The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1912-05-24
LABOR IN PRISONS
Floods Country With Disease
Bearing Products.
ONLY CONTRACTOR PROFITS,

Commorcialsm of Convict Toll Oct
riment to the Public and of No Bene-
fit to the Prisoner-Many Prisons Are
sweatshops In Disguise.
According to charges made by Julian
Leaytt, chairman of the newly elect
ed special committee on prison manu-
gactures of the National Consumers
league, half the prisons of the coun-
try today are nothing but sweatshops
in disguise. Pretending to conduct in
dustries which teach the young con-
yicts trades and keep the old ones oc-
cupied. they are really working men
and boys at n desperate pace to en-
rich private contractors and flood the
country annually with some $50,0O0.-
600 worth Of disease laden products.
Under various pretcntlous labels
this great food of prison made mer-
chandise finds its way into nearly
every home in the land. The condi-
lions under which It Is manufactured
are unknown. as there is no adequate
factory inspection in the prisons, and
the convicts themselves cannot protest
in the slightest degree against shop
conditions which ordinary workmen
would reseSt freely.
"Yet the prisons are perfect disease
traps. No one can possibly estimate
the quantity of disease carrying goods
thrown upon the general market by
the prisons. The great Maryland pen
itentiary, at Baltimore, alone sends
out 100000 or 100000 work shirts
every year. l figure roughly that in
1904-the last year for which we have
any national records on this subject
the leading prisons sent out about
| 100000 pairs of shoes of every de-
scription, the cloth lined varieties of
which are recognized carriers of infec,
ton; 100000 cigars, 100000 pairs
of stockings, 100000 pairs Of over
alls, 100000 pairs of pants, including
nearly $1,000 boys knickerbockers;
also 100000 petticoats and a tremen-
dous quantity of women's and chill
drens linen wear and underwear. And
the production of all these goods, with
the possible exception of cigars, has
Increased enormously in the last five
Or ten years.
'This commercialism in our prisons
is losing business for everybody ex-
cept the contractor, who makes mil.
lions out of 1t. His profits are simply
incredible. Think of getting a model
modern factory village, filed with doc
lie laborers, manned by armed guards,
completely and perfectly equipped in
every respect, and all for a labor
charge Of only so or GO cents a day
This covers verything-taXes, rent,
heat, water, light, power and all those
other charges which so often break the
back of the legitimate manufacturer
The contractor who cannot get rich
| quick at this business is hopeless.
/ There is one Chicago concern which
has made, at a conservative estimate,
| $lO,OOO,00O in as many years.
| but everybody else loses. The tax
payer must pay the prison deficit out
of his own pocket. The convict learns
no trade, earns nothing in prison and
| comes out, in fact, much worse than
he went in. His wife and children get
nothing out of it. They either go on
the streets or starve. The tens of
thousands of working men and women
who have to compete with the prison
contractor at his terms surely get moth
ing out of it. And the ultimate CON
sumner, as l have pointed out, gets
only the risk of infection.
For these and many other reasons
we propose to fight the industrialism
Of our prison system. But we do not
favor idleness for the convict. That
/ remedy would be infinitely worse than
! the disease. We believe that the con-
| Wet should work, and work hard but
not for private contractor. The state
use system IS the simple and logical
/ one. By this syStem-which has now
/ been in operation in the state of New
/ York for nearly twenty years and
which has recently been legislated into
/ New Jersey, Ohio, Missouri, California
/ and several other states-the ablebod.
led prisoners are employed in manu-
featuring the goods needed by the
/ state itself in its many institutions and
departments. This market is big
enough to keep all the prisoners en-
/ ployed, and, although it deprives free
/ labor of share of the general market.
! this competition is not regarded by any
/ one as unfair"