The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-08-16
EIGHT GOVERNORS OF ALABAMA
1874-1901
No. 49-The State Penitentiary System
Rufus w. Cobb Governor

viets by the warden. The legislature now
corrected this strange oversight by tho
act of February 13 1879. The warden must
keep certain books.
The inspectors reported in 1880 at the ex-
piration of Governor Cobb's first term
| that good and safe" prisons had been
provided by all contractors with the rem
Hentiary and that the convicts generally
| had been well clothed, fed and humanely
terated.' There We're then $40 state con-
victs. The prices paid by farmers for
their hire were graded IS the month for
the first class, $3.50 for the second; all be-
| low that were given for their keep. The
contractor fed, shod and colthed, paid the
guard and all other expense OF mainten-
ance of the eonvicts.
| The very positive recommendation OF
Warden Bass from retiring Governor
| Houston carried him through the first
| Cobb administration. Capt. John IL.
| Bankhead succeeded him by appointment,
through this governors second term, from
March 81. 1881. Warden Bankhead called
for the books. They could not be pro-
duced. In so DAYS, however books ara
vouchers were returned by the ex-war-
den, who had held them to post them in
final shape for the transfer of his office.
The state, under the prevailing practice,
retained a hypothetical guardianship over
the contractors. Proper feeding. clothing,
nursing of the sick, nursing of the toilers.
in fact, lay with the discretion of the task
masters.
The surviving crudity Of the manage
ment needs no other proof to establish
than the mortality record. The death rate
on the farms was reported at something
less than per cent.
The death rate in the mines consider
ably exceeded 10 per cent.
Warden Bankhead's first biennial report,
Co I1rolxa rIldalV into rifle
of custom 1t was addressed to the in
speetors for as yet the organization Of
the Institution left the governor largely
in the lurch. "I found wrote the warden,
"the prions where convicts were confined
totally unfit for the purpose intended.
= = They We're as filthy as rule, as
dirt could make them. Both prisons and
prisoners were infected with vermin.
= l found that convicts were excess
sively and in some instances cruelty pun
ished: that they were poorly fed ana
clothed: that the sick were neglected, IN
asmuch as no hospitals were provided the
sick confined in the same cells with the
WE'LL. The warden found prisoners VINO
had not washed their faces for IL months.
Warden Bankhead, with great energy,
revealed to a horror stricken people this
| fostering sore of the body polite. There
were 10 different prisons or camps or con-
| tractors, no two governed on the same
rule. One of these camps was hewn
| log pen. weighed down with a solid log
| top. The height from the floor to this
cover was five feet. Into this some 40 con-
victs were driven at night as they came
| in from the fields through a hole cut into
the wall There was no bed. A scanty
and filthy bedding lay on the floor. There
| was no window or sign OF Ventilation.
After the victims had crawled through the
| hole in the log wall for the night they
were shackled together
A protracted litigation followed Num-
ber of contracts made by Warden Bass.
Warden Bankhead not only preferred n
| complaint He submitted a plan of re-
| form and his general idea now prevails.
| There was an unknown and unknoWaoie
number of county convicts at this time
subject to as great a variety OF methods
of treatment as there were differing minds
in county officers
| Governor Cobb on retiring sent spe-
cial message on the penitentiary. He an
nounced the first cash balance to tho
credit of the institution, $S4,543.33. In adj
dtion the state had secured titles to the
| 1900 acres of land on the Tallapoosa river
and owned a credit of $4,000 with the
| Louisville and Nashville railroad for con-
struction work on the short line connect
ling Wetumpka with Elmore Station.
JOHN WITHERSPOON DUBOSE.