The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-10-13
Secretary of Freednan's Aid Society Severely Criticises Our
 Way of Keeping Prisoners
TERMS TIE PRACTICE
 4 SCHOOL OF CRIME
Quotes From the Statement of For n1er Warden of Alabama, Who Said 1t Was a Reproaeh
 to Civilization.

Cincinnati, Oct. 12.-Dr. W. P. Thirkield. corresponding secretary of the Methodist Freedman's Aid and Southern Educa- tional Society, today in delivering the opening address of the evangelical al- lance. charged that the outrages of ne- groes in the south was due to the chain gang prison system. He said in part
 Far be 1t for me to utter ane word in extenuation Of the unspeakable crime of which 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 sacred ness of womanhood. Let black men bring every influence to bear to make such crimes impossible. Let there be prompt execution of the law against those and all crimes of all men. Lynch law, how ever Is anarchy. It brings in the reign of barbarism; it brutalizes members of the mob; 1t undermines governments; it does not stop crime.
 A School of Crime. 'In estimating criminality among the black people we should keep in mind that since Appomattox, nearly every southern state has maintained a school of crime an organized institution for the training of criminals. This I charge against the convict lease system of the south. This system with it's thousands of victims, has | been the cause of much of the outbreak- l ing of crime among the black people l through its brutalizing and dehumanizing l influence on thousands of negroes. | Under this system both prison and prisoners are fa-med out under the con- trol of private corporations-sold to the highest bidder. To the lessee the bodies | and souls of convicts are assigned. The motive of both state and lessee is not 1 morals, but money; not reformation, but 1 exploitation of criminals for gain. It is crime turned into a source of revenue; l the brawn and blood of criminals bartered | for gain.
 Convict System Described. Criminals are generally scattered in branch prisons quartered In rude stock ades. without proper sanitation, food or clothing. The average life of these con- vlcts Is less than ten years. Old and young are promlscuously chained and bound 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,
 
 state pententary protests in his report that under the present law and custom, the penitentiary Is the school of crime | instead of being reformatory institution. Of fifty boys under IS, nine-tenths of them | leave prison much worse than when they 1 came in
 Years ago a warden of the Alabama l penitentlary bore witness to the filth and vermin and horrors of these prisons. Our | system.' said he, Is a better training | school for criminals than any of the dens | of lniquty that exist in our large cities, Il disgrace to the state, and a reproach to | evllizaton.'
 No Reformato Effort. There is in these convict camps no or- ganlzed reformatory effort. The aim of the state Is the care of convicts without cost, and even the reduction of taxes through the sale of criminals It is one thing to employ them on public works un- der the care of the state in a changans system. It is quite another to farm them out to the highest bidder under the con- viet lease system.
 "The outcome of the careful investiga- ton of the convict lease system on the part of the governor of Georgia. was q revelation of inhumanity, barbarity and shameless immortality Much of 1t was unfit for the public prints.
 In q period of two years over Hoo of these convicts escaped from southern prisons. Think of HOO thieves, murderers thugs, at large-lawless men roaming about in defiance of all law and order Think of a system that has no reform atory element, no system to cure men of crime. but that educates young criminals Tn crime and that by It's barbarity brutal lzes and dehumanizes men that do not die under the horror of the system to de- bauch and degrade society. From such criminals what wonder if there have come forth hundreds of moral monsters.
 Bad Even In Atlanta.
 Even at the late session of the Pris- on congress in Atlanta. visitors went to the city stockade where conditions are under the oversight of enlightened of fcials under the employ of the city. The element of gain Is here eliminated, yet these human people entered a public pro- test against the inhumanity and immor- allty of the present system, even under these favorable conditions The south should reform it's present system and thus stop the education of criminals. The present system is a sowing of the wind, and 1t Is bound to reap the whirlwind.
 lover against the outcome of these schools of crime is the feet that of all the thousands of graduates from the Christian schools maintained by the be- nevolence of the north and south, not one graduate has ever been even accused of the crime against the sacredness of wom- anhood."
 Mir Thrkied made a strong appeal for the philanthropic and Christian people, both of the south and north, to join hands in educational and missionary efforts for the solution of this grave problem of the races, the greatest problem which was ever given nation to solve.