The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-02-12
Evil Association for Short
Term Prisoners Will Be
Eliminated
WILL GIVE FREE
LABOR IN MINES
Citizens Will No Longer Be Forced
to Compete With Convicts-Lastly
System Will Improve Jeffer-
son County Country Roads

Il think the county convict road build
ing system is good thing and hope and
believe it will be a success" stated City
Commissioner of Public Justice A o.
Lane yesterday afternoon. Judge Lane
is an eminent jurist. serving for many
years as judge of the circuit court, and is
former mayor of the city.
| He has had much experience in hand
ling those unfortunates known as mem
bers of the criminal class of a community.
acting also as city recorder when he was
mayor, and his opinion of the system by
which the county conviets will be worked
on the public roads beginning April l, is
based on substantial ground.
| Eliminates Evil Associations
I'm almost every case a convict is a
worse man when he comes out of the
mines than whef he goes In" stated Mr..
Lane This feature of the convict's con-
dition will be eliminated to large extent
When he is worked on the roads. From
a humanitarian standpoint. the system
is TO be commended. Short term prison-
ers who. are sent to the mines are forced
to associate with other prisoners who
are of the lowest type. physically, morally
and mentally. The county prisoner who
is thus thrown in contact for a few
months with those who are actually bad.
merely because he has committed some
petty crime or misdemeanor for which.
of course, it IS necessary that he be pun
ished, comes out of the mines a meaner
| =
society than when he went in.
''The road system, as | understand 1t,
will separate these minor offenders from
| the really bad men. Any man who is sem
fenced for over two years becomes a state
prisoner and therefore cannot be worked
on the roads. All under the two year sem
| tence are county prisoners and are worked
on the roads. Thus the two classes are
separated completely and the bad assocla-
| tions encountered under the present sys-
tenn are completely eliminated under the
new. / at first feared that the road work.
/ ing system wa sat fault because it might
| afford too easy a means of escape for
| long term men, the bad fellows, but | now
understand that all sentences for over two
years makes a man a state convict and
he cannot be worked on the roads.
Free Labor in Mines
Probably The most important feature
| of the system. however, is the fact that
| 1t will give free labor in the mines with
out competition with the convict Not
long ago l was talking with an acquain-
tance from one of our little mining towns
near Birmingham and in the course of
the conversation asked him how business
was. He said ii was very poor. The free
Dor had to compete with the convict
labor in the mines, he said. and the con-
victs were fed from commissaries and
the free working man and the outside
merchant came in at the tail end of the
procession All this will be done away
with and a new era of prosperity will be
felt in the mining district, believe, when
the new system goes into effect April |.
When the free laboring man and the out
side merchant no longer have the convict
change for the better in the laborins
mans working and living conditions.
MANY of the prisoners sent to the
mines for a few months return after their
term is served and never make good citi-
zens, most OF them going from bad TO
worse Under the road system / think
that many of them will be actually cured
of their evil ways and return to society
as a factor-for good instead of bad
"And last but not least. is the fact that
good roads are of the highest Importance.
The country roads must be kept as well
as the city streets, and under the opera
ton of the system by which the county
convicts are to be worked on these ROADS
believe that after il once gets TO work
ing right there will be a great change for
the better In the quality of the country
roads of Jefferson county"