CONVICT LABOE FOB ROAD WORK. 33 



skill or experience in the handling of prisoners. The camp officer 

 should be expected to advise the superintendent in matters of dis- 

 cipline and to assiune entire charge of the management of the camp 

 proper under the general supervision of the superintendent. It will 

 be found usually that the camp officer will be able to act as a com- 

 missary officer and camp clerk, ordering and distributing food and 

 supphes and keeping the camp records, in addition to his other duties. 



In the guarded camps two sets of officers, namely, guards and fore- 

 men, may be necessary to work mider the two principal officers. In 

 such cases, the ratio of guards to convicts should be not less than 1 to 

 10 and the foremen should be employed in the number necessary for 

 the successful prosecution of the road work, usually 2 or 3 for camps 

 of 40 men. In a number of States there is a tendency to combine 

 the duties of guarding and supervision of the work in one set of officers 

 and when only the less dangerous of guarded convicts are used on 

 road work, as proposed under the scheme of grading as suggested 

 on page 63, this practice would seem entirely safe and proper. But 

 when aU classes of criminals are employed regardless of character, 

 it would seem that the evident necessity of avoiding the close approach 

 of convicts to armed guards would render the guards of little value 

 as foremen . 



In the honor camps the guards may, of course, be dispensed with 

 and the miarmed foremen, in no greater numbers than are necessary 

 in the guarded camps, will be able to direct the work and also to 

 carry out such disciplinary measures as are necessary. 



In all camps, whether of the guarded or honor types, at least one 

 night guard should be provided. In the guarded camps this officer 

 is necessarily armed with a shot gun or rifle, and measures should 

 be adopted to prevent the close approach of the convicts to him in 

 the quarters at night. When the men are chained in the quarters 

 no other protection is necessary, but when they are permitted freedom 

 of movement within the quarters the night guard should be sep- 

 arated from them by a partition, containing a window or opening 

 through which he may command the entire dormitory. 



In the honor camps, as a general rule, the night guard should not 

 be armed as there is little chance of preventing a general uprising 

 should such an act be planned by the convicts, and in the event of 

 an attack on the guard it is highly desirable to prevent the capture 

 of arms. 



The importance of the selection of men of good character and 

 intelligence to fill the positions of officers and guards has been pointed 

 out so often and is so generally understood as to re(|uire little em- 

 phasis, rnfortunatcly, however, the wages usually offered in con- 

 iK'ction with these positions arc not sufficiently large to attract first- 



