CONVICT LABOR FOR ROAD WORK. 29 



Example III. During the montlis of November and December, 

 1913, certain work was performed by convicts at State camp No. 2, 

 in New Jersey, which at prevailing contract prices, as given by the 

 engineer in charge, would have cost as follows: 



Earth excavation, 4,700 cubic yards, at 45 cents per cubic yard $2, 115. 00 



80 acres removed at $4 each 320. 00 



Grubbing 0.22 acre at |75 per acre 16. 50 



Fence removed, 4,600 feet, at 6J cents per foot 299. 00 



Hedges replanted, 200 feet, at 20 cents per foot 40. 00 



Total 2, 791. 50 



The actual cost of the maintenance of the camp during the two 

 months in which the above quantities were accomphshed was as 

 follows : 



Rent of camp grounds $20. 00 



Coal 84.53 



Feeding men, guards, and superintendents 602. 57 



Guarding 648. 54 



Team hire 573. 75 



Dynamite 64. 25 



Tobacco, medicine, telephone, and gasoline 208. 04 



Interest at 6 per cent and depreciation at 10 per cent per year on buildings 



and furnishings valued at 13,066.69 81. 77 



Interest at 6 per cent on $1,022, cost of well 10. 22 



Interest at 6 per cent and depreciation at 75 per cent a year on hand tools 



valued at $449.90 60. 73 



Supervision 850. 00 



Total 3, 204. 40 



_n the above costs the interest and depreciation on machinery, 

 which was valued at $12,734.78 in the Ust of cost items, has been 

 omitted, as probably little of it was used on the work performed during 

 the two months under observation. But omitting this item it appea,rs 

 by a comparison of the two totals given above that the cost of the 

 work by convict labor was $412.90 greater than it would have been 

 had it boon performed by contract. 



MANAGEMENT AND OPERATION. 



All prisoners employed at road work in the United States are 

 termed either vState convicts or county convicts, according to the 

 political subdivision, whether State or coimty, by which they are con- 

 victed and imprisoned. The employment of county convicts on 

 roads is rare in the North but common in the South; in fact, the 

 earliest employment of convicts in this manner in the United States 

 was by the southern counties, and the numbers of their convict road 

 forces still greatly exceed those (^mployiul in a similar manner by the 

 States. 



County (jontrol, th(!refore, has been thorouglily t(^st(Hl and the 

 expo.rience has rev(;aled a numbf^r of inherent faults wliioli render it 



