Morgan County democrat. (Versailles, Mo.) 1900-1906, 1903-10-16
SOUTHERN PRISONS
SCHOOLS Of CRIME
Hardened Criminals Are Chained to
Petty Offenders.
CONVICT LEASING SYSTEM
Or. ThirkIe1d says Prison Campo Of
the south Are chOOls Of Dcprav.
hy From which Criminals
Are Graduated.

Are Graduated.
Cincinnati, o, Oct. 13.-Dr. w. F.
Thrilled, corresponding secretary Of
the Methodist Freedmen's Aid and
Southern Educational society, Monday,
In delivering the opening address Of
the Evangelical alliance, charged that
the crimes Of negroes in the south are
due to the chain-gang prison system.
He said in part:
Far he 1t from me to utter n word
In extenuatiOn Of the unspeakable
crime of which some black men are
guilty. Let US keep In mind, however,
that only about 90 per cent. OF the
black men who are lynched have even
been charged with the unspeakablt
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 ex-
ecution of the law against this and ali
crimes Of all men.
Lynch law, however, Is anarchy. II
brings in the reign of barbarism. Il
brntalizes members of the mobs; it un-
dermines government; it Ices not stoI
crime.
"In estimating criminality among the
black people we should keep in mind
that since ~AppOmattOx nearly every
southern siat has maintained a school
Of crime, an organized institution for
the training of criminals. This
charge against the cOnvict-lease sys-
TEN of the south. This system, with
its thousands of victims, has been the
cause Of much of the outbreaking OF
crime among the black people through
its b~rutalizing and dehumanizing in.
tiuencc on thousands of negroes.
Under this system both prison int
prisoners are farmed out under the
control Of private corporations-sold to
the highest bidder.
ITO the lesseos the body and soul
If 'COnvicts are assigned.
THE motive of both state and les.
gees is not morals, but money; no.
reformation, bU, exploitation of Grim
mails for gain. II is crime turned into
a source Of revenue; the Drawn II
blood OF criminals bartercd FOR gain.
terminals are generally scattered ~
branch prIsOns-quartcred in rude
stOckadcs 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 mer
and ONE are in some camps, not
separated.
Hardened criminals and the boy
o victcd Of his first crime; the com
paratively good and the most depravcd,
vile and abandoned are chained to-
gethcr. One warden Of "A state peniten-
tiary protests in his report that under
the present law and custom the peni-
| Tertiary IL the school of crime, instead
Of being a reformatory institution OF
80 boys under IS, nire-tenths of them
leave prison much worse than when
they came ".
There Is in these convict camps no
organized reformatOry effort. Reform
does not enter into the system. 1t Is
a matter of barter and sale of con-
vict men and women To the highest
bidder. The aim Of the state is not
the moral reformation of her criminal
classes, but the care Of them without
rOst and even the reduction OF taxes
through the sale Of crimiuals.
I'm Il period Of two years over 100
Of those conycts escaped from southern
prisons. Think of 100 thieves, muir
derers, thugs, at large, lawless men
roaming about IN defiance of all law
and order. Think of a system that has
no refOrmatOry element; no system 10
cure men of crime, but that cducates
young criminals in crime, and that
by It's barbarity bruttalizes II de-
humanizes men. and sends out those
that do not die under the horrors Of
the system to debauch and degrade go
ciety. From such criminals what o
der II there come forth hundreds Of
moral monsters?
THE south should reform It's present
system, and thus stop the education
of criminals. The present system IL a
sowing to the wind. and Is bound to
reap the whirlwlnd."