14 BULLETIlSr 414, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



When, as practiced in a number of States, assignment to the road 

 camp is reserved as a reward for those prisoners who have proved in 

 close confinement their merit and good intention, the reformative 

 value of the road labor is further enhanced by the progression from 

 the restriction of bars and locks to the freer regulation of the camp. 

 By doing away with all marks of degradation, such as stripes and chains 

 and shaven heads, by permitting the exercise of more and more 

 initiative, and the granting of an increasing degree of freedom as the 

 ability to use it properly is manifested, the very publicity of the con- 

 vict's position on the roads is transformed from a mark of disgrace 

 to an acknowledgment of the confidence of his keepers; and by 

 practice in self-restraint and proper living under guidance in the camp 

 he is fitted to live a Hfe of similar circumspection after discharge. 

 That such is the actual effect of the employment of convicts on the 

 roads is the testimony of all prison officials who have employed such 

 -a system and who point out that the number of recidivists in their 

 populations is markedly reduced. 



Finally, as imphed above, it is possible to make the road work, 

 when carried on in conjunction with other industries inside the waUs, a 

 very useful factor in the discipline of the penal institution. All 

 prisoners appreciate the opportunity of working in the open under 

 conditions which are not disgraceful. Therefore the assignment to 

 the road camp may be regarded as a reward, while withdrawal from 

 it and return to the walls is regarded by all prisoners as a severe pun- 

 ishment. By the proper granting and withdrawing of this and 

 other rewards which will be discussed in a succeeding chapter, and 

 only by so doing, can corporal and severe punishment of all descrip- 

 tions be eliminated. 



Against the advantages outlined above, the opponents of road 

 labor urge the following objections : 



It exposes the convict to the public gaze and not only advertises 

 his shame, but has a tendency to harden the public feeling by per- 

 mitting it to grow accustomed to spectacles which constantly suggest 

 crime. This objection is advanced not by sentimentalists only, but by 

 men among the most thoughtful and experienced of prison officials 

 and students of penology in all civihzed countries. At the Inter- 

 national Prison Congress at Budapest in 1905, where the question 

 of open-air occupation of prisoners was discussed by experts from 

 all nations, the conclusions were summarized in brief form as follows : ^ 



It will be noticed that the Congress has committed itself in favor of working prisoners 

 in the open air as far as possible, but under very rigid conditions and with careful 

 restrictions. It is very dangerous, in introducing a reform, to caiTy it too far and to 

 break it down by wrong methods. All the best authorities, for example, insist that 

 prisoners working outside the prison ought never to be brought in contact with free 



1 "Notes on Outdoor Labor for Convicts." Chas. R. Henderson. 



