The evening leader. (Tarpon Springs, Fla.) 191?-19??, 1917-02-17
USE OF CONV|CTs
IN ROAD BUILDING
ON THE INCREASE

Washington, D. c., Feb. ia stea-
dy decrease since 1885 in the proper
ton of convicts in the United States
employed in miscellaneous work under
lease and contract and marked in
crease in the proportion employed for
the benefit of the state highways and
other public works are shown in sta
tistics just published by the office of
public roads and rural engineering of
the U. S. department of agriculture.
These statistics are included in de-
partment bulletin Ala, a professional
paper, which reports one of the first
exhaustive studies made in this coun-
try covering the administrative, en-
cheering, economic, disciplinary, and
health conditions in convict road
camps. Representatives Of the U. s..
public health service cooperated with
the specialists Of the departmant Of
agriculture in making the studies. The
systems adopted by the several states
are discussed and recommendations
are made for the achievement of
greater efficiency in operation of the
convict camps and conduct of the
road work.
The systems of convict labor are
classified in the report as lease, con-
tract, and piece-price systems. under
which the labor of the convicts is for
the benefit of private individuals or
corporations, often in the manufacture
of commodities; the public
system under which the convict-made
goods are sold by the state; the state
use system, under which goods are
manufactured only for use in state in
situations; and the public works and
ways system, under which the labor of
the convicts is devoted to public struc
ture and roads. The latter system has
grown in popularity, it is pointed out,
because it makes use of the convict
labor with minimum Of competition
with free labor, contributes fairly last
ing benefits to the whole community,
affords healthful and even somewhat
reformative employment to the con-
victs, and reduces congestion in penal
institutions. The most satisfactory use
of the system, in the opinion of the
departments road specialists, is under
state rather than county administra
ton. Since 1885, the report shows,
the percentage of convicts in large
number of representative institutions
working under the rublic-account,
state-use, and public works and ways
systems, has increased from SO to sc
per cent, while the proportion engaged
in road work alone has increased from
1.3 per cent to nearly IS per cent.
Convicts should not be indi5crimi-
nately put to work on roads, it is
pointed out. Only those who are ply
sically fit for the work should be en-
ployed. 1t may be even desirable and
practicable in many instances to re-
serve assignment to the open-air work
as a reward for good behavior. Ply
sically and by former mode of life,
statistics cited in the report show,
about three-fourth of the average
male prison population is better fitted
for outdoor labor than for shop work.
In practice, when all considerations
are taken into account, it has been
found that from 20 to so per cent of
the male inmates of prisons are avail
able for road work.
The employment of state convicts
In road making, the report shows, first
became general in the south in the
Early nineties. Such use of state con-
victs has been made by northern and
western states, however, mostly, dur
Ing the last ten years.
III