The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-09-20
Psychological REFORM.
The Convict Lease System Disappearing in the
South
washington Post.)

The convict lease system, which at it's
best is very bad and at it's worst is in
tolerably inhuman, is rapidly going into
the past tense. Adopted in many South
ern States under the peculiar social
conditions evolved from war and eman-
cipation. it offended against the moral
sense of the people so egregiously that
their local governments applied them
selves to the task of devising other and
more humane methods of caring for
criminals. t,
THE State of Mississippi has set her
convicts to work at raising the great
agricultural staple of that section. 1t
purchased 10000 acres of land in fazoo
delta, famed for the abundance OF It's
cotton crops, and its convicts are en-
ployed in that healthful and useful oc-
cupation. They are under the care OF
State officials all the time, and those
guardians are accountable to their Off
cial superiors. 1t is easy to believe
that under this arrangement the Dru-
tality and indecency which character
lied the lease system have disappeared
Financially too, the plan is successful
The State is in receipt of a considerable
revenue from the labor of the convicts.
Naturally this success has attracted at
tention OF other cotton growing States
and we are informed that Louisiana and
Texas have adopted it. 1t is now pro-
posed to extend the plan in those States
TO those classes of prisoners that are
under the control of county authorities,
and it is believed that this will effect a
material reduction in the cost of local
hat
Georgia. Alabama and other States are
considering the advisability of adopting
the system. The Philadelphia Bulletin,
speaking of this reform movement, says:
1T is pointed out that if all the South
ern convicts were employed in raising
cotton there might be danger of over
production. This objection, however, is
readily met since there is no reason
why convict labor should not be used
in raising every kind of crop for which
the fertile soil of the South is adapted
Discussion of the great question of con-
let labor in the South reminds us that
the time is near when the first United
States prison for civilian convicts will be
opened. 1t is situated near Atlanta, on
ground donated for the purpose by that
city We have not been able to under
stand why the national government
should have accepted such a gift. The
location is all right and the generosity
of Atlanta is commendable. But why
should the Government of this great and
rich nation hold out it's hand for local
gift in behalf of any national work? We
hope this innovation will be the last
spectacle of the kind that Congress will
prepare for the country.
The general government is a much be-
lated laggard in penology. Instead of
constructing and managing prisons for its
convicts and setting high example for
the States, it has been content, for more
than hundred years, to farm them out
to various States, with little or no re-
gard for the character of the prisons to
which it has consigned them. 1t has
been unmindful alike of their physical
and moral condition, and the idea of re-
forming any of them appears to have
been ignored 1t has sent hundreds OF
Southern moonshiners into cold Northern
ATTITUDES, so far from their families and
friends that visit was impracticable.
1t has sent novices in crime to consort
with hardened criminals. And it is do
ing all those things today.
Will the Inauguration of the first Fed
eral penitentiary usher in better era
in Federal penology? That serious ana
weighty question will soon be answered
And if the answer should be negative
wf1at will have been gained by the cnange
from State to national care OF natiehal
conyicts? g44 epf ttassf41es nQa feSs its