5G 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 discipline 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 religious instruc- 
tion by the employment of a minister 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 sleeping quarters, or at least by the segregation of 
each race hi 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 inflicted 
at one time is restricted by law in some States. The lash is usually 
applied 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 all 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 believed 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 abolishing the system in its entirety. 
In all these States the use of striped clothing has been entirely dis- 
continued, and the result of the change is regarded as a success. 
