The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1895-06-05
CONVICT POPULATION.
In Interesting Compilation Made bv the Keep
err of the Penitentiarv.

err of the PenitentAarV.
Judge J. S. Turner, the principal
keeper of penitentiary, is at present en-
gagged in making some figures as to the
state convicts which will prove of more
than passing interest to the people of
Georgia as we'll as those beyond her
borders.
He has taken the number of burglars
who are now in the penitentiary AMI the
terms for which they have been sent up,
he has taken the population of. each
county, and the number of convicts it
has in the penitentiary. He has made
calculation on these figures and has
learned what per cent. of the population
of Georgia is in the penitentiary. The
results are very interesting indeed.
In round numbers there are at present
twenty-five hundred convicts in the Geor-
gia penltentiary. There are S67 burglars
IN the pen serving sentences ranging all
the way from one to twenty years. The
average sentence for this crime is seven
and five-eights years. There are fifty
burglars who are serving out twenty year
sentences.
When the calculation was started, on
the first of April, Union county, way up
in the north, was the only county in the
state which did not have a representative
in this legislature of crime, the peni-
Tertiary. Since that time she has broken
her record, however, and has two repre-
Sentatives there. There are several coun-
ties which have only one convict in the
penitentiary. Towns, with population
of 4, O64, sAas one convict; Pickens, with
population of S,1S2, has only one;
White, with a population of 6,151, has
but one; Heard, with a population Of
1851, has but one; Johnson, with pop
ulation of 6,129, has only one; EchOls,
with population of 3,078, one, and
Fannin, with a population, of 8,724, has
but one
Fulton county has 227 representatives
in the penitentiary, one to every 327 in
habitants; Chatham has 216, one to every
267 inhabitants; Richmond has 46, one
to every 982 inhabitants; Bibb has ITO,
one to every $50 inhabitants; Floyd has
81, one to every 423 inhabitants; Clarke
has 8 to every 1898 inhabitants; Musco-
gee has 81, one to every 254 inhabitants;
Dougherty has "A, one to every 254 in
habitants; Glynn has AZ, one to every
319 inhabitants, and Sumter has 60, one
to every 368 inhabitants.
These are very interesting figures and
they demonstrate what has been so often
stated before that large percentage Of
the crimes in the south are committed
by the negro. In all the counties where
there are but one or two cOnvicts there
are very few negroes and in the counties
such as D1ugherty and Glynn, where the
percentage is greatest, the negro popula-
ton is very large.
Judge Turner is going still deeper into
the subject, as he,proposes to get the tig-
ures from the last census showing what
per cent. of the population in each coun-
tv is iliterate. He will figure On this
basis and find what influence education
has in eleyating the people from a moral
standpoint. He is also going to make
some figures on the whisky question, and
is going to see how the counties that
have prohibition compare to those that
have whisky in the matter ofrepresen
tation in the penitentiary.
The figures will all be embodied in the
coming report ii the judge, and let the
people know just how the leased con-
victs are standing before the Hme Tor
renewing the lease arrives.