56 BULLETIN 414, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



These positions are created to meet certain requirements of the 

 work where guarding is impracticable, as in the case of men who 

 may be used in the positions of drivers, Waterboys, or camp men 

 but whose disciphne differs but little from that of the "gunmen," 

 aside from their assignment to somewhat lighter and more agreeable 

 tasks. The trusties in these southern camps comprise from 5 to 50 

 per cent of the total population, the average ratio being about 20 

 per cent. 



Except in so far as it involves compulsory labor and regularity of 

 life, the system of discipline, as practiced in this section, is not reforma- 

 tory. In a number of camps provision is made for rehgious instruc- 

 tion by the employment of a mhiister to make weekly or monthly 

 visits to the camps, but, in general, the convicts depend for such instruc- 

 tion upon the negro preachers who are found frequently among their 

 number. In practically all camps the races are separated by pro- 

 viding separate sleepmg quarters, or at least by the segregation of 

 each race in different sections of the same structure, and at meals, 

 also, the races are segregated. 



In a few camps, negro women are employed as cooks and camp 

 helpers, but this practice is condemned by the large majority of 

 officials. Whipping is practically the only form of punishment 

 administered. In all of the States of this section the authority to 

 administer such punishment is reposed only in the superintendent or 

 chief camp officer, and the number of lashes which may be infficted 

 at one time is restricted by law in some States. The lash is usually 

 apphed to the bare back, though this practice is forbidden in the 

 States of Florida and Georgia. Good behavior and satisfactory labor 

 are rewarded by the granting of "good time" in aU the Southern 

 States, with the exception of Alabama. Such deductions from the 

 legal sentence vary in the different States; thus in South Carolina 

 the allowance is 1 month per year; in North Carolina 5 days per month; 

 in Georgia, county misdemeanants are allowed 4 days per month, 

 while State felons who have attained the first grade may be paroled 

 at the termination of their minimum sentence; in Florida the amount 

 of the deduction is graduated from 2 days to 10 days per month 

 for the first 9 years and 15 days per month for the tenth and all 

 succeeding years. Bloodhounds are kept in a majority of the 

 southern camps for use in the recapture of prisoners who attempt to 

 escape, and it is beHeved by those who use them that their mere 

 presence exercises a salutary effect. 



The foregoing are the principal features of the most rigorous 

 form of the guard system. In some States, notably in New Jersey, 

 New York, Oregon, Arizona, and Utah, many of these features have 

 been modified materially without aboUshing the system in its entirety. 

 In aU these States the use of striped clothing has been entirely dis- 

 continued, and the result of the change is regarded as a success. 



