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NEW JERSEY. 



making these contracts so profitable that the 

 former contractors, who are supposed to have 

 been filling their coffers, would not only have 

 gladly renewed their contracts, but the present 

 contractors would find employment for every 

 idle man in the prison. And yet the fact is, 

 that during the past year all the old contracts 

 were terminated without renewal, and new 

 contracts have only been made for about one 

 third of the whole number of convicts. Then, 

 again, the quantity of work made in the New 

 Jersey State Prison, and thrown upon the 

 market, when compared with the vast amount 

 demanded by forty millions of people, can be 

 scarcely sufficient to create a ripple in the cur- 

 rent rate of prices. Basing the calculations 

 upon the assertions of the different parties who 

 have appeared, it is estimated that not less 

 than 10,000 persons are employed in New 

 Jersey alone in the manufacture of boots and 

 shoes, while the whole number of convicts em- 

 ployed at the present time is 270 not quite 2f 

 per cent. Complaint has also been made that 

 a greater amount of work was secured from the 

 prisoners, because of severe punishments which 

 were inflicted in case of failure to perform 

 their allotted tasks. A synopsis of the record of 

 prison-shop number three, which is a fair sam- 

 ple of all the others, shows that from the 1st 

 day of August, 1878, to the 21st day of Feb- 

 ruary, 1879, a period of six and two thirds 

 months, the daily average of men employed in 

 this shop has been 41. During that period the 

 whole number reported to General Mott on ac- 

 count of work was seven, and for other causes 

 eight, which is an average of one man in 28 

 days on account of work, and of one man in 25 

 days for other causes. For all causes, this is 

 less than one fourth of one per cent, for the 

 whole number of days' work done, and of itself 

 refutes the idea that the competition of prison- 

 labor is unfair because of the amount of work 

 forced from men by punishments. If the change 

 now demanded is sanctioned, it must result in 

 depriving the State of all the revenue which of 

 late years has been received from the labor 

 of the prisoners. The earnings of the prison- 

 for the past nine years, ending October 31, 

 1878, have reached the sum of $685,721.68, 

 being a yearly average of $76,191.30. The 

 earnings for the past year have been $63,258.- 

 25, or about $9,000 more than sufficient to meet 

 the current expenses of the maintenance of the 

 prisoners. 



Looking at the other aspect of the case, 

 which is the effect upon the prisoners if labor 

 ceases in the prison, it appears from a sched- 

 ule prepared by the hospital steward of the 

 New Jersey State Prison, showing the number 

 of cases requiring treatment when the prison- 

 ers have been fully employed, partially em- 

 ( ployed, and entirely idle, that on the 31st of 

 May, when all the prisoners were employed, 

 only 21 were unfit for work out of 664; on the 

 1st day of December, 1875, after six months of 

 idleness, there were 50 unfit for work out of 



717 ; on the 31st day of December, 1877, when 

 500 convicts were working, there were 38 unfit 

 for work out of 835 ; and during the month of 

 January, 1879, when only 270 men were em- 

 ployed, 107 men had been under treatment. 

 The record of insane persons in the prison on 

 the 31st day of May, 1875, was five, while on 

 the 31st day of December, same year, after six 

 months of idleness, the number was increased 

 to eighteen! The number of deaths year by 

 year tells the same story. The number of 

 deaths during 1874, when all were employed, 

 was 3 ; in 1875, when the convicts were idle 

 six months, the deaths were increased to 13; 

 in 1876, when a small number only were em- 

 ployed, the deaths were 20 ; in 1877, when 500 

 were employed, the deaths were only 8; while 

 in 1878, when only 200 were employed, the 

 deaths were increased to 19. 



From such considerations the committee re- 

 ported adversely to the bill. A debate sprung 

 up in the Senate on a motion to place the bill 

 on the calendar. Senator Marsh attempted to 

 show that the amount of work done in the 

 prison had no appreciable influence upon the 

 market, and to this end brought forward the 

 following statistics of the extent of the manu- 

 facture in this country : 



Neither do I believe that the quantity of work made 

 by prison-labor, and especially that made in the New 

 Jersey State Prisojij does to any appreciable extent 

 affect the market iniuriously to the outside manufac- 

 turer. A writer in the " Shoe and Leather Reporter," 

 after enumerating the firms throughout the country 

 who have contracts for prison-labor, thus proceeds : 

 " This completes the list of contracts for convict-labor 

 in the United States, and shows the total number 

 employed to be 5,325 hands. There are some small 

 jail contracts and some boys employed in houses of 

 refuge, protectories, etc., through the country, but the 

 entire amount would make the number about 5,500 

 hands. Allowing 310 days' labor a year, and an av- 

 erage of three pairs a day made by each man, would 

 give 5,115,000 pairs made yearly by prison - labor. 

 The average value of the boots and shoes will be about 

 $1.25 a pair for large and email, which will give the 

 total value of such manufacture at $6,393,750 for the 

 year. There are four manufacturers in New Eng- 

 land (three in Massachusetts and one in Maine) who 

 make more pairs and goods in money value than are 

 made in all the prisons of the United States. Now. 

 when it is understood that the total value of boots and 

 shoes made in the United States in 1876 is estimated 

 by competent authority to reach the sum of $189,974,- 

 922, it will be seen that all the prison-labor of the 

 country combined is less than 8i per cent, of the 

 whole. I compare with 1876 because I have not been 

 able to get later figures, but have no doubt that the 

 combined production for 1878 is even greater than in 

 1876. It is an easy matter to ascertain with accuracy 

 the number of boots and shoes made in the United 

 States by machines. Each pair has a stamp, which 

 must be purchased of the patentee, and the statistics 

 for 1876 show that 67.500,000 pairs were made during 

 that year. Add to this the quantity of such work 

 made by hand-labor, and it is estimated that the whole 

 product of the United States in that year was 82,962,- 

 461 pairs, without estimating custom-work at all. And 

 this estimate only gives an average of two pairs yearly 

 to each man, woman, and child in the country, which 

 is certainly not an over-estimate. Of this vast quan- 

 tity there were made in Massachusetts 52jG87,461 pairs, 

 in New York 9,060,009 pairs, and in Pennsylvania 

 5,000,000 pairs. The city of Philadelphia alone is cred- 



