The Grenada sentinel., 1903-11-28
COUNTY LEASING system
HON. FRANK JOHNSTON WRITES
AGAINST THE IDEA.
Thinks the Legislature Should Take
the Same Action In Regard to
Leasing County Prisoners AZ
It Did in Regard to leas-
inQ State Convicts.

Hon. Frank Johnston, of Jackson,
whose pen was the first to cry out
against the iniquity of leasing State
convicts, and who more than any
other man in Mississippi is respons-
1ble for the abolition OF that system in
the State, Is now making q vigorous
crusade against the leasing of the
comfy cOnvicts. The following strong
and convincing argument against the
system is made by Mr.. Johnston in a
recent communication to the Jackson
Evening News:
To the editor Of the News:
The recent communication of DR..
w. T. Boiling, in the Evening News, on
the Subject of county convict leasing
is an admirable and powerful ar
raignment of this method of dealing
with county prisoners, and it should
attract the attention of the people of
this State to the evils of the system.
Under the present laws of this State
the discretionary power is given to
the boards of supervisors to work the
county prisoners on a county farm or
to hire them out to lessee.
In many of the counties the co7victs
are hired out to the highest bidder,
and in few they are worked on coun-
ty farms.
There has never been given to the
public any official report or utterance
showing the evils and abuses of this
county leasing system.
The practical workings of the sys-
TEN, if it can be called a system, is
not generally known to the people Of
this State, but every one who has stud
led the subject of convict leasing by
the State knows that lessees of county
convicts are no better than the SUBJ
lessees of State convicts were, and
that a county convict camp is no bet
ter than the State convict camps under
the leasing system.
After the second legislative investi-
CATION in 1888 of the treatment of the
state convicts under the leasing sys-
TEN public sentiment reached the
point where convict leasing was con-
demned and its abolishment was de-
manded.
l may safely venture to say if the
legislature will make a searching in
vestigation Of the treatment of county
prisoners in the counties where the
leasing system prevails, that abuses
and cruelties and bad treatment will
be disclosed that will lead to the
abOlishment of this new and infam-
Gus form of human slavery.
There can be no doubt that cruel
ties and inhumanities have been, and
are, perpetrated upon the county pris.
Oners in this State. The prisoners in
some of the counties have been over
worked and brutally whipped, and in
some instances cOnvicts have been
kept after their terms of Imprisonment
had expired.
Take fiendless and helpless lot
of county prisoners, Of the character
that are usually hired out, and then
consider the character of the men who
hire these convicts, and the further
fact that these prisoners are almost
absolutely in tho power of the lessees
and their guards, and all intelligent
persons must perceive, at once, in view
of the greed of the lessees to get all
they can out of the prisoners at the
least possible expense to themselves.
that there must be cruelties and
abuses inherent in the system.
AS DR.. Boiling has said, and as it
has been said by every one who has
studied Or investigated convict leas-
ing, that it is wrong in principle, and
that it violates the great moral obliga-
tion that rests upon the State, to re-
tain itself, through it's own respon-
sible officials, the custody and control
sideration of public morality, it is of.
fensive to every principle of Chris.
tianity, and to an enlightened civiliza-
ton, and it offends every consideration
and principle of humanity, that lot
Of our fellow creatures should be sold
for some trifling misdemeanor at pub
lie auction to the highest bidder and
turned over to the custody and control
of the lessee for his private profit
1t is true that the law requires that
the lessees of county prisoners shall
feed and clothe them properly and
treat them humanely, but statutes do
not execute themselves.
It is also true that the law provides
for official inspections of county con-
vict camps, but in no instance has
there been any official report, known
to the public, of the bad treatment of
county cOnvicts
In every State where State convict
leasing exists, there are laws for off,
cial Inspection, but it is we'll known
that the most infamous cruelties have
been inflicted and that a condition of
general bad treatment of the convicts
has prevailed, Notwithstanding these
laws, Notwithstanding the fugitive.
and perfunctory, official inspections
that are made under them.
If it was wrong In principle for the
State to lease it's convicts, then it is
wrong for the State to permit boards
of supervisors to hire out the county
prisoners. The principle involved is
the same in both cases.
The question involved is not of an
economical, but of q moral character,
and it rests upon the fundamental
principle of all civilized governments,
that no State has the moral right to
ignore the duty and obligation Of pro-
'yiding directly for It's prisoners, and
that it is violation of this obligation
to give them over to the custody and
control of lessee, to be worked Tor
his private profit.
FRANK JOHNSTON
''Chief dairy maid TO the king" Is tho