288 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



The reflex influence on society of more rational and humane 

 treatment of its erring members is the larger part of this bene- 

 ficence. For its own sake society cannot afford to be cruel and 

 brutal to its meanest and most unworthy member. Russia is 

 to reap a more bitter harvest than her exiles. Love your enemies 

 is a good social law. If we lift society from the bottom, we all 

 move upward together. We thus rise not to decline and fall. 

 To be helpful to ''one of the least" who is in prison is not sim- 

 ply a religious sentiment ; it indicates the only method of social 

 development which will conserve and make permanent the 

 achievements of our civilization. 



OUTDOOR WORK FOR PRISONERS 1 



THOMAS J. TYNAN, WARDEN, COLORADO STATE PENITENTIARY 



I THINK the ideal work for convicts is outdoor work, prefer- 

 ably farm work, which puts them back on the soil and takes them 

 away from the cities and their temptations. I believe every 

 state should have large farms whereon they might work their 

 prisoners with profit to the state and the men as well. Men who 

 work in the open air become strong physically and it is much 

 easier to reform a strong healthy man, than a poor weakling, 

 who has not proper balance. When men are taught farm work, 

 they can easily obtain positions on farms after their release, 

 where they are as a rule kindly treated and where they will have 

 some social standing, which is an impossibility in the crowded 

 cities. By the use of convict labor on the roads the taxpayers 

 have been more than reimbursed by the value of the roads built. 

 This labor does not enter into competition with free labor, as 

 these roads could not otherwise have been built on account of the 

 expense. The counties pay for the maintenance of the camps in 

 which the men are worked, but the men are in charge of overseers 

 from the prison, who thoroughly understand the handling of this 

 class of labor and the building of roads. Our report will show 

 you the immense saving in this way of road building, and the 

 state is thus acquiring hundreds of miles of good roads, which 



i Adapted from Report of Convict Labor Commission, State of Con- 

 necticut, Public Document Special, Hartford, Conn. 



