The Pensacola journal., 1907-05-28
Defeat of Senator Adams's
County Convict Bill.

The failure of Senator Adams's
county convict bill, which. passed the
Senate but which was defeated in the
house by a vote of Is to Sc, should
lbe a matter of regret among all who
ATeally understand the conditions
which this bill was designed to cor
trect
] The bill provided for the mainte-
nance. protection, inspection. rules for
regulation and control of county pris-
oners, manner of discharge and in
Epection of jails. placing the inspec-
tion in the hands of the commissioner
/ of agriculture. who directs the inspec-
ton of the state convicts.
' Under our present system the state
has little if any authority over the
conditions which exist in our county
jails and county convict camps. in
certain fragrant cases of improper
conditions or treatment, the state in
spectors have assumed partial author
ity over the county camps, going 30
far as to inspect them and make re-
lure and the governor. but there has
always been a question as to such
authority and it has been difficult for
the state 10 exercise any real con-
irol over county convicts, whether
the latter were worked on the public
toads or leased to private individ-
uals
The need for state inspection and
control. to those who know anything
about the matter, is easily apparent.
/ BY far the greater part of the out
RACES that have been committed and
the scandals that have resulted from
convict mismanagement in Florida, NJ
least in recent years, have been in
the county camps-not the state
camps.
The state convict authorities have
made and are continuing to make a
study of the convict question. They
know how the best results have been
accomplished and what systems
should be employed to get those re-
suits. Moreover they have no inter-
est, direct or remote. in prescribing
rules other than those best calcu-
lated, to provide sanitary, healthful,
and moral conditions among the con-
victs and the element of self-interest
tGoes not enter into the question IN
their. case.
Where the counties are alone re
Sponsible for the care vf the county
convicts, the elements of expense,
profit, neglect. and cruelty are all
apt to enter into the treatment of the
convicts and when any or all of them
exist, the results must necessarily De
bad and often very bad.
In one county some nine or ten con
victs were burned alive through the
negligence or incompetence or drunk
enness or some other fault OF the
county guards. In other counties, the
sanitary conditions have been found
TO be outrageous and abominable. In
no county is any definite provision
made for checking the day when
convict's sentence expires. and if he
happens to be under lease, the lessee
can hold him indefinitely without
much danger of being. found out.
Even in our own Escambia county.
the report of the state inspector at
one time had the effect of making
some radical changes in the coRdi-
tion of the convict camps where the
men We're engaged in work on the
public roads
Senator Adams's bill would have
placed the county cOnvicts under the !
control of the commissioner of agIi- |
culture, just where the state con: !
,Victs now are, and would have in |
sured proper and uniform treatment |
in every county in the state
But the pleas that it might require |
a couple more clerks TO do the work !
and that it would be an interference
with local self-gOvernment' were
successful and the bill was killed.
Representatives Reese and Baggett |