772 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1064 



Construction of Highways with Convict Labor in 



West Virginia: A. D. Williams. 



The labor of the prisoner should not be es- 

 ploited for the profit of a few and to the detriment 

 of the honest laborer, but in justice to the man in 

 prison and to society the prisoner should be given 

 some useful and beneficial employment. This em- 

 ployment should be of such a nature as to give 

 back to society in a measure atonement for the 

 debt of transgressing society's laws, so that the 

 prisoner will feel that he has rendered a just com- 

 pensation for his own acts. The labor should be of 

 such a class as would render the broadest service 

 to all of the people, and not infringe upon the 

 rights of any free laborer any more than possible. 

 But the free laborer should not ask that society 

 support an idle prison population so that he might 

 monopolize all the work. The free laborer has as 

 much right to ask a pension, and would do society 

 much less harm in procuring a pension than in 

 compelling the support of an idle criminal popula- 

 tion which will turn on to society a weakened 

 bunch of men. The prisoner for his own good 

 must be employed. This labor should be given 

 upon some class of property or the improvement of 

 some class of property held in common by all the 

 people. Therefore, improvement upon the public 

 roads is a class of development that benefits every- 

 body. This is public property, improved for public 

 advancement, and the prisoner being a public 

 charge can here be justly used for the public's 

 good. 



The great good that can come to the public from 

 the use of any prisoner or prisoners is not his 

 labor, but is the improvement of the individual by 

 making of him a useful and beneficial citizen. 

 An investigation on the part of the wi-iter reveals 

 that men or prisoners worked in the open air under 

 a system wherein appeals can be made to the bet- 

 ter manhood in their natures make better citizens 

 than those employed in confinement. 



West Virginia has a law which provides that the 

 prisoner may elect to labor prior to his trial in case 

 he is denied bail and is unable to give bond. This 

 is a humane step and offers an opportunity for the 

 man who has been wrongly accused to keep up his 

 muscles and to provide in a measure for his fam- 

 ily while being detained. The law at the present 

 only permits payment of 50 cents per day if re- 

 leased or gives a credit of $1.00 per day on fine if 

 convicted. The writer believes that this should be 

 made a credit of $1.00 in case of release. The 

 writer further believes that prisoners who work 

 upon their honor and give good service should re- 



ceive a wage which should be retained until the 

 expiration of the sentence or in case of needy fam- 

 ilies be given to them. Because a man has trans- 

 gressed a law and is deprived of his liberty is no 

 reason why he should not retain his responsibility 

 to his family and society should give him this 

 privilege because oftentimes the innocent wife and 

 children are punished more than the man in 

 prison. 



Utilization of Short-term Convicts for Bighway 



WorTc in Georgia: James L. Stanpobd. 



To secure accurate data to form a basis for the 

 investigation of road work for misdemeanant con- 

 victs, a questionnaire was prepared and sent to 

 every county in Georgia and the results obtained 

 are presented in a condensed form in this prelim- 

 inary report. 



The State Prison Commission reports that prac- 

 tically all of the misdemeanant and felony convicts, 

 with the exception of the women and those in poor 

 health, are employed in some phase of highway 

 work; 2,441 misdemeanant and 2,740 felony con- 

 victs were worked by 124 counties during 1914. 



Eegardless of the kind of work undertaken by a 

 convict gang, the following factors will be in- 

 volved, the usual interest on the first cost and de- 

 preciation of the equipment of the annual expense 

 of maintaining the convicts. The economical solu- 

 tion is to so adjust the size of road gang as to 

 render the sum of these factors a minimum. 



According to reports received and actual experi- 

 ence, which may be said to have passed the experi- 

 mental stage, a guard can most economically and 

 advantageously handle fifteen men. The number 

 of units composing a gang should be proportion- 

 ately determined by such factors as the expense 

 per man, mileage of roads to be constructed and 

 repaired, the character of the work to be done, the 

 class of men in the gang, and the equipment pro- 

 vided. The expense per man both as to food and 

 guarding at night increases rapidly as the number 

 of men in a gang falls below thirty and decreases 

 just as rapidly as the gang increases by units up 

 to a certain limit. One night guard can handle a 

 camp of ninety convicts quite easily since the day 

 guards sleep near by and are ready to give him 

 assistance at any time. The guards act as road 

 foremen, hence the expense of employing foremen 

 is obviated and balanced by guard hire. The 

 guards should be hired at a stipulated amount and 

 their wages gradually raised as they become more 

 efficient foremen. Arthur H. Blanchakd, 



Secretary 

 {To be continued) 



