Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1897-10-08
AD-MAKING
AND FARMING.
BY Convicts In North
Carolina.
(Raleigh, N. c., Correspondence of
the New York Evening Post.)

S ~" "" ~ tnio oeSto peiuittiuB
the sentencing of offenders to work
upon the roads has been in existence
for six years, but as yet only seven
teen of the ninety.six counties have
availed Of it, and in the majority of
seventeen it is of recent compare
lively application. It's good results,
however, are manifest, and the plan
having passed beyond the expert
mental stage, many additional coun-
ties are expected to avail themselves
OF the laws advantage ct an early
date. Several committees from
other States have inspected the sys.
tenn with view TO its adoption.
A mistaken impression has gone
abroad that practically all the con,
victs in the State are thus employed,
when, in reality, only the petty Of
tenders, or those receiving sentences
of less than five years, are sentenced
"to the roads," The penitentiary
convicts, nbout 1000 in number,
are employed on the "state farms.'
These farms, three in number, are
plantations of several thousand
acres. AS three fourth of the con.
victs are negroes who have worked
at agriculture pursuits, the force so
obtained is very good for farming
purposes. At these farms the con-
victs raise cotton aud corn princi.
pally. They are worked under the
guard surveillance system, and are
confined in strong stockades and
prison houses at night. The State
has several thousand bales of cotton
to sell every season and great guam
titles Of corn and other farm pro.
duce. For q number of years the
penitentiary has been self support
ing, the profits of the farms being
sufficient to feed and clothe all the
inmates and guards, and to meet
the other expenses.
The law gives Superior Court
Judges the discretion of sentencing
prisoners "to the roads" or 10 the
penitentiary. But the main sources
of supply of road makers are tho
mayors courts and those of justices
of the peace. The convicts from
these courts especially if they are
residents of the locality where con-
victed, require little or no ''guard
lng," one guard being ample for
squad of twenty to fifty Of this
class of workers. This fact proba-
bly, accounts for the misstatement
going the round, that the convicts
require no guard, and allowed to go
home and spend Sunday with their
families. The latter privilege is not
accorded TO any of the convicts,
though in some few cases it proba-
bly, could be done with safety.
The system OF working petty of
tenders not only assure good roads
but it has the effect of Kidding North
Carolina towns of the vast army of
Northern tramps who make their
way south every year with the begin
ming of cold weather. Whenever q
tramp is arrested here,under the gen.
eral vagrant laws or municipal ordi-
nances, he is invariably given thirty
days on the roads as an initial dose
at the end of which period he is or
dered to leave town. If he does not
comply with this order within TWEEN.
ty-four hours, he is sentenced to q
sixty days term, but it is seldom
that second dose is necessary.
The tramps leave as soon as oppor
tunity presents itself, and warn all
of their stripe to beware of the State.
These convict roadmakers do not
come in contact with free labor, for
the reason that they are not EN-.
ployed on the roads or streets in
side tine corporate limits, but on the
country roads leading into towns
which heretofore have received little
a'teniion.
For miles in every direction the
roads leading into this city are now
macadamized, and present beauti-
fnl appearace. Some of the country
roads are better than the roadways
ofsome of the streets within the
corporation, although the convict