The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-06-18
CONVICT SYSTEM
HAS GOOD RESULTS
Associate Inspector Camper
Discusses the Situation
is AN IMMENSE PROJECT
Department Has Under Its Care Be-
tween 1900 and 1000 State Con-
victs and Supervision of
300 County convicts.
is AN IMMENSE PROJECT

Montgomery, June IL - (Special.)-
What about the convicts, as you see
them these days?9 was asked of Assoc
c.ate Inspector NJ. w. Camper, after a
trip over the territory this week
Il am not surprised that you ask the
question:" he replied. because If you are
like the great majority of our people
you have heretofore overlooked it. and
have but little idea of the important
and interesting features involved in this
department of the state government. 1t
is a much larger factor in our public af-
fairs than is generally known, embracing
the care of between 1900 and 2OOO state
convicts, and In a probably less degree
a supervision over about 500 county con-
victs. The management of this large body
of men and women (for we have many
women among the eonviets-about per
cent of the whole number), involves a
business of over a half million dollars
annually.
4 will give you a general idea of the
work of the convict bureau, but 1t will
h~rdy convey a just conception of the
thousand and ore details that go to make
up a smoothly running department, what
naturally presents many complications, in
Guiding the physical and ethical ques-
tions necessarily involved
Great Improvement.
Formerly the convict system of the
state was justly liable to criticism from
many points of view; but there has been
a gradual Improvement until now no true
Albanian need be ashamed of it, because
II has worked its way into a system
creditable to the state and even hopeful
to those WHO honestly entertain the mod
ern and altrustic ideas of prison man
agement and reform.
The system is conducted on the prin-
ciple that the convicts must pay the
penalty of labor imposed by the courts
of the state, but that in the process of
discharging the obligations incurred by
their offences, they must be wei cared
for, properly clothed and fed, their health
protected. and Ga cardinal point that
brutality and inhuman treatment shall
not be allowed. That with so large a
body of people of the lower strata there
should now and then occur incidents not
above suspicion or criticism, is not to be
denied; but that the state. through its
convict board, has vastly improved the
system and has approxlmated condi-
tiCn that may well meet the approval of
tn. good people of the state, is equally
a patent fact. OF course the system Is
not perfect; nothing human has ever yet
attained that pre-e eminent condition. yet
the state, 1t can confidently be said, is
working out the problem of penal servi-
tude in a broad and humane manner. and
even now 1t can safely challenge COM
parison with any state in the union.
Some Details.
haH nd
physician, who are required to look
after the prisoners. They represent the
state. The contractor or his manager,
represents the other side; and the wise CO.
operation of both means a we'll ordered
plant. Just to both. The conditions at
the various camps generally indicate the
degree of skill and wisdom of manage
ment. At several of the prisons the COM
ditions meet every requirement of the in
spector. At these places wise manage
ment is reflected as clear as the day.
Defects In management are observable
at some places. 1t is not surprising to
find this so; but the conditions neverthe-
less are generally good, and improve
ments will go on until the wise and
humane regulations of the board of in
spectors shall remove these minor causes
of friction
THE convicts now under our care are
distributed among eighteen prisons or
camps, three of which belong to the
state; Speigners, with 5000 acres of land
and a cotton mill; Wetumpka. or the
Walls, where is located the hospital and
where the state has 700 or 500 acres of
land and No. 4, near Montgomery, where
are over 1000 acres.
Fifteen Other Prisons.
"The other fifteen prisons are-two at
coal mines. Pratt City, with the Ten
nessee Coal. Iron and Railroad company,
and Flat Top, with the Sloss- Sheffield
Steel and Iron company; two on farms
owned by individuals. one in Montgomery
county and one In Lowndes; five a, la~ge
saw mills located south of Montgomery
at Durham. River Falls. Sanford. Rich
burg and Dolive; five at turpentine farms
in the piney woods of South Alabama !;
one at cordage factory in Montgomery
| and one at a foundry in North Birming-
| ham, The hiring of these convicts. and
| porviding properly for their maintenance,
requires iudcious management, and the
department has discovered that their con-
tracts can be made quite profitable to the
| state without hardships upon the convict
| other than those imposed by an impartial
execution of their sentences
only a few years ago the convict sys-
| tenn was almost a burden upon the state
Now, II the present year should disclose
a profit of over n quarter of a million
dollars 1t would not be a matter of great
surprise to those who are familiar with
the situation.