58 BULLETIN 414, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
infractions of camp rules by confinement, 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, all 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- 
miters, 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 discipline originated in the West. From 
the best information obtainable it was practiced to a limited extent 
in 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 
