Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1910-12-01

the case become potent factor IN the
spread Of the disease Moreover the.
Various prisons manufacture millions
LOT dollars worth Of goods whihc enter
into household and personal use every
where mattings, carpets; gloves.
brooms, brushes, even cigars. That
many lot these articles are also infect
led. and through their wide distribu.
ton. spread the disease, must be
obvious.
1T is evident, therefore. that this
question Of the relation Of the prison
and of prison porducts to the spread
Of tuberculcsis is worthy of far more
serious study than has as yet, SO far
as We know. been given to it,
Where the Burden Falls
| Almost equally as important as the
matter of Tuberculosis. and closelyNl
/ lied with it in more ways than one, is.
the question of dependency. The pau
peTism into which the families of
prisoners are cast when a father goes
to prison and the manner in which the
prisone rhimself is untitled utterly to
earn a livelihood when he is released
from bondage are described as fol-
lows:
"The chief burden of imprisonment
today falls, as is well known. not upon,
the guilty criminal, whom the state.
secures against hunger and cold, but
Upon the prisoners wife and children.
Who are, as rule, left helpless prey
TO restitution.
.".The actual extent of this destitu-
| ton has never, so far as we know.
been measured; but an estimate is
possible OF the $4,000 commitments
in the course of. one year probably
one-third are married men. Assuming
but tire Children to each family--a
! very conservative assumption in view
of the well known high birth rate
among dependent and delinquent
[classes-it would seemeathat in the
course of given year 100000 mothers
land children are put in danger of be-
coming public charges absolutely
through no fault of their own. No
state in the union makes any ade-
Iquate provision for these sufferers nor
is the prisoner himself allowed to pro-
vide for them. In the most liberal
prisons his earnings do not average
more than three dollars a month; in
other prisons~he earns nothing.
Convict Rendered Useless
Having little opportunity to earn OF
save anything while in prison. the dis
charged convict who finds himself
with. only the bare five dollars or ten
dollars which the state has granted
him as charity, is literally forced to-
become eithera dependent OF a Grim
inaI. This is the more aggravated by
the fact that in very few of our pri-
sons are the inmates taught q trade
that would make them selEsnpp porting
when returned to society. Among the
|
leading prison industries are shirt and
overall making, which in the outside
world are womens, trades; or hollow
ware, which is an industry entirely
monopolized by prisons, $50 that the
most efficient can find no employment
in it outside of prison; or brush and
broom making, which is one of the
very few industries in which the blind
may engage and make a living, so
that released convict. when he en-
ters this trade, completes directly and
bitterly with these unfOrtnnates. "a
Another source of dependency is
the large number of accidents in
prison shops. The prisoner injured in
the course of his labor has no possible
redress; yet the disability may, and
frequently does, incapacitate him
ing"