Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1903-10-15
CRIMINALS TRAINED.
DR.. Thirkield Arraigns the Southern
Convict Lease System.
STATES MAINTAIN SCHOOLS OF CRIME.


the Methodist Freedman's Aid and
Southern Educational society, yester-
day, In delivering the opening address
Of the Evangelical alliance. charged
that the outrages Of negroes In the
south was due to the chain gang prison
system. He said In part:
Ear be 1t for me to utter one word
In extenuation Of the unspeakabls
crime of which some black men are
guilty. Let us keep in mind, however,
that only about 20 per cent. of the
black men who are lynched have even
been charged with the unspeakable
crime against the sacredness Of wom-
anhood. Let the black men bring In
every influence to bear to make such
crimes impossible. Let there be
prompt execution of the law against
this and all crimes of all men. Lynch
law. however, 10 anarchy. 1t brings
In the reign of barbarism. 1t brutal
Ices members Of the mobs; 1t under
mines governments; 1t does not stop
crime.
I'm estimating criminality among
the black people we should keep in
mind that since Appomattox nearly
every southern state has maintained
school Of crime, an organized insti-
tuition for the training Of criminals.
This charge against the convict lease
system Of the south. This system,
with Its thousands Of victims, has been
the cause of much Of the outbreaking
crime among black people through Its
brutalizing and inhumanizing infiu-
ence on thousands Of negroes.
Under this system both prison and
prisoners are farmed out under the
control Of private corporations-sold
to the highest bidder. To the lessees
the body and soul Of convicts are as
signed. The motive Of both state and
lessee Is not morals, but money; not
reformation, but exploitation Of Grim
inals for gain. 1t is crime turned into
q source Of revenue, the Drawn and
blood Of criminals bartered for gain.
Criminals are generally scattered
in branch prlsons-Quartered In rude
Stockades without proper sanitation,
food or clothing. The average life Of
these convicts Is less than ten years.
Old and young are promiscuously
chained and herded together. Even
men and women are in some camps
not separated. Hardened criminals
and the boy convicted Of his first
crime; the comparatively good and the
most depraved, vile and abandoned,
are chained together. One warden Of
state prison protests In his report
that under the present law and GUS
tom the penitentiary is the school Of
crime instead of being q reformatory
institution OF the so boys under IS
nine-tenths Of them leave prison much
worse than when they came in.
years ago o warden of the Alabama
penitentiary bore witness to the filth
and vermin and horrors of these pris-
ons. Our system said he, Is bet
ter training school for criminals than
any Of the dens Of iniquity that exist
in our large cities-a disgrace to the
state and reproach to civilization
There Is In these convict camps no
organized reformatory effort Reform
does not enter into the system. It is
q matter of barter and sale Of convict
men and women to the highest bidder.
The, aim Of. the state is not the moral
rvzvimaII0n OF ner criminal glasses,
but the care Of them without cost and
even the reduction Of taxes through
the sale Of criminals It is one thing
to employ them on public works I'M
der the care of the state in a chain
gang system. 1t is quite another thing
to farm them out to the highest bid
der under the convict lease system.
think Of q system that has no re-
formatory element: no system to
cure men Of crime but that educates
young criminals in crime and that by
its barbafity brutallzes and dehuman-
ICES men and sends out those that do
not die under the horrors Of the sys-
tenn to debauch and degrade society. |
From such criminals what wonder II |
there have come forth hundreds OF |
moral monsters.
Even at the late session Of the |
prison congress In Atlanta visitors
went to the city stockade, where con-
ditions are under the oversight Of en-
lightened oficials under the employ Of
the city. The element Of gain is here
eliminated. yet these humane people |
entered Q public protest against the
inhumanity and immortality Of the
present system even under these IA
vorabls conditions. The south should
reform its present system and thus
stop the education Of criminals. The
present system Is q sowing to the wind
and II is bound to reap the whirlwind."