The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-04-16
GOV. BALDW|N'S
 ADDRESS ON USE
 OF CONVICT LABOR

Governor Baldwin in addressing the discussed the employment of convict labor as follows:
 Governor Baldwin said: 'T wish to bring before you this. afternoon the subject of the employment of prison CTS in new ways. The subject has been more discussed in other states and countries than here. We have been content to manage our prisons as our fathers managed them in the main, but I am by no means sure that better methods may not be taken up in the twentieth century, and the time to begin is now.
 "Connecticut is spending vast sums every year in the construction and repairs of our highways. She has a great number of laborers at her com mand whose services upon them she could have for nothing. She could also employ these men in any other work that she thinks proper, without paying any wages at all. Instead of this, she boards and clothes most of them at an expense considerably ex- ceeding what they earn. She keeps them shut up within brick walls, their faces blanched for want of sunlight that the rest of the world loves so we'll, and finds so health giving.
 Criminals can never make gCOd to the state all that they cost 1t. It IS the criminals for the most part who have compelled the organization of the state and made political society mitted a crime serious enough to au- thorize the state to deprive him Of his liberty. there ought to be a resulting profit, instead of a loss for the com munity, provided always that it is possible to arrive at that result with out the commission of new wrong.
 Everybody recognizes it as just and expedient to make convicts work in prison within certain limits. l ask you to consider to-day if there is anything unjust or inexpedient in making them work within certain llm- it's outside the prison. No doubt there are objections to bringing the crimin- al out from the darkness of the jail to the glare of the sunlight, where ev- he is doing. The common objections to it are, first, that it exposes him ito public humiliation: second, that 1t degrades him by throwing him into bad company; third, that it gives room for abuse and tyranny upon the or direct it, fourth, that there is a chance that he will escape; fifth, that he will become a competitor with the honest man who labors in the same vocation.
 "Let us look into these objections. Work in the open would expose pr1s- oners to some public humiliation, If that work were on the public high ways This would be avoided. if they did their work within the prison en- closure. and the prison enclosure, with no great expense. could be made large enough to embrace quite farm. or a quarry. But even if work on s-I $-4 l<xD~~ > of them, their conviction of crime has been a notorious fact, and has already made them the subject of pub lie censure. A man must have con- ducted himself very ill before socie- ty thinks it necessary to take away his liberty and condemn him to jail It is a punishment too serious to be lightly inflicted. for we know it is quite rare for anyone, who has been subjected to it, to succeed in making it forgotten in the course of time, so as to rehabilitate himself in the es- teem of the members of the com munity where he was sentenced.
 We must remember. too, that in most countries the majority Of the prisoners belong to the class of day laborers or tramps. They have no trade; they only know how to. handle the simplest tools, if any. They can handle a pick or a hoe, after fash Ion. Why not have the government buy or hire farms on which they can labor? Such labor. might reclaim bad lands. It has been found in many states and countries a real source of profit to the state to buy run down farms, run a stockade around them and reclaim them to fertility by the aid Of convict labor. Forest land can thus be worked North Carolina has 0f r,A k,i sort.
 We have in our state, consider able quantity of lime rock. Grind it up and it makes a valuable addition to the soil for farming purposes. It can be ground by the employment of Litchf1eld county, where limestone is plenty, could turn out great quanti- ties of valuable fertilizers in this man. ner, and it would seem probable that favorable arrangements could be made for its transportation by rail to any part of the state at low charge for freight. It would, of course, be much less costly to employ convicts in building or repairing highways, but 1t is true that this would expose them to certain humiliation. The great CT number of prisoners, however, have little sensibility to shame; they have become the slaves of evil If they rear that they would De recognized by old acquaintances, such fear would be borne of the apprehension that It would augment their chances of being discovered later, should they return to a life of crime.
 "In a paper which I presented on this subject to the International Pris- on Congress, at Buda Pesth some years ago, I suggested that there might be convicts who could be spar ed the chance of such humiliation by being authorized to wear a domino, Or half mask, when employed on the highways. This would prevent their being recognized by former friends without impeding thd execution of their tasks. Such privilege might be accorded those recommended by the prison authorities for good con- duct. 1t might also be provided that no one should be compelled to work on the highways without his own con- sent. Most criminals, think, would consent, and would prefer it to con- f1nement in prison. Second, it is perfectly true that a convict occupied in outdoor labor would find himself