The National tribune., 1908-09-03
PRISON LIFE ON THE IsTHNus.
1t Is Doing Fine Work in Building Roads
and Developing the Country.
(From the Canal Zone.)

After trial Of II weeks the employ
ment of convicts and local prisoners at
highway building in the Canal Zone is
said by the Division of Municipal Engi-
beering to have passed the experimental
stage. Three distinct ends were in view
when the program submitted by the
special committee on the employment
OF prisoners was approved Feb. IL, 1908.
First of these was the improvement of
the condition of the prisoners; second,
the opening up to development of the
fertile valleys of the Canal Zone; and,
third. reimbursing the Government for
the expense of maintaining its penal
system. Each of these ends Is being
accomplished.
The prisoners are divided into two
claSses-long term or felons, and short
term or misdemeanants, the short-term
men having been sentenced for three
months or less and the long term for
more than three months. Long-term
sentences are for hard labor and con-
finement at the Culebra Penitentiary,
and there are on an average 100 pris-
oners serving such sentences. Fifty Of
these are engaged on road building near
or in Culebra and are confined in the
penitentiary at night. Fifty are being
used on the road being built between
Mount Hope and Gatun, and their base
is camp established on the line of
work.
The camp is portable. 1t consists of
one large building with hunks for so
men. cook and dining shed, all made
from native material and very cheap,
and officers tents. A high barb-wire
fence surrounds these buildings and
tents. Here the men take their three
meals day and sleep at night. The
meals are substantial and well prepared,
the hunks in which the prisoners sleep
are dry and the building well ventilated.
This is the only prison camp so far es-
tablished.
The municipal prisoners, or short
term meff, are engaged in local work
and spend the night in the various jailS.
Already the results are noticeably good
on this class. Their terms, altho short,
are long enough to give them the ad
vantage of a month or two of abstinence
from liquor and the benefit of nour.sh-
ing food.
This is the first systematic effort that
has been made to develop the Isthmus
of Panama by building good roads. The
fertile valleys of the Canal Zone are
| now almost valueless, because inacce ssh
BILE, and highways will open them to
cultivation. 1t is the idea of the orig
inators of the plan that Panama can be
made as garden-like as Hawaii and by
the same means-prison labor. The
road along the line between the Canal
Zone and the City Of Panama, from the
La Boca road to the Administration
Building at Santa Rosa, the improve
ment of the streets in the native town
at Empire, the breaking of rock from
the canal work at Gorgona and wagon
road from Mount Hope to Gatun. Con-
tempIated is a road from Panama to
Pedro Miguel, along the east side of the
canal, and from Pedro Miguel to Cor
gona, along the west side of the canal.
Eventually all these highways will con-
meet with one another, but the first OBJ
ject Is opening up the country in vari-
GUS places rather than building one
main highway or system of roads con-
| Meeting any two or more villages.
In this scheme the first serious piece
of construction was begun II weeks
ago, the road from Mount Hope to Ga
tun. 1t is to be 20 feet wide and seven
miles long, and will open up the hill
country between these two places. In
seven weeks so convicts graded the
roadway one and one-half miles. The
Division of Municipal Engineering be-
lieves that so free laborers could not
have done better. On this work the
local prisoners from Cristobal precede
the long-term workers and clear away
the vegetation so that the grading may
proceed without interruption. At pres
ent local prisoners are building the La
Boca-Santa Rosa road, and are working
on the hill road between Gorgona and
Empire. In general, the highways be-
ing constructed are of the Sabanas road
type, macadam bed drained by side
bitches.
For bookkeeping purposes the IDivi-
sion of Municipal Engineering credits
the Department. Civil Administration
with 80 cents gold day for each pris-
oner employed. The division that en-
ploys the men states that such good
labor could not be purchased on the
Isthmus for that price, and the De-
partment of Civil Administration finds