The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1913-10-14
COUNTIES MUST CARE
FOR own PRISONERS
CANNOT DUMP SICK CONVICTS ON
STATE PETyTENTIARY.
Governor Blease Says Ii Supervisors
Take Sick COnvicts, Counties AIust
Care for Them in Sickness.

Odrc lOr 1HcIH Ill SlChucSSs
Special to The Herald and News.
Columbia, October 13-Dr.
Jennings, physician of the State
penitentiary, called on Governor
Blease under Instructions from
Superintendent Griffith, to state
the condition of a sick convict who
has been sent to the penitentiary from
the Richland county chain gang. In
view of said report, the governor ad-
dressed the following communication
to Superintendent Griffith:
R's Oct. II, 1913.
Col. D. J. Griffith, Superintendent
State Penitentiary, Columbia, S. C..
Dear Sir: Under recent opinion of
the attorney generals Office, as to re-
turning prisoners to county chain
gangs, etc., in my opinion the same
! should apply to the changing on the
one hand as well as to the peniten-
tiary on the other, and when the
county supervisor accepts "a man and
takes him on the changing and puts
him to work, he has no legal or moral
right thereafter, when said convict's
health breaks down, to send him as
, an invalid to the State penitentiary,
to be kept at the expense of the State,
and l hereby direct YOU not to receive
any convict in the State penitentiary
unless sent to you directly by court,
or upon order of the chief executive
! of the State. If the law is good on
the one side, it should be good on the
other.
Hs Very respectfully, -
(signed), Cole. L. Blease.
When asked as to his position in
the matter, Governor Blease stated:
my position is very simple, and I
think it is entirely consistent. The
attorney general has held that when
the judges pass sentence on man,
sending him to the State penitentiary
or the county chaingang, that when
the supervisor elects to allow the
party to go to the State penitentiary,
then after he enters the penitentiary
the supervisor cannot later change his
mind and demand that the prisoner
be returned to the county ehaingang.
Now, certainly, it is not right, when
the supervisor elects to take the con-
vict upon the chaingang when he is a.
strong, able-bodied man, and puts him
to work and works him until he breaks
down his health or puts him in such
condition that he is unable to be Of
further service 10 the chaingang-
then, say, it is not right to take him
and turn him over to the penitentiary
authorities a helpless invalid, and to
throw him into the hospital at the
State penitentiary, there to be fur
nished medicine, fed and otherwise
cared for at the expense Of the tax
payers of the State
eff the supervisor takes him when
he is strong, healthy man and works
him until ne becomes an invalid, it
certainly is the duty of the county
supervisor to place him in his poor
house or county hospital, and there
give him treatment at The expense of
the county for which he has been per-
forming his services while strong and
able-bodied. In other words, it is not
right to allow county to take pris-
oner when he is strong and able
bodied, and then whNu he becomes an
invalid turn him over the State to be
supported, and while am governor
do not propose to allow it. If the
counties want to turn them over to
the, penitentiary wnen they are first
convicted, all we'll and good; but do
not propose for the practically dead,
and then make the taxpayers Of the
State pay for their support when they
can get no consideration for it. 1t IS
neither fair to the taxpayers nor to
tho nriconer'