The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-16
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HLHBAMh PE,NITENTIHRY,
IMPROVEMENTS 1T CHPITHL
IN.
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The second member of the bureau is DR..
Wyatt Henin Blake, of Clay, known
as the medical member required by law.
He has supervisory authority over the hos
pitfalls for convicts, and the local doctors
of the system everywhere. He regulates
all matters of hygiene in convict camps
and at the plantations. He is a busy man,
as are the other members of the bureau.
He resides in neat new state cottage on
the property near Wetumpka, but travels
habitually from point to point
The third and last member holds that
important office in all great organizations
known in the army as inspector-general.
This Is Captain e. w. Booker, of Marengo.
He travels ceaseessly from settlement to
settlement, hearing all complaints, and see
ing all that is to be seen and inspecting all
possible suspicious touching the manage
ment by inferior officers of convicts. He
resides in neat state cottage at Spegners,
which is a pleasant home for his family.
1t Is thus apparent that the penitentiary
system of Alabama is thoroughly organ
lied. In noting its practice, it Is difficult
to see how the animus of the penology can
be improved on. Plenty and cleanliness on
every side The great bulk of the prison.
ers have their physical wants infinitely bet
ter supplied in the prison than they can
afford at home The number of TRUSTEES
and the privileges allowed them strikes a
strangers attention. They are sent on err
rands, mounted on horse or wagon, night
or day, miles away. Escapes of this class
are rarely attempted and succeed almost
never.
The property In farming lands and titled
farms and farm buildings owned by the
state is most valuable. The fertility of the
soil, the abundant supply of pure drink
ing water on all, and the never-failing re-
punishment of obedient and efficient labor,
of tha ma To A
variety Of crops, well cultivated, are now
TO be found on all the plantations. Cotton
culture takes a prominent and essential
place in the farming. The work is suited
to the labor that comes to it. 1t would be
hard to find any other crop to answer the
purpose The cottonmilla tSpeigners con-
verts cents worth of raw cotton into Is
cents worth of textiles by labor that really
costs the state little or nothing, because
the same persons are a charge on the state
in the course of things. The mill uses
some eighteen bales of cotton per week.
Ledbetter, the superintendent is Tuska-
loosa county man, trained in the Fits mill.
He gets about So yards of sheetings from
convicts in the time that free labor would
turn out 66 yards the convict labor liable
to frequent changes from trained to raw
whereas free labor seldom changes That
is good showing. All the plantations have
large orchards and immense vegetable gar
Ill
Warden Perkins, at 1.-THE walls" has a
dairy herd of so cows, comprising Jerseys,
Devons, Holsteins and short horns we'll
housed and well managed. DIR. Blake finds
that the latest English hospital rules re-
quires 800 cubic feet of air to each patient,
whereas the Montgomery jail the Birming-
ham jail, the pententlary's main hospital
at Wetumpka have in the negro divisions
only the rise of 300 cubic feet of air per
occupant. The conscience of the state and
county may be comforted. possibly, with
reflections upon the ways of nature. Sheep,
for instance, lie close together in a brol-
ing sum- hogs pile upon each other to pass
through summer night. Negroes draw to
q close every door and window in summer
heat and winter frost alike and lie down
to sleep with their blankets rolled around
their heads and their feet outside, whether
the mercury ascends or descends to denote
the temperate re. The race does not by
instinct, rise to the consideration of cubic
feet of breathing air.
But Alabama seizes the head of Il de-
pendent family and plunges him into end
less disgrace. So much for the unavoida-
BILE How long will it be before our adj
vancing penology learns to rescue the in
nocent wife and children from starvation?
The woman in the case has rights of
property. She is expected to love Alabama
The children are not banished they are
only taught to question the patriotism of
the laws of the lawmakers Husband and
father is taken, is well fed, we'll clad and
housed and doctored by tBhe state as a
criminal. The free and virtuous wife and
children are left to misery and want. Is
that our matured penology?