The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-02-07
USE OF LASH IS
 RECOMMENDED
tcsatisusd. From Paas One,


 ss@ {csatisusd From faas uusl
 rars for nanslaughter from Jefferson county on June 24, 1922. s. T. Summerlin, . sentenced from $ to 10 years for murder from Crenshaw county.
 Waddell Snead, sentenced from Bibt county for murder on October II, 1921 He. was an alleged ringleader of the mutiny. ~ !.
 was as follows:
 I've have been called upon by the governor of Alabama, the attorney gen. seral, the convict department and the judge of this court to investigate fully impartially, conscientiously and al length, the details of the recent mutiny of the convicts at Aldrich in this coun. ty. We beg to report that it has been our pleasure to obey the orders of the above named authorities and we have given three entire days to this investi. gation, two of which were devoted to the hearing of witnesses which included not only number of convictS serving sentences for various offenses, but also state authorities and officers of the mining company leasing said convicts One of said days we have devoted to a personal inspection of the premises and conditions existing at Aldrich.
 We deem it wise to make public what we find to be the facts in the matter of the lease system of convicts as the same now exists in this state, using for example Shelby county de- fendant convicted of crime in this court and following him from the court until he is first-class man digging coal un- der the said lease system, as the testi- mony before us has disclosed The same to be. We find from the testimony which we have heard in this investiga- tion, that when defendant is convicted of felony in this court he is first Sen- fenced by the court as required by law the hard labor agent of the county mo- tifies the convict department at Mont gomery of such convictions and within few days thereafter a guard is sent here to accompany such person so con- victed to kilby prison where such con- vict is examined, his finger print taken, scars upon his body, his physical de- fleets noted and his photograph taken, after which board of physicians pro- Nided by the state, again examines such .onvict and after such examination classify him as number one, two; three '' hNu's dS phSSiSdi CoAuitLOAl may warrant"
 F However. when any convict is sent to the coal mine from kilby prison. whether he be classed as one, two or three ie is rated and required when first sping into the coal mine to do only '!c task of a fourth-class man, this be- ing the lightest task assigned to any convict at work in any coal mine in Alabama. We further find that after such man has had experience in coal mining his task is gradually raised as his knowledge and experience increases until he has reached the classification placed on l\ by the board of physi- cians at prison, where he was first eXausi d.
 Warden Praised
 we fIl'ler report that we find at Aldrich caep the the state of Alabama has iu charge J. N. Jernigan as warden, he haVinr Sarved as warden during the administrations of Governor O'Neal. G6Parao.' Henderson and one-half of the admiBist.G. i>n of Governor Kilby. The eSidenCe D. ore us from both state off cidls, mine owners and the convicts themselves convince us that Warden .iernigan man well qualified to i'll the r,o, tion he holds, that he well IsSeffce L4te confluence or the SJate OIL aisls whith he enjoys and is fair and impartial to the convicts who are serv- ing the sta of Alabama under him We arrive ut this conclusion after a close cross, animation of witnesses be- fore ms, ms! lding those in the mutiny At .Aidrieh
 Assistanl Warden Walker, who has charge of he feeding of convicts, the sleeping qua tiers, sanitary conditions and taking the place of the warden himself in his absence, has also been through the crucial fest before us and we respectfully report that in our judg- ment he is also fair and just and along with Warden Jernigan he is in no wise to blame for the uprising of such con- yicts occurring at Aldrich some days ago. We further find from the testi- mony heard that the state in addition to the above named officers has an assist ant warden, MT. Tatum by name, who is an expert miner and it being his duty to go down with the convicts into the mine and see that the convict is fairly treated by the foreman of the mining company and not required to do more than the task allotted to such convcit by the state. It is also the duty of this assistant warden to report to the war den when the convict has refused to do his work or otherwise disobeyed or ders and upon such report punishment is meted out to such convict by the