The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-10-20

good mentally and physically, not
only for the insane, but for all the
people Under the present admins
tration, for the first time, the women
aged and infirm convicts were with
drawn from lease.
For meritorious conduct, and in
| creased gain-time was authorized by
the legislature of 1911. The gain-time
is graduated, being for the first year
two days per month, increasing until
the tenth year, and all succeeding
years, when fifteen days in each
month is allowed. For the life prison
er a hope is held out. Upon commu-
tation of the sentence a life prisoner
will receive the same gain-time as
though he had been sentenced for a
specified term of years. The object
of the gain-time of course, is to make
good prison citizens, causing them to
be punctual and faithful in the dis
charge of their duties. We have not
what is known as the ''Indeterm-
| mate Sentence A sentence is i'm
posed, being more or less ''Indeterm-
, mate depending upon the conduct of
the prisoner, and the action of the
pardoning board. Recently one of
! the inspectors mentioned two old
darkies who had been in the peniten-
tiary for seventeen years, sentenced
for life. If their conduct warrants it,
they will be pardoned before Christ
mas.
The convicts are usually given
tasks. In some cases the tasks are
finished Friday afternoon, some by
Friday evening, usually all by mid
day Saturday l visited one camp
one Saturday morning | found that
there was not a convict at work.
Half of them had gone off with part
of the guards on fishing expedi-
ton, the other portion preferring to
remain in camp. Such is not true of
all the camps.
That the life of a Florida convict
is not so hard, may be inferred from
the following: A negro preacher had
just been informing the sheriff that
a certain negro, sentenced to hang
that day had gotten religion and
was happy in the thought that he was
going direct to Abraham's bosom.
At that moment the sheriff handed
the prisoner a telegram to the effect
that the negro's sentence had been
committed. After conveying the in
formation to the convict, the preach
er returned to the sheriff saying to
him, You can't believe how
thoroughly satisfied that darkey is
to give up his "sho" place in heaven
for home in the turpentine camp"
These convicts necessarily learn a
good trade, being enabled to secure
after their liberation on the turpen-
tine farms, from $500 to $3.50 per
day. They leave the farm in better
health than when they entered. At
present, they do not conflict with free
labor, as. there is not sufficient labor
in the state to meet the requirements
of our rapidly developing state. The
legislature of 1911, passed a law al
lowing proportionate credits on al
ternate sentences. One unfortunate
la negro-was found to have been
| improperly convicted. The state had
received for his services $431S1. The
Legislature of 1911 appropriated this
amount for him. He was granted
full pardon. The governor not only
recommended such action, but he
had the bill drawn and introduced in
the legislature. No convict ever
writes the governor as to any COM
plant without an inspector being
promptly. sent to examine into the
same
Requests for extraditions for small
offenses in particular are carefully
examined before such is granted.