600 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



dicial district and two for the inspection of 

 factories. 



The contract system as it prevails in the 

 penal and reformatory institutions of the State 

 was considered, and numerous measures were 

 proposed. A special committee reported on 

 the subject. There are three systems adopted 

 in the employment of convicts : The contract 

 system, which exists in Massachusetts and near- 

 ly all the Northern prisons ; the lessee system, 

 which prevails in Georgia and other Southern 

 States; and the public account system below 

 described. Those who make the most com- 

 plaint in the State are engaged in the boot and 

 shoe trade ; and they complain chiefly of two 

 hundred men employed at Concord. The rel- 

 ative cost of labor to the value of the product 

 in the manufacture of boots and shoes is as 1 

 to 3 ; that is, of every dollar's value of product, 

 33^ per cent, goes to labor, while the ratio of 

 labor to product in prison-work is 31J per 

 cent., showing that the advantage of the prison 

 contractor is really about 2 per cent, in the pro- 

 duction of goods on the average. The prod- 

 uct of each person employed in the manu- 

 facture of boots and shoes in Massachusetts is 

 $1,858 per year; that is, 48,090 operatives 

 the number of persons so employed in 1875 

 produced $89,375,792 worth of goods. The 

 product of prison-work per man is $1,142 per 

 annum. The 200 men employed on boots and 

 shoes at Concord produce $228,575 worth of 

 goods per year, on an average ; the same num- 

 ber outside would make $371,600 worth of 

 goods. No contractor will object to the ab- 

 olition of the contract system on personal 

 grounds. The contractor pays for the men he 

 contracts for through the whole year, whether 

 the demand is good or bad, and in some cases 

 they have allowed them to remain idle for the 

 reason that it was less loss to pay wages than 

 to make goods. With rare exceptions all class- 

 es agree that productive industry should and 

 must be carried on in the prisons, and it is 

 self-evident that competition can not be avoided 

 so long as two men labor or are employed. 

 While it can not be proved that any great 

 evil growing out of convict labor exists, it must 

 be admitted that there is a seeming, and may 

 be at times a positive, evil existing under the 

 present contract system. After a full discussion 

 of the several substitutes offered, the committee 

 conclude : 



1. That convict labor should not be abolished. 



2. That legislation to restrain officials in penal in- 

 stitutions from contracting out the labor of convicts at 

 lower rates than the average of outside labor, without 

 allowing contractors to employ or not the men con- 

 tracted for, simply abolishes labor in such institutions. 



_ 8. The reduction of the hours of labor in prison to 

 six per day ; with the old rates of contract per day, 

 simply abolishes labor in penal institutions. 



4. The general introduction of the public account 

 system, as a rule, simply aggravates the grievances 

 arising from whatever competition may result from the 

 contract system. 



5._ The increased diversity of employment in penal 

 institutions tends not only to lessen whatever com- 



petition now exists, but has an excellent reformatory 

 effect upon the prisoners. 



6. The employment of convicts upon public works, 

 when it can be done, is a feature of prison labor com- 

 mendable, not only from the standpoint of the labor 

 and prison reformers, but from that also of the manu- 

 facturers and workingmen. 



7. The employment of convicts in breaking and 

 dressing stone, and kindred work, while it palliates 

 the evils of competition, induces to a large degree other 

 conditions far more injurious to the body politic ; and 

 that work which requires the most expenditure of 

 muscle and the least expenditure of capital is, if it 

 can be had, the best for a large class of convicts, all 

 things considered. 



The Labor Bureau was instructed by the Le- 

 gislature at its session in 1878 to make a full 

 investigation of the question of convict labor. 

 The annual report of the Bureau, made in Feb- 

 ruary to the Legislature, contains the results 

 of the investigation. The whole number of 

 convicts in the United States in 1878 was 29,- 

 197; of these, there were under contract or 

 employed in mechanical industries 13,186. The 

 number of inmates of the penal institutions of 

 Massachusetts November 1, 1878, was 5,048 

 4,097 males and 951 females ; of these, 2,962 

 males and 748 females, 3,710 in all, were at 

 work. There were 1,642 males and 16 females 

 employed on contract work, the contract price 

 ranging all the way from 5 to 45 cents per day. 

 The earnings of these institutions for the year 

 were $156,959.18, and the expenses $724,883.- 

 43. There were employed in the different in- 

 dustries the following: Manufacture of hats, 

 200 ; picture-moldings, 150 ; boots and shoes, 

 584; brushes, 211 ; cotton-ties, 26 ; harnesses, 

 70; stone-yards, 100; slippers, 165; cane-seat- 

 ing chairs, 270 ; clothing 356 ; crocheting, knit- 

 ting, etc., 65 ; corset-making, 100 ; laundry, 65 ; 

 leather, 41 ; prison duties, 1,307 ; and the loca- 

 tion and character of the work are given in de- 

 tail. At New Bedford 179 prisoners were em- 

 ployed on boots and shoes on public account ; 

 that is, the officers of the prison purchased raw 

 materials, manufactured the goods, and sold 

 them in the market, in the same manner as 

 any manufacturing establishment. At East 

 Cambridge 181 are so employed making brush- 

 es, and at Deer Island 100 on stone-work. In all, 

 745 are working on public account and 1,658 

 on contract work a total of 2,403 engaged in 

 industrial labor; and there are 1,338 prisoners 

 in the State without employment. The 13,186 

 convicts employed in mechanical industries in 

 the State Prisons pf the United States earn an 

 average of 40 cents per day, which gives $1,624,- 

 518.90 as their gross earnings for the year. At 

 $2 per day the average price for labor outside 

 of prisons these men would earn $8,122,576. 

 The whole injury done to labor, if any, in the 

 country, by convict labor in the State Prisons, 

 thus appears to be represented by $8,122,576, 

 while the annual products of the mechanical 

 industries of the United States amount to five 

 thousand million dollars. The wages paid for 

 prison labor, as shown by the statistics, repre- 

 sents a product of $9,747,090, or less than one 



