El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-01-22

I upon being reimbursed. To add to the
| difficulties the prison, partly because Of
| the asperities of that trying period, was
| Overcrowded Transgressors were sent
| to the penitentiary for the most trivial
OffenSeS, for theft even of chicken
| coop or so cent piece, as the report de-
| clares. The prison population ranged
! in age from years to "a. In this stu
alton the prison management made
touching appeal for appropriations. The
| answer to it was Legislative order to
lease the penitentiary, and lease was
made.
Republicans Blamed.
All this took place under the one Re
publican administration that the state
has known; but the Democratic admin
! istration which succeeded it ratified the
then existing lease, and other leases
followed until 1888 The evil effects OF
this system still Hnger. The personnel
of the present staff include many who
were trained under it and who yet meas
ure things according to its standard. The
conversion of an institution which had
been a burden upon the taxpayers into
one which was not only Sel9~siipDorting,
but actually promised to yield small
revenue, was faYorabiy viewed in the
seventies, especially so since The moss
glowing reports Were issued concerning
the Improvements made by the lesSeeS
and their humane treatment of convicts.
Notwithstanding that the commission
which investigated the penftentiary in
1875 found said reports to be untrue. 50
deeply implanted in the public mind
was the idea that the penitentiaries
should make money, that scarcely any
protest was made when the authorities
merely Cancelled the existing lease and
! executed another with different par
ties.
Further agitation brought about the
cancellation Of the lease in force in 1888,
In the meantime the lessees had been
PRINTED because of the inadequaCY OF
the prisons. to suitcase many convicts
to planters and railroads. Two vices
were thus introduced which have never
been eradicated from the system; diffu-
sion of the convict population and
straining for profits.
Legislatures Inactivity.
When the lease was Cancelled, the
penitentiary equipment was insufficient
TO utilize the labor Of all the conV1ctS
upon state account The legislature pro-
vided little or no funds to increase the
equipment, and the penitentiary man
agement contracted the labor Of large
number of the men TO planters and rail-
roads who formerly were sublessees- At
first these contracts were in effect
leases; within recent years the state
has guarded. clothed. fed and medically |
attended the convicts- Also in response |
10 an insistent public demand, which !
considered the lease system the chief |
evil of the penal establishment the |
numbr of men contracted out has grad |
ually been decreasing. But this change |
has been effected only as the peniten- !
tiary system has been able 10 earn |
money with which TO buy properties and |
make improvements to work more con-
victs upon state account The old mer- |
cenary idea still largely controls. The /
penitentiary system has been obliged TO /
lift itself by its own bootstraps, being !
expected to earn not only the cost Of
maintenance but the cost of prison ex- i
tension as well. That the convicts have
been more than Self-suppOrting and have
made a profit for the state is shown by
the fact that the extensive land invest
ments Of the penitentiary system and its
permanent improvements are reasonably
worth 100000 more than all appro-
priations made TO the system, exclusive
of unearned increment.
State Camps Bad, Too.
The idea that iniquity can exist alone |
in the lease system has been exploded by |
the present Investigation. Conditions |
equally bad were found in both the |
state account camps and the contract or
lease camps; in one or two of the lease |
camps the conditions were as good as n
the best of the state camps The mer-
cenaTy idea prevails in both. In both
the standard is the same. Contractors
usually pay SCI a months for the labor
Of a convict. Each of the industries op-
Grated upon state account is now charg-
ed with convict labor AT the rate of $31
monthly for each man. Therefore. there
IS the same incentive to drive the men I.
rs in the contract camps, and in both
classes of camps, the testimony abund-
antly shows there has been much inhu-
manity displayed.
The plant at present comprises the
penitentiaries at Huntsville and Rusk,
which together can accommodate about
1900 men but have rarely had more than
half that number in recent years, and at
which various industries are operated;
tour large sugar plantations in the low
er BraZos valley, and two smaller farms
aear Huntsville; a contract force upon
1 railroad another in a coal mine, and
contract forces upon some 20 farms in
he Brazos bottoms from central Texas
20 the sOuthernmoSt reach of the river
Transferring Conyicts.
The undertakings of the penitentiary
system are so vast and its industries of
such character as TO render it necessary
frequently to transfer convicts from unit
to unit, causing constant friction hard
ships upon the conYicts and brutalizing
their keepers Both classes are deserv-
ing of sympathy in varying degree. I'm
der this system there is no pathological |
of prisoners; in some |
camps there Is no separation OF races; !
all ages are thrown together Many con- !
victs sentenced to terms in the peni-
Tertiary" serve their entire time without