Middletown transcript., 1914-02-21
81 TRANSCRIPT OFFICE,
CONVICTS AND HIGHWAYS

This is something The Transcript has
always urged. 1t is practical so far as
we have been able to learn, and from
the study we have given the matter the
plan is one that would not only give US
good roads at low cost, but we would
get them sooner and the prisoners could
be kept in better health.
Under the laws of North Dakota the
Board of Control may employ convicts
on the public highways, their expenses
to be paid by the respective counties in
which they work. The law stipulates
that prisoners perform their duties
under the supervision of skilled laborers,
who act as guards, but, so far as pos
sible, tha law declares, the convicts are
to beplaced on their honor. Another
feature of North Dakota's prison laws
is worded as follows: each short-time
convict worked upon said state roads
shall receive credit upon his time of
ten days for each thirty days that he
shall faithfully and diligently work upon
said state roads, and in case of convicts
serving life sentences, such privileges
shall be given then as in the judgment
of the warden are proper, but in case
that any convict fails to do faithful and
efficient work, or attempt to escape, he
shall forfeit all or as many of said
credits as in the judgment of the war
den shall be proper. F"
Of 275 convicts who were worked
under the honor system in Ohio, only Is
less than per cent. attempted to
escape, according to a report of Warden
Preston E. Thomas, of the Ohio State
Penitentiary. While those men were
thu employed, there was no barrier ex-
cept their own honor between them and
freedom. Of the Is men who broke
faith, all but seven were caught and re-
turned to the prison, so that the percent
age of those who failed to serve their
full sentences was only two and half,
This record, says Warden Thomas, com
pares favorably with trusts in the out
world
Also in Michigan, where all persons
convicted of drunkenness or vagrancy
are sentenced to work on the roads in
stead of in jail, the practice of trusting
prisoners has been found successful.
Not only that, but, according to w. M.
Bryant, Good Roads Commissioner of
Michigan, the sentencing of convicts to
work on the highways tends to eliminate
much petty crime.
It was in Colorado, under Warden
Thomas J. lyman, that the honor system
was first employed among prisoners at
work on the highways, and it is in that
state and Oregon that the system has
been most extensively developed. Gov
ernor West of Oregon, in a statement
to the National Committee on Prison
Labor concerning the honor system
among prisoners at work on the roads,
said:
"Our road gangs are made up of from
15 to 25 men, with a free man as fore
man, who lives and works with his crew. /
His word is law in camp and his report
as to conduct Of prisoners carries great
weight with the prison officials. 1t is
most essential, therefore, that great
care be exercised in the selection of
these foremen. We have unexpected
success in the operation of our road
gangs. Some have been maintained as
far as three hundred miles from the
prison and nearly all i'm the hills and
mountains where every opportunity was
given to escape. At first we lost
number of men, due largely to the nov
city Of the plan and unjust newspaper
criticism which made many of them fear
the abandonment of the policy and their
return to prison. There has been less
newspaper criticism of late, and the
public seeing the merits of the system,
is accepting itsas a settled policy.