The Brinkley argus., 1913-01-31
sO[0NS MOST AC1
DECLARES IRoN-cLAD LAWS ARE NECESSARY TO SECURE
 PRISON REFORMS.
EXISTING STATUTES BAD
Says Convicis Are Leased Because Under the Present Laws Peniten-
 tiary Must Be SeIf-Sustaining.


 10 the General Assembly setting fort his reasons for granting pardons | o60 state and county convicts in on day recently, and submitting his rec concentrations for legislation abolist ing lie convict lease system, Govern or Doaagney declares that anythinI but an iron-clad law for the admins tratlon Of the peni entiary will be O 10 protection to the state and the in mates of the penitentiary, as un6 r tn existing laws the penitentarg mus be self-sustaining and the hiring ou Of convicts, when it is considered no practicable to work them directly fo the state, is permitted.
 The governor poin out that em ployment by the railroads for the con Ficts has been considered the mos profitable 10 the state when hiring them out, but that while the convict, work for the railroads. he latter dt not hire the men from the state. 4 general contractor hires the conyicts from the state and lhe railroads hire the men from the contractor.
 "The sta sec ures dollar a day . for each able odied convict" the gov ernor says. The railroads pay from sl50 to S2 per day to the con 2 tractor for them. Just why the rail- reads will pay the contractor as much as s2 day for the conyicts when they could get them from the state for Sl, CT at most $ 2a per day, is beyond my scope of T gledge In round mum bers the ata has lost $40.00o of money the se0H ractors agreed to pay 1t for GOT 7 labor during the past four yearE way has been found by the ] gai apartment of the state to colle | debt"
 The on do not fare so well when w rE on the railroads as they do whe ae line on q e states farm or or ie ? lie highEa.s s, the govern or d. daga Three-four ns of the cases Of ness and death originates in "a lroal amps. he says. The gov ernor also shows hat it costs the state nrct more to maintain the con ytcfs s railroad camps than 1t does on the farm or on the public roads
 One cf the chief reasons for con tinulag the lease system and existing iaw the governor says, has been the excise that there was nothing else thas could be done with the large num- Ar Of convicts we have but to hire saesn out to contractors and that the (, nj entiary was in debt
 Al this time. however, the peniten- tiary is out of debt From the study have made of the subject. and the Information gained during the last feur years as member of the peni- tentiarv board, I am convinced that satisfaction to the state and the nee .ssary protection to the conYicts can M er be had under the operation of uon laws and such a system as We have
 eWhen the amovnt of labor per formed ty a convict is to be judged .fy personal intcrest we can easily zee how he may be imposed upon in the exactlon Of his tasks. On the other hand, wheu the state is the only party In interest and he only one to be sa'isf'a3. there could arise no condi- ton under which convicts would be under fed. badly treated or over worked,
 "Then. because of these existing facts and conditions. and for the pur- rcse of creating new condition by which a lust and iron-cIad law can be ressee for the abolition of the lease system and hereafter putting all the crnvloss on the pablic highways of the statc and OH the states farm: and fer reducing the number now confined in the t.epitentiary so that this result ran ta rought about and 10 remove the irceniive for the formation of an orros ny 'Bbbv 10 fieht such plan; and tc ct tb.a same time leave an ede- rnaie number ot ccnyicts 10 cultivate the ginte's farm. continue the clear. inc of lend and th improvement of she fern have selected from the list os ceuvicts now confined In the peni- frntterv and on The county farms of ,he state the names of three hundred sna sivtv ladi iduals list of whom have hereso attached and all of whom did on lhe i7th day of December par len on condition thef they become gnoi ci'i7~ns and yiclaie no laws Of the stufe n the future and the fur ,her co' it'on that if tAey again yio-  late anv la@s of ihc state they are to be returned 70 imnrispnmeut to serve ont tho vqirAer of their terms with ~rt farther rroccss Of law or expense "a the state fir court trials