The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-28


! WOMEN CONVICTS.
| The women eonvicts should have
prison separate from ell others.
/ This under the core Of a matron. subject
1 70 the superintendent should be occupied
/ by women and girls exclusively
! Those not assigned 10 camp duty can be
| employed in mending AMI making cloth
/ ing for themselves, the boys. and other
| convicts. If other employment is neces-
sary to keep them engaged they may be
4 required 70 work gardens or do such other
| service as the commission may direct AS
/ the penitenuary is at present constituted.
/ each woman would have 10 do the sewing
| for ifty-five convicts. If at any time il
/ becomes apparent that more can be done
/ by them or that IL is advisable TO engage
them otherwise, the commission can de-
| termine how they shall be employed
MEN CONVICTS.
All male convicts not classed as able
| bodied, who can be so cared for there,
should be kept in the penitentiary TO
| DO prepared prior TO the expira-
ton of the lease and placed
at work Here also should be sent such
able-bodied men as We are then prepared
to care for. who may be needed to help
carry on successfully the work in which
| the second-class convicts are engaged.
The remainder. which will probably APP
proximste 800 men. should be engaged to
work for such persons as might contract
| conditions and limitations as you may d.
rect.
The prison commission should be au-
thOrized to enter into contracts for the
employment of convicts, for terms not
| to exceed five years. requiring payment
to be made quarterly. and taking bond for
the faithful performance of the contract.
In no instance shall power be given the
employers to manage, direct, punish or
control the convict. This authority should
be retained by the state and exercised only
by its officers. The state should arrange
for their being properly housed, bedded,
clothed. fed. punished and cared for in
every respect, and 1t only should have
power to say when and how much they
shall work. The state and the employer
should be the contracting parties aud no
dominion exercised by the employer over
the convicts. Under this system the state
has the same control of conyicts that it
would have were it employing them on its
| own account. yet it would receive a fixed
and certain amount for their labor and
not be interested in the profit and loss ac-
count of the business at which they are
worked.
CHARACTER OF WORK TO BE
DONE BY CONVICTs.
To determine upon the particular work
in which convict labor in this state shall
engage and give specific directions within
| narrow limits to the prison commission
would, in my opinion, be unwise.
The prison commission should be men of
high character and recognized ability, who
will, in dealing with all ma alters, act with
due Difference both to the interest and the
sentiment of the people whom they serve.
1t need not be anticipated, however, that
by some mysterious and inconceivable way
the state will be able to take this large
force out of all fields of labor and produce
with it something that no one else ever
has or can produce. The sentence of the
court in every case is that they be con-
fined at hard labor. and in complying with
this mandate of the law they should be
required to produce something that is of
value; that will, if possible, make their
| labor remunerative to the state This can
and should be done without driving free
labor from its present employment, and
without unnecessarily coming in competi-
ton with it, Our convict labor must pro-
duce something or become tax upon both
| the property and labor of the state, for
| he who thinks that the laborer escapes
| taxation is sadly mistaken. His name
may not be upon the tax books, neverthe-
| less, he pays
REFORMING INFLUENCES.
The legislation to be enacted by you
should lmperatively exact of the peniten-
| tiary authorities that the best possible in
| fuences be thrown around the inmates of
our penal institutions to induce them 70
| reform and at the end of their terms be-
come useful and upright citizens. Ample
| opportunity for the encouragement of re-
| ligious teachings and influences should be
given, and every detail of their training
and management should be so conducted
as to impress upon them the value of right
| doing and to inculcate correct moral prin-
ciples.
There are now in the penitentiary 1903
who are serving their first term, 266 who
ar fiTner fhafr C,1aI Nrrbo
ing their third, 10 who are even serving
| their fourth term, 6 their fifth and one the
| sixth term. How many, who having COM
pleted a term in the penitentiary, have
| subsequently been sentenced to the county
chain-gangS cannot be known, as no re-
cords ara kept from which the facts can
| be ascertained. We do know, however,
how frequently the men who have been
In the custody of the state for the purposes
of punishment and reformation emerge
only to commit the most outrageous and
| shocking crimes-to become outlaws. Too
many of them upon receiving their dis
charges are vastly worse men, more dam
gerous citizens, than when they entered!
BOARD OF PARDONS.
If, in disposing of the convict problem,
you provide for the creation of a prison
commission, I recommend that there be
conferred upon it the duties of a board of
pardons.
w ME unuer our constitution the power
to grant pardons can only be exercised by
the governor, this body can be of inval-
liable aid to him because of their knowl-
edge of the convicts under it's control and
by sharing the responsibility, greatly light
en- his burden. when undergoing those
fearful trials when human life is placed in
the power of one man who must decide
the issue upon human testimony.
BOARD OF TAX EQUALIZERS.
In my message to the general assembly
in 1895. in discussing the need of a new
assessment law, l said:
In reference TO the value of property
as shown by the controller generals re-
port, gathered from tax returns, it is my
duty to say to you that it does not APP
proximate the real or market value of the
property of the citizensof the state subject
10 taxation. Under the present system Of
making tax returns, outside of where the
returns are affected by local assessment
systems of towns and cities,
each man is his own tax
assessor and places upon his property
such value as he sees ft even himself
in many instances confessing that the
a. l.,