The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-01-14
TO USE PRISONERS
| AS FARM LABORERS
announcement to This Eff
| feet Made by Prison Com
missioner Kennedy
PLAN WILL AFFECT
ABOUT $4,000 MEN
Necessary Legislation to Be Asked Tor
Parole and Communication to Be
Sought for Short Term Men Capable
of Work on the Soil.

NEW YORK. Jan. 1.-THE prisoners
in the penal institutions of the state
are to be used for the cultivation OF
farms during the period of the war,
according to an announcement made py
Prison Commissioner John 5. Kennedy.
The decision to use the prisoners IN
food production was made at confer
ence held in Albany and attended by
the wardens of prisons, the superln-
tendents of county penitentlar1es,
number of sheriffs, and a representa-
tive of the state bureau of food and
markets. The plan of action was en-
bodied i'll these resolutions:
Resolved, That prisoners be used
more extensively in the cultivation OF
the soil. and to this end it is recon-
mended:
(a) That legislation be secured to
| permit the credit of sales of farm prod
| ucts to the maintenance funds of the
State institutions making such sales.
| (b) That legislation be secured to
permit the sale of surplus farm prod
ucts and stock from one state lnstltu-
tion to another.
! (c1 That necessary appropriations
be made by the state legislature for the
purpose of rental, stocking, and equip
ment of additional farm lands TO be
| cultivated by inmates of the state pen
al institutions.
ID That the boards of supervisors
of the counties of the State be urged
to appropriate sufficient money to pur-
chase or lease and equip farms to keep
AT work the inmates of the penlten-
tiaries and jails.
(e) That the sheriffs Of the eoun-
ties of the state be urged to formulate
plans for utilizing the inmates of the
iails in the cultivating of the soil and
to report on the same.
III That the state hospital cofnmls-
sion and state fiscal supervisor be urged
to cooperate in securing the necessary
Legislation to permit the sale of farm
products from one State institution TO
another.
"a That the state department of
foods and markets be urged to cooper
ate in furnishing tractors with trained
crews and farm equipment in the cul-
tivation of state and county farms, and
| to act as clearing house in the sale
and distribution of surplus products.
(hl That the state board of parole
and managers of reformatories fol
males be requested to parole prisoners
to assist in farm work.
fi) That the management of al
penal institutions of the state be urged
| to have their inmates cultivate indi
vidual gardens wherever possible. tht
! sproduct to be the property of the i'll
. stitution.
i) That the institutions give seri
= Gus consideration to the question OF
I preserving surplus fruits and veg
etables.
Commissioner Kennedy, who preside,
at the meeting, said that the prison
:. population of the state averages abou
t. $4,000, of whom less than 1000 ar
l. women. because of the constitution
Il al prohibition, prisoners cannot b
a farmed out, but they can be employee
- by the state or by any political sui
division on farms owned or leased b
the state or counties. he said.
A QUESTIONABLE has been prepare
and is now being submitted to I'll
/ boards of supervisors and sheriffs {
le all the counties, asking for informatio
IN as to available men and farms ths
IL may be leased.
le Communications of sentences of fsho
n termers'' in the state $ penal instit
ne tons and the placing of them on paro
to make them available for farm wol
to increase the food production, may
= asked by Governor Whitman.
The commission has asked the sta
10. hospital commission, the federal supe
visor, the state bureau of foods al
markets, and the state parole board
cooperate in this work