The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1908-07-30
THE CONVICT PROBLEM.

Just at tnlS time georgia Is WTeSt-
ling with the convict problem, and
has developed and disclosed about
as revolving a case of official mis-
management, abuse, brutality and
corruption as was ever bred by that
famed mother of iniquities, the con-
Wet lease system
The same trouble has confronted
Georgia before, and, considering the
facts then developed and the condi
tons known to have existed, 1t is a
wonder that great state like Geor-
gia, the public service of which has
been in most other respects clean
and praiseworthy, had not purged
and cleansed her record in prison
management.
1t would serve no useful purpose
to relate any of the revolving details
revealed by the evidence, but it is
sufficient to say that they beggar
language and are difficult to believe.
They reek with not only brutality,
but murder outright, and the iniqui-
ties of the Siberian mines can no
longer be held up as standard Of
barbarity to prisoners. In this age,
when the world is growing better,
and the spirit of altruism is more
dominant taan ever before, it is
manifest incongruity in social condi
lions that no PROFESSOR so little
ing with convicted criminals.
Every state, in some form or ano-
Their, and at some time, has had the
same outbreak of graft and inhum-
anity and scandal. Texas has had
most virulent attacks, and, despite
the system of management organized
and enforced by the late Major T. j.
Goree when he was made superin
tendent of prisons in 1877, which put
Texas to the front in prison manage
ment, complaints, more or less we'll
founded, arise even now at intervals.
There is, 1t seems, Unborn in some
children an uncomfortable desire to
wound and torture helpless dumb
animals and birds, an innate deprav-
ity which finds expression in tortur
ing the helpless; and it seems that
something Of the same evil and in
furious penchant and disposition is
aroused in the minds of many men
In whose hands and subject to whose
unrestrained control prisoners are
placed. There have been in connec-
ton with prisoners more injustice,
cruelty and brutality than in any
other department of government.
The lease system is great and al
most inexcusable evil and should be
abated. 1t is true, the problem of
what to do with prisoners is a per-
picking one. Any competition with
free labor naturally and reasonably
raises protest. To let convicts sit
day after day in absolute idleness, as
was done a few years ago in New
and yet many convicts are unfit for
any labor except out of doors on
farms.
What Georgia needs first is to
hang or put in the penitentiary a lot
of lessees and guards, and the same
need often exists where there are
prisons.
There should be special statutes
providing especially severe punish
ment for any unlawful violence to-
ward or abuse of prisoners, and
most especially should the law of
evidence be SO framed that in cases
of trials for abuse of convicts the con
vict should be competent witness.
A most rigid system of inspection
and supervision should be provided
and maintained, and be answering
ly enforced. Such conditions as are
daily being revealed in Georgia are
a blot and reproach upon the fair
name OF great state, and an injury
which can not be measured In dol
lars.
If Georgia will hang a few lessees
and convict guards she will both do
justice and set wholesome example
which will be felt beyond her lin