The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1891-10-02
To the Magistrates of Maury County.

You recollect at your 4 pril term |
asked you TO declare your Jail work
house and give me the work-house
hands to use on the roads in June ana
July of this year in District y. You
understood that / should board them,
| although nothing was said upon this
subject at the time. had made the
calculation and found l could not afford
to board them and pay other necessary
expenses for the safe keeping Of the
prisoners, as this would cost more than
honest labor could be had for. there
fore declined the idea of working them.
1 have been and am now Of the opin-
| ion that the work-house hands can be
utilized prohtably upon the public high
ways. / will give you my plan OF
managing this elephant, and II you con-
slider the plan good one, put IL INTO
operation; or may be you can improve
on it.
Decide you will board them and turn
them over TO the Commissioners of the
Districts for the purpose OF working on
the roads. Furnish for the county
portable work house, made of hard
wood and put together so that IL can
easily be taken to pieces and of suff-
Gent size to hold % prisoners. Such
house as this can be com pleted for
| 800, and two wagons can move IL. Let
| the Chairman of your Court decide
what district is TO have the prisoners I'm
certain months, directing that the 9th
district is to have their time in the win
| ter months, 80 as 10 furnish comforta-
| BILE quarters for the prisoners. Require
each Commissioner TO furnish good and
wholesome ratiOus, contracted for by
| himself, for the prisoners, and that he
pay all over twenty-five cents per day
The board costs, and that the county
| only pay the actual cost Of said board,
up to twenty-five cents each per day
Lot the county furnish the necessary
| chains, locks, hooks, &c, and i think
you are ready for road working.
! The prisoners can easily be boarded
! for % cents per day in the country-a
saving of 10 cents that you now pay.
Some one may say they cannot be
boarded for that. / will assert that the
living of no laboring family costs near
| that much.
| If you will put yOur prisoners TO work
on the roads, Will predict the follow
| ing results; that petty crimes will de-
crease; that at least one half of those
| connected will secure their fines and
costs, if they have 10 work for some
man at ten cents "A day. This thing of
working in the chain gang on the roads
is a terror to both white and black II IL
next TO the whipping post. You surely
cannot lose anything by trying the pro-
| iect. Your prisoners are costing YOU
| forty cents per day, laying out their
| fines and costs in your jail, and the
| county in no part Of 10 is getting any
benefit whatever. The way the thing
| is managed now, the prisoners are not
| punished for their crimes, but the tax
| payer is the party punished for crime
| he did not commit.
If you will conclude TO lot me have
the prisoners upon the above terms 1
am satisfied ] win practically demon
strate that IL is paying Investment for
! the county. No Commissioners can af-
ford to pay board, hire Of guards and
other expenses, and work the priso-
ners. However, / cannot take charge
of them until about March or April
next, as l am going 20 move and must
get my family comfortably situated be-
fore L can look after prisoners.
Respectfully yours,
J. A. SANDERS.
p. s. i omitted TO include in the
above, necessary clothing and bedding;
the same you now furnish; also cook
ing utensils. j. A. s.