Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1894 — CONVICT LABOR. [ARTICLE]

CONVICT LABOR.

The question of contract labor in penitentiaries has been a'pdrptexing one for political economists for years, ind the agitation of the subject has continued without any appreciable reform in the disposal of the large amount of surplus energy constantly accumulated at the various penal institutions of the country. What is the really best method of .solving the the problem is as yet an open question. Whether it is better for the State to support the convicts in idleness and thereby avoid the ruinous competition of their products with that otlreemen, or whether it is more profitable and humane to compel the unfortunate men to earn their living by the sweat of their brows, has been an issue that has

aroused the worst, passions on both sides of the question. That it is mere humane to allow, or even force, the average convict to perform a daily task scarcely admits of argument. * Plainly, as all laboring men could well testify from personal experience, an extended period of enforced and entire idleness would be about the worst possible penalty .that could be fixed for any crime. Work is often irksome, but prolonged inactivity is even harder for all properly constituted men to bear. The State of New York is making an expetimenFcwlth thisr class oTTabor that may lead to, important results in many ways. In 1893 the Legislature of that State appropriated $lO.000 to be used in the employment of a certain number of convicts in the Clinton prison in road making within a radius of twenty miles from the prison, which is situated in the village of Dannemora. All the workprovided for has been done on streets of that village in the construction of macadam and dirt roads. The ex periment has been such a gratifying success that a bill has been introduced into the present Legislature providing for a continuance of such employment of convicts upon a more systematic plan than the one used last year. The new bill provides that the Governor shall appoint a highway commission of three members, who are to serve for five years. The commissioners are given large powers over the roads of the State; they may widen or close existing roads, and the State engineer and surveyor shall furnish maps for the same. "Whenever a road has been completed through a county it shah thereafter be a county charge, and each county foiay use the labor of tramps and paupers in its maintenance. This commission is empowered to make requisitions on the superintendents of the various prisons to detail not more than two-thirds of the male persons in their custody to labor on the highways designated by the commissioners at such times and places and in such manner as the commissioners shall direct. Lt is made the duty of the commissioners to provide quarters, guards, tools and clothes for such convicts while employed upon the work. Only the better class of prisoners and those having the shortest terms to serve are to be detailed. The bill also designates several routes for roads, to connect points in remote parts of the State not now having good roads between them. The experiment which New York is making in such use of the convicts in her prisons is of great interest to every State in the Union ha”ing a large number of prisoners, and from the initial trial of the plan it is evident that it comes nearer a solution of the question as to how convict labor can be used to the profit of the State so as not to conflict with the interests of honest labor than any other yet devised and tried.