pineries and the mines. They are leased
to the highest bidder, the contractors un-
dertaking to provide guards. to furnish food
and clothing and to pay the State fixed
sum per day or per month for each pris-
oner. The only control the State exercises
is to name the sergeant who commands the
guard placed in charge of each gang; he is
designated by the State Prison authorities,
although paid by the contractors.
The only interest the contractors can
have in the cOnvicts is to get all the labor
they can out of them for the smallest posi-
BILE expenditure for shelter, food and cloth
ing. They are not bound to make the
slightest effort to improve his morals or cul-
tivate his mind. No religious teaching is
provided. no books or papers to read, no
trade taught-nothing. in short. that could
tend to make the criminal better man
when turned loose on society. On the con-
trary, the life he leads speedily reduces him
to the level of brute, if he had any YES
tiges of manliness about him when convict
ed. Sent to some lonely plantation in the
swampS or pine barrens, or the hard, un-
wholesome toll of the mines, driven to his
daily drudgery in chains. compelled to labor
from daybreak till dark in all weathers,
clad in rags. infested with vermin, fed on
the cOarsest and cheapest food that will
support life, huddled with his fellows in
miserable cabins at night without bedding
or fire, and guarded by brutal men hired to
fog him if he flags in his work. and shoot
him like dog if he attempts to escape. his
fate is indeed pitiable. The spectacle of
men and women chained to tree in a
storm of sleet and rain while their guards
were at dinner, is one of the features of
this cruel system recently reported by a cor
respondent in Georgia.
Southern papers object to the abolition of
the system. that it will destroy large
source of revenue to the State. and. necessi-
tate great increase of taxation. But this
IS totally inadequate argument in support
of a system which ignores all considerations
of reform and improvement of criminals
and puts the forced labor of convicts in
competition with the labor of citizens who
have committed no crime and thus involves
the innocent in the punishment of the
guilty. The Times appreciates the diff
culties under which the Southern State
governments labor in providing proper
penal institutions on account of the unwill-
ingness of the people to submit to reasona-
BILE taxes on real estate. which unwilling
ness grows largely out of the embarrass-
ments of landowners. but it does seem that
the craftsmanship and humanity of the
South might provide some method of pun
ishing criminals which not only regards the
interests of honest labor but also includes
some refOrmatOry influences and is not
wholly cruel. brutal and degrading.