12 



BULLETIN 414, U. S. DEPAETMENT OF AGEICULTUEE, 



Table 3. — ■Classification of convicts in 22 representative States according to emploijment 



prior to arrest. 



Name of State. 



Percentage of total population by occupations. 



Profess- 

 ional. 



Mer- 

 chants 



and 

 trades- 

 men. 



Outdoor 

 laborers, 

 skilled 

 and un- 

 skilled. 



Shop 

 workers 

 and in- 

 door 

 laborers. 



Unem- 

 ployed. 



New England group: 



Cormecticut 



New Hampshire. - . 

 Middle Atlantic group: 



New York 



Peimsylvania 



Maryland 



Southeastern group: 



South Carolina 



Georgia 



Louisiana 



Middle Western group: 



Illinois 



Indiana 



Iowa 



Mumesota 



Western group: 



Montana 



Idaho 



Wyoming 



Utah 



Oregon 



Colorado 



New Mexico 



Arizona 



California 



South Dakota 



Average by States 



7.43 



3.75 



23.09 



1 

 0.23 



The desirability of providing open-air work, as on roads, is enhanced 

 by the fact, shown by the prison statistics of practically all States, 

 that a majority of the prison inmates are of the laboring class or of 

 those classes whose habits of life prior to conviction kept them much 

 of the time out of doors, engaged in occupations similar to those 

 afforded by the various phases of road work. As an indication of 

 the strength of this argument , Table 3 has been prepared, based upon 

 the latest reports of the penitentiaries in the 22 States which were 

 selected as typical of conditions in the various sections of the coun- 

 try. All convicts in these States have been grouped into five classes 

 according to their occupation prior to conviction, namely: Pro- 

 fessional; merchants and tradesmen; outdoor laborers, skilled and 

 unskilled; shopworkers and indoor laborers; and unemployed. 

 The table shows that an average of practically two-thirds of the 

 inmates of the institutions represented were engaged in outdoor 

 occupations, that about one-tenth belonged to the professional and 

 mercantile classes, and that only about one-fourth of aU the con- 

 victs were fitted to endure the confinement of life in penitentiary 

 shops. Upon members of all but the fourth class, then, such confine- 

 ment has an undoubted physically degenerating effect, and particu- 



