58 BULLETIN 414, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 



infractions of camp rules by confrnement, on short rations, at the 

 camp in a wooden jail or lockhouse. In this group of States convicts 

 assigned to the road camps receive an allowance of ''good time," 

 under provisions of law similar to those already mentioned as apply- 

 ing in the Southeastern States. But in Utah the special character 

 and labor of the road men is recognized by granting to them an addi- 

 tional deduction amounting to four months for each year of service 

 on the roads. By reason of the fact that the road men in these 

 States are especially selected for the work, aU are regarded as equally 

 trustworthy, and "trusties," as the term is used in the southern camps, 

 are not selected, but such positions as drivers and water boys may 

 be filled almost indiscriminately from the camp population. While 

 blood hounds are not used, every effort is made to recapture escaped 

 convicts by means of widely distributed advertisements and rewards, 

 and the penalty for attempted escape is return to the penitentiary 

 upon recapture, with the loss of all credits in "good time" and the 

 loss of the larger privileges of the camps. 



In all sections there is a decided feeling among prison and camp 

 officials that free laborers should not be employed in conjunction with 

 the convicts, but in a number of instances free men have been em- 

 ployed as drivers, roller engineers, steam-shovel operators, dyna- 

 initers, and in other positions necessitating the employment of skilled 

 labor. Every effort is made to limit the intercourse of such em- 

 ployees with the convicts in order to prevent the introduction of 

 intoxicating liquors, morphine, and opium into the camps, and in 

 some States the act of furnishing a convict with any of these liquors 

 or drugs constitutes a legal offense punishable by fine or imprison- 

 ment. 



THE HONOR SYSTEM. 



This system of convict discipHne originated in the West. From 

 the best information obtainable it was practiced to a limited extent 

 m Montana as early as 1894, but it did not attract general notice 

 until more than 10 years later, when it was adopted by Colorado and 

 New Mexico. Following the lead of these States it has since been 

 adopted and practiced, to a greater or less extent, in connection with 

 road work in the States of Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, North 

 Carolina, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Washington, West 

 Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, and it is possible that in connec- 

 tion with other work it has been practiced in some of the other States. 

 It is adaptable to the government of only a part of any convict popu- 

 lation, and in all the above States convicts assigned to work under 

 it have been confined previously in the State penitentiaries, where 

 they have been under observation for a sufficient length of time to 

 make a character determination possible. After such a period of 

 probation, however, the prison officials of the States which have 



