Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1937-03-11

uted in camps, or colonies, of from so
to 200 individuals. The camps are
stragetically located so as to employ
the prisoners as advantageously as
possible on road maintenance.
Capus M. Waynick, chairman of the
State Highway and Public Works
Commission, is an enthusiastic believ-
er in convict road labor. Like Mr..
Ames he can see the therapeutic value
of outdoor work to men whose minds
are sick.
''The Majority of our prisoners are
short-term prisoners. The classical
ton and segregation of classes with
in this group, / am afraid, would be
little practical value. The period of
their sentence is not of sufficient
length for the State Prison System
to do more than subject them to strict
discipline and employment under as
wholesome conditions as is practic-
able" Certainly, the above statement
made by man familiar with all the
ramifcations of prison welfare can be
taken as another argument for en-
ploying convict labor on the State
roads.
There are number of arguments
advanced by men like Mr.. Waynick
and Mr.. Ames. These arguments are
simple and can be appreciated by the
average laymen and particularly by
the taxpayer and the man who has to
travel the highways day and night,
in sunshine and in rain.
Perhaps the main argument against
the employment of convict road labor
in the past has been based on the
inhumanity which undoubtedly did
exist some years ago. But cases of
cold-blooded treatment of prisoners
today are extremely rare. Somehow,
the great outdoors serves as a tonic
even to men of criminal stripe and
when man gets accustomed to the
feel of a shovel or pick and smells the
fresh earth he gets better perspec-
tive on life. The "chain gang" as it is
worked today in Virginia and North
Carolina would solve an important
problem now existing in our Mary
land penal institutions. The Maryland
Penitentiary is admittedly overcrow-
ded. So are some of our other pris-
ons and places of confinement. Men
are promiscously thrown together
with little chance of lettering them
selves and with large odds in favor
of their accommodating additional vices.
Outdoor work, under human super
vision, should prove one of the great
est panaceas for prisoners mentally
i'll, men whose vision is twisted and
warped. Outside of the prison farms
at Jessup and in Washington county,
there is little chance for convicts to be
employed in the open air unless they
are placed on the roads.
Maryland, after all, is small state.
1t has no large industries like Mass
achusetts, the Carolinas or Georgia.
The prison farms provide work for
only comparatively few. The answer
must be to ADOPT PRISON ROAD
LABOR. Economically, it will prove
saving to the State. The thousands
of dollars spent for the maintenance
of idle prisoners can well be used on
our roads. 1t will not be matter of
competition, as the use of prisoners in
other industry would mean. The State
Roads Commission is budgeted and
will spend only certain amount of
money for labor on the roads. The use
of prisoners will mean more and bet
ter roads-for the simple reason that
there will be available more man
power at that, cheap, not in the sense
of being worthless, but help secured
at small actual expense.
Segregation of prisoners-long a.
thorn in the side of prison admins
trators-will be provided with the
selection of the better type of pris-
oners to work under milder discipline
and minimum confinement on our
roads. The many type of diseases and
vices which invariably develop where
ever men are subjected to close con-
finement for lengthy periods are well
known. 1t is equally well recognized
that these diseases and vices spread
under conditions where men even
work in close contact. One meets with
no condition of the sort in the labor
camps. The prisoners have room to
develop physically as well as ment>
ally.
That our roads are in a deplorable
condition-no one can truthfully deny.
In counties the secondary roads are
so bad that motor travel is impossible
during the winter months. Even our