CONVICT LABOR FOR ROAD WORK. 11 



has seemed the only alternative. Experiment with the State-use 

 system in a nmnber of the States has revealed the fact that large 

 prison populations can not be employed conveniently at full time 

 under the system alone by reason of the limited demand of the 

 State institutions and departments for such articles as the prisons 

 can be equipped to manufacture. Hence prison officials have been 

 forced to look to road work, farm work, or similar outdoor labor 

 to find a medium for the employment of their charges. 



In a number of States the large increase in the criminal population 

 has resulted in the overcrowding of the old penitentiaries ; while, in the 

 Ught of modern knowledge of sanitation, some institutions have been 

 found to be a menace to the health of their inmates. Road work or 

 other outdoor employment seems to offer the best solution of these 

 problems of sanitation and health. 



Finally, the general impression is that convict road labor is cheaper 

 than the same class of free labor, and there is a consequent demand 

 for such labor on the part of counties and smaller political units with 

 Hmited funds for necessary road work at command. 



In aU of the States one or more of these conditions exist, and in a 

 number the resort to the employment of the convicts on road work has 

 proved satisfactory, both from the economic and from the humani- 

 tarian standpoint. The scheme has both valuable and objectionable 

 features, the most important of which are detailed below, but a fuU 

 consideration of its ad'vantages and drawbacks seems to show that 

 such employment for at least a part of the prisoners of all the States 

 might be provided with good results. 



Of all the advantages that are urged in favor of road work as an 

 occupation, that which carries the greatest force is that such work 

 imdoubtedly is more healthful than any form of employment which 

 may be provided in a prison shop. Hard manual labor, in close touch 

 with nature and its fresh air and sunshine, is universally recognized as 

 most beneficial, while continuous dwelling within doors, with only 

 such periods of exercise in the open as it is convenient to allow, is a 

 most unnatural life for all but a smaU proportion of the State's pris- 

 oners, and is observed to have a depressing effect upon the vitality of 

 most of the convicts, with no marked good effect upon any of them. 



