Bisbee daily review., 1909-04-01
PUT BAN 0N GRAFT SCHEME
 IN GEORGIA
The Convict Lease System Which Was in Vogue There For Years Will Terminate Today

!
 ATLANTA, Ga, Marcn 3f.-The convict lease system, which has pro duced so much graft and cruelty dur ing it's existence, ends in the state of Georgia today. The law which will produce this great reform, and which | was passed by the general assembly in extraordinary sess on last Scptem- Der. will go into force tomorrow. Secretary GOodlOe Vancey of the pris- or commission has for several weeks | past been engaged almost constantly | in preparing every detail for the com | ing into force of the new convict | law that takes all the convicts out | of the hands of lessees forever and !! turns them over to the state itself ther owner.
 Under the new law all felony con victs shall be turned over to the l prison commission after today, in | cluding those now in the hands of lessees and those hereafter convict | ed All misdemeanor cOnvicts not | worked by the counties upon their | roads shall also be turned over to the ! commission. Count es desiring to use l conyiets in building roads, bridges | and other public works shall apply to | the prison commission for their pres l tDN uuOlds HI nCI AdANA AAe1h February 15 of each year. After the pro rata share of each county has been d distributed to those desiring | them, all counties wanting more shall l have them on another proportionate l, scale. After the second distribution, municipalities desiring them shalll have them at $100 per convict per an mum. State farms are to be leased for five years or purchased, if possi- bie where convicts may be worked l State institutions needing labor may | have fifty convicts each. If all these means of disposing of convicts do not absorb the total number in the com missions hands, then the commission | and the governor are given authori- ty to dispose of the remainder as they think best, on work wherein the contractor Is not interested in the amount of work the convict can do per day, and for period not to ex- ceed twelve months. Thus ends a system, wrong In prin- l cipIe and frightfully abused in prac- tice. and thus is dealt to private con tractors accustomed 10 reap the fru' Is of ths obnoxious system, Q heavy blow. Under the old law there was no penitentiary in Georgia; there were DO warehouses. No prisoners were kept in jails. but at every term of court persons who had been con victed of offenses for which impris- onment is the penalty in other states, were sold as slaves to whoever de- l s'red that kind Of labor. and the mon ey went into the public treasury. These conVicts were "leased" to any one who was willing to pay And oth- CT persons who were convicted Of | loneBses punishable by fines were leased" to any person willing to pay the fine and permit the prisoner to work out the amount at 8 fixed rate of wages
 General Thomas H Ruger of the United States army, then military governor of Georgia, without any au- thority from the people of this state, i inaugurated the convict lease system in 1868. by hiring out to the first re | sponsi5le bidder two hundred Of the five hundred conyiets tben in the pen l itentiary. The others were hired out
 soon afterward ether by him or by Governor Bullock. This was done at ] that time because of the poverty of the state, which had just emerged 1 from devastating war. Democratic 1 Legislatures, for the same reasons, lcoDtinued the system under restraint which reduced it's bad features to a minimum. postponing to q later and ! more prOsperOus period the perma- nent solution of the penttentiary problem.
 | The legislature Of 1871 even passed an act ratifying the Bullock lease and authorizing the continuance ot the lease for two years In 1874 @ lnew lease for twenty years was au- ifhorized, and ex-Governor Joseph E. Brown was active in securing the passage Of the act, urganized les see company which had the pick Of the convicts, and 8 supposed to have made a large part of his fortune in the profits Of the lease. In 1896 a political issue was made of the con
 vict lease system, and Seaborn
 Wright, independent candidate for
 governor. iDdorsed by the pop iulist party. forced from the democrat l e party the pledge to abolish the
 system if he should remain in power. The legislature however. violated this party pledge. cOntending that the abolition should be gradual. few
 reforms were the only good result
 Of that promise. Leases were made
 for five years under certain restrie- ltions 3nd were renewed in 1909 for
 another term of five years.
 But the cry for reform would not
 be siIenced and the pen 'tentiary com- mittee of the legislature of 1307-s made a partial investigation of some of the convict camps which disclosed shocking condition, It was also found that State Warden Jake Moore had collected commissions from sew eral lessees. It was shown that the
 contractors reaI'zed enormous pro fits from the system and often abused
 the convicts working for them. On
 this showing the extra session Oi
 the legislature abolished the system 1 altogether.