Court Opinion

ID: 9807617
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 20:11:22.531571+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:49:10.892616
License: Public Domain

TToke, J.,
concurring: I concur in tbe disposition made of this appeal and am of opinion tbat tbe laws of North Carolina applicable to tbe subject do not refer tbe control and discipline of prisoners to tbe unregulated discretion of subordinate administrative officials. Tbe general statute on tbe subject of working convicts on tbe public roads, Rev. 1905, sec. 1356, provide^ tbat “Tbe county authorities shall have power to enact all needful rules and regulations for tbe successful working of convicts on tbe public roads,’’ etc., and tbe law of 1909, tbe statute specially applicable to Wake County, confers like power on tbe authorities of tbat county, with tbe limitation tbat tbe regulations made shall be in accord with those which prevail in tbe State’s Prison — -a limitation which does not obtain unless and until tbe authorities of tbe State’s Prison shall have made sucb rules. These statutes clearly contemplate tbat tbe control and discipline of convicts and particularly in reference to their punishment, corporal or other, shall be pursuant to rules formally made and published by tbe board of county commissioners, or their duly authorized agents, and I would not hesitate to bold that these rules should be humane, reasonably designed to affect tbe well ordered governance of convicts, and tbat, in their prominent features, they should be made known beforehand to each and every prisoner, tbat they may live and act with knowledge of tbe penalties attendant on disobedience. In applying sucb a standard, I am not prepared to say tbat-never, under any circumstances, is corporal punishment permissible, or tbat carefully prepared rules, looking to sucb result, are, in all instances, unlawful; but tbe question is not presented on this appeal, for there is no proof or suggestion tbat there were any rules or regulations of any kind which authorized tbe punishment inflicted in tbe present case. I am of opinion, therefore, tbat acts of defendants were without warrant of law and tbat they have been properly convicted.
Walker, J., and BrowN, J., concurring in this opinion.