CONVICT LABOE FOR ROAD WORK. 55 



guns and revolvers, the ratio of the number of guards to the number 

 of convicts varying from 1 to 8 to 1 to 15. In all except Virginia the 

 guards also act as foremen in charge of the road w^ork; in the latter 

 State they are given no authority over the work of the convicts, but 

 confine their attention to the guarding of the prisoners, and the dis- 

 tance which they are required to maintain between themselves and 

 the prisoners to prevent surprise or attack renders them practically 

 valueless as foremen. Convicts who are regarded as particularly 

 dangerous or likely to escape are shackled during the day with leg 

 chains of various forms intended to limit the stride and prevent 

 rimning; and occasional instances of the use of the ball and chain 

 principally as a punishment for attempted escape, are still to be 

 found. As a rule, all convicts, regardless of character, are clad in 

 striped uniforms, though Georgia has adopted a plan by which they 

 are divided into three grades, according to conduct and character^ 

 and prisoners of the first two grades are no longer required to wear 

 stripes. In Virginia jail prisoners employed on the roads by the 

 State highway commission are dressed in brown. For securing and 

 housing the convicts at night steel or wooden cages on wheels are 

 extensively employed in all the States except Virginia, but tents and 

 cheaply constructed shacks also are used, and permanent stockades 

 are provided in a few counties. In Virginia the camp structures are 

 practically uniform in character, and consist of light shelters con- 

 structed with metal roofs and canvas sides. In these latter structures 

 and in the tents and shacks of other States, the convicts are generally 

 secured by means of their individual leg chains to a long continuous 

 chain, the two ends of which are locked, and in addition to these 

 measures one or more night guards, armed in the same manner as the 

 day guards, are usually provided. It is the common practice to em- 

 ploy the prisoners on the roads throughout the daylight hours, all hands 

 being marched to the work in squads under armed guard as early as 

 practicable after sunrise and returned to camp in the same manner 

 just before dark. But little opportunity for recreation is provided, 

 though a few sergeants, superintendents, or wardens, as the overseers 

 are variously called, permit indulgence in outdoor games on Saturday 

 afternoons and Sundays. Invariably, however, convicts are kept 

 within the camp limits at all times except while at work and the gen- 

 eral practice is to keep them ' ' on the chain" or in their cages on Sun- 

 days and holidays. Privileges are limited to the infrequent reception 

 of visiting relatives, the writing of occasional letters, and the issuance 

 of the weekly ration of tobacco. As a general rule, all prisoners are 

 accorded the same treatment, though in all camps a few prisoners of 

 the better sort, those with short terms, those who are bound to the 

 neighborhood of the camp by family ties, or those who for any 

 reason are unlikely to attempt to escape, are appointed as ' ' trusties. " 



