CONVICT LABOE FOE EOAD WORK. 33 
skill or experience in the handling of prisoners. The camp officer 
should be expected to advise the superintendent in matters of dis- 
cipline and to assume entire charge of the management of the camp 
proper under the general supervision of the superintendent. It will 
be found usually that the camp officer will be able to act as a com- 
missary officer and camp clerk, ordering and distributing food and 
supplies and keeping the camp records, in addition to his other duties. 
In the guarded camps two sets of officers, namely, guards and fore- 
men, may be necessary to work under the two principal officers. In 
such cases, the ratio of guards to convicts should be not less than 1 to 
10 and the foremen should be employed in the number necessary for 
the successful prosecution of the road work, usually 2 or 3 for camps 
of 40 men. In a number of States there is a tendency to combine 
the duties of guarding and supervision of the work in one set of officers 
and when only the less dangerous of guarded convicts are used on 
road work, as proposed under the scheme of grading as suggested 
on page 63, this practice would seem entirely safe and proper. But 
when all classes of criminals are employed regardless of character, 
it would seem that the evident necessity of avoiding the close approach 
of convicts to armed guards would render the guards of little value 
as foremen . 
In the honor camps the guards may, of course, be dispensed with 
and the unarmed foremen, in no greater numbers than are necessary 
in the guarded camps, will be able to direct the work and also to 
carry out such disciplinary measures as are necessary. 
In all camps, whether of the guarded or honor types, at least one 
night guard should be provided. In the guarded camps this officer 
is necessarily armed with a shot gun or rifle, and measures should 
be adopted to prevent the close approach of the convicts to him in 
the quarters at night. When the men are chained in the quarters 
no other protection is necessary, but when they are permitted freedom 
of movement within the quarters the night guard should be sep- 
arated from them by a partition, containing a window or opening 
through which he may command the entire dormitory. 
In the honor camps, as a general rule, the night guard should not 
be armed as there is little chance of preventing a general uprising 
should such an act be planned by the convicts, and in the event of 
an attack on the guard it is highly desirable to prevent the capture 
of arms. 
The importance of the selection of men of good character and 
intelligence to fill the positions of officers and guards has been pointed 
out so often and is so generally understood as to require little em- 
phasis. Unfortunately, however, the wages usually offered in con- 
nection with these positions are not sufficiently large to attract first- 
