CONVICT LABOR FOR ROAD WORK. 63 



populations of the camps, the negroes are not noticeably less amenable 

 to the discipline than the whites. In West Virginia, where the sys- 

 tem has been in operation since 1913, and where more than half of 

 the convicts employed under it are negroes, it is reported that of 

 18 attempts to escape made in 1914, 16 were by white men and 

 only 2 by negroes. But the most convincing proof of the amena- 

 bility of negro prisoners to honor-system discipline is that which is 

 being recorded daily in the experimental convict camp established 

 by the commissioners of Fulton County, Ga., in cooperation with 

 the Office of Public Roads and Rural Engineering. At this camp, 

 established in January, 1916, with a population of 40 negro convicts 

 drawn from the guarded camps of the county, not a single attempt 

 to escape has been reported in the seven months during which it has 

 been in operation. Whipping as a punishment has been entirely 

 abandoned, and the foremen in charge of the men are entirely un- 

 armed, yet the discipline is satisfactory in every respect and the 

 industry of the inmates is above the average. Inasmuch as it is con- 

 ceded by all persons of experience in dealing with convicts that the 

 most dangerous period in the life of an honor camp is that immedi- 

 ately after its inauguration, the results of this experiment in the 

 heart of the South must carry considerable weight as evidence of the 

 fitness of the negro convict for a reasonable form of the honor system. 

 The character of the warden or prison superintendent who makes 

 the selection of the men to be trusted and of the sergeant or deputy 

 warden who is placed in charge of the camp has, of all factors, the 

 most influence upon the success or failure of the honor system. It 

 may almost be said that unless these officials are possessed of the 

 abihty to win the respect of the men and cultivate sentiments of 

 loyalty and pride the system is foredoomed to failure. 



GRADED SYSTEM OF DISCIPLINE. 



From the preceding discussion it must be evident that the honor 

 system of discipline can be applied to only a part of the entire popu- 

 lation of any penitentiary or convict force. The reports of the pro- 

 portions of men trusted in a number of States under the honor sys- 

 tem and guard system, respectively, seem to indicate that under 

 average conditions about 25 per cent of any force responds favorably 

 to a reasonable measure of trust. The remainder must be guarded 

 more or less strictly to prevent their escape. Success of a certain 

 kind can be obtained by treating all convicts alike and subjecting 

 all to the rigid discipfine necessary for the government of the worst, 

 but such a plan imposes unnecessarily severe restraint upon the 

 better class and ignores the very considerable disciplinary value of a 

 policy of treating the convict according to his deserts. The tendency 

 of modem penology toward an increasing recognition of the shades 

 53577^— BuU. 414—16 5 



