The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-04-29
By George z. Erskine
Superintendent of Prison Camp and Hospital, West Rutland, Mass.

Rutland, Mass. Sl
 am very glad te nave the oppor- tunity to tell the people of Connecn- cut what I think are. the benefits or State Farms and outdoor employment of prisoners. There is no phase or DTS on management, perhaps. which IS s-o,,sing more interest in psychological i circles at the present time, and It has been my good fortune in Massacnu- setts to start with an institution or | this kind from the very beginnings l month before there were any lnmales, in factzand to follow the Work up I through the ten years that have pass ed.
 In 1904 the legislature passed an act the reclamation or waste land by convict labor, and approprlal- ing a sum for the purchase or ap- proximately a thousand acres for the purpose. Of course, outdoor labor Tor prisoners was new thing m the commonwealth, for the State Farm at Bridgewater had been in existence many yea+s but this new venture was to differ somewhat from the work of the former institution, and to employ a rather different class of men than 1t had heretofore been thought possl- ble to handle under such conditions
 The original plan was to take tract of land too rough to be prodtably worked by private enterprise, clear and put it in order, divide it into Small farms with suitable allotments or woodland, pasture and ti1lage, possibly to erect the necessary farm buildings, then to sell them,, and move on to an other similar tract. Before the work had proceeded very far, however. the need for a hospital for tubercular prisoners became evident, and, our Io- cation being an excellent one for the purpose the commission decided to 5 F fa17S nffa US. Since then the hospital has grown until it is the more important of the two branches of the institution, and the farm exists largely as an adjunct of it, though the buildings are entire ly separate, and the inmates of the two sections have no contact with each other.
 RUTLAND FARM.
 By reason of this change of purpose. we are located in region none too well adapted for profitable farming, either as to soil, climate, or market advantages Our first buildings,s tooss being intended for temporary use. as they would have been had it been foreseen that they might be needed for permanent occupancy
 Of course none of these difficulties prison farm. The land should be To- cated in a fertile and accessible though not too thiclklyss populated. farming tcommunity, and the buildings should tbe specially designeda While they have no need of the security of the or dinary jail or prison they should be l of permanent and hreproof construc- ltion. It is poor economy to erect buildings that will require large ex- lpenditIre for upl<eep, however light their original cost.
 The sentences of our men average perhaps six months, though we have some who are doing over a year It l is not unusual to have transferred to us for the last few months of their sentence. men who have been serving a term of several years and who are 1 physically run down" from conf1ne-=
 ment, to whom these weeks in the open are indeed a godsend, giving them renewed health, steadied nerves, and a consequent reinforcement of lcourage to face the world again. They
 work sometimes under the direction l of an officer sometimes quite by them- Ieelves. The hostlers, teamsters, black.
 smith, dairymen, and many others are i all strusties.'' and receive only such direction and supervision as any farm l hand might receive from his employ
 CT. They sleep in a. large airy dormi- itory, have games and smoke after I each meal in the yard, or, in stormy i weather, in a room provided for that I purpose. Plenty of reading matter is friends, choir practice for the Sunday services, the holiday ball game, and Eonce or twice a year, a show pro- Iduced entirely by home talent, and hugely enjoyed by both audience and participants, make pleasant breaks in the routine, and there is so little ap-
 pearance of restraint as to almost jus- I tify the astonished exclamation of one l lnewly-transferred man who gazed labout him wonderingly and safd ', H. /
 MEN CoNTFoRTABLY CHARTERED
 Discipline there is of course as there must be- rules that are strictly lcomfortably fed and clothed, and who come in from their work in the open air tired with the wholesome weari- ness such labor brings, are not a. re-
 fractory set of people. and there. is .I really very little trouble with them Escape is possible at almost any time I to practically all of them, but escapes
 are few, and they are almost invaria-
 ply returned after a longer or short
 CT time.
 necessity of occupation for men who
 are in prison, the wastefulness and
 evil effects of months or years of idle
 ness. We all hold it eninently de-
 sirable that the man inside should
 earn his own living and, if possible,
 contribute to the support of his fam
 fly but there also arises the question of the conflict between free and pris-
 on labor, a question which, in many
 instances, seems to bring us up against
 a blank wall.
 Connecticut has in the past. enjoyed
 unusual immunity in reference to
 union opposition to the employment of prisoners, but with the inerea sing strength of organized labor and the
 growing sentiment against the con-
 tract system, seems not improbable
 that you might at some time in the
 future find yourselves in the same sit
 uation as many of your sister states
 with every avenue of profitable manu-
 facture for the open market closed