Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1897-04-21
WEDNESDAY. .....AFRIL q, 1897
WHAT TO DO WITH THEM.

In another column of this issue we pub
lish a communication setting forth the
need OF better public roads I'm this state
and urging that the able-bodied male
convicts be taken out of the penitentiary
and put to work upon them.
This is a question that has been be-
fore the Legislature repeatedly in one
form or another but the majority of the
members could never see their way clear
10 abandoning the present contract sys-
ten. From the beginning the difficulty
has been one of money. BY hiring out
its convicts TO contractors within the
walls the state receives in cash about
$4,000 per annum. To put the main body
of tho convicts TO work upon the
roads would mean the surrender of the
bulk of this income and the mourning
of many expenses.
Furthermore. all experience teaches
that our prisoners are noe assweli cared
for when hired outside of the walls as
when worked in the prison. They are
healthier in the prison than out of it,
and If their preferences were consulted,
few, indeed. would ask 10 be sent to
labor upon county roads. In the latter
work they have but one single adj
vantage and this is, that opportunities
for escape arc then ten times more
numerous than when they are confined
In the penitentiary.
Again. most of the convicts arc en-
p.oyed under contracts which have many
years TO run. Any legislation upon
the subject would have to take cogni-
zance Of this fact. since those contracts
were made conformably with law and
have been repeatedly approved, in effect
by the Legislature.
We think it Will be found that Rich
mond's representatives in the Legisla-
ture will be ready at all times TO vote
for measures 10 do away with the con-
tract system. so far as this may be done
without violation OF the obligations that
the State has entered into. And in this
they would be supported by public senti-
ment here. But the question Of revenue
will always enter into the discussion, and
hitherto the country members OF the
posed 10 giving up the money that is
now received from this source.
The Dispatch is an old and constant
friend of road reform. We'll We know
how Virginia has suffered because of her
poor roads. But the money 10 build
good roads can come from nowhere else
than from the pockets Of the payers.
If the penitentiary convicts are put to
road building the expenses OF the con-
victs OH the roads and OF those that
must be kept in prison Che intrm, the
sick. the long-termed men, etc) must be
how IS that money to get into the
Treasury except through tax leyies?
There is no other way.
ave think our correspondent may rely
absolutely upon the reports OF the Su-
perintendent and Board OF Directors as
to the profits made by hiring out con-
victs. Their figures have never been sues
cessfully questioned.
The State farm does not PAY expenses;
nor was 1t ever expected that ii would.
1t has not only 10 support the men who
do its work, but great number Of sick.
aged. or partially disabled prisoners who
are sent there in order 10 relieve, to
some extent, the congested condition OF
the penitentlary's cells. These are the
farms dead heads" They can DO little
or no work. but have 10 he guarded and
fed Just as the able-bodied men are.
But keeping in view the double purpose
that the farm serves. and was designed
to serve, We have yet 10 find the arst
businessman or farmer. who. after ex-
amining the facts in the ease, has not
said that it was wise and humane en-
terprise upon the part Of the State. The
farm was bought and paid for out OF the
profits OF tho institution, and no more
considerable expenditures Will have 10
:. be made there. More: The farm could
be sold to-day for more than It has cost
Zthe State.
= As 10 the penitentiary's cells. they con-
tinue TO be horribly crowied-rrowded
with the men hired TO contractors. and
with other prisoners who must be kept
here. So far as we know there IS no
other prison in any English-speaking
land where the prisoners arc so hpddle,l
and jammed toeetheg. il - shame.
We are charging ourselves with heavy
responsibility In not meeting this ques-